Star Words: Episode V, Part 13

[matril]

Apparently one of the effects of never leaving the house is to lose track of the days of the week! But here we are, just a day later than usual. And as perilous as the situation might seem, it's nothing to flying directly into an asteroid field, right? But let's not get ahead of ourselves.

Oddly enough, even though Luke is the target of Vader's obsession, he's able to escape Hoth far easier than his friends on the Millennium Falcon. Is this because it was always Vader's plan to use his loved ones as bait? Interesting material for speculation. In any case, as we see Luke depart the planet, we finally learn that he hasn't dismissed his vision from Ben as a fever dream. He is, much to Artoo's consternation, going to Dagobah. And once he's there, I can assure you that we'll have plenty of delightful quotes from Luke's storyline.

Meanwhile, things are looking pretty bad on the Falcon. After ignoring and cutting short Threepio's warnings, Han is finally confronted with the malfunctioning hyperdrive. There will be no escaping into lightspeed.

This is a showcase of one of Han's greatest strengths -- improvising. No hyperdrive? Well, let's try a few evasive maneuvers. Stumble into an asteroid field? Why not use that against their pursuers? If I covered each quip individually, I'd be dedicating at least ten entries to this scene alone. They're all so delightful! I think we're in trouble...we're in trouble They'd be crazy to follow us, wouldn't they? You don't have to do this to impress me! And, of course, Han's classic response to Threepio's nervous recitation of statistics.

"Never tell me the odds!"

That's Han in a nutshell. Reckless, following his gut and ignoring logic. Huh. When you think about it, that's not too far from a Jedi's creed. Trust your instincts, don't be deceived by your senses. Of course, Han would bristle at such a comparison. When we say instinct, we're really referring to the whisperings of the Force. Something greater than one individual's will. And Han likes to believe he's making his own way through the galaxy. He is the essence of rugged individualism, the gunslinging cowboy, the maverick.

But that dreamy idealized cowboy is not the height of heroism or maturity. Han needs to grow up, a maturation process that started in the first film. He's already beginning to acknowledge, however grudgingly, that he's part of something bigger -- that his actions and choices can and should affect more than just himself -- that maybe his recklessness, his ability to beat the odds, is a sign that he's being gently guided by a will much larger than his own. You don't have to be a Jedi to have the Force with you. You only need to let go of your pride and selfishness and seek a greater good.

Yeah, I'm gleaning an awful lot of deep meaning from a wild, rollicking ride through the asteroids. Next time, some goofy shenanigans with Luke and Artoo....

Comments

[krpalmer]

I've been managing to keep track of the days myself (although part of that is counting them until my employer manages to get me set up to work from home; after four days in a much emptier than usual office building I took a vacation day), and I've got to admit to some small bit of relief on seeing your explanation for missing yesterday. Otherwise, it is a bit interesting to consider "Luke bringing up Dagobah at last," not really having thought about that before through a combination of "having known the whole story for quite a while" and "remembering a deleted bit of dialogue left in the comic book adaptation." While "Vader fixates on the Millennium Falcon even as Luke makes an effortless escape" does seem to have caught my attention before, I might only have been thinking of him happening to see the distinctive ship taking off, another sign perhaps of not wanting to attribute omnisciently complicated plans to the Force users of the story.

So far as the link between Han and the Force you suggest goes, it is an interesting one, and reminds me of certain speculations about Han using Luke's lightsabre... although I can wonder if a few of the people who speculated that might have been wanting to find ways to present Han as "special" where the counterargument is he's supposed to suggest everyone can be connected in some way to the Force.

[matril]

Are lots of people still going in to work in your area? In most states in the US, it's shifted from the employers' choice to governor's mandate (excepting, of course, essential jobs that can't be done from home.) Anyway, I've only heard about office workers secondhand, since my husband is a schoolteacher. He was sent home early in the quarantine process, and we've been all five of us in the house together for over a week now.

In any case. There are lots of possible reasons for Vader's single-minded pursuit of the Falcon, primarily that it's such a unique ship and also stuck without the evasive ability of hyperspace. I do wonder if the idea of tormenting Luke's friends came earlier or later.

I hadn't encountered much speculation about Han's supposed Force sensitivity, but I don't care for it myself. I much prefer the notion that Jedi-level sensitivity is only one way of many to serve the Force; that everyone can play a role in being kind and selfless and promoting goodness. I suppose this ties somehow to my old bitterness about not being acknowledged as gifted and wanting to promote the idea of "everyone can be worthy and valuable without being what we perceive as exceptional" but I do believe that message is bolstered by Anakin's extraordinary Force potential not being enough to guarantee a place as the galaxy's greatest hero, and that it's not Luke's extraordinary biological inheritance that saves him, but his loving, selfless heart. Other people have found vastly different interpretations, but to quote Yoda, when it comes to the themes we glean from stories, it ends up being "only what you take with you."

[krpalmer]

I've been a bit vague here about where I live, but I'm in Ontario, which may be a little further than some places from the precipice but can certainly see what's ahead. At my own work, anyway, many people were already set up to work from home and headed there early last week, the better for those who have their own essential jobs on site. The problem is those of us who were sort of in between and are waiting for a big IT backlog to be worked through.

Otherwise, the speculation about Han I brought up does seem in my own recollections to have been "once upon a time" comments from the early 1980s mentioned years later for the sake of filling in those who weren't there. (Sometimes I am interested in "knowing what happened among previous fans" of all stripes, although the risk is of sliding into thinking discussions must have more pleasant back than.)