The Official Millennium Falcon Discussion Thread (Spoilers Allowed)

Oh, I can see that. Everyone has a different POV about Kane. It's kind of similar with the Falcon.

 

"*points to ****

Leia isn't exactly that great at the whole Midichlorian-Polygraph thing.

And when did she become a Jedi Master?"

OK, that was a typo. I was trying to write,

*Points to Black Fleet Crisis*

 

I just posted my review. I liked this book a lot, but have a couple questions:

So does Jacen help his family at the end... save Allana, get the Falcon working again?

How exactly does Oxin (the attorney dude, can't remember his name) get into the temple where the Republic seal is housed. Thought you needed the Falcon to get inside?

What the heck is happenening to the Falcon to destablize the landing platform at the temple? That made no sense to me why Han couldn't just set the ship down.

 

Finished this last night or early this morning. Liked it alot and liked learning the progression of the Falcon becoming the Falcon. Han being jealous of the guy who actually named her and having a macho one upmanship was funny but could see it happening. All the owners had interesting stories of the ship in their own right which really made the ship more alive to me, kind of like she was searching for her true owner until she found Han. The family moments of the Solos were also great. Was disappointed that the seal was a fake, but wouldn't mind reading about Jadak, Poste, Koi, and Oxic continuing on to find the original. The only part I really had any trouble with was when Allana was in danger and apparently Jacen or his memory inside her somehow gave her the strength to use the Force beyond her years or ability. Finally it did get me even more pumped for the FotJ series with the Heff moments (could he be the first sick Jedi), the Luke conversations (recalling the Jedi and being charged with a crime), and the eternal question about Jaina and Jag.

 

Sorry if this is no help, my memory is a bit hazy. i thought that a landing strut gave out on the falcon, which caused the weight to be distributed unevenly, which in turn caused the platform to start leaning.

I personally don't think Jacen was helping them--at least i hope he wasn't. it could be one of those point of veiw things though.

 

It was clear to me that Luceno had certain things he had to accomplish with the series (set up for LOTF, but make it stand-alone, wrap up some of the Jacen baggage). He did those and still made the book feel like it's focus was kept on the Falcon history and the must do stuff was worked in organically. The book's a winner in my... well, book.

 

Does anyone else think that the Falcon was over done in this book? Like it's history was too grand? It when from being Han's ship, to a ship with a mind of it's own that just brings Han along for the ride. Anyone could fly this ship and look like a million credits. I don't know, I guess I just wish it was more of a regular ship, y'know? The whole assembly line scene got to me i guess. I always thought it was the man that made the ship, not the ship that made the man.

 

Yes, I felt like Han really wasn't that special after this book.

 

I don't see how. The book made a constant point that even with a good ship, you still need a great pilot. And Han was constantly admired throughout the entire book for his piloting skills. If anything, it reinforced my excitement for Han's story in FOTJ.

As far as the "grand" tales of the Falcon, I don't think they were too over done. I mean the Falcon did assist in blowing up two death stars... I don't see how having it be part of a circus or a medical transport ship tops that. Plus, we saw it in ROTS so it had to tie in there. Basically, I thought it was well written so I went along for the ride.

I also liked the naming of the ship. Simple and effective.

As far as the ship having a mind of it's own... that was pretty much established in ESB when Threepio is trying to communicate with the ship after it breaks down post-Host. THe ship is quirky and I thought it could be controlled by its pilot, but it had a mission programmed into it that was sort of always there. I dug that. I could believe it and it didn't in any way take away from the awesomeness that is the Falcon.

 

All good points Fanboyskywalker. The only real gripe I had about the Falcons history was that it was totaled in that collision, then put back together with the parts of two different ships and became a YT 1300p or something like that. I know people restore cars with different parts everyday and it's no big deal, but with the Falcon it felt like over Kill. It's like over the years they've hit the Falcon with everything including the kitchen sink. What hasn't this ship done/been through? Seriously?

As for the droid brain, sure we have all known it's always been there, that's nothing new. What struck me as strange, however, was the part where Han says something like "it was as much of the Falcon flying than me that helped us avoid that crash" or something to that effect. The Falcons will to survive. At the end of the day it's just a ship, what does it care? The ship felt too human is all I'm trying to say. Sad to say the ship helping to fly itself does take away from Hans piloting. whose to say it wasn't the Falcon flying itself for self preservation at those Death Star Battles? Or the battles that followed for that matter.

 

Well, with artificial intelligence and computer controls who is to say the ship doesn't have some capacity for self-preservation. It does "speak" after all.

And I could buy a driver attributing his success to his vehicle. Happens all the time in racing and Nascar.

Additonally, judging by the age and look of the Falcon from the movies, as well as previous EU, I'm not surprised that the Falcon had so many repairs and upgrades. I also found it interesting to know that as part of it's history it basically sat in a junk lot for a bit of time.

I mean, this is the Falcon. Do you really want/expect a standard run of the mill YT-1300?

 

I wasn't really fussed by it being a wreck put back together from two ships. Frankly, Han has refitted it so many times I never thought any of it was still standard factory stock anyway. Its the kind of car you get in stuff like The Fast and the Furious: it might look like a YT-1300, but the engine under the hood is out of a Star Destroyer.

The droid brain seemed a little quirky at first... but I figured there's no reason why a ship can't be just as intelligent as R2-D2 or C-3PO. They're all AIs, so the same logic applies. It just seems to be something we haven't really come across before. I think the closest is some of the newer New Republic E-wings and such that got rid of their astromechs and had integrated droids instead, so presumably they still needed the processing power of the astromechs they replaced.

While we've never seen them do anymore "talking" than spitting out hyperspace suggestions and announcing damage reports, in theory they could be more interactive, we've just never noticed it. I actually rather like that it takes starships back to the old fashioned days of ships being seen as individuals and having personalities, but updating it to literal sense.

I assume its just like with how many times Luke has been told R2 is short circuiting and needs a memory wipe. Presumably you're meant to "defrag" your starship every once in a while, but maybe Han's left her brain intact, like R2, giving it its personified behaviour?

 

I like the Idea that the Falcon could almost be a droid. I have thought this myself recently and I kept getting hung up on one little detail. If the Falcon was so smart, why does it keep getting stolen? Wouldn't it be its own best anti theft device in a away? Couldn't it then decide who it allows to fly it?

You could say that R2 hangs around with Luke because there friends and you could then make the same case for the Falcon and Han. But in that clone wars episode R2 did everything in its power to not give Greivous the republics Battle plans, yet the Falcon got stolen in the last two books it appeared in. maybe these driod brain ships have loyalty issues?

Maybe it's not as advanced as droids. Ships can guide themselves with auto pilot on the preset coordinates, the book just made it seem that the falcon could take over when ever it wanted to--why, because it can?

Originally, wasn't the Falcon being an everyday run of the mill YT 1300 hunk of junk what made the Falcon cool? sure Han made modifications to the ship. But the point was it was only so good because nobody could fly a YT 1300 like Han could. Han made the falcon what it was, plain and simple. but now you have average joes take the yoke and follow the Invisible Hand down into Courscant because the ship is that good. the ship! It's the equivalent of picking up Lukes lightsaber and becoming Grand Master just because your in possesion of said lightsaber.

 

Like the Hat and the Glove of Darth Vader.

 

All they were doing was following a crashing ship down. Presumably Jarek is a good pilot in his own right so that shouldn't be too hard. When it came to the fancy flying (dodging the clone fighters) he got shot and ended up in a 60 year coma.

Well, at least in MF (as opposed to SoM) the Falcon had a fail safe so that it couldn't be stolen and it returned right back to the dock. It had retinal and voice analysis -- pretty smart.

I didn't get the sense it could take over when it wanted to, but it did have auto-pilot (though it never said how good it was). I buy things having auto-pilot (heck, modern day planes can land themselves).

As for the ship's brain... go back to ESB. Threepio says it can communicate... and it has a rather particular form of communicating at that. or something like that. Also, in SoM Lando and Threepio talk about Threepio needing to communicate between between different ships to transplate and interprete. Code is essentially another form of communication... a robotic language.

Also, as far as smarts and getting stolen. People are pretty smart on occasion, doesn't mean they don't get kidnapped.

 

You can over power a person, thats easy. But one of these high tech thinking for themselves ships...why wouldn't it just shut it self down?

 

The Falcon wasn't really stolen in the novel. It had something that even a slicer droid couldn't get by. It flew up into the atmosphere and then the program just returned it to the spaceport. Besides if people can be kidnapped or made to do things they don't want to, why can't an intelligent ship be forced to do the same? A great ship needs a great pilot and vice versa. Han and the Falcon are partners. Sure Han flew other ships before her, but he found greatness in the Falcon. Sure the Falcon had other owners that did some interesting things, but in Han she found a true owner, one who wouldn't give her away and included her in some great adventures.

 

I get what he's saying about the Falcon having a mind of it's own, and I'm on the same page. I just don't feel like the Falcon's intelligence over shadowed Han's in the book. Nor did I feel like the Falcon was controlling things.

I thought it was the right balance, but I have no interest in revisiting the topic again.

 

The MF didn't really help all its previous owners either, its quirkiness jsut gave them some very good or bad luck. It was always going from owner to owner, but when it found Han Solo it seems to have found its perfect match, a pilot that finally knew how to fly her. That's how I think about it, anyways.

Ok, I have to put this. I happen to be listening to Freebird right now, and pictured Han singing it while flying around crazy in the Millennium Falcon. PERFECT fit!

 

The Falcon was kinda portrayed to me as having a heavy hand in the fate of the galaxy. I mean Han is hinting that it was as much the ship's idea as Chewie's to go back and try to help Luke over the Death Star.

Maybe it can be dismissed as Han's POV, but its thrown in our way at every turn in this book. In my universe Han made the Falcon cool, not the other way around.

 

Just finished this yesterday morning and I feel like it was a breath of fresh air. After reading this I relized that Luceno may be my favorite Star Wars author that I never realized I liked. He is just very solid and dependable in his characterizations and continuity. To bad he got jammed with maybe the worst cover ever IMO.

 

Yeah, I remember that line about the death star, but the author didn't make a big point of it so I just kept going. I don't remember the exact wording, but I'm sure it was just Han think if it wasn't for having his own ship (the Falcon) he never would have been able to help Luke and never would have had the friends he had and had his life changed. I think Han is just giving the credit a lot of due since it has been with him so long. A lot of car drivers talk like that about their old muscles cars.

But anywho... the good far, far outweighed the bad, IMO. Was the book perfect? No. I gave it an 8 out of 10, in fact.

Han did make the Falcon cooler, though, but the Falcon was always cool. I mean, come on, Lando freaking Calrissian flew it before Han and we all know Lando only does cool.

 

I loved this novel--almost every aspect of it, from the characterizations (the Solos were dead-on, IMHO, and I loved how Luceno portrayed a more grown-up Allana) to the historical snippets about the ship. Something that truly resonated with me was what seems to have annoyed a lot of you here: that the Millennium Falcon was somehow always unique and special, regardless of who owned or flew her. Having dealt with complex machines for much of my life, I've come to feel myself that they can often seem to be imbued with a "personality," if you'll excuse the term--they'll work exceedingly well for you if you understand and treat them properly, but they can also give you a boatload of grief if you don't! The pilots and owners who loved the 'Falcon were the ones who understood this, and were able to coax the best from her--the individuals who hated her were the ones that didn't understand, and the ship responded to them accordingly... Having felt such an affinity to a machine, I really loved how Luceno wove that into the story and I felt it made the ship's "persona" even more rich. And I don't think it detracts in the least from Han Solo--it simply points out that he was one of the smart, lucky ones that "got her," and together they made an uncommonly ("...one in a millennium...?") good combination.

I also greatly appreciated how Luceno handled the emotions with which the Solos were still dealing, regarding Caedus' death--the narrative was revealing and sensitive without becoming maudlin. It was simply a glimpse into how any parent might feel, dealing with such a terrible loss...I, for one, needed to read a bit of that--to see that they are working toward closure, slowly but surely.

Overall I thought it was a wonderful read--plenty of action, some good bits of intrigue and mystery, and also a bit of storytelling about the central characters, all of which I thoroughly enjoyed. Luceno has a gift for playing in the GFFA, I think (I loved how he handled "The Unifying Force," too)--if he writes another book for the franchise, I'll be reading it.

FF

 

I'm not reading the reviews because I want to avoid spoilers but could someone tell me if this is worth reading? I don't mean in the context of is it good, I mean more along the lines of does it advance the overall plot in any way. Like will there be stuff I'm missing when I start FotJ?

 

I wouldn't say it's NECESSARY but it gives a good feel for the era, what the common every-day man thinks of Daala running the galaxy now, the pressures Luke is under in managing the Jedi, and the first rogue Jedi (Seff Hellin) who will make an apperance and set a trend in FOTJ. Not necessary, but it is a good prologue.