The Angle
- "Heroes were Lando's favorite opponents at the gambling table. The worse the odds got, the bigger they bet. Because heroes were suckers."
- ―Excerpt from "The Angle"[2]
"The Angle" is a short story in the anthologyFrom a Certain Point of View. The story, written byCharles Soule, focuses on the point of view ofLando Calrissian.
Plot summary[]
Lando Calrissian is playing a game ofklikklak against theVerosianJaff Basan at an illegalcasino run byLuck Luck Freidal. Just as the game is heating up, the casino is raided byImperial forces, who kill Freidal and seize all the money, ordering everyone out. Lando, unhappy because he lost a large amount of money, heads to abar across the city, where he meets his friendLobot. The gambler, as a peace offering to thebartender,Okkul, pays for everyone's drinks with his lastcredit chip. Lando informs Lobot that he's currently broke, thanks to the Imperial raid. He states that he doesn't know why the raid happened, because Freidal always paid large bribes to stay in operation.
Lobot, in response, suggests that it's because the Imperials wanted to exert their authority, after recent events. Lando asks what Lobot's talking about, and the cyborg tells Okkul to replay theholovid that everyone inthe galaxy is currently talking about, recently uploaded to theDarkNet by theRebel Alliance. Okkul notes that he's already seen the footage ten times. Lando, an inveterate cynic who thinks playing hero is for suckers, initially believes the footage, of abattle raging around a massivespace station, was faked as a propaganda video. That changes when, to his shock, he sees a very familiarstarship entering the action, firing at a trio ofTIE fighters: an oldYT-1300 light freighter, theMillennium Falcon, which Lando used to own.
He gets Okkul, who thinks Lando is crazy as they haven't even gotten to the best part of the holovid, to rewind the footage so he can watch theFalcon a few more times, and comes to the shocked conclusion that his old friend and fellowsmuggler,Han Solo, was piloting the ship during the battle. Lobot agrees with this assessment. Lando considers Han one of the few people he really knows, so he can't understand why theCorellian, who is just as cynical as him, has suddenly decided to play hero. He could understand Han getting paid to do some smuggling for the Rebellion, but Han attacking an Imperialbattle station is in an entirely different category. After the other bar patrons cheer at the holovid's climax, the destruction of the Death Star, Lando calls for a toast to the memory of the greatest smuggler he knew. Ultimately, Lando decides to stew over the revelation over several drinks, thinking that maybe there's something he's missing about the situation.
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