I mean, yeah, I still don’t understand why Luke abandoned him on Pasaana. But I don’t see how this line explains that? All this line tells us is that Leia and Lando are in communication, which just adds more layers of convolution, imo.
Like I said though, if we could flesh out the scene to give Lando some actual development, that would be swell; but that’s a separate issue from this one line.
There’s nothing in the film to suggest he’s been there the whole time. The transmission implies he headed over there when he heard they needed help.
Huh, that would make sense, but that wasn’t my takeaway at all. My impression was that Leia contacted Lando because he was there, not the other way around. Otherwise, where’s he been during this whole stupid war? Where was he in TLJ when the entire Resistance was established to be on the one cruiser? How does he already have a little hideout all set up, complete with getaway driver?
Plus, if he came to Pasaana just to help them, why does he immediately abandon them to find Ochi’s ship and escape the incoming stormtroopers on their own? He came to tell them, “There’s a ship nearby!” and wander off somewhere? They couldn’t do that via hologram message? (Wait, could we make Lando a hologram? No joke, that would clear this all up.)
I guess a different angle to take it would be to change his line to say something like, “Leia asked me to meet you here.” But…I don’t know. The context of the situation, with him saying immediately afterwards, “Oh no, I’m too old to fly off and help you guys”…why would he say that immediately after flying all of this way to help them? I think the scene implies that he’s already on the planet…for some dumb reason.
Here’s a quick example I put together: https://streamable.com/ypyjk6
EDIT: Regarding the opening, where did we stand on the Burbin version? Add the TIEs into the lava shot, go directly to the forest shot, and just have Vader’s castle in the background?