Darth Bizarro said:

Ok, lets just say hypothetically that Lucas never decided to make Luke and Leia brother and sister in ROTJ.  Is there anybody out there who thinks Leia should have gotten with Luke instead?  Why or why not?  Just something I've been thinking about a lot recently after listening to the radio drama again.

 I think the natural character arcs for Luke and Han kinda lead to Leia going for Han.

Luke goes from being a whiny selfish kid to being a man who understands sacrifice and duty. I could very much see his duties and being a natural impediment to his love life.

Han goes from beeing a selfish loner to being a man who understands the value of others. It seems a natural projection to take it to a romance with Leia.

TV's Frink wrote:

The thread title had my hopes up for a Luke vs. Han fistfight.

How about a googlefight?

http://www.googlefight.com/index.php?lang=en_GB&word1=%22Luke+Skywalker%22&word2=%22Han+Solo%22

Just wait until the DVD version comes out! I hear Luke shoots first!

Wait I thought I read that the the table was going to transform into Jar-Jar and that caused Greedo's aim to go off.  Then Han would turn on his anti-gravity boots to fly out the cantina and the coin is to be removed so that he can use EasyPass.  Maybe i read that wrong.

see you auntie wrote:

All Luke wants to be is a Jedi like his father before him and all Jedi are celibate monks.

but the father jedi was a senate lover.

Heh, seeing Star Wars for the first time around the tender age of seven, I totally thought it should be Luke and Leia.  I didn't like Han at all; I found him to be abrasive and awful while Luke was good and true, and his interference was something that had to be overcome.

When I saw Empire a few months later, I was horrified by the Han/Leia storyline.  I was convinced that he had somehow 'tricked' her into loving him, and that this was wrong and bad.  That, combined with Vader being Luke's father and the way the good guys are so utterly defeated, freaked me out and made me really dislike Empire, and it was a long time before I dared to watch it again.

I didn't see Jedi until I was nine, since I had seen the others on my aunt's Beta player which was on the verge of breaking down.  Actually, I read the novelisation first since my school library had it, then sought out the movie . . . anyway, the 'revelation' of Leia as Luke's sister certainly took me by surprise, but it worked in its purpose, for it satisfied me that they weren't actually meant to be as a couple.  Actually I think it worked better by reading it first, since the book had the scene's extra dialogue and backstory, explaining the circumstances of their birth and separation and so forth.  (This information, of course, is partially contradicted by the prequels, to my great annoyance.)

After that I was able to go back and watch all three movies and enjoy them all while viewing them as a cohesive story--even if it did take me a while to develop an appreciation for Empire on its own terms, or Han as a character.  I didn't like sarcastic or irreverent people at all back then, which was part of the difficulty I had with the idea of Han and Leia.  Today, however, I myself am often quite sarcastic and irreverent, so it no longer poses any problem.  lol

I know now that Lucas basically made up the idea of her being the sister and the 'other' at the last minute, but it doesn't really bother me.  For one thing, the RotJ book strongly implies that she unconsciously used the Force to help her strangle Jabba, since nobody would have been physically strong enough to do such a thing otherwise; for another, this works in considering how she was able to withstand Vader's interrogation in the original film.  More importantly to the topic, being more understanding of such things than as a kid, I see how Han and Leia was always a much more interesting and valid choice in writing the romance aspect, so it completely works.

Still, I'll always remember those early days when I thought it should have gone the other way.  ;)

hairy_hen said:

  For one thing, the RotJ book strongly implies that she unconsciously used the Force to help her strangle Jabba, since nobody would have been physically strong enough to do such a thing otherwise;

He's a big gooey slug! He has no bones and possibly no trachea. I bet he's easy as hell to strangle.  Good thing she didn't have a salt shaker, or a big pair of Doc Martens.

Return of the Jedi Novelization

All this happened in a matter of seconds. When he saw what was happening, Jabba exploded in a rage, and yelled furious commands at those around him. In a moment, there was general uproar, with creatures running through every door. It was during this directionless confusion that Leia acted.

She jumped onto Jabba's throne, grabbed the chain which enslaved her, and wrapped it around his bulbous throat. Then she dove off the other side of the support, pulling the chain violently in her grasp. The small metal rings buried themselves in the loose folds of the Hutt's neck, like a garrote.

With a strength beyond her own strength, she pulled. He bucked with his huge torso, nearly breaking her fingers, nearly yanking her arms from their sockets. He could get no leverage, his bulk was too unwieldy. But just his sheer mass was almost enough to break any mere physical restraint.

Yet Leia's hold was not merely physical. She closed her eyes, closed out the pain in her hands, focused all of her life-force - and all it was able to channel - into squeezing the breath from the horrid creature.

She pulled, she sweated, she visualized the chain digging millimeter by millimeter deeper into Jabba's windpipe - as Jabba wildly thrashed, frantically twisted from this least expected of foes.

With a last gasping effort, Jabba tensed every muscle and lurched forward. His reptilian eyes began to bulge from their sockets as the chain tightened; his oily tongue flopped from his mouth. His thick tail twitched in spasms of effort, until he finally lay still -deadweight.

Leia set about trying to free herself from the chain at her neck, while outside, the battle began to rage.

Leia's got dad's talent... awe.

Yep, that's it exactly.  You wouldn't really get that from the movie alone, but from reading the book that concept has been in my mind every time I watch it.  It gives it a whole new depth, I think.

i think not because look wasnt there for leia as much as han was while luke was training with master yoda on dagobah..han had leia all to him self and plus they went to cloud city

Well, Yoda's ESB description of the Force seems to fit.  'Life creates it, makes it grow' and so forth.  So Leia using all of her own life force and everything it could channel goes right along with that concept.

Also, the way she envisions the chain digging into him is an analogue to what Luke says in his training in the first movie: 'You know, I did feel something--I could almost see the remote.'  To me at least, not only does this pertain to being able to "see" without looking, but also envisioning what you want to happen and then bringing it about, consciously or otherwise.  Leia, of course, does not know that she is using the Force, but in making such effort causes it comes to her aid when she has real need of it, I suppose.

The similarities are far too great far it to be a coincidence that he chose to describe Jabba's death this way.

hairy_hen said:

The similarities are far too great far it to be a coincidence that he chose to describe Jabba's death this way.

I agree. I just think it is, as the kids say, 'hecka the lame'