#But I also don't have timme to doubt

[authoreeknight]

Bechdel Fail

Happened upon this intellectual landmine about sexist depictions in Andor. This is the sort of analysis that the word "pettifogging" seems like it was invented for.

The Bechdel Test is useful, especially for newer writers, double especially for men, to make sure you're not using your female characters as set dressing. I like Bechdel. I support it. It passes the Ben Franklin test of being succinct, pithy, and cogent. It's super-easy to use. Just like a blood pressure monitor. A blood pressure monitor is a quick, easy way of monitoring cardiovascular health, but if you look only at BP without backing out and getting the big picture it can mislead. Usain Bolt no doubt has world-class cardiovascular health, but if you just look at his BP in the middle of a 200 meter race, you'll get a misleading picture.

Now, I've not delved much into the subject, but I don't imagine Bechdel was ever intended to be used as a be-all-end-all last word on whether a work is sexist. The author of the linked article is correct on facts (well, mostly) but incorrect on the meaning of those facts, like a lawyer making the best of a bad case. To illustrate, I'll apply an old test of mine, the Nancy Test.

Yeah, you've never heard of it. I'm not surprised. The Nancy Test goes back to my earliest days as a writer. Nancy is my mom (an English major back in the day and keen student of Shakespeare). When I told her I was worried about writing women, she gave me this advice: "as long as what your women *do* effects the story in an important way, you're fine." My mom was educated long before "agency" meant anything but "a government department", but I believe that's what she described.

For brevity, I'll only discuss the episodes (most of them) where the article points out that Andor failed, applying my own Nancy Test.

Ep 1 - Kassa PASS

If the young woman leading the Kenari wreck expedition didn't decide Kassa should come along, nothing else in the whole series would have happened as it did. No Rogue One, no Battle of Scarif.

Beyond that, Bix deciding to use the resistance transmitter to contact Luthen (or maybe Kleya) probably saves Cassian's life, or at least prevents him from being arrested by Syril's corpos. Though unstated, it's my assumption that she's breaking protocol doing this.

Ep 2 - That Would Be Me PASS

Once again, Bix plays a key role, though it's something of a double-edged sword. She has to tell Cassian that the buyer is coming for his Starpath, but their intense conversation and Cassian touching her as he thanks her for getting him out of the jam is misinterpreted by Timm.

We also get the woman who runs the brothel doing a positive ID on Cassian as the man she spoke to, giving Syril the confirmation he needs to go to Ferrix.

And finally, we have the Kenari leader going alone to check out the wreckage. If she sends a scout while she stays back with her team, I don't think we get the response from Kassa to go into the wreck seeking revenge, which we know leads to Maarva, Clem, and B2.

Just as an aside, it's lovely how BBY 5 Maarva is introduced as a little old lady who keeps her house cold and worries about Cassian. Just your basic aging mum, right? Bit cantankerous, but within our usual experience. Silly us.

Ep 3 - Reckoning PASS

For some reason the author decides to rant about Deedra Meero here, and as she isn't even in the episode draw your own conclusions about the quality of the article.

But back to the Nancy Test, we have Kenari Maarva overruling Clem and deciding to take Kassa with them, and without this decision once again we never get to the Battle of Scarif. We also have Ferrix Maarva executing some cool psywar on the corpos from the comfort of her chair.

Ep 4 - Aldhani PASS

Vel decides to take "Clem" onto the team. You can argue that Luthen gave her a choice that wasn't a choice, but Vel's decision to swallow the Diego-shaped frog to keep the mission alive mattered. She also manages to keep the team together and on task even though she takes a lot of flak for bringing someone in so late, especially from Lt. Gorn (aside: if I could change one thing about Andor season 1, I'd have Gorn live and decide to stay with the people of Aldhani in the face of the inevitable Imperial reprisals. I *really* liked Gorn, he was great).

Episode 7 Announcement PASS

First, we have Syril's mom, who has managed to get Uncle Harlo to use his connections about a position for her son.

Deedra Meero is all over this episode like Godzilla on Tokyo, as she gets her teeth into the equipment thefts, building her case that there's a rebellion building military forces. She then expertly defends her actions, leading to her being put in charge of Morlana system and Ferrix. We have Kleya issuing a kill order on Cassian to Vel. We have Mon Mothma bringing Tay Kolma into her network with the skill of a heart surgeon implanting a pacemaker. And probably most importantly of all (as it turns out), we have Maarva, inspired by events on Aldhani, deciding to become a rebel.

Yet our writer, unable to see the forest for the trees or the global purpose of the Bechdel Test, sees this episode as yet another example of base female representation fail in Andor. Astonishing.

Episode 10 One Way Out N/A

This episode is so much about the prisoners on Narkina 5, everything else is little updates except for the scene about Jung being a secret rebel. It's a bit like trying to rate how women are depicted in Das Boot. They mostly aren't present for obvious reasons.

Still, we're introduced to Jezzi and the Daughters of Ferrix (even if they don't have a name yet) and though we don't actually see Maarva (as the scene is from Cinta's point of view, who's watching the house from outside) by refusing her meds Maarva has advanced the story more than we can guess, what she's up to is just invisible to us right now. There's also Mon Mothma refusing Davo's offer and the access to funds she so desperately needs.

Episode 12 Rix Road PASS

The only thing I'm going to say about this is that if you can sit through Rix Road and say "Andor does not meet the baseline standard for depicting women" you need to check your diagnostics.

[jyndor]

It’s not funny that Cassian and Melshi barely hugged, it’s clearly that Disney didn’t want to address the true nature of their relationship and made them look like bros lol We all know it would be different if it was a woman instead of Melshi (see the Rogue One ending)

it is funny because if i don't laugh i cry my friend

the "TRUE" nature of their relationship sure jan like i wanted them to fuck as much as the next guy but they won't even let cinta and vel kiss and they're sharing a blanket, like established to be queer. tbf we haven't seen cassian actually be intimate (like kiss or whatever) anyone so i think that in all seriousness this might have been the most he's let someone in during the show's run so far.

and once again i do not consider a thing to be queer rep unless it's established in some way, unless it's intentional. so yes im disappointed but im also not surprised because i doubt they were intended to be boyfriends. i mean maybe someone ask tony gilroy about it or diego (duncan retweeted some melshi/cass thing lol hes a real one)

but there is truth to the fact that the show did give us one kiss so far and it was with fucking timm and bix, despite timm being horrible and bix having barely anything else to do :/

and also you're not wrong that jyn and cassian were almost certainly "allowed" (LOL) to be coded as romantic and endgame because they are mf. but fun fact: when jyn was being developed the writers were trying to go about her in a very gender neutral way. (@goingroguepod actually talks about this in more detail in one of the episodes - it was a very mid 2010s approach to writing women tbh). now I may have some issues with how they basically said she's a woman but we're writing her sort of gender blind(?) so that it's feminism or something. the thought process was very much a "man is default so basically gender blind is writing a man but as a woman" idk if i'm saying it right. but undoubtedly had they REALLY been writing jyn to be completely genderless and gender neutral (and by default because of the time more masculine) they wouldn't have been writing jyn and cassian's relationship as romantic from the jump.

and also there is a part of me that is cackling just because of the literal harassment i and other mainly wlw received for having the audacity to ship cassian with a woman (as well as with men but these slash shippers don't wanna let bi men be bi) and so it is a bit of petty schadenfreude on my part, but also lol i literally ship them too soooooo you're barking up the wrong tree

[sunnysviolin]

Omotober Day Three- Picnics

If you want to read it on ao3 (now as one singular fic because I am a dum dum) you can do that here

When Hero suggested that the five of them get together and have a picnic, Basil was nervous, but excited. There was a part of him that would always be afraid, but more than anything he wanted things to go back to the way they used to be. A picnic could be the start of that.

But Basil should have known that things could never go back to the way they used to be.

“Forgiveness, reader, is, I think, something very much like hope and love - a powerful, wonderful thing.

And a ridiculous thing, too.”- Kate DiCamillo

Basil wasn’t really sure what to expect when their group decided to get together for a picnic again like they used to, but his first inclination wouldn’t have been that there would be a fist fight about to break out.

After the fight, and the hospital, and everything that came after, things had gotten surprisingly calm and quiet. The guilt that had eaten his insides for all those years was gone, and in its place was peace. Yes, he still felt awful about what they had done, but the secret was over, and he no longer had to hold all of that pain by himself.

Their friends had accepted the truth at varied rates, and Basil was sure it would take a long time before they ever even came close to forgiving him or Sunny. Aubrey was still quick to anger, Hero was still avoidant of the pain, but things had changed. Something about those last few days Sunny had spent with them in Faraway had changed them all, made everyone more open to trying with each other again. Even after they learned everything.

It felt good to be friends again, to be able to look at their faces without the self loathing threatening to crush him. He would take whatever halted measures of friendship they would give, if it only meant not being alone again. So when Hero suggested a picnic, Basil eagerly agreed without thinking twice.

He should have thought twice.

The planning had gone perfectly fine. Kel was a hundred percent on board, and he had even offered to help with making the food. The other boy seemed most pleased that it was Hero specifically who was extending the branch out. Basil knew that, of all of them, Hero was probably going to have the most mixed emotions about what he and Sunny had done. Still, Hero was Hero. Even if he hated them both, he would never reveal it.

Aubrey had seemed unsure, but Kel’s enthusiasm and the promise of getting Sunny back to join them had her agreeing. Basil knew she and Sunny talked on the phone pretty often, maybe even more than Sunny and himself. Aubrey was trying hard to make up for the last four years, and she spent most of her time with Basil or by herself. She said it was to ‘figure things out’ and he didn’t pry. He knew how hard it was to accept things in your past that you didn’t want to think about or the parts of yourself that you didn’t like all that much.

Then there was Sunny. They had all crowded together around Kel’s home phone to talk to Sunny about their idea. He had agreed to come and made plans to sleep at Kel and Hero’s house the night of their picnic. Logically it would have made more sense for him to stay with Basil, there was more room at Basil’s house, but it went unspoken between them why Kel and Hero had extended the offer instead. He would catch the train in and out and be back by dinner the next day, it wasn’t a far journey. None of them had seen Sunny since the hospital, at least not in person, and Basil wondered what it might be like to lay eyes on the other boy now.

The day came and they had split into natural groups. Most of the preparations were already done, but there were a few things to finish up on the morning of. Hero would take care of finishing the food, Aubrey would set up in their spot in the park, and Basil and Kel were going to go pick up Sunny from the train station.

Everything was good. The day was bright and warm with not a single cloud in the sky, Sunny’s train had arrived right on time, and Sunny had even greeted them both with quick but tight hugs and a small smile. He was still wearing an eyepatch (and apparently would always be from now on) but he looked a lot better. The bags under his eyes were gone, and the greying pallor of his skin had vanished. He held himself a little straighter, spoke a little more, and the air of fear that seemed to surround Sunny had dissipated into nothing.

Kel had grabbed both of their hands and swung them through the air as they walked towards the park, chattering about what he and Hero had planned for that day. Basil was content to let Kel do most of the talking and shared a secret amused look behind his back with Sunny. This was something that had happened all the time when they were kids, and the nostalgia of it was easy to fall into.

When they got to the park and saw Aubrey, things were awkward for all of two seconds before she punched Sunny gently on the arm and ruffled his hair, bringing them over to the set up she had created. The picnic blanket was a checkered blue, not red, but it was soft. There was the scent of flowers in the air from the bushes nearby in bloom, and a breeze twirled the pinwheels clustered in the distance. It felt so blissfully...normal. Like they could just fall right back into step where they left off all those years ago.

Basil should have hit himself over the head for thinking that.

It started so innocently. They were waiting for Hero to arrive and sighing about how nice their little corner of the world was, when Aubrey made an offhand comment about her friends potentially joining them next time. Before Basil could even really process what her words, Kel had said no. He hadn’t said it in a joking way or to tease her. Kel had snapped, and the tension in his shoulder and the hardness of his eyes told them all that he was deadly serious.

It was jarring. Of all of them, Kel had always been the friendliest. Hero may have been the most popular, but Kel wasn’t far behind his brother in natural charm. He was sweet and sincere, and almost always willing to get to know people. It wasn’t like him to shut down so quickly or with such force. Kel’s face was stormy and he was avoiding eye contact with all of them, keeping those hard eyes locked with the ground. Aubrey seemed livid, but she sat stony and silent, waiting for more of an explanation. The one that came only made things worse.

“I just don’t see why you would even wanna be around them anymore,”

Aubrey, loyal beyond words, had swooped in to defend the rest of her gang, claiming that they were good people who were great friends. This had only made Kel scoff, which infuriated her even more. Basil was used to Aubrey and Kel getting into arguments, he was even okay with the escalated fight that had happened at the dock (seeing as he blamed himself for causing it), but this was unlike any of those.

Normally it was Kel who kept fairly cool during these things, and Aubrey that went ballistic. Yes, Kel fought right back with her and gave as good as he got, but he had always seemed calm and collected, mostly joking around and poking fun at how red Aubrey’s face would get.

Now it was his cheeks that were tinged, and his throat that was raw from screaming, in a way that Basil had never seen before. He stayed silent and tried to keep himself small, hands clasping together over his chest as he tried to remember the deep breathing techniques Polly had been teaching him. They didn’t seem to be working. A quick glance to the side showed Sunny in a similar state of distress, watching their friends argue with a wide eye and clear panic etched into his features.

Aubrey and Kel’s argument devolved fast, going from something that held worth to just being insults hurled back and forth. They began to advance on each other, clearly done with words and moving past to blows, but a voice cut through, breaking the intensity that had caught them all firmly in its grip.

“What’s going on?”

The four of them turned around simultaneously, varying stages of guilt evident on everyone’s faces. Hero emerged from the brush, carrying a large wooden picnic basket on one arm, his mouth turned downwards.

He surveyed the moment and sighed, a tired sound that betrayed a weight that they all knew Hero carried but refused to let them bear with him. The eldest walked over and gently placed the basket down on the blanket, glancing at each of them in turn.

“You okay, Sunny?” Hero asked, and Sunny nodded. He seemed calmer now that someone was intervening, but fear was still there. Hero patted him once on the top of his head and peered around the youngest. “Basil?”

Basil nodded too, his own words caught in his throat. It wasn’t the same as when Something had been squeezing him too tight to breathe, it wasn’t that bad yet, but it was still pretty bad. Nothing he couldn’t handle though, and Basil knew that Hero needed to be focusing on the other two right now. With both of them checked on, Hero stood at his full height and stared at the others.

“Explain,”

Both teens burst into words, voices raising as they tried to shout over each other and interject to disprove what the other had just claimed. Hero listened to the cacophony for a moment and then raised his hands, yelling over them to quiet down. Once it was settled again, Hero turned to Aubrey.

“Aubrey, you go first. You can talk with no interruptions. Then Kel is going to talk with no interruptions, and we’re all going to listen to each other. I want each of you to explain to me why you’re fighting, okay?” Both teens nodded, and Hero sat down, gesturing for the other two to sit back down as well. They did, and then Aubrey began to talk.

“Out of nowhere Kel starts going off about my friends and talking bad about them for no reason,” Kel made a noise here and Hero looked at him. The younger brother rolled his eyes but stayed silent, and Hero waved a hand at Aubrey to continue, “I don’t get why he’s so angry, but I don’t care. He had no right to say all of those things. That’s why they don’t like you, you just assume the worst of them.”

Kel shot a harsh glare towards the girl, something fiery and fueled with a deep rage that was completely out of character for him. Then when he spoke, the oddities only continued.

“I didn’t start ‘out of nowhere’. You started this by saying you wanted us all to hang out with them. Like we’re all pals. Did you forget that the only thing you did when you spent time with them was bully people and act like none of us mattered to you? You keep talking about how you wanna change, but you don’t. You just want to act like nothing you did mattered. They bullied m- Basil for years! If you’re really our- his friend I don’t know why you don’t want to protect Basil from those guys,” Kel finished his speech with a huff, crossing his arms and curling in on himself.

“I apologized to Basil plenty already!” Aubrey replied, a glance to Hero when she began. When he didn’t interrupt her, she kept going, “He forgave me, and now we’re trying to get past it. Isn’t that what you want?”

“Maybe we should listen to what Basil thinks?” Hero suggested, trying to keep the conversation from riding off the rails as it had before, “If you’re both so worried about him, it seems like his opinion would be the most important thing here,”

Then all eyes were on him, waiting to hear what he had to say. Basil twisted his fingers in his lap and laughed nervously, his mouth filling with cotton as both sides of the argument clearly looked for his backing.

“I-I don’t know?” He finally replied, the words sounding small and useless, only making everyone madder, “I wouldn’t mind trying I guess. Seeing if if it works out, ya know?”

Hero perked up here, shooting Basil a grateful smile. Aubrey seemed vindicated and her anger began to melt. The tension eased out of the air, and Basil breathed out. It was all going to be okay now. It was just a regular Kel and Aubrey fight. They would hug the way Hero always forced them to at the end of their arguments, and then the five of them could enjoy the afternoon together.

“Kel, if Basil is okay with it then it’s fine. Why don’t you two hug and make up and then-”

“What if I’m not okay with it, Hero?!” Kel exploded, cutting his brother off, “What about that?!”

Stunned silence coupled with an even stronger tension surrounding the group. Kel and Aubrey fighting he could understand, even Kel and Aubrey dragging Hero in to play referee he could understand, but never before had Basil seen Kel yell at Hero. Kel worshipped the ground Hero walked on, his big brother could do no wrong, and Basil had never seen any evidence that he ever had.

But Kel wasn’t done yet, and he continued his yelling. It was like something had cut into him with those words, and now that something, dark and black, was finally getting a chance to leak out of Kel. Basil knew all about Somethings. About how painful it was to live with them, about how they always eventually burst out and demanded to be seen. He just had never thought Kel might have a Something too.

“It isn’t fair that they get to spend years being terrible people. and then just act like they never did any of it. It isn’t fair that I have to just pretend like they weren’t awful to me. Like I didn’t spend most afternoons crying on my walk home because of them. Like I didn’t have to second guess everything single thing I did because they made me think that I was a bully.”

Basil had remembered hearing them calling Kel that before, and it had confused him then too. Kel had never done anything like bullying to anyone, but Basil had dismissed it. It seemed so ridiculous to him, he thought Kel would have just let it go too. Apparently not

“All I’ve ever done is try to help. I smiled and laughed and pretended like nothing bothered me because that’s what everyone else needed. And what did that get me? A bat to the face and being told by my own bullies that I was the one messing with them. They’re the bullies. Mean, angry bullies who I never did anything to. Except try to be friends with you.” Kel finally pulled his eyes to Aubrey with this final word, cutting his furious ranting off with a half laugh half sob. He brought his knees up to his chest and put his arms on top of them. He wasn’t crying, but the pain in his eyes was enough to make Basil’s own chest ache in sympathy.

“And then you let them call me a bully. When I didn’t do anything except try to help.”

Kel dropped his head against his knees, hiding and breathing harshly. His shoulders rose and fell. Up and down and up and down as he panted with exertion from his outburst of emotion. None of them made a sound. Basil wouldn’t have known what to say after that, and he was sure no one else did either. They also couldn’t have been prepared for the final blow that was about to be dealt.

“You all just wanna pretend like none of it ever happened...like all that time didn’t matter.” Kel’s voice was muffled, but the words hit all of them like a punch to the gut.

It wasn’t just about this one fight, it wasn’t even just about Aubrey’s friends. It was bigger, stretching out for years and years of suffering that had never been addressed. Basil’s breath caught in his throat, and he could see the others were in a similar state of shock. He looked down at his interlocked fingers, his stomach twisting up in knots.

It was so easy to forget with Kel. It was so simple to just get lost in his happy go lucky personality and his endless bounds of optimism. He always had time for them all, always willing to go that extra mile to help out his friends when they needed him.

He hadn’t given up on them. He hadn’t stopped knocking on Sunny’s door, even when he never answered. He hadn’t stopped saying hi to Basil, even when he didn’t say hi back. He hadn’t stopped encouraging Hero, even when Hero had no encouragement left to offer in return. He had even still looked for the good in Aubrey, when she had nothing good to say about him. That was just who Kel was, someone who kept trying.

But Basil knew better than any of them that a person could only be pushed so far before there was a part of them that was cracked and bleeding and needed others to heal it. Kel was a nice person, a happy person, but that didn’t mean he didn’t have his moments of doubt. The times where he needed to rely on them instead of the other way around. He never pushed, so no one ever was forced to notice all the bad thoughts and emotions piling up under that sweet sunshine smile. It was just easy to forget that those things existed behind his joy and his upbeat attitude.

They were the people who should have remembered to look. They were the ones who should have known. They had all wanted things to go back to the way they were, but the truth was they couldn’t.

There was no way to erase four years, no way to let go of what had happened to Mari. It existed, it was real, and all of them had tried to ignore it. All except for Kel, who had done everything he could to hold them all together without so much as a complaint. He was right, instead of acknowledging his sacrifices, they had acted like none of it had ever happened. That was what was unchallenging, that was what took no effort. But that was also what was killing Kel inside.

He didn’t know what they could say that would even start to mend four years of their friend trying and failing and continuing to try against all hope. What could a person say to that kind of dedication? What kind of thanks could be given to someone who took on that burden without a word until it had nearly crushed him?

It turned out that Basil didn’t need to know the answer. There was someone else who did.

Aubrey rose up from her spot across from Kel on the picnic blanket and plopped down next to him, turning her head away from the other boy. Her hand moved to his, settling on his elbow and grabbing his attention. Kel raised his head, staring silently at her as she looked at him from the side.

Basil didn’t know what conversation the two of them had without words, but he suspected he would never know. Things like that were only ever meant for two people, and even asking about it was treading on something sacred. Whatever it was, it was enough for Kel to uncurl from the position he had put himself in. He sat on his knees facing Aubrey, and she turned to do the same. She took a deep breath and raised her head, meeting his gaze fully.

“I’m sorry,”

It wasn’t much, when it came down to it. It wasn’t a long speech filled with tears and impassioned pleas. Aubrey wasn’t on her knees begging for forgiveness, or making promises to be better. She hadn’t even said it in a special tone or in a whisper meant just for the two of them. It was an apology, nothing more, nothing less.

It wasn't really much, but it felt so big. They were all touched by her words, all impacted by the enormity of such a small but profound statement. Sunny edged closer and leaned against Basil, and the weight against his side was warm and grounding. He looked down at the top of Sunny’s head, and the vines looping around his spine eased away once more.

When he turned back, Aubrey and Kel were hugging, sitting up on their knees and clutching hard to one another. He wasn’t sure which one of them moved first, but it wasn’t something he had ever seen. Basil has only ever seen them giving each other quick little hugs, or the awkward side squeezes Hero demanded after their fights. But this wasn’t either of those. It was genuine and real, and they both seemed a little reluctant when they pulled apart.

Hero, ever the older brother, beamed and pulled the basket to the center of their group, changing the subject to the food that he and Kel made. To anyone outside of their group, it might have seemed like a callous way to change the subject, but the other four were grateful for something to switch their minds to.

With the moment over, Aubrey went back to her usual brusque, digging into the basket and pulling out a sandwich and bottle of water. She grabbed the food and Sunny’s hand, dragging him over to one of the corners and demanding to hear about his new house. Sunny obliged her, talking about his room and the renovation plans his mother had begun.

Kel drifted over to Hero, falling against his brother’s side and leaning his head against Hero’s shoulder. Basil didn’t interrupt, but he watched Hero wrap Kel in his arms and whisper in his ear, something that had to be comforting given how Kel nodded and snuggled closer to his brother. Hero squeezed Kel and turned to Basil.

“How’s the new garden coming along?”

[redsun021]

I want batman beyond back so bad but I don don't trust anyone to do it right like god forbid it be on the cw, I've had enough of bruce timm's crusty old ass so I don't want him involved either, I don't like the current dcau movies so that's also a no, I can picture terry having a cameo in yj but not much else, cn runs they're network like a clown rodeo so I doubt warner bros is even thinking about bringing bb back... I'm so sad and alone