Angst, romance and squick … oh my.
At some point before 1983, I discovered angst (in the fanfiction sense, not just in general!). Most of what I wrote between then and the mid-late 80s seemed designed simply to put the characters through as much suffering as possible.
Again, they’re mostly in school exercise books. I’d discovered that if you asked a teacher for a new book, often they’d give you one without checking if you’d finished your old one. Other good tricks were removing the middle pages until the book was half its original size, and managing to start a new book right before the end of summer term – you got to take your books home at the end of the year. So I built up a little stash. Thanks, Liverpool Education Authority! In most of them I wrote a table of contents at the front, which is would be useful, but sometimes the pages are missing. There’s an interesting note next to a couple of them which says that my sister had been allowed to read them. That’s really unusual, so I must have been really proud of those!
So, what was I writing about? Lots and lots of disparate scenarios, with no regard to any kind of continuity. In some of them Leia was with Han, in some she was with Luke. I was still playing with the alternate ending of The Final Hope, where Luke and Leia ended up together. I wrote stories where Han died, stories where Han slapped Leia, several stories where he abandoned her for another woman. I guess I still really didn’t trust Han Solo!
I worked really hard on all my romantic scenes, but they’re all absolutely horrible. Here’s a couple of examples from The Final Hope. The first one displays Luke’s early dark side leanings, and my conviction that Leia should only think of Luke like a brother, even though she doesn’t behave like that!
“Oh, Luke,” she murmured, and took him in her arms. “I’ll miss you a lot. You know you’re just like a brother to me. And more.”
She kissed him gently, on the lips, and then smiled, leaning her head on his shoulder. They remained like that for a long while, each drawing strength and comfort from the other, then Luke, realising their moment together must end soon, spoke.
“But, Leia, this means I won’t be able to go to Tatooine as I planned. You’ll have to meet Lando and Chewie instead.”
Luke felt the moment move into the past and become just a memory, and it saddened him a little as she lifted her head from his shoulder, a new and different light shining in her eyes. Her love for Han stared him in the face, and Luke found he had to look away from her, studying his fingernails instead.
“Oh, I’ll be happy to go in your place,” she was saying. Yes, Luke thought, a little bitterly, I bet you will.
I have to say, though, I really love that phrase: “felt the moment move into the past and become just a memory” – it’s lovely. I hope I didn’t steal it!
And here’s a snippet (seriously, I couldn’t bear to type any more of it) from Han and Leia’s reunion:
She fell into his arms. “Thank the force,” she whispered. “Oh, thank the force!” Her tears began to roll down her cheeks as he held her close to him, all her hopes and fears of the last months overflowing in one moment. She found herself sobbing and laughing all at once; happy, at last. Reunited, at last. A love so long denied finally restored to its rightful place.
And here, from August 1983, is what would have been “The End” of The Final Hope, in its original form:
Luke, sensing Leia’s need for him, moved closer to her and slid his arm gently around her shoulders. As one tear rolled down her cheek, he caught it with his finger and gently drew her to him. Their eyes met, but this time Leia did not shy away. She gazed up at Luke, her uncertainty written in her eyes, and as he kissed her he felt her lips tremble under his.
She stood still, her arms around him, trying to repel the memories of the other who had held her, who had seemed to care for her; and had left her. Left her with nothing but an empty heart, and empty, useless memories. But he was gone now, gone somewhere unknown, and had taken her bitter feelings with him.
But Luke was different. Luke was gentle, kind; Luke would never leave her. Perhaps … perhaps that was why she could never feel for Luke as she had for the other one.
Luke drew his lips from hers and held her face in his hands. “You’re thinking about Han, aren’t you?”
He looked hurt, and sad, and as Leia whispered, “Yes. I’m sorry,” she meant the apology more than she had ever meant anything. “Please forgive me, Luke,” she continued, her face earnest, her eyes pleading; “But I can’t help it. I loved him so much … I can’t get him out of my mind. It’s like … like he’s coming back to haunt me!
“I know you love me, Luke. I only wish I could return that love. You deserve that, at least.”
He held her tight, and she burrowed her head into his shoulder, kissing his hands which she held, as he whispered into her hair, “Leia, I’ve always loved you, and I always will, and I’m willing to wait for your love.”
Urgh. They’re pretty horrible stories, all of them. In the Luke/Leia ones, usually Leia’s done something bad, and Luke forgives her, because of course Luke is lovely and perfect. Meanwhile, with Han and Leia, all the power lies with Han. In the story where Han slaps Leia, it’s because he’s upset about the Falcon being destroyed. He immediately regrets doing it, and has to win Leia round. She’s far too quick to forgive him. And there’s a few stories like that, with Han acting cold to her when she approaches him, her going away upset, and then instantly forgiving him as soon as he’s nice to her again. Not a very nice dynamic at all! I’m glad I got over that one …
All this angst and nasty Han reached its height in a story called Reunion, dated September 1983 – June 1984. It’s a little over 17 A4 pages, hand-written, so around 6,000 words. The basic story is this: Luke lives on Tatooine, in Ben Kenobi’s old house, Leia lives on a planet called Megara, and Han lives with his wife Shanda somewhere else. So this sort of follows on from the ideas of the original Final Hope, but takes on ROTJ continuity – i.e., Luke and Leia are siblings. Han had dumped Leia after they’d been together three years and gone off with Shanda. They had a baby, and called her Leia. (That’s seriously gross! I mean, what man would call his baby after his ex-girlfriend, and what woman would allow it!? But I thought it was ironic, and bittersweet. Urgh.)
It’s now three years after those events. Luke asks Leia to visit him, and she comes, but she’s horribly bitter. Eventually, she breaks down when Luke hugs her, and cries a lot (oh yes, that’s another thing about these early stories: Leia cries all the time. Annoying!). The next day, Luke announces he’s off to Mos Eisley to pick up Han. What?! Yes, it turns out Luke thought it would be a good idea to have a little “family” get-together with his two favourite people … oh dear.
Han of course is awkward, refers to Leia as an “old friend”, and she takes serious offence – “I’d rather you hated me! I’d sooner be dead!” – and storms off to the bedroom. Luke and Han have a talk, and Han admits he still loves Leia. (Uh oh …) Luke, knowing Leia also still loves Han, sends him to her!
They … well, I think they have sex, but it’s thankfully offscreen! Han is ready to leave Shanda, but Leia, for some reason, doesn’t want him to. She tells him to go back to Shanda for a year, and then let her know what he decides. He agrees, bizarrely.
Leia stays on Tatooine with Luke, and over the year she heals, losing her bitterness and missing Han desperately. On the day Han’s due to come back, Luke goes out to leave them alone. But it turns out Han only came back to say goodbye. He and Shanda have had another baby, a boy called Luke (this is not quite as squicky as calling the girl Leia, but it’s close!) who is now two months old. And he’s managed to make his marriage work. After he leaves again, Leia realises she’s been an idiot, and that there’s “only one course of action left open to her.”
She leaves Luke a note saying she’s going back to Megara, and by the most tortured segue in history, Luke wishes he could speak to Ben Kenobi, who obligingly appears:
“Why didn’t I feel this?” he moaned. “Why couldn’t I have stopped her going back?”
Then an echo came to him out of the past, Leia’s voice, from a long time ago.
“A man must follow his own path, Luke. No-one can choose it for him.”
He remembered his own reply. “I only wish,” he whispered, “Ben were here.”
“But Luke, I am always here.”
Every time I read that, I still do a double-take. It’s that bad. The quotes are from ANH, before the Death Star attack, when Luke’s upset that Han’s leaving instead of joining the fight. But Luke’s mention of Ben was a non sequitur in the original, there’s no reason for Leia’s quote (which is at least sort of relevant) to make him think of the old Jedi now, unless you have the script of ANH burnt into your head from repeated watchings of my taped-from-ITV copy! Anyway, Ben goes into agony aunt mode and explains how Leia must have been feeling … it’s just completely bizarre. Luke then rushes off to Mos Eisley to stop Leia. He begs her to stay, and then convinces her to have one more try at Han (who is in the spaceport in a different lounge – everyone flies on commercial ships in this story; Shanda had made Han sell the Falcon!).
So Leia goes to see Han, and tells him she loves him. He kisses her, and she begs him not to leave her. Han asks, basically, why in the hell she sent him away then – a fair question! She says, “it seemed to be your duty; but … but I never imagined you wouldn’t come back to stay with me after the year was up.” We also find out that Han only married Shanda because she was pregnant, “and I thought I could forget you. I was wrong.” It also turns out that the only reason he gave it another go with Shanda was because Leia had asked him to, and he thought that was what she really wanted! D’oh. Written by a confused Catholic teenager much? I think so.
Next time: far less squick, I promise, as I return to “THE SCRIPT”, and try to make it into an actual story!