Han Solo

Han Solo (born 32 BBY on Corellia - dies 34 ABY on Starkiller Base, Ilum) is one of the protagonists of the Star Wars franchise. He was the tritagonist of the original trilogy.

Why He Shoots First?

 * 1) He's one of the most charismatic and bold characters in the franchise. Ford's performance makes it all the more cool.
 * 2) He's the captain and owner of the Millennium Falcon which is one of the fastest ships in the galaxy.
 * 3) His character serves as a good foil to Luke. Whereas Luke genuinely cares about the safety of the galaxy and wants to protect them from the empire, Han on the other hand was only interested the journey because he was getting paid and wanted to deal with Jabba's shipment.
 * 4) Considering he's flown to various areas in the galaxy, he has more experience in adventuring and combat than Luke himself, so it's natural that he'd be a bit cocky about it.
 * 5) Character development: Even though the story's mainly about Luke's arc in becoming a Jedi, Han went through a character arc of his own. During A New Hope, He was initially self-centered and a control freak, but when he starts to realize their intentions he finally decided to get on board and help the Rebels.
 * 6) His and Chewbacca's iconic relationship is especially noteworthy.
 * 7) Han shares a lot of excellent chemistry with Leia and turns out to be a great and loyal teammate, which just goes to show how far he had gone from the arrogant, selfish, smug guy he was at the beginning of A New Hope, and it only makes the scene where he's frozen in carbonite in the end of Empire Strikes Back even more depressing.
 * 8) "That's not how the force works!", which was the last memetic line he delivered before his death at the hands of his son.