My favorite part of this echo is the completely different meanings attributed to each exchange, like, people characterize Han Solo’s “I know” as him being ~cool~ but dang, no, I’m sorry you didn’t actually watch the film, but the emotional context for his saying “I know” is that this is the first time Leia—who has refused to express or even acknowledge the exact nature of her feelings for Han even after they get together—has told him she loves him, and Han is about to be literally frozen in carbonite, which, as they’re informed, is experimental and might result in his death, and even if he doesn’t die, he’s still being shipped to a nigh impenetrable fortress, so that Leia should tell him now—he can’t tell her he loves her, he can’t do it, because either way this carbonite thing goes, as he sees it, he’s dead, and the emotion is just too much; he has to throw up shields or else he’ll just straight up lose it and he’ll lose this one last moment with Leia with it.
And the echo in Return of the Jedi in which their positions are reversed has a very different context, but it’s also notable because it is Leia being cool. Yeah, Han loves her! She knows, and she knows why he first fell for her: because even if the odds are stacked against them, she’s still in charge. She’ll break into Jabba’s palace to save him, making her way past guards, conning the whole villainous lot of them. She’ll stone cold murder this dick who tries to enslave her. When Stormtroopers have her and her allies surrounded, she’ll shoot those assholes down. Of course Han loves her; she never doubted it. And Han is just overwhelmed with his love for her! Because damn, y’all, HE ALMOST DIED. AND SHE CAME TO RESCUE HIM. SHE FREED HIM FROM THE CARBONITE. SHE ISN’T LETTING HIS PUNK ASS ROT, AND SHE ISN’T LETTING SOME IMPERIAL DOUCHEBAGS SHOOT HIM UP.
~*~romance~*~
Always reblog.
HOW TO RELATIONSHIPS IN TWO GIFS. *____________*
The mirrored language is also telling him she understands him. That she heard what he meant when he said it, and far from being upset that he didn’t say ‘i love you’ back, she knows that in a way he did, and remembers it with affection. (not necessarily the surrounding scene, obviously, but how he communicated with her.) I can read your subtext, she’s telling him. I know what you mean when you can’t say things outright. You’re getting through.
There are a lot of other ways she could have responded that would still have gotten the “yes of course you love me” message across. By specifically replaying an exchange they’d had before, with the knowing smile that says she’s doing it on purpose, she’s also bringing the feelings from the earlier scene back to mind: yes, you love me. I know you do. and i knew that you loved me back then. it’s okay that it took you until now to be able to say the words.
Kimchi and Justice 