@jyndor2’s excellent post from 2025 about Andor, particularly s2, inspired me to write out thoughts that have been percolating in my mind for a while.
Andor could have been a lot of things but ultimately it should serve as a prequel to Rogue One. It could have (and should have) expanded on the themes and characters in Rogue One but it shouldn’t have fundamentally altered them. Andor does that; it fundamentally alters the main theme of R1 and Cassian’s character.
The theme of R1 is that ordinary people from disparate backgrounds, can come together and put there differences aside to build a resistance (and, yes, I am quoting Diego Luna there). No one person is more important than the others. No one is a magical Jedi. They are all just people that make a choice to resist, even if it means losing everything including their lives.
But Andor changes this by making Cassian special. The Force sees him, recognizes him. The Force sensitive healer says that the Force sees him and claims that he’s the “pilot who will deliver the message,” even though in R1, he’s not the pilot and he doesn’t deliver a message. In R1, Bodhi is the pilot that delivers a message. Jyn transmits a message as the completion of the film’s ultimate mission. Cassian has a role to play in R1 but it doesn’t involve being a pilot or sending a message. By giving him a Force-recognized destiny, it steals his choice (which is a theme @jyndor2 expands on) and he is no longer an ordinary person that makes a choice. He’s destined. He’s special. More special than the rest of Rogue One.
Making him “visible” to the Force, or whatever the healer says, isn’t upheld in R1. Chirrut senses Jyn and her hidden kyber crystal. He knows her and senses her light through the Force. Chirrut doesn’t sense or read Cassian. He senses darkness on Eadu but needs Baze to tell him about Cassian because the Force isn’t talking to Chirrut about Cassian.
The character of Cassian is fundamentally altered as well. From R1, we know Cassian is committed to the Rebellion. He’s been in the fight since he was 6 yrs old. He has lost everything to the fight or, another way of saying that is, the fight is everything for him. R1 Cassian always puts the Rebellion first. He has no personal loyalty or ethics that he would not compromise in favour of the Rebellion. This fact is important because the fight is killing his soul. He's being damaged by what he does for a cause that he believes in.
In his opening scene, Cassian kills Tivik to protect the Rebellion.
He’s not a cold-blooded killer (even though Gilroy interprets it that way).
He’s not a natural killer.
He doesn’t want to kill Tivik.
He’s not even neutral about killing Tivik.
He does not want to kill Tivik.
He does it to protect the Rebellion. He obviously doesn’t want to kill Galen Erso either, but he forces himself into position because it’s for the Rebellion. His inability to kill Galen and his decision to break with Rebel command over Scariff is his character’s growth in R1.
Compare this version of Cassian to Andor, where every time Cassian is asked to put the Rebellion before his personal loyalties, he refuses and chooses his personal loyalties.
In every 3-episode arc in s2, Cassian explicitly puts the Rebellion at risk for his own personal priorities. In the first arc, he takes the prototype Tie fighter that he stole for the Rebellion to Mina Rau to save “his family,” thereby exposing the Rebellion and Mina Rau to the Empire. In the second arc, he abandons Ghorman to get back to Bix and then endangers Luthen’s cover by, inexplicably, going to Luthen’s shop to yell at him about Bix. The arc ends with Cassian and Bix blowing up an ISB-linked building in Coruscant, risking capture and death for a mission whose only purpose is for Bix to heal by torturing her torturer. In the 3rd arc, Cassian leaves Yavin to kill Dedra, telling General Draven that he’ll “come and go as [he] please[s] or [he’ll] go forever.” This arc ends with Cassian planning to leave the Rebellion for a life that he wants, putting his personal wants above the Rebellion. With the departure of Bix, we might hope to see Cassian fully committed to the Rebellion for the last arc but that’s not the case. Again, he defies orders and endangers the Rebellion by flying to Coruscant to save Luthen and Kleya. The day before he leaves for Kafrene, and the opening of Rogue One, he’s under house arrest for disobeying orders. He isn’t contrite either. His disrespect for Bail Organa and the rest of the Alliance command at the end of Andor is palpable.
Disrespectful treatment of others is another difference between R1 Cassian and Andor’s Cassian. R1 Cassian respects the Alliance Command. He respects K-2SO. He respects Jyn. Andor’s Cassian doesn’t seem to respect anyone. He can be kind when the situation requires it, but his default is undisciplined, rude and disrespectful. R1 Cassian loses his temper, but his default is disciplined, polite and respectful. Clearly, this is Gilroy’s take on a manly man.
But that’s another whole dissertation and this one is long enough.
