By [ad_1]
A New Hope’s novelization proves it was one of Han Solo’s paranoid habits that saved everyone in the opening minutes of the first Star Wars film.
Like many good stories, Star Wars: A New Hope begins “in media res.” Princess Leia is busy smuggling the Death Star plans away from Scarif when Vader waylays her ship, and his pursuit leads her to hide the plans in an R2 droid and jettison him toward Tatooine, providing the film with a dramatic inciting incident. But the action doesn’t stop there, and a lot more happens in the opening act of the movie, including Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru being incinerated, Luke leaving Tatooine for the first time, and Alderaan being blown to smithereens. However, something most fans don’t realize is that the destruction of Leia’s homeworld was nearly the end of the story.
When Obi-Wan and Luke arrive at what’s supposed to be Alderaan with Han and Chewbacca, they find an asteroid field of its component parts. The true dangers of an asteroid field are often downplayed in Star Wars films, but unexpectedly finding one should’ve been the death of them all, and it was only one of Han Solo’s paranoid habits that kept them all alive.
In A New Hope, Han is so worried about where Alderaan is that he never mentions much about the asteroid field. He does his best to avoid the debris and moves on from the subject, but the A New Hope novelization adds an important detail. It reads, “Only the fact that the cautions Solo always emerged from supralight travel with his deflectors up — just in case any of many unfriendly folks might be there waiting for him – had saved the freighter from instant destruction.”
The “deflectors” are the ship’s shields, which means the Millennium Falcon — which turned away fire from many blaster canons over the years — was engaged and turned away the pieces of Alderaan that were suddenly hammering the sides of Han’s precious freighter. The fact that the Falcon’s deflectors were engaged was a stock of good fortune for everyone, as even one of those asteroids hitting the unshielded ship would’ve ended in disaster.
Interestingly, it wasn’t normal practice to travel through hyperspace with a ship’s shield’s up, and only the reason it happened was because of Han’s personal habits. What worried him wasn’t just the possibility that he might happen upon some deadly confrontation but the real possibility that someone from his past could catch up to him at any moment. Han’s line of work as a smuggler kept him on his toes, and what happened in Mos Eisley with Greedo was the perfect example of his fears being warranted.
It was an extra cautionary habit for Han to have his deflectors up at that moment, but it’s not paranoia if it saved his life. Besides, without the shields, Luke would’ve died, the Rebellion would’ve been crushed and Darth Sidious would’ve continued to reign supreme over the galaxy.
About The Author
[ad_2]
