Why didn't the Alliance pay off Solo's Debt

Stravo · Post by **Stravo** » 2004-09-16 01:42pm

At the end of ANH its obvious they paid Han for his services in rescuing the Princess. He's packing the money away as Luke is leaving. So why couldn't he just fly out to Tatooine after the Battle of Yavin and pay Jabba off? And if Han was indeed as valuable as Leia and Reikeen thought in ESB why didn't the Alliance simply pay off his debt. Or hell, a rebel assault force sweeps in, assualts Jabba's palace and are off Tatooine before the Imperials can react.

Bertie Wooster · Post by **Bertie Wooster** » 2004-09-16 01:53pm

Maybe it was because the debt was for criminal activity(spice smuggling) and the Alliance couldn't allow itself to have monetary ties with organized crime for the purpose of having a mantle of legitimacy in its opposition to the Empire.

Also, there may be a rule in the Rebel Alliance that it will not pay off previous crime debts of any of it's operatives, officers, or privateers prior to their involvement with the Rebel Alliance to prevent criminals in debt from joining the Rebels and making a name for themselves just to get their debts payed off, and once payed off, returning to crime.

Imperial Overlord · Post by **Imperial Overlord** » 2004-09-16 01:56pm

The deal was for enough to pay Jabba. My guess is that Solo got caught up with evacuating Yavin and other rebel affairs and by the time he felt free to leave and pay Jabba (who was close to the end of his patience with Solo), the Hutt was pissed and had set the bounty.

Typhonis 1 · Post by **Typhonis 1** » 2004-09-16 01:56pm

Wasnt that what Han was gpoing to use his reward for???

Bertie Wooster · Post by **Bertie Wooster** » 2004-09-16 01:58pm

I had assumed that Han had given the money back to the Rebels when he joined them.

Lord Poe · Post by **Lord Poe** » 2004-09-16 02:01pm

Solo wouldn't give that money back under any circumstances. As the EU tells it, he was intercepted by Crimson Jack once he left Y4 and the money was taken.

Also, Admiral Ackbar hates smugglers, so I doubt they'd pay off Jabba.

Mark S · Post by **Mark S** » 2004-09-16 02:08pm

He told Jabba he had the money but just got a little side tracked. Maybe that was true. Maybe Imperial Overlord is right and he got caught up in rebel affairs too much to make the pay off before ESB. At the beginning, when he was leaving, he seemed to think he still had time to pay off the debt.

As for a rebel assault on Jabba, Liea threated him, saying they had powerful friends blah blah blah, and Jabba didn't seem to care. Perhaps he had a large enough force to be able to defend against that kind of attack. Hired army, shields around the palace, that sort of thing.

Then again, maybe Han really wasn't worth that much to the rebellion. The general sayed he hated to see him go, but he wasn't begging him to stay or anything. Either Reikeen is just pragmatic or he was saying something he says to everyone who has to leave. If I was him I'd hate to see anyone go.

Kurgan · Post by **Kurgan** » 2004-09-16 02:12pm

Fascinating. Not as perplexing a question as to why the Republic didn't buy back Anakin's mom, but yeah.. ; )

At least the Rebels could always argue they were strapped for cash. But c'mon, "a death mark's not an easy thing to live with" and Han did ensure the Death Star's destruction by saving Luke's ass (*edit* twice).

Stravo · Post by **Stravo** » 2004-09-16 02:18pm

I do believe that Han's debt was something on the order of 10,000 credits since that's what he demanded of Obi Wan and Luke in ANH (All in advance). Luke states that they can almost buy their own ship for that. The Alliance has thousands of ships. They could have spared 10,000 credits if they really needed to. And what about Leia, as royalty doesn't she have access to funds?

Imperial Overlord · Post by **Imperial Overlord** » 2004-09-16 02:20pm

Her planet go blown up and she's a traitor to the Empire. I doubt she has much in the way of assets left.

Stravo · Post by **Stravo** » 2004-09-16 02:25pm

Imperial Overlord wrote:Her planet go blown up and she's a traitor to the Empire. I doubt she has much in the way of assets left.

One of the first things she should have done when entering this conspiracy against the Empire is move some of her assets around so that she can create secret slush funds on other worlds under other identities. I know there was no way anyone could foresee her world being destroyed but she certainly could imagine being captured, or her father being captured or her being on the run. Then again knowing the type of person she is, she was probably funnelling everything she had into the Alliance.

Imperial Overlord · Post by **Imperial Overlord** » 2004-09-16 02:38pm

She seemed pretty confident that her status as a senator would protect her. And any slush funds she set up may have been Alliance ones as oppossed to personal ones.

neoolong · Post by **neoolong** » 2004-09-16 04:46pm

Did time run out maybe? By the time Solo got around to getting some more money together and visiting Jabba, Jabba might have been fed up and placed the bounty on Solo.

Enforcer Talen · Post by **Enforcer Talen** » 2004-09-16 04:56pm

Stravo wrote:I do believe that Han's debt was something on the order of 10,000 credits since that's what he demanded of Obi Wan and Luke in ANH (All in advance). Luke states that they can almost buy their own ship for that. The Alliance has thousands of ships. They could have spared 10,000 credits if they really needed to. And what about Leia, as royalty doesn't she have access to funds?

WEG also suggests jabba billed him for the bounty hunters, boba fett, loss of services in greedo, loss of services from han while he was on the run based on his last performance cycle, plus loan shark interest. it broke a quarter million.

is it canon? I dunno. tis something jabba would do tho.

Enforcer Talen · Post by **Enforcer Talen** » 2004-09-16 04:57pm

neoolong wrote:Did time run out maybe? By the time Solo got around to getting some more money together and visiting Jabba, Jabba might have been fed up and placed the bounty on Solo.

in anh, he met jabba but still had a bounty. hence, greedo.

Imperial Overlord · Post by **Imperial Overlord** » 2004-09-16 04:58pm

I said pretty much the same thing and then

Lord Poe said

Solo wouldn't give that money back under any circumstances. As the EU tells it, he was intercepted by Crimson Jack once he left Y4 and the money was taken.

Also, Admiral Ackbar hates smugglers, so I doubt they'd pay off Jabba.

Try reading the thread.

[/b]

neoolong · Post by **neoolong** » 2004-09-16 05:05pm

Enforcer Talen wrote:
neoolong wrote:Did time run out maybe? By the time Solo got around to getting some more money together and visiting Jabba, Jabba might have been fed up and placed the bounty on Solo.
in anh, he met jabba but still had a bounty. hence, greedo.

During the inserted scene with Jabba in the hanger, didn't Jabba give him some more time?

I meant that time ran out from the extra time Jabba gave him.

Techno_Union · Post by **Techno_Union** » 2004-09-16 05:36pm

What about all of them being in the Rebellion and they themselves probably having prices on their heads? Why pay one man's troubles and not everyone's?

About Lea, I would think that any open funds that had to do with her and Alderaan would have been siezed. No doubt she had others which were hidden, but she would spend them on the alliance before herself or Han.

Or hey, mabye they were already planning RotJ and killing Jabba, no need to pay off a man whose gonna be dead in a month or two.

Drooling Iguana · Post by **Drooling Iguana** » 2004-09-16 07:47pm

Bertie Wooster wrote:I had assumed that Han had given the money back to the Rebels when he joined them.

According to the novelizations, Han didn't officially join the Rebellion until he agreed to lead the assault on the Endor shield generator. Before that he'd just sort of hung around with Leia and co. in a freelance capacity.

Enforcer Talen wrote:
Stravo wrote:I do believe that Han's debt was something on the order of 10,000 credits since that's what he demanded of Obi Wan and Luke in ANH (All in advance). Luke states that they can almost buy their own ship for that. The Alliance has thousands of ships. They could have spared 10,000 credits if they really needed to. And what about Leia, as royalty doesn't she have access to funds?
WEG also suggests jabba billed him for the bounty hunters, boba fett, loss of services in greedo, loss of services from han while he was on the run based on his last performance cycle, plus loan shark interest. it broke a quarter million.

is it canon? I dunno. tis something jabba would do tho.

And Han offered to pay Jabba triple. He must've come into some serious cash between ANH and ROTJ.

Elheru Aran · Post by **Elheru Aran** » 2004-09-16 07:59pm

Drooling Iguana wrote:
Enforcer Talen wrote: WEG also suggests jabba billed him for the bounty hunters, boba fett, loss of services in greedo, loss of services from han while he was on the run based on his last performance cycle, plus loan shark interest. it broke a quarter million.

is it canon? I dunno. tis something jabba would do tho.
And Han offered to pay Jabba triple. He must've come into some serious cash between ANH and ROTJ.

Actually, i don't think so... it sounded more to me like he was bullshitting his ass off in order to avoid whatever punishment Jabba had in mind. If he HAD money, I wouldn't have put it past Jabba to have checked into that very eventuality (him having money). To be sure, Jabba's a lugnut, but he's not as stupid a lugnut as some paint him...

Imperial Overlord · Post by **Imperial Overlord** » 2004-09-16 08:05pm

Han might not have formally been a member of the Rebellion until RotJ, but his conversation with General Riekan in ESB shows that they valued him highly.

JME2 · Post by **JME2** » 2004-09-16 08:51pm

Imperial Overlord wrote:She seemed pretty confident that her status as a senator would protect her. And any slush funds she set up may have been Alliance ones as oppossed to personal ones.

She did have a slush fund in SOTE that Luke and Lando used during their mission to Coruscant; Luke states that Leia only used it for emergency ocassions. It's likely she didn't pay back Solo because she really didn't know him at that point in time.

Plus, who would want to give a refund to a smuggler who manages to get paid and then lose it just as he gets to Tatooine?

Knife · Post by **Knife** » 2004-09-16 08:54pm

I always thought he used his cash to fix up the Falcon from the ANH version to the ESB version

Imperial Overlord · Post by **Imperial Overlord** » 2004-09-16 09:01pm

Was it a Rebel fund (she was involved in Rebel intell operations) or a personal one?

Elfdart · Post by **Elfdart** » 2004-09-16 09:25pm

I thought he wasted all his time trying to mack Leia and kept putting off settling with Jabba. He must have had the money to do it in TESB (pay Jabba, I mean), because he was about to leave to pay Jabba before Chewie took apart a piece of the Falcon, then Luke went missing, then the probe droid, then the AT-ATs, then the asteroids, then the fucked up hyperdrive, then being frozen into a giant Hershey Bar... So his "I got a little sidetracked" remark was quite an understatement, wasn't it?