#andor best line

[andorshitdaily]

WE HAVE OUR WINNERS!!!

Thank you all for voting in this gigantic tournament and making your voices heard on all your favorite quotes and lines from this show absolutely chock full of banger lines.

Without further ado.....in third place 🥉, a philosopher who needs no introduction:

In second place 🥈, a real underdog and the only line in the tournament not spoken in Basic:

And of course, the champion 🏆🥇. Could it have been anything else?

Congrats to the winners and congrats to us for having so many incredible options to choose from! Looking forward to more next season!

[darlingjmiller]

finished watching Andor.. I’m so mentally ill rn

[felassan]

Do we know which archdemons belonged to which evanuris besides the two in veilguard?

And do we know if killing the archdemons is what killed the gods in their prisons...?

hello! ◕‿◕ (rest of post under cut due to length and spoilers)

Bellara and Neve speculate in-game on the topic of the first question in this codex entry:

Codex Entry: Elven Gods and Tevinter Gods

"Elven Gods and Tevinter Gods A note in Bellara's handwriting: Nine elven gods, seven Tevinter gods. Lines up, because Mythal was murdered before Arlathan's destruction and Fen'Harel is... Fen'Harel. We're pretty sure about: - Elgar'nan (day, night, the sun, tyranny, lordship, fatherhood, vengeance—he just wants all the words, doesn't he?) = Lusacan, Dragon of Night - Ghilan'nain (halla, navigation, monsters) = Razikale, Dragon of Mystery - Sylaise (fire, the hearth, home) = Toth, Dragon of Fire - June (craft, invention) = Urthemiel, Dragon of Beauty We're still arguing about: - Dirthamen (secrets) = Dumat, Dragon of Silence (secrets, silence... makes sense?) - Falon'Din (death) = Zazikel, Dragon of Chaos (Death causes chaos? Chaos causes death?) - Andruil (the hunt) = Andoral, Dragon of Slaves ("Andruil" and "Andoral" sound alike?) Added in Neve's handwriting: If it helps, Dumat liked toads. Did Dirthamen?"

On the Archdemons and the rest of the Evanuris, the devs said this in the recent Reddit AMA:

Q: “Can we get confirmation on what happened to the other Evanuris? Will we get any more lore? Shame we didn’t hear a whole lot about them besides essentially being behind the previous Blights.” John Epler: “We haven’t been SUPER specific about this, but at best the other Evanuris are a shadow of their former selves, and at worst they’re dead. The death of their Archdemons, particularly when they were still trapped in the Fade, caused enough magical feedback that it broke their minds and bodies. A couple may have survived as shells, but they aren’t in the same state as Ghilan'nain and Elgar'nan.” --- John: “[...] The story of the Evanuris is done - the gods are dead (or imprisoned)”

[compilation post]

and this in an interview with IGN:

"Can you tell us about the fate of the other elven gods like Sylaise and June? Are these gods now mortal in the Fade after the defeat of their Archdemons, or were they weakened enough to die in their prison? Epler: Yeah, I mean, so we haven’t been super explicit about what happens when the gods die. In my mind, they’re either dead or they’re the closest thing to it. When a Warden kills an Archdemon, in Origins and DA2 and DAI, before the Gods are out in the world, there is part of that elven god’s spirit that is bound to that dragon. It finds the nearest source of Blight. Now, if it’s a darkspawn, a darkspawn has a direct connection to the Blight. There’s enough energy there for it to rebuild a body, rebuild itself as an Archdemon. When it goes into a Warden, that connection is very different and what ends up happening is essentially the fragment of the God spirit and the fragment of the Warden annihilate each other. So nothing to go back to the god. So if they’re there, they’re a shadow of their former self. But obviously when Elgar'nan and Ghilan'nain come out, there’s not that distance. There’s not that need to use the Blight as essentially an in-between medium and they can just regain that fragment of their soul. They’re now mortal, but they’re just as powerful as they were before. Busche: And this is part of a theme within The Veilguard. We’re tackling some pretty big subject matter, some of the largest outstanding mysteries within Dragon Age lore. So we want to tie up some of those loose ends, give really satisfying answers, but we also want to leave the door open just a little bit. So questions like that, what happens to the rest of the gods? Those are themes that we want to be able to explore, but also be able to advance the franchise."

[source]

[lame-cameoliob]

The Narritive Potential of lower level! Kallus

Alright literally nobody asked and this is totally just me thinking way too much, but I NEEEEEEDDD to talk about the Kallus from the lower levels headcanon and just how much narrative potential it has

(also If you see anything spelled wrong or phrased weirdly NO YOU DIDN’T)

To be completely frank I think that Kallus’ character is almost out of place in a children's TV show– DO NOT GET ME WRONG, he is a fantastic character that is integral to the Rebels plot, but many implications made by his character are much more fitting in shows with higher ratings– that’s why he comes of so fucking ridiculous half of the time, he is a character with massive implications, but he has to be readable to a younger audience. PLUSSS Rebels was made on a tiny budget compared to other Star Wars animated projects, so the producers could not put time or money into further delving into his arc because they needed to focus on the main cast. They couldn’t afford to go into smaller character-centric arcs like in the clone wars. Now, taking that into account, it is no doubt that Kallus has an incredible character arc (tbh I’d say the best in Star Wars, but i might be glazing idk) but there are aspects of that arc that could not be explored more due to the aforementioned restrictions on the production side.

Thing is, Star Wars is all about making connections to the real world (ex. Return of the Jedi was an allegory for the vietnam war– or also THE ENTIRETY OF ANDOR) And although Kallus’ arc already does that on a baseline level, its potential for drawing these connections was for sure not explored to its fullest. 

Now, I know you didn’t sign up for a lesson in world history and politics when you started reading this but you’re gonna have to stick with me to see where I’m coming from; 

It is no secret that the greatest defense against propaganda is education. That’s why maps that show which states have less extensive education and maps that show which states are conservative look nearly identical. That’s why conservative states are far more likely to pass legislation that bans books with political content; they need people to continue to be uneducated in order to keep the state conservative. Even if we omit nefarious political intent, in order for educational institutions to truly thrive they need funding (which tends to be severely lacking in conservative communities) State legislation aside, some school systems literally cannot afford to give their students an all encompassing education. And next to that, in many impoverished rural communities, you end up having kids that need to start working early on in order to make money to support themselves and their families OR they start working early just cause they want to (bootstraps mentally and all that); these kids do not have a reason to set aside their time to sit down and think about the politics of the world around them, which is why a lot of people end up just falling in line with the conservative mindset that surrounds them. 

“What about the people who aren’t conservative / patriotic? How do they play into this?” You may ask– AND LET ME TELL YOU– it’s not really a huge secret that the United States Military does this quirky little thing where they pay for your college and give you financial benefits while you’re an active service member. That’s actually a MASSIVE recruitment tactic that they use in schools! IN FACT, (as someone who grew up in a blue state) wherever military recruiters would come to my school to yk…recruit people, they would almost ALWAYS stress the financial benefits more than promoting the whole “SERVE YOUR COUNTRY RAHHH AMERICA” thing . 

So basically it’s a system that sets children up for failure by leaving them broke and struggling, and some of those children grow up in areas where they are funneled into having certain political beliefs without the resources needed to form their own opinion, OR you have kids that just want to reap financial benefits because living is too damn expensive. (And of course there are people who fit into BOTH or neither of the categories; I’m generalizing a little bit for the sake of keeping this post shorter than it could be) (This is a very nuanced subject and I know that, I just don't want to make you all read an entire essay)

The issue comes when these misinformed children grow into adults, and those adults become dangerous. 

BACK TO STAR WARS

So there’s not really a whole lot of extensive canon lore (at least that I’ve seen) about how the Coruscant economic system works, but I think it's fairly obvious that it is operating on a capitalistic system not unlike the united states, where the richest of the rich own most of the wealth, and the rest of the population are left living paycheck to paycheck; it’s just that some paychecks are bigger than others. 

It is this system that allows for the lower levels to fall into complete poverty. None of the wealth from the top is trickling down (literally) and the people in the lower levels are left fighting for scraps. 

Most areas in the lower levels are controlled by money hungry gangs, and corrupt law enforcement does what these gangs want just because they’re paid to. The further down you go the less control The Republic has; at some point you reach a depth where the Republic has zero influence. And even if they did, at this point in history, most of the senate no longer represents the people.

THIS IS WHERE KALLUS COMES IN 

I want you to imagine being a kid in the lower levels. You’re fighting for your next paycheck so that you can help pay rent, you’re shoplifting and picking pockets just so that you can eat. You cannot afford to live. And not only that; you’re suffering from intense vitamin deficiencies, the air is undoubtedly toxic, the water probably isn’t good to drink. You are exhausted. Physically, mentally, even subconsciously, you are a kind of bone-deep tired that nobody– ESPECIALLY A KID– should ever have to feel. If you can even afford to go to school you’re not leaving with a better understanding of the galaxy, because all you’re worried about is finding something to eat and going the fuck to sleep. But that's your normal, you’ve never known anything different. 

You’re not thinking of ways to question the system, you’re too tired to. 

And you don’t care about The Republic because The Republic doesn’t care about you. 

But then The Empire rolls around. And the Republic didn’t give a fuck about you, but maybe the Empire will– besides you don’t really care about the politics of it all, because you see that they offer free room and board to those who enlist, and that is your one way ticket out of the fucking hell hole that you’ve had to endure for your entire life. 

And so you enlist. And even if you didn’t care about politics before, the people around you do, and they are telling you exactly what to think without giving you the resources to form an opinion of your own. 

If Kallus grew up in the lower levels, that would have been his reality. He would have been the perfect person to indoctrinate because he came from a system that wouldn’t have allowed him to know any better.

This is especially palpable when we think about why he became Fulcrum in the first place;

He educated himself in ways that the empire did not allow him to be educated before. He asked questions and he did not like the answers that he got. 

He realizes that he’s been fed lies and propaganda that have made him complacent in a system that had done immeasurable evil, and he HATES that. He realizes that he does NOT believe what the empire believes and that he has to align his actions with HIS opinions, not the empires.

He realizes that harm that his ignorance has done and he takes it upon himself to lock THE FUCK IN in an attempt to help and rebalance the scales. 

(And this bit is kind of a side note, but idk where else to put this:if Kallus comes from a background like the one listed above where he is constantly fighting for survival, he becomes a narrative foil of EZRA!!! They become two sides of the same coin; a kid whos impoverished because of the Empires cruelty, only looking out for himself until his worldview is changed for the better by the kindness of the people around him VERSUS a kid whos impoverished because of the Republics failures, only looking out for himself and CONTINUing TO DO SO as his worldview is changed for the worse by the greed of the people around him.) (DO YALL GET WHAT IM SAYING??? I FEEL LIKE IM ONTO SOMETHING THERE??)(I MIGHT BE CRAZY BUT LIKE I FEEL LIKE THATS ⁉️⁉️)

All of this is really just to say that Kallus is the perfect example of the dangers of complacency. He is the bystander effect at its worst. He admits that he “never asked questions,” simply because the empire told him not to, and he becomes dangerous because of it. He does evil shit just ‘cause he’s told to. The empire says that a certain number of civilian deaths fall within an “acceptable margin” and he just shrugs his shoulders and goes “yeah, okay, if you say so.” 

Already in canon, he is an example of what people can become if they refuse to question the systems in power, but when you take into account the possibility that he’s from the lower levels, he also becomes an example of how people end up in a system where they are set up for failure so that they don’t end up questioning those systems in the first place. He’s an example of how the Empire benefits from systematic suffering because the people who suffer without even realizing it are the people most easily shaped into pawns. 

End of rant

[gffa]

this might be a stupid question, but do we know how time was measured in the prequels? i only ever see that time period referred to as "x bby" which doesn't make sense for how people in universe would have measured time since of course the battle of yavin hadn't happened and they wouldn't be using it as a reference for keeping track of the years

Hi! The answer is soooooooort of. Outside of canon, time is generally measured in BBY/ABY because that's the one everyone is familiar with. Individual guidebooks will get new systems centered around the major event of the movie it's referencing--like the sequels got based around the Starkiller Incident, the Solo movie got based around the Kessel run--but those are specifically for that one book only to help the reader understand the timeline relative to those specific events. Inside of canon, there's very little on dating systems they'd used, but the best one we have so far is the Coruscant Reckoning Calendar (CRC), which primarily comes from the in-universe book Star Wars: Scum and Villainy: Case Files on the Galaxy's Most Notorious, but also showed up in Andor. It's a little murky on specifics, but the years line up very neatly! I have a post with everything I've been able to find about it here, but basically The Phantom Menace takes place in 7945 CRC and dates follow the format of xxxx.xxx.x, where it's Years - Days (000-365) - Time (Based on 10ths through the day). It's not perfect, some of the dates in the Scum & Villainy book won't work for it (since that book was based on vibes), but generally that's the one I recommend to people and the one that they seem to be using when they need it. So if you want to know when Obi-Wan was born, he was born in 7918 CRC, if you want to know when The Clone Wars started, that was in 7955 CRC, etc.! Take all this with some major grains of salt, because it's nowhere near hard canon (and Pablo Hidalgo has always been careful to point out that his answers are NOT meant to be taken as hard canon commentary, he's not setting anything down with off the cuff internet commentary), just a cool little thing to use for your fic if you want to or whatever!

[space-blue]

This shot took me out!! Skeleton Crew is so cute and earnest, it's such a great kid's show. That moment, and how she calls him a Jedi afterwards, honestly made it some of the best "star wars" star wars in a long, long time.

This sort of excludes Andor, which feels too good and not campy enough to be "sw" star wars if you catch my drift.

KB going through an arc of learning that minimizing her disability to save friendships is not the right thing to do was so wholesome and well done.

For the longest time I wasn't sure what was up with her "augs", if it was cosmetic/practical, like having a personal computer installed or what.. but then her parents had that line where they were so worried... and now it's confirmed, she's had an "accident" and is clearly missing large parts of her brain that were replaced with cybernetics.

Fern reacting by acting like "nothing is wrong" with KB and that she hasn't changed at all is such a realistic developement. And it backfiring in this strained context, where acting too much like everything is normal and nothing has changed puts strain on KB... It's all so real, and very well handled considering it's basically entirely wrapped up in one episode.

It was sweet too, to have KB, who has been a bit of a "sidekick" to Fern's shenannigans, explicitely acknoledge that she, too, lives in her own world, because it's so true! Forever telling tales, hiding who she is at home, basically having a dual life and projecting lots... KB is keenly noticing all that and supporting her friend throughout. She's so precious I can't...

But also... the incredible impact that life saving procedure would have! IDK what's in store for Wim, whether he becomes a Jedi or not, imagine the story that makes! "The first time I saved someone's life..."

He didn't know he was doing it, even if it felt terribly urgent. He worked with a pocket blowtorch in a resort's trash heap. He was just a kid. It was his friend, guiding him and trusting him the whole way through.. Come on, that's incredible!!

Meanwhile Jod STILL doesn't have his shit together lmao.

[talaok]

Since all the nominations for Emmys, I need one fic where reader is either video calling or with Pedro when nominations are announced. Somethig fluffy and full of emotions cuz Pedro deserves all of this 😊

a/n: this ask skipped the line just cause I felt that if I posted this next week it wouldn't have made as much sense, so yeah here it is (also, I’m so happy for him and Bella, like omg man)

Today was the day.

Pedro was never usually one to care about this stuff, yes he was grateful, and yes he was happy, but no other time had he felt this electricity in the air, this buzz telling him that something was about to happen... something good of course.

He had set up his tablet on the coffee table in front of the couch, waiting for the announcement to start, but he hadn't even managed to sit- he was too nervous, too excited.

A ringing sounded through the room all of a sudden, and after an initial scare, he smiled, glad you finally could call him.

You were on set. In Vancouver. A thousand miles from him.

"Is it on yet?"

Your eagerness spurt through the screen.

And he thought he was exited

"nope"

"what? How much longer?"

He glanced at the screen, feeling a tiny goosebump traveling up his back at the countdown.

"two minutes"

"Oh my god!" You squeaked, smiling so wide your cheeks almost hurt "how are you feeling?"

"nervous" he chuckled drily

"Oh c'mon, what about? We both know you're gonna crush it"

"I hope so" he sighed "God I don't know why I care so much" he laughed "The only important thing is that Bella and the show get nominated"

"And you, of course" you chirped in

He tried to fight a smile, but it still pulled at his lips "Well if there's room..."

"There you are" you nodded, your smile fading ever so little after a brief moment "god I wish I could be there"

"Me too" he agreed "but at least w-" a noise in the direction of the coffee table caught his attention

"Oh shit, it's starting"

"shit, go go go go" you mumbled, feeling all too powerless in your position.

He sat down in front of the screen as the announcers appeared on it.

"what are they saying?"

"uh- just their names and stuff"

"ok-"

A moment passed 

"what about now?"

He laughed, ever so thankful for your presence "Still that, sweetheart"

"fine, just- tell me when they start telling the categories"

"ok ok here we go" 

"what is it?"

"talk series"

"Bo-ring" you huffed, making him chuckle "I want the good stuff"

"they're doing reality programs now"

"oh my god! it's like they want to torture us"

...

"Oh shit" 

A pit created itself in Pedro's stomach

"what?"

"lead actor in a drama series"

"oh my god" you screeched, doing a poor job of trying not to freak out "C'mon baby I know believe in you"

"jeff bridges... Brian cox... Kieran Culkin... Bob Odenkirk..."

come on come on come on

His mouth widened as he let out an incredulous breath.

"baby?" you called, already knowing but wanting a confirmation "baby pl-"

"I got nominated"

"I told you!" You basically screamed, jumping out of your chair "I told you, baby! I'm so happy for you! You deserve all of it babe, all. of. it." 

"I can't believe this" he smiled, his eyes glimmering with that spark in his eyes he only got whenever he was truly happy "This is crazy"

"Well believe it baby, you're an Emmy nominee"

"I just-" he interrupted himself as the next category was announced "shit it's best actresses"

You nodded, trying to cool down while really just mindlessly pacing around your trailer 

"Bella Ramsey!" he laughed "Bella Ramsey! They did it! I knew they fucking would"

"oh my god!" you grinned "What a power couple"

"I know right?" he chuckled "I'll have to call them I-" and once again, the announcers interrupted his train of thought.

His gaze moved from you to the tablet again.

"best drama series?"

He only nodded, clearly all the anxiety coming back.

"Andor... Better call Saul... the crown... House of the Dragon..."

he fell silent as his eyes came back to you, and this time... this time they shined with tears of joy.

"yeah?" you asked, feeling your heart beating out of your chest.

"yeah," nodded.

You felt your heart and chest and body fill with pure joy as you let some tears fall from your eyes.

"you did it baby" you sniffled "I knew you would. You deserve it, all of it" you smiled, wishing with all your heart you were there to hug him and kiss him and whisper in his ear

"How are you feeling?"

He laughed "I don't even know, I just- I think I need time to process this" he smiled, his hands slightly shaking "A-Are you ready to go to the Emmys?"

"are you?" You laughed, quite literally quivering from the excitement

"As ready as I'll ever be"

[bingsoo-jung]

TTRPGs and Violence

Not everything is radical, let’s stop pretending like it is.

A lot of people in the TTRPG space don’t like me. About a year ago I more or less set fire to the handful of bridges I had built in this space in order to make a statement about the genocide of Gaza. In the past year as I protested my way across my college campus, graduated, and joined up with a mutual aid group, I have never once regretted this.

However, I do regret not being more clear with what I meant when I did it. So, let’s begin with a bold statement, people in the TTRPG space often discuss colonialism and resisting colonial narratives, but draw the line at actually resisting colonialism. The TTRPG community has decided that ‘revolutionary’ narratives are non-violent ones because many people subscribe to the idea that violence is inherently colonial and not simply a tool of colonizers. But no liberation has ever been achieved without violence, and the decision in the TTRPG space to say that anti-colonial and revolutionary stories should be non-violent ones exemplifies why TTRPGs often struggle to hold its own against other storytelling mediums. Not because of the inherent nature of TTRPGs, but because of the culture that has formed around them.

Stories, at their best, are vehicles of discussion about the world around us. They are ways to comment on the complicated nature of reality. But simply deciding the best path of resistance is a path of consummate niceness and pacifism — not one of violence and care — ignores those complex realities. It’s been decided that there is an acceptable amount of fury that can be depicted, but that fury ought to be toothless. Thus to reinforce that narrative, stories about war are always set after the war, they’re about healing from trauma in a better world. They’re about how we become better when all the fighting is done.

But the fundamental fact of reality is that those things aren’t done. Colonialism hasn’t ended, it’s just shifted forms, wars still occur, and there is an active ongoing genocide even now. I live in a country which has elected a wannabe-Hitler, and a South African billionaire who made his money from slave labor did a nazi salute at his inauguration. We live in an actively hostile and cruel world for POC, queer people, disabled people, and so many others. But we are pretending as if we don’t.

Thus not only are we engaging in pretend when we’re acting, we’re engaging in pretend in the metanarratives surrounding which stories do and don’t get told. We’re acting as if these stories which talk about healing from trauma are responses to the reality we live in, where the trauma-causing events have passed. But they haven’t. The traumatic history hasn’t ended, we’ve just grown blind to it.

To this day I can name one Actual Play off the top of my head which depicted violent resistance, yet I can name a number of movies, books, and TV shows which have, despite them being under far greater censorship. APs have chosen to self-censor not because the TTRPGs don’t exist, but in the hopes of being palatable, yet still wish to be viewed as radical by their community. This is done by choosing to not depict the PCs as engaging in violent resistance, and not portraying that violent resistance in a positive light. Instead most ‘anti-colonial’ stories are post-colonial ones about how ‘leftover anger’ from traumatic histories can make you cruel.

This is not to say that stories sent after colonization cannot be radical, but for them to be radical the violence used to achieve liberation cannot be ostracized and made into something that characters need to ‘heal from.’ That killing the colonizer who massacred thousands or even millions actually is on the road to hell and is something that can mar the soul. In doing so we vilify the justified anger of the colonized. We tell each other ‘don’t be angry at the injustice that happened to you.’ But Kira Nerys from Star Trek: Deep Space 9, or Cassian Andor from Andor don’t need to heal from the violence they caused, your TTRPG characters don’t need to either.

Furthermore, we treat actions that are not liberatory actions as being liberatory. No, you getting better opportunities is not liberation. No, former soldiers healing from trauma isn’t liberation. No, voting isn’t liberation. Liberation is liberation. Anything else isn’t, and shouldn’t be considered that. That isn’t to say those things important, but they aren’t equal to it. As Ismatu Gwendolyn would say, we’ve made a spectacle of liberation, we’ve made it something you can eat and consume and say ‘I engaged in liberation, my instagram feed says so! Look at this liberation meal I had!’ But in doing so we’ve failed to actually produce any stories which could meaningfully contribute to discussions of what resistance should look like and how it could be achieved. We’ve hampered our imaginations to foster a palatable leftism in favor of a useful one.

But what use is calmness, when the anger is correct? When things are wrong and fucked up? Why not tell a story about your anger? The want for violence isn’t always bad, what matters is when and where it’s used. Yes, indiscriminately murdering orcs is weird and speaks to the tendencies towards bioessentialism in D&D, but demanding we always negotiate with fascists because ‘they’re people too’ is just tolerating fascists. There is nuance and context to violence that matters, and by stripping those things from how we portray it, our stories become the worse for it. We do not trust in the viewer to come to conclusions for themselves, or to know where the line in the sand is, nor do we trust in the performer-creatives to be a rational person.

Perhaps most irresponsibly, instead of building infrastructure that would allow us to tell these kinds of stories we’ve instead cast it to the performer-creatives to take the emotional burden upon themselves. Why don’t we bring on intimacy coordinators to set boundaries and create safe environments to tell these stories? Why are things like decompressing and session zeroes optional and not obligatory? And why have we not innovated more robust and professional safety tools as this space becomes more and more of an industry? In doing so we’ve inherently made TTRPGs a less safe place that would allow us to tell more serious stories. The limitations are not solely of what stories we’ve deemed acceptable to tell, but the lack of systems that would allow us to tell them. This is not to say that if you don’t have access to these systems you shouldn’t be telling stories, but the lack of them nevertheless speaks to a greater issue in the TTRPG space, a fundamental unseriousness that impacts our very ability to be more radical in our imagination.

I don’t really know if I want to see more narratives around violent resistance in the TTRPG space. I’m not sure if the same people who have rejected such stories and the importance of them really have the capability to tell them, or if they will simply just make it work. But I hope to see new people use stories to galvanize people, and to innovate new futures. I not only want to see stories that say something, that give us new possibilities, but also new systems put in place that support creatives in telling these stories. Things like bleed should not be solely up to the performers to handle, but something that resources are budgeted for just the same as streaming assets, hardware, and so much else. If we want to create a space where people are emboldened to tell all kinds of narratives then we need to actually facilitate those spaces, not just say ‘I would like to see more kinds of stories told.’

TTRPGs are not producing stories in the vein of Ursula K. Le Guin, Octavia Butler, or even Deep Space Nine because we’re so focused on being better than our anger, but also trying to recreate the success of stories in other mediums. We reach towards a moderate middle ground based on the past because it’s healthy and reliable. But that ignores that oftentimes a good story not only makes the viewer feel something, but challenges them. The inherent nature of nostalgia is a conservative one which idolizes a forgone idealized past that never could have existed, and in constantly trying to recreate or pay homage to other stories, we continue to hamper our innovation.

There is such great potential to in TTRPGs as a medium, from their collaborative nature, to their real-time storytelling that provides a space for people to experience emotions and possibilities in real time, to, frankly, the lack of censorship that other mediums of art experience. They can push us to imagine and act quicker than if we were simply writing a novel or screenplay. But if the TTRPG space is to grow we must move beyond our unimaginative and anti-radical tendencies which idolize a non-violent nostalgic past, in favor of dreaming a sometimes violent radical future.

With all my love,

Theta S. Chun.

[jessequinnfirstofhername]

The Rules:

Every twenty-four hours there will be another round. After every round, the film in last place will be eliminated.

If there are multiple films tying for last place, there will be a special elimination round. In these rounds, every film in last place will be eliminated, even if all the films have tied equally.

When there are only two films remaining, they will face off against one another in a week-long poll to determine the victor.

If you feel that no mere Star Wars film deserves to win, then please hit the "No Star Wars *Film* Is As Good As ___!" option and reply to this post with the non-film piece of Star Wars media you wish to include in the poll. The non-film piece of Star Wars media with the highest 'write-in' votes will then be added to the poll in the next round. Welcome to the poll, Andor and Star Wars: The Clone Wars!

This is all for fun. Don’t take it too seriously ;)

...and with the elimination of Andor, we're back to a line-up of only movies.

For anyone who's confused about why there were non-film options in the first place, please feel free to re-read Rule 4, and cross-reference it with Rule 69: My Poll, My Rules ;)

We're in the semi-finals! It's time for Round Eleven!

[elwenyere]

Best Melshi Line in Andor

I've been enjoying the Andor best lines poll (go vote in the quarter finals!), and I would like to contribute a bonus poll for my sad space Scot, Ruescott Melshi. Feel free to share your propaganda in the tags.

["Hey new guy, prepare to fry."] / "Keef...It's his name. Right?"

"Don't ever look at the number. Double, triple, it doesn't matter. You're in 'til they don't want you anymore. Get straight with that. Anyone that thinks they're getting out now is just dreaming. Those days are over."

"They set 'em all free."

"Tell me they're leaving."

"We’re getting out of here. I can feel it."

"What if it's just us? What if we're the only ones? Somebody's got to tell people what's happening back there. We need to split up. Double our chances. One of us has to make it. People have to know what's going on."

[velvet4510]

Look, I know the novelization has the “he didn’t know her, there wasn’t time” line about Jyn and Cassian.

I get the strong points made by takes and fics that bounce off this saying the two of them were an “I could have loved you” situation.

It’s unquestionable that their relationship would’ve only deepened and strengthened if they’d only had more time. There was a lot more they could’ve learned about each other’s pasts plus, you know, the little things like favorite colors and favorite food, things that normal couples know about each other. They were robbed of the happy future that they deserved and should have had more time among the living, no doubt about that.

But still, I don’t feel like that makes their feelings any less real.

Especially, you know, considering that people buy into the Titanic love story which plays out over just as short a span of time as RebelCaptain’s story (72 hrs max), and I’d argue that within those hours, Jyn and Cassian went through as much, if not more, together than Jack and Rose did. There’s just no “could” about their feelings. They got there.

The looks they shared, the total lack of personal space, his face when she took down the Jedha troops, their perfect teamwork in battle, the sheer number of times he came back for her, the sheer number of times he chose her over everything else, the fact that she canonically wanted to throw herself after him when he fell apparently to his death, the fact that in her head she placed him on the same level as her parents when thinking about what Krennic took from her, the fact that he made his way to the top of the tower with a broken back to save her, the sheer intimacy of the elevator moment and final hug… You don’t do any of those things for someone you don’t love.

Plus just the fact that they affected each other so quickly, that within only a few days they had already changed each other for the better and brought out the best in one another, the fact that they willingly died for each other and she didn’t leave him behind to escape when she could’ve, the fact that he literally declared himself her home … If that isn’t love, I just don’t know what is.

It happened so quickly because they’re soulmates; you only need to watch Andor to know that’s true. I’ve lost count of the number of parallels between their stories thanks to this show.

It is admittedly likely that mutual self-doubt about feelings made them think that it wasn’t real yet, and they were fooling themselves. It certainly was too soon for them to say it out loud, considering how inexperienced they were with relationships this deep and this loving. But they said it in the elevator, with their eyes (and maybe a kiss).

Their feelings were real, whether they knew it or not. By the end, they were in love.

I’m sorry, but nobody can convince me otherwise.

[andorshitdaily]

ANDOR Best Line, THIRD PLACE

"Power? Power doesn't panic." - Cassian Andor, ep. 10

vs.

"The Imperial need for control is so desperate because it is so unnatural. Tyranny requires constant effort; it breaks, it leaks. Authority is brittle. Oppression is the mask of fear." - Karis Nemik, ep. 12

[supervisormeero]

Boop.

“And your thought is that if we question the driver, we might find evidence of Mothma’s rebel sympathies?” Syril asks, staring down at his datapad. He waits. Dedra’s silent, so he assumes he’s not said enough; assumes he’s not shown sufficient intelligence to earn her answer. “Which could, in theory, lead us to… Axis?” he presses. “And Andor?”

He waits.

And waits.

She’s quiet.

When the silence has stretched for too long, he glances up to find Dedra’s chin nestled in the heel of her hand, her eyes closed. Her fingertips skim the tight strands of her blonde hair just above her ear. Every determined wrinkle has smoothed from her brow. Her mouth has opened slightly; her lips have parted with the subtle relaxation of sleep. It’s the third time she’s fallen unconscious in the midst of their surreptitious meetings in her apartment this week, so it’s the third time he’s been fortunate enough to sit across from her at the table and witness this beautiful, paradoxical side of her, like a flower sprouting between steel beams. Dedra is as soft when she sleeps as she is sharp when she’s awake. It’s impossible for him to rip his gaze from her.

And yet.

The last time he continued with his work and left her to catch up on hours of much-needed rest, she’d awakened, taken a half-second to adjust to her surroundings, and promptly snapped at him for “proceeding insubordinately in my absence.” She’d made it clear that her expectation was for him to wake her up, rather than to keep working out of respect for her well-being, and his stomach clenches at the thought that she might drag him down the hall and shove him out the door if he disappointed her again. As much as they both know she needs it, he can’t let her sleep.

And yet.

How is he to wake her? Shaking her by the shoulder seems even more insubordinate than continuing their work. Dropping his datapad risks startling her, frightening her. He’d rather shoot himself in the heart than leave this place of his own accord. For seconds that last eons he sits in the chair opposite Dedra Meero, painting her into the mural of his memory with the precise lines and manifold hues of a lovelorn artist, and ponders. Ruminates on all of the ways he might misstep and trigger an explosion. His heart thuds, and twists, and sprints.

Then, without thinking, he leans forward, extends his index finger, and taps it lightly against the tip of her nose. He doesn’t know when, or where, or why he learned the gesture. He knows it’s called a boop just as he knows the name, along with the thing itself, is riddled with impropriety. Inelegant as it is, it does serve its purpose.

Her blue eyes slit open as her lips suck in a short, shallow gasp of a breath. Her shoulders stiffen. She swallows. She pulls her head up, and then back. Proper posture, always. He watches fog churn in her gaze as she glances around the room, and he watches clarity sweep in to blow her confusion away. To free the sunbeams of her brilliance. A tinge of red blooms across her pale cheeks.

She fixes her attention on him, focuses on the outstretched pointer finger he’d dropped into his lap. Evidence. It’d never slip past her.

Her lip curls in exquisite disdain. “What was that?”

His throat tightens. “I… know you didn’t want me to continue on without you. I thought it best to, ah… employ a… less harsh method of waking you.”

Her glare is an ice storm, and he’s honored to sit motionless and freeze in place. “Try that again, Syril, and you’ll lose a finger.”

He’s booped his final boop, then. He nods.

“Of course.”

[roseaesynstylae]

Star Wars: Republic Commando: Hard Contact, Chapter 2

"Clone personnel have free will, even if they do follow orders. If they couldn't think for themselves, we'd be better off with droids -- and they're a lot cheaper, too. They have to be able to respond to situations we can't imagine. Will that change them in ways we can't predict? Perhaps. But they have to be mentally equipped to win wars. Now thaw these men out. They have a job to do.

-- Jedi Master Arligan Zey, intelligence officer"

I'm going to add any of these...I'm not sure what these extracts at the beginning of the chapters are properly called, but I'll add them whenever they're interesting.

Zey's comment about the clones reminds me of the line from Andor. "We're cheaper than droids, and easier to replace." The difference here is that while clones are more expensive and harder to replace than droids, they're superior.

And yes, Master Zey, it did change them in unexpected ways.

"It didn't feel so bad to be revived after stasis. He was still a commando. They hadn't reconditioned. That meant -- that meant he'd performed to expected standards at Geonosis. He'd done well. He felt positive."

The implication that "under-performing" clones are brainwashed, at best, is one of the Traviss's additions that I genuinely like, emphasizing the cold detachment of the Kaminoans before they become prominent in the series. It's also just a terrifying idea.

"Darman was careful not to stare -- even though any eye movement was disguised by his helmet -- because Jedi knew things without having to see. His instructors had told him so. Jedi were omniscient, omnipotent, and to be obeyed at all times."

And here we see the official beginning of the Jedi-Bashing count. It's subtler here, but it keeps popping up in ways that are unmistakable in the context of the series' attitude toward the Jedi Order. In multiple cases, such as this one, lines that wouldn't make me bat an eye in a different book, (or more accurately, a different author), but make me grit my teeth here.

The way this specific paragraph is written is very similar to how I'd write a passage from the POV of a character who thinks the antagonist is a good person, or is brainwashed, but I want to make it clear what's really going on. Only in this case, it isn't portraying, say, a Sith cult, but the Jedi Order, which is devoted to helping others, enforcing justice, and studying the Force.

Jedi-Bashing: 1

"'This is your unit of four, then? A squad?' He seemed to be recalling a hurried lesson. 'Almost like a family?'"

This might be a stretch, but I'm not cutting this series an iota of slack when it comes to the Jedi Order. The implication here seems to be "Oh look, the Jedi have no idea what a family is! It's so unnatural and wrong, not like the good, wholesome Mandalorians!" Am I being petty? Maybe. Does Kal Skirata ranting about baby-stealers get really fucking old really fucking fast? Definitely.

Jedi-Bashing: 2

"'My squad called me Atin," the wounded commando said.

Niner glanced at Fi but said nothing. Atin was Mandalorian for 'stubborn.'"

Okay, this bit is just funny.

"Darman -- a soldier able to withstand every privation in the field, and whose greatest fear was to whither from age rather than die in combat -- felt inexplicably uncomfortable at the idea of a Jedi having failings."

Jedi-Bashing: 3

"Etain was neither a natural warrior nor a great charmer, but she was aware of her talent for spotting opportunities. It made up for a lot."

In this book, at least, I really like Etain. She's a good audience surrogate and her headspace is easier to get into than the other three narrators.

Jedi-Bashing: 3

Di'kut Count: 1

Main Post

[chamerionwrites]

A thought I have been idly turning over is that the argument can be made - and made pretty compellingly imo - in both directions that the changes from Cassian’s sketchy offscreen backstory in R1 to that presented in Andor serve to portray him as a more/less uncomplicatedly sympathetic hero and/or victim of imperial violence.

On the one hand “traumatized refugee orphan turned hustler, saddled with a juvenile record and nursing a self-protective apathy approach to politics, radicalized by the proverbial straw(s) that broke the camel’s back after a lifetime of survival in a system that wants to kill him” clearly complicates the narrative from “I’ve been in this fight since I was six years old.” And quite frankly, hard NOT to complicate the narrative when you’ve got an entire TV series to stretch your narrative legs in vs a single film with an ensemble cast. I don’t think it’s entirely fair to suggest that a story which has vastly more space to expand on an idea necessarily has smarter things to say so much as more space in which to say them - but I do respect the commitment to complication and interrogation, nonetheless.

On the other hand the implication of R1 - made extremely albeit briefly explicit in the offscreen references to, and I quote, Outer Rim “anarchist movements” and children “tossing rocks and bottles at Republic walkers” (no further comment at this time but like…oof) - is not, imo, a less thoughtful or complicated or potentially subversive story. Some of the complexities certainly lie in different places! But I don’t even think that such questions as “Does a slightly-selfish-on-the-surface grifter ask more from the audience than a dedicated idealist?” are as straightforward as they initially appear, within the broader context of a media landscape that is frequently far more comfortable lauding revolutionary action as a variation on a revenge plot (Everyman Hero just wanted to keep his head down and live his life until Evil Empire killed his girlfriend/family/best pal/etc etc) than as a natural outgrowth of ideological conviction (which is for Scary Radicals*). I also continue to find it UNBELIEVABLY tantalizing that R1!Cassian was explicitly described as, if not a Separatist himself (hard to describe a six year old that way or know how he would describe himself as an adult!), then unquestionably part of that ideological lineage, in that Star Wars as a franchise has never been willing to give more than halfhearted lip service to the idea of Separatists as anything but cartoonishly over the top villains - or, by extension, to the idea that the Republic was the Anakin Skywalker to the Empire’s Darth Vader. Even in highly abridged form, that’s a backstory that’s begging a lot of pointed and fascinating questions (What are the political fault lines within the Rebel Alliance? What does it mean that this franchise’s treatment of the Clone Wars has frequently boiled down to glibly setting up and knocking down arguments about Third World sovereignty and resource extraction? Can you as the audience imagine a political movement that contains both incredibly corrupt bad actors and grassroots liberation movements under the same broad ideological umbrella?)

ANYWAY TL;DR I think there’s a lot that’s spiky and unstraightforward and potentially subversive about both of those backstories, and I don’t think you need to dismiss the complexities of either in order to appreciate the other.

*I am OFC not saying that Andor doesn’t engage with ideological conviction, because it does! I am merely pointing out that - outside the audience demographic of broadly left-leaning people on tumble - a loveable rogue who wants to stay out of politics and survive does not necessarily read as less likable or morally upright than a revolutionary who’s fully prepared to Die For The Cause.

[e-the-village-cryptid]

I love the way that Andor shows us the sheer mundanity of the choices that everyday people are faced with in the gradually but steadily tightening grip of fascism. Because in real life, picking a side doesn't look like a big dramatic moment where Luke or Anakin chooses The Light Side or The Dark Side for once and for all. It looks like Brasso and Bix deciding to provide what help they can to Cassian fleeing the consequences of an unjust police state, or on the flip side, Timm deciding that his personal gain is worth briefly siding with the Imperials, or in the middle, Pegla deciding to simply step back and be a bystander. It looks like little acts of defiance and humanity. It looks like Bix and Paak making the decision to send that message just on the off-chance Cassian could get the chance to say goodbye to Maarva, despite knowing the risks. It looks like Brasso doing his best to subtly buy Bix a few extra seconds to run from the Imperials chasing her, even if he couldn't stand up and fully fight them in that moment. It looks like community, like the citizens of Ferrix warning each other of danger and holding their funerals whenever and however they goddamn want to. At every turn, the characters of Ferrix are faced with small, everyday choices to step up or step back. They might not even realize they're picking a side in a larger war. But these mundane choices gradually shape their role in it, and their consequences are very real.

But Andor also shows us that however difficult these decisions, and however dire and even fatal their consequences, it is still a privilege to be able to make those decisions at all. Because characters like Cassian, and Cinta, and the prisoners on Narkina 5 never had a choice. They were taken from their homes, ripped from their families, and placed in this fight whether they wanted to be or not. And so they rely on people like Bix, Brasso, the Paaks, Mon Mothma, Vel, and so many others who do have the choice to choose them, to choose justice over their own personal safety and stability. And they do choose, and they do suffer for it. But at least they got to make that choice themselves.

And it asks: What would you choose? If the choices were small, if they were presented not as Good vs. Evil but something more personal, more complex? If your safety, your livelihood, even your family were on the line? What do you choose? At each turn, do you step back or step up? Do you help your friends, your neighbors, your community? Do you engage in a million tiny braveries? Or do you keep your head down as the net closes, hoping your silence will save you, not waking up until you find yourself as surely ensnared as those whose plight you ignored?