Star Wars Legends Highlight of the Week: Dorset Guards the Fake Falcon
In this feature, a fan will share one thing they love from Star Wars Legends — a book, a comic, an author, a character, a scene, an event, or anything else they want to highlight — and tell us more about it.
If you, too, love Legends, follow @from-a-legends-pov and check out our From a Legends Point of View fanfiction event, where we’ll be bringing together writers (maybe you?) to build a collection of Star Wars Legends fanfiction set during the time of the Original Trilogy. Writer signups are open through June 2 — use our Signup Form to pitch your story concepts (Signup Guidelines available here), and please encourage your favorite writers to participate!
Today’s Legends highlight is a scene from Aaron Allston’s novel X-Wing: Solo Command in which Polearm Squadron pilot Dorset Konnair is guarding the Millennium Falsehood in battle (after working with the Falsehood to mimic a YT-2400 freighter), and we’re talking with WraithFourteen.
Tell us about your Legends highlight. What is it? What’s it about?
My highlight involves a scene in X-Wing: Solo Command where Wedge and other characters are flying a fake Millennium Falcon as bait to lure forces of the main villain, Warlord Zsinj. There’s several notable elements, including a protocol droid wearing a Han Solo mask and clothes because Wedge can’t speak the Wookiee language to Chewie, but my focus is on the single fighter assigned to guard the fake Falcon (called the Millennium Falsehood) here - and how baiting the enemy in this case meant taking on two full squadrons of TIE Interceptors.
What makes this a highlight for you? What do you love about it?
This scene stands out for a few reasons, but especially because it involves Dorset Konnair, a more minor character from the Wraith Squadron trilogy, flying an A-Wing to escort the Falsehood. Dorset was in just three scenes before this — two in Wraith Squadron flying with Kell Tainer, and one in this book depicting her a small, quiet woman with a star-flare tattoo around her right eye and others that are unspecified but also varying shades of blue.
During this scene, Dorset logs at least two kills and outflies the other enemy pilots despite their numbers. Since Rogue Squadron ace Tycho Celchu previously flew an X-Wing in the Falsehood escort role, it’s also subtly impressive that Dorset was selected in the first place. This implies to me that Dorset is a capable minor character who doesn’t brag about it, sort of like Wedge was in the OT movies.
Fellow pilot Myn Donos had interpreted her quiet nature to be a sign she felt out of place as a native of Coruscant, the former Imperial capital. That and her tattoos created a bit of mystery around her even when I first read the novel as a kid.
Do you have a favorite detail or moment?
Going back to the bit where Dorset’s A-Wing detaches from the YT-1300, it reminded me, even when I first read the book, of how small planes would be dropped from a larger one in the late 1940s through mid-1960s. That was mostly done with test planes (like the first supersonic flight depicted in The Right Stuff) but also attempted unsuccessfully with a tiny fighter jet. It helped that I’d seen both that tiny jet and the larger plane that carried it at a museum as a kid.
The YT-2400 shell being dropped away as well also reminded me of how the Apollo program’s rocket had lower sections and rings that were detached along the way to the Moon - an image of that inspired how I envisioned the book scene. (As you’ve probably noticed, I was really into stories of air/space exploration as a kid, and so the pilots were what drew me into Star Wars. I also had a hand-drawn image of the first supersonic plane being released on my wall as a kid, similar to the “you can’t look dignified when you’re having fun” OP.)
To learn more…
If you’d like to read more about Dorset and the Millennium Falsehood, check out X-Wing: Solo Command at your library or favorite bookstore, or read the entry on Dorset Konnair or the Millennium Falsehood on Wookieepedia.
And be sure to check out @from-a-legends-pov and our From a Legends Point of View fanfiction event. Writer signups are now open — access the Signup Form (step-by-step Signup Guidelines available here) as well as our Event Overview and FAQ.
