Believability - Video Game: Storytelling - page 88

▪ He can be foolhardy (threatening to fight the Death Star while his
ship is being pulled into it).
▪ He is wily and dangerous (hiding himself and others in secret cargo
hold; tricking Stormtroopers, knocking them out and stealing their
armor to go undercover).
▪ He believes in and cares only for himself (initial disinterest in res-
cuing Princess Leia).
▪ He is motivated by money (agreeing to help rescue Leia once a very
large reward is mentioned).
▪ He can be foolhardy (singlehandedly chasing an entire squad of
Stormtroopers through the corridors of the Death Star).
And so on. Through the first half of Star Wars , Han Solo is a very consist-
ent character, and we, the viewers, feel like we know him. It breaks down
like this:
▪ Motivations : Self, money
▪ Traits : Wily, dangerous, foolhardy
With these core motivations and traits understood by the audience, the
aptly named Han Solo is a consistent and increasingly believable charac-
ter—as long as he continues to display behaviors that are aligned with
those attributes.
But as Han spends more time with Luke, fighting alongside the enthusi-
astic if naïve farm boy, we see there is a bit more to Han than we might
have first thought. He begins to actually care about what happens to Luke.
This is first evident in the trash compactor scene on the Death Star, when
Luke gets pulled underwater by the dianoga lurking in the sludge. Han's
behavior isn't just that of a smuggler trying to make sure his client stays
alive so he can get paid—it's clear Han is genuinely concerned for Luke's
life.
It's a minor shift, and certainly doesn't feel inconsistent at the time. But it
is a shift. In fact it's the first hint of character growth in Han, who has the
second-largest character arc in Star Wars (behind, of course, that of the
Hero—Luke).
Once we've seen the first inkling that Han actually has a heart and is
capable of caring about more than just himself, future actions that rein-