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Literature / Rebel Bluff

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"Rebel Bluff" is a Short Story set in the Star Wars universe. Written by Michael Kogge as a tie-in to Rebels, it first appeared in Star Wars Insider 158, released on June 9, 2015.

Lando plays a game of sabacc at Old Jho's Pit Stop with Old Jho, Cikatro Vizago, and a nervous young woman named Ria Clarr, who ends up stealing the pot. After learning that the Empire is pursuing Ria, Lando and Vizago attempt to chase her down and get their money back.


This short story contains the following tropes:

  • The Atoner: Ria is attempting to make up for discovering the rich mineral deposits that existed under Lothal's farmland and reporting them to Grand Moff Tarkin, which resulted in the Empire evicting all the farmland residents to Tarkintown. She does this by handing out the credits from the sabacc pot she stole from Lando and then inspiring them to stand up to the Empire.
  • Call-Back:
  • Call to Adventure: Hearing Ezra's broadcast was Ria's, who decided that if a kid could stand up and resist the Empire she could as well.
  • Cool Old Guy: Old Jho, who stands up to Vizago and stops his bodyguard droid from entering his bar when he accuses Lando of cheating.
  • Downer Ending: A delayed one: in "The Siege of Lothal", Tarkintown is burned by the Empire and all the residents are taken captive. Ria giving them money and them arming themselves with weapons from the Imperial transport ultimately amounted to nothing.
  • Fantastic Racism: The stormtrooper squad leader is extremely racist, threatening to arrest Old Jho for offering to get him and his soldiers a drink, claiming that he was "attempting to poison an officer of the Empire" with alien swill. He also calls Jho a "leatherneck".
  • Guile Hero: Lando continues to prove that is equally as skilled with words as he is with a blaster, first managing to misdirect the stormtroopers off of Ria's tail and then delaying them long enough for her to get the drop on them. Lando also thinks that Ria shows off some characteristics of this trope.
  • Interquel: Takes place in between Rebels season 1 and 2 and shows what happened with a couple of the supporting characters from the series.
  • In the Back: The stormtrooper commander is shot from behind by Ria after she hijacks the Imperial's troop transport.
  • Jerkass: Vizago continues to be a complete asshole, first accusing Lando of cheating and trying to take the sabacc pot by force and later attempting to sell out Ria to the Imperials.
  • Professional Gambler: Lando, as usual.
  • Put on a Bus: This story explains Lando's absence from Lothal in "The Siege of Lothal" due to him wanting to avoid any Imperial scrutiny after the shootout in Tarkintown and a job offer from Vizago offplanet.
  • Rebel Leader: Ria begins to organize a rebel cell with the support of the inhabitants of Tarkintown.
  • Zerg Rush: The stormtroopers searching for Ria are killed when the residents of Tarkintown suddenly swarm them and beat them to death.

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