JYN: You went up there to kill my father.
CASSIAN: You don't know what you're talking about. [....] You're in shock and looking for some place to put it. I've seen it before.
JYN: I bet you have.
and
JYN: My father was living proof... and you put him at risk. Those were Alliance bombs that killed him.
CASSIAN: I had orders... orders that I disobeyed. But you wouldn't understand that.
JYN: Orders? When you know they're wrong? You might as well be a Stormtrooper.
CASSIAN: What do you know? We don't all have the luxury of deciding... when and where we want to care about something. Suddenly the Rebellion is real for you. Some of us live it. I've been in this fight since I was 6 years old. You're not the only one
who lost everything. Some of us just decided to do something about it.
JYN: You can't talk your way around this.
CASSIAN: I don't have to.
they knew each other for like... one week (?)... and were arguing like this. it cuts them deep because it's true!
Warning: Spoilers ahead about the Disney Plus Series Andor. Read at your peril.
For the past twelve weeks, Disney have trickle fed us the Star Wars series Andor, an attempt to create a prequel that will lead into the prequel story of Rogue One. a series that was entirely successful in its mission. With a diversity of moments from absolute euphoria, to almost bottomless despair, Andor hit the marks hard, showing us the development of Rebel Spy Cassian Andor, a womanising street thug who finds later absolution as a devoted Rebel Fighter. Along the way we met his family, witness the murder of his father at the hands of Imperial forces before finally seeing his Mother, Maarva inspire a whole town to rebel against the Empire.
The series started with the brilliant Diego Luna playing Cassian as an adult searching for his sister, a search takes him to a brothel, having heard a rumour that she may have been working as a sex worker, which was a first for Star Wars with the writers clearly taking a step up in the darker tone of the story. The images of the sex workers, though not explicit, would make for complex explanations for younger viewers, but as with Rogue One, the feeling here was that this version of Star Wars was never meant for younger viewers. The language used throughout the series also hinted at this, I cannot imagine Captain of the Ghost and Rebel hero, Hera Syndula uttering the word shit or calling the Empire bastards, thus making Andor special yet again. Interspersed though the first block of episodes, we also see Cassian as a boy, Cassa, living among a tribe of feral children, with no explanation of how they got there or a translation of the language they were speaking. We did not need the explanation though, the images on the screen were obvious from the start in this powerful three show story arc. The adults of the tribe had been taken and forced into slavery in the mine that was destroying the ecosystem of the planet. A damaged ship crash lands not far from the children's camp and they get ready to investigate, creating a war party with blow darts dipped in poison. Upon investigation of the crash site, the tribe's leader steps up to look inside the ship and is promptly gunned down in a brutal and senseless murder that is both shocking and painfully sad. Cassa, whose sister remained at the camp with the other much younger children leaves the distraught group as they return the body of their leader to their camp. Now alone, Cassa begins to explore the ship, only to encounter Maarva and Clem who, while on a salvage mission to gather parts from the wrecked ship, rescue him from the coming massacre. We do not see the murder of the children by Imperial forces, but later conversations between Maarva and Cassian explain well enough the depth of the evil perpetrated against them.
Fiona Shaw who plays Cassian's mother Maarva did so with both a gentleness of heart and a steel resolve. Now a veteran actor, having worked in theatre, movies and television since at the 1980s, I have never seen her portray a character with such absolute purity of heart or with such emotional power. To many she will always be the cruel aunt of Harry Potter, but from this moment she is cast in brick as the gentle, powerful, inspirational mother of our hero. With the death of Maarva later in the Andor series, we are left with a hole in our hearts and the credit for this feeling goes not just to the writing of the series, but to Shaw's often subtle but always beautiful acting. Seeing her, with tear filled eyes, tell Cassian to leave their home on the planet Ferex and that his worry for her was the cost of love, was a moment that will be burned into the psyche of Star Wars for decades to come. The line of “I will love him more than any wrong he can do”, utterly broke my heart and filled my eyes with tears, delivered as it was by Cassian's friend Brasso, played by Joplin Sibtain as he reported to Cassian the death of his mother.
The first murder we see Cassian commit was in the first episode and was a both brutal and painfully sad. As he walks away from the brothel disappointed by the lack of leads into the location of his sister, he is jumped by two corrupt Corporate Police Officers and in the scuffle, one of the officers is killed almost by accident. The fight is fast and shows Cassian to have the technique of a street brawler as he quickly disarms and downs both officers leaving the second and more senior officer begging for his life in a scene filled with darkness and rain, only for Cassian to shoot him at point blank range in the face with a blaster. With this despicable act, the scene really set the dark relentless tone for the series and this is something that I am going to keep referring to, the tone of each episode was of something considerably more adult and less silly than anything Star Wars have done since the duel between Anakin and Obi-Wan in the third movie, Revenge of the Sith.
The comparisons with other shows and movies in the Star Wars saga was inevitable and with the recent Boba Fett and Obi-Wan Kenobi series being fresh in the viewer's mind, it is easy to say that Star Wars is creating a new, darker feel for the Empire, not just the distant experience of a farm boy on an isolated planet in the outer rim. As with Kenobi, the tone of the show was one of darkness, the loss of the soul of the republic as the Empire crushes every citizen under foot. However unlike Kenobi, Andor does not step into the magic realm of space wizards and magical feats of the force. There might be subtle hints that one of the rebel leaders may have a Jedi past, but there is a strong lack of Force wielders and frankly, the show was all the stronger for this, giving the series the emotional weight of a harder edged Sci-Fi, rather than the soft swashbuckling fantasy of the original movies.
With the early episodes broken up into three episode story blocks, we are introduced to Luthen Rael, portrayed by the masterful Stellan Skarsgård, who is an organiser for the Rebel Alliance working alongside Senator Mon Mothma, played by the superb Genevieve O'Reilly, the future Rebel Leader. For those of us familiar with the animated Star Wars Rebels, we know that Mothma will eventually be forced to flee the senate to be rescued by Hera and her crew, which starts the building of the Rebel Alliance that we see in Rogue One. Here we see Mothma struggling with disclosure of her dangerous financial contributions to the Rebel Alliance, that ultimately leads her to give her daughter away in betrothal to the son of a gangster, hiding her manoeuvring under the guise of her husband's gambling addiction and debts that would make it appear that the money issues are entirely his fault. It was a clever, painful and dark move (written beautifully) from someone who we will come to know as a future leader of the Alliance. The strings are all being pulled, connecting characters with events that happened in the prequels and original movies and other series, all of which must take all of the computing power of the Star Wars story group.
The second arc of the series, or episodes four through six, was the raid on the Imperial vault at Aldhani, to steal eighty million credits from the payrole of the Empire. Again in any other story, the arc would be simple with the building of a crew for a heist, but yet again Star Wars played with the heart and soul that binds the story together. Luthen leads Cassian to his team leader and the as yet unknown, the cousin of Mon Mothma, Vel played by the charismatic Faye Marsay and her rather complicated band of rebels. Tucked away rather quietly in this tiny group of rebels is the character Karis Nemik, touchingly played by Alex Lawther as a young soulful dreamer, fired by his belief in liberty and freedom, themes that are cleverly explored in his discussions with an angry and introverted Cassian. Cassian's cynicism and anger often brushes the boy aside or tried to crush his optimism, but Nemik is a philosopher and writer and as he progresses, he creates a manifesto that will eventually be at the heart of the rebellion. The raid was an exciting story arc, with visuals of utter beauty with contrasting with the darkness and evil of the Empire. The crushing of the local population, the brutal destruction of their religious movement and the Imperial plans to eventually enslave them to work on another destructive mining operation, is all laid out albeit subtly and with enough heart to leave the viewer with the knowledge that the pilgrims at the Imperial base were murdered after the raid.
Cassian escapes from Aldhani piloting the stolen ship loaded with the Imperial credits, but as they flee, Nemik is critically hurt when crushed by a pallet loaded with credits. His death is a moment of reflection for Cassian, but this is one that we do not see because of his urgent need for escape and to rescue his ill mother and her droid, the beautiful B2 EMO. If ever there was a droid to melt the heart of the coldest and most cynical Star Wars fan, it is Bee. With his glitches and minor bullying by hounds in the first episode, Bee could be written off as worthless, but as with so many of the characters in this show, Bee has more heart than all of the Empire combined and will fight for what is right. It is sad to say it, but not even R2 or even BB8 can equal Bee for purity of spirit or just plain old cuteness.
The core of the first half of the series, is a discussion of integrity over cynicsm and asks the question of the characters, what are they going to do in the fight against tyranny? We see Cassian reinforce his apathy, as he shrugs off any responsibility, he tries to take his mother away from her life of cold misery on Ferex, only for her to explain the nature of evil in the Empire and then of their love for each other to him. He leaves, with tears in his eyes, pays a few debts as he visits old friends and is then gone, leaving chaos and carnage in his wake once again.
For many of us, agents of the Imperial Security Bureau are personified by Agent Kallus in Rebels, the man who serves the Empire despite being haunted by the Genocide of Lasan. The complexities of modern Star Wars are not to be dismissed, just because the story is animated rather than live action and it is through Rebels that we meet a host of important characters, in particular, we see once again ISB Colonel Wulff Yularen, who mentors Kallus only to be disappointed by him when Kallus defects to the Rebel Alliance. The ISB are a cold, brutal organisation who exist as enforcers among the ranks of the Empire as well as a secret police force among the greater galactic populace, in the fashion of the real world, former East German Stasi. With the Andor series, we are introduced to ISB Supervisor Dedra Meero, an ambitious officer pushing against the misogyny of the Empire as she battles her way to the top. She is cool, powerful and determined, her icy persona matched by her crisp uniform and carefully controlled blonde hair. At moments the viewers find themselves not only gleefully watching her take apart her rivals in the ISB, but actually hoping that she finds her man, the rebel Cassian Andor. However the arrogance and ineptitude of her colleagues and fellow supervisors is displayed throughout the series and it is apparent that the galaxy under the Empire is not a good place to be if you are a woman or non human. Denise Gough is fantastic in this role, the almost perfect antagonist to Diego Luna's Cassian and she is ferocious and at times fearless as she fights for what she believes is right. Her methods are cruel and brutal, she is quick to resort to torture and is more than happy to have people executed for what she perceives as crimes against the Empire. She makes the links between thefts of pieces of Imperial tech around the galaxy and then the raid on Aldhani, much to the annoyance of her fellow Supervisors, but to the pride of her mentor, Major Partagaz played by the joyful Anton Lesser. Thus begins the quest to locate and interrogate Cassian, all the while being unaware that he has already been arrested and transported to a shocking Imperial prison where he has been put to work as part of a team of slave labourers, building parts of the Death Star, parts that eventually turn out to be parts of the super weapon that destroy Alderaan.
There are so many characters in this show worthy of mention along side those already spoken of here, but how long do I want this piece to be? For starters we have the disgraced Corporate Security officer and stalker Syril Karn and his disdainful mother, played by Kyle Soller and Kathryn Hunter, a more beautiful and complicated pair have yet to be seen in Star Wars. We also have the seemingly pious but ultimately heart breaking Kino Loy played by the fabulous Andy Serkis. We meet Sgt Melshi for the first time, a man yet to join the Rebels, but determined to tell the galaxy what the Empire are doing to the citizens. There are moments of brevity, moments of heart racing anxiety and though out the whole second arc, we see Diego Luna with his face filled with the horror of what has happened to Cassian.
Some critics have complained about the slow steady pace of Andor, a pace that slowly, almost unobserved built up into a climax that was as powerful as anything ever done in Star Wars since Rogue One. Sadly, with one series down, we have only one series left which has only just gone into production. It feels like a very long wait for season two of this fantastic series, but if it is as powerful as season one, it will be worth the wait. Again we are almost forced to compare this show with the others in the Disney Plus era and even the all powerful The Mandalorian is going to struggle with the tone and intensity of Andor. We all know that Mando and Grogu are building into a beautiful Father and Son epic and I have already written in the past my views that it will be Mando that ties the sequel movies to the rest of the saga, when a somewhat more grown up Grogu is forced to leave Dinn Djarin, who has grown old, so that he can take up Jedi training with Rey Skywalker. No doubt the Ahsoka series will take us somewhere else, I already suspect that Thrawn is going to be an important and complicated character in the future, especially given how the latest books set Thrawn up as clever tactician, if political inept. It will be very easy to forgive Thrawn his war crimes when we remember that he is just a bit crap at politics and only joined the Empire in order to save the Chiss Ascendancy from the threat of the Grysks. You have no idea what I am talking about? You need to read Timothy Zahn's two Thrawn trilogies.
Yet no matter where Star Wars goes in the future, the best bit of Star Wars ever written thus far comes from a line or two in the first movie, when it discusses how Rebel Spies captured the plans for the Death Star, the planet killing super weapon that destroyed Leia Organa's home planet and was eventually blown up by future space wizard and recluse, Luke Skywalker. With Rogue one, we got a dark, gritty and painful movie, painful because in my home it is strongly recommended that the film be watched with a box of tissues close at hand for the third act, when viewers will likely cry their eyes out as each beloved character is killed off. Rogue One gave us Cassian, the complex, conflicted Rebel Intelligence officer. Series one of Andor shows us how he got there and it was just as dark, gritty and painful. Each week as I have tuned into the wonderful Geeknd live stream, I have joked that I award Andor points out of twelve because I am an Imperial at heart, but Andor has shown us all just how evil the Empire is in a new and more dramatic way, without the use of space wizards or wielding Force magic. It is true that we love the Jedi and the Sith, during a rather painful hospital procedure when I had fluids removed from my spine, it was reciting the Sith code that got me through the whole ordeal. I still love the character Asaaj Ventress more than any other in the saga, but as of now, sat next to her on her throne will be Cassian and his mother and her droid. The Andor family are beautiful, complicated, compassionate and most of all, so very human, even their droid. I will say once again something I have come to believe, the Andor show is the best piece of Star Wars since Dark Disciple, the novel that gave us the end of Ventress, written in tear inducing prose by the wonderful Christie Golden. If you read only one Star Wars book, read that one and then Watch Andor as it leads into Rogue One and then Rebels. If you have not cried by the end, then you are more stoic than I am capable of being.
Author’s Note I’m garbage at AU’s and we all know it so here have some sort of prompt but not what you were probably expecting
Read it on AO3: http://archiveofourown.org/works/9343367
*
They’re waiting for clearance, crouched low in a back alley. The city, metallic and dirty, covers their noise, they need only not be seen, and she’s fiddling with her crystal. He’d gotten around to asking her about it, and she’d given him the briefest of answers on the matter. It was more than he had expected her to reveal, and he didn’t take that for granted. but he knew so much of her parents, as traitors, as targets. He wanted to know them as she had.
“Do you think they would have liked me?”
It’s an odd question, at an odd time, and her face reveals as much. He scans their surroundings again, part habit part to give her time to change the subject, but eventually he can’t help but return to watching her face.
“I suppose,” She says hesitantly. He wants to know what that means, but has long learned better than to ask. A fraction of his mind flicks back to their first moments together. Kay had accused her of being vague, and the reputation certainly held. A voice comes over the com in her possession, and suddenly there was no more time for oddities. Only battle, guerrilla warfare, routine only it’s unpredictability.
They get separated at some point, an outcome neither of them are ever truly comfortable with. Jyn’s cornered back into the alley despite the orders to push as far forward as they can; she isn’t sure how many exactly are firing but the wall of white armor in her way isn’t parting.
Cassian will leave her behind if it comes down to it, and she’d do the same to him. It wasn’t something that could have ever been formally discussed, because the words are too cruel to protect whatever it is this thing they have going is, but the Rebellion meant too much for either one of them to matter more.
He’s three streets over, trying to get the Empire tank that has been leveling homes in the poorer neighborhoods for sport out of commission. He’d gotten close enough to plant a bomb, but that was his last resort, not first. There were civilians everywhere, and Jyn wouldn’t take kindly to knowing they’d been hurt.
There were days he cursed her for that compassion, because he’d lost his long ago. It made him wonder, again, about Galen and Lyra, would that have understood his way of life, one string of unforgivable deeds after another, in the name of a cause that had raised him to hate?
He shakes the thought from his mind, amazed at how casually his mind had wandered under steady blaster fire. It was comforting, in a contorted way, that he could find the brainspace to multi-task at a time like this, and it was also the exact kind of thinking that would get him killed. He pulls a grenade from his pack, ready to blow the tank and be done with it.
She’ll hate you if you do. A voice that isn’t his own states, so clearly he turns his head in search of it’s owner. Disable the blaster on the tank, that will buy them time. Debris falls beside him from a blast that narrowly missed his head, landing hard on his side. He swears furiously, sparing the briefest glance toward his ruined com device. For reasons that remain unfathomable to him, Cassian crouches low and sprints to the other side of the square, positioning himself for a sniper shot at the blaster’s controls.
Jyn ducks as blaster fire ricocheted off the wall behind her, but by some luck, or intervention she doesn’t have the time to question right now, a crack opens across from her. She kicks at it in desperation, hearing the boots of Storm Troopers closing in behind her. The wall gives way and she’s through it without glancing back. She runs a short distance before finding a lattice of junk piled into a wall. She makes the snap decision to climb, the roofs would be more exposed but less crowded, and she could get a sense of her bearings. She could try and find Cassian. From her vantage point she see’s their ship hovering several streets away, and an Imperial fighter closing in behind it. She looks down and sees a second battalion of storm troopers arriving. They must have been recognized as the survivors of Skariff, to warrant such a response. There was no way she could reach the ship, but perhaps it could make it to her before the fighter closed in. She reached for her com and called for Cassian.
He pulls the trigger, and satisfied with his shot dares not linger any longer. He headed North, towards the rendezvous point, running at full speed. Turn around. It’s his subconscious-he’s sure of it-or so he attempts to convince himself. Jyn will be there, she’ll be at the retrieval point, and if he turns around he’ll be left behind.
Jyn tries one final time to reach him, or so she tells herself. Once the ship turns they’ll know she’s there, and there won’t be time to linger. Cassian needs to be beside her when it arrives, or he won’t make it out. She switches channels again, hoping a different frequency is enough for him to hear her.
Turn around, Cassian Andor. You’re going the wrong way. He stops for a moment, and he does not know why. He can’t see the ship, he can’t communicate his position, or receive communication from anyone else. And yet he finds himself not alone. Cassian breathes deeply, spins on his heel, and against all of his better judgment begins to head South.
Send up a flare. Jyn nearly bursts into tears, startled by her mother’s voice echoing so clearly in her mind. She hesitates for a moment, her hands shaking as she reaches into her pack. Light it.
A burst of green illuminates the streets. The rebel ship makes a hairpin turn, narrowly avoiding the imperial pod on it’s tail. Cassian looks up, and she’s standing above, a few buildings ahead of him. He calls her name, knowing it won’t carry, but to say it all the same.
She turns to the street, grabbing her mother’s crystal by instinct, willing him to realize what she’s done. She hears him call her name, and sees him dodging through throngs of stunned civilians. He finds his way to her as the ship extends it’s hatch, leaving them to jump for it’s open door.
*
They’re well away, mission complete, breath caught and wounds tended. She’s curled sideways on the narrow bench of the cargo hatch, one arm held tight against sore ribs and the other gently, but undoubtedly present, on his shoulder. He sits on the floor in front of the bench, cleaning his weapon, too keyed up to rest but knowing she won’t if he strays too far.
“How did you get back so quickly?” She asks. “I didn’t think you would see the flare.” It isn’t the question she’s asking, what she wants is his forgiveness.
“I was already on my way,” he says, surprising himself with his honesty. “I just, had a feeling.”
They sit quietly for some time before he continues. “Someone told me to turn around. My com was damaged, but I heard them clearly.”
A realization comes to Jyn, a sensation so overwhelming she feels tears form in the corners of her eyes again. He feels her grip on his shoulder tighten, and turns to face her. “Are you alright?”
She fumbles for her necklace, contemplating how best to explain.She pushes herself up so that she’s sitting,pulling his arms around her waists and lacing her fingers with his. She looks at him, intently, as if she isn’t quite sure he’s really there.
“Jyn?” His tone carries concern, but not discomfort. He hasn’t shied away from her inspection.
“They like you,” She says with certainty. “They brought you home.”
rogue one is like a 9/10 or a 9.5/10 for me, but i do think about the rewrites and alternatives that there could have.
like, where jyn is more of a rebellious loose canon, who hates the empire but is totally disillusioned with the ineffective rebel alliance (and feeling personally hurt and abandoned by saw and galen).
so rather than the han-solo-archetype of 'neutral' criminal with a heart of gold, she's a bit more of an anti-hero and a bit more active in her actions. i basically bend canon a little and imagine her that way tbh, just to make the character better for me tbh.
