ok this is WILD shit

honestly this is extremely plausible to me, although it also sounds to me a little like (and i say this with the greatest respect and affection) the kind of thing carrie fisher might make up

but either way i think it doesn't change what the line means for han, even if it meant something else ooc.

Yes yes yes yes. Stede was saying how much he loves Ed without saying the words all season long. I adore how it was played out on the beach. The breathless relief, Ed's huge smile after Stede says "I know that." Those three words are everything Ed needed to hear. It's so sincere. It's SO them.

anyway if you don't like the callback because it's like TOO star wars or whatever i get that. but stede is right about what ed needs from him in that moment. he said the right thing.

and stede doesn't know ed found the letter, but a big running theme through the whole season has been that he just really gets ed on an intuitive level, so he knows what ed needs to hear, and it's not "i love you too" it's "don't worry, i never thought you loved fishing more than me."

after the letter scene he wasn't worried stede didn't love him. he WAS worried that he might never see stede again and maybe the last thing he said to stede was "fuck you."

and he doesn't need stede to demonstrate willingness to say it to his face either, because stede already tried to say it back in fun & games, he knows what stede was going to say there.

ed just found the letter and he can't doubt that stede meant it because stede wrote that thinking no one would ever read it. the scene where ed fully accepts that stede really does love him comes before they reunite.

so anyway you knew what this was leading up to. i see people sometimes complaining that stede doesn't say i love you in mermen but when david jenkins wrote the callback he understood star wars. stede's saying what ed needs to hear.

if han said "i love you" then he'd be saying it for his own sake. but he's not concerned about what he needs to express as he goes to his likely death, he's thinking about what leia needs to hear, and he knows what that is. so he reassures her that he always knew she cared.

what she would worry is "what if he thought i really meant it. what if he thought i hated him."

the whole han-leia arc up to that point has been han trying to get leia to acknowledge what was between them and leia angrily denying it.

so if han never comes out of the carbonite she's not going to be worrying that he didn't love her. she knew he loved her. he was making it clear the whole time.

the line was famously a harrison ford adlib - in the script it had been just "i love you too" - and he talked about what it meant: "the point is i'm not worried about myself anymore, i'm worried about her."