#also (and i am fully aware this part is me on my niche unhinged soapbox BUT) nobody in this entire franchise has the balls

[chamerionwrites]

There are genuinely quite a few things about the show that I love (and am pleasantly surprised by), and I've been stewing over/second guessing my one prominent complaint because I want to have a measured response and I'm self-aware enough to recognize that I am in no way capable of being normal about Cassian Andor. BUT

I honestly find the characterization pretty dubious at points? And not in a "this doesn't match my headcanons" sort of way, because I fully expected that, but in a "did we watch the same movie???" sort of way. And also in a "listen I fully understand the impulse to take a known character and flip his personality on its head for the sake of an engaging character arc when you're writing a prequel, but tbqh I find it a pretty formulaic and clumsy approach and I think you'd end up with something a lot richer and more nuanced if you put thirty seconds of thought into this as opposed to just. playing an uno reverse card" sort of way. I'm cool with having my expectations subverted but as I've said before I do think that one measure of a good adaptation is a certain level of - if not necessarily strict faithfulness - integrity in its treatment of the OG story, and while there are points where the characterization choices made in Andor feel surprising but harmless there are others that imo kinda undermine the characterization and themes in Rogue One - and carelessly so, rather than in any interesting or deliberately subversive ways.

And like I said I've been keeping that to myself - at the very least I would like to find time to write out my gripes in a more specific and concrete form - but then I remembered that particularly boneheaded review of RO that essentially said Cassian was a bargain-bin Han Solo with none of the charm and how I full on snort-laughed because while there are other valid criticisms to make, literally what on earth made you think ANYONE involved in this film was aiming for Han Solo there lmao critcism is dead.

And then I looked at the Han Solo character arc and heretofore nowhere to be found Han-Solo-esque character traits they've given TV Cassian and sighed and stopped second-guessing myself, because - while this post itself is still me waving my hands around in frustration rather than making that more specific and measured argument - I'm right and I should say it.