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Lando Calrissian
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Cardplayer. Scoundrel. You'll like him. That
was Han Solo's hurried precis on his old pal, Lando
Calrissian. While the description is accurate, it barely scratches the surface
of this complicated rogue. Calrissian is at home in the shadowy reaches of the
fringe, the underworld culture that permeates the galaxy. While he has rubbed
elbows with hunters, mercs, outlaws and gangsters,
Lando's main difference is that his elbows were covered by some of the most
expensive and fashionable clothes this side of the Core. Lando has style
and class; some would say in excess. He is a man of sophisticated
tastes, and settles for nothing short of the best in his surroundings, his
belongings, his look, and his female companionship.
Han and Lando go way back,
you'll hear them say, but it hasn't always been friendship and camaraderie.
Solo and Calrissian have been rivals in the past. A bitter point of contention
between the two has been the ownership of the Millennium
Falcon. The deceptively dilapidated freighter once belonged to Calrissian,
and much to the gambler's chagrin, he lost it to Solo
in a heated game of sabacc. Though Solo insists he won fair and square,
Calrissian still questions Solo's victory, if only to goad the Corellian.
Lando was the first of the two
friends to go "respectable," a fate worse than death to some
smugglers. He distanced himself from the life on the run, and settled down in
the floating metropolis of
Lando's new world came crashing
down around him when the Empire arrived at
Reluctantly, Calrissian agreed
to the Empire's plan and lured Solo into a trap. Throughout the ordeal, Vader
kept altering his end of the bargain, and Calrissian was powerless to stop him.
The gambler learned an important lesson: never deal with a Dark Lord.
With all the cards on the
table, Lando realized that he was set up to lose. Although Solo was captured,
frozen in carbonite, and taken to the vile gangster Jabba the Hutt, Calrissian
seized the initiative to redeem himself. He freed Solo's friends, Leia Organa
and Chewbacca, and warned
Calrissian volunteered in a
daring mission to rescue Solo from Jabba the Hutt's fortress on Tatooine. He
concealed himself in the armor of one of Jabba's many faceless skiff guards and
infiltrated the palace. Lando was in perfect position when Skywalker sprung his
rescue mission over the Great Pit of Carkoon.
The skiff guards never knew
they had a Rebel in their midst. Calrissian helped dispose of several of the
guards protecting the prisoners, and piloted the rescue skiff that spirited
away the newly liberated Solo and his friends.
During the Battle of Endor,
Calrissian again proved his mettle. Now a General in the Alliance Forces, Lando
volunteered to spearhead the starfighter attack on
the second Death Star while Admiral Ackbar led the
capital ships. His past exploits in the Battle of Tanaab
helped prepare him for the coming conflict. His unorthodox strategies worked
well with Ackbar's more conservative tactics. When
the Death Star proved operational, Ackbar was ready
to retreat. Instead, Calrissian commanded the Alliance Fleet to engage the
Imperial Fleet at point-blank range, offering limited protection from the Death
Star's massive superlaser weapon.
Once a Rebel strike team
deactivated the Death Star's protective deflector shield, Lando led the starfighters into the station's incomplete superstructure.
Lando, aboard the Falcon, flew point into the twisting narrow corridors
of the Death Star's innards. Once in the massive reactor core, he loosed a
volley of concussion missiles at the Death Star's exposed heart. He then outran
the fantastic explosion that followed, and the Millennium Falcon emerged
triumphantly from the dying Death Star.
Return to The Empire Strikes Back
From
www.starwars.com
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