Skip to main content

star wars - How did Han Solo meet Chewbacca?


And more precisely, how did Chewbacca come to owe life debt to Han Solo?


I'm also trying to find the first source that says Chewbacca owes a life debt to Solo. I thought it was from the movies, but I cannot find the exact quote.



Answer




To answer your second question first (first published mention of life debt):




  • The first mention of the idea that a debt exists is in Episode V (ESB), when the debt was extended to Leia (Han telling Chewie to now take care of her). This is open to argument, but I personally agree with the concept.




  • However, "life debt" as a term it isn't present in the SW movie trilogy.




  • The first explicit mention of the term is in Brian Daley's "Han Solo Adventures" book trilogy - but NOT in the context of his debt to Han!




    "What do we owe Badure?" Han hollered back. "He made a business offer, Chewie. " But he knew better. Wookiees will honor a Life-Debt over anything else; he'll never walk away from it, Han thought. Chewbacca growled another angry comment.





  • So far I wasn't able to find any mention of life debt as a term in Han/Chewie context that predates A.C. Crispin's [Han Solo trilogy] - see below.






The origin and details of the debt is from the books and mostly comics.




In short: Chewbacca was a slave under Empire (like many Wookiees) and Han saved his life from another Imperial officer (twice).


Among the reasons for that was that earlier in life another Wookiee (Dewlanna) saved Han's life at the cost of her own.


More details on SW Wikia:



Chewbacca often attempted freeing Wookiees slaves ... On one such endeavor, he became involved in a botched slave transfer between a Trandoshan crew and an Imperial commander Nyklas. Chewbacca orchestrated the escape of close to all of the slaves which consisted mostly of Wookiee children, but in the process had his ship come under fire by Imperial TIE Fighters led by Lieutenant Han Solo. Nyklas was infuriated at the loss of the Wookiee slaves and ordered Solo to kill the Wookiee (who had been rendered unconscious by the firefight). Solo refused, inciting Nyklas's fury, but the commander eventually calmed enough to realize Chewie's value as a slave. .


... Nyklas worked Chewie unmercifully, taking great pleasure in whipping the demoralized Wookiee. However, Nyklas did not count on any more interventions by Solo, and the young lieutenant saved Chewbacca from being whipped to death. The two escaped from Imperial influence with a small bounty on their heads, and Solo was drummed out of Imperial service.



Comments

Popular posts from this blog

futurama - How much time is lost in 'Time Keeps on Slippin''

In time Keeps on Slippin' , Farnsworth creates a basketball team which he matures by abusing Chronitons. This leads to time skipping forward by random, but ever increasing amounts. How much time was skipped in this way? Answer Unfortunately, I don't think a good estimate can be made for this, for two reasons: Many of the time skips move forward by an indeterminate amount of time. At one point, the Professor mentions localized regions of space skipping forward much more than others. We then see two young boys on the street below complaining about having to pay social security, only to suddenly become senior citizens and start complaining about wanting their money. Thus, each individual could have experienced a different amount of time skippage.

aliens - Interstellar Zoo story

I vaguely remember this story from my childhood: it was about an interstellar zoo that came to Earth with lots of bizarre and unusual species, and humans would file through and gape at all the crazy looking creatures from other planets. The twist came at the end when the perspective shifted to the other side of the bars and we discovered that the "creatures" were traveling through space on a kind of safari. They thought they were the visitors and we were the animals. Neither side knew that the other side thought they were the zoo creatures. Answer Got it. Zoo, by Edward D. Hoch. Published in 1958. Link to Publication History Link to PDF

harry potter - Did Dolores Umbridge Have Any Association with Voldemort (or Death Eaters) before His Return?

I noticed that Dolores Umbridge was born during the first Wizarding War, so it's very likely she wasn't a Death Eater then (but she is pretty evil -- who knows?). After that Voldemort was not around in a way that could affect many people, and most wouldn't know he was planning to rise again. During that time, and up through Voldemort's return (in Goblet of Fire ), did Umbridge have any connection with the Death Eaters or with Voldemort? Was she doing what she did on her own, or was it because of an association with Voldemort or his allies? Answer Dolores Umbridge was definitely not a good person. However, as Sirius points out, "the world isn't split into good people and Death Eaters". Remember that he also says that he doesn't believe Umbridge to be a Death Eater, but that she's evil enough (or something like that). I think there are two strong reasons to believe that: Umbridge was proud to do everything according to the law, except when she trie...

harry potter - What is the difference between Diffindo and Sectumsempra?

In the Harry Potter books, Diffindo is called the 'Severing Charm' and it’s most commonly used to cut ropes and the like. However, in the last book Hermione uses it on Ron but misses, creating a 'slash in his jeans' and his knee gets cut, causing him to 'roar in pain'. We've only seen Sectumsempra used once on screen when Harry directly uses it on Malfoy in the sixth book, but there it's mentioned that he is 'waving his wand wildly'. Wouldn't Diffindo, if used in such a fashion also cause a similar effect? Similarly, if it was able to cut Ron, it would also be able to, say, chop off an ear (George's)? In that case, how are these two spells different, except for Sectumsempra seemingly used exclusively to hurt humans? Answer While Diffindo and Sectumsempra both can be countered by other spells, Diffindo is far more easily countered. Reparo, a relatively common spell, can completely reverse its effect when used once. “He pulled the old cop...