Ah, yes. The good ol’ days where intergalactic space ships were used to deliver one small package at a time. 
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I still need to see Outlander, and track down the comic adaptation done by Steranko.
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Thanks for the info. I didn’t know there was a comic book adaptation of this movie.
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It was serialized in Heavy Metal
#51 (June, 1981) – Introduction; about the story
#52 (July, 1981)
#53 (August, 1981)
#54 (September, 1981)
#55 (October, 1981)
#58 (January, 1982)
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One side effect of containerized freight is the ports need a lot of specialized infrastructure-- and as ships get larger, all that infrastructure must be upgraded at the cost of billions of dollars.
“We attempted delivery, but our superfreighter needs a class A space elevator.”
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It is perhaps worth mentioning that it is 100% illegal for the Millennium Falcon to be so heavily armed in the Empire, given that it’s a fascist state that wants to maintain a near-monopoly on weapons of war. Han’s modifications were all done in secret. The Falcon and all the Rebel fighters would all be impounded at the first opportunity if the Empire got their hands on them, so they “can” have armaments in the sense that it’s possible but not that it’s permissible. We do see vehicles that are basically space buses in the prequels, with no indication that they have any significant armaments.
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The Millennium Falcon was rather lacking in cargo space.
However, (and I’m only counting the 1st couple movies here, because I haven’t seen the later ones), I never thought it was originally built as a freighter. It did not look like a freighter. It seemed rather small to be a freighter.
It always seemed to me to be some old, beat-up, heavily repurposed space-ship. Could have originally been a sort of space winnibego (long since out-of-style) that someone bought cheap and stripped down to use for their food-truck business. Or could have originally been a small military transport (eg, like a rusty beat up old army truck). Maybe it was originally some sort of courier ship, used for quick delivery of small things, since it was apparently a fast ship. Kinda like someone who buys an old mail-truck or used UPS truck and uses it for their private delivery service. When you think about it, the delivery truck that drops your TP order off at the end in your driveway is not particularity big either (never on the porch, no, always at the edge of the driveway, clearly just tossed out of the door)
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Why? It never has.
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Which is why I said ‘in my head canon’
Lando did call them cargo mandibles in Solo, so there is some official canon leeway.
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“No, look we have perfectly legit variances registered in the Corporate Sector.”
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YT DART
Despite CEC’s failure to find a market for the F-LER, several CEC-authorized affiliates continued to produce small tugs that fit between the YT-1300’s mandibles, as such tugs remained useful in orbital assembly facilities. One model was the YT Dart, a compact vessel with a narrow viewport, and a hull that so well matched the contours of the YT-1300 that it appeared to extend the YT-1300’s prow, and transformed the freighter into an overall sleeker-looking vessel. An enterprising customizer sealed his Dart’s viewport, installed a hyperdrive and a more powerful sublight engine, and modified the Dart into a maneuverable two-passenger escape pod that was virtually camouflaged when inserted between the mandibles.
Fandom is good at explaining any discrepancies, and making it look official.
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The thing about suspension of disbelief is it’s usually not absolute- there’s always something that you just can’t accept. Some line that can’t be crossed. And of course figuring out explanations for stuff that doesn’t seem to make sense is fun for some people.
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Darth Vader personally hired a bunch of heavily armed bounty hunters to hunt down that ship in The Empire Strikes Back so clearly if the Empire had rules against armed civilian vessels then those rules were very selectively enforced.
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Because
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We know from the ‘Han shot first’ dialogue that Han had to dump cargo when boarded, but apparently the empire didn’t care about all the weapons.
The idea that dictators don’t allow weapons is kind of an American myth used to justify its gun laws. People in Saddam’s Iraq had plenty of guns. All you need is for the government to have the heaviest weapons and the best organization. You can shoot one of their soldiers, but then they kill you and your family.
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I think it was clear from the officers’ discomfort that Vader was doing something questionable, but if bounty hunters are members of a guild they may have access to weapons licenses civilians don’t.
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[quote=“Bernel, post:58, topic:202788”]
We know from the ‘Han shot first’ dialogue that Han had to dump cargo when boarded, but apparently the empire didn’t care about all the weapons. [/quote]
Most of Han’s improvements were not obvious on quick inspection. He may have had guns that looked less powerful than they were, or forged Imperial permits.
So is Star Wars.
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