History Literature / TheHanSoloTrilogy

* CanonMarchesOn: 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universe, the 2010s movies ultimately knocked this series out of canon: the end of Bria's arc in ''Rebel Dawn'' was superseded by ''Film/RogueOne'' before the entire series was rendered non-canonical by the release of ''Film/{{Solo}}''.
** Even before that, at one point, narrative text identifies Boba Fett as having been born Jaster Mereel (as had been established in ''Literature/TalesOfTheBountyHunters'' and generally accepted as his background at the time). The trilogy was published just a few years prior to ''Film/AttackOfTheClones'' establishing Boba as a clone of Jango Fett, with later material such as ''VideoGame/StarWarsBountyHunter'' establishing Jaster as Jango's mentor.

* CanonMarchesOn: 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universe, the 2010s movies ultimately knocked this series out of canon: the end of Bria's arc in ''Rebel Dawn'' was superceded by ''Film/RogueOne'' before the entire series was rendered non-canonical by the release of ''Film/{{Solo}}''.

* ContinuitySnarl:
** Han can't remember who his parents are or what happened to them here. ''Literature/TalesOfTheBountyHunters'' has him briefly muse about whether they would be proud of him, with every indication he remembers them, and says they died early in his life.
** Spice was also stated as illegal there, though in these books it isn't, but the legal price is so high it's often smuggled for profit on the black market.
** Bria, while undercover in the Imperial forces on Corelia, mentally reflects how the Empire is expanding its presence there and worries about them sending a Moff. However, in other Legends material its stated the Corellian system did have a Moff, Fliry Vorru, who had been Corellia's governor since the Republic era and received this post after the Empire was declared.

Similarly, Crispin set ''Literature/TheLandoCalrissianAdventures'' during and after ''The Hutt Gambit''; Han meets Lando just before those stories begin.

* CanonMarchesOn: Like much of the Star Wars expanded universe, this series was rendered non-canonical by those movies within the series released in the 2010s: the end of Bria's arc in ''Rebel Dawn'' was superceded by ''Film/RogueOne'' before the entire series was rendered non-canonical by the release of ''Film/{{Solo}}''.

** 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, [[HoistByHisOwnPetard with the same drug]] and frees Han.

* EyeScream: Mrrov loses an eye during the Battle of Ylesia. Han's dismayed, though, Muuurgh says they consider this a badge of honor.

** 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'' [[UpToEleven literally revolves around engaging in organized crime]].

* SpacePirates: 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'', 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: [[spoiler:because of her past relationship with Lando, she pressures Fett into releasing them]]. Also most smugglers are basically pirates themselves according to Lando.

* FeudingFamilies: Desilijic and Besadii, the two most powerful Hutt clans/crime families.

* DistressedDude: Lando is captured by Boba Fett when he's come to capture Bria. The ship they're on is then 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.

* BiggerWithAge

* MyBelovedSmother: 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 fiancee had cheated and broke up with 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).

* StupidEvil: 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).

* ContrivedCoincidence: 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.

* LongLived: Hutts frequently live to a millennium or so. 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.

* BizarreAlienSexes: Hutts, like slugs (their closest real-world equivalent, which is also used as an insult for them), are all [[https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Slug#Reproduction hermaphrodites]], with both male and female sex organs. While pregnant 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).

* BilingualDialogue: 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.

* BadGuysDoTheDirtyWork: How [[spoiler: Garris Shrike]] meets his end. [[spoiler: an 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.]]

** Bria is a ClassicalAntiHero in ''The Paradise Snare'' (held in slavery by addiction and only able to escape because of Han) and progresses to an UnscrupulousHero in the early Rebellion, where even by the standards of an insurgent group her methods are harsh. Her combat unit calls itself the Red Hand, symbolising that they [[TakeNoPrisoners give no quarter]] to slavers.

* AffablyEvil: 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 humanoid females. Perhaps this is because Jabba is indeed ruthless, but also ''fair'' in his dealings with his underlings. (But then, as indicated by ''A New Hope'', Han and Jabba's relationship goes sour...)

* AffablyEvil: 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 humanoid females. Perhaps this is because Jabba is indeed ruthless, but also ''fair'' in his dealings with his underlings.

** Bria is a ClassicalAntiHero in ''The Paradise Snare'' (held in slavery by addiction and only able to escape because of Han) and progresses to an UnscrupulousHero in the early Rebellion, where even by the standards of an insurgent group her methods are harsh.

* BadGuysDoTheDirtyWork: How [[spoiler: Garris Shrike]] meets his end. [[spoiler: 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.]]

** 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,[[labelnote:*]]Though Shild doesn't know this, Palpatine intentionally set him up to fail.[[/labelnote]] it's very likely that Shild was right.

* BilingualDialogue: 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 shryiiwook too). Han also had this earlier with Jalus Nebl, a Sullustan.

* BizarreAlienSexes: Hutts, like slugs (their closest real-world equivalent, which is also used as an insult for them), are all [[https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Slug#Reproduction hermaphrodites]], with both male and female sex organs. After reproducing 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).

* BlueAndOrangeMorality: 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.

* {{Brainwashed}}: Ylesian Pilgrims undergo brainwashing into the scam One and the All cult through them combining Exultation (a highly addictive sensation they receive from the priests that is claimed to have a divine source) with a diet which leaves them always malnourished, thus more malleable than usual.
* CallBack: The books have references to a lot of earlier details from other ''Star Wars'' works, even ones [[FanonDiscontinuity most fans preferred ignored]], like [[Literature/TheGloveOfDarthVader Jabba's father being Zorba]], who had been put into prison on a planet called "Kyp".

** Emperor Palpatine (as usual), [[spoiler: 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 [[YouHaveFailedMe for his failure]] but really because as part of the gambit, he had been ordered to deliberately throw the battle and [[HeKnowsTooMuch they want to make sure he never tells anyone else that part.]]]]
** Xizor, even more so: [[spoiler: 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]].

** 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.

* IGaveMyWord: 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 [[spoiler:she had died]] because of a promise he would do this.

* InterruptedSuicide: 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 pulled her back.

** 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 first Han finds this annoying, he slowly warms up to him and then the pair grow into friends (later HeterosexualLifePartners).

* LongLived: Hutts frequently live to a millennia or so. 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.

* MadOracle: 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 [[spoiler:(Bria in ''Rebel Dawn''; Lando in ''Film/TheEmpireStrikesBack''; Mako in ''ComicBook/DarkEmpire''; Zeen, Kid [=DXo'ln=], Wynni and Ana Blue in ''Literature/TheNewRebellion''; and finally his own son in ''Literature/LegacyOfTheForce''. 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. [[spoiler: 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.]]
* MadeASlave: 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).

* MulticulturalAlienPlanet: Though the usual PlanetOfHats 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 also 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.

** ''Rebel Dawn'' also provides an explanation for the Noodle Incident mentioned in ''Film/TheEmpireStrikesBack'' (where Lando appears furious at Han when they meet again over "what you pulled"). [[spoiler: 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.]]

* PlanetOfHats: 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'' [[UpToEleven literally revolved 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.

* WouldHurtAChild: Jabba, and not just any child, but his infant ''cousin''.