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The Han Solo Trilogy is a trilogy of Star Wars Legends novels written by A. C. Crispin. The three books are:

  • The Paradise Snare (1997)
  • The Hutt Gambit (1997)
  • Rebel Dawn (1998)

As the title might suggest, the stories focus on Han Solo, and specifically on his adventures in the ten or so years leading up to A New Hope, as he goes from Street Urchin and petty thief, to Imperial pilot, to the Loveable Rogue we all know and love. Along the way, he gathers friends and allies both new and familiar; Chewbacca, Lando Calrissian, and the Millennium Falcon all appear for the first time in The Hutt Gambit, for example, and Han doesn't acquire the Falcon until Rebel Dawn.

Confusingly, this is the second trilogy of books to focus on Han Solo's early life. Nearly twenty years earlier, Brian Daley wrote The Han Solo Adventures, three stand-alone stories about Han's escapades as a smuggler. Crispin retroactively fitted Daley's books into her series so that they now canonically take place during three chapters in the middle of Rebel Dawn. So the chronology goes:

The Paradise Snare → The Hutt Gambit → The beginning of Rebel Dawn → The Han Solo Adventures → The rest of Rebel Dawn.

Similarly, Crispin set The Lando Calrissian Adventures during and after The Hutt Gambit; Han meets Lando just before those stories begin. The trilogy has a crossover with I, Jedi too as Han used an alias while Corran's dad Inspector Hal Horn was after him years earlier, which Corran later uses too (they mention the elder Horn's pursuing Han in a brief conversation).


The Han Solo Trilogy provides examples of:

  • Action Girl:
    • All of Han's girlfriends over the course of the series. Salla Zend is a gunrunning smuggler, and Xaverri has a day job as an illusionist but also runs cons against Imperials with Han's help. When Han meets Bria Tharen, she is a slave addicted to the Ylesian priests' Exultation emanations, but in the course of breaking her addiction she discovers the cause of the Rebellion and becomes a high-ranking commando and spy.
    • Mrrov is a female Togorian. On her rescue, she immediately operates the guns of the ship while Han flies off. Later, she goes on a commando raid alongside her mate Muuurgh to liberate Ylesia and is gravely wounded.
    • Additionally, Drea Renthal is a large, tough woman who's a pirate captain, whom Lando dates.
  • Adaptation Expansion: In regards to Durga, as previously seen in Darksaber and Shadows of the Empire. Much like Aaron Allston did for Warlord Zsinj in the X-Wing Series, Crispin takes a one-dimensional villain created by another author and turns him into a more complex character.
  • Addiction Displacement: Discussed. Bria refuses to drink because she's afraid of getting addicted again since giving up Exultation, as she'd learned this could happen. However, it might be felt her zeal as an anti-slavery Rebel is itself kind of an addiction itself, and she admits finding a cause was what most helped in her recovery.
  • Affably Evil: Crispin does the impossible and makes Jabba the Hutt somewhat likable. Jabba seems to have a genuine soft spot for Han, he's better than most of his fellow Hutts at least, and they consider him deranged due to his fetish for beautiful humanoid females. Perhaps this is because Jabba is indeed ruthless, but also fair in his dealings with his underlings (but then, by the time of A New Hope, Han and Jabba's relationship goes sour...).
  • The Alleged Car: Han's first ship, the Bria (which he leased from Lando Calrissian and his used-spaceship lot) is an Alleged Spaceship — a heavily modified SoroSuub Starmite-class freighter. Battered and worn, half the time Han and Chewie could barely limp her back to Lando's lot. Mako Spince later solved a lot of their problems by introducing Han to Shug Ninx and his spacebarn, where Shug revealed that half the problem was that SoroSuubs disliked being modified with non-SoroSuub parts, which is what had happened with the Bria. Even after it was finally and suitably repaired, it remained prone to malfunctions up until its destruction at the hands of Imperial TIE Fighters.
  • All Girls Want Bad Boys: Han is a handsome, charming Lovable Rogue who works as a smuggler, a dangerous and illegal profession. During the books, he has six different girlfriends, since woman fall for him easily as a result. It's downplayed however as Han is a nice man at heart, even if he had a hard life and puts up a tough exterior.
  • Analogy Backfire: Imperial governor Sarn Shild gives a Rousing Speech calling for a crackdown on the Hutts, culminating in a pledge that they will be brought to their knees! "Um... figuratively speaking, of course."
  • And Now You Must Marry Me: Ganar Tos, Teroenza's servant, has a creepy desire for Bria. While at first she's not bothered too much by it, since he doesn't do anything, before she knows it he's bringing her before Teroenza to get married. At no point is she asked for consent, and it's clear neither one cares. Bria only manages to delay this by insisting on following Corellian custom, which requires the bride to wear a green dress. In the time it takes them to procure one, she's able to escape with Han.
  • Anti-Hero:
    • Han is a Jerk with a Heart of Gold who is always claiming that he sticks his neck out for no one and is only interested in profit, but does the right thing when the chips are down regardless. He gathers friends and allies because of his hidden altruism—rescuing Chewie from slavery and taking in Jarik, a Nar Shaddaa street urchin, for example.
    • Bria is a Classical Anti-Hero in The Paradise Snare (held in slavery by addiction and only able to escape because of Han) and progresses to an Unscrupulous Hero in the early Rebellion, where even by the standards of an insurgent group her methods are harsh. Her combat unit calls itself Red Hand Squadron, symbolizing that they give no quarter to slavers.
  • Army of Thieves and Whores: The smugglers (few of whom have military training, although many have fought pirates and Navy patrollers), con artists, mercenaries, honest traders with no combat experience who have relatives on Nar Shadda and pirates form a ragtag militia fleet that nonetheless scores some heavy blows against the invasion force seeking to raze their home.
  • Arc Welding: These books followed on quite a bit of previous lore on Han's past from various other sources, and tried to incorporate and integrate much of it, sometimes requiring minor Retcons in the process. Some of this reaches into Continuity Porn at times, referencing incredibly obscure things such as the very earliest licensed comic books, while others concern quite major events in the history of the setting. At the same time, the trilogy still leaves many things unexplored, presumably to leave it open for other authors in the future (or George Lucas himself, if he wanted to do anything with it), or else due to the writer's own preferences. There is almost nothing on Han's years at the Military Academy, for example.
  • Assassin Outclassin': Han and Chewie fatally defeat several bounty hunters who've come after the bounty on Han's head until Boba Fett shows up.
  • Bad Guys Do the Dirty Work: How Garris Shrike meets his end. Han can't bring himself to shoot Shrike in cold blood, even though he knows that Shrike is a danger to him and he's trying to make himself pull the trigger. The problem is solved for him when another bounty hunter shoots and kills Shrike, so that he can collect the bounty on Han.
  • The Beard: As part of her work with the Corellian Resistance, Bria serves as this to Moff Sarn Shild (under a false name), since his sexual tastes aren't for human females. It is implied he likes members of other species of Human Aliens, which the speciesist Empire he serves wouldn't tolerate.
  • Been There, Shaped History: Bria is part of the Rebel unit that steals the plans for the first Death Star, before transmitting them to Princess Leia's ship. The unit swallows poison pills to prevent imminent capture and interrogation by the Empire.
  • Better to Die than Be Killed:
    • Moff Sarn Shild kills himself after his failed attack on Nar Shaddaa. Having received word that the Emperor has summoned him back to Coruscant and made it clear he is most displeased, Sarn figures that anything would be better than facing Palpatine's wrath—and almost certainly a slow and agonizing death. Given just how sadistic Palpatine famously is and that he knew the Moff was planning to rebel against him, it's very likely that Shild was right.
    • After transmitting the plans to Princess Leia's ship, the surviving members of Bria's unit (including Bria herself) all kill themselves by taking poison pills rather than to risk being later captured and tortured into giving up the information by the Empire, then no doubt being killed.
  • Big Red Button: In The Hutt Gambit, illusionist Xaverri’s biggest and most risky illusion can be turned on when she hits a large red button on her control panel which had a label in all caps saying no one but her can ever touch it.
  • Bilingual Dialogue:
    • The book combines this with Translation Convention when Han meets Jabba the Hutt for the first time. Jabba understands Galactic Basic just fine but is too much of a Hutt-supremacist to speak it, while Han conversely understands Huttese but can't pronounce the words very well (and tells Jabba as much to avoid insulting him). The scene is written from Han's perspective and he mentally translates for Jabba.
    • Also, Han is incapable of speaking Shyriiwook, Chewbacca's language. Chewie can't speak Basic. Both can understand the other just fine, however, so they get along with no problem (a surprisingly large number of other people also appear to know Shyriiwook too). Han also had this earlier with Jalus Nebl, a Sullustan.
  • Bizarre Alien Reproduction: Hutts are hermaphrodites capable of conceiving asexually (although other material shows they can sexually reproduce too).
  • Bizarre Alien Sexes: Hutts, like slugs (their closest real-world equivalent, which is also used as an insult for them), are all hermaphrodites, with both male and female sex organs. While pregnant and rearing their young they identify as female, but apparently can go back to identifying as male later (as Durga's parent Aruk and Jabba's parent Zorba do).
  • Black-and-Gray Morality: The Rebels aren't nearly the paragons of virtue they are in the films, but several key members who canonically steer it in a more honorable direction haven't joined the movement yet, and they don't even become the Rebel Alliance until the last book (with the unification of three major groups), so for most of the series, there's lots of different "rebel" groups that are largely disconnected from each other, and no one to give a What the Hell, Hero? speech if any of them go too far. In particular, the Corellian Resistance's Red Hand Squadron only gives no quarter to slavers, so it's more sympathetic than it might otherwise be.
  • Blue-and-Orange Morality: Boba Fett has a strict moral code that's also very strange to others. He's against the Rebellion because it's disrupting order, which he values, but also acknowledges slavery is evil and the Empire is immoral for practicing it. Further, he feels the obligation to repay his debts and keep promises, but has no problem with hunting people for basically anything (including fighting slavery). It would be fair to say that this probably only makes sense in his own mind. This is a lesser version of how Boba was portrayed in Tales of the Bounty Hunters: he notably doesn't go into any screaming rants about Han running spice on occasion.
  • Bolivian Army Ending: For Bria Tharen and her Red Hand Squadron. Boba Fett later confirms her death when he brings news of it to Han.
  • Borrowed Biometric Bypass: The Hutt Gambit has Han infiltrating an Imperial Dreadnaught to bribe an Admiral as part of a plan to fend off an expected Imperial attack on Nar Shaddaa, only for Darth Vader to show up and execute the Admiral via Force Choke. Han manages to avoid being detected by Vader, and briefly contemplates stealing the bribe money, but notes that he'd have to trying gouging the dead man's eye out to bypass the retinal scanner protecting the safe in his office, which is too repulsive.
  • Bounty Hunter: A number of them are sent after Han over stealing from the Besadii clan, including Boba Fett, who becomes his nemesis. Bria is also hunted for freeing many Besadii slaves.
  • Brainwashed: Ylesian Pilgrims undergo brainwashing into the scam "One and the All" cult through combining Exultation (a highly addictive sensation they receive from the priests, which is claimed to have a divine source) with a diet which leaves them always malnourished, thus more malleable than usual.
  • Call-Back: The books have references to a lot of earlier details from other Star Wars works, even ones most fans preferred to ignore, like Jabba's father being Zorba, who had been put into prison on a planet called "Kyp".
  • Call-Forward:
    • In the first book, Han Solo's accounts are flagged by Corellian Security Force officer Inspector Hal Horn, the father of Corran Horn from the X-Wing Series. Han later mentions this when they run into each other in I, Jedi, and Corran takes on his alias Jenos Idanian as well, which his grandfather tells him about (though not that it was Han's).
    • Greedo is noted as being a terrible shot and an idiot who will most likely get himself killed.
    • A subtler one: Jabba is already well known to enjoy humanoid females, and after meeting with Bria to coordinate the attack on Ylesia, comments that he wouldn't mind having her as a dancer. Han replies that it might not be wise to try to force a trained and experienced Rebel commander into that situation. As anyone who's seen Return of the Jedi knows, Jabba will find out soon enough just how true that is.
  • Canon Marches On: Like much of the Star Wars expanded universe, the 2010s movies ultimately knocked this series out of canon: the end of Bria's arc in Rebel Dawn was superseded by Rogue One before the entire series was rendered non-canonical by the release of Solo. Even before that, at one point, narrative text identifies Boba Fett as having been born Jaster Mereel (as had been established in Tales of the Bounty Hunters and generally accepted as his background at the time). The trilogy was published just a few years prior to Attack of the Clones establishing Boba as a clone of Jango Fett, with later material such as Star Wars: Bounty Hunter establishing Jaster as Jango's mentor. Boba then used his name as an alias.
  • Cat Folk: The Togorians. As a nod to Real Life lions (although they actually come in all the colors and fur patterns of felines), the males are aggressive warriors, while the females are intelligent, political plotters, and adept at mechanical and scientific endeavors. They also live separately most of the time, with males still hunting for food, and have different governments.
  • The Chanteuse: Bria once goes undercover as one in Rebel Dawn when traveling on a swanky passenger ship. Lando meets her since hes there (while gambling of course) when she sings in a high class lounge, wearing a long dress and made up beautifully. He notes that she's far from the best singer of the type, but her passion and beauty make up for any lesser talent.
  • The Charmer: Han is well aware of how easily he can charm women, his grin being especially useful, and does so often.
  • The Chessmaster:
    • Emperor Palpatine (as usual), who instigates the Imperial attack on the home system of the Hutts, as well as its failure — all in order to disgrace an Imperial Moff that was getting too big for his britches. Then he has the Admiral in charge executed, allegedly for his failure but really because as part of the gambit, he had been ordered to deliberately throw the battle and they want to make sure he never tells anyone else that part.
    • Xizor, even more so: he exploits the ongoing war between the Desilijic and Besadii Hutt clans in order to basically perform a takeover of Besadii, granting him a priceless foothold in the Outer Rim.
  • Chick Magnet: Han has six girlfriends in the books over just a few years, and he had been with other women before the first shown too. Many women are easily charmed by him, just by Han grinning and flirting lightly.
  • City Planet: Coruscant and Nar Shaddaa. The two both have many different levels, the worst on the bottom. In The Hutt Gambit, Han notes that the uppermost levels of Nar Shaddaa look like the lowermost levels of Coruscant. He promptly resolves NEVER to visit the lowermost levels of Nar Shaddaa.
  • The Clan: Hutt society is divided into these, which also double as crime families.
  • Code of Honour:
    • Roa's Rules, which Han, Chewie, and their general crowd within the smuggling community try to live by. Some of the rules are just common sense (never gamble unless you're prepared to lose, always be prepared for a quick getaway, never pilot a ship under the influence), but others are moral imperatives (never ignore a call for help, never take from those who are poorer than yourself).
    • Boba Fett has one as well. He considers himself a law-abiding being, but also tries to remain honorable in his dealings with his clients, and at one point is shown trying to figure out how to respond to an offer from a Hutt not to honor a bounty to kill someone while still satisfying his code. Eventually he settles on taking the deal until he's finished his current job, then sending the money back when he wants to claim the other bounty.
    • The Hutts have a rudimentary one, though how much they live up to it fluctuates throughout the series. One of the rules, alluded to in the Hutt Council from Rebel Dawn, is that it's okay to exploit other species, while some better behavior is expected between Hutts.
    • The male Togorians like Muuurgh, along with Wookies in general, have strict ones. In the former case, if they gave their word of honor, it won't be broken unless the person who received this got it under false pretenses. Wookies, on the other hand, will serve whoever they owe a life debt. Both also show a strong loyalty toward their families, friends, friends' families etc. When he introduces Muuurgh to Chewie, Han notes they have a lot in common.
  • Collapsing Lair: Teroenza's treasure room suffers a great deal of damage in the first book, and the damage to the support pillars results in them and the ceiling collapsing (killing Zavval the Hutt in the process from everything landing on him). Unusually for the trope, the room gets rebuilt between books.
  • Continuity Nod: Dozens of them. Durga the Hutt (from Darksaber) is an important character, as are several characters and locations from Dark Empire. Han hears stories about the Jedi as told by an old bartender. There are even a few shout-outs to Marvel's Star Wars comics.
  • Continuity Snarl: Shares a page with the rest of Star Wars Legends.
  • Contrived Coincidence:
    • Bria's forced wedding date and Mrrov getting shipped off the planet to slavery fall on the same day, so both can be rescued at once.
    • Right as Han and Bria are about to be shot by High Priest Teroenza, Boba Fett kills him for a bounty.
  • Cyanide Pill: Bria and Red Hand Squadron take fatal "lullaby" pills off-page to avoid being tortured into giving up information by the Imperials in the event of capture.
  • Daddy's Girl: Bria's clearly very close to her father, and vice versa. This is in contrast with her mother and brother, especially the former who tries to control her life.
  • Damsel in Distress: Bria is about to be married off by force, and Mrrov shipped into slavery in the first book. Their love interests Han and Muuurgh manage to save them. Han also manages to rescue his later girlfriend Salla from a space accident too.
  • Dark and Troubled Past:
    • Xaverri's husband and children were killed by the Empire, inspiring her vendetta against them. She declines to go into details on what happened, saying recounting it might kill her.
    • Han's past also counts—he was a street urchin recruited by a criminal into working on his behalf as a beggar, con artist and thief. Before that, though details aren't revealed, it's implied that his parents were murdered and he wound up on the streets with his memories of them erased for an unknown reason.
  • "Dear John" Letter:
    • Han gets one from Bria late in the first book, freeing him to go to the Imperial Academy, and he ends up carrying it with him as a keepsake until late in book 3, when her actions anger him so badly that he tears it to pieces in front of her.
    • In book 2, Han gets another one, this time from Xaverri after they've reached the end of their tour around the galaxy. He's not as badly affected by it though.
    • In book 3, Han writes one to Salla Zend, who's become rather insistent on marrying him after the loss of her ship. Han, however, isn't ready for marriage, and lights out for the Corporate Sector after leaving her a letter explaining this.
  • Deface of the Moon: Mako, a friend of Han's from the Academy, tried to deface the Imperial insignia on the nearby artificial moon, but underestimated the power of the antimatter used and ended up destroying the whole moon.
  • Desperately Looking for a Purpose in Life: Bria went through a period of this after she left secondary school and was heading off to college. She'd planned on being a museum curator and was engaged to a young man who came from a very wealthy family, but didn't feel happy with either of these. Her mother was furious when she had broken off their engagement after she caught her fiance cheating on her, and demanded Bria get back together with him because of the "great match" the pair had in her mind. Bria refused to do so though, and when she attended a service by some missionaries from Ylesia, experiencing Exultation, it felt right to her. She sold her jewelry to buy passage, left Corellia, and became a Pilgrim on Ylesia. However, it turned out the entire religion is a scam to get slaves, first processing illegal spice on the planet and then sold off elsewhere. Her addiction to the Exultation and devastation at learning that it was lies took Bria a long time to shed. Eventually she found another purpose however, joining the Corellian Resistance and helping liberate other Ylesian slaves.
  • Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: Not a supernatural example, but the fact that Han kills a Hutt lord in The Paradise Snare raises some impressed eyebrows among those who've heard of it. Jiliac and Jabba respect him for having done it, since the Hutt in question was one of their competitors, but warn him not to let it become widely known that a human killed a Hutt and got away with it.
  • Dirty Old Man:
    • Ganar Tos, Teroenza's servant, is an elderly Zisian who is smitten with Bria. He arranges to have Teroenza marry them, never asking whether Bria wants this or not, and she's desperate to escape (Han rescues her).
    • Admiral Greelanx turns out to have a mistress, which Han calculates and uses for an interview with him. Bria also uses another admiral's interest as part of her undercover work in the Corellian Resistance. They're both described as at least middle aged if not older. In the latter case though he's all talk and no action, saying this is common of men his age, but they still like being seen with a beautiful young woman to make others jealous.
  • Distressed Dude:
    • Han is gravely endangered by a very angry female Barabel who accused him of cheating when he gets his blaster jammed in its holster, before Chewie saves him.
    • Han later gets injected with a mind control drug by Boba Fett to capture him, marching helplessly toward his ship until Lando intervenes. He stops Fett with the same drug and frees Han.
    • Lando is captured by Boba Fett when he's come to capture Bria. The ship they're on is then soon attacked by pirates, with their leader being Lando's ex-girlfriend. Thankfully, she's into Lando enough that Fett is paid the bounty price on Bria and he lets them go.
  • Does This Remind You of Anything?: Moff Sarn Shild is not attracted to human females. He keeps Bria Tharen as his supposed mistress for cover, as his sexual tastes aren't acceptable in the Empire. The fact that it's specified "human females" even implies this isn't just a metaphor for a closeted gay man, but he's actually attracted to males of other species in particular.
  • Doomed by Canon: It is pretty obvious that Han and Bria are not going to end up together—or at least, not live happily ever after...
  • Do You Want to Copulate?: Salla rather matter of factly asks whether Han would enjoy sleeping with her. He would, and they do.
  • The Dreaded:
    • Black Sun and its leader Prince Xizor. Even the Hutts, among the most powerful criminal elements there in the galaxy, are wary of it. Aruk repeatedly warns Durga against involving himself with Black Sun or being in Xizor's debt. His rival Jiliac hopes that he follows this advice, as she has no desire to be in competition with Black Sun.
    • Darth Vader is spoken of only in fearful, hushed tones. When he's coming to "speak" with Admiral Greelanx after his defeat, it's clearly terrifying (and for very good reasons, of course).
    • Boba Fett is widely feared as the galaxy's best bounty hunter. Han and Bria both react with terror on realizing that he's after them. Fett himself muses on this, and remembers many instances of fear from people on seeing him even when they were not his target.
  • Driven to Suicide:
    • Danalis, one of the other street urchins recruited by Garris Shrike, killed herself after finally realizing he would never have her face fixed in return for her work (she'd been horribly disfigured as a child).
    • Moff Sarn Shild kills himself after his fleet is defeated at Nar Shaddaa and he's been summoned for an inquiry on Coruscant, knowing that he's just delaying the inevitable otherwise.
  • Duel to the Death: Durga challenges Jiliac after he learns she poisoned his parent. He manages to win despite her far larger girth.
  • Early-Bird Cameo: In a sense. This trilogy marks the first appearance of Baron Soontir Fel—Crispin asked Michael Stackpole whether there were any good Imperial pilots available, and Stackpole came up with Fel, later featuring him in X-Wing Rogue Squadron.
  • Emergency Cargo Dump: Rebel Dawn depicts Han having to dump a load of glitterstim near the Maw black hole cluster in order to avoid having it confiscated by the Imperial customs officials. Unable to recover it afterward, he ends up heavily in debt to Jabba the Hutt, setting up the situation he's in at the start of A New Hope.
  • The End of the Beginning: Naturally enough Rebel Dawn ends with Han sitting in a seedy bar in some backwater agonizing over how he's going to find the money to get Jabba off his back, only for Chewie to come over and tell him there's this old man and a kid who want to book passage someplace...
  • Even Evil Has Loved Ones:
    • Durga, though a ruthless crime boss like most Hutts, does genuinely love his parent Aruk, to the point that he keeps its extent a secret (most of their kind would see this as unseemly, if his affection were greater than his desire for self-gain). He's distraught when Aruk is killed, and hunts down the murderers. It's subverted with Jabba, who though fond of his aunt Jiliac doesn't let this get in the way of his ambitions.
    • Sadistic slaver Tereonza feels constant sorrow about how the Hutts refuse to give him vacations to visit his mate (sadly admitting that if Absence Makes the Heart Go Yonder for her, he will understand), and is horrified by her death in the third book.
  • Evil Cannot Comprehend Good:
    • Only a short while after hiring him, the t'landa Til priests think nothing of revealing to Han that Exultation and the entire religion built around it are a giant scam, and laughing at the stupidity of the pilgrims who have fallen for it. Admittedly they have no way of knowing that he's fallen in love with one of the pilgrims in the meantime, but it still says something about them that they can't imagine that anyone "strong minded" could be offended by the revelation.
    • In a minor example, the female slaver who Bria encounters during her raid on the Helot's Shackle just cannot fathom the idea that Red Hand Squadron want to free slaves, not steal them for sale later. This gives Bria a distraction as the woman attempts to comprehend the idea, and she shoots her.
  • Exact Words:
    • While playing a high-stakes card game, Lando offers Han a marker for "any ship on [his] lot" when he runs short of cash. As he doesn't specify that he means his inventory, Han uses the marker to claim Lando's personal ship, the Millennium Falcon, which Lando had left parked in said lot. Lando tries to object, but Han presses him on his literal statement, and Lando unhappily agrees.
    • When the Battle of Nar Shaddaa turns against the Imperials, Admiral Greelanx orders his capital ships to retreat and abandon their TIE fighters. One of his captains, Soontir Fel, objects and requests permission to wait and retrieve the fighters (being an ex-TIE pilot himself), but Greelanx angrily says his order stands. Fel complies and orders his helmsman to set course out of the system, but to fly as slow as possible so that the TIEs can catch up and dock with his dreadnaught.
  • Explosive Decompression: In The Paradise Snare, Han remembers having to clean up after someone cycled the airlock to kill themselves, and it was apparently quite messy.
  • Extended Disarming: In The Hutt Gambit, Boba Fett is forced to disarm, which takes several minutes and produces a large pile of weapons.
  • Eye Scream: Mrrov loses an eye during the Battle of Ylesia. Han's dismayed, though Muuurgh says they consider this a badge of honor.
  • The Fagin: Garris Shrike doesn't have a whole gang of children (most of his underlings are older), but raises Han in this way, having him steal, con, and participate in illegal swoop races for him while becoming progressively more cruel and abusive (along with many other former street urchins he "rescued"). These operations are even managed by a droid called F8GN on his behalf.
  • Faking the Dead: Han fakes his death by leaving the fake ID he'd used on a dead bounty hunter who came after him (he killed the man in self-defense) then erasing the guy's face with a blaster bolt. However, this only works for so long, and later Teroenza finds out he's alive, so more bounty hunters come after him.
  • False Utopia: Ylesia turns out to be one for Pilgrims who settle there. While they have hard work, the Exultation gives them a feeling of intense pleasure and makes them feel united to the One. Unbeknownst to them though, in actual fact the Exultation is not divine or spiritual at all, it's just a natural mating call t'landa Til males use which if done on other species will affect them in this way. Han sees through it right away, but he isn't a believer. Worse, in the end they're all sold as slaves, and sent to mines or the Imperials' military brothels. Since the Exultation is very addictive though, most of them don't want liberation (they're not aware of the rest until it's too late).
  • Fantastic Drug:
    • Spice, which has various types and is highly restricted, thus very profitable for smuggling. Glitterstim, the most powerful kind, can give a user telepathy temporarily as well.
    • There's the Exultation as well, which isn't an actual substance but in fact the mating call male t'landa Til use with a drug-like effect on members of other species. It is equally addictive though, and used to hook "pilgrims" in their fake religion on Ylesia.
  • Fantastic Racism: The Hutts consider themselves the superior species, and thus entitled to cheat and exploit the "lesser" ones. Xizor seems to share these sentiments, and uses this to flatter Hutts by noting that their species are cold-blooded and therefore rational, rather than hot-blooded and given to emotions as mammals like humans are. It goes both ways, of course, as the Empire bases its rule at least partly on the idea of human supremacy.
  • Fetish: Jabba's taste for scantily clad humanoid females is brought up several times. It turns out to be something viewed as perverse and bizarre by fellow Hutts.
  • Fictional Age of Majority: Alderaan and Corellia both have seventeen as the age of majority. Winter and Bria note this in conversation, while the former feels it's too young as she had no sense then. At that age, Bria ran away from home and joined a religion which turned out to be a front for slavery, nearly leading her into being a sex slave for the rest of her life.
  • Franken-vehicle:
    • The Hutt Gambit: Half of Han's maintenance issues with the Bria turn out to be because she was improperly modified with non-SoroSuub replacement parts, which SoroSuub ships hate having done to them.
    • Rebel Dawn: After winning the Millennium Falcon from Lando Calrissian, Han Solo salvages some armor plate from the wreck of an Imperial Navy Neutron Star-class bulk cruiser destroyed in the Battle of Nar Shaddaa and welds it onto the YT-1300 freighter for added protection.
  • From Camouflage to Criminal: The trilogy shows how Han was an officer in the Imperial Navy, and what happened to cause him to leave and begin a life of crime. Or rather resume it, since he had already worked as a con artist, drug smuggler and thief before. He was blacklisted from legal piloting with his dishonorable discharge.
  • From Nobody to Nightmare: Bria Tharen is this, from the point of view of the t'landa Til and their Besadii overlords. At the beginning of the trilogy, she's just one humble and self-effacing pilgrim among thousands. By the end of the first book, she's indirectly caused Han Solo, Muurgh, and Mrovv to escape with her, stealing a number of the high priest's precious valuables and killing the Hutt overseer of the colony. By the third book, she's become a Rebel Commander whose squadron specializes in freeing slaves and gives no quarter to their owners, which is beginning to put a serious dent in Besadii's trade. And by the end of that book, she and an entire Rebel force come back to Ylesia and destroy the entire operation for good, along with Besadii's main source of income. Making matters even worse is that Durga had just had to indebt himself further and further to underworld kingpin Xizor by asking him for help and protection against her raids, and he was planning to pay off his debt by sharing Ylesian profits. With those profits gone, any hope of keeping his independence from Xizor disappears, and he becomes little more than another one of his underlings, as seen in his next appearance in Shadows of the Empire. Beware the Quiet Ones, indeed.
  • Gambit Pileup: The Battle of Nar Shaddaa in The Hutt Gambit. The Hutts find out that Moff Sarn Shild plans to invade their home system and glass Nar Shaddaa in particular to put an end to their weapons smuggling. After failing to buy him off, they send Han to bribe his subordinate Admiral Winstel Greelanx, who agrees to withdraw if the Hutts inflict enough losses on him to make it reasonable, to which end the Hutts gather every Space Pirate and smuggler who can fire a laser cannon. Unbeknownst to the Hutts, Greelanx simultaneously receives secret orders from the Emperor to do basically the same thing, which Bria Tharen theorizes after the fact was an attempt to publicly embarrass Moff Shild as an excuse to remove him from office. It doesn't end well for Greelanx, although it's left ambiguous whether Darth Vader found out about the bribe or was just eliminating a potential leak.
  • Greed: This is basically the driving force of Hutt culture, to the point that even valuing close family over profit is looked down upon.
  • Half-Breed Discrimination: Han surmises that Shug Nix has suffered from this due to his Half-Human Hybrid background given Shug's wariness when they first meet, probably from Imperial officials mostly, as the Empire views anyone of such heritage as second-class citizens.
  • Half-Human Hybrid: Shug Nix is the son of a Human father and mother who is from another species. Han can tell right away from his looks, though they're not that different from a full Human.
  • Happiness in Slavery: Many of the Ylesian "pilgrims" don't want to be liberated, as they're addicted by Exultation and don't realize that it'll end once they're sold as slaves in much worse conditions. They're also initially unaware that it's even slavery, as they've been scammed into believing the religion.
  • Has a Type: Han with anti-Imperial revolutionaries. His first love Bria becomes one in the second book, while another lover, Xaverri, is already one when he meets her, and, of course, Leia in the movies and later Legends stories.
  • He Knows Too Much: The real reason for Admiral Greelanx's death. As part of the Emperor's plot to disgrace Sarn Shild, Greelanx had been secretly ordered to deliberately lose the battle. Once that was accomplished, the Emperor had Vader kill Greelanx so that he couldn't reveal that part of the scheme, knowing that to everyone else it would just look like a punishment for Greelanx's failure.
  • Heartbroken Badass: Han, after Bria leaves him at the end of the first book. This plays a big part in forming the cynical personality he's developed by the time we meet him in the movies.
  • Heel–Face Turn: Muuurgh is a Punch-Clock Villain keeping an eye on Han for the Ylesians, but readily switches sides to help Han and Bria escape when he learns that his mate, Mrrov, is also a Ylesian pilgrim and his bosses had kept that fact from him.
  • Hermaphrodite: The Hutts. As a result, they're capable of reproducing asexually. In these books, this is the only form of reproduction we see them use, though in some others they're also shown reproducing sexually.
  • Heroic Sacrifice: Dewlanna gives her life to protect Han.
  • Heroic Suicide: Bria and Red Hand Squadron take suicide pills to prevent the vital information they have being tortured out of them by the Imperials when facing imminent capture.
  • Heterosexual Life-Partners: Han and Chewbacca from the beginning of book 2 onward. In lesser measure, Han and Lando.
  • High Priest: Teroenza heads the fake Ylesian religion, and High Priest is his title.
  • Hold Your Hippogriffs: Expressions like "The rat's in the kitchen" have been modified with "vrelt" (apparently a similar creature) instead of "rat" and so on.
  • Hollywood Atheist: Averted with Han, who at one point mentions he doesn't believe in any gods and had been made clear as irreligious in general earlier. He remains neutral or respectful about religion however, unlike in the first film, where he'd mocked the idea of the Force (that was later though). The Ylesian scam religion even had outraged him due to exploiting people's spiritual aspirations, which ends up with them addicted to enslave them, rather than saying this shows the danger of religion, or simply that it's all delusion.
  • Honey Trap: Bria works undercover after joining the Corellian Resistant by her cozying up to high-ranking Imperial officials (from an admiral to a Moff) so she can get information from them. However, unlike in many cases it doesn't include having sex with them-one uses her as cover (since it's implied he only finds Human Aliens attractive) while others simply want eye candy on their arms since they're older men, to make others from their generation jealous.
  • Human Shield: When the bank manager on Coruscant tells Han his account's been frozen, then attempts to keep him there until he's arrested, Han takes him hostage instead and uses the guy this way. It ends up with the guy dead as stormtroopers shoot at them while Han is making his escape.
  • I Gave My Word:
    • Muuurgh gave his word of honor to keep his contract with the t'lanta Til priests on Ylesia, which includes watching Han and killing him if he ever betrays them. As honor is the core tenet of his culture, he won't break it — until Han proves they lied to him. Since there's no honor working with a liar, the contract is voided, and he works with Han to go against them.
    • Boba Fett also believes in this, having Han inform Bria's father she had died in combat against the Empire because of a promise he would do this. Notably, this promise was given much earlier in an entirely different context, when he had captured Bria himself for the bounty, and he agreed to her request to inform her father after her death, but he still felt bound to keep it.
  • I Have This Friend: Han gives Salla his own backstory in the Imperial Starfleet in this format, telling her how a friend of his tried to "do the right thing" only to be stripped of rank and kicked out of the service, partly because his own commanding officer committed perjury against him; there was only one other witness, and "who's going to believe a Wookiee?" Subverted in that it's pretty clear that both of them understand who he's talking about.
  • I Have Your Wife: Mrrov was coerced after realizing the One and the All cult was a scam into staying on Ylesia when its clergy claimed they had her mate Muurrgh, who'd be killed assuming she tried to leave, showing a picture of him to her. This was a lie, since they lied and told Muurrgh that she wasn't on planet, getting him to work as a guard for the operation. However, she didn't know that and therefore stayed until her rescue by Muurrgh with Han when they found out about her.
  • Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: How Kibbick dies, when Teroenza impales him repeatedly with his horn (and then uses a blaster to disguise the wounds, blaming Bria Tharen's rebel cell for it).
  • Insignia Rip-Off Ritual: Han went through this after he was court-martialed and cashiered for preventing a superior officer from killing Chewbacca when he was a rebellious slave (which also lets Chewie escape). When he dreams about it later, it ends with him attacking the officer who did it.
  • Interrupted Suicide: Bria briefly contemplates suicide looking over the edge of a turbolift on Coruscant and realizing how easy it would be to fall off, then she'd no longer have to suffer from her addiction, before Han pulls her back.
  • I Owe You My Life:
    • Chewbacca, according to his culture, owes Han a life debt for saving him. This means he makes it his duty to serve and protect Han. While at first Han finds this annoying, he slowly warms up to him and then the pair grow into friends (later Heterosexual Life-Partners).
    • Han's stated reason for saving Chewbacca is because he feels this way about Dewlanna; he couldn't repay the debt directly to her since she had died saving him, so he paid it forward to Chewbacca. Han tries to convince Chewbacca that Chewbacca isn't in his debt because Han was really paying back a debt to someone else, but Chewbacca doesn't buy it.
  • It's Personal:
    • Being embarrassed by Lando (who injects him with his own hypnotic drug and then forces him to disarm himself and fly away) provokes this reaction from Boba Fett. He keeps this personal grudge separate from his work, however.
    • Having Han Solo steal part of his collection, destroy part of his house, kill his boss, and run away with two of his slaves and one of his employees similarly provokes this reaction from Teroenza. He vows revenge and spends the rest of the trilogy trying to get it. Unlike Boba Fett, this very much interferes with his work.
    • Durga's determination to find the murderer of his parent Aruk. When he finds the proof that Jiliac is behind it, he challenges her to a duel to the death.
    • Bria Tharen's enslavement leaves her with this outlook towards slavers. Her unit develops a reputation for giving no quarter to slavers, and she devotes considerable effort toward convincing her superiors that it makes sense to destroy the Ylesia operation, even though it's not an Imperial target.
    • Xaverri's attitude towards the Empire, for having killed her loved ones in the past. When Han offers her an opportunity to help defeat an Imperial fleet, she leaps at the chance.
  • Just Following Orders: Admiral Greelanx protests to Darth Vader that he was obeying his orders when he "lost" the Battle of Nar Shaddaa, while Vader is Force choking him to death. It's unclear whether Vader was tying up a loose end or if he found out about the bribe the Hutts simultaneously paid Greelanx.
  • Kid Sidekick: Han picks one up for part of the trilogy, a Street Urchin from Nar Shaddaa named Jarik Solo who claims to be a distant relative. Han figures out quickly that it's not true, but likes him enough to keep him around and allows him to keep the last name.
  • Leave No Survivors: Red Hand Squadron has this policy toward slavers. They offer them no quarter. It's also the source of their name and emblem, a blood-dripping hand. However, as they're slavers, though it makes some uncomfortable this is portrayed as paying evil unto evil.
  • Lethal Chef: Salla admits she's terrible at cooking, and thus has her boyfriends do this instead.
  • Long-Lived:
    • Hutts frequently live to a millennium or so. Aruk is the oldest in the story, at nearly nine hundred.
    • Wookiees don't have quite this longevity, but Chewie is about two hundred years when he's introduced, and doesn't seem to be considered old. His father is still around, though elderly. Dewlanna was over six hundred when she died, and also old by Wookiee standards.
  • Lovable Rogue: Han of course, but also Lando and Mako. All are charming, nice men (although Mako turns bad eventually) who work as smugglers, but don't harm anybody except in self-defense. Han also refuses to ship slaves. The fact he traffics highly addictive drugs which cause terrible effects on addicts, along with weapons, is glossed over.
  • Love at First Sight: Han's reaction to seeing the Millennium Falcon for the first time. Being already a seasoned pilot and starship expert, he can tell immediately that it's been heavily modified and isn't the ordinary freighter it looks like. He never loses sight of the ship again, and acquires it the first chance he gets.
  • Mad Oracle: Han, Chewie, and Mako encounter one, who calls herself Vima and "the descendent of Vima Sunrider" during The Hutt Gambit, who claims that Han will face betrayal from those he trusts (Bria in Rebel Dawn; Lando in The Empire Strikes Back; Mako in Dark Empire; Zeen, Kid DXo'ln, Wynni and Ana Blue in The New Rebellion; and finally his own son in Legacy of the Force. She doesn't mention anybody by name, but stares at Mako, who's with him), will be rich but only after he no longer cares about it, will be a great warrior, and will do much for love. Han, of course, is skeptical (not to mention drunk), and has forgotten about it by the next day. The woman doesn't outright identify herself as the Jedi Vima-da-Boda, whom Han later meets again in Dark Empire, but it's pretty clear that it's her.
  • Made a Slave:
    • All the Pilgrims who go to Ylesia really are being enslaved. The religion they follow is just a scam, and they're addicted to control them by what's passed off as a spiritual gift. After a year they get sold off planet to brothels and mines. If any realize earlier it's all a scam, they're threatened into staying.
    • The Empire has also enslaved many Wookies (they were declared a slave race, although a lot are still free, and others like Chewie have escaped).
  • Making Love in All the Wrong Places: It's implied that Han and Bria have sex on the beach.
  • Mama Bear: Dewlanna's response to Shrike attempting to beat Han to a bloody pulp is a good example of why you should never piss off a Wookiee.
  • Master of Illusion: Xaverri, who makes a good living as a stage magician. This becomes a Chekhov's Skill when she is brought back towards the end of The Hutt Gambit, and creates the image of a heavily armed battle fleet around Nar Shaddaa in order to frighten and distract the approaching Imperial warships, helping the smugglers in their battle.
  • Men of Sherwood: The Nova Force mercenaries guarding Ylesia in the third book are simple Mooks, but they bravely and effectively fight many enemies, save Tereonza from assassins, and delay the attacking army a bit before accepting defeat and surrendering.
  • A Mind Is a Terrible Thing to Read: Bria is devastated after she uses glitterstim to read High Priest Teroenza's mind as Han urged, confirming his claim that her entire religion is a lie. Even as he outwardly acts pious while leading prayers, Teroenza really is thinking only very selfish, callous things.
  • The Missus and the Ex: Han is nervous about Salla, his girlfriend, meeting his ex Xaverri, fearing it will be awkward or worse. However, they are both civil and soon hit it off, to his relief.
  • Mob War: The Desilijic and Besadii Hutt clans both have attached crime syndicates, with an old rivalry. During the books they fight over control of the spice trafficking trade.
  • Mrs. Robinson: An old female Twilek propositions Han on Nar Shaddaa, to his dismay. She's more amused than anything with his hasty excuse to turn her down.
  • Multicultural Alien Planet: Though the usual Planet of Hats trope is mostly played straight as usual, a couple exceptions exist.
    • Wookies don't just have a single language; rather, what Chewbacca speaks is the majority, but an obscure regional one is used as a code by the Wookie Resistance because Imperials don't understand it.
    • Togorians have two separate cultures, divided by gender, with males living as hunters while their females have a civilized, urban society. Mated pairs only see each at certain points every year, with children raised by their mothers the first few years then any males go to live with their fathers. They find this perfectly comfortable, though Han and Bria (being Humans) naturally balk at the idea of living that way on Togoria. Within those groups, however, everyone still acts basically the same, so it's only partial.
  • My Beloved Smother: Bria's mother was like this. She was constantly pushing her to make a "good match", no matter what Bria thought about it. Even after Bria found out that her fiancé had cheated and she dumped him, her mother insisted on her getting back together with him, and wasn't happy with her life choices generally, always belittling them. All this led to Bria having very low self-esteem, contributing to her running away to become a pilgrim on Ylesia (which, it turns out, is a scam for enslaving people).
  • My Girl Is Not a Slut: Han is very upset when he finds Bria is the (apparent) concubine of a Moff, saying he never imagined she'd be so "cheap". Later he learns the truth (Bria was just the beard to the Moff as cover for spying on behalf of the Corellian Resistance). In fact, she hasn't even been with any men after Han, but he's had about four different girlfriends since her.
  • Mysterious Past: Han never finds out what happened for him to get dumped on the street, and doesn't remember anything past that (as his mind shuts off the fragments of memory which he has). Garris Shrike appears to know, and goads him using it, but is killed before he can reveal what really happened. Han's aunt also knows apparently, but is so distraught to see him he never learns anything of his past from her.
  • N.G.O. Superpower: The Hutt kajidics (crime syndicates) control entire planets (de facto, if not always openly). Black Sun dwarfs them though, since Xizor comments that Besadii's Ylesian operation (that controls a whole planet) is minor compared with theirs, though still impressive. He also has entire mercenary companies at his command, making him able to rustle a small army up at short notice.
  • Non-Heteronormative Society: The Hutts, it turns out, as their entire species are genderfluid hermaphrodites. When pregnant, they change pronouns to she/her from he/him (some later switch back). They're capable of reproducing asexually, given their hermaphroditism, and frequently do (but can also sexually reproduce).
  • Nonhuman Nonbinary: The Hutts (huge, slug-like sentients) are gender-fluid hermaphrodites whose given gender identities fluctuate depending on whether they're reproducing or not. Most of the time, Hutts are just called by male pronouns. When either pregnant or afterward though, they're called by female ones. It seems this shifts back at some point, as Hutts like Aruk who have reproduced in the past use male pronouns currently. This isn't explored much, with Han just being baffled when a Hutt client's gender changes (he shifts pronouns/honorifics in tandem), though clearly presented as part of their alien nature since he thinks about how weird the entire thing is to him.
  • Noodle Incident:
    • During Han's painful memory of his Insignia Rip-Off Ritual, he makes mention of his Corellian Bloodstripes (the red and yellow stripes that he wears down the seam of his pants). It's an honor given out by the government of Corellia, so it's the only one he gets to keep, but we're never told just what he did to earn it. Even in later novels we're never told what happened except that it was a very harrowing and painful experience that happened over several days. Furthermore, there are two classes of Bloodstripes (Red for First Class and Yellow for Second Class) and he's earned them both.
    • Rebel Dawn also provides an explanation for the Noodle Incident mentioned in The Empire Strikes Back (where Lando appears furious at Han when they meet again over "what you pulled"). The Corellian Resistance screws Han and his smuggler pals out of their share of the treasure owed to them in the raid on Ylesia, even turning their guns on them, because they need it to fund their search for the Death Star plans, along with the rebellion in general. To Lando and the others, it looks like Han was complicit in the betrayal rather than also being a victim of it himself, because Han was the one who brought them the Corellian Rebels' proposal in the first place.
  • Old Flame Fizzle: Han rekindles things with Bria in Rebel Dawn. She had left him in The Paradise Snare, but both retained their feelings for each other. However, it doesn't last since she betrayed him along with the smugglers he recruited to her cause, with Han ending things for good.
  • Orbital Bombardment: The Imperial Moff running the sector orders a Base Delta Zero (total destruction operation) against Nar Shaddaa in The Hutt Gambit. The Hutts buy off the admiral in charge, who is separately ordered by Coruscant to withdraw at his earliest convenience to make the Moff look bad. Vader Force-chokes the admiral to death, ostensibly for accepting the bribe, to cover up the shady goings-on.
  • Parental Abandonment: Something happened with Han's parents, so he ended up a street urchin, but he never learns exactly what. Most likely they're dead.
  • Parental Substitute: Dewlanna, who watches over Han growing up on the Trader's Luck, and sacrifices her life to help him escape.
  • Pay Evil unto Evil: Rebel Dawn has a sequence where Hutt assassins commit a series of brutal murders with all kinds of methods ranging from blasters to poison to arson to stringing sharp wire across a path several priests will run. However, their targets are priests for the Scam Religion that had been grooming slaves for decades, so the reader is unlikely to feel much sympathy.
  • Pet the Dog: One of the only times hotheaded slaver Durga shows any real consideration for someone besides his beloved parent Aruk is when he sends a ship to pick up the henchmen who survived the Battle of Ylesia and are requesting to be rescued from the planet.
  • Pirate Girl: Drea Renthal is the leader of a small pirate fleet. She's a big, strong women whom all her crew members obey without question. Once she also accepts hiring to fight the Empire on behalf of the Hutts as well.
  • Planet of Hats:
    • The Hutts are basically an entire species of gangsters, with every Hutt clan also running a criminal syndicate. We never see or hear of a single one who isn't like this. "Kajidic" is the word for their guiding philosophy, loosely translated as "Somebody's got to have it, why not us?" and also used for both their clans or syndicates. Their entire culture literally revolves around engaging in organized crime.
    • Wookies and male Togorians all follow a strict code of honor, plus being fearsome warriors (the female Togorians have a separate culture of being more the intellectual types, which they also strictly abide by). Pretty standard for Star Wars works, admittedly.
  • Plot Hole: In the first book, Teroenza thinks of how he made up the Ylesian religion. However, in the next book his boss Aruk does the same thing. That said, it's possible it was a combined effort and they simply refuse to credit the other.
  • Prequel: Leading up to when Han first meets Luke and Obi-Wan in A New Hope. Rebel Dawn ends about 30 seconds before he sits down in the cantina booth with them.
  • Private Military Contractors: Black Sun has several such companies under its control, and lends one to Durga in Rebel Dawn to protect Besadii's operation on Ylesia (the Hutts normally rely on Gamorreans and other guards who are essentially thugs, and far less effective) in return for thirty percent of the profits over five years. This makes liberating the slaves there far more difficult for the Corellian rebels and the smugglers which they enlisted.
  • Protagonist-Centered Morality: After learning his account's been frozen as Corellian Security has learned that he had deposited proceeds from selling stolen goods, Han takes the bank manager hostage before he can get arrested. This gets the man killed as he's shot when stormtroopers try to stop Han escaping. Yes, he didn't intend it, but it's probably the worst thing Han does in the trilogy. He never has to face any consequences for it either. This is just fine apparently, because he is the hero.
  • Proud Warrior Race Guy: The Wookies and male Togorians. Both strongly believe in a code of honor, but also are ferocious in war or the hunt. Wookies in particular will serve anyone who saved them from death. Both show great loyalty to their family or friends in general.
  • Psychic Strangle: Darth Vader executes Admiral Winstel Greelanx this way, supposedly for losing the battle, but actually because Greelanx has information that points to the fact that the Emperor set Shild up to fail in his attack on Nar Shaddaa (he received an order to deliberately throw the battle), and they want to make sure he doesn't piece it together or blab to someone who would.
  • Recovered Addict: By the time she's shown again in the books, Bria had recovered from her addiction to Exultation and become a Rebel.
  • Redheads Are Ravishing: Bria, Han's first girlfriend in the books, is a beautiful young woman with red-gold hair. It's one of the main features about her he initially is attracted by, and many other men also find her beautiful partly because of it. Bria's well aware of this, which comes in handy when she works as a Rebel spy, but on the other hand it's too noticeable at times, so that she has to cover her hair with a wig or dye it when undercover.
  • Releasing from the Promise: Defied.
    • Han tries to do this, saying he won't hold Chewie to his life debt, but Chewie tells him he doesn't have the right to. Later Han relents after Chewie saves his life in a bar fight.
    • Notably, this comes up again later, after Chewbacca's marriage—Han doesn't try to release him so much as just assume that this means he's been released, as his new duties would obviously take precedence over a life debt. This causes a minor meltdown from Chewie's new wife, who takes it as an insult to her husband that Han would think he'd abandon his life debt. He quickly apologizes for the misunderstanding.
  • Retirony: Subverted—in the lead-up to the Battle of Nar Shaddaa, Roa announces that he's ready to retire and settle down with the woman he loves, and intends to do so after the battle. And indeed, despite getting shot down and narrowly escaping the wreckage before his fighter explodes, he recovers from his injuries, marries Lwyll and gets an honest job running Lando's used spaceship lot. Given that he'd already appeared in the later story Han Solo's Revenge though, it was kind of a given.
  • Rich Boredom: Bria came from a very wealthy family on Corellia, and felt empty with her life of luxury. After Bria had attended a Ylesian service and experienced the Exultation, she ran away to become a Pilgrim on Ylesia. However, the entire faith turned out to be a scam for enslaving people.
  • Running Gag: Anytime Kibbick the Hutt is mentioned, it is pointed out that he is an idiot.
  • Scam Religion: The t'landa Til males can produce a state of complete pleasure in a person. This state of pleasure is highly addictive. Normally it is used to attract t'landa Til females, but instead the self-appointed clergy use it to lure their victims to Ylesia. They go from planet to planet and recruit people. People who have experienced it and are not strong enough to resist it are drawn into it and become addicted. The pilgrims become slaves in the Ylesian spice factories. The "Exultation" is a major part of their day, when the pilgrims get their daily fix. These poor slaves are completely brainwashed and cannot live without their drug. The faux religion that the t'landa Til have established is just a ploy to get free slaves and spice. The whole operation is owned by the Hutts. When the slaves are brainwashed and become dependent enough, they get shipped off to the spice mines of Kessel or sold as sex slaves to a brothel if they're good-looking.
  • Screw the Rules, They Broke Them First!: Muuurgh feels duty-bound to keep his contract with the Hutts, as he gave his word of honor. When it's revealed they got this under false pretenses however, lying about seeing his mate Mrrov (she'd been there on Ylesia the whole time) Muuurgh instantly declares the contract void, having agreed earlier that an agreement made with a liar didn't count. He then helps Han rescue her along with Bria.
  • Series Continuity Error: Some details of this series contradict earlier Legends material that was set later in the timeline.
    • "The Last One Standing: The Tale of Boba Fett" depicted Han reflecting about his dead parents, wondering if they'd be proud of him. In this trilogy it's established he's unable to remember who they were.
    • The Callista Trilogy stated that Hutt kajidic (clan) names are not disclosed to outsiders. In this trilogy the names of the kajidics and which Hutts belong to them are common knowledge.
  • Sexy Discretion Shot: Just as Han is about to have sex with Bria and later Xaverri, their scenes end.
  • Sex Slave: This is the fate of the attractive Ylesian Pilgrims after a year. Han realizes Bria will end up this way if he doesn't do something, and it spurs him to run away with her.
  • She Cleans Up Nicely: Bria looks much better when no longer in her bulky Pilgrim robes, as Han enthusiastically compliments her on.
  • Shoot the Messenger: Discussed and averted. Han feels nervous about being messengers to Jiliac from Zavval, when the former might take out his displeasure about the message on them. Jalus reassures him the Hutts all agreed not to do this, however, because it caused them loss of profit from a breakdown in communication, and he's right, as Jiliac doesn't harm either one, just sends them back with a blistering retort.
  • Shout-Out: One of Han's aliases is "Jenos Idanian", an anagram for the other most famous movie hero portrayed by Harrison Ford.
  • Slave Liberation: Han helps Bria and Mrrov escape from Ylesia along with Muuurgh. Later he helps Chewie escape rather than be shot for resisting an overseer's cruelty. Bria and her unit Red Hand Squadron later run many missions against the Ylesian slavers to free the Pilgrims who unknowingly have been enslaved and are sent off-planet for sale. She eventually organizes a plan to end the entire thing with a massive attack on the planet.
  • Slave Race: The Wookies have been declared slaves by the Empire for use of their great physical strength and technical skills. However, many still remain free on their home world. This is how Chewie met Han, as the latter rescued him from being shot by an overseer.
  • Slavery Is a Special Kind of Evil: A view shared by the protagonists throughout the series. Han runs away from his first job as a pilot for the Besadii Hutts when he discovers that their main business is slavery (freeing a slave he'd fallen in love with in the process); later he's cashiered from the Imperial Navy after freeing another slave from his brutal Imperial taskmaster (Chewbacca, who escapes to pledge Han a life debt for it); and specifically only accepts a job smuggling for Jabba after he's made it clear that he will never transport slaves for him. Bria and Chewbacca, being former slaves themselves, naturally share this outlook which is a big part of the reason Bria joins the Rebellion, but contempt for slavery is widespread even beyond that—Lando's way of expressing contempt for bounty hunters, for instance, is that they're "on a level with slavers." Given that the protagonists and their friends are all drug smugglers, con artists, and other "scoundrels," this is arguably a case of Even Evil Has Standards. Even Boba Fett feels this way, though it didn't stop him working for slavers, or taking a bounty on Bria for freeing them.
  • Slut-Shaming: Han calls Bria a lowest-level streetwalker in Rodian when he's mad at her, based on her past (fake) relationship with a Moff. She's so appalled at this that Bria's driven to tears and nearly draws down on him. Note too that she wasn't actually promiscuous at all—the accusation was enough.
  • The So-Called Coward: Lando, being primarily a gambler, con man, and ladies' man, occasionally gets this treatment from those who don't know better. Boba Fett is genuinely shocked when Lando, offered a chance to escape him, refuses to take it unless his other prisoner, Bria Tharen, is also released.
  • Sound-Only Death: Vader Force-choking Greelanx for taking a bribe and throwing the battle of Nar Shaddaa. Han listens to it while hidden in a nearby closet.
  • Space Pirates: Recurring throughout the trilogy. In The Paradise Snare, some of them are hired by Desilijic to attack Besadii spice shipments, with Han barely escaping one of the raids. In The Hutt Gambit, some are hired by Besadii to kill Jabba on his yacht, which Han (who's commanding it) foils. Also a pirate fleet commanded by Drea Renthal is hired by the Hutts to defend Nal Hutta from Imperial attack, siding with the smugglers fighting them near Nar Shaddaa. In Rebel Dawn, the same fleet attacks a star liner carrying Boba Fett and his captives, Lando and Bria: because of her past relationship with Lando, she pressures Fett into releasing them. Also most smugglers are basically pirates themselves according to Lando.
  • The Starscream:
    • Teroenza, towards the Besadii clan. Not at first, but being unappreciated by his superiors, having an idiot as his immediate boss, being frustrated in his desire for revenge against Han Solo, and realizing that he can run the Ylesia operation perfectly well without oversight leads him to become this: when Desilijic offers him a chance to turn on Aruk, he jumps at the offer.
    • Sarn Shild, the Imperial governor of the sector including Hutt space, is this towards Emperor Palpatine, dreaming of breaking the Outer Rim off from the Empire to become an independent nation, and possibly even then going on to conquer the rest of the galaxy. Unfortunately, Palpatine is aware of his ambition (and may even be using the Force to encourage it) and sets him up for a fall.
  • Starship Luxurious: The Queen of Empire, a two-kilometer long cruise ship, is the epitome of luxury. It was raided by pirates.
  • Start of Darkness: Mako Spince is a pretty likable character here. In fact, he's one of the heroes of the story. In the third book, however, he gets captured by Space Pirates, tortured, and crippled for life. When Han and Lando visit him, he refuses to speak to them and makes it clear by his body language that he wants them to leave. When he next encounters Han years later in Dark Empire, he sells his old friend out to the Empire. Not because he's under any pressure to do so as Lando was in The Empire Strikes Back, but just for credits.
  • Street Urchin: Han's earliest memories were being on the street as a child by himself, with no clear memory of his past, begging to survive. Garris Shrike then "rescued" Han, though it turns out he has former street kids beg, con or pickpocket for him. Many more children who used to be homeless lived there with Han on Shrike's ship, the Trader's Luck. Later, when he's left all of that behind, Han meets one Jarik Solo, a supposed Long-Lost Relative who it turns out also had been a street kid. Han learns he isn't his relative, but feels very sympathetic with poor Jarik as a result of his own past, letting it slide and keep the name as he knows much he's got to desire a family. Jarik becomes as good as family to him after this.
  • Stupid Evil: The Empire during the events of the books as it becomes increasingly repressive. As Han reflects, tax people to death paying for your war machine, then massacre them just for peacefully protesting this, and naturally many will find armed revolt is the only option (plus Imperial officers that retain a conscience will defect—or in the case of an old friend Han knew in the Academy, his own family had been massacred in one such atrocity).
  • Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: Someone isn't going to kick an addiction overnight. Nor are they going to just get over the issues which led them into getting addicted under a cult starting out. Unfortunately, this means Bria and Han's first affair is doomed to fail.
  • The Syndicate: Black Sun is an interstellar criminal organization so powerful it even has entire mercenary companies in its employ. The Hutt kajidics are this on a smaller scale, and even they fear Black Sun (before Durga, none were dumb enough to get into bed with them however).
  • The Teetotaler: Bria is revealed to not drink as she's afraid she'll like it too much. Having been addicted to something before, she's afraid the same thing might happen again.
  • Telepathy: Glitterstim temporarily gives users this ability. Bria uses some to reveal that Teroenza, the High Priest of her religion, really is just a con artist who made the entire thing up.
  • Their First Time: It is heavily implied that Bria and Han have sex on the Togorian beach for the first time.
  • Thieves' Cant: "Trader talk." A sort of dialect that mixes multiple languages together and is very heavy on colloquialisms and You No Take Candle. Han uses it to speak with Jalus Nebl, a fellow pilot for the Ylesian operation, when he wants to make sure their bosses can't understand.
  • Third-Party Deal Breaker: In Rebel Dawn, Han is running a spice shipment for Jabba the Hutt when he spots an Imperial patrol ship. He dumps his cargo in space to avoid being caught with it when the Imps board, even making a note of the coordinates so he can come back later to get it, but when he returns, it's not there. This motivates Han to join Bria's Rebel cell in attacking and looting the Ylesia spice operation to get the money to pay Jabba for the lost cargo, but Bria double-crosses the smugglers under orders from the Rebel Alliance leadership, who just learned of the Death Star and want the money to fund military operations against it. This leads to Jabba putting a price on Han's head, leading into A New Hope.
  • Third-Person Person:
    • Muuurgh refers to himself this way at first, before Han helps him learn the use of the personal pronoun. Mrrov, however, doesn't do this, so it's probably just that Muuurgh is still learning the finer points of Basic.
    • Jalus Nebl does this in his own language.
  • Three Laws-Compliant: The R2 unit on the Ylesian Dream where Han stows away. It has to safeguard the life of a sentient being, and he shows the course will be too long for him to survive on the available oxygen. However, this conflicts with a restraining bolt it has preventing a course change, until he removes the device.
  • Thrown Out the Airlock: Someone used this method to kill themselves in Han's childhood.
  • Token Minority: Lando, Salla and one Alderaanian cop are the only black Humans in the books. Xaverri might be darker than white as well, though it's unclear.
  • Tomboyish Voice: Bria is described as having a surprisingly low tone to her voice, sounding husky when singing once. She ends up being a crack Rebel commando and spy (she's undercover as a lounge singer when she sings).
  • Tribe of Priests: All clergy in the One and the All faith are males of the t'landa Til species. In fact, many Pilgrims don't even seem to know their species' name, and just call them "Priests". This is because only males of their kind are capable of the Exultation the faith is built around—it's really a mating call to t'landa Til females that also has a very pleasurable effect on other beings too, with the whole religion being a scam.
  • Truly Single Parent: Hutts, being hermaphrodites capable of asexual reproduction, often are this. Their children refer to them as simply "my parent" in this case, rather than "mother" or "father" (Hutts will also switch gender identities during pregnancy, so this makes sense).
  • Universal Universe Time: Coruscant provides "Galactic Standard Time" with other planets' days etc. given in its units. However, the local time is also provided. In any case, Han finds it difficult to adjust while on a planet whose day is only ten "standard hours" long (far less than his home world, apparently).
  • Upper-Class Twit: Played straight with Bria's mother and brother. Once Han returns Bria to her family, as soon as they discover he hasn't been entirely honest about his past, they report him to the police. Subverted with Bria's father, who opposes this and actually gives Han a generous loan to help him on his way, and with Bria herself. It's implied that the father being a Self-Made Man who also started out as a lowly pilot has a lot to do with his being sympathetic towards Han, and just generally less of an all-around snob. He also had a somewhat checkered past too, according to Bria, explaining his sympathy for Han.
  • Uptown Girl: Han learns Bria is from a very wealthy family when they go visit them, to his annoyance (she didn't tell him from unease around her past). Almost at once her mother and brother make their disapproval of him very clear, due to being working class. His criminal past makes this even worse (her father is more understanding, as a Self-Made Man who worked his way up and had a checkered life himself for a while). They run away together after the police get on his tail, but she leaves him due to still struggling over an addiction. When the pair get together again years later, Bria's in the Rebellion, having given up her rich existence, but things still don't work out as she double-crosses Han over money for her cause.
  • Utopia: Alderaan has no pollution, little crime and no wars. Han is very dubious that it's true at first on being told this. However, after unsuccessfully trying to sell his glitterstim cargo there with no luck (as there isn't a market for narcotics on Alderaan) he admits it really is the case. Despite having little crime though, the police still exist, as Han is discovered trying to sell his cargo by an Alderaanian undercover cop and warned off.
  • Villainous Rescue: In Rebel Dawn, Han and Bria are about to be shot by High Priest Teroenza, who's their old enemy. He's then shot himself by Boba Fett, though not to protect them-he was collecting a bounty on Teroenza, and this was a happy coincidence.
  • Vow of Celibacy:
    • Bria took such a vow as a Pilgrim on Ylesia, which means she's upset when Han kisses her and they have a mutual attraction. She also later tries to use this when Ganar Tos is having Teroenza marry them but the latter simply waves this aside by releasing her from it. After she's escaped with Han, having already learned that their religion was fake, Bria naturally no longer feels bound by this, and the pair have sex.
    • Soon after arriving on Nar Shaddaa for the first time in The Hutt Gambit, Han gets propositioned by an old Twi'lek woman and claims to have taken a vow of abstinence to get her off his back. She just looks amused.
  • Warm-Up Boss: Bria Tharen intends the Ylesian operation to be this. She argues for her and her troops to be sent in to liberate it, partly for ideological reasons and partly in the hopes of recruiting some of the pilgrims, but also because many of her troops are still inexperienced and need to test themselves in real combat before taking on an enemy as deadly as the Empire. Unfortunately, Durga had already anticipated this and buffed up Ylesia's defenses by getting Xizor to send a private military firm to secure the place. The Rebels still win the battle, but it's bloodier than expected.
  • Wave-Motion Gun: According to these novels, blasters have an Overload setting, which allows them to destroy vehicles, but carries the risk of the weapon exploding. The same setting also allows them to be used as grenades in a pinch.
  • Would Hurt a Child: Jabba, and not just any child, but his infant cousin. After his aunt is killed, Jabba kills the kid to insure his succession to leadership of their clan.
  • Wrench Wench: Salla Zend is a very skilled female mechanic on Nar Shaddaa, whom Han meets when he needs to get his ship repaired (her boss owns a repair lot). Prior to that she had worked as a ship's engineer.
  • Wretched Hive: Par for the course in Star Wars. The one we see the most is Nar Shaddaa, the "smugglers' moon" orbiting the homeworld of the Hutts, where Han and most of the other smugglers employed by them make their home. Zigzagged as although there's only one government official on the planet (he does basically nothing) nearly all of its inhabitants are criminals and the lawless areas definitely do exist, there's also plenty of people who live or work on the planet fairly comfortably. It likely helps that the crime is mostly organized, and they wouldn't tolerate too many street crimes cutting into their profits.
  • You Are Number 6: All Pilgrims have their names replaced with numbers (Bria's is 921). She says it's because they give their names up to serve the One and the All wholly, but no doubt it helps break them down further so they can be fully taken in by the cult's indoctrination.
  • You Killed My Father: After he finds out that Jiliac is the one who had Aruk (his parent) killed, Durga challenges her to a duel. He manages to kill her, narrowly.

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