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Given that there's a new Star Wars movie now (which I haven't seen yet, but plan to once I can get DVDs), and because of it the old Star Wars movies are now being discussed again everywhere ... I was wondering, is there any meta anywhere about Leia and Lando and their choices as leaders in the OT? Because I don't exactly have focused thoughts about it, but it's a compare-and-contrast that keeps niggling at me lately.
I'm talking about Leia as a Princess of Alderaan and Lando as the Admistrator of Cloud City, and their reactions to the Imperial threat to their people, and the circumstances of their joining the Rebellion. That choice.
I'm talking about Leia as a Princess of Alderaan and Lando as the Admistrator of Cloud City, and their reactions to the Imperial threat to their people, and the circumstances of their joining the Rebellion. That choice.
Lando's choice on Cloud City was one of the things that led to me adoring him when I first watched ESB. "I had no choice. They arrived right before you did." The position that put him in, having to choose between loyalty to his city and loyalty to his friends in the face of a potentially annihilating threat, his desperation because of it and its results. Trying desperately to make a deal that will keep everyone, if not safe, then at least not immediately dead, then realising that there is no making deals with the Empire, then having to break and run, redeem his compromised honour, and lose his city in the process. Lando joined the Rebellion in large part because an irreversible choice was forced on him. The second he sounded the evacuation order on Cloud City, there was no immediate going back.
It's the choice we see actually play out on the screen, while Leia's choice had been largely made before we see her. But then, not entirely either. There was her reaction and attempted negotiation with Tarkin in ANH. She gave him fake information on a rebel base in an attempt to get him to spare Alderaan. She tried to give the appearance of betraying the Rebellion, out of loyalty and desperation to save the people she was Princess to. And then she, too, was given an incredibly graphic demonstration of how the Empire doesn't make deals. The second you are in their power, they will take everything you have and everything you love. Full stop, the end. Alderaan was blasted off the face of the galaxy, and not even because the Empire thought her betrayal of the Rebellion was fake, but just because Dantooine wouldn't make a big enough demonstration of their power.
They both had to try and juggle their loyalty to their homes, to their friends, and to the galaxy at large. Leia made a choice to join the Rebellion, a choice which directly led to the destruction of her world. It wasn't her fault, and Rebellion pretty much ran in Alderaan's family anyway, but still. It was her information Tarkin wanted, and her position in the Rebellion that helped him decide Alderaan was his planet-killing demonstration of choice. Lando's city was endangered because of his friendship with someone who had joined the Rebellion as well, and in his case, possibly without initially realising who he was betraying, he tried to put his city and its people first. He forced himself to betray his friend out of loyalty to his city, only to be shown that it wouldn't work. The Empire doesn't stop closing its fist just because you're already mostly crushed. Whichever one you try to protect, your home or the friends/cause that put them in danger, the Empire will crush them all just to prove to you that it can.
In the end, they both chose the Rebellion, because they both realised that no one and nothing would be safe so long as the Empire ruled the galaxy. They chose the galaxy at large, because it was the only way to protect any other loyalties they had left, and because ... well. Because they had both already lost almost everything. Alderaan was gone. Cloud City was occupied. Both their attempts to protect their homes had already failed. The Rebellion was their only hope to protect the remaining things they were loyal to.
I just wonder sometimes what they thought of each other. Later on, I mean, ESB and RotJ were a little hectic and Leia was still rather justifiably angry at Lando for selling them to the enemy. That tends to put a damper on things a bit. But after that. After Lando helps them save Luke and Han, fights with them and redeems himself, and becomes a hero of the Rebellion against the second Death Star. I wonder if they ever had a chance to look at the choices they'd both had to make, as leaders of people and friends of the Rebellion in the face of the Empire.
I wonder if Leia ever wondered what choice she might have made if, instead of information, Tarkin had asked her to hand over a person, right there and then, no cheating allowed. If she'd been standing on Alderaan as a Princess as he demanded rebel personnel from the planet's surface on pain of planetary destruction. I wonder if Lando ever looked and her and wondered what it would have been like to have stood his ground, told Vader no to his face, and then watched his City blasted out of the sky because of it, not occupied but simply gone. Because let's be honest, if Darth Vader shows up in person to your independent mining colony and says he needs a favour, the 'or else' doesn't really need to be explicit. The choice they both had to make ...
Maybe it was easier for Lando. He joined the Rebellion after he'd realised he was going to lose everything anyway. Leia had to make the choice before, choose loyalty to the galaxy while knowing that doing so would put billions of her people at risk, just for her choice. I wonder how much of her anger at him on Cloud City was because he didn't know yet, he didn't know making deals never worked with the Empire, he sold Han out ignorance and blind naive hope for something that she had already viscerally realised would never happen. If she was angry not just because he betrayed them, but because he was stupid about it, and he was going to watch his people be crushed anyway, and he'd have compromised his honour and his friendships for absolutely nothing at all. If it was anger born of betrayal and of pity both.
I wonder what they thought of each other, basically, if they ever figured out how much they had in common there. It wasn't a choice Luke or Han ever really had to make. Luke's home and family were destroyed before he ever really had a choice about whether to try and protect them above others, and Han ... Han wasn't really responsible for anyone but himself and arguably Chewie before the events of the OT. They didn't really have to juggle 'let my planet/city fall or sell my cause/friends'. Leia and Lando both did. I wonder if they ever ... I don't know, talked about it or wondered about each other because of it.
Eh, I don't know. Is there any meta on this? Or fic, fic would be really good? It just made an impact on me, I guess. Lando's circumstances in ESB were so huge a part of why I adored him and his struggles, and once the comparison to Leia occurred to me it just kept niggling at me. Heh.
It's the choice we see actually play out on the screen, while Leia's choice had been largely made before we see her. But then, not entirely either. There was her reaction and attempted negotiation with Tarkin in ANH. She gave him fake information on a rebel base in an attempt to get him to spare Alderaan. She tried to give the appearance of betraying the Rebellion, out of loyalty and desperation to save the people she was Princess to. And then she, too, was given an incredibly graphic demonstration of how the Empire doesn't make deals. The second you are in their power, they will take everything you have and everything you love. Full stop, the end. Alderaan was blasted off the face of the galaxy, and not even because the Empire thought her betrayal of the Rebellion was fake, but just because Dantooine wouldn't make a big enough demonstration of their power.
They both had to try and juggle their loyalty to their homes, to their friends, and to the galaxy at large. Leia made a choice to join the Rebellion, a choice which directly led to the destruction of her world. It wasn't her fault, and Rebellion pretty much ran in Alderaan's family anyway, but still. It was her information Tarkin wanted, and her position in the Rebellion that helped him decide Alderaan was his planet-killing demonstration of choice. Lando's city was endangered because of his friendship with someone who had joined the Rebellion as well, and in his case, possibly without initially realising who he was betraying, he tried to put his city and its people first. He forced himself to betray his friend out of loyalty to his city, only to be shown that it wouldn't work. The Empire doesn't stop closing its fist just because you're already mostly crushed. Whichever one you try to protect, your home or the friends/cause that put them in danger, the Empire will crush them all just to prove to you that it can.
In the end, they both chose the Rebellion, because they both realised that no one and nothing would be safe so long as the Empire ruled the galaxy. They chose the galaxy at large, because it was the only way to protect any other loyalties they had left, and because ... well. Because they had both already lost almost everything. Alderaan was gone. Cloud City was occupied. Both their attempts to protect their homes had already failed. The Rebellion was their only hope to protect the remaining things they were loyal to.
I just wonder sometimes what they thought of each other. Later on, I mean, ESB and RotJ were a little hectic and Leia was still rather justifiably angry at Lando for selling them to the enemy. That tends to put a damper on things a bit. But after that. After Lando helps them save Luke and Han, fights with them and redeems himself, and becomes a hero of the Rebellion against the second Death Star. I wonder if they ever had a chance to look at the choices they'd both had to make, as leaders of people and friends of the Rebellion in the face of the Empire.
I wonder if Leia ever wondered what choice she might have made if, instead of information, Tarkin had asked her to hand over a person, right there and then, no cheating allowed. If she'd been standing on Alderaan as a Princess as he demanded rebel personnel from the planet's surface on pain of planetary destruction. I wonder if Lando ever looked and her and wondered what it would have been like to have stood his ground, told Vader no to his face, and then watched his City blasted out of the sky because of it, not occupied but simply gone. Because let's be honest, if Darth Vader shows up in person to your independent mining colony and says he needs a favour, the 'or else' doesn't really need to be explicit. The choice they both had to make ...
Maybe it was easier for Lando. He joined the Rebellion after he'd realised he was going to lose everything anyway. Leia had to make the choice before, choose loyalty to the galaxy while knowing that doing so would put billions of her people at risk, just for her choice. I wonder how much of her anger at him on Cloud City was because he didn't know yet, he didn't know making deals never worked with the Empire, he sold Han out ignorance and blind naive hope for something that she had already viscerally realised would never happen. If she was angry not just because he betrayed them, but because he was stupid about it, and he was going to watch his people be crushed anyway, and he'd have compromised his honour and his friendships for absolutely nothing at all. If it was anger born of betrayal and of pity both.
I wonder what they thought of each other, basically, if they ever figured out how much they had in common there. It wasn't a choice Luke or Han ever really had to make. Luke's home and family were destroyed before he ever really had a choice about whether to try and protect them above others, and Han ... Han wasn't really responsible for anyone but himself and arguably Chewie before the events of the OT. They didn't really have to juggle 'let my planet/city fall or sell my cause/friends'. Leia and Lando both did. I wonder if they ever ... I don't know, talked about it or wondered about each other because of it.
Eh, I don't know. Is there any meta on this? Or fic, fic would be really good? It just made an impact on me, I guess. Lando's circumstances in ESB were so huge a part of why I adored him and his struggles, and once the comparison to Leia occurred to me it just kept niggling at me. Heh.
