The SOLO Novelization Reveals What Happened To The Droid L3 When She Was Uploaded Into The Millennium Falcon
A lot of Star Wars fans found it a little unsettling when the mind of Lando's droid L3-37 was uploaded onto the Millennium Falcon's computer system in Solo: A Star Wars Story. I personally thought it was a cool little touch, but I can see why people found it disturbing, especially with the new details that were revealed in the Solo novelization.
It tells us what happened to L3 after she was uploaded into the ships computer system and even though it attempts to put a positive spin on the matter, there's no doubt that some fans will find it horrifying.
Thanks to StarWars.com, we have an excerpt from the novelization that will be released next month and it offers some interesting insight into what L3 was thinking after her upload into the Falcon. She's pretty much just forced into a situation where she has to accept her new life as part of the ship:
That’s why I’m the copilot. You need me.
The thought finished and she looked around impatiently, ready to tell Lando what she thought of the current situation. But she had no head.
She had cams now, with the ability to look into every room. Audio sensors let her hear everything from the Wookiee’s stressed breathing to the drops of sweat dripping from Lando’s pain-racked face. Outside the ship swarmed one last TIE fighter.
And here, inside, the voices of the Falcon greeted her. They queried gently in Binary, wondering why L3 was now here when she usually plugged in from out there.
I don’t know.
The Falcon didn’t speak in words, but in images they told L3 what had happened during the fight, and that they all needed her right now. Lando needed her.
He always needs me. Just get me a new body and I’ll get right back in that copilot’s seat.
Yeah, that's a little upsetting. She's really not very happy with the situation and she wants a new functional droid body, but the Falcon goes on to talk her into everything being ok and to accept her new life and join with the ship to help save Lando and the others:
The Falcon was so gentle it was irritating. It wasn’t that easy, they explained. L3 had a choice to make. She could die with her final act being a liberator to all the droids on Kessel, or she could join with the Falcon, live on, and be part of something much bigger. She could save them all.
Ridiculous. And be a slave inside a ship forever? No thank you.
The lights in the cockpit flickered, the reboot stalling. Lando put his hand on the computer, watching.
Being a ship wasn’t so bad, the Falcon insisted.
You go exactly where your pilot tells you, L3 countered.
You did that as a copilot, the Falcon reminded her.
That was different. I could leave anytime.
But you never did. You chose that life.
The Falcon was starting to speak in words now, a bit of a sharpness to their Binary.
If you refuse, you die. He dies. The others on the ship, they all die. If you join with us, we all can live. The choice is simple. L3 realized where the voice was coming from: The reboot was almost done.
You tricked me.
We couldn’t have joined without you consenting to it. You made your decision a while ago. You just couldn’t admit it.
We are something different, now. Not just the Falcon. Not just L3.
We are new.
So by joining with the Falcon, it became something completely new. I find this whole thing more fascinating than anything. Especially the conversation that the Falcon was having with L3. I never really thought about these two different computer systems having a conversation with each other. Who would have even thought that L3 would have had a choice and that the Falcon had to ask permission for her to join the system?
There's a whole Star Wars world here with the technology that these stories have barely scratched the surface on.
What are your thought on this whole scene between the Falcon and L3?