fire-and-hemlock

[fire-and-hemlock]

Obligatory disclaimer: I love Bix. She is a healer and a fixer in a galaxy that desperately needs people like that and i respect the hell out of her. This post is absolutely not intended as Bix slander. Hell, it's not even intended as being super against Bix/Cassian, as much as partly an examination of why the relationship had to end, even beyond the obvious R1 canon-compliant reasons and within the theming of the show.

Star Wars, at its core, is a love story. In the OT, it was love that saved the galaxy; Luke’s love for his father, and Anakin’s love for Luke, while in the prequels, it was Anakin’s love for Padme that led to the destruction of the Jedi and the birth of the Empire.

Andor is also a love story. But not entirely the kind of love story you’re probably thinking of. 

It’s a story of agape; selfless love. A person’s love for humanity. And Andor explores this kind of love through the use of a theme that has been consistent throughout both Andor and Rogue One. 

Home.

Both seasons of Andor begin with Cassian trying to find a connection to his home. In s1 that means searching for his sister- his last connection to Kenari. We all remember how that ends. In s2, that means getting the fuck off Yavin and back to Bix, Brasso, Wilmon, and B2- his last connections to Ferrix. Brasso, of course, died, and B2 had to be left behind. In the very next arc, we see Wilmon solidify his bonds with the rebels and Saw, choosing to inhale the Rhydo, become the spark the lights the fire. Choosing the Rebellion over any of his other connections- even, as we saw in the finale, his eventual connection to Dreena. There’s a reason he never told her about the radio under his bed. 

Choosing the Rebellion- which, at this point, is everywhere. Wilmon, by choosing the Rebellion, is choosing his love for humanity over his individual relationships. 

This is a choice that almost everyone in Andor makes- to keep to themselves and their kind, to choose and prioritize that which is comfortable and familiar, until the truth comes knocking that eventually they won’t have a home to choose unless they rebel against the Empire and fight alongside their fellow man. Lieutenant Gorn made his decision after he “went native” and loved and lost a woman on Aldhani. Maarva begs the people of Ferrix to make it in her speech at the end of s1- “...the moment they pulled away, we forgot them. Because we had each other…if I could do it again, I’d wake up early, and fight these bastards from the start.” We saw Mon Mothma make it in s2e9- leaving Coruscant, abandoning her Chandrilan blue, to become a leader of the Rebellion. 

We see Bix struggling too- all season long, she was trying to make a home of where they were at the time, and all the while Cassian was trying to make a home of her. He wanted Bix to be a place of comfort and safety, a place he could go where he didn’t have to “look up” and see the flags of the Empire. Somewhere he could rest easy.

But Bix, after her torture at the hands of Gorst, will never be able to rest easy and turn a blind eye to the suffering of the rest of the galaxy and the need for the Rebellion. It has been haunting her dreams and robbing her of sleep since. And the truth is, neither will Cassian. Any home he found with her would have been a lie. 

Cassian may have loved Bix, but he wasn’t in love with her, and it certainly wasn’t a selfless love. They were codependent, and Cassian loved her for what she represented. With Bix, Cassian could shut out the atrocities being committed by the Empire, the cries for help, the truths that Mon Mothma, Maarva and eventually Jyn all convey in their speeches: Palpatine is a monster. The Empire is a disease. We created them and it is our duty to stop them; if we give way to enemies with that much power, we doom the galaxy to an eternity of submission. The time to fight is now.

Here’s another truth: for revolution to succeed, it’s not enough to hate your enemy. You have to love the people and place that you’re fighting for and who are fighting for you in turn. You have to put aside your differences and work together, and do so without hesitation. 

For the Galaxy to survive, Cassian has to choose the Rebellion. He has to choose selfless love over a love that is selfish. But he can’t bring himself to do it. He’s not Nemik; he’s not a “true believer.” Even less than a day or two before Rogue One begins, Cassian is still being haunted by dreams of his sister and Kenari. He’s still searching for a home. 

And then he meets Jyn.

With Jyn, Cassian sees the truth, and he cannot look away. He sees a woman who is a summary of everything terrible the Empire has ever done. He sees someone who is scared, angry, and bitter, who wants nothing more than to escape away to the Outer Rim and turn away from it all- and then he sees her change, into a woman made of stardust and hope who makes the Rebellion her home, and he realizes he can do that too. Cassian doesn't have to cling to the past to find a home; he has one in the present. He sees it on the horizon. He feels it all around him. 

"Welcome home," he says, and he believes it.

Cassian sees Jyn, and it's like looking in a mirror.  And then, in the face of a massacre on Jedha, reeling from the loss of not one but two parents, burned by betrayal from the very rebels she's placed her trust in- he watches her open her heart to the Rebellion and choose to save the lives of trillions of others all across the galaxy who will never know her sacrifice. He sees her choose selflessness and love over selfishness and fear, and if she can do it, then so can he. Cassian loves Jyn unconditionally, and it moves him to love the galaxy as well.

[fire-and-hemlock]

incorrect rebelcaptain quotes 20/?

(insp)

[fire-and-hemlock]

This is what I've been trying to articulate coherently to myself. Cassian's relationship with Bix is so imbalanced in the way that he's giving so much of himself to protecting and saving her - it's not a bad thing, but it's not sustainable to create a relationship of equals, because there's almost a sense of obligation in the way he loves her. He'll always see her as someone he needs to protect, someone who needs his care - even when she's processed her trauma and is trying to move on and grow. Whereas Jyn - she's so much more his equal. If they'd survived Scarif they would have been partners, equals - challenging each other, free to keep choosing to be together.

Thinking a lot about the ending of Andor and my own little head canons.

Honestly, the more I sit with it the more I think that both things can be true in that Cassian loved Bix but also is at peace with how they left things. Of course he misses her. Of course he thinks about her. Of course he wonders what their life could have been. And yet, once she’s gone, he just seems so much lighter.

There’s no question that they loved each other deeply and that he was devastated when she left. How she left. But ultimately so much of their relationship was him “saving” her or trying to protect her from the empire, from her trauma, from herself. The poor man was exhausted and was desperately clinging to the idea of a life with her that he couldn’t see the life they actually had. How isolated they were together, even on Yavin 4. While I take some issue with the way Bix left him, the “I’ll wait for you” speech, and the pregnancy… I’m grateful that she took that step back. Sometimes the most profound act of love towards another person is to let them go. She loved Cassian but I think she was also honest with herself about what their relationship had become. That ultimately they were not in a space to be healthy together.

When we see Cassian about two years or so after she’s gone, he’s more relaxed than we’ve seen him in the entirety of when they were together. He has built a little life for himself, a community, a home on Yavin 4. Maybe isn’t exactly what he envisioned, but it’s the life he needs. Sure, he’s lonely but he also just seems to be at peace. When Vel tells him to reach out to Bix, he shrugs. He says maybe but it feels like he’s saying no. Why? Because he’s moved on! He’s finally feeling like he can let her go, that their story is over. I’m sure he still has love for her but it’s shifted into something else and he’s found peace with her on his own way.

Then Jyn comes along.

She’s so different from Bix and yet the love she feels and the heart she brings to the rebellion reawakens something in Cassian. Hope was fading away, then there she was, bringing it home. It knocks the wind out of him and you can see it in every look he gives her. He’s impressed and terrified and transfixed. She’s a walking hurricane and yet she’s his mirror. She’s the echo in his shadow. Jyn’s the partner he needs to make that last push against the rebellion. As Luthen said, they burn for a sunrise they’ll never see and it’s a beautiful thing that they can hold each other when the end does come.

In that final scene, we learn Bix’s fate and see that she also found a home and community as well. She gets to take solace in knowing that in making the choice for her and Cassian, she saved him in a way. She saved herself. She finally found her peace. I like to think she met someone and that they reignite something she felt was long gone or that she’d never have after Cassian. I hope she was able to move on too and that they help her raise her baby and that she feels seen and cared for and loved. Of course she’ll tell her child about their father and the legacy he left behind with the rebellion. But at the same time, I have no doubt that that child will grow up in a better world because Bix left.

Who knows, maybe if the Rogue One team had lived, maybe Cassian and Bix would have reconnected? Maybe. Maybe not. But I like to think that if they had, it would be as friends. Sure, their family wouldn’t be the most conventional and there would undoubtedly be some awkwardness in the beginning, but they’d find their way. They’d co-parent and I do honestly believe that Jyn and Bix would have a lot of respect for one another and would be great friends. Jyn would love that child like her own and would be a bad ass step mom.

All this to say, at its core, Rogue One and Andor (pretty much all of Star Wars for that matter) is all about hope. Hope through rebellion. Hope through friendship. Hope through love in all forms.

[fire-and-hemlock]

BEAUTY AND THE BEAST (2017) Dir. Bill Condon

[fire-and-hemlock]

Cassian fell first; Jyn fell harder [in/sp]

[fire-and-hemlock]

Evie straight up shoots a man in the face. The Carnahans are *unhinged*

the thing about the mummy movies is that you really spend most of the time thinking "wow brendan fraser's character is so cool" or "man oded fehr is so mysterious and heroic" when the fact of the matter is that these two

are the absolute most batshit insane heroes in the entire franchise

these two are intellectual loner siblings with archeology backgrounds who read and speak ancient egyptian, hire a dude directly out of prison to take them to a lost city of gold, and fight mummies literally with their bare hands. twice.

no one in these movies stands a chance against the carnahans. frankly they're lethal in how willing they are to make the absolute and most undeniably deranged decisions. jonathan pickpockets a dude on fire. evy's resurrected from the dead and immediately remembers how to use sai. they're racking shotguns from a cliff in this scene and then proceed to blow away half the antagonists.

rick and ardeth should be so lucky

[fire-and-hemlock]

Loki + tumblr [227/?]

[fire-and-hemlock]

[fire-and-hemlock]

REBELCAPTAIN APPRECIATION WEEK 2024 | @therebelcaptainnetwork

↳ Day 7: Free Day: Rebelcaptain + tumblr textposts

[fire-and-hemlock]

REBELCAPTAINWEEK DAY 1: SIGNIFICANT MOMENTS (insp)

[fire-and-hemlock]

Always leaning in to one another

rebelcaptain + gravitating towards each other

[fire-and-hemlock]

#wary eye fucking at first sight

[fire-and-hemlock]

1.5K CELEBRATION

moodboard for @rebelrainfall 💚

[fire-and-hemlock]

A brief moment of rationality from the bird place.

[fire-and-hemlock]

Rogue One + completely accurate character descriptions [x]

for @rifle-yes, I hope this is what you had in mind! 💜

[fire-and-hemlock]

#rebelcaptain

Jyn & Cassian in Rogue One | 2016

[fire-and-hemlock]

Welcome to Night Vale: Ep. 100, Toast (x)