X-Wing Rogue Squadron/Fridge

Fridge Brilliance

• All through the X Wing Series, we hear that Space Is Cold whenever there's a magnetic containment field up. Supposedly the mag-con field holds in atmosphere but can't stop heat. Then it occurred to me that all of the viewpoint characters are pilots. They can fly spectacularly, but most of them don't even know that there is no extruder valve on an X-wing! The heat loss could be from the mag-con field itself, and they explain it to themselves and each other differently. Similarly, Solo mentions Explosive Decompression, but in this series he's a smuggler who became a General! He just knows people die when out in space unprotected. The Medstar Duology seems to confirm this; a malfunctioning mag-con field chills the area it's covering. --Joysweeper
  • In Outbound Flight, there's that whole unhappy issue of Thrass and Lorana sacrificing themselves for the survivors, who would never know what they did. While the remains of Outbound Flight shudder through hyperspace, Lorana holds the engines together through the Force while Thrass tries to find his way to the survivors, but the pylons are blocked. In that last stretch, when they have to crash on a planet with the Dreadnaught they're on hitting first so that the survivors and the single hyperspace-capable fighter will be above the surface, they have a More Hero Than Thou moment that ends with both of them staying, since Lorana has to land this thing and keep the systems from self-destructing, and Thrass knows she can't afford the time it would take for her to clear a path for him. Lorana has a lightsaber, and could have given it to him and let him cut his way out. But while Thrass has seen the lightsaber deflect his charric bolts, he doesn't know about its cut-through-anything ability. And Lorana may have decided not to tell him, since he's a Chiss, does not know Basic, and would be instantly associated with the attackers if he met the survivors, and anyway cutting his way out might simply have made holes that let in the vacuum. Or perhaps she simply never thought of it, considering all the shocks she'd just had and the incredible pressure that was on her. Either way, her bones and Thrass's were found mixed together fifty years later. - Joysweeper

Fridge Logic

• How is it that Tetran Cowell, Former Child Star, was able to learn how to pilot a TIE fighter well enough to not only mimic Baron Fel's fighting ability, but fool Wedge Antilles?
  • Probably the same tech that was allowing droid pilots.
  • Word of God: He and the rest of the bogus 181st were enjoying the benefits of computerized coordination from the Iron Fist (and, in an earlier scene, from the Reprisal — see Chapter 13), and this computer help allowed him to impersonate Fel well enough to fool even pilots who'd flown against him previously. (Remember that most pilots who'd flown against Fel previously were dead, so the survivors tended to be pilots who'd seen him from a distance or had their starfighters crippled early in an engagement. Most pilots' knowledge of Fel's flying technique comes from reviewing recordings, which isn't the same as facing him in person.) Cowall was also an excellent pilot, which helped the deception. Additionally, he won some matches through reputation; people would seize up at the thought of facing Fel and become easier prey. However, it's to be noted that until Solo Command, no one who'd previously flown against the real Fel flew against Cowall, so they couldn't put his real lethality to the test.