#cassian is beautiful

[thestarbirdfromtheashes]

<<Because really, the ideal fantasy of Star Wars, unlike Star Trek, is not to watch beautiful people engage in competence p0rn.>>

THIS IS A LIE, GIZMODO. CLEARLY YOU HAVE NOT MET THE REBELCAPTAIN FANDOM.

[bartowskis]

I don't belong to anyone. But every time you say my name, why does it feel like I've always been yours?

Rebelcaptain Appreciation Week 2024 [@therebelcaptainnetwork] → Day 7 (x)

[princessofmerchants]

Just a reminder that Cassian lends Nesta, the consummate book lover, his favorite book, The Dance of Battle. And Nesta proceeds to inhale it and later discuss it with him, along with reading more books like it, when she realizes its subject is a common interest of hers too.

That alongside the sex and the training, these two also became friends.

(And you know the moment Nesta realized Cass left his personal copy of that book for her, some part of her was a goner, even if she did try to deny it for a while longer, bless her.)

[feyres-divorce-lawyer]

really thinking abt how nesta is a romantic and she gets stuck with a fucking loser that doesn’t say i love you in 800 pages. like he describes a horse more romantically than he ever does her. he sees her starved and malnourished and all he thinks about is her breasts. we get more romantic passages about nesta from freaking feyre’s pov (don’t be weird) than we ever do from that dense red bat.

this is from acowar, ooh i’m so mad

[brotherconstant]

Foundation 1x09 The First Crisis "I’m a victim. We all are." "Yes. And that makes you the embodiment of our vulnerability, an ugly reminder of the knife-edge upon which our Genetic Dynasty is balanced."

[colleybri]

One of the greatest hugs in any film

Interview question: “Do you think Cassian and Jyn would have managed to connect even more due to their shared life experiences if they had even more time?”

Diego Luna: “Obviously! What a good question. I think that hug represents everything that could have been but was not and everything that was too, because that hug meant they were part of something together and I believe that union lasts forever”.

One of the single best story decisions that was made in Rogue One was this incredible hug between Jyn Erso and Cassian Andor, as they await death from the blast of the Death Star.

It’s sad enough just in the context of the film. After Season 1 of Andor, it’s even more moving. I think some of us will be emotional wrecks after Season 2. 

One thing I’m starting to realise only now is how Jyn’s story, as revealed in the film (and the novelisation), reflects Cassian’s so much. She was also a child of war, displaced and effectively orphaned, adopted before being forced to embark on a new life. She had it even worse than him, in many ways. But just like him she had an early zeal to fight, which she similarly went on to lose because of the bitter pain that commitment caused. She becomes disillusioned and cynical about the Rebellion. It takes a combination of hard knocks and a resulting realisation of the desperate NEED to fight the Empire - in order to preserve all that they hold dear - to radicalise both of them to the extent that they are willing to sacrifice their lives for the cause.

Cassian is already in that place - he reached it five years before. But in Season 2 I expect we will see further challenges, see the desperately awful things he might have to do and what else he will need to sacrifice ahead of his actual life. Sacrifices that wear down his soul, bit by bit. Luthen’s monologue hangs over everything. “ I burn my life for a sunrise I know I’ll never see.” It’s a bitter irony that Cassian is frequently placed in sun-rising imagery, culminating in the ‘sun’ of the explosion.

Jyn, in Rogue One, seems to be the spiritual shot in the arm that Cassian needs. In the same way that being inspired by his love for Clem, Maarva and Bix helps to spur him on in the Season 1 finale (when the chances of successfully rescuing Bix must seem non-existent)  Jyn seems to me to be the crucial reminder for Cassian of why he is doing all this in the first place. Her love for her father stops him from obeying the order to kill him. He just can’t do it. He can’t put someone he is growing to care about through the same agony he went through himself.

In the end, neither can live with themselves if they don’t fight. But both of them are fighting for the right reason: love.

The hug is platonic and therefore perfect because it’s universal, in a way: we can imagine - in their final seconds - that they can both see and feel the warmth and the arms of every single person in their lives who they ever loved in any form: parents, siblings, lovers, friends. And of course they also die feeling the arms of each other - bound together by their fight and sacrifice but also an embrace with someone they might have gone on to know, and to love, if the universe had been a kinder place. 

It’s one of the most perfect and beautiful death scenes in any film I’ve seen. 

But it’s also heart-crushingly sad. 

‘What could have been’. 

…..

Edit:

I think the earlier elevator scene is where they acknowledge the loss of what they could have had together. Cassian stares at Jyn with unblinking focus but he looks like he’s dying already from his injuries, and Jyn - not yet knowing for sure that she’s about to die too - looks completely devastated. By the time they reach the beach and see the blast approaching both of them look accepting of their fate… and I imagine that they can use their final moments to internally say their spiritual goodbyes to everyone they ever loved in their lives - and to each other. They are content to die together. They are at peace as they “become one with the Force”.

….

The sand is coarse on his fingers as he tightens the embrace and closes his eyes. Her face had been that of the last being he will see, and he is at peace with that. After all, she had already started to mend his broken soul and remind him of why he was doing all this in the first place. 

Love.

She is warm against him, her grip intensifying his physical pain, and intensifying whatever is going on now in his soul. They hug as if in the hope of keeping each other whole, the hope of somehow stopping the inevitable coming-apart. Almost as if to stop time and be forever in this state of in-between.

But there is no time at all. 

So he thinks he will imagine that the light is coming from her, her bright spirit - her hot molten core - soldering and melting them into one being. 

‘I don’t know where you end or where it is that I begin.’

Extract above from  ‘Dawn Chorus’ chapter 5:

Diego Luna interview:

’ I don’t know where you end or where it is that I begin’ - from the song ‘Vision’ by Peter Hammill.

[amy-thystt]

stared at a gif of cassian for too long and then this happened

[incognitajones]

For my birthday last month, I decided to do something absolutely, totally self-indulgent and commission shippy artwork from one of my favourite fanartists. This is the first piece I’ve ever commissioned, so I had no idea what to expect. @amikoroyaiart was extremely generous and lovely to work with and the final piece is even more gorgeous than I hoped!

(It isn’t exactly an illustration of chapter 5 of I fought the war - that would be NSFW - but it’s not not inspired by that, if you see what I mean.)

[omaano]

"Cassian's face is a brittle thing, no person's eyes should shine as painfully tearful as his. Kino offers his hand and Cassian - bright as the sun, steady as a roc, fluid as water Cassian - accepts it with shaking fingers. He tells Kino everything."

Art for we're spitting off the edge of the world by Xenomorphic for the 2024 Star Wars Big Bang @swbigbang. It is an amazing Canon Divergence Fix-it fic from one of the most memorable moments of Andor onwards, with beautiful prose that fits the mood of the show so so well and will make you feel just as deeply for these characters. Please give it a read and heap some love on my team's amazing and hardworking author, they were such a delight to work with!❤️

[just-some-castaways]

Shoutout to that one Andor scene between Maarva and Cassian about love that made my eyes sweat;

Maarva Andor: You have a different path, Cass, and I am not judging you. Everything you've been through, everything that was taken away from you before you even started?

Maarva Andor: Take all the money you've found and go and find some peace.

Cassian Andor: I won't have peace. I'll be worried about you all the time.

Maarva Andor: That's just love. Nothing you can do about that. I've never loved anything the way I love you. And I've never fretted on anything more, but this time...

[gulps, sighs, eyes watery]

Maarva Andor: you can't stay, and I can't go.

Maarva Andor: Tell me you understand.

Cassian Andor: I don't.

Maarva Andor: You will.

Maarva Andor : You'll see.

[c-e-d-dreamer]

But I'm Only Looking At You: Chapter Masterlist

Main Pairing: Nesta Archeron/Cassian

Summary:

Cassian has been in love with Nesta Archeron for years and hopes to one day ask for her hand. But when Cassian learns that Nesta is set to marry the Viscount Tomas Mandray, he's ready and willing to do anything to stop it, including doing something very very stupid.

Aka a Regency AU inspired by Taylor Swift's Speak Now

Read on AO3

Part One

Part Two

Part Three

Part Four

Epilogue

[vidalinav]

Cassian has Nesta’s picture in his wallet and you cannot tell me otherwise. In a modern au he has a picture. In something canon compliant, he has a tiny painting of her face that Feyre paints him or he gets from the HoW don’t care which, that he always has in his pocket because if he is going to die on any battlefield, her face is going to be the last thing he sees. It’s proof that he is loved and has loved beyond measure. Cassian considers it his lucky charm and he kisses it when Nesta’s not there, especially when he’s had a hard day and he can’t get to her quick enough. Also he’s always pulling it out and being like this is my mate ❤️

[tifaria]

Quoting one of my brothers from the group chat because he summed up why Cassian is so important to me better than I could:

"God damn it I love seeing a Mexican in such a great role. Not cast to play a Mexican, no stereotypical Mexican cliches just this man playing such a great character with that beautiful accent. It makes me want to cry."

Indeed. And yet it is an immigrant story at its heart, but without needing to constantly remind us of it through cheap storytelling and stereotypes. And knowing that Cassian is the spark who lit Kino's flame, that he will later lead the team who gives the Rebels the upper hand against the Empire? How often do you get to see a minority actor in a role like that?

Representation matters.

[therebelcaptain]

“What game is this?” “No game. Kill me... or take me in.” —Andor 1x12: Rix Road

[colleybri]

In praise of the tragic beauty that is Cassian’s face throughout most of the Andor finale. Huge wet brown eyes as he rides one emotional wave after another after a lifetime of trying to hold his feelings back. How different he looks from the furtive, wary or angry man of the early episodes. Even that little furrow between his eyebrows is now smoothed over. It makes his face seem so open, so earnest, almost innocent. And so sad.

Tenderly caressing his dad‘s memorial brick, finally ready – after 13 years – to recall a happy memory. Ready to hear his voice from beyond the grave. 

Listening to Nemik’s manifesto as he steels himself to embark on what must seem at the time like a hopeless mission to rescue Bix… receiving the motivation he needs from another voice from beyond the grave, in an episode full of such voices. “ I share my dreams with ghosts” indeed.

Experiencing the faith and love of his mother… hearing her words and perhaps feeling her embrace from the lips, arms and love of a dear friend.

And finally, offering his life – In both senses - to the cause. “Kill me… or take me in.” Knowing that he simply can’t run away any more. It is a rare and beautiful thing in a modern popular franchise for a heroic journey to be so tragic. Cassian doesn’t offer his life to the fight because he wants to but because he feels he has no choice. 

[nestastits]

Fanart is beautiful, but I get filled with disappointment when people give cassian brown hair when he has MIDNIGHT BLACK HAIR