A Different Take On Han Solo's Machismo

He Was Once the Preeminent Archetype of the Man’s Man—at Least in the ‘70s, When the Character Was First Created. Would His Masculine Ideal Still Fly in 2018?

- Miguel Escobar

SHOOT FIRST, TALK LATER

In one of the Star Wars fandom’s most controversial and highly contested moments, Solo shoots and kills the debt collector Greedo, before escaping with a strange farm boy and his elderly companion—still insolvent.

A MAN PAYS HIS DEBTS

His creditor would capture him and keep him frozen in carbonite as indemnity (compound interest piles up, you know), before he would escape and even kill Jabba, without really paying his debt. Through to the end of his story arc, Han Solo was quite literally a galactic balasubas.

A BIT AGGRESSIVE

In The Empire Strikes Back, when Leia falls on his lap in the cockpit of the Millennium Falcon, he takes it as an opportunity to grasp her and hold on, ignoring her when she asks him to “let go.” Even their first kiss was one that Han forced upon her, before she eventually relented.

THE LADIES' MAN