I like what they’re doing but I wouldn’t compare him with Han. Two different things that are not supposed to be the same.
No they aren’t and that wasn’t really what I meant. To clarify, I mean they’re similar in how they make money and that they exist in a moral grey area.
Han isn’t an unrealistic character either though.
No, he isn’t. Just less dangerous and with a lot less at stake. Though we never see his house, Han appears to live comfortably. He has his own ship and runs a sometimes questionable side hustle. Cassian on the other hand, has to borrow a ship if he wants to go off-planet, lives in near squalor, and makes a living stealing. Sometimes from a burgeoning Empire, and with the hopes of bringing them down. When he’s not sneaking into their facilities and spitting in their food.
He’s constantly in debt and on the run from both crime lords (with bounty hunters) and the Empire, then has to live in a frozen wasteland and who knows where else to stay with the rebellion, gets captured and tortured by Darth Vader, then frozen and kept as a trophy. It’s not a side hustle, it’s a main hustle before he joins the rebellion, and if he does it wrong he will get killed. The Falcon is a great ship but it’s constantly falling apart and needing repairs. Han has fun flying and Chewbacca is a pretty good friend to have but it’s not exactly comfortable. If you go by the Solo movie, he grew up pretty much exactly like Cassian, orphaned on a planet dominated by the Empire, having to steal to survive. Arguably worse because he was enslaved by some weird alien instead of raised by a kindly scavenger.
I think what you’re getting at is that Han’s story is more of a classic romantic adventure, whereas Cassian’s story is deliberately less glamorous. Though when he becomes a spy and goes on spy adventures that will change.