Star Wars: The Force Awakens was a great movie. Its stunning visual effects, exceptional scoring and sound effects, talented cast cannot be faulted. However, one big problem that some fans, and critics, had about it was the narrative. It was poorly criticized as a rip-off of A New Hope, and they are kind of right. At first glance, The Force Awakens seemed to have structured its story along the lines of A New Hope, with both movies' lead protagonists shown as orphans who grow up in a desert planet being only one of their many similarities.
However, a new The Force Awakens theory begs to differ.
This theory is by YouTube series Every Frame A Painting host Tony Szhou. Writing for Medium, Szhou explains how its Return of the Jedi that The Force Awakens is really structured after, and it's in order to fix one thing – Han Solo's death.
As the theory states:
Everything that's wrong with this movie stems from the choice to include Han Solo, the most beloved character of the Original Trilogy. As soon as you include Han and decide to kill him off, you have to earn that moment (which the filmmakers do). But that means you need Chewie, Leia, C-3PO, R2, and a whole bunch of other stuffto get Han emotionally to the momentwhere he steps out on that bridge. It's a fantastic moment (really, it's the best scene in the whole film), but it doesn't belong inthismovie.
Indeed, there's already a movie where the momentdoesbelong: RETURN OF THE JEDI. Harrison Ford felt in 1983 that Han should've died at the end of that film. I happen to agree. It would've been a great arc for the character, who began A NEW HOPE caring only about himself, to sacrifice himself in JEDI to save his friends.
Unfortunately, that didn't happen, and the result is that J.J. Abrams must spend half of THE FORCE AWAKENS re-buildingthe same emotional groundunder Han Solo. That's why Han is back to his factory default setting of "smuggler," why he's escaping again from people to whom he owes money, why he and Leia are separated then reunited, and why he quickly agrees to storm a planet and disable the shield so that fighters can attack the Death Star.
Han Solo is literally, moment by moment, reliving RETURN OF THE JEDI. Because in story terms, he should've died then.
It actually makes sense. If you read the rest of Szhou's theory, you'll see why it seemed that The Force Awakens felt familiar all along. While A New Hope seemed the likely comparison – being as The Force Awakens and A New Hope are the beginning of a trilogy – the familiar feeling really might be because of this beloved scruffy Nerf-herder.
Since Han was originally supposed to die in Return of the Jedi (which was what Harrison Ford wanted in the first place), and he didn't, Abrams needed to establish his story again in The Force Awakens so that his death by the hands of his own son will have that much impact.
In addition, while the two previous trilogies seemed to have been about the Skywalker family, the original script appeared as if Han Solo really was the entire saga's true hero. Even Mark Hamill admitted he thought Luke Skywalker was Han Solo's sidekick during after reading the script during for their auditions.
I'm guessing Han wasn't killed in Return of the Jedi because Harrison Ford made the character so popular at the time.
In any case, The Force Awakens did successfully establish a new generation of Star Wars and a new trilogy, and you have to admit you want to see what will happen to the old and new characters in Episode VIII.
We'll find out soon enough when the movie Star Wars: Episode VIII hits theaters on December 15, 2017.
Read: Star Wars: The Force Awakens Prequel Comic May Have Just Revealed Rey's Parents and Brother
Read: The Real Reason Why the Jedi Order Died, According to Fan Theory
Read: Crazy Fan Theory Suggests Rey is Leia and Luke's Daughter
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