Han Should Have Died in Return of the Jedi, Says Harrison Ford

[Oilerfan92]

- Han dies. Typical cliché ending where the cool, cocky and "best friend of main character" (as much as he was for Luke) sacrifices himself for everyone else.

- Han Lives. Cliché ending where the main characters all survive the battle despite the probablity of that being extremely low.

Either way its its own cliché and forseeable ending. Might as well leave him alive.

 

[eljawa]

I agree, it would have heightened the danger and made return of the jedi a better film, because, and as a star wars nerd this is hard to say, but despite what Randal argues in Clerks, Jedi is the weakest of the original trilogy, by a huge margin. (and weaker than Revenge of the Sith)

You best do some s'plainin' there, boy. We don't like yer types around dese here parts.

Jokes, I'm actually just interested to why you think this, since it's a long time since I actually discussed something nerdy that I'm interested in. I know you probably have about 20 replies saying something like "HERESY!!", so feel free to ignore yet another.

.

So long as Hayden Christenson kept his mouth shut, there were no problems in ROTS. Overall, the feeling of the movie was perfect. It was very dark, but still managed to capture those magic star wars moments. The plot was actually pretty interesting, very logical, and connected the two trilogies.

Return of the Jedi served as a weak ending of the series, and not just because of the ewoks (though they helped to kill the film). I felt like Luke SKywalker in ROTJ was very poorly acted, he had a bad haircut, and i didnt like the way the green lightsaber looked (yeah, nitpicky i know). Yes, the light saber fight in the end was truly awesomeand the ground battle had a few cool moments...

Something about Return of the Jedi felt very cheesy...I guess thats the best way to describe it

Personally I would say that Star Wars without the cheesy is like... something... without something it needs.... sort of.

Anyways, to each his own. But I felt that Revenge of the Sith was terribly acted, not because of actors not trying but because the fact that they were staring at greenscreen animals and various reference points for CG characters really shows.

Then there's the plot, which I will now take completely out of context and make seem ridiculous - Anakin is getting a bit evil (I'm glad we agree that Christensen needed to go shut up and die in that one, the whiny little *****) but overall it's business as usual - Obi-Wan is running round killing droids with a terrible accent (but I let him off with that for simply being Ewan MacGregor) and there's frequently great big piles of CGI fighting other great big piles of CGI for a bit. Then Anakin is like "MAH WIFE GONNA DIE" and Palpatine is like "Hey Anakin, got some tempting info you might like" and starts turning him into his dark padawan, manipulating his fear for his wife. Meanwhile, on planet Wookie, Yoda is fighting droids, although this ultimately culminates in absolutely nothing whatsoever besdies a cheap cameo. Obi-Wan kills Grevious, but he's an uninteresting villian who only appeared in this installment as if we're supposed to know him and want him to loose, even though Dooku already served that bloody role but was killed of for nothing in terms of driving the plot. Anakin's character shift goes straight into full-on derailment as he starts screaming about being the chosen one and killing children, just so he can learn how to save his wife. The jedi are now all dead, because apparently they found a way to make every single goddamn clone in the universe aware of this one order, but somehow managed to keep it a secret from the jedi (you'd think at least one of the more sympathetyic clones would have said "you guys might want to flee, there's a guillotine hanging over your heads"). Yoda returns, tries to fight Palpatine, and fails, deciding that from here on in the best option when within striking distance of the figurehead of a rising tyrannical regime that will bring decades of fear and darkness to the galaxy is to just run away on the grounds that "I give up, time to cheese it". Rightfully, he goes into Exile because anyone else would have just punched the little fucker in the face for not at least fighting Palpatine to the bitter end. He might as well have said "shit, gotta get out of here in time for Episode IV!". Meanwhile, on Lavaworld, the two jedi go face to face. Hayden strangles his fucking wife who he was in this to save because it turns out Obi-Wan was in her ship. Anakin further shows how Lucas has no clue what he was doing, when in a universe full of fantastical and deadly ways to get killed, he has the main character lie on the edge of a lava lake getting burned (but not burned enough to die) while Obi Wan, contrary to everything we know about his character, decides a mercy killing is not in order and walks away. Then we see Padme giving birth, and this is one of the points that annoyed me most - Luke and Leia are born, then she immediately stops living, going against all we know about Luke and Leia's childhoods. The reason for this? She has lost the will to live. Even if we pretend she wouldn't care about her new kids, this is just retarded.

That big space battle at the start was pretty cool though, I guess.

To put it in a TLR version, I think the entire episode consists of murky, poorly explained plot points that were awkwardly contorted in and pulled from nowhere in order to twist the prequel trilogy into a direction where the timeline could meet up with the original trilogy.

wow thats a lot.

Though, a lot of the creatures in episode 3 were actually prosthetics and makeup, whenever it could be achieved.

And I personally didnt find 4 or 5 cheesy, but hey


the only thing I can really respond to is the lava part...that was a well established part of star wars lore, It was mentioned in books and such.

 

[Jezzascmezza]

Yeah, he should've got stabbed by an Ewok or something.
That would've been hilarious.

 

[Eatbrainz]

Dead Han toys? No.

Dead GREEDO toys, however...

 

[TaboriHK]

I'm all for Lucas bashing when it's warranted but the original trilogy was solid. The films didn't need a darker conclusion to make it better, it stands as a classic as it is.

 

[Chefodeath]

I'm all for Lucas bashing when it's warranted but the original trilogy was solid. The films didn't need a darker conclusion to make it better, it stands as a classic as it is.

Agreed. For Return of the Jedi, I was expecting a big sappy happy ending and an utter release of dramatic tension. Even if Lucas's interests were less than ideal, and would go on to create products less than ideal, the original trilogy stands classic.

 

[Baron von Awesome]

Yeah you can really see the dollar signs in Lucas' eyes when you meet the Ewoks. I'm not against the idea of a primitive society helping bring down the generator, but I'd rather see a more realistic society rather than a society of cute teddy bears bringing down armored Stormtroopers with sticks. I mean we know that the only realistic thing that would happen after an army of semi-intelligent teddy bears attack one of the most hardened and elite military forces in the universe would be a slaughter. Which... I wouldn't have been against either if the Ewoks sacrificed themselves in mass numbers to give the rebels time to bring down the shield generator.... I dunno, there were a lot of better ways to do the whole thing. It felt kinda like Lucas was jangling keys in front of us to keep the young children entertained. I suppose a teddy bear massacre probably wouldn't have sold a lot of toys though...

 

[floppylobster]

Han should have died at the end of Empire. Bringing him back in Jedi then killing him at the end would have been unsatisfying.

If all the characters had the idea of taking revenge for Hans death in the back of their mind's it would have made Jedi a morally complex and interesting film. A difficult path for Luke trying to be righteous but wanting vengeance for the death of his friend while trying to confront his father. Also an interesting comparison could be drawn between Obi-Wan - his other father figure - who can have his presence felt through the force and Han who would be gone forever.

I'm okay with how it is but I always felt Han was really flat in Jedi.

 

[[zonking great]]

Would have been great. Han dies and Chewbacca goes berserk from witnessing this. And then just leave Chewbacca's fate open-ended.

I like it. Imagine a wookiee's slaver for life (strange how they hate the Trandoshans for enslaving them but voluntarily embark in slavery if they owe them a life debt) die. I can imagine that must lead to guilt and self pity. And of course uncompromising anger.

 

[Verlander]

Would have made more sense when in RTOJ, he said "I feel like I'm never gonna see her again" about the Millennium Falcon. Still, as others have pointed out, that was probably more to do with Lando dying than Han

 

[Ghengis John]

If you don't understand why Han shouldn't have died maybe you need to listen to Samwise's speech from the end of the second Lord of the Rings there, Harrison.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NlyEwcplCD4

It's not really just about the toys. People probably wouldn't treasure the movie as much if it hadn't played out the way it did.

 

[Aiddon_v1legacy]

and this is why George Lucas is now a HACK. God I hope he doesn't live long enough to see the sequel trilogy imagined. I know that's a horrible thing to say, but the guy SUCKS as a writer AND a director now.

 

[DarkPanda XIII]

Interesting, didn't know that the series was going to have a lot of character deaths o.o...

Not surprising for George Lucas to stop the death ideas due to merchandise, though...

 

[matt87_50]

god damn it! why couldn't the person who created starwars be someone who was cool!

 

[Warped_Ghost]

Well Boba died and that made him the biggest baddass in the series. In han would have died that would have been awesome.

 

[ZephrC]

You know what? Return of the Jedi was always my favorite movie out of the original trilogy. I like happy endings. If I wanted fucked up it's complicated endings, I wouldn't be watching a fucking space opera, dammit. I'd be watching some moody period piece or some other such pretentious nonsense.

Honestly, I can see how sometimes a character death can make a story better, but I absolutely disagree with there being anything to gain from Han's death. It would have added nothing but pointless tragedy to a movie that didn't need it. It would have been the kind of stupid death that makes a movie worse, not better. I don't care what sort of voodoo reasoning it took for George Lucas to make a good decision, in my mind he clearly did in that case.

 

[efeat]

Although, if Han left the picture, who knows what Luke and his sister wouldve decided to do...

They would've found love in Alderaan places.

 

[Calvar Draveir]

No, Alec Guinness was AGAINST his character dying, actually.

Not true. There is actually a confirmed case where a small boy who happened to be a Star Wars fan went up to Guinness on the street with a piece of Star Wars merchandise, asking Guinness to sign it. Guinness agreed to give the boy his signature, but only on the condition that the boy would agree to never watch Episode 4 ever again.

Go read Guinness' autobiography A Positively Final Appearance. I have long since stopped believing the shit they spout in those Star Wars Special Edition DVDs, hardly any of it is true. Lucas likes change the story around and outright lie to suit his image. No surprise there right?

So yeah, I don't see how what you said conflicts. He was angry because the movie didn't turn out how he wanted, right? and Obi living is the opposite of how it turned out. If Lucas was making it up to make himself look good he would have said Alec Guinness liked the idea, right?