Headscratchers / Solo

The name "Tobias Beckett"

• Previous Star Wars movies have had some English-sounding first names (such as "Luke" and "Owen"), but most of them could be handwaved as coincidence. However, it's hard to handwave the fact that Tobias Beckett's first and last name are both common names on modern Earth, even though Star Wars doesn't take place in our galaxy, and is set in our past. Unless Tobias turns out to be a time traveler from Earth, that's quite a coincidence.
  • Beckett isn't the only Star Wars character to have a normal sounding name. Ezra Bridger from Rebels is a major character and both his first and last names are common Earth names too. Hell, even Owen's full name is Owen Lars, so names that sound common on Earth do exist in the Star Wars universe, just seemingly more rare.
  • It can't be forgotten that Skywalker doesn't exactly scream alien either.
  • Or "Han" even.

How did Han get ahead of Beckett

• So Beckett leaves with Chewie and the coaxium, and Han follows about five minutes later. Yet despite that head start, he somehow not only catch up but actually get ahead of Beckett to await him when he would needed to take a considerably longer detour for Beckett not to spot him in the open terrain.
  • Maybe he borrowed a bike from Enfys Nest's gang?
  • To follow up on the above idea, I'd say he probably stole a bike from Dryden's ship - he's later seen walking back with Chewie so I doubt he'd borrow one of the gang's bikes only to leave it out there.
  • He ran.
  • Beckett was probably slowed down due to the fact that Chewie was carrying the boxes. Even if they weren't too heavy, they were large and awkward, which would limit how fast they could go. If they were kept to a walking pace, Han could easily overtake them if he jogged.
  • And that's discounting the fact that Chewie may have been deliberately slowing their pace, or perhaps even taking a longer route (remember, Beckett was behind Chewie holding him at blasterpoint) to give Han more time.

Kessel's Main Export

• Wasn't Kessel the main planet for mining Spice? The same substance that Han dumped "at the first sight of an Imperial inspection," and therefore got him in loads of trouble with Jabba? So, if Kessel contains the main source of drugs and fuel, wouldn't it make sense for the Empire to immediately lock the place down? Yes, there currently is a criminal element in charge of the planet, but why is this a problem for the Empire?
• Which also begs the question of why there are no processing facilities for coaxium near Kessel. You mine an extremely volatile and rare mineral that will explode after a set amount of time. Why would you transport such a material any further than necessary? If you are worried about possible explosions, why not build the refinery in orbit? If you are the Empire, why allow a refinery to exist on a planet (that you have to know about, it seemed common knowledge to the main characters) that you do not control? The whole process seems unnecessarily complicated.
• Something that's common knowledge to a bunch of thieves and smugglers doesn't mean it's common knowledge to everybody. And presumably there are refineries closer — just not ones that Han and his crew can use.

The Kessel Run

• Perhaps due to what was happening it was kind of hard to really make it all out, but as cool as it was seeing Han at the peak of his flying skills while navigating the maelstrom, it sort of made the legendary feat not seem quite as difficult as it should didn't it? Two Imperial Pilots were clearly able to at least keep up with him until he showed off of his ingenuity. Then there was (one of?) the gravity wells of the Maw which was less a matter of skill than it was conveniently having the power to give the Falcon a well timed boost, as well as the Falcon being able to take the boost and not completely fall apart. And of course, the fact that L3 is apparently the only droid with the navigational chops to pull this off? All the droids out there and she's the only one to ever manage it? With all that said, did the film just conveniently skip over more of the Run than was shown? Not to mention...how exactly did word get out that Han was the one who actually did it? As a big a deal as it was made, no one seemed too impressed at the time. The sequence was cool, not taking away from it, but I'm wondering.
  • Legendary stuff always gets embellished down the line. Things we hear about people having done that seemed crazy and impossible often weren't as impossible as we heard.
  • Keep in mind that it was Han who was the one bragging about his "legendary" Kessel Run. The only other person who acts like this is a big deal is Rey who hero-worships him.
  • The reveal that "parsec" is indeed a unit of distance even in the Star Wars universe and that Han knew it's a unit of distance makes it all the more confusing that he'd boast about making the Kessel Run in twelve parsecs in response to ObiWan's insistence that they need a fast ship. It would have made more sense if Han himself had been confused as to what a parsec was (of course, then we're left wondering how someone who doesn't know a basic unit of space-flying distance could be a good pilot...)
  • Units of distance make sense when dealing with a strong gravity well like the Maw. The faster your ship is and the more precise your piloting skills, the closer to the gravity well you can fly and the more time you shave off the trip. A slower ship or a less skilled pilot would have to chart a course that flew around the Maw, adding travel distance and time.
  • Which brings us back to the fact that the ship wasn't that special to successfully make the run, they just used the equivalent of space NOS. But Han probably doesn't like to mention that part when bragging.
  • To be fair, when Obi-wan asked Han if the Falcon was a fast ship, he wasn't interested in how well it would perform in a drag race. He was interested in getting to Alderaan quickly because he had an urgent message to deliver. The Kessel Run being made in 12 parsecs demonstrates that the Falcon is capable of shaving off a significant amount of distance (and therefore, more than likely, time) travelled in Hyperspace, which was exactly what Obi-wan and Luke needed at the time.
  • Those TIE pilots only got as far as they did because they were following Han. Presumably most pilots wouldn't get past the "carbonbergs", much less the lightning, the creature, or the Maw. The Run still depended greatly on Han's skills and Chewie's co-piloting.

Han's Age

• If Q'ira is talking to Darth Maul at the end of this movie, then the events of Phantom Menace haven't happened yet. Which means Anakin Skywalker is no more than 10 years old at this time and at least 10-15 years from even conceiving Luke and Leia with Padmé. Just what is the age difference between Han and Leia? Han has to be at least in his early 20's when we meet him here.
  • To answer your question, there is a 10 year age gap between Han and Leia. Leia was born 19BBY and is 19 in a New Hope, 22 in Empire Strikes Back and 23 in Return of the Jedi. Han was born 29BBY, is 29 in ANH, 32 in ESB and is still 32 in ROTJ (assuming you don't age while carbonite frozen).
    • Legends did give Han a birth year of 29BBY, but the new canon instead puts his birth in 32BBY (the same year The Phantom Menace took place), which adds an additional 3 years to the aforementioned numbers. That would put the age difference between Han and Leia at 13 years, which is actually less than the real life age difference between Harrison Ford (born 1942) and Carrie Fisher (born 1956).
  • The trick here is that Darth Maul was revealed to have survived the events of The Phantom Menace in the animated series The Clone Wars and survives into the following animated series Star Wars Rebels. You'd have to watch a number of episodes from both series to get the whole story.
  • Check the legs in the hologram. They are robotic because he lost the bottom half. As said there is a long list of canon that reveals and shows what Maul was up to. He'll actually be finally killed shortly before A New Hope (well Rogue One) by Obi-Wan on Tatooine.
  • The entire rest of the film is very clearly set after Revenge of the Sith, with the Empire being around, as shown by all the Stormtroopers and Star Destroyers, when Attack of the Clones made it clear that the Republic had no army prior to the Clone Wars, so the conclusion we're probably meant to draw is 'wow, Darth Maul survived?' rather than 'wait, Han Solo was in his twenties before the Clone Wars?'
  • Did the OP not wonder how there could be an Empire if this was before Episode I? The logical conclusion is that Maul survived his injury on Naboo, which will be a major surprise to most, but was revealed in the (still canon) Clone Wars series years ago.
  • This film is set sometime in 10 or 9BBY. Han Solo is stated by canon to have been born 29BBY, making him 29 during the events of A New Hope (0BBY), 32 during Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi (unless he still aged while frozen in carbonite during that 1 year between Empire and Return). So during Solo, he is about 19-20 years old.
    • The new canon has put Han's birth year in 32BBY, the same year the Phantom Menace takes place. As for the statement in the opening about Anakin, Luke, and Leia's age, during the events of this film, Anakin is 31 and currently a Dark Lord of the Sith and right-hand man to Emperor Palpatine as Darth Vader, while Luke and Leia are both 9 and growing up on Tatooine and Alderaan, respectively.

"Lawless Time"

• During the time of the prequels, the galaxy was run by a thoroughly corrupt and ineffective republic. It makes sense that all kinds of organized crime syndicates would have a great deal of power. But after the Empire takes over, why is the galaxy even more full of crime and lawlessness than before? Real world totalitarian regimes tend to crush organized crime and punish lawbreakers with death or extremely harsh penalties. Why would the Empire allow groups like the Pyke Syndicate or the Hutt Cartel to exist?
  • At this time, the Empire is still making the shift from the Republic and, strong as they are, they can't be everywhere at once. Thus, they don't have quite the manpower yet to start crushing down on criminal empires as they still have sparks of resistance that will lead the Rebellion.
  • More importantly, it's established that the Hutts aren't some run of the mill crime organization. They have systems under their control with operatives all over the galaxy. The Emperor is smart enough to know that starting a war with the Hutts will be a huge waste of time and resources. More importantly, if the Empire were to crack down, the various crime syndicates will put their differences aside to face a common threat and they have access to arms and riches even much of the Empire doesn't. The Emperor may want to deal with them eventually but in this time period, he's willing to let them slide on their actions rather than add chaos to things.
  • Check out Fascist, but Inefficient and Plausible Deniability. The empire is ten time as corrupt as the Republic ever was. They are not interested in keeping their citizenry safe or prosperous. As long as the Syndicates toe the line (ie do not try to undermine the Empire) the Empire probably finds them more useful than anything else. High-ranking imperials probably have all sort of deals with organized crime to get richer or get an edge over the other Imperials they are competing with for power. The movie addresses this subtly with Vos having a meeting with an Imperial Governor and a destroyer being sent to the Pykes' rescue, in ESB we also Vader being completely okay to work with Boba Fett who is also working with Jabba at the time, etc.
  • The Empire is more Authoritarian than Totalitarian. Palpatine isn't interested in reshaping the minds of everyone in the galaxy; he just wants absolute power for himself and a bit less power for his subordinates. He's happy to let crime flourish if it serves his interests, and hell in Legends one of his closest advisors was even the most powerful crime lord in the galaxy.
  • The Empire is held back by the fact they're still ostensibly a "real" government, and not a dictatorship. Works set early in the Empire's rule plus A New Hope basically depicts the Emperor as having to pay lip service to the idea of the Senate to keep the galaxy from fracturing into full on civil war (perhaps not-so-coincidentally, the order to dissolve the pretense of a democracy came shortly after the Battle of Scarif, when the Galactic Civil War started anyway). Organized crime helps them get around this.
  • Even if the crime syndicates don't benefit the Empire, the Empire is a very superficial regime that throughout the entire franchise really only seems interested in exercising rule over systems that are either pleasing to the eye, rich with resources, or serve as a status symbol. As stated above, Fascist, but Inefficient. Like the Republic before them, they only visit the grimy parts of the galaxy when they absolutely have to, i.e. sending troopers to Tatooine when they found out R2 had escaped there. They simply don't care about what's going on in systems they deem uncivilized, poor, or barren.
  • Except Corellia is an important core world planet. Hence whey they have troops on duty at its spaceport permanently. The Empire isn’t going to let a low ranking mob member shoot up their shipyards and push around its stormtroopers in a spaceport.

L3-37's "Death"

• Okay, we know she had to die because her processor gets plugged into the Millennium Falcon, but seriously, Threepio also got blown to shreds and was put together without any negative effects. Why did Lando act as though his best friend died; and even if she was, couldn't he have just put her back together?
  • Isn't that like saying that because some people survive getting shot, even in the head, no gunshot wounds should be fatal? Clearly whatever damage L3 sustained was irreparable.
  • Threepio was torn apart. L3-37 was blasted in half, not in the head. And if the round in the head happened, it should have damaged the processing unit (which was, IIRC, located in the chest cavity in any case.
  • Remember also that they were two different models. 3PO may have been a newer or updated version with a more robust or easily repaired memory unit (which would naturally be the most expensive part of a sapient droid)
  • Heck, L3 looked kludged together from bits and pieces of a lot of different droids (chest, head, and upper arms look like parts of R2 units or similar, for example). It's likely L3 was enough of a jury-rig that fixing her wasn't really doable. And maybe it was, eventually, but at the time (in the middle of the Kessel Run) they couldn't, and needed her navigational data, so uploading her into the Falcon is what really "killed" her.
  • I don’t think it is out of character at all. Droids may be repairable, but there is nothing to say it is a sure thing. A year ago my computer died. I had everything backed up except for one folder (I have no idea why timemachine ignored this one!). I took it to a repair shop to see if they could salvage the harddrive. I was very confidient that it was intact but I still had some degree of doubt and worried that I might not recover the folder.

With droids it would be even more critical, surely a single lost file could change their personality, akin to a human suffering a brain injury.Lando knew he could repair or replave her body, but he had no idea if she was intact mentally. Also, at a basic level, he saw his friend/lover(?) being shot.

Chewbacca's Family/Tribe

• When discussing what they'll do with their shares of the take after the heist is completed, Chewbacca says he's going to help free his people from the Empire's slavery. Later Chewie is seen helping a few Wookiees get off Kessel, and then... decides to pull more jobs with Han. Were those the only Wookiees the Empire had enslaved? If so, what happened to the rest of the Kashyyk? If not, did Chewbacca just decide "well, one good deed is enough, I suppose"?
  • They gave away the whole of the Coaxium to a rebel cell, that's helping. Chewie has both a duty towards the Wookiee people and towards Han as he wouldn't have escaped the Empire without him. He can't help the Wookiees much right now and Han needs someone to help him remember who he really is. It's as good a compromise as any.
  • During that campfire discussion before the heist, Chewbacca says (according to Han's translation) that the Wookiees have been enslaved and that Chewie wants to FIND them- not liberate every last one of them. The ambiguousness of this suppososed statement is further compounded by Han's admission that he doesn't know if Chewie meant "family" or "tribe" when referring to his "people", not to mention Beckett's comment of "whats the difference?". All of the previous further muddies the waters as to whether or not Chewbacca's mission was to liberate any and/or all Wookiees he finds, or just the ones from his tribe, or his immediate family... or for that matter, just locate them without actually freeing them.

Han's knowledge of his own surname

• If Han remembers his dad enough to know what company he worked for and the kinds of ships he built, how does he not know his own family name? Do factory workers just not rate family names on Corellia, like feudal serfs?
  • Some cultures (like Dooku's) don't have several names. Maybe the Empire is trying to normalize things and force its citizens to have two names?
    • This has parallels in real world history. Jewish people in Europe did not have last names until they were required to take last names, in a series of laws and proclamations made in the late 18th and first half of the 19th century. This is why so many Jewish people have last names that are the names of German cities, towns, and villages (they chose where they lived as their surname) or are the name of a trade (they chose the name based on their job).
  • He says to Lando that he didn´t get along with his father, he probably didn´t like him and that´s why he rejected his name. I think that´s what he means when he says that he has no people. He problably ran away from home when he was very young.
  • Another possibility would be that last names on Corellia are linked to class, and so by giving them his last name he would be marking himself as someone who isn't allowed to be traveling.
    • That's a plausible hypothesis, given how classist some Real Life societies are about last names. That said, in such a society "no last name" is usually worse than "the wrong last name"...

Why did they need to blow the bridge during the Train Job?

• Val's job during the train heist is to blow up the bridge after the crew recovers the Coaxium carriage. The question is, why do Tobias's crew needs to blow the bridge in the first place? Isn't their only goal is recovering the Coaxium? And they'll have to detach the carriage from the main train anyway, so why couldn't they just let the rest of the train go? It doesn't matter if the rest of the train reaches its destination if they get what they came for, plus Val could be an extra hand on the train instead of having to fend off the Viper droids alone on the bridge, which gets her killed.
  • The original plan seems to have been destroying the bridge so the Viper droid would be destroyed before they could react to the heist. They would probably have realised something was off when the train crossed the bridge with a missing carriage, but got tipped off earlier than planned with all the battle going on.
  • The train cars appeared to be connected to the track, and could not be simply lifted away like a train car on Earth. The bridge had to be blown to break the track. Beckett even said that the car would just slide right off after they blew the bridge. It wasn't because of the Viper droids. It was just simple physics. You can't lift the car away when it's secured holds on to the track on both sides.
  • Assuming that whatever mechanism that holds the train cars to the tracks is deactivated when Val blew the bridge up and herself along with it, the train still continues to run as normal and only falls down the ravine when it runs off the broken tracks. The coaxium car is lifted away when it is disconnected from the front cars (as Han and Chewie already disconnected it from the back cars earlier) so I'm guessing that Han is able to lift it away is because the car is no longer connected to the rest of the train, therefore disconnected from the mechanism that locks it on the tracks. I don't think that it has anything to do with the bridge at all because it would be very weird if whatever is holding the train cars on the tracks is deactivated - leading to the train containing priceless or dangerous materials falling off the tracks and endangering the landscape - just because some parts of the tracks are broken and there is no emergency brakes in place. Think roller coasters without safety brakes. Wouldn't want to go on a train like that.
  • The "mechanism" holding the cars on the track is gravity and their own mass, more or less. Think of the train as a row of beads on a string. The track had to be blown somewhere, so the coaxium car could be "un-threaded." The bridge was the best place to do so, as it afforded the most room to maneuver.
  • The train has another set of cars underneath, so the rail is between the two sets, the only way to detach a car is by breaking the rail.

Why did Lando leave?

• Why did Lando wait all of two minutes for his cut from the heist before taking off? You'd think a job that got his friend destroyed, left his ship in tatters, and almost cost him his life several times would be one he would want to see through right up to the moment he gets paid.
  • He saw the Cloudriders, saw Han and Beckett were hopelessly outnumbered, and cut his losses. If he's not going to get paid either way, best to escape with his skin and what's left of his ship.

The Plan Makes No Sense

• When I was watching it, things seemed to make sense, then today it hit me. The plan made no sense. Early on the team tried to steal hyperfuel from the Empire to sell to Crimson Dawn. However at the end it is revealed that Crimson Dawn and the Empire are allies and the hyperfuel would have gone straight to the Empire.
  • Not really. Darth Maul has no standing in the Empire (Palpatine and/or Vader would kill him if they found out about him again), so he's not funneling Crimson Dawn's gains directly to the Empire. Crimson Dawn might have relations with certain Imperials, but they're not allies (Dryden Vos' Establishing Character Moment is killing an Imperial governor, after all). Crimson Dawn wanted the coaxium for whatever reason, either to use it to fuel their own ships or sell it at a black-market markup. Even if they wound up selling it back to the Empire, that still works for them. . . they still get paid, and if the Empire doesn't know they stole it in the first place, no repercussions.

The Plan Makes No Sense II

• Vos only approved the plan after Han and Beckett suggested if it went wrong, he could deny all knowledge or approval of their actions, because no one knew Han and Beckett were working for Vos and Crimson Dawn. He then immediately insists they be accompanied by Qi'ra, who not only is openly working for Vos, but has a very clear Crimson Dawn tattoo in her wrist!
  • Qui´Ra accompanies them to oversee the operation and make sure that the coaxium is delivered, not ot take part on the actual heist. It´s her decision to take part on it. Also, she kills the leader of the Pyke syndicate, probably in order to cover her tracks.
  • It wasn't her decision, she was ordered to go. And anyone who knows Vos would know his, as he himself put it, most powerful lieutenant. It's all but screaming that this mission has his blessing on it.
  • Tropers are also forgetting that Qi'ra wore a disguise with a fabricated identity, for the express purpose of obscuring any connection to Vos and Crimson Dawn.

The Plan Makes No Sense III

• Young Han's 'escape' from Corellia suffers from multiple problems that are not easily swept under the rug.
  • First. I get it that were supposed to hate the empire, but there is no way the Empire would be managing customs control on that planet. That would be the local authorities responsibility. And Im sure the locals would be as corrupt as they come. However, the empire as an organization, is simply too vast to trouble itself with such trifling, low-level administrative duties. At most, the empire might have a few liaison people on site, but even that that would be questionable. The empire would certainly not detail front line combat troops(ie stormtroopers), for customs and immigration duty on a backwater like Corellia.
  • Second. Hans 'plan, to get off-world, and its execution, is beyond stupid. He steals the glowing green rocks from his crime boss patron and this triggers a car-chase to the space-port. So what *should* he have done? (Not what he did). He SHOULD have fenced the green-rocks for MONEY. Then, you take the MONEY, and buy PAPER's with it. NEXT, you take your new PAPER's, and buy what are called, TICKETS. Then you get off-world. Instead, Han confronts his crime boss, and this triggers the implausible and head-scratching sequence of events at the space-port. Han is supposed to have some measure of 'street-smarts', or at least its implied he does. None of this is on display during the movies opening act and the manner he uses to escape detection and arrest is frankly, silly.
  • Speaking of the imperials, their actions and conduct at the spaceport on Corellia appear sloppy, dis-organized, arbitrary, and quite random, as if their only 'duty', is to hassle people and rough them up. They appear to have no protocols, guidelines, training, or even basic idea of what it is they are there to actually do. Which leads to the next head-scratcher, why does that Imperial official trigger an alert (breach), yet Han is basically free to walk away from this situation by doing nothing more than donning, a hat? Alerts apparently mean almost nothing in that facility, one that completely lacks, basic-surveillance systems and physical barriers to control people's movements. Much less any personnel to actually respond immediately to such alerts. Which, really, should be, literally, right there on duty at the barrier itself. Even the 'secure' area is a free-for-all zone where no one actually seems tasked with responding to alerts in coherent manner.
  • For the first point, Corellia is not a backwater planet at all. It's actually one of the Core Worlds and therefore right in the middle of the Galactic Empire territory, plus it's an important shipyard (we can clearly see an Imperial Star Destroyer being build right in the opening) so it makes sense that the Imperial presence on planet would be high, and of course, being Imperials, it's not that far fetched to think that they'll most likely want to have total control of the planet. Armed soldiers at spaceports to detain new arrivals and departures to show dominance over the local population make sense to me. I think it's probably because Corellia shown in the movie is kinda...backwater-ish, while in the Legends EU it's actually a metropolitan planet with numerous big cities, if not as large as Coruscant itself.
  • For the second point. Han wasn't actually planning to confront his crime boss. He was actually hired by her to steal that piece of coaxiam rock for her, but he was planning to use it to buy himself and Q'ira a chance to get offworld. They were just caught by her goons before they could escape, so Han had to improvise, which led to an all-out street chase and blowing their original escape plan out of the window. With the crime boss's goons in hot pursuit, Han had no time to use that rock to buy a proper permit so he had no choice but to use it to bribe the official instead. Had he and Q'ira have time to get a long-enogh headstart, I'm sure they would've figure out a safer and more legal way to get off-planet.
  • For the third point, I have no arguments. We'll just have to chalk it up to good ol' Imperial incompetence displayed in other films. I mean, how many times Rebel saboteurs managed to infiltrate their bases under their own Imperial disguise uniforms? Hell, Rogue One is perhaps the worst case of this. Cassian stole an Imperial officer uniform, which has no helmet or mask to hide his face, and Jyn stole that black Imperial Navy uniform, but she's significantly shorter than him, yet the guards at the main gate didn't notice them anyway. Yep, Imperial incompetence in play alright.
    • The Imperial incompetence actually has even more justification here than usual. Han claims, probably accurately, that he washed out of officer training for "having a brain", and he was both the only one to recognize that Beckett was a fake and particularly treated as a 'troublemaker'. He kept asking what they were doing, why they were doing it, etc. and continually treated like he had no right and no duty to ask. So if there's one thing an Imperial Stormtrooper knows he must not do if he sees a very short Imperial Navy person, it's ask anybody whether this is a problem or not - Note that, in the very first movie, Leia also identifies Luke as being short for a Stormtrooper, and yet nobody questioned him either.

The Plan Makes No Sense IV

• Han plans for the possibility that Beckett (and maybe even Qi'ra) might betray them by switching the canisters of coaxium. However this plan means that Han delivers the real coaxium to Crimson Dawn. If you can't trust anyone, why would the Cloud-Riders trust Han not to just give the coaxium to Vos as per his original agreement?
  • They did trust him. "You can't trust anyone" was Beckett's logic, not theirs. Han believed in their cause and they believed he was a good person who wouldn't betray them. Also, they really didn't have much choice, since they weren't willing to give up the coaxium, and trying to keep it without first dealing with Vos meant Vos having them hunted down and killed.

Control of coaxium

• The movie establishes that coaxium is an extremely important resource, as it seems to be the only fuel that allows starships to go into hyperdrive. And Kessel is explicitly stated to be the only known place where you can mine unrefined coaxium, which gets turned into the fuel. Why is it, then, that the only source of such an extremely important resource is controlled by what seems to be less than a hundred members of a criminal syndicate, who get easily overthrown by a slave rebellion? Why hasn't the Empire seized control of Kessel as one of the most strategically important sites in the entire galaxy?
  • I don't think Kessel was named as the only source of coaxium, just as the only likely place to be able to steal unrefined coaxium. Maybe it is the most likely place to steal it from because it has comparatively low security.
  • Kessel is not the only source of coaxium. The coaxium stolen and lost in the train heist wasn't sourced there, and during the sit-down, Qi'ra enumerates other places were it could be stolen from which are under Imperial control (Scarif being one of them).
  • Those places are listed as potential spots where to steal refined coaxium. But Kessel is mentioned as the only place they could go to where unrefined coaxium is mined, i.e. the raw material that gets processed into refined coaxium.
  • Perhaps the other sites mine it too but refine it on the spot. Kessel may be the only place where it is mined but not refined because they don't have any local refineries. They get by with the lax security because anyone who steals the unrefined stuff gets blown up when it explodes in their faces. And it looks very much like the Empire is taking over Kessel when Han leaves, as they've parked a Star Destroyer blocking the only safe passage.
  • The Star Destroyer was coming in response to the slave revolt. However this suggests that the mine is a franchise run under Imperial protection. The locals do the dirty job of mining it, while the Imperials have enough muscle nearby if anyone tries to steal it or seize the planet.

Hidden Spaceport on Savareen?

• Beckett grabs the coaxium and Chewie to carry it and then...goes for a stroll along the beach? Where is he going? Does he have a ship stashed somewhere? If so, when did he get another ship and the time to hide it? Is he going to just find someone with a ship and bribe his way onboard? Is there another spaceport within walking distance on the planet?
  • Maybe he knew the general configuration of the area (it probably wasn't his first time at the refining stations) and just decided to mosey to the nearest spaceport and as you said, buy a ride with the coaxium.
• For that matter, how do Chewie and Han get off Savareen after Beckett is dead? Lando left with their ride. Did Enfys give them a ride in whatever ship she brought?
  • Those motorcycle things look large enough to fit more than one rider. Surely someone has extra helmets and gear for Han and Chewie to borrow.

No one else spots Lando's cheating?

• The way Lando cheats in the card game is very obvious, because he plays a card that's already been played during the same round, and it's not like the device on his wrist is that well hidden either... And it's implied he keeps on using the same cheat repeatedly, as he tried it again in the second game with Han. So how come no one else besides Han notices this blatant cheating? Considering the place they're in, it seems unlikely that all of the other players are naive amateurs who wouldn't suspect a well-known criminal like Lando to cheat in a game.
  • I think he picks and chooses when to use the card up his sleeve very carefully; he may only use it once per game, or not even do it in every game. It's only an obvious cheat to us because we see it happening. Also, he travels a lot, so he plays against a fresh set of suckers every time. Han didn't exactly call him out on his BS, nor did he announce in advance that he was coming for a rematch, so Lando figured he didn't need to switch things up until it was too late.
  • In universe it is probably more subtle, but for movie viewing purposes it has to be obvious enough for the audience to see. For such situations the Bellisario's Maxim was made.
  • He probably plays it only when he really really really needs to win. Others might notice the odd shape of his wrist, but probably brush it off as a holdout blaster or something similar. Han was just the first person who really needed to beat Lando and was sharp enough to put everything together.
  • Han had the benefit of not only "needing to win", but having the background of a scumrat who'd been running street scams since he was ten. Tricks like Lando pulled are second nature to him. If anything, Han was kicking himself for not detecting the scam earlier.

The Imperial Military accepts everyone into Officer school?

• Han is able to wander up to an Imperial Recruitment Station, and join flight school right off the bat. If Han hadn't been insubordinate, he would have become an officer. This means that the Imperial military is willing to accept almost any vagrant off the street, with no college, no introduction letter, no influential politician, no testing, and be on the fast track to officer's school immediately. Yes, Han washes out because he's insubordinate, but isn't this out of character for the Empire? Isn't that a bit too egalitarian for the Galactic Empire? Even in our world, people are expected to have connections, prior training in college, or achievements to get in to flight school, but not so in the Empire. You just walk up and request it, and they just stamp the form, and you're in.
  • Presumably there is some form of aptitude testing. If Han had flunked this he would have been assigned to Cannon Fodder right away instead of being kicked out later. The recruiting officer is just telling Han what he wants to hear.
  • I presume the lack of ethics within the Empire extends to recruitment speeches. They likely tell everyone who comes up that they 'can be an officer in the imperial navy', and leave out the part where they'll more likely find themselves in cardboard armor, being shelled by rebels on some godforsaken hellhole. Han qualified for officer training, because as noted he's very, very good (and people like Vader and Tarkin do appreciate competence).
  • It's worth remembering that the Empire's approach to strategy is very much Quantity over Quality. Their main tactic in most engagements is to strap a ridiculous amount of Redshirts into TIE fighters and throw them at the target, hoping to overwhelm it with sheer numbers. TIE fighters are essentially twin ion engines with guns and a little cockpit strapped on. There's no deflector shields or armor. They're cheap, easy to mass produce, and quick to replace. It would make sense that their pilots would be from the lower rungs of Imperial society. Someone from, or with connections to, the higher ranks of Imperial society probably get sent to a more "exclusive" Naval Academy, one that probably grooms them for more command roles, and if they DO see the inside of any kind of starfighter, it's probably somewhere well away from any kind of real threat. Recruits like Han, meanwhile, probably get sent to an academy which grooms them for a more "go forth and die in the name of the Empire" role. While that sounds like a raw deal, for someone from the dregs of a society with little upward mobility, being a TIE pilot is probably seen as a way to actually move up the ranks. As someone pointed out earlier, people like Vader and Tarkin to prize competence, and if a TIE pilot manages to survive multiple engagements, he or she has got a better shot than most to be noticed by a higher ranking Imperial official, which would most certainly lead to a better quality of life than where they came from.
    • "Many are accepted, but few are chosen".

The original train job plan

• Beckett is originally highly opposed to taking Han into the Caper Crew, and Val continues to disapprove of taking on "amateurs" even after Han and Chewie get the approval of the others. But how in the world was the train job originally supposed to work? Chewie, a Wookie, is barely able too detach a train car by himself, and even Han and Chewie together find it difficult to detach one. There's no way Beckett could have done it himself, but Val has to be in position to detonate the bridge, (and it seems doubtful that even Beckett AND Val could have detached the car) and Rio is needed to pilot the ship.
  • Val objects to bringing along Han and Chewie as "amateurs", not to getting more help. She may have had other people in mind and then Beckett overruled her by going with Han and Chewie.
  • Val knew damn well they needed more people for the heist. That's why she herself suggested Bossk, a well-known and experienced mercenary, and/or the Zann Sisters (who are presumably also well qualified)to Beckett as an alternative.

Big flying yacht at the scene of a crime

• So Voss turns up within maybe a couple hours after the train job to collect his cut. That's no so implausible, as they could have arranged it that way ahead of time. But wouldn't that giant space yacht be easily traceable to him? And any observers would obviously connect him to the train robbery, right? Why would he do that?
  • Because The Light is a floating headquarters that presumably travels all over the galaxy and touches down on multiple planets. It's presence is not proof positive that its owner is complicit in any nefarious deeds that might happen to occur on said planet while he's there.

Dryden's weird scars

• Do Dryden's weird red scar things hurt when they show up? It seems like they would but he never screams or grimaces or anything. I suppose it's possible he's just that tough. Particularly since when you're really mad you can't feel pain as much.
  • By the way, from where these scars came from? One of the asumptions could be that Dryden got them as a punishment from previous operations' failures - you know, Maul personally could provide these to him. As for "screaming and grimacing" part, Dryden tries to keep his cool at all times - 'cause he's running a powerful syndicate of criminals, and he doesn't want to show weakness.

"Who are your people?"

• Any idea why the Officer asks this instead of just asking "What is your last name?" Has anyone ever heard someone else (in fiction or Real Life) ask someone's last name this way?
  • There's a guess farther up this page that surnames on Corellia are linked to social class. If Han runs in certain circles, maybe he's got a surname that appears in a database somewhere and can be looked up by the recruiter.
  • The Officer first asks "Han what?" My interpretation is that when Han hesitated to answer, the Officer took it to mean he had no last name, and started fishing for something to fill in the space.

Enfys Confusion

• So after watching tho movie with all his friends, this troper found that we all had the same question, that being why is Enfys Nest so small when meeting with Han when compared to the fight on the train ?
  • Whoever wears the mask is Enfys Nest, and Enfyst Nest is whoever is wearing the mask - that's not necessarily the same person every time. The "real" Enfys may be the leader of the group but sent someone bigger and stronger for what would potentially be a more physical job, or had other business of some kind.
  • More likely it is a case of Obvious Stunt Double.

Probe Droid Guards?

• Why is the Imperial train guarded by probe droids? Didn't Empire Strikes Back clearly establish that probe droids are only designed for scouting, not defense? In fact, Han in Empire Strikes Back actually comments on how easy the droids are to destroy, making it seem pretty clear they aren't ideal for combat.
  • It is probably a modular design. A basic chassis that can be outfitted and modified for many different roles would make sense for a mass market producer. This variant does have a flatter upper module (as opposed to the more dome shaped top in Empire) as well as a chunkier looking lower segment, and a different set of lower limbs too.
  • It's also implied that the probe droid Han shot on Hoth was destroyed not because it was flimsy, but because it was programmed to self-destruct after being shot to avoid being captured. Presumeably probe droids meant for combat would not behave the same way.

Why is an Imperial army division keeping a pet Wookiee in a war zone?

• So this infantry unit on the front lines of a combat zone brought a Wookiee to the planet and built this big elaborate cage to hold him for...what exactly? To execute deserters? Wouldn't it be more efficient to just shoot them? Perhaps this was supposed to be some sort of homage to Jabba and his Rancor pit, but here it really doesn't add up. Jabba is a mafia boss with tons of cash and free time, so if he wants to blow it on a big unnecessary death traps in his headquarters, who's going to argue? But you'd just think grunts on the front lines would have better and more efficient use for their time.
  • The Empire enslaved the Wookiees of Kashykk expressly because of their great strength and stamina, so a comparatively young specimen like Chewbacca would be exceptionally valuable. Chewie may have been captured recently and the troopers or their superior were probably waiting for the opportunity to turn him over to someone who would pay a nice fat reward for such a valuable slave.
• Okay next question. We know Chewbacca is a rational sentient intelligent being. So why is he trying to murder random prisoners thrown into the cage? He has no reason to do that. He's not a bad guy or an animal.
  • They are not random prisoners, they are imperial soldiers. Think about it from Chewie's perspective; he has been tortured, taunted, starved, made to live in a pit of mud (and presumably his own faeces) and then they drop someone wearing the uniform of the army who did all that to him. Beating them up (not to mention eating them up) is the only bit of food and revenge available to him.

"Sure, let the armed traitor come right in"

• So if Dryden Vos knew Han was going to turn against him in their final meeting, why did he let him come into his office (and smuggle a gun in)? Why not just have the guards arrest or execute him immediately?
  • Bond Villain Stupidity, he wanted a chance to have a nice old gloat and see Han squirm a bit. He thought that he had all the answers, that Han would not be able to touch him, and he was sadistically anticipating enjoying the moment. If he was rational and normal, then he wouldn't be a space-gangster.
  • Two possible reasons: First, he thought the goods were being loaded onto the rebels' bikes, so he didn't want to spring the trap on Han until they were caught - preventing Han from somehow warning them. Second, he gave Qira one last chance to prove her loyalty. If she immediately reveals Han's trick, before Vos reveals he knows, then Vos can assumer her loyalty as he did with Beckett.

Did Lando forget Han owes him a ship?

• In their initial meeting, Lando beats Han in a gambling match, so Han owes him a ship. Then the matter is never brought up again. Seriously, why would Lando just forget or ignore that? When Han beat him that time at the end of the movie, he should have just said "well you never gave me a ship you owed me from our first match, so now we're just even. No Falcon for you."
  • Lando cheated the first time and lost the second one "fair," so it's possible he let it drop rather than have Han expose him.
  • Do we ever get to see what was on the line during the second round of gambling? May well have been "double or nothing"...

Why does it matter that to Chewie that Han speaks the Wookie language, and where did he learn it?

• Chewie is about to murder Han until Han starts speaking the Wookie language. Why does that matter? Chewie can understand English. So he understands everything Han says anyway. Saying it in Wookie shouldn't make any difference. Also where did he learn the Wookie language? From his time as a criminal on Corellia? Why would he learn it there? There aren't any wookies on Corellia so it would serve no purpose. From his time in the Imperial academy? Seems doubtful since the Empire are generally xenophobic against non-humans and view the Wookies as a slave race.
  • Saying it in Chewie's own language gets Chewy's attention in a way that just pleading for his life in English wouldn't. Chewie probably just outright ignores what's said in English because in his position 99% of it is going to be, "Oh god please don't kill me!" or variants thereof. Han knowing the language sets him way apart from the bunch of goons who think of Chewie as no more than a "beast." Plus, it lets Han plan his escape with Chewy in front of the guards without them knowing. And who says there's no wookiees on Corellia? We don't get a census of the whole planet. We see literally five minutes of the world.
  • Star Wars characters always know a bizarre number of languages (to the point that Finn is notable in that he only understand Basic). Shyriiwook is considered an obscure language, but presumably Han had an opportunity to learn around the same time he was learning Binary, Huttese, and all the others.

"Vacuum Breathers"?

• So in Solo some creatures are described as "vacuum breathers", meaning they can survive in space. However by definition you can't breathe a vacuum as there's nothing to breathe in the first place. I assume they just mean the creatures don't need to breathe but why phrase it so weirdly?
  • Star Wars physics, maybe?
  • The idea is probably that such critters are native to outer space as a general descriptor of the environment they evolved in, so life forms native to other extreme atmospheric conditions (gas giants where hydrogen and helium dominate, nitrogen-rich planets lacking the amount of oxygen and carbon dioxide we're familiar with, methane, etc) might be labeled similarly. Regular old oxygen-breathing species can be seen on a fairly wide range of planetary environments, so atmospheric condition is probably the quickest way to assign a broad label to space-dwelling life forms. Presumably the scientific term would be something comparable to aerobic (switching the "aero" for the relevant root word, "kénōma" or its modern form "kenó") in whatever the galactic equivalent to Greek is.

Eventual fate of Qi'ra

• What's gonna eventually happen to Qi'ra? Of course, she reports about Dryden Vos' death - from certain point of view, of course. But there is one beneficial factor that makes it puzzling: the identity of the person she reports to - Darth Maul, the former Sith Lord. Well... it's clearly seen that Maul doesn't buying the lies from Qi'ra, thus he invites her to Dathomir for a possible "discussion" about what to do with Tobias Beckett and "his accompices". Even when he clearly says to Qi'ra:
  Darth Maul: You and I will be working much closely from now on...
• Qi'ra could be executed by Maul for letting Dryden Vos die... or not?
  • The comics show her being alive in between the events of The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi, which is well after Maul’s death.

Summa-Verminoth's odd choice of residence

• Why is the Summa-Verminoth (space monster) living next to the only naturally occurring environmental phenomenon that can kill it? Out of all the places in the galaxy, it chooses to live right next to a potentially lethal gravity well? Why would it do that?
  • Because the gravity well also sucks in its food. It is living next to the thing that feeds it.

Why is the Summa-Verminoth so intent on eating the Millenium Falcon?

• According to Wookiepedia, the Verminoth is over 7 KM across, while the Falcon is about 34 meters at its longest dimension. Based on this, it seems kind of like a human chasing an ant with a breadcrumb for miles.

Why did the clerk bother giving Han a "last name" at all?

• If he has Only One Name why not just write "Han"? Or maybe something like "Han" (No last name given)? Do they do the same thing with everyone who signs up and doesn't have a surname?
  • My guess is that Han isn't the only one who joined up who has that name, so the clerk needs to differentiate him from the other possible people whose names are also Han.
  • The form the clerk is filling out has a field for surnames, so Han must have a surname to be enlisted. It is symbolic of the intellectual laziness of the Empire, and also how it drives for conformity over individuality. There is no respect for individuals, or for cultural differences, every block must be hammered to fit the square hole.
  • Plus, the form likely won't accept 'No last name given' or a blank space, so the Clerk has to fish for something to proceed.

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