[Colonol Dekker]

* Colonol Dekker eats sandwich forwards and launches career in entertainment.

[The E]

In the plus side, I quite liked the more dynamic camera feel when following the Falcon, but maybe that's just me, it gave more of a feel of speed and weight to the shot.

That said, how bloody close does every flying thing need to get to everything else, be it each other or the ground? These are primarily Space-borne vessels that need to land from time to time. I know Star Wars ignores Physics, and that's fine, but it's a freighter, it might be a fast freighter, but fast != maneuverable. The scene is well shot, but the Falcon looks wrong doing it.

Also, for some reason the start reminds me of the ending of the Red Dwarf episode 'Backwards', so I laugh when I watch it...

Well, Lando took the Falcon on a tour through the Death Star; I'd say that maneuvering through a building site at speed does require a fair bit of maneuverability.

[Luis Dias]

Let alone all those maneuvers around asteroids in ESB... all those crazy maneuvers against SDs... now that I think of it this idea that the Falcon isn't "maneuverable" is absolute horse****.

[AdmiralRalwood]

It may be a freighter, but it's a Corellian light freighter.

[Colonol Dekker]

But its no yt-2400..

[StarSlayer]

The Falcon will always be more classic than your N64 ride fond though those memories maybe

[Flipside]

The thing is, the Falcon's flight through the Death Star was pre-calculated, and they still managed to lose a scanner/defector thing, and to be honest, I did think it odd that the Falcon was leading the rebel fleet in ROTJ as well, it's kind of like a squadron of F16s being led by a very fast Chinook. All of a sudden the ship went from a small, fast smuggler ship that was designed to avoid 'Imperial Engagaments'  to some kind of ninja freighter. Also, the asteroid field was against the odds, as C3PO famously stated.

It looks cool and it won't stop me watching the movies and enjoying them, but it is strange how the Falcon turned into a Jedi spaceship.

[Luis Dias]

That is another throwback to Valerian's "Empire of a thousand planets" where their falcon-like ship spearheads a huge fleet against the darth vaders of it. I tried to search the scanned image of it which is quite alike to Star Wars rendition of it, but couldn't.

Instead, I found this interesting picture. It's more right on the money than I remembered it:



Also, for fun:



e: Found one of them:

[swashmebuckle]

Just from a basic moviemaking standpoint you can't leave the #1 hero ship in the garage, that would completely visually depersonalize the climactic battle, where visuals are the most important thing to an even greater extent than normally. Plus then you would have to either put Lando in a fighter (which is clearly not the horse he is associated with) or rely on a guy who has had like 10 totally insignificant lines and 30 seconds of screen time to save the day.

[Flipside]

Oh yes, I fully understand why it was used, same as in this trailer, but there's still that part of me that finds the jump from 'Ship designed to run away' to ''Master of Ship-Fu' a little bit jarring.

[Colonol Dekker]

It's faced tie fighters before.  It's avoided asteroids ties couldn't.

It's where jacen was conceived...

[deathfun]

Oh yes, I fully understand why it was used, same as in this trailer, but there's still that part of me that finds the jump from 'Ship designed to run away' to ''Master of Ship-Fu' a little bit jarring.

Or maybe...
...it's a Master of Ship-Fu *because* is was designed to run away

Think about it, running away takes more than just speed because sometimes, you can't just speed your way through things (like an asteroid field or a planet's surface). You've got to be nimble because sometimes your warp drive doesn't work and evasive maneuvers are all you've got left until it's fixed

[Flipside]

Then why make military vessels? After all, you have a ship right there that is every other vessel in the fleet rolled into one. It can dogfight like an X-Wing and has the shields and payload beyond that of a Y-Wing. You might need to bolt on some Proton launchers, but since most of the ship is cargo-space, that won't be a problem. They're big enough to perform the roles of shuttles or even small troop carriers, so if the Falcon could do everything it is depicted to do, a YT1300 would be pretty much the only small ship either the Military or the Bureaucracy would ever need.

And yes, I know Han and Chewie modified it, but if two hard-pressed smugglers can get the ship to that level, then it would be worth the effort of reverse engineering it.

[StarSlayer]

It's not all about the specs.

Who's got pilot skill?



This guy that's who.



Aside from ANH, which basically featured the first run of ILM's tech, the Falcon danced like a pro in two out of the three films.  All those Eyeballs and Squints look like they got served to me.

[Thaeris]

Thing about the Falcon...

It's like, all engine, man. And no cargo in just about any scenes we see it in. AND the engines are souped-up. It's basically got a massive power-to-weight ratio. It's still quite massive on account of being a freighter, but really, think of a C-17 performing at an airshow - lots of engine in a frame made to deal with pulling its own weight and several tons of other stuff. So when it's not laden with cargo... yeah.

[AdmiralRalwood]

And yes, I know Han and Chewie modified it, but if two hard-pressed smugglers can get the ship to that level, then it would be worth the effort of reverse engineering it.

Actually, according to the EU, Lando did all the heavy modifications before Han ever got his hands on it, so the Falcon's capabilities are not the result of tinkering by "two hard-pressed smugglers".

[deathfun]

Why make military vessels? Cheaper, and if something is damaged there's plenty of others that could use the parts when you scuttle it, they didn't have Han Solo until later in the war, and the Falcon requires more pilots (This point here - Takes minimum of two to pilot it, but where's the guns? There are no gunners so now you have a crew of four to have the marginal amount of use out of it. If you want best results, you'll also need pilots who know their **** in it and some other folks to be logistical support. On the X-Wing and Y-Wing side, you can have at least four flying around for the same number of people. Numbers wise, it's not worth it to make a fleet of freighters as you'd need to modify them heavily as Solo did [cost increase] with parts that probably aren't easy to come by or replicate [making it difficult to replace]. It also does not have bombing capabilities stock, but you had already mentioned that with having to bolt on proton launchers which probably won't be nearly as reliable. In the end, you'd have to take a great deal of time and effort to make it, something the Rebels do not have the luxury of)

The fewer targets the Imperials have to shoot, the better they'll fare in space combat, and to lose one would deal a bigger blow to the Rebels than if some X-Wing got shot down

[Flipside]

Well, I think I'll sum up my feelings by saying there are plenty of cinematographic reasons why the Falcon should be flying like that (or, indeed, the TIE's) and that's fine and good and what makes these movies good movies. But I don't think I'll ever accept a decent tactical reason for having a commercial freighter that has the level of manouverability and speed both inside and outside the atmosphere, that it can go nose to nose with military hardware and take an active part in frontline battles. I don't know about 'that's no moon', but that's certainly no freighter.

I agree fully that the Falcon was made the protagonist for the second Death Star attack, and, like every other member of the group it emerged victorious, but with wounds. But this left the writers a problem with the Falcon because it was now a 'Persona ex Machina', a character rather than a backdrop. So what do you do with the ship that was designed to run if it becomes a hero? Well, you do this, Star Wars has so much reality removed that it isn't so jarring if you're in popcorn mode, but I don't think I'll ever find a justification for it in a 'real-world' manner that sits comfortably with me.

Not that this bothers me, after all, it is primarily entertainment not a documentary, so I'll just watch the pew-pew and eat my popcorn like everyone else

[deathfun]

Ah fair enough

I presented my points, you yours, in the end meh!

[Colonol Dekker]

Why make military?

Because it breaks a status quo of everyone having equal footing.

Also. Is that demo falcon?  Could it be corellian confederation?