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star wars - What type of Captain is Han Solo?



In A New Hope, Han introduces himself as the captain of the Millennium Falcon. In The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi, many also refer to him as "Captain Solo", including various Rebels (Luke, Zev Senesca), droids (C-3PO), Imperials (Darth Vader), and others (Boba Fett, Jabba). Is there a definitive source on whether this was his military rank in the Alliance, or just in reference to his being captain of the Millennium Falcon?


Searching for "captain" in the TESB and ROTJ scripts is inconclusive; the script refers to him as a "star captain" at one point in ROTJ, but no one refers to him as "Captain" after he becomes a General.


I know that he does at least have the title of Captain for his ownership of the Falcon, but I'm asking because I've seen trivia questions like "Q: what was Han Solo's rank in the Rebellion in TESB; A: Captain" (and other questions like this), so it would be nice to have a canon (or formerly canon) source to give an answer one way or the other. The starwars.com databank entry just says he was "promoted to general", and presumably he'd have to have some sort of rank beforehand for it to be a "promotion".



Answer



From the Return of the Jedi novelization: (credit to Valorum)



Madine called out: “General Solo, is your strike team assembled?”


Leia looked up at Han, shock quickly melting to joyous admiration. She knew there was a reason she loved him—in spite of his usual crass insensitivity and oafish bravado. Beneath it all, he had heart.


Moreover, a change had come over him since he emerged from carbonization. He wasn’t just a loner anymore, only in this for the money. He had lost his selfish edge and had somehow, subtly, become part of the whole. He was actually doing something for someone else, now, and that fact moved Leia greatly. Madine had called him General; that meant Han had let himself officially become a member of the army. A part of the whole.




This tells that he wasn't officially part of the Rebel army before Return of the Jedi, and therefore, he must have just been the captain of the Falcon. Since film novelizations are part of the current canon unless otherwise stated, this is the most current answer we have so far.


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