Star Wars and Lucasfilm continue to promote their upcoming From A Certain Point Of View: The Empire Strikes Back anthology series with an excerpt of a new story that demeans Han Solo.
An excerpt of the story written by C.B. Lee and titled “A Good Kiss” was exclusively published to Gizmodo and goes out of its way to demean Han Solo.
The story follows Chase Wilsorr, the character who walked between Han Solo and Princess Leia as the two bickered about Solo leaving Hoth to pay off his debt to Jabba the Hutt at the beginning of The Empire Strikes Back.
Wilsorr is currently the trainee of Lieutenant Dana who wants to stop being a delivery boy and instead be assigned sentry duty.
However, when he tries to request the promotion from General Rieekan, he’s given another delivery assignment much to his chagrin. However, the delivery does take him to a sentry point where he doesn’t even enjoy being at the sentry point while delivering his package.
Lee writes, “Chase grabs the other crate, his eyes stinging in the cold wind. He can’t even enjoy being out here at the sentry point, being able to see the sky and the sunshine. Ice and snow stretch out into the endless horizon—nothing on the tundra, everything swaths of the same off-white, white and gray and blue unrelenting ice.”
Not only does Wilsorr not enjoy being at the sentry point, but it’s revealed he’s more than likely incompetent at sentry duty and is thus why he’s been assigned delivery jobs.
One of the sentries comments, “Is it true Wilsorr tripped over his own feet during weapons training and destroyed three barracks?”
Wilsorr also previously admitted he is incompetent while talking with General Rieekan, “I know that I’m not good with weapons, sir. Or hand-eye coordination. Or fighting. Or any of that, really. But I could take shifts on sentry duty, I really—”
After hearing the sentry’s comments, Wilsorr continues his delivery mission with another member of the Rebel Alliance apparently joining him. This character named Jordan appears out of nowhere and it’s revealed Wilsorr has a crush on him.
Wilsorr awkwardly exits the conversation and continues his delivery where he runs into Han Solo and Princess Leia bickering after Solo announced he would be returning to Jabba the Hutt to pay off his debt after he had an encounter with a bounty hunter on Ord Mandell.
As he approaches Solo and Leia, Lee writes, “Captain Solo leans closer, and every centimeter of his handsome face annoys Chase to no end.”
Lee goes on to explain why Wilsorr is so annoyed at him, “Some people can’t just sweep into the Rebellion with their own ship and accept actual critical missions from General Rieekan and banter with the princess all over Echo Base.”
He continues, “Some people aren’t handsome and don’t have a presence like Han Solo. Some people are just ordinary people, okay?”
Lee would make it very clear that Wilsorr is jealous of Solo and specifically for his looks if it wasn’t already clear.
He adds, “Chase bristles, his knuckles turning white as he picks up the pace. He’s so tired of people like Solo. You know who’s never been kissed? Chase Wilsorr, that’s who.”
“He could certainly use a good kiss. It offends him that Captain Solo and Princess Leia are just arguing about it, the way they’ve been dancing around each other since they’ve arrived on Hoth, clearly pretending to hate each other,” Lee continues.
Finally, the excerpt concludes, “Don’t attractive people have anything better to do than to taunt everyone else on the base with their unresolved tension?”
That’s right Chase Wilsorr is not only jealous of Han Solo because of his relationship with Princess Leia, but also because of his actual accomplishments as part of the Rebel Alliance.
Wilsorr’s perspective about Han Solo appears to be based on misinformation or outright lies. My guess is this is just Disney doing their best to continue to tear down the characters of the original trilogy.
Solo is actually hired by Obi-Wan Kenobi and Luke Skywalker to transport them to Alderaan. However, by the time they arrive in Alderaan space, the Death Star has already destroyed the planet and Imperial forces have identified the Millennium Falcon as the ship that blasted out of the Mos Eisley spaceport.
The ship is impounded, but Solo and company are able to evade capture by hiding in his smuggling bays and ambushing a number of Stormtroopers inspecting the ship. While trying to find a way to deactivate the Death Star’s tractor beam and escape the ship, they rescue Princess Leia.
After rescuing the Princess, they escape the Death Star and then deliver the plans of the superweapon to the Rebel Alliance. Solo accepts his reward for not only rescuing the Princess, but delivering the plans and decides to head to Jabba the Hutt as the rest of the Rebel Alliance launches an offensive from Yavin IV against the Death Star. Meanwhile the Empire’s superweapon closes in to destroy the planet.
Solo plays a key role in destroying the Death Star as he destroys multiple Imperial Tie Fighters and disables Darth Vader’s ship allowing Luke Skywalker a clean shot, which ends up destroying the Death Star.
Solo is then heralded, rightfully so, as a hero of the Rebel Alliance.
He didn’t just sweep into the Rebellion. He proved his worth and then was given assignments living up to his past accomplishments that include patrolling Hoth, which as Han Solo notes requires using a blaster to destroy an Imperial probe droid.
Wilsorr’s perspective is simply just wrong and this story should never have been approved by Lucasfilm editorial if they actually cared about Star Wars. But again, it has nothing to do with Star Wars anymore and is all about pushing a social agenda as Gizmodo writer James Whitbrook makes clear.
In promoting his article, Whitbrook wrote on Twitter, “I’m very critical of Star Wars’ approach to queer rep because I love it so much, and for it to disregard who I am over and over always hurt hardest.”
He added, “But today I got to reveal a male, queer Star Wars character—and it’s silly, but it means so much to me.”
In a subsequent tweet he added, “Chase Wilsorr is a tiny step in a sea of other tiny steps in this era of SW canon, but a welcome one. Thank you to C.B. Lee for making the GFFA a little more like me: a boy who likes boys (and interrupting conversations because I have things to do).
Author C.B. Lee responded, “Thank YOU! It meant so much to me to write Chase and his journey; as a baby queer fan I hardly ever saw myself in media and seeing a queer mainstream SFF character would have been everything to me. I’m just honored to be here and thank you for the feature!”
What do you make of what this story does to Han Solo’s image?