Barfolomew said:
Channel72 said:
There is a very strange, almost serendipitous scene in Empire Strikes Back that has always fascinated me. It happens after the scene where Chewie flips out and starts attacking Storm Troopers just before Han is about to be lowered into the carbon-freezing pit. Han intervenes and tries to calm Chewie down before things get out of control. While this is happening, Boba Fett aims his blaster at Chewie, but then Vader stops him from firing by pushing down the barrel of his blaster. Then - there’s this weird shot of Leia just staring at Vader for a few seconds. This is followed by a shot of Vader, seemingly staring back at her (although we can’t tell for sure because of his mask). Leia then walks over to Chewie and starts trying to calm him down. It’s the strangest thing, as if Leia and Vader instinctually exchanged some non-verbal agreement to prevent the situation from escalating further.
This moment had always intrigued me, too, especially since it’s underscored with a very ominous instance of the Imperial March that gives the impression This Means Something. I think I’ve more or less put it together thanks to the transcript of Irvin Kershner blocking that scene out from Alan Arnold’s Once Upon a Galaxy: A Journal of the Making of The Empire Strikes Back. (Excerpt: https://phantastiqa.com/unscripted-how-the-famous-i-love-you-i-know-scene-really-came-together/)
From that we can see: (a) Kershner wanted to make it clear the reason Chewie and Leia are brought there in the first place is so Han will “behave” and (b) Kershner and Fisher had great difficulty figuring out what Leia should be doing exactly before they take Han in to be frozen (at one point Fisher suggests she slaps Lando - and then she actually does it!).
I think Leia’s glare at Vader is meant to handle both those things. She’s realizing that Darth Vader knew Han wouldn’t cause trouble while she (she especially) and Chewie are there and that’s why they’ve been brought there in the first place.
I think it gets even cooler if you read into it further (and the scene makes it very easy to do so): Leia realizes Darth Vader knows Han Solo loves her. Like, he can sense it with the force and shit. And it confirms for her that Han isn’t just attracted to her or just “really really like” her, he’s seriously, genuinely, deeply in love with her. And I think here is where she goes from “attracted/ really really like” Han to being in seriously capital-L love with him herself, and admits it to him. And his “I know” response doesn’t bother her, because she also knows he loves her, too.
Yeah, that’s very interesting. The question of why Leia and Chewie are even there is also something I wondered about. Like, we see Leia and Chewie with Han and broken Threepio in the Cloud City jail cell. Then Lando takes Leia and Chewie into custody, handing Han off to be carbon-frozen for Vader/Boba Fett. So why even bring Leia and Chewie to the carbon freezing facility? (And did Lando tell someone to go fetch a net for Chewie so he could carry around C3PO on his back? And also, when Han, Leia and Chewie were “arrested” during the dinner scene, did Han or Chewie like ask one of the Stormtroopers or maybe Lando to go fetch broken Threepio from the hotel room and bring him to the jail cell?? Whatever.)
Anyway, I don’t know if I quite buy the explanation Kershner provides, which is that Leia/Chewie serve as leverage over Han so he doesn’t try to escape. I mean, usually Vader would just rely on force - his Stormtroopers - to make sure somebody doesn’t escape. That or they could just knock Han out - like drug him or something, or use more restrictive restraints. Then just leave Leia/Chewie in the cell. They wouldn’t need to be physically present in the carbon freezing facility to serve as leverage over Han. I mean, clearly Chewie is more of a liability to Vader than he’s worth for whatever leverage over Han his presence provides, since Chewie is basically a volatile 7 foot tall monster with incredible strength.
The reason I always thought Leia and Chewie were actually brought to the carbon freezing facility was because Vader already planned on “altering the deal” again, and taking Leia/Chewie into Imperial custody. Presumably, Vader would want Leia as a prisoner, since she is the leader of a Rebel cell and could provide valuable intel. Or just the fact that she was supposed to be executed in the last movie, so she’s technically an escaped prisoner, and provides leverage over Luke, so obviously Vader wouldn’t just leave her with Lando. Vader brought Chewie and Leia to the carbon freezing chamber so they would be physically out of Lando’s custody (the Cloud City prison cell), but Vader waited until after the carbon freezing experiment was finished to actually tell Lando he was being fucked over again, just to ensure Lando’s cooperation during the carbon freezing process.
To me, that makes much more sense than Kershner’s explanation that Leia and Chewie were there to keep Han in check. But I mean, he actually wrote the scene so what do I know?