I was reminded recently of a conversation I once had about who my favourite Star Wars character was. It is, for the record, Lando Calrissian (in the movies, Gilad Pellaeon gets a look in in Legends), and I said so. And I remember being really baffled by the response:
“If you like the rogue types, why don’t you just pick Han?”
I just … like. Because he’s not my favourite? I mean, your favourite is your favourite, you’re not picking them randomly? I assume? What a weird response?
But it just. It annoyed me. Leaving aside anything RL, Han is just not in the same league. Depending what you want out of a character, obviously, but seriously. They’re not even the same type of rogue. They don’t hit the same story beats at all. Han is the apathetic rogue with the reluctant conscience who needs to be shanghaied into the story. Lando is the crook-in-a-box, the one who was caught before he ever entered the story, who has to weigh betrayals versus his own and his city’s survival. They don’t hit the same emotional weak spots at all.
I was always primed for Lando. I read Wishsong of Shannara as a tiny child and loved Slanter. The trapped rogue who’s forced to hurt/betray the heroes is catnip to me. The good guy forced to work for the bad guys because Vader got there first, because Han made his choice in ANH, and Vader looked up his bolt holes and old buddies, and so Lando was forced into making choices in ESB. Betraying them first, because he wanted him and his city to live, and then changing his mind because the deal just kept going south and watching Han actually get frozen was too much. Taking his lumps for his choices. Helping save Luke and later Han. And then, when the choices were made, going whole-fucking-hog and doing the run on the second Death Star himself. All in, like a true gambler, because the chips were already down.
I mean, just, Han who?
And, like, on a shallow, watching-ESB-for-the-first-time-at-10 sort of level, Han is a scruffy looking nerf herder in a beat up spaceship. Lando is the roguish space prince of a cloud city wandering around in a cape. Like. Kid!me had priorities. And taste. I’m just saying.
(No offense, Han, I love you also darling, but you’re just … really not in the same orbit)
It’s such a weird question. Why don’t you pick Han. How do we pick favourites around here? The most popular iteration of archetypes we like? That’s just …
I’m gonna take my space gambler prince in a cape and move on now, okay?
Y’all weird.
