Sprawled on the floor of a mid-Manhattan recording studio, Jeff Buckley is showing off the newest addition to his instrumental repertoire: an antique harmonium. An elegant contraption of hand pumps, varnished wood, and ivory keys, the instument was purchased as a tax write-off, to offset the advance from his 1992 signing to Columbia Records. But Buckley has grown attatched to his new toy: “I first saw one of these on Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood when I was a kid,” he laughs, his fingers dancing across the keys, “and I knew I had to have one someday.”-Spin, February, 1994
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Buckley also incorporates dulcimer and harmonium into his songs, adding the necessary ethereal twists to his dexterous guitar playing. “It’s a great sounding thing. I saw my first harmonium on Mr. Roger’s Neighborhood…I always thought I had to have one. It used to be ‘people need Sega, everybody has one.’ Well, that’s the way the harmonium used to be. It was all the rage in France in the 18th century. I think it was mixing the squeeze box with a piano.”-Ink Nineteen, December, 1994
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After he signed with Columbia in the fall of 1992, Jeff treated himself to a few pieces of gear-a new acoustic guitar, a small amp, and a used harmonium. A portable keyboard operated by way of a pump that pushes air into it, the harmonium is prevalent in Qawwali, the South Asian devotional music that made such an impression on Jeff when he first came to New York. Part of Jeff’s devotion to Qawwali involved learning how to play the instrument, which can be heard on the introduction of “Lover, You Should’ve Come Over” (as well as on a cover of Van Morrison’s “Madame George” cut during his 1993 session with producer Steve Addabbo). He also purchased language tapes to properly learn Urdu. Jeff could be seen walking around New York with this harmonium under his arm, wrapped in a blanket.-from His Own Voice
“What I want to say with a song like ‘Eternal Life’ is: if you’re one of those people who thinks he has to spend energy in putting people down and discriminating against others or passing on racist ideas…why waste your time with all that bullshit? Try to see people as people and don’t fixate on the color of their skin, status or sexual preference.”
Jeff Buckley and Rebecca Moore painted a poem on the window pane of their home, in a blue glass paint: “The tip of her wing grazed the water lightly where only moments before she had seen the shadow move. She heard the rumors about a lone scratchy fishy. Possibly the only one of its kind. Roaming the dark water with his eyes to the sky. With each careful swoop she moved close to the swirling, beautiful blue.” They alluded to their nicknames, Jeff was “Scratchy” and Rebecca “Butterfly”.
The other Mother of the Rebellion: how Maarva Andor haunts season 2
Maarva’s death in season 1 ep 11 was one of the most unexpected - not because we didn’t think that she wasn’t going to die at all but because it seemed so anti-climactic: we were expecting at least one big final moment from her. Of course we get it, but posthumously: the incredible speech she delivers in the season finale (pic 1), leading her own funeral with words of community, inspiration and a call to revolution. Just as poignant and more personal: her final words for her adopted son, delivered so movingly by Brasso just before Cassian embarks on his first solo rescue mission and really needs to hear how proud his mother was of him, especially after literally just missing a last chance to be with her…. He tries to call home from Niamos after breaking out of Narkina 5, and tells Xanwan: “Tell \[Maarva\] she’ll be proud of me, and I’ll get back as soon as I can” before Xan has a chance to tell him that she literally died less than a day ago.
In season 2, Maarva is only mentioned by name in the script twice: both times in conversation between Cassian and Bix, and I think that’s particularly telling - Bix is Cassian’s oldest surviving Ferrixian friend in addition to being his partner/wife, and it’s clear in s1 too that Bix (who has lost her parents) would have also been very close to Maarva. Ferrix is as much family as community. Still, both s2 mentions are interesting in context.
The first is in the testy but realistic argument in the safe house in 2.04. Torn between feeling crippled by her PTSD and desperately wanting not to be over-protected, Bix tells Cassian: “I’m not Maarva, I’m not your sister!” - meaning seemingly being, ‘Don’t treat me as something to feel guilty about because you’re afraid you can’t protect me’. Bix acknowledges that every goodbye might be the last in a way that Cassian is still deeply averse to. It also recalls his own complicated feelings about Maarva: yes, she saved his life but she also took him away from his sister.
The second mention is at the start of the Force healer scene in 2.07. Cassian scornfully notes “You’re lucky Maarva’s not here - she hated Force healers!” and we find out that Maarva apparently saw one ten years ago and came away with a very low opinion of them.
(Cont. below)
Another literal way in which Maarva appears in season 2 is via a little portrait hanging next to the radio in Mina-Rau. Poignantly, the Production Designer Luke Hull says that he believes Bix painted it (“Cassian wouldn’t have had the patience”). In reality, it was painted in the style of an Icon by Slovak graphics artist Tereza Hudakova.
Bringing this nicely to the less literal ways in which Maarva is still a presence in Season 2.
Firstly, she represents Ferrix and it lives on through her in many ways. She was a President of the Daughters of Ferrix and her words of revolution inspired an uprising that has since led to the ‘destruction’ of that community (it’s unclear exactly what Wilmon means but the place clearly is at least under martial law if not completely decimated). An elder figure, even her name sounds like “Mother” and you can absolutely see her as the head of the Ferrixian “family”, and what now remains of it. B2EMO presumably still has the funeral recording in his databanks - I can imagine that inspiring not just the people of Mina-Rau but being broadcast further, in the way of Nemik’s manifesto. Ferrix itself is never seen again in season 2 but every new block of “One Year Later” opens with the chimes of the Time Grappler’s anvil, and even the Coruscant safe house secret knock is based on the Ferrix percussive alarm. And of course “Stone and Sky”, the Ferrix funeral chant, becomes Cassian’s radio code call in 1.03 and words of solidarity between the Ferrixians, as seen for example when Cassian and Wil embrace before the mission to assassinate Dedra, the woman they view as the one who destroyed their home.
Secondly, Maarva’s words of faith in Cassian and her expression of love for him are a key motivator for him in s2. He had always wanted to make her proud and even when he seems ready to give up the fight a reaffirmation of this faith that he will “be an unstoppable force for good” one day is what it takes to drive him on. It’s the repetition of this idea from Bix in her goodbye message - that he has a purpose in bringing about victory - that puts Cassian on the path to that final stage of full commitment to the rebellion: being able to sacrifice his life in the hope that it will make all the difference. The other message from Maarva, that you will of course worry about absent loved ones all the time but “that’s just love, there’s nothing you can do about that”, would help Cassian cope with Bix’s absence and, given time, realise she was as right about him as Maarva was. Because of course both figures push Cassian away when they see him about to make a wrong turn, but in doing so ultimately guide him back to the “place he needs to be”.
Then you’ve got the two characters who most embody the spirit of Maarva.
Mon Mothma’s speech to the Senate echoes some of that of Maarva’s funeral address to the people of Ferrix, especially in its evocation of the age and commitment of the speaker and the nature of the enemy. Maarva recalls how she was six years old when she first was inspired by the words of the dead, and that “Where you stand now, I’ve been more times than I can remember”. Mon says: “I’ve spent my life in this chamber. I came here as a child.” The audiences are different but the message is the same: that we need to wake up before it’s too late and recognise the nature of the evil that is already among us. Maarva mentions the Empire as a “disease that thrives in darkness… a darkness reaching like rust into everything around us”. Meanwhile Mon identifies turning away from objective reality as making us “vulnerable to the appetite of whatever monster screams the loudest”, the “monster who will come for us all, soon enough.” The connection between the two speeches is brought home even further with the repeat of the music cue ‘Eulogy’ and the similar narrative framing of Cassian, listening away despite being busy on a rescue mission - inflitrating the Imperial territory of the Ferrix hotel to rescue Bix and the Senate building to rescue Mon herself. He’s embodying the rebellious action that Maarva, and subsequently Mon, are calling for.
The other character is Bix. In a rewatch of Season 1 you can see that when Maarva’s holoimage reaches the words “I want you to go on” at the funeral the camera shows Bix, who has literally dragged herself up to the window of her cell to listen. She’s been tortured to the brink of insanity but the music and the words seem to be calling her back. In season 2, her arc focuses on her slow and frequently painful recovery and her heartbreaking eventual sacrifice of the relationship she holds most dear - but this moment in season 1 seems to foreshadow that Bix will indeed “go on”, survive and walk out in triumph in the final scene, healed at last and full of hope for the better future, holding one of the next generation in her arms. Tony Gilroy emphasised this link in one interview, going so far as to say that Bix really IS Maarva, in the sense of embodying her, in that final scene. Not just a mother but a nurturing figure for her community as well as for her child.
Maarva makes two appearances, of a kind, in the series finale. It’s really telling that Vel makes a point of raising a toast to “Your mother” with Cassian in the finale - not using her name but emphasising exactly who she was to him, although I don’t think he’s ever heard using the word “mother” of her himself. And then there’s the shot of Cassian watering his plants before leaving for Kafrene. Yes, it’s the connection to Bix that’s clearly still strong, but it goes back even further - Maarva is also shown watering houseplants and has a large collection, kept similarly in front of a round window. Nurturing and caring for the future. Cassian is honouring Maarva’s memory here too - it really is a symbolic case of ‘Past/Present/Future’, and recalls the quote about a society being great when men “plant trees in whose shade they will never sit”.
This emphasis on love and community being necessary for a rebellion is the main reason, I think, why Maarva seems to live on. I waver all the time but I think that for sheer emotional impact her speech in 1.12 is my favourite of the main ones - those designed for a big audience. It’s special to Ferrix but it’s also completely universal, and in these dark times more relevant than ever. She loves that community, loves it unconditionally and is full of regret that she didn’t do more before. The heartbreaking honesty of that gives not just Cassian but all the other rebel figures who hear Maarva, or hear of her, the motivation they need.
TLDR/ Conclusion: You can absolutely see Maarva as another “mother of the rebellion”. Luthen talks about sharing his dreams with ghosts - you can see Maarva as a ghost who shared her dreams with the living. In that sense, she will also “go on”.
its all "golden retriever boyfriend" this and "black cat girlfriend" that. what about the dynamic where theyre both scrappy, rain-soaked opossums that met in the back-alley dumpster that will scream demonically if you try to separate them.
I love how on Bluesky everyone is like "Wow, Bix surviving made me feel so much better after what she went through :)" and half of Tumblr is raving and saying shit like "Tony Gilroy letting even ONE woman live and not die in an explosion means he HATES WOMEN" and it's like haha... Yeah this site is still kind of media illiterate, huh?
The whole “the women were badly written” thing is mostly a tumblr take and I’m glad I largely avoided everything but gifs and fanart on this site when s2 was dropping . Personally, I do think that Cinta’s s2 story could have been handled better, though it’s not a dealbreaker. But I also think it’s telling that literally every single one of the five main surviving female characters’ actors have heaped praise on the writing in separate interviews. Way beyond what you would expect for simple promotion purposes. Edit : yes, of course these are deliberate writing choices and not random events. I wish there were more explicit recognition of that - “on that we can agree” 😊
Sep. 13 / Day 3 of @cassiansrebels Andor season 1 anniversary celebration…
Cassian Andor
The man himself! I love him. As in, not just admire, idolise, or have a crush on… though I won’t deny it’s all of those as well! … but love in the way you can only love a fictional character who speaks to you so strongly. Who you think about every day.
Just to focus in on one aspect of Cassian to stop this becoming even more of a ramble than usual: as this is a Season 1 celebration, I want to say how much I appreciate how far from a noble selfless hero Cassian is in 5 BBY, at least at the start of the series. I love the fact that he’s a bit of a dick. A jerk, even. A roach. First time watching, I really wasn’t keen on him at all. If it wasn’t for Brasso being such a great alibi-boosting Bestie and B2EMO getting a bit of very casual love when Cass removes some stuck metal from his workings, I might even have disliked him. He’s provocative with Timm, complacent and demanding with Bix, he lies to his mother (among several others), is definitely scamming Nurchi … Hmmm. So this is the guy who will willingly give his life for the cause in five years?!
But as the season unfolded, it all started to make sense. Our boy is seriously traumatised by a troubled past: a tragic combination of decisions he made, decisions made for him, and a whole lot of seemingly endless pain. Attempts to fight back were met with even more pain. No wonder he’s so cynical when Luthen makes his offer.
One of my favourite scenes of all is in the magnificent episode 7 - still in my top three of the whole series. You’ve got past, present and future here. When Maarva says that she is staying on Ferrix to work for the rebellion, she mentions being inspired by the “brave” “heroes” of Aldhani. Unable to tell her of his role in the heist, there’s nonetheless a quick smile of pride that Cassian suppresses. When Maarva goes on to detail how these heroes stormed an Imperial Garrison we get a flashback to teenager Cassian attacking the Troopers who killed Clem - and just like that - we realise exactly why he was in youth prison for three years: he tried to storm a garrison. He does it on Aldhani. As Brasso comments, he “ takes on a whole Garrison” when he rescues Bix. And of course – he will one day do this exact same thing on Scarif in Rogue One, once again by cunning: making 10 men seem like a hundred.
In short, by the end of the season, I had gone through feeling desperately sorry for Cassian to admiring his ability to pick himself up and carry on no matter what tragic or darkly ironic events came his way. And his increasing ability to think outwards, beyond his own circle of loved ones. To toy with the idea that perhaps there is a greater purpose that he can be part of.
It’s inspiring, moving, and Diego Luna portrays all this with a beautiful combination of steely determination (to just get through this seemingly never-ending series of “the worst days of his life”) and a strong sense of empathy. From Nemik to Kino, Maarva to Bix, Brasso to Melshi, Cassian starts to Give a Shit about something and someone besides himself and his day-to-day life. He also realises that he has some very real talents - not just practical ones, but for teamwork. For leadership. I love the moment when Kino uses Cassian’s own words when speaking to the prisoners - “ I’d rather die trying to take them down than giving them what they want” - and you can see Cassian react with a kind of nervous awe - and pride. He’s realising that he can inspire, that he can make a difference. That he can be a part of something bigger than himself.
