imperialscum said:
Bingowings said:
I can see it making sense that Red Leader would let Luke fly when the planet they are defending is about to be blown up but not making sense to send a gold, loud, fussy butlerdroid into a bunker siege situation on a green planet.
C3PO being part of the mission comes down to one simple thing. There is only one simple "if" involved and that is if Solo decided so (he was strike team leader). Judging from some of his past decisions (foolish charge on Strormtroopers, not paying Jabba for 3 years, etc.), it is not too hard to believe he approved this one too.
On the other hand, Luke flying X-wing has tons of complicated "if"s: if rebels had a spare X-wing, if rebels really didn't have spare pilots to fly it (highly unlikely), if rebel command is willing to take some unknown farm boy, if Luke's "crop duster" management skill is anywhere near sufficient to handle an "F-16", and so on.
Do we really know it's three years between SW and ESB? It also might have been difficult to skirt increased Imperial traffic to fly directly to Tatooine, and pay Jabba off in the wake of the DS being destroyed.
The Rebels favoring secret bases in places far from civilization is another factor too. I doubt Han could just mail Jabba a check. There likely isn't a trustworthy third party that could get the loot to the Hutt, either.
What actually became of the money the rebels paid Han is a mystery. (Outside the Marvel comic anyway.) I guess Luke showing up with the money to exchange for Han wasn't considered as exciting.