Lando Calrissian

Lando Calrissian
Homeworld	Unknown
Species	Human
Gender	Male
Height	1.77 meters
Hair Color	Black
Eye Color	Brown
Affiliation	New Republic, Galactic Alliance

Lando Calrissian (31 BBY—) was a former smuggler and long-time associate of Han Solo, who became Baron Administrator of Cloud City for a time before its takeover during the Galactic Civil War. He subsequently joined the Rebellion, and led the dangerous mission to enter the second Death Star's core and destroy its reactor.

Biography

Early Years

Calrissian's early years were obscured by history and Calrissian's own fabrications. His homeworld was unknown, though some noted a hint of Corellian accent in his voice. His own memories pointed to his having a stable family life until at least the age of seventeen. The earliest reliable accounts of his life date to 4 BBY, when Calrissian was around the age of twenty-seven. Already a professional gambler, Calrissian won a battered YT-1300 freighter called the Millennium Falcon in a high stakes game of sabacc. Calrissian had no piloting experience, and so sought out a tutor by the name of Han Solo.
Solo taught him the basics of starship piloting, and Calrissian used this knowledge to fly the Falcon to the Centrality. While on Oseon 2795, he won an exuberant droid called Vuffi Raa from Ottdefa Osuno Whett, but had to travel to Rafa IV to acquire it. Before he could depart, Calrissian was arrested on trumped-up charges by Governor Duttes Mer and forced to aid Rokur Gepta, a Sorcerer of Tund, to locate the Mindharp of Sharu.

Provided with a transdimensional key, Calrissian chose to begin his search on Rafa V, location of the largest Sharu pyramid in the Rafa system. He was ambushed by several Toka, who tied him to one of the crystalline lifetrees, hoping he would freeze during the night. However, Lando was resourceful, and even though the lifetree was robbing him of intelligent thought, he was able to free himself, though his feet were severely frostbitten and required light bacta treatment in a portable gel-bath kept on the Falcon. Calrissian and Vuffi Raa investigated the largest pyramid and located the Mindharp, and were promptly teleported back to Rafa IV. Vuffi Raa, who in fact had been programmed to betray Calrissian before he had even been "won," promptly turned Calrissian in to Governor Mer. Mer greedily took the Mindharp and sentenced Calrissian to a lifetime of hard labor, but Vuffi Raa, having fulfilled his imperative to betray Calrissian, rescued the gambler just as Mer activated the Mindharp. As the two fled Rafa IV, the transdimensional artifact's subharmonic emanations restored the Toka into the Sharu that they once were, and the great pyramids of the Rafa system crumbled, leaving alien cities in their wake.

Calrissian and Vuffi Raa entered hyperspace with a full hold of the last Rafa life crystals to leave the Rafa system; this valuable cargo netted Calrissian nearly 250,000 credits. Returning to Nar Shaddaa, he bought a used-starship lot from a Duros, but discovered the business was expensive and difficult to run. He was pondering selling it off when the Empire arrived in the criminal-ridden system. Calrissian donated his inventory to his fellow outlaws, and Vuffi Raa piloted the Millennium Falcon deftly in the resulting Battle of Nar Shaddaa. The attack was diverted, but less than 10% of his stock was still spaceworthy. Calrissian sold 90% ownership in what was left of his lot to Roa at a loss.

Calrissian sought a way to recover his losses, and saw an opportunity in the regional sabacc championships that were soon to be held at Cloud City's Yarith Bespin casino. In order to raise the ten thousand credit buy-in, Calrissian and Vuffi Raa returned to the Centrality and attempted to haul legitimate cargo, but tariffs, fees, and licensing cost him more than he made, leaving him with nothing. Thus, when an opportunity to play sabacc in the Oseon system during the Flamewind arose, Calrissian accepted.

Soon after arriving at Oseon 6845, Calrissian was assaulted and forced to shoot his assailant in self-defense with his stingbeam. The Administrator Senior of the Oseon System, Lob Doluff, was forced to inform Calrissian that the penalty for possessing a deadly weapon was death by exposure, but since the administrator admired Calrissian, arranged for him to instead participate in a drug bust against the lesai-using wealthy industrialist Bohhuah Mutdah. Posing as Mutdah's dealer, Calrissian transported two agents, Bassi Vobah and Waywa Fybot, through the maddening radiation of the Flamewind to Oseon 5792.

Mutdah turned out to be Rokur Gepta in disguise, who promptly killed the two agents and planned to kill Calrissian after forcing him to endure a machine that made him relive all the painful moments of his life, but the latter was saved by the timely intervention of Renatasian starfighters, whose goal was to kill Vuffi Raa. During the chaos surrounding his escape, Calrissian grabbed Mutdah's drug payment - twenty million credits. He deposited small sums in banks on several worlds, including fifty thousand credits into the Bank of Aargau, which he planned to use for covering the entry fee for the Bespin sabacc tournament. Unfortunately, his attempt to deposit the bulk of the money on the Centrality's primary financial planet, Dela III, interrupted a pirate attack being committed by the "pirate queen" Drea Renthal. Despite Calrissian's charm, Renthal kept the remainder of Mutdah's money.

Soon after, Calrissian encountered Lehesu, a young member of the space-dwelling, hyperjump-capable Oswaft species, whose curiosity had carried it from its home in the ThonBoka Nebula to a desolate part of the Centrality. After halting attempts at communication, Lehesu finally communicated to the crew of the Millennium Falcon his need for sustenance. Calrissian emptied the contents of the ship's recyclers into space, which Lehesu eagerly gobbled up. Some months later, the Empire blockaded the entrance to the sack-shaped ThonBoka with five hundred capital ships (mostly Carrack cruisers modified to contaminate the "interstellar plankton" drifting into the nebula), intending to starve the entire Oswaft race into extinction. Lehesu used a transceiver provided to him by Vuffi Raa to contact the Millennium Falcon and plead for help.
Calrissian penetrated the blockade, using a ruse that he was a trader plying his wares to the very ships that were his obstacle. Though the Falcon was inspected, no one below the rank of Admiral was informed of the reason for the blockade, so no one suspected that the ship's real cargo was the ordinary waste carried in its trash and toilet recyclers. After working his way to the front of the blockade, Lando made a break for the mouth of the ThonBoka. Inside, he contacted Lehesu and the Oswaft Elders, and they began making plans while other Oswaft went to negotiate with the picket fleet. However, as the Empire's goals were complete extermination, the Empire merely exterminated the negotiators; in the process, one of them "shouted" at the unshielded cruiser Courteous, destroying it with its maser voice-stream. The fleet, seeking retribution, raised their shields and entered the Nebula, but were called back by Gepta, who sought to destroy Calrissian.

When Gepta arrived, the fleet remobilized and entered the nebula. Fortunately, their pause had given Calrissian time to suggest a battle plan. The Oswaft excreted heavy metals from their pores and then hyperjumped, leaving decoys placed between the enemy cruisers and resulting in massive friendly fire casualties among the fleet; meanwhile, they "shouted" at the starfighters, destroying them with their powerful masers. After the fleet's forces had been reduced by 11%, the battle ceased, and Gepta offered Calrissian an ultimatum: engage Gepta in personal combat, or he would fire an electromagnetic torpedo into the nebula, killing all life therein.

Calrissian and Vuffi Raa (who was allowed to participate because Gepta believed he could reprogram the droid to betray his master) faced off against the Sorcerer of Tund in the vacuum of space. After much maneuvering and several ploys, and a shot from Gepta that had disabled Vuffi Raa, Calrissian landed a stray shot in Gepta's ankle. The Sorcerer's form whithered as he cried out. Calrissian searched the space suit and found an injured Croke where his shot had landed - Rokur Gepta had not been a human, but a small, nasty alien from a planet in the Unknown Regions that Lando had once visited. Calrissian squeezed the alien until the last Sorceror of Tund was little more than a stain on his gloves.

At that, the battle renewed, but for only a moment; out of nowhere, a multitude of fifty-kilometer self-aware droids appeared, demanding on all channels "Cease fire immediately or be destroyed!" They were the creators of Vuffi Raa, who had come for their offspring. The Imperial fleet, faced with thousands of gigantic ships, retreated from their genocidal mission. Vuffi Raa's progenitors repaired the little droid and departed with him into the Unknown Regions, and Lando departed the ThonBoka with a hold filled with valuable Oswaft-synthesized gemstones.
Unfortunately, his turn of good luck was once again countered with bad luck, as his investment in a berubium mine in the Borgo asteroid belt turned out to be worthless, and he was left with nothing but the fifty thousand credits in his Aargau account and the Nar Shaddaa starship lot. He also struck up a brief relationship with Drea Renthal, the very pirate who had stolen millions from him before.

Calrissian stole a treasure cache from the Glottalphib criminal Nandreeson to ease his desperate need for cash. Soon after, he entered the Cloud City tournament, but wound up in second place, and gave his old friend Han Solo the choice of any ship on his used starship lot. Han, unexpectedly to Lando, chose the Millennium Falcon, the ugliest but most efficient ship in the lot.

Some time later, Lando assisted Han in an attack on the Hutt spice and slavery operations on Ylesia, which Han was involved in due to being in love with Rebel agent Bria Tharen, the mastermind of the operation. Han recruited several smugglers for the strike, including Lando. In the end, they were successful, but Bria decided to keep the spoils for the Rebellion, leaving Han with nothing to pay Lando and the smugglers, and creating a large rift between Solo and Calrissian.

Five months after the Battle of Yavin, after shipping a cargo of denta beans to Taanab, he was caught up in a Norulac pirate raid. After boasting he could defeat the pirates in a Pandath cantina, he accepted a wager from a drunken cantina patron named Gathal Danager of a Clendorian brewery to see it done. Calrissian hid in the ice rings of Taanab's moon. When the pirates approached their marks, he dumped his cargo of Conner nets into the midst of their fleet, temporarily disabling their ships. While they attempted to extricate themselves from the nets, he tractored ice chunks from the rings into their cockpits. He then led Taanab's orbital defense fleet in a mopping up operation, in which Calrissian was responsible for single-handedly destroying nineteen of the remaining vessels and crippling the pirate's two supporting corvettes; the ships were captured with all hands, thanks to Calrissian using yet more Conner nets to secure the escape pods. After TriNebulon News carried the story, Calrissian became a minor celebrity.
While on Cloud City, Lando played a game of sabacc against the Baron Administrator Dominic Raynor, losing his ship, the Cobra, in the process. An anonymous benefactor advanced Calrissian five million credits. He bet 4 million and his lot on Nar Shaddaa against Raynor's administratorship, and won the game, becoming the new Baron Administrator of Cloud City. The benefactor turned out to be Cloud City's cyborg liaison, Lobot, and the pooled funds of thousands of Ugnaught workers who wanted to ensure Raynor's departure.

Calrissian took his job as Baron Administrator seriously, working closely with Lobot for over two years. He deflected both the Mining Guild and the eyes of the Empire from the city, hired pilots to protect the city from raids, enacted new security procedures after the rogue droid EV-9D9 dismantled a quarter of the city's droid population, repealed restrictive anti-alien immigration laws put in place by Raynor, and increased Tibanna gas profits by over 35%.

Entering the Galactic Civil War, 3-4 ABY

As a key source of Tibanna gas, Cloud City was a lucrative target for Imperial nationalization. Calrissian sought to retain its independence by making a covert agreement with the Empire (personally arranged by Darth Vader himself) to assist in the capture of Luke Skywalker and several other important Rebels. Among them was Lando's longtime friend Han Solo and Leia Organa.

Calrissian fulfilled his part of the agreement, which included testing the carbonite-freezing process (normally used to prepare Tibanna gas for shipment) on Han Solo. Darth Vader intended to use this method, if it was found feasible, to transport Skywalker to the Emperor. However, as the terms of the deal worsened, and it became clear the Empire intended to take control of the floating city regardless, Calrissian assisted the Rebels in their escape. Feeling guilty for what had happened to his old friend, he went on to infiltrate Jabba the Hutt's organization and help Skywalker rescue Han Solo from the crimelord's clutches.

Calrissian became a high-profile member of the Rebellion after that, rising to the rank of general. He was particularly known for flying his old ship, the Millennium Falcon, alongside Nien Nunb during the Battle of Endor, leading the assault into the Death Star II that destroyed the battle station and effectively sealed the Empire's fate.

New Republic Era, 4-25 ABY

After the Battle of Endor, Calrissian would continue to serve the New Republic and its successor government the Galactic Federation of Free Alliances – usually as a civilian, but intermittently taking up his general's commission again. Unfortunately, he had lost control of Cloud City to Jabba the Hutt's father, Zorba, the same way he got it. He eventually became the administrator of Hologram Fun World and Nomad City. During the resurrection of Emperor Palpatine, he and R2-D2 would also be responsible for the destruction of two of Palpatine's superweapons: the Galaxy Gun and the Eclipse II. He also served the New Republic during the Caamas Document crisis, going with Han Solo on a mission to the Imperial Remnant's capital Bastion in an effort to retrieve the document, and leading a combined New Republic fleet at the Battle of Bothawui.

After the Bastion Accords were signed, he married Tendra Risant. Together, they ran a mining operation on Dubrillion and Destrillion. At the beginning of the Yuuzhan Vong invasion, Lando asked Han and Chewbacca to make a suply run to Serpindal, which resulted in the Wookiee's death. Lando felt extreme guilt because of this, and made sure he would do all he could to stop the invaders. He built the Shelter, a space station inside the Maw, which housed Jedi children and apprentices, and was responsible for establishing Tendrando Arms, which manufactured deadly YVH 1 Droids. He also aided Talon Karrde in "persuading" important Senators to elect Cal Omas, the pro-Jedi candidate, as Chief of State.

Behind the scenes

Lando Calrissian was portrayed on-screen by Billy Dee Williams, who reprised the role for the radio adaptation of The Empire Strikes Back, in Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast, and the dramatization of Dark Empire. In the radio adaptation of Return of the Jedi, Arye Gross was the voice of Lando.

On June 9, 2005, at the American Film Institute's award ceremony for George Lucas, Williams collected on his experience as Lando, and light-heartedly described the character as a "super-space stud".

Trivia

• Lando existed as several different entities in early drafts of The Empire Strikes Back:
  
  • In the first draft of Episode V, Lando was known as Lando Kadar, a refugee from the Clone Wars making a living as a smuggler on Hoth.
    
  • A gambler general store owner on the Wookiee homeworld (see also Saun Dann from the The Star Wars Holiday Special.)
    
  • The leader of a group of clones from the Clone Wars; his homeworld was to be filled with clones spread across 700 countries, each of which belonged to a specific clan.