I just realized that Han never knew that Luke got his hand chopped off while he was in carbonite and I don’t know which path I want to follow with this information:
1. Han seeing Luke’s injured hand after the sail barge battle and thinking that Luke has been a robot the whole time
2. Luke shaking his hand with a super-firm grip and Han just thinking “Wow this kid has gotten…absurdly strong.”
3. Luke just pulls off his hand one day and throws it at Han.
4. Luke picks up a spacechicken carcass and crushes it with his bare hand and Han is intimidated
5. Han says “It’s good to see you’re all right” and then Luke says “well, actually…” and pulls off his hand and Han falls over the back of his chair
6. Han says “It’s good to see you’re all right” and everyone gasps and Leia says “Too soon!” and Han is confused and they all just rag on him
7. Han needs a battery and Luke just opens up his hand and pulls out a battery and gives it to him and Han just stares
8. Luke reappears after a mission with all the synthflesh off and Han says “I thought it was easy but you LOST YOUR HAND?” and Luke just says “Oh, no, I lost this before Endor” and Han is hurt and betrayed.
9. Luke keeps making hand puns and limb puns and raising his right hand to high-five Han and Han just never gets it
10. Luke excitedly tells Han as they’re waiting to be taken to the Sarlacc because it’s been a whole year that he’s wanted to tell the guy.
This is all excellent, but I feel your missing a great opportunity, for Han “My Smart Pretty Mouth Has Gotten Me Slapped More Times Than I Can Count And I Can Count Pretty High” Solo, to be the one making all the “hey Luke could you give me a hand” jokes, because it helps Luke feel normal.
A lot of major shit changes between the time they flee Hoth and they finally reunite. And you can headcanon this before or after the Battle of Endor if you’d like, but Han notices far more than anyone really gives him credit for, and you can already see the title of Jedi weighing Luke down even before he becomes the Luke Skywalker we see in the new canon. People are already treating him differently, people he’s known for years. Sure he was always been that pilot who made that one in a million shot, but now he’s something separate from the Alliance too. He’s something viewed with veneration, and more than a little bit of fear.
And Han would be having none of it. The Kid might have gone off and gotten all Force smart and lost his hand or whatever, but he’s still Luke. He’s still The Kid.
And he needs that. He needs Han endlessly riding his ass like “gee I dunno junior, kinda looks like you’ve got everything in hand”, and elbowing him in the ribs until he cracks. He needs it after battles when he’s sitting there battered and bruised and worn down to the bone staring at the metal digits where his synthetic flesh melted away, and Han who is in the middle of wrapping a bacta patch around a blaster wound says, “I know that didn’t go to plan, but on the other hand you came out all right” and it pulls the tiniest of begrudged smiles to his split lips.
He needs the person who stands back sarcastically applauding amidst the stunned crowd shouting “come on give the guy a hand, no seriously, please, someone give this man a hand, he only has the one.”
(Leia silently despairing in the background is a given)
He needs the person who stands up for him and angrily yells at the senate when they’re asking too much, “he already gave you his right hand, what more do you want?” Because he’s just a kid. No matter how old they grow. And you can pry Han “Holy Shit Someone Needs To Look After These Kids, How Do I Keep Ending Up In These Situations” Solo from my cold cybernetic hands.
Emily Vancamp as Sharon Carter in “Captain America: The Winter Soldier”
Here’s an example of what we call a “soft no”. Sharon turns down Steve’s offer in a way that’s meant not to insult him but never actually uses the word “no”.
Steve clearly gets the message, though, and importantly offers to leave her alone. Sharon’s comment afterwards gives him an opportunity to try again later, but he doesn’t press and respects her rejection of his company even though it’s probably hurt his feelings a bit.
Just in case you ever wonder “What would Captain America do?”; there you go.
never do something steve rogers wouldn’t do.
Unless it’s jumping out of a plane without a parachute, you probably shouldn’t do that
I just have to add – I’ve seen interviews with Marvel people where they say that this scene demonstrates that Cap’s awkward with women and doesn’t know how to ask women out on a date. And it drives me crazy, because – as the OP says – Steve behaved perfectly here. It was a very charming, nonthreatening offer, and he accepted her rejection with good grace. You can’t help but feel that to Hollywood, the fact that she said no means he asked badly – which is exactly how I’d expect Hollywood to think, namely, the idea that men should keep pressing and pushing women until they say yes
In fairness, I think there’s a valid point that the offer itself is kind of awkward–there’s a moment where he pretty much takes a deep breath before flinging himself off the cliff, he stammers, his delivery is uncertain, you can practically see the “…:D?” moment where inside he’s going “real smooth, champ, did you seriously just ask her out with a dorky-ass offer about laundry?” And in his haste he accidentally implies a transactional element to the offer–which Sharon calls him on immediately.
The thing is, none of the minor awkwardness is nearly as important as how gracefully he handles the fall. Sharon calls him on the implication that there’s a price, and he makes it clear that yes, he’s asking her out, but no, he’s not asking for anything more than a chat and a chance to get to know each other. Point Number One in Steve’s favor. Sharon drops the skeptical standoffish look, and takes care to smile and be friendly and provide a soft excuse for turning him down. Point two: Steve hears the soft “no” for what it is. Point three: he doesn’t argue with it and assumes it’s her final answer. Point four: he smiles and plays along with the excuse and doesn’t take it personally, even though he’s probably hovering between “disappointed” and “kicking himself” on the inside. Congratulations, Steve, you have just catapulted yourself from “cute but kinda awkward” to “holy shit, she would date the fuck out of you if she didn’t have 6394187 ethical and professional obligations and a possible emergency situation getting in the way.” No wonder she gives him an opening to try again later.
Semi-related observation #1: Dude spent the first twenty-odd years of his life as skinny!Steve–it’s both perfectly logical and kinda sad that he’s a lot smoother at handling rejection than he is at actually asking someone out.
Semi-related observation #2: This entire movie is full of Steve’s faltering attempts to connect with people in a particularly mistrustful, un-forthcoming corner of the 21st century. Most of the time, it kinda feels personal–but getting turned down for a date by a cute stranger is one of the times he’s totally fine with not taking it personally. No wonder he can’t resist a sarcastic comment when she passes him in the hallway at SHIELD after giving Alexander Pierce a full report on the previous evening.
^^^ all of this.
Something I was thinking about since the last time I reblogged this post that I also wanna add is that Steve is pretty careful with his body language here. Since the serum, Steve is a big guy; and we’ve seen him crowd people and get up in their face when he wants to be intimidating (usually when he’s righteously pissed off), so we know he’s aware of his capacity for it. In this scene, he keeps a reasonable distance from Sharon, and though the cropping of the gif doesn’t quite show it, he raises his hands in a very clear hands off/I surrender kind of gesture when she turns him down – the “I’m not a threat, I’m backing down” of human body language. He also angles his body away from Sharon then, turning away and making clear he isn’t following her. This might seem awkward to someone who only expects to see Steve as the confident and physically powerful presence he is when he’s in uniform – but it’s completely appropriate here. As someone who got bullied as much as he did, Steve knows how to read a bully’s body language; and he knows how NOT to adopt that body language, and be physically non-threatening despite his build, in a situation where he doesn’t want to come across as a threat.
I like this post a lot, though personally I would have bristled at any answer other than “none” for “what’s the cost,” but all that does is make me more cynical than Sharon. I like this post primarily because it complicates a common characterization of Steve Rogers in this fandom (that I have been guilty of too) where he is headstrong to the point that he’s unable to be self-reflective. It’s not that he doesn’t take no for an answer; it’s that he fights for what’s right. That distinction is beautifully and very clearly made obvious here.
Hot Take: Satan’s actual aim in “The Devil Went Down to Georgia” was to trick Johnny into committing the mortal sin of pride. Since he succeeded, the Devil gets his soul anyway. But enjoy your functionally useless golden fiddle for the next few decades, I guess.
Even hotter take: Johnny seems like the kind of cool and fun person who was going to go to hell for enjoying life to the fullest anyway, so all the Devil really achieved was a truly impressive self-own in the form of an immortal folk song commemorating Johnny absolutely destroying him in a fiddle duel, despite the fact that the Devil cheated by summoning an entire band of demons to back him up.
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