When Rogue Squadron is using the com links and looking for them after they camped out for the night, doesn’t Rogue 2 refer to both as Captain though?
Comment on In The Empire Strikes Back, why does Han significantly outrank Luke?
FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 9 months agoEndor was post-Empire.
oblin99@lemmy.world 9 months ago
FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 9 months ago
Looks like we were both wrong. Luke is a Commander and Han is a Captain in Empire and this article basically answers my question, so should I delete the thread?
Burninator05@lemmy.world 9 months ago
That is a good read but I’m going to muddy the waters a bit.
I’ll start off with saying I understand this is fiction and doesn’t necessarily directly fit into real life.
In the US military the ranks Captain, Commander, and General don’t exist in the same rank structure. Captain and General exist in every structure except the Navy and Coast Guard which have Commander and Captain. In the former, Captain is an O3 and General could be an O7 through O10. In the latter a Commander is an O5 and and Captain is an O6.
So at the end of ANH Luke as either an O3 or O6 and in RotJ he had separated. Han in ANH was and O5 and later jumped structures and was an O7.
wjrii@kbin.social 9 months ago
I think you've got that a bit turned around. I don't think Luke was ever referred to as a "Captain" so if indeed they're roughly mapping to US ranks, he would be the O5 (or possible O4 as Lt. Cmdr.s are often referred to as Commander for convenience) and then, as you say, separated or inactive in ROTJ.
If we assume Han had formal ranks and wasn't just being called Captain to acknowledge he was captain of the Falcon, he would have been the O6 in ESB and received probably some sort of brevet or field promotion to O7+ because of the importance the Alliance assigned to the ground operation on Endor. It's conceivable that he was in the "Army" track all along though and was the O3 in ESB, but I think either the honorific or Naval track is more likely.
Lando, if the scriptwriters put much thought into it, was either rolling with a title earned at Tanaab or was on a USAF track, which builds off its heritage as the Army Air Corps and Army Air Forces.
TallonMetroid@lemmy.world 9 months ago
To muddy the waters even further, I will note that it’s also tradition to refer to whoever is in charge of a ship or aircraft as captain, regardless of actual military rank (or even if they’re just civilians). And as Han Solo will tell you with great emphasis, the Millennium Falcon is his ship, and he is her captain.
xeekei@lemm.ee 9 months ago
No.
“Captain Solo. Do you copy?” “Commander Skywalker. This is Rogue 2.”
So, Han is a Captain and Luke is a Commander in ESB. Tho, I don’t know why Han gets a promotion to General when he’s just been frozen in carbonite between films.
nonailsleft@lemm.ee 9 months ago
The years you don’t do any fuckups count double
FuglyDuck@lemmy.world 9 months ago
Image
(this is the scene oblin99 is referring to, the morning after Han went out after Luke.) Han was a Captain at Hoth, and was outranked by Luke… who is a commander at the time.
also, the Emperor died on the 2nd death star, which is when most worlds finally shrugged off imperial occupation. (see the celebration montage of them toppling the statues and stuffs); this is generally when people say that the empire was gone, even if it took a while to, ah, tidy up.
dezmd@lemmy.world 9 months ago
The Empire continued to exist organizationally just much smaller, and not that nonsense sequels bullshit evil macguffin splinter group form. The Empire remnant was called on in the EU against the Yuuzhan Vong invasion. The EU that is still canon because it was canon before it wasn’t.
magnusrufus@lemmy.world 9 months ago
The yuuzhan vong will never be canon for me.
dezmd@lemmy.world 9 months ago
The Yuuzhan Vong were canon for 19 books and then some, 1999 -2003, and overlapped the prequel releases and remained cannon through 2008 in the Legacy of the Force books. Right up until Disney bought out and fucked over authors, story lines, and a fleshed out and workable path for movies.
But its ok, nobody is perfect, you can overcome it some day.