fulcrum-fan8018

[fulcrum-fan8018]

Thinking about how even Dedra Meero, ISB supervisor, orchestrator of the Ghorman massacre, coordinator of the torture of multiple witnesses in the attempt to find Cassian Andor, wasn't safe from domestic violence. That woman was one of the most intimidating people on the show but even she wasn't safe from her partner strangling her when things got tense.

[fulcrum-fan8018]

ANDOR | 2.09

[fulcrum-fan8018]

Surrounded by incompetents. You are the only one who has not tested my ire.

[fulcrum-fan8018]

Jedi: Fallen Order where everything is the same except you need to grind up and snort the objects to read the echoes.

[fulcrum-fan8018]

Partagaz killing himself after listening to a rebel manifesto and realizing how futile his work has been in relation to the unrelenting demands of the fascist machine he works for is nothing short of cinematic poetry

[fulcrum-fan8018]

we talk a lot about the Jedi being the only group of people in the galaxy who consistently see the clones as people. but what if it goes both ways. if clones are little more than droids, then Jedi are the knights out of fairy tales and romance novels. the galaxy's perceptions and preconceptions are much like anakin's in tpm. the jedi are immortable infallible unkillable. they are paragons of virtue and light and intelligence. they are not people so much as concepts. legends. superheroes.

these people are as removed from the Jedi as they are from the clones. maybe even more so. the clones work with the Jedi every day. the clones see them make mistakes. simple human* errors. they see them mourn and rage and laugh. they see them try. so hard. they see them fail. they see them fall.

their Jedi are people. and the clones love them all the more for it.

subhuman clones and superhuman jedi

[fulcrum-fan8018]

I really want the Star Wars fandom to understand that Jedi essentially practice Cognitive Behavioral Therapy.

You feel the thing. You acknowledge the feeling. You let it pass.

It's not suppressing emotions, but simply not becoming attached to them. They're mindful, not numb.

[fulcrum-fan8018]

Dr Gorst is such a chilling character to see onscreen because despite everything he's doing he looks so... laid back? He doesn't even look particularly malicious in season 1, but the way he's describing the process, his excited chattering about his torture method, the small smiles when he quips about what he's about to do... there's almost some kind of detachment. He's a scientist excited to see the result of his new creation. It doesn't matter to him how sadistic that creation is. Its almost like he can't see it. And someone that removed? You can't reason with him. He doesn't have empathy. And it makes him absolutely terrifying.

[fulcrum-fan8018]

I am… 100% going to be in the minority for this, but I actually really liked Bix’s ending. From the start of the show, she never wanted to fight the Empire. She had every chance to, every *right* to, hell, she had a complete in with Luthen Rael himself! But on Ferrix, she just wanted to sell parts and live and love with her close knit community, on Mina-Rau, she just wanted to farm and be a good friend to Brasso, Wil, and B2, and even after she joined Cassian, she had constant doubts about what she was doing. The guilt over that Imperial soldier being killed for her *wrecked* her. She was and looked most at peace when she was cleaning, going grocery shopping, doing field work.

Her story isn’t Kill Bill, it’s Hunger Games: she didn’t want to be thrust into a life of constant revenge, just peace

[fulcrum-fan8018]

Another thing andor did really well was making the star wars universe feel lived in. Especially through the background characters.

There's so many little things. So many normal people. The corpo eating space noodles in a takeout box. Bosses ignoring big problems because it would take too much effort to fix them, just ignore it. Nurses gossiping on the job (about the fact that a whole hospital wing was shut down, it must be a senator, i suppose we'll find out the truth tomorrow). Paparazzi droids to take photos of important senators, something which simultaneously feels strange to see in star wars and also entirely natural. Passive aggressive coworkers. Reminding your partner to pick something up from the store- but it isn't a chekov's gun, just a normal thing normal people have to do. Space poker. Getting drunk while playing space poker with the reprogrammed murderous droid you adopted. A random technician trying to get the ISB agent they're assisting to put in a letter of recommendation for their cousin. Early morning talk shows. The dichotomy between the tone in those talk shows and what's going on in the galaxy because of the Empire. An Empire technician being ridiculously excited by the complexity of Luthen and Kleya's comm system even as that complexity makes it near impossible to decipher. Letting your weird space dog off the leash once you get to the park. The career fallout of someone stealing your password because you ignored the tech department's recommendation to change it. Someone accidentally emailing you files they weren't supposed to.

These moments are slipped into the background. There's no spotlight on them. No writer slipping it in and winking at you like "hey, look, we did worldbuilding, we made it look real!". Its just there. In the background. Should you care to notice it. And it makes the world that much more textured.

It's just a galaxy filled with normal people.

[fulcrum-fan8018]

cassian's last act before leaving being to water the plants. the way bix always made their places feel like home even though they were worn out and impermanent. something something life is so strong that you will plant trees the day before you die with the unwavering hope of seeing them grow. after all, rebellions are built on hope.

[fulcrum-fan8018]

We need heroes, Lonni, and here you are. // I burn my life to make a sunrise that I know I'll never see. // I'm burned.

[fulcrum-fan8018]

Andor I 2.12 Jedha, Kyber, Erso

[fulcrum-fan8018]

Everyone is ready to die for something. Sometimes even more so than they initially thought. The richest of cowards can find the guts to lay their life down in the service of others because then at least their death means something. It makes something beautiful out of a tragic circumstance.

But then your life is taken from you. Randomly. Accidentally. There is no struggle. No blaze of glory. There is no moment where you resign yourself to your fate and welcome it with open arms. One moment, you exist, and your lungs are filled with air, and your eyes blaze with passion. And then you're gone. And your death has meant nothing. It was just an unfortunate incident.

There is no honor. No courage. No sacrifice. Death does not care about such things. There is no dying for something greater. There is only a shell of a body, one that has lived past its expiration date. And now it is gone.

This isn't what you wanted to die for. But death doesn't care.

[fulcrum-fan8018]

kino’s “i can’t swim” ending is just as heartbreaking as nemik’s accidental death and there’s a valid (and i bet intentional) reason why they both feel so unsatisfying: there’s nothing romantic in fighting against the empire. there’s no such thing as a “warrior’s death” or “honorable death”. it’s all a mess. there’s only recklessness, sweat and death.

[fulcrum-fan8018]

one of the hundred things I love about Andor is that in the end, all the villains were destroyed not in an epic showdown with the rebels or whoever but by the machine that they worked for. syril was a faceless casualty of the genocide he helped create. dedra was done in for putting ambition over conformity to the machine, and she took down partagaz, who essentially created her, along with her. even heert was quite literally killed by his own droid and his own men. all of them were crushed by the wheel they dedicated their lives to keep turning. it's just so deeply deeply satisfying.

[fulcrum-fan8018]

The fact that we’re only now being shown Kleya’s backstory is such a good choice. Not just because we’re only now—as she’s preparing to kill Luthen—able to understand the full picture of their relationship, but also because of the context it puts her subsequent breakdown in. The way we see Kleya in the safe house is completely opposed to how she’s always been presented. She’s disheveled, frantic, and she’s begging Cassian for help in a way that season one Kleya would never dream of doing—and what her flashback scenes show is that this isn’t the first time she’s been this terrified, it’s not the first time she’s been holed up someplace, thinking of her dead loved ones and dreading being found. The cold, clinical Kleya we usually see isn’t just a mask, it’s who she is, but it’s a version of herself that she’s built up over the course of her time with Luthen and now that he’s gone she’s back to being the girl she was when they first met. The fear she feels in the safe house and the fear she felt hiding in that ship are one and the same—they were both brought on by watching people she loves die, by the empire, and by Luthen Rael.