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Culture War Roundup for the week of December 26, 2022

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Near as I can tell, the best thing Lando can do is cooperate until he gets the opportunity to actually do something that might work.

This hinges on just how much Lando trusted Vader to keep his word.

It sure looks like Lando didn't choose to resist until it became clear he was going to get screwed either way.

Resign his post, get arrested, Han shows up and they get captured when their ship lands ("they showed up right before you did"). Vader loses his dramatic entrance but still accomplishes ihis mission.

If he warns Han not to show up Vader doesn't accomplish the mission.

I could go into a long discussion on the strategy of refusing to comply with 'evil' vs. going along until the best opportunity to defect arises.

But we wouldn't have much of a story if Lando took the former option, so in the context of the movie, I'm willing to concede the point.

Yeah a fair bit is contingent on stuff like "how feasible was it for Lando to send a message to Han" and "exactly how bad is it all of Lando's people if he resists" - all of which is off screen. (Near as I can tell the answer to the latter is "very bad" given Lando's warning that everyone needs to GTFO.)

But given Lando's later actions (rescue Han/blow up the death star instead of running off and continuing his career as a con man), I'd suggest he's probably a decent enough guy who was put into a tough situation where all choices involve the Empire harming someone.