Han Solo Built Leia A Kitchenette On The Millennium Falcon And Other Things We Learned In The Star Wars Cross-Sections Guide

In our extensive coverage of Star Wars: The Force Awakens, we've constantly referenced information gathered from The Art of Star Wars: The Force Awakens, The Visual Dictionary and the novel Before The Awakening. All three of those books are filled with a lot of information about the film. A fourth book we haven't really talked about is Star Wars: the Force Awakens Incredible Cross-Sections.

While this book is filled with amazing beautiful cross-section illustrations created by Kemp Remillard (you can see some of the art here), the text by Jason Fry adds great flavor and world-building but doesn't provide too much in terms of extra clues and information about the film's story and the future of the Star Wars franchise. That said, it has a few interesting bits I'd like to highlight, including the fact that the Millennium Falcon now includes a kitchenette,a gift from Han Solo to his beloved Leia which has seemed to upset some fans. Is it a sexist addition to the Star Wars canon? Author Jason Fry has been forced to respond.

The image above is part of the Millennium Falcon cross-section from the new book, which mentions that the "crew quarters were reconfigured to include galley as wedding gift for Leia Organa." Some fans have been upset by the apparent sexist implication of Han Solo building Leia a kitchen. Author Jason Fry has taken to Tumblr to explain the decision, which he admits "has a few folks drawing a different conclusion than what I had in mind."

Yes, the Falcon's crew quarters now includes a galley, and I noted in Incredible Cross-Sections that the space was reconfigured as a wedding gift for Leia Organa. But no, the idea wasn't that Princess Leia – General Organa, for Pete's sake – would obviously need a kitchen to potter around in, or feel the instinct to hang up her blaster and start cooking for her new husband and his Wookiee pal.

That wasn't the idea at all. As I imagined it, the galley isn't there for Leia to cook in – it's there so someone else could use it to make something that Leia might want to eat. Bear with me for a little review of Falcon lore.

In fact, Fry isn't the first person to imagine a galley on the infamous Falcon. Floor plans of the Falcon from the early days of Star Wars publishing also included a galley, but that somehow disappeared in the more recent diagrams of the ship. As for how the change came about, Fry explains:

Once I learned there would be changes to the Falcon's layout for Episode VII – such as the bunk where Chewie convalesces – I was determined to restore the galley to what I saw as its rightful place. But in-universe the change would have to have been made after the Battle of Endor, and I needed a reason for it. Which got me thinking about The Empire Strikes Back. Since the Falcon had no galley then, I imagined that the slow crawl from Hoth to Bespin – which probably took a few months – left Han, Chewie and Leia eating whatever horrible stuff had been in the Falcon's stores. Horrible stuff they'd have to eat off Tupperware while crammed around the gaming table, no less. Leia's a military leader, so I don't see her as finicky. But she grew up as a member of the royal house of Alderaan and served in the Imperial Senate. Those months eating Corellian TV dinners and reheated Wookiee goulash on the Falcon had to rankle – and I imagined that later they'd become a humorous bone of contention between her and Han. Plus the Falcon is Han's home – as we all cheered to hear him tell Chewie back at Celebration.

Fry says this was enough "in-universe rationale for the galley's addition" and that the gift was "meant as a humorous make-do for months of terrible food, and an awkward attempt at making his rusty, decrepit home a bit more welcoming." And Fry adds that he always imagined Chewbacca would be the one doing the cooking. I'm not sure if this is what he originally imagined, but I buy the explanation and don't think it's worth all the fan attention — and it probably will never even see the light of day in the movies anyways.

After the jump we will look at some other notable inclusions in the Cross-Sections book, including details on Unkar Plutt and the Millennium Falcon, a secret in Han's bulk-freighter and the enormity of the First Order's Star Destroyer, "the Finalizer."

There are a few bits of new information about Simon Pegg's alien trader character Unkar Plutt. It's noted that Plutt won't reveal how he acquired the Millennium Falcon, only that he has refused to let Nima Outpost scavengers strip her of useful components, "insisting that the Falcon can still fly and that he has big plans for her." And you might recall my theory last week after it was confirmed that Rey was left with Plutt as a child that somehow that might be how he ended up with the Falcon. What might it all mean?

The Quadjumper only appears on screen for a few seconds before being blown up by the First Order, but the book hints that this ship might be connected to Plutt's "big plans." The book notes that Jakku is light-years from the nearest transfer yard, "so what is an unmodified quadjumpter doing out on the edge of the Unknown regions?" The book mentions that Plutt is planning to purchase the shop from a team of junk haulers "who moonlight as arms dealers, and talks vaguely of how credits will roll in once his plans for the craft are in motion." Could the big plans have something to do with the YT-1300 series freighter sitting under a tarp next to it in Nima Outpost's Bay 3?

One of the cargo modules on Han's freighter, The Eravana, is numbered "9906753." You can see the cargo container in question in the top left of the right-hand page screen captured above. Indiana Jones fans will recognize the number as the identifying number used on the crate that held the Ark of the Covenant in the cavernous warehouse of Hangar 51, after it was retrieved by the U.S. government following its discovery by Indiana Jones in Raiders of the Lost Ark.

I first mentioned this in my Force Awakens easter eggs round-up, and still after four viewings of the film have not been able to confirm if the numbers actually appear on screen.

The book confirms that this isn't the only Resurgent-class Star Destroyer that the First Order has, it's just the first one. While its not as apparent in the movie, this huge ship is over 2,915 meters in length, nearly twice that of an Imperial-era Star Destroyer.

Like I stated earlier, there isn't a lot of new story- or film-relevant information in this book, but it has some great illustrations and is fun to look at. Let me know what you think of the Solo kitchenette controversy and continue to theorize how Unkar Plutt fits into Rey's story.