rovingotter

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biblically accurate Celestia by lenori

biblically accurate Luna

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I've heard a few people say that Cassian Andor is a bit of a bland main character or not especially charismatic, that he's dragged "kicking and screaming" into being a rebel, and I myself have said that he has kind of an understated character arch, but I dunno, I kinda like that about him. I think that vibe is fitting for a show like Andor.

Cassian never wanted to be a hero. He's not some starry-eyed kid who wants to change the galaxy and Do the Right Thing. He's fucking tired and he wants to be left the fuck alone, but the Empire won't leave him the fuck alone.

When the show starts, he's just looking for his lost sister, minding his own business, and these fucking Empire-aligned security guards start harassing him and threatening him and trying to shake him down for money, so he kills them in self-defense. He goes back home intending to wash his hands of the whole thing and then more security guards come poking around looking for him and harassing his loved ones. He takes his first job for the rebels partly as a way to give the middle finger to the Empire but also for the money, and then he fucks off to some beach planet to chill and gets arrested...not for his rebel activity (they don't know about that) but basically for nothing, and then sent to a hellish labor camp.

He's competent and ruthless and he's always hated the Empire for what they did to his home planet, but ultimately, he's just a regular guy who wants to live. He isn't in the rebellion because he's a zealot like Luthen or an idealist like Nemik. He is not, temperamentally speaking, the sort of guy who is inclined to join higher causes. He's in the rebellion because he's fucking fed up.

I've talked before about how it's important to have fictional characters who actually change their minds and their ideals and go on that internal journey and make a conscious choice to change sides, and I do still think that's the case. But I also think there's something to be said for showing how people are "radicalized" by the mere presence of these intrusive, overbearing systems that just won't allow them to live their lives.

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I love how the two big mastermind characters both ultimately fucked up their plans because they got too exited and wanted to gloat.

Dedra could have caught Luthen if she'd just walked in with a space taser hidden behind her back and tased him while his back was turned. But noooo, she wanted to interact with him and see the very moment he knew he was caught. (The way she couldn't keep a smile off her face while talking with him!!)

And Luthen! He just had to let her think she'd won so he could pull the rug out from under her feet. He fucking showed her the weapon he was going to stab himself with!! And then failed badly enough that Kleya had to break into the hospital to finish the job.

If either of them were less of a fucking diva the other's plan would have fallen apart.

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Ooooh.

Even more so if the dead come back a little bit fucked up.

need this in sentryagent fics asap

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Watched The Prestige. It's pretty good! A 2007 movie about two rival magicians in the 1800s, featuring: Wolverine, Batman, Batman's butler Alfred, Black Widow, Gollum, and David Bowie.

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Kyle Soller as Syril Karn in Andor — 2.07 "Messenger" — 2.08 "Who Are You?"

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i'm so obsessed with how little syril and dedra actually talk in episode 3. hear me out. all their dialogue is to/with eedy except for dedra saying "it's fine" when syril freaks out about the dripping, and when she makes him get more cakes.

but the thing is that they're so in tune with each other that they don't need to talk all that much. their dinner prep montage is dialogue-less (which, side note, is the music diegetic or are they doing this in total silence lmao??), they work around each other in the kitchen in total sync. then when they're waiting for eedy they just stand around in more total silence.

and it's not exactly comfortable but it's not uncomfortable either. because they are communicating, it's just all in the eyes. in those little back and forth glances, and side-eyeing, and "i can't believe this is actually happening" looks they both exchange. they're "saying" so much more to each other without speaking, then either of them actually say to eedy.

anyways in conclusion, who's going to write that 2012-style wattpad-esque fic where they're somehow exchanging detailed and specific information with just their orbs.

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Sport. Written by W. Bromley-Davenport. Illustrated by Henry Hope Crealock. 1888.

Internet Archive

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Finished my latest work!

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Truth, by Megan Lara.

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hi wicked fandom is this anything

i don’t know why i wanted to refer to nessa and boq as toxic yuri but it felt right, they’re yuri to me

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I'm sorry WHAT

HER NAME LITERALLY MEANS BROKEN-HEARTED??? ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME? TONY GILROY WHAT THE FUCK????

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I finished Andor! Recommended. People were not lying when they said this was a good show. It's the sort of show where I watch certain scenes over and over on YouTube because the dialog is so layered and so drenched in characterization. Like, "early seasons of Game of Thrones" level dialog.

Expanding on my thoughts here: https://www.tumblr.com/rovingotter/789356051321552896/im-eight-episodes-deep-into-andor-spoilers?source=share

The last four episodes basically reinforced the thoughts I had here and the feeling of determinism in the show's themes and aesthetic. I do have a few additional thoughts.

More spoilers, obviously!

As mentioned in the comments, I did think of one exception to the "characters don't switch sides or change their fundamental worldview" rule, and that is Kino Loy.

He never exactly seems to like the Empire, but when we first meet him, he still trusts it enough that he's actively upholding the system within the prison because he believes that if he plays by the rules, he and the others will eventually be rewarded with their freedom. But the evidence continually piles up that this is not the case, because the Empire can and does change the rules whenever it wants to. Those numbers on their cages mean nothing. They are arbitrary. So he decides to fight, even knowing this will likely mean his death. And it's strongly implied that he doesn't survive, which does reinforce the "if you change your mind and start to have a redemption arch the writers of this universe will put you down like Old Yeller" feeling I got from Syril's death, but Kino at least gets to deal the system a blow and help the others escape, so it hits different.

And I think that showing this is really important for the show's themes. Bad systems ultimately change because enough people change their minds (obviously that's a bit of an oversimplification, but I do think it's a thing that matters). That's why the prison break plotline works so well. It's a microcosm of that. Revolutions are built out of countless small redemption arcs.

Dedra is an interesting case because, like...as stated, she feels very much like the Empire's creature, someone who never had a choice in what sort of person she ultimately became. She was orphaned by them at age three and raised on Imperial propaganda. No close family bonds, nothing except duty. She was never going to join the rebellion, and even if she tried, the rebels would never trust or accept her. And she knows enough secrets at this point that if she ever tried to leave the ISB, they'd just kill her. But I do think there was a brief moment when she could have plausibly turned against the Empire.

Her bosses order her to take on the Ghorman Project, which she doesn't want (possibly just disinterest but possibly because it's nasty even by her ethical standards), and then they force her to maintain a years-long deception that results in her losing Syril, possibly the only person who she genuinely loved and who genuinely loved her. After Syril's death, when she was left emotionally shattered and alone, I think it would have been in character for her to say, "fuck it, I'm not surviving this but I'll hurt them on my way out" and gone down Kino Loy style.

But then...fast forward a year, and she hasn't really changed from these experiences at all. Instead, she reverts back to her pre-Syril state like a machine being rebooted, with the only difference being that her eyes are a little deader now.

Did she choose to keep serving the Empire out of fear, or perhaps out of the simple inability to conceptualize a life outside of it? Was turning against them ever even an option for her? Was the programming just too deep? Is she a coward, a zealot, or a tragic victim?

A show that makes people think about these questions is a good show, and this is also a dense show, one with so many characters and plots that I feel it needs to be rewatched to be fully understood, but there was still something about the ending that left me a bit...I don't want to say "empty." Like, it left me with a lot of thoughts and feelings but I can't really say I found the ending "inspiring," whatever that even means. Probably lots of people did feel inspired, and what's "inspiring" is so subjective anyway, I feel like that's kind of a reductive criteria to judge it by. Just this feeling of "rebels gonna rebel and Imperialists gonna Empire." Natural phenomena, like tides.

I guess all I can say is that Dedra deciding to turn against the Empire and go out alone but with guns blazing would have been more personally inspiring to me than Nemik's abstract Reddit-post-style manifesto (sorry, Nemik. Nothing personal. You were a good kid).

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My assessment

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Uncharacteristically careless of Dedra to get distracted by some smoke and let Luthen, the guy she's been obsessed with catching this entire time, stab himself with the convenient stone dagger. Like girl you had Axis and you didn't restrain him right away? Yeah, the building was surrounded but so what? You just let him wander around like a toddler at the mall? I know you've been having a rough time but you fumbled that one so hard.