47
The trustworthy traitor
Star Wars: Episode V—The Empire Strikes Back
Writers: Lawrence Kasdan & Leigh Brackett
Director: Irvin Kershner
In some corners of the galaxy, you just might find someone that would describe Lando Calrissian, that silky smooth gambler-turned-businessman from Socorro, as a traitor. He’s out for himself. He’s a con man, a trickster. Beyond his charming smile and flashy capes, is a man that will sell out even his closest of friends. There’s not much to Lando and you definitely can’t trust him.
If that’s what they’re saying, then they don’t get Lando.
And, yes, that includes Han Solo.
Lando Calrissian has a lot of skills, schemes, and stories. He’s full of ego and a strong sense of self-worth. He is his own person, for sure. A needed and unique presence in the galaxy. But what Lando has done best is survive. He’s done it mostly on his own with very little help in a galaxy bursting at the seams with conflict, dangerous underworlds, and trouble around every corner. Through all of that, Lando has learned that there is only person’s trust you need: your own.
Lando trusts himself and puts almost all of his faith into his own cape. There’s room for some others. L3-37 had it then. Lobot has it now. Willrow Hood might have it always. However, there is no one more loyal to Lando than Lando. And he knows that’s for the best.
Yeah. He did sell out Han Solo, Chewbacca, Leia, Threepio, and the war they brought with them to Bespin. So, sure, he is a traitor to them. But ask yourself this question: what would you do if someone showed up at your doorstep and their mere presence threatened the safety of everything you’ve worked so hard for? They call you a friend and you can’t deny some shared memories, but when that “friend” destroyed your ship, nearly got you killed, and came back to swindle that very ship out from under you—there is not a lot of reason to put any of your trust in them, now is there?
Lando had to survive.
Han Solo did know that. Leia picked it up right away. You might think it best to not trust Lando, but he honestly had no love for the Empire. No way they were getting his loyalty either. He just wants to keep going on his own path.
Yet, the one thing Han didn’t fully understand, the one thing buried beneath it all, is that Lando has a good heart. While he has swindled, smuggled, and stolen his way around the galaxy, it was never out of ill-will. He was just an intergalactic Robin Hood stealing from the rich and (mostly) giving it all back to himself.
So, when the deal he struck with the Empire he’d spent a lifetime running from started going bad, he took a long, hard look at what his survival chances looked like. And it was getting bleaker and bleaker by the minute. It was time to take stock in what was going on around him. Lando had spent a long time trying to escape the war that had now spread across the galaxy. The deal he cut was only going to hold it back for a while, delay the inevitable, but now it had found him. The Empire. The Rebellion. The stand against the forces of evil. It was here and he knew it. Good people were suffering right in front of him and now the entire situation was quite literally choking him around the neck (thanks, Chewie). Lando Calrissian knew that, in order to survive, he had to expand what and who he was loyal to. He had to change, and it was time to give out his trust.
There was still time to save Han. There was still time for this cavalier gambler with a heart only after his own desires to put his faith in something bigger, fight back against those that would have him destroyed, and keep going on in this galaxy. Our list of heroes expands, and he joins the fight. A fight he’s going to help win.
Trust Lando.
Just like C-3PO said.
Always and forever, trust Lando Calrissian.