Maybe I misread something but the order of events I picked up from the movie:
1. Han and Leia have a child (Ben)
2. They raise Ben up to the point where he shows Force-sensitivity and can enter Jedi training with Luke
3. At some point Ben goes Dark, kills the other trainees, and becomes Kylo Ren
4. Leia and Han both grieve over what happens and Han, handling it poorly, returns to smuggling
5. Time passes up to the movie, where Han and Leia are reunited
At no point did I get the "absentee dad" trope being played. It appeared (to me) that Han and Leia were both part of his life up to the point where he went into Jedi training and were still involved as much as could be expected in that kind of situation.
I also don't get how Han is any more unreliable in business in TFA than in the original trilogy. Are we forgetting why Han shot first? Because he dumped Jabba's cargo and Jabba wanted him dead for it. We choose to believe that Han was right, even he gets borded some times and has no choice, but is it really that surprising that a guy who was running from bounty hunters and charging Luke and Obi-Wan an arm and a leg to get to Alderaan would be stretching his limits with his current source of funds?
Joe Brody does have some good points, but I simply think we don't know enough yet as to what happened in the intervening 30 years.
1. Han and Leia have a child (Ben)
2. They raise Ben up to the point where he shows Force-sensitivity and can enter Jedi training with Luke
3. At some point Ben goes Dark, kills the other trainees, and becomes Kylo Ren
4. Leia and Han both grieve over what happens and Han, handling it poorly, returns to smuggling
5. Time passes up to the movie, where Han and Leia are reunited
At no point did I get the "absentee dad" trope being played. It appeared (to me) that Han and Leia were both part of his life up to the point where he went into Jedi training and were still involved as much as could be expected in that kind of situation.
I also don't get how Han is any more unreliable in business in TFA than in the original trilogy. Are we forgetting why Han shot first? Because he dumped Jabba's cargo and Jabba wanted him dead for it. We choose to believe that Han was right, even he gets borded some times and has no choice, but is it really that surprising that a guy who was running from bounty hunters and charging Luke and Obi-Wan an arm and a leg to get to Alderaan would be stretching his limits with his current source of funds?
Joe Brody does have some good points, but I simply think we don't know enough yet as to what happened in the intervening 30 years.