{"id":17501,"date":"2018-09-04T12:03:14","date_gmt":"2018-09-04T12:03:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/propstore.com\/?p=17501"},"modified":"2018-09-11T10:29:43","modified_gmt":"2018-09-11T10:29:43","slug":"5-reasons-why-han-solo-is-the-greatest-star-wars-character","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/propstore.com\/blog\/5-reasons-why-han-solo-is-the-greatest-star-wars-character\/","title":{"rendered":"5 Reasons Why Han Solo Is The Greatest Star Wars Character"},"content":{"rendered":"

Welcome to the newest of our\u00a0Preview Blogs<\/strong> from the Propstore 2018 Entertainment Live Auction. During August and September, we will give you\u00a0a\u00a0weekly advance preview of some of the amazing and iconic lots that we have in store for you in this years auction\u2026 this week we’re looking at 5 Reasons Why Han Solo Is The Greatest Star Wars Character!<\/p>\n

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WE LOVE HIM. HE KNOWS. FIVE REASONS WHY HAN SOLO IS THE GREATEST STAR WARS CHARACTER<\/h2>\n

It\u2019s fair to say that few Propstore Auction items have generated quite the same level of excitement as one of this year\u2019s headline lots – namely Han Solo\u2019s jacket from The Empire Strikes Back. Of course, it\u2019s an amazing example of sci-fi costume design (by the brilliant John Mollo), but that\u2019s not the only reason we get tingles when we look at it. That reaction is primarily fuelled by the man who wears it. The scoundrel who became a general, the criminal who became a hero, the handsome rogue with a walking carpet for a best buddy. Han Solo is \u2014 without doubt \u2014 the most popular Star Wars character of all. Yes, even more popular than Boba Fett, Admiral Ackbar or that little scaredy mouse droid on the Death Star. If you don\u2019t believe us, then check out the recent readers\u2019 poll in Empire magazine, which firmly put him in the number one slot of a \u2018Greatest Characters\u2019 list. And if you still don\u2019t believe us, then consider these five claims to greatness (one for each movie he appears in)…<\/p>\n

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1. HE SHOOTS FIRST<\/h2>\n

Whether or not you reject the revisionism of the CG-modified 1997 Star Wars Special Edition (in which director George Lucas infamously added a laser blast from bounty hunter Greedo, just a second before Han gut-blasts him beneath a Cantina table), it\u2019s clear the Corellian smuggler is not your usual, straight-arrow hero. When we first meet him in 1977\u2019s Star Wars, he\u2019s merely concerned with paying off his debts, caring little for Luke and Ben Kenobi\u2019s rescue mission. Which is what makes him such a compelling character over the course of the next three films (including Episode VII, The Force Awakens). This is a guy who goes from self-serving mercenary to leading light of The Rebellion; from a cynical loner to the lover of a princess; from a Force and Jedi nay-sayer to a man who confirms \u201cit\u2019s all true\u201d.<\/p>\n

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And if you\u2019re still in doubt that he was ever a true anti-hero, consider the proof provided by Ron Howard\u2019s recent prequel, Solo: come the conclusion (spoiler alert!) Han doesn\u2019t hesitate to put a blaster hole in the chest of his one-time mentor, Beckett (Woody Harrelson).<\/p>\n

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2. HE\u2019S HARRISON FORD*<\/h2>\n

In the rough draft of George Lucas\u2019 \u201cThe Star Wars\u201d, Han Solo was a green-skinned alien acolyte of \u201cthe Jedi-Bendu\u201d. In a later version he was a flamboyant but flabby pirate. By Lucas\u2019 third draft, he\u2019d been refined closer to the guy we now know: \u201cA cowboy in a starship \u2014 simple, sentimental and cocksure of himself.\u201d But it wasn\u2019t he finally agreed to cast his American Graffiti actor Harrison Ford in the role (after auditioning the likes of Kurt Russell and Christopher Walken \u2014 with standby Ford feeding them lines) that Han truly arrived. Bringing his real-life, take-no-crap attitude to the character, Ford does invaluable work in grounding the Star Wars movies, giving the saga a bit of \u201chokey religion\u201d-poking, human weight. And, importantly, a wry sense of humour. Just look at how many laughs he earns in the first film: charging foolhardily at a squad of stormtroopers (and then charging away from them just as fast), or trying pull a trick over a Death Star intercom, messing it up, and blasting the panel with the words, \u201cboring conversation anyway\u201d.<\/p>\n

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*Except in Solo, of course, where he\u2019s played by Alden Ehrenreich, who\u2019s no Harrison Ford (who is?), but was still really smart casting for the younger incarnation \u2014 less a physical match than a match in terms of pulling off that tricky balance of cool, charm, foolishness and sentiment. <\/em><\/p>\n

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3. HE\u2019S GOT STYLE<\/h2>\n

When Princess Leia called him \u201ca stuck-up, half-witted, scruffy-looking nerf-herder,\u201d Han was right to take issue with the \u201cscruffy-looking\u201d part. As dressed by John Mollo, he offers a sharp contrast to the flowing robes and sweeping gowns of the other human characters. He\u2019s all business and practicality with his collarless shirts and jackets full of handy pockets, a trusty blaster holstered at his side. Where the likes of Luke, Ben and Leia received their sartorial cues from the distant Middle Ages or the samurai films so beloved by Lucas, Han swaggered in like he\u2019d just arrived from The Old West \u2014the kind of guy who you\u2019d expect to set saloon doors swinging, with a look Mollo said was largely inspired US cavalry officers. As a result, Han felt that bit closer to us: the most modern figure in Lucas\u2019 galaxy of \u201ca long, long time ago\u201d. As much as he was the coolest-looking, he was also, for many of us, the most instantly relatable.<\/p>\n

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4. HE\u2019S GOT HEART<\/h2>\n

If Han really were as cynical as he makes out, you wouldn\u2019t be reading about him here. What becomes apparent over the course of the original Star Wars saga is that he truly cares for his friends, from his life-long bond with Chewbacca (less his sidekick than his shaggy conscience), to his fraternal connection with Luke (Mark Hamill), to \u2014 most significant of all \u2014 his romance with Leia (Carrie Fisher). This peaks during the finale of The Empire Strikes Back, when Han is handed to Darth Vader to test out Cloud City\u2019s carbon-freezing tech. Following some fantastic on-the-run banter and intensifying sexual tension (the result of both Fisher and Ford\u2019s chemistry, and some cracking script work by Lawrence Kasdan and veteran writer Leigh Brackett), we witness the big moment of truth for their relationship, as Han is about to go into possibly fatal stasis. \u201cI love you,\u201d Leia calls out, devastated. \u201cI know,\u201d comes Han\u2019s reply. Ford himself came up with the response, after numerous different variations and takes during the shooting of the scene with director Irvin Kershner. And it\u2019s perfect: arrogant, irreverent but also utterly honest and deeply from the heart.<\/p>\n

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5. HE\u2019S OFTEN IMITATED BUT NEVER BETTERED<\/h2>\n

There are dozens of Solo imitators, scattered across numerous different cinematic universes: those rogues we love for their rugged imperfections, whose independent, \u2018why-should-I?\u2019 spirit will always ultimately be quelled for the greater good. In the Marvel movies, you can find the space-smuggler\u2019s anti-heroic DNA in characters like Guardians Of The Galaxy\u2019s Star Lord and Iron Man\u2019s Tony Stark. Elsewhere in sci-fi you can hear his echoes in Captain Mal Reynolds of Joss Whedon\u2019s Firefly series and Chris Pine\u2019s take on Captain Kirk in J.J. Abrams\u2019Star Trek reboot. In Star Wars itself Han has stylistic cousins inRogue One\u2019s Cassian Andor (whose wardrobe seems lifted wholesale from Solo\u2019s own) and the new trilogy\u2019s hot-headed Poe Dameron. But there is only one Han (even if he has now been played by two people), who stands apart, alone, above all his imitators. The clue, of course, is in his surname.<\/p>\n

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\nSo what do you think? Is Han Solo the greatest Star Wars character ever? Let us know in the comments, or check out a little more about the upcoming Han Solo lots<\/a> that are coming up in the Propstore Live Auction below, or get a little more in-depth with this year’s star piece from a galaxy far far away – Han Solo’s jacket<\/a>!<\/p>\n

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