Well, the worst is behind us – whatever it was the twins did, they’re done with it. And it traumatized Latho sufficiently to mount any sort of resistance to their (and the Queen’s) escape from the doomed* planet.
Still, they had no time to lose… because it wouldn’t have been dramatic enough without time pressure. The plot needs to give protagonists enough time to get anything that needs to be done done – but not a second more, and not without sowing ample doubts that time might not suffice.
For the Queen and her consorts, that has pretty dire consequences: short on time, they had to go with the first used spaceship salesman they could find, and that naturally was Stan. He might be everyone’s last choice, but he’s consistently the first one you stumble upon when in a pinch.
From Stan’s meager, if overpriced, selection they picked a real lemon – an old and decrepit ship that also came with a lot of old tropes and set-pieces attached. That nature of the ship forced them to make a detour to Mos Eisley – a place Nyarlathotep never had visited in spite of the horrible reputation.**
And it forced them to chase down a copy of a complete blueprint for Latho, stored in a droid’s physical memory – they certainly wouldn’t have had to deal with that sort of legacy idea if they had gotten a more up-to-date spaceship. =P
They carefully studied the blueprints for signs of a weakness, but ultimately concluded that Latho would be susceptible to a photon-torpedo-hit anywhere on its body…the problem is just getting it into your crosshairs.
So the quest for info on Latho’s background isn’t off to a great start, but I’m sure our heroes will persist. If only because there’s no other way to get that very necessary bit of exposition into the plot…
More on Thursday.
*There could be no doubt at all that they could do nothing to save the planet, and that flight was their only reasonable course of action. How they could be so sure of that? Don’t ask me. They likely drew that certainty out of the same a** Yoda drew his “Into exile I must go.” from. >_>
**Could refer either to Mos Eisley’s reputation or Latho’s, it amounts to the same…
It’s a shame they didn’t find Jeff’s Discount Death Traps (Not To Be Confused With Actual Spaceships). To quote Thief: “Personally, I’d sooner trust the deathtrap that’s honest about it’s nature.”
That does sound like a smart approach. If you know it’s a deathtrap, you can at least prepare yourself – and if it’s a discount deathtrap on top of that, there’s a good chance it won’t work to begin with. XD