This is a series I originally started on another blog last year and I only got a few in. With all the Star Wars: Force Awakens news and rumors running around, I thought it would be fun to repost it on my main blog….
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Star Wars: The Thirty Year Gap
Part One: Han and Leia
My friends all hated it at first, then I explained…
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After the Battle of Endor, the job of the politicians became almost as important as that of the warriors. The Empire’s central governing official may be gone, but the Moff’s controlling their individual sectors would still be there to deal with. Leia, being a politician and royalty, would most certainly be asked to help form the new government. This would put her in the spotlight. Additionally, her being royalty could and would be used as propaganda in recruiting more systems into the government. Would those governments be willing to follow the lead or advice of a woman of high birth who consorted with a known criminal and smuggler? Most likely not. So she would at first try and keep her relationship with Han quiet, seeing him between missions and in hiding, much like her mother did after having married Anakin. She marries Han in secret, again, as her mother did her father. But happines would not be hers…
Unfortunately, a space paparazzi or rival politician would find out and they would leak the news. When confronted with it, I do not think that Leia would chuck it all and declare openly that she was married to an underworld figure (because rebel hero or not, he was a smuggler before joining the Rebel Alliance). I think that she would talk about Han as a hero to the New Republic and her rescuer, and a dear friend who helped her after the destruction of her home world, but she would say they never married. And this would be true, as you will see in a few moments. Leia essentially leaves Han and asks him to try and not to see her again. I see her getting married, legally, for political reasons later on, and I think that to whom I would have her marry would be a shock. But I’ll save that for another day.
Now, regarding Han…
After the Battle of Endor, Han is on cloud nine. His life is in the best place that he can remember it ever being, he is in love with a princes and she loves him, moves are being made to revoke the bounties and death marks he has; he is truly free and clear for the first time since he began his career as a smuggler.
He has plans for the future, and for the first time they involve someone more than himself, his ship and Chewbacca. But he slowly starts to realize that his plans are not important to the universe. Leia explains to him, they have to be careful because the public opinion, and that of thousands of planetary governments, relies on her being seen as a symbol of hope in the future. Han persuades her to go to the wookiee home world of Kashyyyk to see Chewbacca’s family. While there Han confesses how much he loves her and wants to be with her, no matter what. He opens himself up completely to Leia, drops the hardened smuggler shell and tells her of his history, his whole history, things that even Chewie did not know. Leia, realizing how much she cares for him, asks him to marry her. They seal their love with a marriage ceremony on Life Day, Chewbacca’s father, Attichitcuk, performs the ceremony. Afterwards, Chewbacca explains that, due to his planets current status in the galaxy, that the ceremony is truly only legal on his planet. Han says he doesn’t care about the rest of the galaxy, but Leia seems a little more shaken with that information.
Upon returning to their regular life, Han begins to feel like a third repulsor. Leia insists that there are delicate negotiations in the works that may be upset if they announce their marriage and tells Han they have to keep it quiet. When questioned why she is so often seen with a New Republic general of questionable history, she states that he is her Chief Security aid, and his presence with her is completely warranted. Han tries his best to play along, but eventually begins to feel smothered by his inability to be with the woman he loves on his own terms. It is Han, through an unwitting C-3PO, who sets the space paparazzi on their trail, and ultimately Han who sets up the meeting which finally exposes their relationship. He belives that if it is all out in the open, people will have no choice but to accept it.
Feeling betrayed by Han, Leia holds the press conference which cuts Han from her life, privately and politically.
Han resigns any commission he had in the military, and with Chewbacca, returns to a life under the radar, swearing to never let his shields down for a woman again. He is occasionally spotted on the Outer Rim worlds, flying the Millennium Falcon with Chewbacca by his side. His last know coordinates placed him as part of the criminal underlord Crimson Jack’s fleet, with a purple haired woman known as Jolli manning his guns.
He would not see Leia gain for many years, when circumstances would bring their lives crashing back together and they would have to face the consequences of their decisions.
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Next up, see what plans I would have for Luke Skywalker during the thirty year gap.
Stacy Baugher
@stacybaugher
Stacy Baugher 