1 yr. ago • 91%

In The Empire Strikes Back, why does Han significantly outrank Luke?

Luke blew up the freakin' Death Star and he only gets to be commander. Han wants to skip out on the whole rebellion thing and he gets to be a general.

52 comments

Keep in mind, Han was promoted for the mission on Endor, so he wasn’t a general during ESB. The rebellion kind of promoted people as needed (or just straight up willy-nilly, see Lando being given a rank of general or whatever.)

Also, like in rebels, they promoted a teenager to “lieutenant”…. Because he was a half-trained Jedi… (yeah that went well,)

Further, after Hoth Luke was off at dagoba doing Jedi training; and while not shown, there was probably some time there.

Also, banging one of the main leaders gets you faster promotions than being the sister of said leader.

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- Also, banging one of the main leaders gets you faster promotions than being the sister of said leader.
  
  Luke, after almost banging his sister: "Damn! This close to a promotion!"
  
  81
  
  Chewie, realizing he never got that kiss: "RAWRRlRLrlrlrlrlrRLrlrlrLRRLlrRl."
  
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  "You are in your sister... but we do not grant you the rank of general"
  
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- Also, Han had a ship and could lead a squadron/attack force, plus he had a ton of experience.
  
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  Shooting womprats in beggars canyon is experience!
  
  Yeah. Training by the Carida naval academy, flushing out and lots and lots of smuggling experience…
  
  7
- Endor was post-Empire. He was a general on Hoth.
  
  9
  
  (this is the scene oblin99 is referring to, the morning after Han went out after Luke.) Han was a Captain at Hoth, and was outranked by Luke... who is a commander at the time.
  
  also, the Emperor died on the 2nd death star, which is when most worlds finally shrugged off imperial occupation. (see the celebration montage of them toppling the statues and stuffs); this is generally when people say that the empire was gone, even if it took a while to, ah, tidy up.
  
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  When Rogue Squadron is using the com links and looking for them after they camped out for the night, doesn’t Rogue 2 refer to both as Captain though?
  
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- I think it is more that Han Solo became general after ESB, not that he became one for Endor.
  
  Even though Solo is captured, he does cause Cloud City to flip to the rebels, giving Han an army and navy. At the time, generals were both military leads and the people who were able to mobilize a fighting force. Even if Lando is kept as a high ranking officer, that would be enough to make Solo a general.
  
  3
  
  ESB ends with Han encased in carbonate and loaded onto fett’s ship,
  
  RotJ starts with the gang rescuing him. ESB, he was “Captain Solo”, he spent the intervening time frozen in a block of space-slag, so he had to have been given that promotion for that mission.
  
  5
Han was a graduate of the Imperial Military Academy before being discharged for saving Chewbacca from slavery.

He was awarded the Corellian Bloodstripes during that period of time.

Unless the new Canon retconned all of that away.

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- Yeah but all the deep lore was written after the movies, so it can’t really be used to explain the movies. The lore is crafted to fit these exact kind of holes.
  
  Han Solo’s pants have a stripe on them in the movie and suddenly some novel spins it up into a whole thing - every family on his homeworld has a unique stripe, or some shit, and his exact one means such-and-such about him…
  
  No, the costume designer put a stripe on his pants.
  
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- It did. The Disney continuity does have him as an Imperial veteran, but an enlisted footsoldier lower ranked than Stormtroopers. He also deserted on what was probably his first deployment.
  
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Luke is a 19 year old kid with a gift for piloting small spacecraft.

Han Solo is an adult with actual command experience.

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Combat ability does not equal command ability. Point Luke at someone and he'll ruin their whole year, but he's not good at leading people into combat or organizing groups of soldiers.

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- Neither is Han. 🤦🏼‍♂️
  
  6
Han had previous military training, both in Legends and the new Disney Canon.

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- Was that between Solo and A New Hope? Because I don't remember him having any training in Solo.
  
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  There was a scene with him in the army, but most training is implied with a black screen.
  
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  They skipped it over in Solo. He washed out of the navy’s pilot academy at Carida; his big mount and, ah, in-imperial stature were the problem.
  
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  Let's just not remember anything from Solo
  
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  He joined the Imperial academy then the Navy, then kicked out of the Navy and sent to the Mimbam where he was the PFI in trenches
  
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Luke may have fired the shot that took out the death star, but don't forget it was Han's support that allowed him to survive that long. Seconds before, Han took out Vader's escorts, also knocking Vader out of the way.

"General" might sound like an inappropriate rank if you compare rebel ranks to modern organization ranks. But remember rebels die a lot. Maybe they needed to promote someone.

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- And of Han and Luke, which one do you think negotiated harder for a position of importance? Luke loves the idea of being a soldier under other leaders. Han can’t be bothered to take orders from anyone so if he’s going to be involved at all he needs to be ranked.
  
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- This. It was a participation award, and there was no scene showing the rebel agent chatting with Luke about the award they wanted to bestow him with, only to find out whiny farmboy has shit to do that doesn't include saving the galaxy unless it's because his daddy ain't his daddy anymore. 🤗
  
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Han was already a Captain of a ship and crew, capable of that kind of complex 'Generalling' as demonstrated by supporting Luke's run on the trench.

Luke was a flyboy kid off the farm, albeit a savant.

Edit. And further into the lore, the rebels would have needed people capable of leading other large groups of people to success. So they would tack on promotions or immediate ranks to retain that talent, but at levels they could use and trust.

Promoting a savant to General and giving him whatever groups of troops to achieve goals, ia much riskier than promoting the already somewhat proven Captain.

Luke was lined up for General in the short term anyways, iirc. At least in the EU canon.

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My head cannon is that it's more of a positional title than a rank. The real US Navy does this all the time. You can be an O-5 (rank of Commander) and be called a Captain if you're the CO of a ship. Similarly you can be called "Commodore" if you run a squadron of boats which is usually a rank of O-6 (Captain).

So my guess is, in the time between ANH and Hoth in ESB, Han led a land campaign and keeps the honorific. Luke is sticking to his X-wing in that time and (due to his growing Jedi-ness) is apt to be a supporting team player in an existing squadron.

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I bet Luke put in a request for Han to be a general just to mess with him.

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It wouldn't surprise me to learn that making him a "general" was a negotiation chip used to get Han to stick around.

I don't thinks that's written anywhere. But that's my head canon based on the characters as we know them at that point in the story.

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- I assumed it was just because he’s smart and thinks well on his feet. Most rebels are probably angry and dumb teenagers and early 20s. And he owns a ship and already has helped rescue the princess. He’s basically already a war hero.
  
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- Yeah i think this was penned in one of the very first EU novels. Mid to late 90s. Might even be part of the original Thrawn trilogy, as I have Yaspin in my brain attached to the memory. Might also be a KJA novel. Darksaber trilogy maybe?
  
  Edit - suffice to say, if memory serves, Han sees it for what it is, and stays for princess reasons.
  
  1
Han brought a fast gunship to the party. That counts for something!

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