"My name is Maarva Carrassi Andor. I'm honored to stand before you. I'm honored to be a Daughter of Ferrix, and honored to be worthy of the stone.
Strange, I... feel as if I can see it. I was six, I think, first time i touched a funerary stone. Heard our music, felt our history, holding my sisters hand as we walked all the way from Fountain Square. Where you stand now, I've been more times than i can remember.
I always wanted to be lifted. I was always eager, always waiting to be inspired. I remember every time it happened, every time the dead lifted me... with their truth. And now I'm dead, and I yearn to lift you. Not because i want to shine or even be remembered. It's because i want you to go on. I want Ferric to continue. In my waining hours, thats what comforts me most.
But I fear for you. We've been sleeping. We've had each other, and Ferrix, our work, our days. We had each other and they left us alone. We kept the trade lane open, and they left us alone. We took their money and ignored them, we kept their engine churning, and the moment they pulled away. we forgot them. *(SIGH)* Because we had each other. We had Ferrix. But we were sleeping. I've been sleeping. And I've been turning away from the truth I wanted not to face.
There is a wound that won't heal at the center of the galaxy. There is a darkness reaching like rust into everything around us. We let it grow, and now it's here. It's here and it's not visiting anymore. It wants to stay.
The Empire is a disease that thrives in darkness, it is never more alive than when we asleep. It's easy for the dead to tell you to fight, and maybe it's true, maybe fighting is useless. Perhaps it's too late. But I'll tell you this, if I could do it again, I'd wake up early and be fighting those bastards from the start! Fight the Empire!"
the scene where cassian retires to the sunny planet to escape responsibility permanently after winning his share of the bounty in the heist and immediately gets targeted by senseless, unprovoked police brutality as a bystander to a petty crime due to arrest quotas on that very same idyllic beach where tourists sip their alien pina coladas is a dazzling illustration of what maarva told him, her reason for staying: “it’s happening everywhere”. you can’t emigrate-to-a-safer-place away from the harm you’re knee-deep and long-entangled in. keep running from fascism and it will catch up to you. the universe said “nice refusal of the call, dickwad, let’s give you a more concrete sense of injustice (since you decided you can just abandon the cause your friends have died for)”
Rewatched Andor and here are my absolute favourite lines of dialoge/ monologe
"I said I know you. I know the outside I know what people tell me when I ask. The rest I imagine. I imagine your hate. I imagine that no matter what you tell me or tell yourself, you'll ultimately die fighting these bastards. So what I'm asking you is this: Wouldn't you rather give it all at once to something real than carve of useless pieces till there's nothing left?"
S01E04
"The pace of repression outstrips our ability to understand it. And that is the real trick of the imperial thought machine. It's easier to hide behind 40 atrocities than a single incident. But they have a fight on their hands, don't they?"
S01E05
"We need it. We need the fear. We need them to overreact."
"You can't be serious."
"The empire has been choking us so slowly, we're starting not to notice. The time has come to force their hand."
"People will suffer."
"That's the plan."
S01E07
"Take all the money you found and go find some peace."
"I won't have peace. I'll be worried about you all the time."
"That's just love. Nothing you can do about that."
S01E07
"How long we hang on, how far we get, how many of us make it out, all of that is up to us. [...] Wherever you are right now, get up, stop the work. Get out of your cells, take charge and start climbing. They don't have enough guards and they know it. If we wait until they figure that out, it'll be too late. We will never have a better chance than this and I would rather die trying to take them down than giving them what they want. [...] There is one way out. Right now this building is ours. You need to run, climb, kill! You need to help each other. You see someone who's confused, someone who's lost, you get them moving and you keep them moving until we put this place behind us. There are 5000 of us. If we can fight half as hard as we've been working, we will be home in no time. One way out!
S01E10
"And what do you sacrifice?"
"Calm. Kindness. Kinship. Love. I've given up all chance at inner peace. I made my mind a sunless place. I share my dreams with ghosts. I wake up everyday to an equation I wrote 15 years ago from which there's only one conclusion. I'm damned for what I do. My anger, my ego, my unwillingness to yield, my eagerness to fight, they've sat me on a path from which there is no escape. I yearned to be a savior against injustice without contemplating the cost and by the time I look down there was no longer any ground beneath my feet. What is my sacrifice? I'm condemned to use the tools of my enemy to defeat them. I burn my decency for someone else's future. I burn my life to make a sunrise that I know I'll never see. And the ego that started this fight will never have a mirror or an audience or the light of gratitude. So what do I sacrifice? Everything!"
S01E10
"There will be times where the struggle seems impossible. I know this already. Alone, unsure, dwarfed by the scale of the enemy. Remember this. Freedom is a pure idea. It occurs spointaneously, without instruction. Random acts of insurrection are occuring constantly throughout the galaxy. There are whole armies, battalions that have no idea that they've already enlisted in the cause. Remember that the frontier of the rebellion is everywhere. And even the smallest acts of insurrection pushes our lines forward. And then remember this. The Imperial need for control is so desperate because it is so unnatural. Tyranny requires constant effort. It breaks, it leaks. Authority is brittle. Oppression is the mask of fear. Remember that. And know this. The day will come when all these skirmishes and battles, these moments of defiance will have flooded the banks of the empire's authority and then there will be one too many. One single thing will break the siege. Remember this. Try."
S01E12
"Tell him, none of this is his fault. It was already burning. He's just the first spark of the fire. Tell him, he knows everything he needs to know and feels everything he needs to feel. And when the day comes, and those two pull together, he will be an unstoppable force for good. Tell him, I love him more than anything he could ever do wrong."
S01E12
"Where you stand now, I've been more times than I can remember. I always wanted to be lifted. I was always eager, always waiting to be inspired. I remember every time it happened, every time the dead lifted me... with their truth. And now I'm dead. And I yearn to lift you. Not because I want to shine or even be remembered. It's because I want you to go on. I want Ferrix to continue. In my waning hours that's what comforts me most. But I fear for you. We've been sleeping. We've had each other and Ferrix, our work, our days. We had each other and they left us alone. We kept the trade lanes open, and they left us alone. We took their money and ignored them, we kept their engines churning, and the moment they pulled away, we forgot them. Because we had each other. We had Ferrix. But we were sleeping. I've been sleeping. And I've been turned away from the truth I wanted not to face. There is a wound that won't heal at the center of the galaxy. There is a darkness reaching like rust into everything around us. We let it grow now it's here. It's here and it's not visiting anymore. It wants to stay. The empire is a disease that thrives in darkness, it is never more alive than when we sleep. It's easy for the dead to tell you to fight, and maybe it's true, maybe fighting is useless. Perhaps it's too late, but I'll tell you this... if I could do it again, I'd wake up early and be fighting these bastards from the start. Fight the empire!"
Physically I am alone, baking into my sofa while suffering against the heat of summer. At one point I might have accepted my fate and waited for the weather to turn me into a crispy carcass to be eaten by whatever rodents or insect find me first.
But right now I do not care about the heat. I do not care that I am boiling alive in my own home. Right now all I care about is the absolute peak cinema I just watched.
The series finale of Andor did not disappoint, and I can hardly express in words the emotion I am feeling. Joy, for having experienced it. Grief, for knowing how it ends. Anger, for not being entitled to more.
There is a huge stereotype about Star Wars fans, "They hate Star Wars more than anyone". Normally I'd laugh and offer a cheap expression of "real" or "based". But right now... I don't hate Star Wars.
I don't think I have ever really hated it, only hated the commercialization of it. The sequels and many of the shows were cheap attempts at getting our attention, making money by exploiting us and the franchise we love. They pour in dollar after dollar, expecting that we heed to every one of their demands and take the garbage they've thrown at us with a smile on our face.
I hated that for so long Star Wars was treated as a machine, born to make money and nothing else. But looking at Andor I can see that there are creators out there, and fans, that see it as I do. I don't want them to slap my favorite character on a title card and make a show that has nothing to do with them. I want a story. A real story. About the people, the planets, survival.
Andor is not "A Star Wars Story", its a story about Andor, about a rebellion. It's the story of people who just want to watch the sunrise again, without having to worry about the light being blocked by an imperial banner. It's a story about people, who just happen to exist in the setting of Star Wars. And that is what makes it so great.
But enough with the vague descriptions, it's time I dissected as much as I can possible remember and process in this moment. Spoilers ahead for Andor S2
Kleya.
FUCKING. KLEYA.
Yall remember last week when I said "Idk why I just like her"
BITCH WHEN I TELL YOU I WAS FOAMING AT MY GODDAMNED MOUTH IN EPISODE 10. I did not expect to get an expansion on Luthen's lore, let alone hers. I was fully expecting to fill in the blanks of her life with fan fiction. When I heard we were losing 3 seasons of the show I resolved myself to the fact that her role would be reduced and that was that. I would still love and cherish her from the sidelines. I have friends watching that didn't even know her name, and probably wouldn't remember who she is if it weren't for this final act. Star Wars heroines have never failed me, and it seems they never will because the girls stay winning.
I knew Luthen was gonna die, I predicted that last week, and I was on the fence about whether she would be collateral. I was on the edge of my fucking seat for THREE hours because they kept baiting me into thinking it was the end of the road for her. Cassian, Mothma, Bail, etc all had very strong plot armor, so I never really had to worry about them. But Kleya... my god I was so SCARED. First at the hospital, I was certain she was going to get busted after she killed Luthen. I thought no way she gets out of this but SHE DID. And she did it so well they thought she was THREE people. Girls stay winning. Stay winning. Then, when Cassian comes to save her and she refuses to leave for so long I was pre-emptively crying. Like I was so sure this was it. Cassian needed one more loss just to really fuck with him. I was ready to cuss out the first person I saw tomorrow.
BUT SHE LIVES
and then I'm like, alright, certainly, she is fine now.
NO. Episode 12 I was so so so terrified she was gonna kill herself. I was so paranoid, she was struggling. I was BEGGING my tablet screen at this point to not let it happen. I simply could not have handled it and THANK THE FORCE. I am 100% convinced that if Vel had not found her right then, that the show would have ended with a very different tone. Thats 2 weeks in a row Cassian successfully smuggles a bad bitch off of Coruscant. STAY WINNING.
There is so much I could say about Kleya, but I'm actually gonna keep it for a bit. Let it cook. Let it marinate. Let it inspire. Just know it won't be the last you hear from me regarding her. She will be getting a picture on my wall mark my words.
Dedra on the other hand got what she had coming to her. I understand that her reinvestment into the Axis problem likely stemmed from the loss of Syril. I almost feel like she talked herself into thinking that it would "avenge" him. But, at some point during the gap, I think she lost her way and her motivations became very much personal. She was after glory. The parallels between her being in the room with Krennic to the interaction she had with Syril in season 1 that very much mirrored this.. Incredible screenwriting right there. The imperials routinely learn, again and again, that there is no reward for serving the empire. They is always someone above you. Someone who will not hesitate to waste you as you have wasted your inferiors. Every single imperial is a drone, and to the empower, drones are expendable.
Syril, Dedra, Heert. All of them assumed that because they were dedicated they were entitled to success. It was a fitting end for each of them, that they would die by the hands of the system to which they were so dedicated too. Signing up to the empire is signing your life away to them. They have no right to be scared when the time comes to reap that clause of their contract.
Unlike Kino, though, Dedra will at least know what it is her imprisonment is working towards. Whether that makes it better or worse for her remains to be seen. Regardless, I don't think it will do much to curb her ego.
RIP Dedra, I suppose the best case scenario for you is being able to look yourself in the mirror at the end of every day and tell your reflection that it was worth it.
Last big thing on my plate is the ending, the news about the death star, the reactions. I was a little surprised to see Bail so against the plan if I'm being honest. I loved him last week but this week he was pissing me off. When one of your most trustworthy, capable men comes to you and says "hey, our enemies have this weapon we cannot beat" YOU BELIEVE HIM. Also, Mon should have stuck up for Cassian a lot more in that scene. I know her and Luthen didn't end on the best of terms, but at the end of the day Luthen did come through for her. LUTHEN organized her escape from Coruscant, not Bail. When her cover was nearly blown and her jig was up... LUTHEN saved her. Now I know he has got his problems, but she should know better than anyone else at that table what Luthen would have given up for the rebellion. And if not Luthen, then she should have trusted Kleya. All that being said, she does come around, and to her senses so I forgive her. Also, appreciated the dynamic that she, while out in the woods on some random planet, was smiling in her final finale scene while Perrin, who was surrounded by wealth, grandeur and the "obedient" wife he had always wanted was not. Once a loser, always a loser.
That brings me to my conclusion for now and if you stayed this long thanks for hearing my rant. I don't have pictures this week because I used my tablets dying breath to finish the episodes so just a wall of text. Memes will follow I assure you.
I did not expect the Hunger-games ass looking ending (said with affection). Bix standing in that field, holding the child of what I'm assuming to be Cassian Andor, definitely tugged at the heartstrings. I'm mad at her, for one, because Cassian deserves to know he has a child out there. Parent/Child relationships run to the very foundation of Star Wars, and is not exclusive to this series. In Andor it's explored through Syril and his mom, as well as Andor and Maarva. But we see it again in Rebels with Ezra and Hera, Sabine and Hera, or them with Kanan. Anakin and his mother, Anakin and Luke. Obi-wan and Luke. Din Jarin and Grogu.
So after some thought, this revelation doesn't feel foul at all. Because if Bix had told Cassian, he never would have stayed on Yavin. He never would have rescued Kleya, and certainly never found himself watching that beautiful sunset on Scarif. And if he hadn't done those things... well there would be no future for Bix or his child. And as we have seen many times in this franchise, being raised by a single parent on a remote planet is hardly the worst thing that can happen to a child. In fact, it almost guarantees you some sort of plot armor. I have no doubt Bix will be devastated to hear that Cassian doesn't make it, and she may never forgive herself, but their kid will have a reason to wake up everyday. A reason to watch the sun set over a field of wheat and think about what it means to see a sky so blue. So full of hope.
I have made my peace with the fact that not everyone will get a happy ending, but at the very least, they all get to experience hope.
