CT "Venerable" Fans: Luke/Leia fan fic/theories prior to ROTJ

Like any fan born after the late 70s, I first experienced the OT as a trilogy from the start. When I saw "Star Wars", I knew from pop culture who Luke Skywalker's father was (thanks newspapers for not giving spoiler alerts). Thanks to a blabby friend,

Spoiler: You know it, but i read the rules

I knew who Luke Skywalker's sister was

halfway through ANH.

I am assuming there was a lot of fan discussion as to whether Leia would end up in a relationship with Han or Luke, just in underground Star Wars newspapers and magazines (I recall reading a few R-rated SciFi bootleg mags at age 7 that had some interesting things to say about Leia's gold bikini) as opposed to Reddit.

What were some of the things saying about a L/L or L/H relationship? Were people writing bad slash fic that went into LGBT areas?

EDIT: I hope no one takes my final comment as being "anti-LGBT" or something. Much of this fic reads more like erotic literature. This is not what I am looking for in Star Wars, personally.

 

He's saying that we're old, Baz. And he's right.

 

Me and my friends discussed whether Han or Luke would end up with Leia. It was the first question i asked my friend after he saw ESB.

 

If people were writing fanfic back then it certainly didn't have the audience that people have with the internet today. It was probably more shared with friends if anything. (Not a fanficcer so I'm guessing). Closest I came to discussion were magazines like Starlog in the US. (I guess I'm 'venerable' - I was an adult in 1977.)

 

Sounds very much like modern fandom (I’m thinking Twilight/Hunger Games).

Were you on Team Han or Team Luke?

 

When Star Wars came out I was team Luke. By the time ESB came out, I was obsessed with Raiders so I had switched to team Han.

 

Did you see Raiders in 1980? It came out a year later. Was it some advanced screening? or did you have foresight powers like your fellow Emperor?

 

You guys and gals are the Elders of Star Wars fandom. A certain degree of deference is due, in an odd way because I really wish I had experienced the original trilogy in theaters as a child. I saw the Special Editions in theaters, and i can only imagine what it was like seeing the spectacle of "Star Wars" in 1977: Lucas's effects were the "Avatar" or "Valerian" of their day.

There aren't many things I wish I could do if I had a time machine:

-Serve with Wellington at Waterloo when he defeated Napoleon.

-Be with Easy Company, 501st when they took the Eagle's Nest.

-Be with Julius Caesar when he Crossed the Rubicon and allegedly said, "the die is cast."

-See Star Wars, at age 10, in theaters, in 1977.

 

@Bazinga'd - you still need to put the forums you mod somewhere in your title..

 

We were late to the show, and since theaters then were sort of like what IMAX is now, when Darth Vader came on screen he was LITERALLY twenty feet tall. Completely blew my mind. I was still in grade school. But yes, it was like nothing I had ever seen before.

I was rooting for Luke to end up with Leia, and was a bit shocked by the kiss in ESB. The sister thing came out of nowhere.

 

Going to chime in here. I was born in the early 70's, and I saw every SW movie in the theater during it's original run (so far)...

Without a doubt, after ANH everyone thought Leia would end up with Luke. It's just the way things worked. The hero and the Princess/Heroine always ended up together.

After TESB, things changed a bit obviously, but I think most people still expected Luke and Leia to end up together. Especially with Han's fate up in the air. It wasn't a given back then that Han would be rescued. Indeed, we might've seen the last of Han. And with Luke and Leia "together" there at the end...

Leading onto ROTJ, we all obviously knew Han was going to be back,but what did that mean? One carbonite breath kiss later and we had our answer. BUT the sibling twist still came out of nowhere.

 

Luke and Leia being a romantic couple seemed to be a foregone conclusion for most people. It was practically telegraphed that way in ANH, and the beginning of ESB.

ESB made it interesting because Han and Leia had developed feelings for each other. Luke has an almost hurt expression when Han talks about it in the medical bay. George was angling for a lover's triangle with those three. I am actually relieved he didn't go that route honestly.

But I do remember speculation that Luke and Leia would be together, it's funny because I had a friend who didn't think that Harrison Ford would be back for the final episode, thinking Han would be brought back in a future Star Wars movie.

 

Not in Star Wars fandom, maybe. But the Trekkers had already pioneered it with Kirk/Spock slash fanzines. It took a while for the concept to branch out, evidently.

 

This is such a fascinating thread. I’ve come across a few people online who said they shipped L/L back in the day but nobody seems to really talk about it much. I wonder if the sibling reveal makes people feel squeamish about admitting it?

 

haha just a bad memory. Ford definitely became my favorite actor after Raiders, so after 81 I was a Han guy. I liked Luke as well of course.

 

I grew up in a rural area so I really didn't have that many friends to discuss this topic with back then and I could only get issues of Starlog occasionally. That being said, I was 5-6 years old when I saw ANH in the theater and I don't recall having much of an idea over whom Leia may end up with. By the time of ESB, I was 8-9 years old and had a slight crush on Leia by then so I was really shocked when she kissed Luke! And then later she kissed Han! What?!

Hahaha, I guess if anything, I thought this was some kind of love triangle. Especially since Han's fate was left dubious by the end of ESB. If Han died, would Leia turn back to Luke? Which is why the sibling twist in ROTJ was such a shocking reveal for me. It came out of nowhere! In fact, for me, I'd ranked that reveal as more shocking than Vader's reveal in ESB.

 

I first saw Star Wars in 1977 as a 7-year-old. I assumed that Luke would eventually marry Leia, but I didn't give too much thought about that. I thought it weird in 1980 when Leia started kissing Han in TESB.