Not helping is that his surname just makes me think of a certain Gotham City mafia boss.

"Don't ignore the fact that clearly Falconi's got people in your office, Dent!"

I can think of a whole host of reasons why a pig probably is not a good pet to have on a starship.

Neither pet even needed to be in the book to begin with.

I think Paolini may have been going for something like LotR, where our protagonist is someone largely overlooked by the powers-that-be who nonetheless ends up playing the crucial role in resolving everything,

The important difference here of course is that Frodo did not have any superpowers.