CT Was Han Solo ever going to pay his life debt?

In Star Wars A New Hope Han told Chewie he intended to use the credits he got off the old man to repay his debt.

We see in the additional scenes a negotiation with Jabba that he would pay up following this last shipment seeing how Jabba sent more enforcers out to get Han & Chewie this time Bounty Hunters are we to infer that no Han was going to keep the credits.

I reckon he was going to use the credits to get far from Jabba and then bribe any bounty hunter that would go looking for him. Joining the Rebel Alliance was just a big distraction and he was never really serious about fighting the Empire when he was already wanted criminal like so many other denizens of the Galaxy. The Rebels on the other hand were politicians and Han & Chewie merely hung around with them until he could gather enough credits.

Han was never going to pay Jabba though he knew his life as a smuggler was over but seeing as Jabba had already double crossed him it was safer to lie to him and start a new life perhaps in and around Kessel flying through the Galaxy and stopping off on the occasional planet or moon.

 

In Legends, Han and Chewie's reward was stolen by pirates (I think), and in the novel Scoundrels, they tried to get a job that would pay off Jabba, only for it to fail miserably and put them deeper in trouble.

 

First off, a life debt was not what Jabba's issue was. A life debt is that which is akin to a blood oath to protect the one whose actions demand a lifelong repayment and cannot be severed by financial means. The debt can only end with Chewie's death, or Han's death. Second, what was going on with Jabba was different. Han wanted the money to pay back Jabba because he dumped a cargo of spice, which is a narcotic in "Star Wars" and the cost of that lost shipment was less than seventeen thousand credits. Han had intended to pay off Jabba so that he could get back to his job of running spice which is why he leaves Yavin 4 after getting paid for rescuing Leia and delivering the droids to the Alliance. He turns back to help Luke and for reasons unknown in the films, Han delays in paying off Jabba until the bounty hunter on Ord Mantell changes his mind. What he and Chewie were going to do after that, is unknown.

 

Thanks for clarifying the life debt for me but as for the Jabba contract that he had arranged, Greedo was after them plus Han and Chewie were also becoming a liability to the Hutts, missing their payments and like you said dumping the cargo. It seems to me Han had no intention of paying off Jabba perhaps the only reason why he was on Tatooine in the first place was to distance himself from the smugglers. Obi Wan and Luke offered him a break from a life of crime. He might have used those credits to pay for Chewies freedom which i would like to think he was going to do. There was a bounty on his head well before ESB so really Han & Chewie needed to stall Jabba, a made up story about having the credits and leave it be.

 

Han was always going to repay Jabba for the lost cargo, he says he got side tracked, which is true because he gets caught up with the Rebellion and more importantly Leia. He had to repay Jabba if he wanted to return to a life of smuggling as Jabba was a powerful crime boss...

To simplify it, Han is thinking "i'll pay Jabba tomorrow", but when tomorrow comes he doesn't want to leave Leia and the Rebels so he tells himself "i'll pay Jabba tomorrow".

 

Or simply live his life without a bounty on his head.

 

Indeed - talking about the "debt" arguably confused the issue. The concern for Han was that he was going to be killed by a Bounty Hunter if he didn't settle up.

From the time of TESB his true calling is with the Rebels - but given that fighting against an evil Empire is pretty life-threatening anyway, he was able to dismiss, after a time, the need to settle up with any degree of urgency. Of course, that turned out to be a miscalculation. Fett (and thus Jabba) only got at Han because of Vader, so it was two enemies working together against him - not great odds.

It's also worth pointing out that by TESB, Jabba was fed up waiting and was more interested in making an example of Han as a form of disproportionate retribution.

 

Han Solo was a scoundrel.

Close thread.

 

I think it's open to interpretation. Some people interpret Han has having a genuine fear that drove him. He may have feared Jabba enough to be pragmatic. However, there's also the possibility that Han just wanted to escape his commitment to Leia and the Rebellion. Leia interpreted it as an excuse, and she may have been correct.

It's whatever your headcanon says. That's how I'd prefer to look at it.

 

Han didn't want to escape a commitment to Leia. He wanted her to admit her feelings for him and she refuses to let herself feel it. That's why he winds up staying after he is free. He wants her in his life and isn't against being part of the Alliance, but for him, he's not entirely selfless yet. Hence his willingness to walk away.

 

I'm more inclined to go by common sense and judge Han by his actions and deeds rather than words (which is incredibly cold, but seemingly logical )

So in that case Han is really quite evidently won over to the Alliance - and his words are bluster, as much an attempt to justify leaving to himself, let alone Leia and others.
And of course, he and the audience forget about the price on his head right up until Fett carries him off. The debt is just a plot device used to set up the later tragedy.

 

If he couldn't find the time to pay Jabba in 3 years he might have really never intended to (at least until the "reminder" the bounty hunter provided). I can see him thinking for a long time, "I'm doing Important Work with the Cause now, Jabba was a thug anyway." And Leia often-enough pressuring him that we need you and the money.

 

Realistically... How long would it have taken him to fly to Tatooine -pay Jabba- and fly back?? The only other issue I see other than "I don't want to pay him" is that the Empire would have been looking everywhere for him!

 

Yeah i have to agree with you on this. He took the money and forgot all about Jabba. He was good enough to stay with the Rebels but that was a short term contract never was going to be any more than picking what was richly owed to him. In ESB he would come to dedicate himself to the cause when he came back to escort Leia to her ship prior to that he was on his way out never to be seen again for all the Alliance knew.

 

He did. That's what is in those boxes that he and Chewie are loading onto the transport. Luke even says that he was paid.

LUKE: "So...you got your reward and you're just leaving then?"

HAN: "That's right, yeah! I got some old debts I've got to pay off with this stuff. Even if I didn't, you don't think I'd be fool enough to stick around here, do you?"

The fact is that this was a change that Lucas made, as originally Han did pay off Jabba and he ceased to be a threat in TESB. Then he decided that Jabba should be a threat, but never took the time to explain why Han never paid him off. The EU had to say that he was robbed en-route and wasn't able to get anymore from Leia or the Alliance.

 

I think it's also mentioned in the new canon novel 'Heir to the Jedi' if I'm not mistaken that Han lost his reward money shortly after ANH so that's not just Legends anymore.

 

Empire does, though, suggest he still had the money as he seemed sincere that he would go straight to Jabba to pay it. Though it's possible he could just be leaving the alliance to try to earn the money and then pay it. If so his pleading to Jabba in Jedi that he'll pay more, "you're throwing away a fortune" seems really insincere.