Sunday, July 17, 2005

The Lando Calrissian debacle

Someone asked about the Lando Calrissian deal. Let me say this, as a "unconscious" 10 year old, I was happy to see a brother in a Sci fi movie especially Star Wars. It was messed up that white folks still assume that a brother would be in outer space in the future still wearing a conk and a cape a la Dolemite style. What made it worst is that Lando Calrissian (played by none other than Billie Dee Williams aka the Colt 45 poster boy) sold out his homie Han Solo to Darth Vader AND Jabba the Hutt.

Looking back, I am like WTF was I thinking! But let's probe deeper. Lando Calrissian, like Han Solo, was a well known smuggler with a heart. He built his reputation on his word. He was also a well known and successful gambler. Unlike Han Solo, Calrissian was able to flip his money and invest in lucrative ventures. Thus, he was able to maintain a lavish lifestyle and get out of the smuggling business way before Han Solo joined the rebellion. Heads also forget that Calrissian later became a general in the rebellion and like Han Solo gave up his commission. He also helped destroy the 2nd Death Star at the Battle of Endor. Not to mention that Calrissian was vital to that campaign that was put together by the renowned Mon Calamarian Admiral Ackbar. Many Imperial capital ships were lost and many infamous Imperial commanders were captured or killed (especially when that Super Star Destroyer the Executor -- which was Vader's flag ship -- crashed into the Death Star) at that battle.

What heads also forget, or did not know, is that Calrissian was the original owner of the Millenium Falcon, the old Corellian YT-1300 freighter flown by Han Solo and Chewbacca.
He lost the freighter to Solo in a game of Sabacc.

Throughout the timeline after Star Wars: A New Hope, Calrissian continued to invest in ventures that the Rebellion and later the New Republic continued to SNAFU. But Calrissian continued to support them. Take for example Cloud City in Bespin. Bespin is a gas giant that contains Tibbia gas (did i spell that right?). It's a gas used to power blasters and rifles. Being the hustler he is, he was able to get in on it. What happens? Han Solo brings the rebellion to Cloud City. Vader, through Boba Fett, was able to track Solo, Princess Leia and crew over there. So Calrissian was forced to do what he had to do. Folks don't know that Vader eventually destroyed Cloud City for Calrissians transgression.

Didn't Calrissian help Luke save Solo? Isn't that redemption enough?

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By the way, the entry posted before this one (the second one), was done by the master himself, Billie Wheelz.. I just wanted to make sure he got the props for it. We are still working the kinks on this thing. He is unfamiliar with the blog world. But we got this...

P.S. big up to Jdid for finding an error on here ... what you are reading now is edited.

6 comments:

Jdid said...

Question on this comment "Endor, which is a moon of the gas giant Yavin 4?"

I thought Endor was one planet its moon had the Ewoks and Yavin 4 was the moon base in Episode IV with lots of dark side history.

great site by the way.

Unknown said...

Jdid
you are so right...

i will correct that in the next entry...


thanks for the love...

alife allah said...

Peace,
I don't know. I still see Lando as a snitch. Snitches usually don't get a chance for redemption around the hood.

Was he CERTAIN that he was going to be able to save Han Solo? If he wasn't then he just sacrificed him.

Amadeo said...

Actually Lando couldn't "snitch" Boba Fett let Vader know that Han went there and really you don't say no to Vader. Plus in the end Han gave up what he had to help his friend.

stevenmangold said...

I think Lando's hand was forced. Yeah, he did have to sell out Han, but he didn't knwo how bad things would go. It was either that, or let down all the people that depended on him in Bespin.

When Lando started to see hwo bad the situation was really going to be, he turned against the Empire almost right away.

Anonymous said...

It really annoys me that many fans condemn Lando for "snitching" on Han Solo. What many have forgotten was that Han was the idiot who started this mess by not realizing that he was being followed by Boba Jett.

Even worse, Lando had to choose between "betraying" Han or giving Vader a reason to destroy Bespin and its citizens. Lando chose the citizens of Bespin over a friend of questionable character.