Han's Dice

TFA had a dice scene too, but JJ cut it.

 

When TLJ made such a huge deal out of them despite never being seen before I remember someone saying we would get a deeper meaning from them once we saw Solo. Like there was some backstory to them, or a family heirloom or something, they had some significance to him. But nope, they're just dice, he puts them in the ships he has.

 

I hated the dice in TLJ, they acted like it was this super important relic from the OT and that all fans should feel the immense weight of those dice even though in reality they were just a prop in only one of the three original movies. Then people assumed (logically) that of course the dice will be important in Solo and all the scenes in TLJ will now be way more impactful when (if, a big if) we rewatch it, but nope they were again just a prop, only used slightly more.

 

I liked them in TLJ because they represented the spirit of Han.
To me, the dice weren't about some relic or nod; it was about remembering the spirit of Han, "Never tell me the odds".
Going for broke and going for it all the way; taking the largest gambles with the craziest of plans that very well could kill you.

I found it fitting that Luke picked them up in TLJ; it felt like that message that Han symbolized was pushing on him through the dice as he remembered his friend that he was now coping with being dead.
Handing them to Leia, for me, was more than a symbol of remembering Han; it was a reminder to always try, even if it's crazy and even if it seems impossible. Never lose hope.

For all of his flaws, Han always had hope and was willing to try incredibly impossible ideas.
However the dice came to be, he seems (in Solo) to use them like a Patron Saint charm; which his dice become in TLJ.

Cheers,
Jayson

 

the dice themselves as an object aren't important; it's the fact that they represent Han and the risks he took.
it's why at the end of TLJ that it's significant that Ben finds them on Crait, but they disappear in his hand.

 

Doesn't the dice also represent luck? If you think about it: everyone who had the dice was lucky at some point. I don't know what this means for Kylo though because they disappeared. Is luck ran out.

 

perhaps more accurately, dice represent chance, not luck.
in Star Wars parlance, we might even translate that to "hope".

which doesn't necessarily bode ill for Ben; he's on the floor looking up precisely because he now truly knows what he's lost.

 

Han Solo is for me like a rebel driver from a HOT Rod era.Remember the movie American Graffiti?Harrison was in that movie and that movie is one that George Lucas made.Maybe George use the dice like a symbol for Han Solo.Maybe George is telling us something.....His black Chevrolet Bel Air has a skull on his rear view mirror.Like ALL Hot Rod drivers use a "GOOD LUCK CHARM" on their cars.Han has his Lucky dice on his speeder and take it off and put it to MF.Han is for sure a Hot Rod driver with the MF from a galaxy far far away....

 

No I hated that they made it seem like these dice were the ultimate symbol of Han, like everyone should know that these dice were of the most importance in Han's life. They treated the dice like they were the most important Han object in the saga. It just felt incredibly dumb to me.

 

It's more that it represents Han that is of note; not that they are dice.

Han's death is possibly the most emotional death to the saga so far, so it follows that they note the absence.
What should Luke do; stare at the switches all somber?

That's not very symbolic or personified; it doesn't give a very singular focal point like the saber is to Luke, and Luke needed a 'goodbye Han' moment because he wasn't given one in TFA.

So...dice. Done. It also helps provide weight of emotion between Leia and Luke, again, because very easily you can call on the memory of Han in a simple way without needing to plug lines of dialogue.

Cheers,
Jayson

 

I think the problem is that the characters in Last Jedi feel nostalgia for the dice, they recognize them and recognize the deep connection to Han. But we as the audience don't have any identification with them. We've never seen them before, or heard about them. Solo helps bridge this a bit by showing us that they're just his lucky dice, he's had them forever and they've been on some crazy adventures with him, but the release order of the films is reversed so that no audience member at the time of watching TLJ can feel what the characters seem to be feeling about them.

 

Huh.
I knew what they were, and I'm someone who only watches the films. I don't read books or watch cartoons of Star Wars.
I guess maybe it wasn't clear enough for everyone?

Cheers,
Jayson

 

I knew what they were as well, having known the easter egg from A New Hope for years. They're just dice Han had in the Falcon. But so what? Why is this an important symbol of his life? They've never figured into the story or been referenced in the four films with the character up until that point, and now all of a sudden the characters have a connection with them as some symbol for his life. We, the audience, don't share that connection, so the symbolism doesn't work as well as it should have.

It would be like if Luke pulled a baseball out of the Falcon's closet, and then gave it to Leia as a heartfelt remembrance of her husband before Luke goes to his death. But what's so special about that baseball? Does it have some specific history, or mean something to Han, or to the other characters? Then you find out one film after that it was just a baseball he had since he got the Falcon. Okay. It's a bit unmemorable, but one film too late anyway.

 

It was just hanging there in the cockpit in 4 and never shown again. You do really have to look for it. It's not something that's in your face at all. That said, I liked the moment in TLJ it's a momento of something physical that Han held. It made sense to me.

 

Grumpy fan time!

The dice are the only thing in the new films I truly hate. More than Canto Bight. More than Death Star 3.0.

Not because they're an obscure reference. It that was the case, I would be fine with them. More power to the fans who paid attention.

But that's not the case. The moment I saw the dice in TLJ, I thought to myself: those are going to be a big part of Solo. And they were.

They had no previous emotional connection in the story. They've never mattered before. They're not an established symbol for the audience. They are, plainly and simply, marketing. They're the film stopping to wink at you and say, "Hey, wanna know about these?? We got this little film called Solo . . . "

 

They meant luck and were a symbol of luck, which is one of the things we think of when we think of Han. He called it just "luck" (whatever people thought of as the Force) so they used them as a symbol of that. That's all. Star Wars just isn't that deep so many of you are making it more than it is. So they used dice. They couldn't use the Falcon, as it had other meaning or what, his vest? So they use dice. You can hate it if you want, but it's just a symbol of luck to me.