Alignment: Han Solo is Neutral?

[Mighty Veil]

Complete Scoundrel says Han Solo was N. Here's my question on that:

Is this the Han Solo of "Greedo shot first" or the original (and real) "Han shot Guido" version?

 

[Mouseferatu]

Point 1: Greedo, not Guido.

Point 2: Han was definitely neutral when he started out. The original versions of the movies just did a better job of showing it. He became good as the story continued (something that was also much better shown, as a character arc, in the unaltered versions).

 

[Sejs]

Han shot Guido?!

That scoundrel!

 

[Meloncov]

What's there justification for Han being neutral, rather than Chaotic Neutral? Though I agree he moves towards good in the movies.

 

[Olgar Shiverstone]

Personally, I see Han as CN, trending CG. He is a smuggler, after all. And he did shoot first.

 

[Angel Tarragon]

Personally, I see Han as CN, trending CG. He is a smuggler, after all. And he did shoot first.

QFT.

 

[thedungeondelver]

Complete Scoundrel says Han Solo was N. Here's my question on that:

Is this the Han Solo of "Greedo shot first" or the original (and real) "Han shot Guido" version?

Yes.

 

[ruleslawyer]

What about being a smuggler in the era of the Empire makes you non-good?

I'd say CG from the outset, perhaps trending NG as things come along. Han's "selfishness" largely seems to be a pose; it's part of the "roguish hero" or "reluctant hero" archetypes. After all, he gives Luke encouragement ("May the Force be with you") even though he's a skeptic; he shows up to help Luke at the Death Star; he comes back to get the Princess out of the Hoth base; etc etc. At least that's the impression I have.

Also, shooting a vicious bounty hunter who's almost certainly going to blow you away isn't exactly non-good, IMHO. If Greedo were an honest, decent officer of the law just doing his job, or if Han were going to risk causing collateral damage to the patrons at the cantina, I'd say otherwise.

 

[Angel Tarragon]

Yes.

yes to which? This case requires specificness.

 

[Celebrim]

Han is CG. Right from the beginning.

Shooting Greedo first doesn't make Han nuetral. It makes him sane. I wouldn't even object to lawful good shooting first under those circumstances. Clearly Han is under lethal threat already, and Greedo is no saint, not even a just magistrate of a just society, not even an honorable foe for whom a chivilrous person would be obligated to deal with honorably.

Although they aren't cannonical, Han's CG nature comes out even more strongly in the old trilogy of prequels about Han's youth.

Han is jaded. Han is cynical. Han is a little world weary by the time he meets Luke, but that is just his personality, not his alignment. Han is a smuggler, but for the most part - at least until he gets work from Jabba - Han is breaking laws which are unjust and the product of an unjust tyranny. He is no more evil for doing so than Leia and the rebellion is evil (or even Chaotic!) for breaking the Empires laws. From the standpoint of even a lawful, the Empire could have forfieted its right to govern by breaking the meta-laws which established its right to rule. Of course, Han shows his inability to suffer the Empire by going AWOL from the Academy, hanging out in the underworld, rescuing Wookies from slavery and otherwise acting the part of a scoundrel - except when a real test of good or evil is on the line, and Leia and the rest do the whole Republic in exile thing, but what at stake in that is more a matter of chaotic versus lawful than good versus evil.