CT Why didn't Han use his reward in ANH to pay off Jabba?

Fine, be that way.

 

If you recall, Han says he needs to leave at the beginning of TESB to pay off Jabba, but then the world starts crumbling around them all.

 

Only problem is that ESB was supposed to take place a few years after ANH. Even though it was at the beginning of ESB, that was still some time after we last left off with Han, which he was then prepared to leave immediately before the Battle of Yavin.

 

Yeah, he was ready to leave *before* the battle, but then he decided to go back and help out. Then he stuck around and got a medal, and then maybe he decided to help with the evacuation, and then another thing popped up, and then another….and suddenly that bounty is rising, and it started to feel a little overwhelming, so he thought "**** it, I'll just stick around with these guys instead. Probably safer anyway…" (After all, according to Leia he *had* "decided to stay"), and then he ran into the bounty hunter…..

I don't know. To me, it doesn't really seem so hard to figure out. It certainly doesn't take any great leaps of logic from the audience. At least not to me.

 

I think he thought if the Rebels could successfully evade the Empire, then he could evade Jabba and keep his money. Then Hoth happened.