We can thank Han Solo for being such a wonderful inspiration for an iconic class in Star Wars: The Old Republic. That scruffy-looking, nerf-herding scoundrel is the reason why the first class I am going to play in SWTOR is going to be so much fun. I just know I’m going to have some highly memorable one-liners, I’m going to have to make some heart-wrenching decisions about money versus friends, and I’m going to have the best ship in the galaxy.

As soon as my friends and I decided to form our guild on the Galactic Republic side of things, I knew I was going to play a smuggler. It might have been fun to speak with a British accent on the Empire side of things, but I never connected to the Imperial Agent the way I connect to the Smuggler.  I can blame my love of the show Firefly for some of that, but a lot of it comes from the fact that I think the developers could make a stronger connection to the smuggler than to the imperial agent (read heavy assumption on my part here).

I had very little question which class I was going to play first, but then the cinematic trailer Return came out and completely solidified my decision.  The smuggler’s humor, his heroic coolness in the face of danger, his duster, and the role his ship played made me fall in love with the class.  The latest class progression video was just icing on the cake.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=up9crByjT8Y]

One of the things I loved about the TV series Firefly was how the ship was treated as another character in Joss Whedon’s story.  I’m hoping that my ship in SWTOR will become almost another companion in my character’s story.  Just like the Serenity was Mal’s true heart and soul in Firefly, the Falcon was Han Solo’s other half and played a key role in the storyline. Sure, all the classes get their own ship, but none of them get the death trap looking bucket of bolts with a heart of gold and long legs that the smuggler will have.  My ship will be the fastest ship in the sector! This ability to bring together a sense of fun from not only Star Wars, but also Firefly is just one other reason why I’m really hooked on being a smuggler.

What I haven’t decided yet is which flavor of smuggler I’ll be when I grow up.  I love the look of the Gunslinger and the dual wielding pistols. I equally love the dirty tricks and special skills of the Scoundrel. And who doesn’t like being called a Scoundrel!  I just hope I get to charm the pants off (literally?) a feisty companion, or two.

I’m very much looking forward to the dialogue choices that I’m sure I’ll see with this class.  Let your Jedi be all serious and mopey, I want to rock the world with my sarcastic wit. Sure, the female trooper and bounty hunters will be kick-ass, strong characters and that has its appeal as well. I just hope I get some truly memorable lines.

Speaking of which, I’m going to close with a link to a fan made video that includes a mix of some of my favorite lines in Firefly, some really excellent ship footage, and some classic video from SWTOR.  He calls it the Ultimate Smuggler and ventured into this brave world of TOR video editing because of a dare? challenge? heartfelt wish? from a few of us in a Twitter discussion.  I love finding kindred spirits on Twitter. As you can tell from his blog title and tag, he kind of likes Firefly too. So of course he’s bound to like the SWTOR smuggler as well. Big Damn Heroes Ultimate Smuggler  @BigDamn_Heroes