The Star Wars universe is crowded with many different characters. Most of the stories focus on the Jedi who wield the Force and strive to restore order to the galaxy -- these guys are just awesome space wizards. Somehow, though, they've never been as cool as a space pirate like Han Solo. Fueled by Harrison Ford's amazing charm as an actor, Han Solo quickly became many fans' favorite character in Star Wars. It's not hard to see why: he gets the best dialogue and the coolest outfit. On top of that, he has an awesome ship and the coolest best friend a human could ask for.

How much do we love Han Solo? We love him so much that we often overlook some really strange things about his character. There are elements to Han's personality, background, and actions that basically make zero sense whatsoever. And unlike crazy things involving Luke or Rey, we can't just say it's because it's the will of the Force! Don't believe us? Fortunately, you don't have to fly the Kessel Run in your own hunk of junk to learn these secrets. Just keep scrolling in order to check out  for these 15 things that make no sense about Han Solo.

15 IMPERIAL SERVICE

Presumably this will be part of the plot for Solo, but one of the biggest things that makes no sense about the character is his previous service to the Empire. This is because of what we know about Han: he’s brash, doesn’t like joining large organizations, and he likes to play by his own rules.

Given his personality, it seems pretty insane that he immediately signs up for the largest possible organization, one that is designed to crush individuality and make him just another cog in the Imperial machine. Some might argue that Han was simply using the Empire to develop his skills as a pilot, but that seems pretty iffy -- he could find some smuggler mentor that could easily teach him the same skills without making him part of a literally evil Empire!

14 TRUSTING LANDO

Lando ended up being one of the most dynamic characters in all of Star Wars. He has a history with Han and initially betrays him to the Empire to save Cloud City. When he realizes the Empire will betray him, though, Lando becomes vital to the rescue of Han and the success of the Rebellion. We still have a big question, though: why did Han ever trust him?

In Empire Strikes Back, Han hedges a bit when Leia asks if they can trust Lando. At the same time, though, Han seems very hurt and betrayed when he ends up getting betrayed. So Han is suddenly surprised that he couldn’t trust the guy that he already knew he couldn’t trust? We’re just not buying it at all.

13 IS FEARLESS TO THE POINT OF STUPID

Kylo Ren Kills Han Solo

One of the reasons that we like Han Solo is his surprise acts of heroism. When Luke and Leia are in danger on the Death Star, Han suddenly chases down a large group of Stormtroopers with nothing but one blaster and an intimidating yell. Years later, with the Resistance on the line, Han puts himself in lethal (and ultimately fatal) danger to confront Kylo Ren. These are noble moments and all, but they don’t really line up with Han Solo’s personality.

He’s supposed to be a smuggler who looks out for himself and watches his bottom line. However, as early as A New Hope, he has heroic tendencies that border on the absolutely suicidal. It’s consistent enough that we’re begin to think Han wanted his character dead almost as much as Harrison Ford did!

12 LACK OF FAITH

Hokey religions and ancient weapons

In the dynamic of A New Hope, Han Solo played the role of skeptic when it came to the Force. Obi-Wan is instructing Luke in the ways of the Jedi, and Han famously interjects that “hokey religions and ancient weapons are no match for a good blaster at your side.” It’s a great and funny quote…but in context, it makes no sense!

Given Han’s age when A New Hope begins, he would have been a child during the height of the Jedi. He should know all about their command of the Force and how a single Jedi can be a threat to a small army. Nonetheless, after two decades or so, he dismisses the Force as a “hokey religion” and the Jedi as basically useless, and there’s no real explanation of why that is.

11 HANGING ON TATOOINE

As you know, Han Solo links up with Luke Skywalker and Chewbacca in Mos Eisley on Tatooine. He agrees to give them passage to Alderaan, but ends up getting delayed when Greedo tries to collect a bounty Jabba the Hutt (Han’s former employer) has put on him. However, why was Han hanging out on the planet at all?

It’s reasonable to believe that he didn’t yet know about the bounty on his head. However, he did know that Jabba was pissed at him for having to get rid of some spice to avoid being arrested. And he knows damn well the kinds of things that Jabba does to the people who have made him angry. He has a ship and acquaintances in other parts of the galaxy…why hang in the backyard of a vengeful, murderous employer when he could work literally anywhere else?

10 THAT PARSEC THING

One line from A New Hope that always makes nerds groan is when Han Solo says that the Millennium Falcon made the Kessel Run “in less than 12 parsecs.” Obviously, a parsec is a unit of distance and not time, so the line is pretty absurd. It’s like saying you ran that five kilometer race in only two kilometers!

The more charitable fans have tried to address this line in a variety of ways. One theory is that Han thinks Luke and Obi-Wan are country bumpkins and is telling an obvious lie to see how they will react (and, indeed, you can see Obi-Wan knowingly smile when Han says it). The other theory that was (and then wasn’t) canon is that it refers to when he flew too close to a series of black holes…which is problematic in its own way!

9 KESSEL RUN

Millennium-Falcon-Kessel-Run

Back in what are now called the Legends Star Wars books, authors tried to explain the parsec thing by saying that Kessel was close to a series of black holes known as The Maw. The Kessel Run itself was a challenge to deliver spice as quickly as possible, and pilots could try to get closer to the black holes in order to make the run quicker. Han ends up going closer than any pilot has before, and is therefore bragging about doing it in “less than 12 parsecs.”

So far, so good. However, it stops making sense when you shine a bit of science onto it. As Wired reported, Han Solo traveling at hyperspace so close to a black hole would cause extreme time dilation effects in which Han would effectively travel to the future. If this old theory were true, that fast Kessel Run would take nearly 40 years!

8 JABBA'S BEEF

jabba the hutt star wars

We’ve talked a bit about how weird it is Han Solo would hang around on the planet where Jabba is. Was he just waiting to get caught or killed? However, it’s worth noting that Jabba’s anger with Han and what he does with that anger is really a lot of nonsense.

Jabba is angry that Han Solo had to ditch some spice in order to avoid arrest. But what was the alternative? If Han is arrested, Jabba loses one of his best pilots, and it brings possible Imperial attention on Jabba himself. Later, Jabba wants Han to pay him back, which seems reasonable…but when Han is too slow, Jabba posts a huge bounty for him.He’s effectively throwing away more money because…he was angry about not making money? Maybe Jabba needs to ditch Salacious Crumb and get an actual accountant!

7 CARBONITE CLOTHING SWAP

han-solo-frozen-in-carbonite

Okay, this next one is more of a goof on the part of the Empire Strikes Back creative team, but it’s too good to pass up. Han Solo gets frozen in carbonite in this movie, and most fans understandably focus on the romantic goodbye between Han and Leia. However, have you ever wondered how Han Solo changes clothes before he is frozen?

If you look really closely at Han’s frozen form, you can see he is not wearing the shirt he was wearing when he went in. He is instead wearing the same undershirt he had on in A New Hope (minus the vest, but rocking that deep V). This is because the prop department did not yet know exactly what he’d be wearing in the scene before they made the carbonite prop!

6 MILITARY LEADERSHIP

Han-Solo

Han Solo is a good pilot, solid fighter, and ultimately fiercely loyal to his friends. These are all good qualities to have in an ally. However, have you ever wondered why the hell they made Han into a general? In all fairness, we should acknowledge that rank in the Rebellion seemed pretty insane anyway (like, Luke got his own command after one successful mission, albeit a hugely important one).

However, Han has no military experience except for when he got thrown out of the Empire. He previously worked alone or with Chewie, and he seems to have one foot out of the door constantly. Why is he suddenly in charge of taking down the Death Star’s shields, which is one of the most important Rebel missions ever?

5 RESCUE OF LANDO

Return of the Jedi was a movie that had a lot of misplaced humor. Some of that came from Han’s blindness -- his eyesight was damaged by his time in carbonite, so we get goofy scenes like him blindly killing Boba Fett. We also get a pretty inexplicable rescue of Lando Calrissian.

If you remember, Lando was being dragged into the Sarlaac Pit by one of its tendrils. Chewie holds Han over the side and Han shoots the tendril, freeing his buddy. How the hell did he shoot the tendril with only one shot, though? Lando gives him some instruction, but only says to “aim a little higher.” How did Han know where to point the thing in the first place? Maybe he’s actually Force sensitive.

4 MONEY MANAGEMENT

One of the most consistent things about Han Solo is that he seems terrible at managing his money. When we first see him, he is desperate for a big payday to help out with what he owes to Jabba. And when we last see him, he dies while apparently still owing major debts to multiple criminal organizations.

The big question, though, is why he would be so bad at managing money? He is basically a freelancer with his own ship, which means he must regularly line up enough work to pay for fuel, repairs, and so on. Moreover, the Rebellion paid him a pretty sum back in A New Hope that he didn’t actually end up giving Jabba. Han gets regular income and has a lot of experience working on his own…but he can’t balance a checkbook? No way!

3 HATING DROIDS

han-solo-c-3po

A consistent part of Han Solo’s personality is that he doesn’t like droids. Granted, we mostly see this when he is around the often-annoying C-3PO. Still, Han’s antipathy towards robotic life (“shut him up or shut him down”) is one of those things that makes less sense the more you think about it.

First of all, Han has to work closely with different forms of robotic life. He refers to the Falcon computer as one that different machines need to “talk” to in order to diagnose problems. And as someone running an entire ship with only one co-pilot, he has to rely on a lot of different automated systems. =Finally, as a smuggler, he would have encountered different kinds of droids from countless planets. All of this makes it seem like Han would be more tolerant of droids rather than being intolerant, something that is never explained.

2 LOVING LEIA

Han and Leia kiss in Sar Wars: The Empire Strikes Back

Han Solo and Leia Organa have a pretty amazing relationship, even if it wasn't destined to last forever. In fact, many fans would quickly declare that they have the best romantic relationship in all of Star Wars. However, that relationship doesn't really make a lot of sense.

Han, as we know, is someone who hates authority, teamwork, and taking orders. So he ends up falling in love with a princess-turned-general who constantly barks orders and forces him to submit to authority and work as part of a huge organization? We're big fans of both “opposites attract” and the will of the Force, but it seems like Han should have ran far away from Leia instead of running towards a long-term relationship.

1 FALLOUT WITH KYLO REN

Han's relationship with Kylo Ren doesn't make a lot of sense. To be fair, this is partly because we know so little about how that relationship went down. However, given the information we have, that relationship is more than a bit crazy. For his part, Kylo Ren seems to think of Han Solo as a very disappointing father figure, and one that (at first) he is eager to be rid of. However, all we really know about Han and Kylo is that Han trusted Luke (literally the only Jedi Master) to train his son.

And even after Kylo Ren turned evil, Han continued to believe in him and even died trying to help his son find redemption. The idea of these two having a serious falling out or Han being a terrible father seem like story elements that only exist in Kylo Ren's head!