In Return of the Jedi, does Han and Lando outrank Luke?

I apologise for the incredibly boring question, but since both Han and Lando are promoted to the rank of general in Return of the Jedi, does that mean they outrank Luke? Or is commander higher up than general? Or, as Luke is a fully fledged Jedi(well, pretty much) by the time of Return of the Jedi, is he no longer officially part of the Alliance army, and therefore doesn't need to have an official rank because of his status as a Knight? I don't seem to recall him being referred to as Commander Skywalker by anyone in Return of the Jedi, so could he have been made a general too? Is he promoted to that rank in any of the EU books set between Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi? And surely for all his achievements and exploits during the course of the war against the Empire (both in the films and in the EU) shouldn't he have a better case to be promoted to general over Lando, or even Han? If someone could answer my very boring and nerdy question, I would be awfully grateful!

 

Luke was still a Commander, while Han and Lando were Generals, so yes.

 

I've always wondered about this. Han got promoted to General after being frozen for a year, while Luke, who had been active all the time, didn't - no fair!

Perhaps Luke refused a promotion.

 

That makes sense given that he'd gone into Jedi training in Empire.

 

Luke gets promoted to General after RotJ, but yes, both Lando and Han outrank him in the movie.

 

"Technically" they don't outrank him...

General is an "Army" or "land based" rank.

Commander is a "Navy" based rank (in this case, space navy)

Two different branches of the armed forces, so they have no real jurisdiction over each other, technically.

 

But General Calrissian leads the Alliance fighter group in the Battle of Endor.

 

Fighter groups aren't technically Navy, so there can be Generals, Commanders and Colonels in fighters.

 

If only the Alliance were as organized as the Empire. At least they have clearly drawn lines for the Army and Navy.

 

I feel that Luke would have refused any offered promotions between ESB and ROTJ. He is the most valuable member of the Alliance, but I think he was more interested in his Jedi training and finding Han, seeing has how the Rebels have lots of good pilots, but not many Jedi. He isn't officially given any orders before the ROTJ battle, and it appears that he wasn't summoned to the briefing, just kind of showed up and volunteered his service to the Rebels. I think that if Mon Mothma had said, "Luke, do this", and Yoda had said, "Luke, do that", he would have listened to Yoda at that point. During ANH and TESB, for the most part, he was acting in the capacity of soldier/pilot/guerrila, but by ROTJ, it had become more personal.

 

I too have wondered about this, but after seeing RotJ and AotC I have seemed to come to the understanding that it really doesn't seem to matter...
Luke is a JEDI and isn't really a part of the military...
He is obviously brighter than the military minds that the Rebel alliance have commanding them, but he is focus on his mission as a JEDI; and if it guides him down the same path as the alliance [which it obviously does] then he follows it.....

By the way, a General does out rank a commander,
take a look:


http://www.defenselink.mil/specials/insignias/officers.html

 

(I hope you don't mind me fixing the link )

 

It pretty much breaks down like this:

Army Navy

General Admiral
Lt. General Vice Admiral
Major General Rear Admiral, Upper Half
Brigadier General Rear Admiral, Lower Half
Colonel Captain
Lt. Colonel Commander
Major Lt. Commander
Captain Lieutenant Senior Grade
1st Lieutenant Lieutenant Junior Grade
2nd Lieutenant Ensign

So yeah, Luke was outranked by Lando and Han by quite a bit. You suppose they made him drop and do 20 and clean their boots?

 

Maybe Han and Lando's ranks were ceremonial? If Han and Lando truly were Generals, would the Rebels really send them out on such dangerous missions with the high probability that they were going to die?

 

There was a high probability that EVEYONE would die, so, yeah.

 

since luke is a jedi, and the jedi are the protecters of the republic, i think he would have (unspoken) precidence over han and leia.

 

Technically, as far as the Rebellion is concerned, yes, he's outranked. On the other hand, I imagine Luke would be more influential being the pilot who fired the shot that blew up the Death Star and the man who rescued Leia and Han.

As far as the Empire is concerned, they're all three outlaws (although I would assume there's a larger reward on Luke's head than Han's or Lando's)

A unbiased third-party would likely consider Luke to be more of an authority figure than Han or Lando, being a Jedi.

 

I don't think Han and Lando's ranks were purely ceremonial, or what we might call "armchair generals". Neither would make a great strategic tactician, but rather, the type of guy a rebel grunt would follow into Hell. They would probably never accept a position that took them off of the front lines. Like Leia tells him, he's a born leader. It's easy to respect a guy who was a successful loner, but later falls in line a takes responsibility on his own shoulders. After the trench run of ANH, I'd bet any rebel would do anything Han or Luke asked. What would be really cool is if Chewie ever got his own command!

 

Yeah, it was because they were who they needed for the job. Luke, I'm guessing, wasn't made a Commander because it would've disrupted the chain of command, he wasn't needed to be a general, and I don't think he would've wanted to be a general. In ESB he didn't have the experience, and by ROTJ he wasn't good 'general' material since he was focusing on his Jedi studies. Being a Commander gave him some authority and enough freedom to run off to some backwater swamp planet when he wanted to. Probably less paperwork too.

 

I've always had the impression that Luke's status changed between ESB and ROTJ. Nobody but Yoda and Vader saw much of Luke's power in ESB, so everything Luke's friends know about Luke being a Jedi must have been learned after ESB. Post-ESB Luke must have talked with Leia and she may have used her influence to persuade the Rebel leadership to recognize Luke somewhat like the Republic once recognized the Jedi. Chewbacca calling Luke a Jedi Knight at the beginning of ROTJ is a sign that at least Luke's close friends have agreed to recognize this status.

Even though Han is in command of the Endor strike and Luke agreed to be part of the team, Luke doesn't consult with Han or ask permission when he suddenly leaves on his own to confront Vader. Earlier in ROTJ, Han, Leia, and Lando don't question Luke for going off on his own to some mysterious place (Dagobah -- it's unsaid if they know that's where he's going). Luke can do whatever he thinks is best, apparently.

 

would the Rebels really send them out on such dangerous missions with the high probability that they were going to die?

dude, this was the rebellions last hurrah. Han Solo was leading the entire ground force of the rebellion (small though it was). meanwhile Lando was directing most of the fighters.

so i doubt that their ranks were ceremonial.

 

I think the Rebel ranks were based more on the job, than on merit or well, rank. A General would be in charge of the Rebel space forces. Lando was in charge of the space forces. Therefore, Lando is made a general. IN ESB, Luke was in charge of a snowspeeder squadron. The rank for a squadron commander is Lt. Col. or Commander. So, Luke was a Commander.

This is how ranks are assigned to cadets at the US Miltary academies, for example. Certain jobs carry with them certain ranks. USAF Academy Cadet Wing commander is a Cadet Colonel. A Cadet Squadron commander is a Cadet Lt. Colonel, and so on. A cadet could be a Cadet 1st Lieutenant (an Element Leader, in charge of 10 people) one semester, and the Cadet Colonel (Wing Commander, in charge of 4000 people) the 2nd semester. There isn't really a progression with the ranks, it's based on what job you hold.

 

It seems like overkill to have a general in charge of a small strike team like the one in ROTJ.

Maybe one of the commandos was already a colonel and they needed Han to outrank this person so he could be in command?

 

The highest-ranking Rebel on Endor besides Han was Major Panno. There were no colonels on the ground. Everyone else was Sergeants, Lieutenants or Corporals.

 

~TwiLekJedi, thanks for fixing my link~

It is not uncommon on certain mission for a High ranks officer to monitor a major mission.....
While the remainder of the ground troops are officer's themselves....
Usually efficience is guaranteed....