Star Wars is filled with memorable characters. It's part of what makes the universe so enduring. Images of Luke Skywalker, Han Solo, Princess Leia and, of course, the villainous Darth Vader permeate popular culture. Each is an archetype: Luke is the farm boy destined to become a hero, Han is the lovable scoundrel and Vader, evil incarnate — the face of the darkness our heroes must unite to overcome.
Then you have characters like Lando Calrissian. A swashbuckling smooth talker, Lando, as portrayed by Billy D. Williams in The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi, is one of the few characters in the Star Wars saga who isn't so easily broken down at the start. Is he is a hero? A villain? Something in between?
Lando is everything fans think Han Solo is. Lando is an actual scoundrel, whereas Han only ever pretends. Many fans write Lando off for betraying Han, but at the end of the day, Han – if he truly is the scoundrel everybody makes him to be – would have done the exact same thing, had he been in Lando's position.
Or maybe that's exactly what separates the two characters. Perhaps Han wouldn't have betrayed his friend to the Empire. Though he doesn't like to admit it early on, fighting for the Rebel Alliance has changed Han. If he didn't believe in their cause, if he truly was in it it for himself, he wouldn't have returned to save Luke at the end of A New Hope.
Han cares. He is ready to leave his smuggling, ne'er-do-well days behind. He just needed a good excuse to do it.
Look, we all love Han Solo here. He is classic. We all think of him as the definition of the lovable scoundrel, but is a character who never actually commits a morally questionable act onscreen actually a scoundrel?
Not really. Lando, on the other hand, fits the bill perfectly. You have to admit, Lando looking out for his own self interest at the expense of his friend is straight-up scoundrel, and it's what separates Lando from Han.
Lando doesn't start the film as a good guy. Upon meeting his old friend Han in Empire Strikes Back, viewers are immediately wary. There is something just... off about him. He is so darn friendly. Why is he smiling so much? Leia definitely feels like something Lando is up to something, but Han seems to feel safe under his friend's protection.
It's that sense of protection that makes Lando's betrayal all the more painful to watch, as Han is handed right over to Vader and later to Boba Fett. It's why many fans to this day still detest the character, even after he becomes a general of the rebellion and helps blow up the second Death Star in Return of the Jedi.
Lando actually is a scoundrel, whereas Han only ever plays at the idea of one. Han doesn't betray his friends. Han doesn't always "look out for number one." He talks tough, but at the end of the day, you know he has your back.
Lando doesn't. He is truly looking after himself, at least at the start — and has to redeem himself after he realizes the wrong of his actions. When Han is frozen in carbonite, Lando immediately knows he made a mistake and works to make amends. In Return of the Jedi, Lando is personally on hand to help save Han from Jabba's Palace. He did wrong and tries to make it right.
If we are comparing the two characters from a pure "success" angle, Lando also has Han beat in nearly every department. When we meet Lando in Empire Strikes Back, he has already left his smuggling days behind him. He oversees the entire mining operation on Cloud City. He is wealthy and powerful. In other words: he's living the dream.
How does that compare to Han's situation? He's running from not only the Empire but also Jabba the Hutt, because Han is such a crappy smuggler that he has yet to pay off his debts to the crime lord and spends most of his time evading bounty hunters.
Han may be helped by the fact that he is brought to life on screen by the ever handsome Harrison Ford, but when it comes to roguish charm and style — here, too, Lando has Han outclassed.
You know Lando is cool. Just look at the guy:
The golden cape. The well-groomed mustache. His character oozes style. He's a smooth talker. A con-man. You know he's up to no good, but you can't help but be entertained by his showmanship. So perhaps it isn't surprising that he's risen to a position of power.
What does Han bring to the table? A cool blaster, to be sure. He also has a vest. Vests are cool (if you're a smuggler, not so much if you are anybody else). Still, does it beat a cape? Or a mustache? Hardly. Furthermore, Lando looks better in Han's outfit than Han does, as can be seen when Lando steals Han's clothes at the end of Empire Strikes Back.
Any good scoundrel also knows his way around the ladies, and Han doesn't seem to be too experienced in that department, either. We never see him interact with any woman other than Leia. He doesn't attempt to woo her or even acknowledge that she is worth saving — repeatedly spouting off how he is only participating in the daring rescue mission in A New Hope to get rich quick. We all know that's not the case at all. He secretly likes Leia — he just has a very immature way of showing it. He comes off as abrasive, uncaring and later, jealous and frustrated by her inability to express her feelings.
Lando, on the other hand, is the textbook definition of smooth. Exhibit A:
Okay, so we don't really have another point of comparison from the films for how Lando greets the ladies in his life, but it's clear the guy is a player. As he should be. Lando is the real scoundrel of Star Wars, not Han Solo. And that's okay. Han is a hero, Lando is not. It's why Han will be getting his own Star Wars Anthology film.
But it's the fact that Lando isn't a hero that makes him so much cooler. The sooner we accept the idea, the sooner we can move on and begin the healing process. Not that this article will put an end the debate. Fans the world over will continue to debate who the better scoundrel is, until we have the technology to build an actual Death Star. When the debate does once again rear its head, ask yourself this question: does Han have a mustache?
The answer speaks for itself.
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