Fan Fridays: Did Han Solo Kill [SPOILER] In Star Wars: The Force Awakens?

There were a lot of shocks and surprises to be found in Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens, [...]

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There were a lot of shocks and surprises to be found in Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens, but none hit harder than the blow of Han Solo dying at the hands of his son, Ben aka Kylo Ren. In an attempt to bring his son back to the light side of the force, with the advice of his mother Leia, Han reached out to Ben within the bowels of the Starkiller base. While we all saw that Ren's lightsaber pierced Han's heart, sending him spiraling to his doom, could it have in fact Han's own hand that "pulled the trigger"? In this installment of Fan Fridays, we'll delve into the possibility that Solo had taken his own life for the benefit of his son. Thanks to Imgur user ItsJarJarBinks for the heads up.

To get a better understanding of what happened, we should first delve into the scene itself. Obviously, looking at the wordplay between father and son here can see that there is some leeway in the belief that Han knew what was coming. With Kylo stating "he knows what he has to do, but not knowing if he can do it" before asking his father for help, you could argue that Han does in fact know what Ben is asking of him and is agreeing to end his own life. The two do struggle a tad when it comes to who is holding the lightsaber, but who knows, maybe Han is working to pull the lightsaber closer toward him rather than the other way around.

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(Photo: Lucasfilm)

The theory may seem far-fetched, but it would make sense with what we had seen, certainly if Han were thinking of the long game here. There wasn't much chance of Han simply walking out with Kylo and simply repairing the lost bonds of their family, Ben's too far gone for that at this point. Force Awakens is a movie of parallels to "A New Hope" and Han's death fills the role of Obi-Wan's in Episode 4. Kenobi died by essentially allowing Darth Vader to end his life, realizing that this was ultimately not his story and the torch needed to be passed onto a new generation in order to stop the menace of the Sith during that time. While Han didn't exactly have an affinity for the Force, I think he knew the pieces that were in play and how things may transpire in the future.

Han's death at the hands of his son may be the first building blocks in redeeming his son, rather than damning him. Ren's body count is massive at this point, but the personal, intimate death of his father may be the thing that shocks him back to the light side in the future and knocks him free from Lord Snoke's sway. Kylo Ren may have been trying to cement his path to the dark side with Han's death, but he may have very well done the opposite. The hints that the struggle inside him was always raging, it may not be as cut and dry as we thought.

More answers will be revealed in Episode VIII, and perhaps in Rogue One later this year, but it is funny to think that in a strange way, Han also committed suicide because Harrison Ford himself felt it was time for the character to go. Good or bad, Ren's solidified himself as the face of evil for Star Wars moving forward, so it will be interesting to see if he does in fact make his way to the side of the Resistance.

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