Post by Tolif Espen on Apr 17, 2006 15:28:45 GMT -5
Is Lando a traitor? Do you remember hating him the first time you watched ESB? Lando betrayed our heroes’ trust by leading them in friendship to the dining room where the Imperial forces were waiting. Originally, I empathized with Leia and Chewie's impulse to strangle the bastard for letting them get captured and tortured and for letting Fett get away with Han. I understand. It was a bad day.
Over the years, I've softened on poor Lando. Let's get into semantics: To be a traitor, don’t you first need to pledge allegiance to something that you then betray? I offer this explanation of his initial actions and how his feelings evolved over the last quarter of the film:
Imagine you're Lando Calrissian, gambler, smuggler, and scoundrel. Now you've found a great, prosperous venture on Bespin, and you've cleaned up (for the most part) and gone legit. You work your way to becoming the Baron Administrator of a large floating mining city. You know the Galactic Empire is tightening its grip on the Galaxy, but you feel relatively comfortable here working under the radar. Life is good.
It's surprising then when the flagship fleet of the Imperial Navy appears out of hyperspace at your front door. Oh boy, time to clean up around the edges, smile, and send them on their way, right? “Thank you for stopping by, officer. Did you get that fruitcake we sent you?”
It’s even more surprising when the person leading this group of Imperials is none other than the Dark Lord Darth Vader. He moves an alarming number of troops into your city, but still – you don’t really have anything to hide. “Yes, make yourselves at home gentlemen.” You signal to Lobot to run to your suite and dispose of any *ahem* merchandise.
Then you discover what Vader wants. A bounty hunter has tracked a ship of rebels. They’re headed this way, and you are to offer a safe haven to assist in apprehending them so they in turn will attract a fugitive named Luke Skywalker.
“Fine. No problem, Lord Vader, whatever you say.”
The ship in question appears on the monitor. Isn’t that your old ship? Han Solo. Han Solo! What the hell is he doing here? You haven’t thought of that name in years. The memories come flooding back: all of the good times, all of the adventures, and then the big swindle when he took off with your ship. Things ended badly, and you’re one for holding grudges, but it really doesn’t matter now. What is old Han gotten himself into now?
You signal Lobot to subtly warn Han away from the city. The cloud car patrol is unfriendly and fires a few shots, but Vader is standing over your shoulder in the control room. He’s too smart for that. Han doesn’t get the signal and is instructed to land. You want to tell him, but you can’t. Too much is at stake. With any luck, Vader will hold them for a while until this criminal Skywalker is captured, and things will return to normal.
It is genuinely good to see Han again. Chewbacca is at his side, of course. And to see the ship again makes it easy to pretend for a moment that the Imperial presence is a bad dream. As usual, Han has a beautiful woman at his side, but there’s something different about this one. She doesn’t seem his style.
As the events unfold, you realize the situation is slipping out of your control. You took Vader at his word, fearful for your own neck and hopeful that they would leave soon. Han and Leia are tortured but not asked questions. Han is going to the bounty hunter, and you are ordered to hold Leia and the Wookiee prisoner. Just when it seems it can’t get any worse, you shoot yourself in the foot by telling Vader that the carbon freeze unit could kill Skywalker. Naturally, Vader decides to test it on poor Han. This is your fault, and it isn’t. It was your fault for being gullible, but what else were you going to do sitting in the sights of a Super Star Destroyer and its fleet with a Sith Lord dictating your actions?
You nearly faint from relief when you determine that Han is somehow alive in the block of carbonite. That was lucky. Vader orders Leia and Chewbacca to be taken to his ship, and you know that the life you built on Cloud City is over. You can no longer hide from the war. It’s gone too far, and it’s time for you to lose everything and join this rebellion or else lose yourself.
And off we go. Lobot. The Bespin security team. The evacuation of the city If you move quickly, you may have a chance to rescue Han, too!
Oh dear. Chewbacca is choking you. You should have seen that one coming.
You miss Fett’s ship taking off. It’s time to escape. This feels back to form for you, back to the rogue scoundrel, back to your ship.
Back aboard the Millennium Falcon, the princess says something while you’re rocketing away from TIE fighters.
“Go BACK?! To get WHO?!” There’s that d**ned Wookiee again. “All right, all right…”
Over the years, I've softened on poor Lando. Let's get into semantics: To be a traitor, don’t you first need to pledge allegiance to something that you then betray? I offer this explanation of his initial actions and how his feelings evolved over the last quarter of the film:
Imagine you're Lando Calrissian, gambler, smuggler, and scoundrel. Now you've found a great, prosperous venture on Bespin, and you've cleaned up (for the most part) and gone legit. You work your way to becoming the Baron Administrator of a large floating mining city. You know the Galactic Empire is tightening its grip on the Galaxy, but you feel relatively comfortable here working under the radar. Life is good.
It's surprising then when the flagship fleet of the Imperial Navy appears out of hyperspace at your front door. Oh boy, time to clean up around the edges, smile, and send them on their way, right? “Thank you for stopping by, officer. Did you get that fruitcake we sent you?”
It’s even more surprising when the person leading this group of Imperials is none other than the Dark Lord Darth Vader. He moves an alarming number of troops into your city, but still – you don’t really have anything to hide. “Yes, make yourselves at home gentlemen.” You signal to Lobot to run to your suite and dispose of any *ahem* merchandise.
Then you discover what Vader wants. A bounty hunter has tracked a ship of rebels. They’re headed this way, and you are to offer a safe haven to assist in apprehending them so they in turn will attract a fugitive named Luke Skywalker.
“Fine. No problem, Lord Vader, whatever you say.”
The ship in question appears on the monitor. Isn’t that your old ship? Han Solo. Han Solo! What the hell is he doing here? You haven’t thought of that name in years. The memories come flooding back: all of the good times, all of the adventures, and then the big swindle when he took off with your ship. Things ended badly, and you’re one for holding grudges, but it really doesn’t matter now. What is old Han gotten himself into now?
You signal Lobot to subtly warn Han away from the city. The cloud car patrol is unfriendly and fires a few shots, but Vader is standing over your shoulder in the control room. He’s too smart for that. Han doesn’t get the signal and is instructed to land. You want to tell him, but you can’t. Too much is at stake. With any luck, Vader will hold them for a while until this criminal Skywalker is captured, and things will return to normal.
It is genuinely good to see Han again. Chewbacca is at his side, of course. And to see the ship again makes it easy to pretend for a moment that the Imperial presence is a bad dream. As usual, Han has a beautiful woman at his side, but there’s something different about this one. She doesn’t seem his style.
As the events unfold, you realize the situation is slipping out of your control. You took Vader at his word, fearful for your own neck and hopeful that they would leave soon. Han and Leia are tortured but not asked questions. Han is going to the bounty hunter, and you are ordered to hold Leia and the Wookiee prisoner. Just when it seems it can’t get any worse, you shoot yourself in the foot by telling Vader that the carbon freeze unit could kill Skywalker. Naturally, Vader decides to test it on poor Han. This is your fault, and it isn’t. It was your fault for being gullible, but what else were you going to do sitting in the sights of a Super Star Destroyer and its fleet with a Sith Lord dictating your actions?
You nearly faint from relief when you determine that Han is somehow alive in the block of carbonite. That was lucky. Vader orders Leia and Chewbacca to be taken to his ship, and you know that the life you built on Cloud City is over. You can no longer hide from the war. It’s gone too far, and it’s time for you to lose everything and join this rebellion or else lose yourself.
And off we go. Lobot. The Bespin security team. The evacuation of the city If you move quickly, you may have a chance to rescue Han, too!
Oh dear. Chewbacca is choking you. You should have seen that one coming.
You miss Fett’s ship taking off. It’s time to escape. This feels back to form for you, back to the rogue scoundrel, back to your ship.
Back aboard the Millennium Falcon, the princess says something while you’re rocketing away from TIE fighters.
“Go BACK?! To get WHO?!” There’s that d**ned Wookiee again. “All right, all right…”
