CT "Now I Owe You One."

In The Empire Strikes Back, Han tells Luke "that's two you owe me," referring to saving him from the cold and getting his back during the trench run.
After Luke rescues Han from Jabba the Hutt, Han tells him, "now I owe you one."
Am I missing something else Luke did for Han?

 

Luke owes Han two. Han owes Luke one.

 

Exactly. Han is just confirming that he owes Luke one.

 

Or,m that what Luke did meant so much to him that it wiped out his debt and put Han in his debt.

 

This doesn't make sense. The whole principle of "owing someone" is that when that debt is paid, the initial "owing" is cancelled out, not added to.

By saving Han, Luke cancels one of his debts. It doesn't mean Han has to save Luke again as that would just result in an endless cycle.

Han should have said "Now you only owe me one"

 

You missed nothing. Han is just emphasizing that what Luke did for him was so important that it's as if Luke paid Han back those two and more besides.

 

Something tells me they aren't really holding one another to, "owing," anything to one another. Just friendly banter meant to bring some levity to close calls.

 

This. They are friends, they are not actually keeping tabs or a checklist of favors owed and repaid.

 

This is similar to the exchange between Anakin and Obi-Wan in ROTS:

Anakin: But you owe me one, and not for saving your skin for the tenth time.
Obi-Wan: Ninth time. That business on Cato Neimoidia doesn't...doesn't count.

 

Very true. I had not noticed this before. It really doesn't make much sense literally but I think its the kind of forgivable thing a friend would say under the circumstances. Its just Han's way of highlighting the fact that, for a change, Luke saved him and not the other way around. I think its simply being affirmed they're both now indebted to each other forever. What Han feels he now owes Luke is an everlasting sense of gratitude, I suppose - the same gratitude Luke will also owe Han no matter what.

 

Curiously, I originally watched a dubbed version which said "Now you owe me only one". Sad that I found out that it wasn't like that originally.

 

Exactly. Han didn't mean it literally. He just appreciated what Luke did and just expressed it by saying "Now I owe you one".

 

As I was reading the novel Jedi Eclipse today, I came across this exchange between Han and Droma:

Droma: "The hand of fate. But you still owe me one life."
Han: "What are you talking about?"
Droma: "I saved you aboard the Queen of Empire when Reck made you jump into the drop shaft, then I freed you from the Falcon's escape pod when Elan was trying to kill you."
Han: "Yeah, so who just yanked you out of the drainage ditch?"
Droma: "That's the one I'm counting."
Han: "What about my getting you out of district headquarters in one piece?"
Droma: "That was a rescue, not a life save. We don't know that my life was endangered, so the best we could say was that you rescued me from imprisonment."
Han: "All right, I still owe you one."

 

This. Han isn't calculating some kind of math equation, he's expressing gratitude to his good friend, in affectionate language which, while not mathematically accurate, conveys the depth of his appreciation.

I noticed this some time in the 80s, BTW, and it never bothered me because I implicitly understood the above.

 

Me too.

 

They're just not very good at maths.

 

Blackadder: Now Baldrick, if I have two beans and I add two more beans, what does that make?
Baldrick: A very small casserole.

 

Yeah, it's just a way of expressing gratitude, not referring to actual debt. Also it emphasizes that Han's usually the one saving Luke and now Luke's doing the saving for a change! Go, protagonist!

 

[image=http://twitchfilm.net/news/DennisHopper.jpg]

"One through nine, no maybes, no supposes, no fractions. You can't travel in space, you can't go out into space,
you know, without, like, you know, uh, with fractions - what are you going to land on - one-quarter, three-eighths?
What are you going to do when you go from here to Venus or something?"

(from APOCALYPSE NOW)

 

^

 

Unless....

In order for Han to actually owe Luke 1 it meant that Luke saved him 3 times as Luke was down by 2. Now perhaps because Luke saved not only Han but also Chewbacca and Leia (3) that it could mean that. Its possible.

 

Bumping to confuse people

 

Your mind tricks won't work on me.

 

The more logical exchange would have been, "Luke, thanks. Thanks for coming after me. Now you only owe me one"

But I think that, even in jest, that would have made Han look like a bit ungrateful. I think the underlying meaning is that Han saved Luke from death twice, and Luke only saved Han once, but from a fate worse than death.

So, not only are they even, but Han is forever ingraciated to him. Giri, and all that stuff.

 

This post just made me laugh really hard.

This is one of the funniest threads iv seen in a while.