So, my girlfriend is a bit of a Star Wars geek . . . she knows far more about the "universe" than I do (read the books, etc.). She also is currently fighting bronchitis and was a tad goofy on cold medicine when I talked to her the other night. As a result, we got into a bit of an inane debate (albeit, a totally friendly one) . . . is Han Solo a smuggler or a pirate?

I figured there just might be a few people around here who had seen at least one of the movies and could possibly have an opinion.

I'll withhold which is my viewpoint until later to keep it unbiased. I'll also provide the various points that we both brought up in our original discussion.

Smuggler.

Pirates engage in raiding others of their property.

I vote "butt pirate."


Arrrrrr.

If it looks like a smuggler and smuggles like a a smuggler (and people refer to it as a smuggler and it has smuggling compartments in its smuggling ship) then it's probably a smuggler.

(Then again there are some good arguments that he's a ninja disguised as a smuggler.)

Ninjas aren't scruffy lookin' nor do they get their asses frozen in carbonite.

This is another reason why Star Trek is better than Star Wars. Who needs to fight with swords when you have phasers?

Ninja man. Am I right?

I should also point out, that, I'm gonna be out of town for the weekend as of ~5 PM Eastern today, so my input/responses will be silent for a couple of days.

That being said, I'm very interested in the thoughts people have on this. We are both very stubborn people, so if you guys end up voting in my favor, I'll be very pleased to have the extra ammunition.

Aw, man!! And here I thought I was going to get some good discussion out of this . . . there goes the thread.

wtf. serenity is much cooler than star wars.

the millennium falcon was a piece of crap compared to firefly. if han was a smuggler....where did he put the stuff he was smuggling? all i remember was everyone being crammed into a tiny little space. firefly had tons of room to smuggle stuff. lots of nooks and crannies.

anyway. han was a pirate because his crap ship had no place to smuggle stuff. so he to mostly stick to pillaging and plundering.

Han Solo is a smuggler. Remember why Jabba hates him? Han worked for Jabba as a smuggler. Han got into a situation where Imperials were going to board his ship, so he dumped the smuggled goods and ran. This is why Jabba put the bounty on him because he lost those goods.

phasers? light sabers?



pew pew is not a cool sound.

the bang! of a six-shooter is.

There are secret compartments on the Falcon. Many of the novels point this out.

Han Solo takes money to smuggle illegal goods past Imperial authority ships. Thus, he is a smuggler. A pirate would roam the space lanes looking to waylay ships with legitimate goods and steal them.

However, I think the proper term for Han Solo is "scoundrel."

...Smuggling scoundrel...






And a smug one at that.

Smuggler. The compartments that they hide in when they get tractored onto the first Death Star? That's for hiding contraband. There's other spaces for the regular cargo.

The Falcon has compartments underneath the floor panels large enough to hold a human. How do you think he ambushes the stormtroopers who come aboard to check the ship in ANH?

There's quite a difference between Pirate and Smuggler. I don't see how the two could be used together.

Do I have to get out the slave girl Leia bikini pics?

Star Wars FTW

They're tied together by the nautical theme. As well as the spaceship theme.



...I got nuthin'

There is evidence that he is a smuggler. But although he could quite likely be a pirate (piracy and smuggling often historically could go hand in hand), there is no evidence to prove this.

Therefore he is only a smuggler. Occam's razor principle or something.

listen, I don't know who the hell you are but you need your head examined!!!

plus if he was ninja we would already be dead. next time I see one I'll ask him.

He's a slimy, double-crossing, no-good swindler, stuck up, half-witted, scruffy-looking and nerf-herding smuggler.

Do we trust this guy? He knew Han best, right?







"How are you doing, you old pirate?"