Untitled

[achuwe]

Since I genuinely love the first season of Andor, especially the first two arcs, and watch it as a comfort show (yes, I know how that sounds, and yes, I’m perfectly normal), I found myself thinking again about how deeply patriarchy is embedded in the way we talk about stories.

What always bothered me was the assumption that if Cassian had survived, he would somehow spend five years waiting for Bix. That he wouldn’t have relationships, wouldn’t be attracted to anyone else, wouldn’t touch another woman until the war ended.

But what about Bix?Why do we expect the same thing from her? Why do we assume that for five years no one would attract her, no one would make her laugh, no one would make her feel wanted or safe? Why is the image of her standing alone in a field with a baby somehow treated as the inevitable romantic conclusion?Five years is a very long time. Especially if you're a single mother. Especially during and after a war. Bix had relationships outside of Cassian before. She was clearly capable of loving other people, being attracted to other people, building a life that didn't revolve entirely around him.

Which brings me to Timm, and honestly, I want justice for Timm. :)Because fandom tends to treat him as the weak, jealous guy who betrayed Cassian. But from Timm’s perspective? Cassian is not the protagonist a tragic revolutionary hero.He’s the guy from foster care who lies, borrows money he doesn’t repay, owes half the town favors, gets into trouble constantly, drinks too much, sleeps in an old car ( Maarva ship), sleeps around, and now appears to be connected to a double murder. And the woman you love is still emotionally tangled up with him.Of course Timm is jealous. Most people would be.But jealousy doesn't automatically make him a bad person. If anything, Timm is kind of "husband material." The stable guy. The dependable guy. The man who loves you, shows up, works, and tries to build a future. The kind of person many people actually end up marrying after finally escaping their own version of a Cassian. Sometimes I wonder whether Bix might actually have been happier with someone like Timm in the end. She always longed for stability, peace, and a normal life.

Sometimes the “Plan B” guy turns out to be a better choice than the great, passionate, fated love of your life. Someone like Cassian may be exciting, intense, and unforgettable, but that doesn’t automatically mean they’re the person you build a happy life with.I actually like imagining that after Cassian’s death, Bix eventually fell in love with a kind of “Timm 2.0” — someone steady, dependable, and emotionally available. Someone who could give her the stability she always seemed to be looking for.

[captainserso]

[achuwe]

Oh wow, this is beautiful, I’ve genuinely never seen anyone phrase it like that before. Now I want an entire AU built around this idea.

[achuwe]

So apparently we’re now getting a fan edit of Rogue One that is supposed to connect “better” to Andor and focus more on Cassian’s perspective. And from what I saw, the editor even said on Reddit that he plans to remove most of Cassian’s interactions with Jyn because they are supposedly disrespectful to the love of his life and don’t fit the narrative anymore.And I’m sorry, but… what narrative exactly? Because to me, it fits the narrative *perfectly*.How is Cassian portrayed whenever he is not with Bix? As a flirt. A man with no problem charming women, even married ones, and falling into shallow, temporary relationships when it suits him. Hello, Niamos girl. Are we genuinely supposed to believe that for an entire year after Bix left, Cassian just stared sadly into the rain every night while playing rianza with Melshi and K2? Please. :)I would honestly bet that several girls on Yavin became very familiar with that bungalow and that bed. Very familiar.So the idea that he would flirt with Jyn is completely in character and fully fits the story. He absolutely could have left that in. And honestly, some people could even interpret that flirting as something deeper: after more than a year, looking into the mirror at those green eyes, Cassian maybe allowed himself a tiny spark of hope that this could be a girl he might someday love deeply again, if they had time.But they didn’t. Neither of them did.

[rebelcptain]

ROGUE ONE: A STAR WARS STORY (2016)

cassian.exe stopped working

[ruby-red-inky-blue]

#that last gif is my mr darcy hand clench ok!! via @rebeljyn

first of all: same.

Second of all: Listen. You can read the Elevator Scene™ as platonic. I don't know why you would, but you can - she thought this man was dead, and she was as good as dead, and then he came back and saved her life and they are stuck out of time in the middle of a D-day level battle and neither of them have words for this scenario. This scene can work for all kinds of love, really.

But this scene. This scene makes absolutely no sense to include if we were not meant to see a physical attraction develop here. What is the point of showing us Jyn's smile turning awkward, her little glance when she runs into him? What is the point of lingering on Cassian completely losing the plot when she briefly gets closer than anticipated after smiling at him like that? What, pray tell, is the point of showing us that if they're meant to be Very Professional Coworkers, or 'sibling coded' or whatever fresh hell the interwebs have decided this is post Andor?

Most of their scenes in the latter half of this movie are filmed beat for beat like a romance movie. Like we joke about the similarities to Pride and Prejudice 2005, but the visual language is genuinely doing the same thing: Circling around two people while they are locked in a very personal moment in a crowded room. Lingering on someone's reaction to a small gesture or a careless brush from their person. Cutting to a smile with a musical cue like it is the climax of your scene. The focus on brief physical touch. Even the act structure of specifically their relationship is really, really similar - look:

Pride and Prejudice 2005:

bad first impression: Netherfield ball

argument in the rain where both accuse one another of their shortcomings: first proposal

grappling with said shortcomings, adjusting behaviours: meeting again at Pemberley

big selfless gesture: Darcy "rescues" Lydia

protagonist stands up to allegorical antagonist: Lizzie blows of Lady Catherine, who is a stand-in for... pride and prejudice

soft dramatic handholding with sun just over the horizon: second proposal at dawn

fatherly approval: Darcy and Lizzie both get approval from her father

Rogue One:

bad first impression: Jyn is forced to work with Cassian

argument in the rain where both accuse one another of their shortcomings: Eadu shuttle scene

grappling with said shortcomings, adjusting behaviours: Jyn standing up to the Council, Cassian reckoning with his guilt and responsibility

big selfless gesture: Cassian offers Jyn an army (and himself)

protagonist stands up to allegorical antagonist: Jyn faces off with Krennic and, by extension, the Empire she has tolerated

soft dramatic handholding with sun just over the horizon: The Beach

fatherly approval: "Your father would have been proud of you."

I am not seriously positing that Rogue One is a retelling of P&P, okay? I'm just saying that the movie language is saying something here and it didn't fucking stutter.

[achuwe]

I don’t want to say anything, but in the novel he’s standing even closer behind her, and she reaches for his hand. Honestly, judging by the way they both look downward in the third gif, she could very well have done that in the film too, we just don’t fully see it.But apparently, according to what I was reading today, none of that matters anyway, because Bix is supposedly the love of his life and Jyn is just some annoying college girl he basically just met. :)

[achuwe]

I realized something recently. When Jyn says she’s not used to people staying once things get complicated, it must have hit Cassian deeply too, because honestly, neither is he.Maarva chose the Rebellion. Bix chose the Rebellion too, over him in many ways. Brasso died. Will chose Luthen and the cause. Melshi leaves him behind on the beach on Niamos the first time. Again and again, people move away from him, toward something bigger, or simply out of his life.And in the end, the only ones who truly choose *him* are K2 and Jyn. They are the last beings who do not leave him behind. Jyn doesn’t leave him at all, and K2 literally sacrifices himself for them. Even while “dying,” he keeps running that absurdly hopeful scenario where Cassian survives and escapes.That’s part of why the ending of Rogue One destroys me so much. For probably the first time in his life, Cassian is no longer the person left behind.

[diegothemenace]

(source)

[achuwe]

Hello Cassian. I see that even ten years after the Battle of Jakku and the end of the Rebellion, you’re still doing well. How’s the back holding up?

I have to say, man, time has been pretty merciful to you. Still the charming agent, as K2 would say, even with the first streaks of gray hair.

How’s Jyn? Is she still taking forever, grumbling the whole time while getting into those beautiful dresses? I know you two hate all those ceremonies for Rebel heroes. But Mon Mothma insisted this time. Apparently you’re supposed to make an appearance every now and then.

I can already hear the sound of heels clicking down the hallway, so I’ll go. Say hi to Jyn and the kids for me.

Enjoy your evening on Chandrila.

[achuwe]

It’s honestly incredible. So now fans are re-editing Rogue One to make it feel like the finale of Andor, even though we were all told by the creators that Andor flows perfectly and directly into Rogue One. Well… apparently it doesn’t work that smoothly after all.And of course the re-edit turns it into Cassian’s story above all else. Because heaven forbid it remains what it originally was: Jyn’s story.But why support strong female protagonists and stories centered on women, right? Because apparently a woman’s narrative always has to become an extension of a male hero. The lover. The girlfriend. The mother of his children. Anything except a fully realized protagonist whose story matters on its own.Otherwise people genuinely seem unable to process what to do with her.(Yes, I discovered this today. Yes, it annoyed me.)

'Rogue One' Becomes a True 'Andor' Finale With This Fan Project

If you're still riding the high of 'Andor,' you'll soon be able to watch a version of 'Rogue One' edited and modeled after the show.

[achuwe]

I started rewatching Andor for its anniversary, and honestly, it’s still my favorite Star Wars series. The first season especially. I have a lot of issues with season two, but there are still storylines and moments I genuinely enjoyed: Mon Mothma, Kleya’s story, Ghorman, parts of the political atmosphere, all of that still worked for me.

And while watching, I realized something. If Cassian’s story had ended with that scene of him walking across Yavin and boarding the fighter disappearing into the clouds, it would have been a perfect ending. A beautiful parallel to the opening of season one, where he walks through Morlana One searching for his sister, just a desperate thief, a lost man drifting through life and relationships.Now he walks across Yavin as someone completely different. Confident. Committed. Ready to move beyond purely personal desires and dedicate himself to something larger than himself.

I also kept thinking about Bix and what kind of ending for her story would have actually satisfied me.Honestly, I think I would have preferred almost any of these options more:

• If after season one we barely saw her again, and Cassian only mentioned her occasionally as someone running a workshop somewhere else, helping the Rebellion through supplies and parts. Their relationship is mystery...

• If their relationship had ended around episode six because she simply could not watch him become more radicalized, more willing to kill for the cause, even people she considered innocent. And yes, I still struggle with the fact that, she has problem, that Cassian killing an Imperial soldier because he recognized her face, but her coldly killing a random guard during her revenge arc somehow is not.

• If she had left after episode nine and we never saw her again or learned what happened to her. Because after episode nine, she honestly has no impact on Cassian’s story anymore. Even the field epilogue changes absolutely nothing about his fate.

• And if they absolutely wanted the “standing in a field with a child” ending, then at least show us that it happens years later, with someone she genuinely loves. Let us see that she healed not only from her trauma, but also from losing Cassian. Let her move forward instead of emotionally freezing her entire existence around him forever.

I also wanted the show to actually confront things. Like how she processed the fact that they traded on Wobani goods, and that her own business indirectly relied on prison labor from Imperial prisoners. There was so much morally complicated material there, and the show barely touched it. And honestly?

I wanted Cassian and Bix to have one real adult conversation where they admit that, despite loving each other, the relationship visibly does not work anymore. Because outside of scenes with sexual tension, what do we actually see? They argue. They explain things in circles. He’s irritated, restless, emotionally absent.

I don’t know. I just wanted something more layered than the painfully obvious cliché that half of Twitter predicted from the middle of the season. I remember insisting they would never do something that predictable and fanfic-coded to these characters because it felt way too cheap.Turns out I gave them too much credit.

[achuwe]

Sunday

Prompt: Partners | Home

Rebelcaptain May the 4th Event

[cassiansrebels]

Some appreciation for the Rogue One novelization (again). I think it's beautiful how Cassian was living in moment with Jyn carrying his weight :

Her faith carried him with her.

He didn't say any of it. He didn't want to disturb the silence as they rested against each other, hurting and relaxed, listening to the hum of machinery and the distant billowing of fires. He stowed thoughts of old missions and thoughts of the future away; decided to focus on what he could see and hear and smell for the last moments of his life on Scarif.

When Cassian Andor died, he would be ready, and he would be content.

[achuwe]

I always feel like literally hitting people over the head with those parts from the novelization when they go on about how Cassian died holding Jyn and thinking about Bix. We know what he was thinking. Nothing. In that elevator, the moment he looked at Jyn, he accepted death. He couldn’t even bring himself to think of anyone from his past, there’s literally a line that says that, and he chose to be fully present with her, here and now. Jyn doesn’t die in the arms of a man who is thinking about his ex, which would be incredibly cruel given everything she went through and how she saw Cassian. She dies with a man who is, until his very last moment, completely there with her.

[jedi-anakin]

rogue one + last words

[achuwe]

In the novelization, Jyn’s last words are, “I’m glad you came back” (at least in my translation). Then he takes her hand first… and only after that says, “Your father would be proud of you, Jyn.” Which, to me, really emphasizes that he’s the only one who didn’t leave her, and she’s the only one who stayed—who didn’t leave him.And I also realized something else: Jyn is actually the only one who ever thanks him for coming back. In the series, it’s always “Cassian will find us” or “Cassian always comes back.” People around him start treating it as something given, almost automatic. But she’s the only one who says thank you.

[andorerso]

incorrect rebelcaptain quotes 20/?

(insp)

[achuwe]

These theories drive me absolutely insane, seriously. The idea that Bix hid with the child on Mina Rau because it is the first place Cassian would look… come on.

First, why would he even look for her? She clearly said, “I am leaving you and I will find you after the war.” She is the one who is supposed to find him, not the other way around.

Second, why would Cassian think to look for her on Mina Rau? It is a place where she was almost assaulted, where they lived as undocumented migrants, and where she is probably still wanted for the murder of an Imperial officer. That is literally the worst possible hiding place.

Yes, Brasso’s widow lives there. She has been a widow for four years, was with Brasso for maybe a year, and there is his old droid. That is basically the whole “community.”

[runakvaed-deactivated20210131]

Jyn & Cassian + looks

aka Face Acting: A Master Class

[achuwe]

And here you can really see how their relationship develops, from distrust, through respect, all the way to love. I still can’t get over that elevator scene, how she plays with the hair at the back of his neck and gently strokes him… do people normally do that with their coworkers?

[achuwe]

I wanted to write one scene. Just one single scene of them kissing on a balcony with the Thames in the background, a bit of night-time London atmosphere, and that’s it.And now this monster is 6 chapters long and I’m in over my head.Because it’s me, of course there had to be kids involved and a million secrets and the whole thing is falling apart. Jyn is an exhausted middle-class mom in England, just drifting through her daily life with her husband (Harder), and then there’s Cassian as an actor whose agent, Luthen, won’t let him breathe, and his relationship with Bix is in total shambles. It starts with that one affair and I already know I’m doomed.The worst part is that I’m genuinely afraid this is going to be a 20-chapter beast. And K2 and Melshi haven’t even showed up yet. Why do I do this to myself? Why can't I just write a one-shot and go to sleep? Instead, I’m here writing a psychological deep dive into people who make terrible decisions because they’re just so tired of everything.Someone stop me...:)

[achuwe]

I’ve had a Rogue One hyperfixation for a year and a half now. In my head, Jyn and Cassian have already lived dozens of different lives. I love thinking about all those stories.

I actually look forward to going to work in the morning or going for a run, because that’s when my best ideas show up. Sometimes I’m a little afraid of the idea that someone could look inside my head expecting deep thoughts… and in reality I’m just thinking about when those two might finally kiss, or how they could have survived.

I watch movies and immediately start wondering which lines would fit them. Recently I went to see Wuthering Heights, and the whole time I kept thinking that Cathy’s line, “I cannot express it… but whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same,” would be perfect for Jyn and Cassian.

And the line “I didn’t break your heart. You broke it yourself, and in breaking it you broke mine” feels like something Cassian could say to Bix if they ever met again.

Please tell me… when does this end? When do I become normal again?

[achuwe]

I have one very good friend. A really good one. We went through university together, first boyfriends, broken hearts, we were at each other’s weddings, we have kids the same age, we know each other’s families, weaknesses, weird phases. It’s the kind of friendship that survives years, moves, maternity leave, and work stress.

And yet.

Sometimes our friendship is put through trials that would destroy weaker souls.

For example, right now. She thinks Wuthering Heights is about love. That Heathcliff is a misunderstood romantic.

I’m sorry, but no.

Wuthering Heights is not a guide to healthy relationships, and Heathcliff is not some tragic dark prince. Heathcliff is a psycho. It doesn’t matter that he’s now being played byJacob Elordi.

A pretty psycho is still a psycho.

Last year, our friendship survived a trial called Andor.

I made her watch it. She did it in this order: Andor Season 1, Andor Season 2, and then Rogue One.

And the whole time she perceived Jyn as someone Cassian was emotionally cheating with on Bix.

Yes. You read that correctly.

She claimed that when Cassian was dying and holding Jyn, he was thinking about Bix.

Massive eye roll.

I love her, because you know… she’s my girl. Out of love, I threw the Rogue One novelization at her, where it’s very clearly written what Cassian felt and what he was thinking. I added

Rebel Rising too, so she could finally understand who Jyn is and why this is not emotional infidelity but a fated parallel of two people who found each other at the exact moment when they had nothing left except one another.

And we saved our friendship.

At least we agreed on one thing: that Cassian ultimately dies in the arms of the woman who gave him hope... that he can, that he could have, if he had more time, loved again. And loved in a way that felt inevitable.

That’s the maximum I managed to extract from her.

Now she’s making me watch Euphoria, just because Jacob Elordi is in it.

Her revenge is sophisticated. I can’t deny it.

I don’t like the show. I don’t like a single character. Every single one of them needs therapy.

Friendships aren’t built on perfect agreement. They’re built on forgiving each other for terrible Star Wars interpretations.