In ROTJ, Han is bland.
No he is not.
We’ll just have to agree to disagree. I don’t read the same things for his character that you do into the lack of things he has to do in the story and plot. I wish that I did.
Han was full-time rebel in ESB. Why should ROTJ be responsible for showing something that happened between ANH and ESB.
No he wasn’t.
He did not hold rank within the Alliance, nor is he under contract to them. This is evidenced by the folowing:
- He is just addressed as “Sir”, “Solo” or “Captain Solo” (as he is the Captain of the Falcon);
- Rieekan refers to him as a “fighter” not a ‘soldier’;
- When he addresses the last transport on which Leia was supposed to evacuate, he says “This is Solo”, again not referring to any rank or call sign which he would have as a commissioned rebel; and, most notably,
- He gets into the famous argument with Leia about the fact that he’s decided to leave them, more or less on a whim (and the looming threat of Jabba) - something which he would not be able to do (nor need to) if he had signed on with the Rebel Alliance.
- Luke, by contrast is referred to as “Commander [Skywalker]” almost exclusively during the Hoth sequence (outside of by his friends of course).
It’s never addressed in canon, but if you take the EU at its word, during the period between ANH and ESB, Solo flew blockade runs and supply sorties for the alliance, for which he was paid on a case by case basis, as you would a smuggler; but that he really hung around for Luke and Leia.