#maarva is such a complicated character

[shiredwarf]

"I won't have peace. I'll be worried about you all the time."

"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 you can't stay and I can't go."

[eachlittlebird]

I’m sure people are upset about Luthen responding “that’s the plan” to Mon Mothma’s statement about people suffering after the Aldhani heist, but of course what he meant by that was the same thing Meero meant when she said that the Empire was reacting just as the Rebels would want. As we see in our own world, people will tolerate oppression without doing a damn thing about it until the suffering reaches a certain point, at which time the risk of rising up is less dangerous then tolerating the status quo.

Luthen’s counting on the Imperial crackdown to rouse people into action, and the fact that the mission succeeded is the positive example people need: just look at Maarva’s reaction.

Yes, a Rebellion is going to cause suffering, it’s going to cost lives. But what’s the alternative? The Rebels may not know the Empire is developing a planet-killing weapon, but we do. As Jyn says in Rogue One, it’s not what chance you have going up against so evil an opponent. It’s what choice.

I love that Andor is showing the ugly side of the Rebellion. It isn’t nice, it isn’t perfect, it isn’t clean. Because nothing is. But it’s necessary.

[colleybri]

Bix verbally smacks Cassian. “You need to get as far away from here as you can”. Obviously, it’s unsafe for him to stay on Ferrix but it’s pretty clear she also wants him to get away from her. To stop climbing her wall uninvited. To stop coming back all the time with no thought for her.

Fantastic acting from Diego Luna as Cassian goes from the shock of the verbal slap to looking wounded. He’s realised exactly what she really means. Love the little “oh” that escapes his lips and the way he moves back as if in disbelief.

Then he recovers, his face hardens, and he verbally slaps Bix right back. “ I will. I am. You won’t have to worry about me anymore.”

Poor Bix. And there’s the physical wound on her face too. From “ running into a wall, like I do.” She actually had her head slammed into a wall by the PreMor corpo who arrested her… while she was running to warn Cassian. Adria Arjona sells this moment so beautifully. Looking tortured even before Dedra and Gorst get hold of her. 

There’s incredibly good writing throughout episode 7 - and so much subtext here. Cassian can be such a dick, trying to avoid all blame in this scene, but Bix is not blameless either. What she has not told Cassian is about her own part in everything that happened. That she told Timm about his true birthplace. She’s so tired of it all. Emotionally drained. Fatalistic. Fed up with Cassian’s evasions. “If this, if that. If you, if me, if Timm.” Even the rhythm of her words sounds like a tired heartbeat. She doesn’t seem to know what she really wants or who she really is. She’s obviously in mourning about Timm but she’s probably realised that it was a very shallow love that she had for him, if it was ever love at all. Timm betrayed her trust as she effectively betrayed Cassian’s.

Bix and Cassian’s friendship runs extremely deep (they have known each other for 17 years ) … as do all the wounds and bruises from their repeated attempts to be together. Bix will go out of her way to help Cassian, at considerable risk and cost to herself, despite knowing that there will likely be pain involved. Cassian’s first unofficial mission as a changed man will be to try to rescue her. But for now – they know exactly how to hurt each other. What a terrible way to say goodbye. He doesn’t even use his trademark “I’m coming back!” phrase this time, knowing it’s the last thing she wants to hear. All adding eventually to his “ fear of being somebody who leaves people behind” as Gilroy puts it. “We can’t just leave her there,” he tells Brasso in Ep 12.

“You won’t have to worry about me anymore” is immediately picked up in the next scene with Maarva: “ I’ll be worried about you all the time.”

“That’s just love. Nothing you can do about that.”

It’s an exquisitely painful scene. I love these incredibly complicated, messy, realistic characters and this fascinatingly difficult relationship.

[buckybarnesss]

while i deeply loved the show and appreciated a lot of what it did there were some things that disappointed me about andor:

pretty much every black character of note died. tamaryn, gorn, clem, nurchi, and birnok off the top of my head. like, that’s a choice and not a good one. i think jazzi and blevin are the ones with speaking roles that make it. 

bix’s storyline revolves around her being tortured and than rescued. it’s just that i thought she’d become more radicalized after what happened during the first arc and timm being murdered in front of her, i guess. i would’ve liked seeing her more active. 

i would’ve liked kenari to be fleshed out more. it’s just kind of there floating in the background unaddressed. 

maarva andor kidnapped a child and i did not find it satisfactorily addressed. she’s a complicated character and not morally pure which is fine it’s just hey that’s a thing that happened and should be at least talked about a little bit, maybe. 

[someinstant]

One of the things I love best about ANDOR is how deftly everyone involved is keeping the characters from sliding into broad types.

Like, yes, Karn is pathetic and a wannabe fascist, and we know that type. He's also obsessive and is starting to feel personally dangerous in a very real way.

And sure, Cassian is this low-level thief and scammer when we meet him, but he's also smart as hell, angry all the time, cynical as they come, and somehow also still has this naive sweetness to him, sometimes. And he's scared, and you can SEE it.

All the characters are so real, man. Bix is tired and trying to deal with grief and guilt and anger, Maarva is confused and righteous and protective and dismissive, Major Partagaz reminds me of no one so much as this prof who I HATED in my PhD program who delighted in pitting grad students against each other in seminar meetings, Mothma is terrified and trying and stretched to the breaking point and so lonely, Meero is sadistic and far to competent and also clearly unnerved by Karn--

God, they all just live and breathe and are allowed to be more than an archetype, and they change and grow and learn and get more and more complicated.

And the show trusts us to pay attention, and understand.

What a damn privilege to watch.

[incorrect-first-order]

WARNING: AHSOKA SPOILERS

My thoughts on Sabine being Force-sensitive are...complicated.

So it seems like the implication is indeed that anybody could train themselves to use the Force, regardless of innate ability, through sheer discipline and willpower. I don't like that, but I might have been willing to begrudgingly accept it if they committed to it.

Sabine is badass, I loved her in Rebels and I love her in Ahsoka, but is she really so determined as to be able to use the Force without being born Force-sensitive? They haven't really shown her being that dedicated. They've shown her trying a couple times, for a few seconds. If you're going to tell me that Sabine, by sheer force of will alone, is able to do this, then show me. Show Sabine staying awake for days on end training until she collapses from exhaustion, show her being really, truly, maybe a little insanely, dedicated.

Because what we've got now is an implication that somehow other characters aren't Force-sensitive because they just don't have the self-discipline and willpower, and, well...is Chewbacca undisciplined? Is Han? Jyn? Cassian? Maarva? Mon? And of course, you knew I was gonna bring him up, Hux? If all it takes to make yourself Force-sensitive is sheer dedication and willpower, then...well, now, no character has an "excuse" for not being Force-sensitive.

Yes, I know that it's always been canon that every living thing is connected with the Force, but being able to consciously wield it has always been something that select people are innately able to do and everyone else isn't. Making it simply a matter of discipline, making it so that even someone whose innate Force-sensitivity "falls short of every Jedi padawan ever" can train herself to wield the Force effectively, makes lack of Force-sensitivity a personal failing and opens a ton of plot holes.

Not to mention, there are many Force users who are...not exactly "disciplined." Kylo Ren is one of the most powerful Force users in the current canon, and he is the exact opposite of disciplined. A big part of Anakin's whole problem that led to his downfall was lack of self-control. Ventress isn't one of the more powerful Force users, but she definitely is not disciplined. So, if mastery of the force is now a matter of self-discipline rather than innate ability, that raises some serious character questions.

We already had an explanation for why some people can use the Force and others can't. I know not everyone was fond of the midichlorians as a plot device, but they were canon, and they did offer a real explanation that didn't turn Force-sensitivity into a personal victory. It allowed for bad people to be able to use the Force and good people to be unable to do so.

Being able to use the Force should have stayed an innate ability you're born with or born without.

[e-the-village-cryptid]

the thing that’s fascinating to me about bix is that usually you when you have the character who is genuinely a good person through and through, who is always trying to do the right thing, it can make the character sort of flat or lacking depth. they become just “the good one”, you can always predict what they’ll do, maybe it even gets a bit unrealistic. but bix, by being the one who is always trying to protect her people and do what’s right, actually opens an entirely new window through which to see the story.

when we’re empathizing with or seeing the story through the eyes of morally grey characters like cassian or cinta, it’s easy to see the story from a sense of self-preservation or “ends justify the means” reasoning, and understand or even support it. but it’s only when we see the world through the eyes of someone like bix that I think we realize the complicated moral choices aren’t just things like “the moral choice vs. the sacrifices it takes to do the right thing”, it’s that even if we were perceiving every choice through a selfless lens, we genuinely do not know what the right thing to do for others is. from the very beginning, should bix protect cassian by putting him in contact with luthen, or should she protect paak and everyone else involved by not contacting luthen more often than necessary? is it right to try to contact cassian when maarva is dying, or is it wrong to risk bringing imperial wrath down on ferrix if they intercept the communication? what do you risk when you trust the people you love? what do you risk when you don’t trust them? timm couldn’t have betrayed cassian if he hadn’t had the info that cassian was from kenari, but maybe he also wouldn’t have betrayed him if he knew about luthen and knew that by betraying cassian, he was risking bix’s safety as well.

many other characters show us how hard it is to make the right choice in terms of the sacrifices it will demand or what it will cost. bix shows us how hard it is to make the right choice because usually, we don’t even know what the right choice is.

(bix is also absolutely not the only character who does this; the show is packed with difficult moral choices throughout and many characters face this crisis of how to know what the right thing to do is. but something about bix just feels so much realer— she lives a life that is closest to most of ours in that her problems (at least in episodes 1-8) cannot be solved with blasters and battles and rebel hideouts but with interaction with her community and difficult but more mundane choices about what she can do for the people in her life. her goodness is also so focused on protecting her home and her people, which is a much more personal scale than trying to win a fight for the entire galaxy.)

[ao3feed-rebelcaptain2]

Hold Me Like A Grudge

read it on the AO3 at https://ift.tt/Cv3uMK4

by k2cassian

They say you should never hold a grudge within your heart and mind. It will only destroy you.

Jyn has been through enough in the last few months that she just can't say no when Bodhi offers her a trip away from the reminders London gives her of a man in white, even if it means leaving her business in the capable hands of others.

Cassian is called back home to Ferrix after a health scare leaves Maarva unable to run her beloved bookstore - Rebel Books.

In London they do their best to avoid each other completely - but in a small village? There's not a lot of places to hide.

Words: 4344, Chapters: 1/?, Language: English

Fandoms: Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016)

Rating: Teen And Up Audiences

Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply

Categories: F/M

Characters: Cassian Andor, Jyn Erso, Bodhi Rook, Bix Caleen, K-2SO (Star Wars), Maarva Andor, Brasso the Ferrixian (Star Wars), Chirrut Îmwe, Baze Malbus, Mon Mothma, Bail Organa

Relationships: Cassian Andor/Jyn Erso

Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Angst, Fluff and Angst, Alternate Universe - Bookstore, Injury Recovery, Complicated Relationships, Rating May Change

read it on the AO3 at https://ift.tt/Cv3uMK4

[naivara]

I love that some headcanons for Andor are:

Brasso gives great hugs, and is the best friend. ( And this growing ship with Bix? I love it)

Vel and Cinta are a badass couple, and love to take care of Cassian/Jyn daughter.

Maarva can die.

B2 its the best boy in the galaxy and deserves everything.

Syril looks and acts as a toxic ex (but the relationship was on his head, creepy guy).

Melshi will be a great and loyal friend til death.

But not sure about Luthen, Kleya, Dedra...?

*

For me, Clem and Cassian went to Kenari at some point, but no people around, so thats why when Cassian had the chance to pilot a ship, dindt return there.

Clem and Cassian relationship was less complicated, and Cassian loved him so much.

I still believe that B2 its K2 .

No matter what happens in tomorrow episode or by the end of the season, My beloved characters are alive, like RO crew too.

[starpeace]

hi harker sorry youre going uni mode. thoughts on maarva and/or luthen? i think its interesting how cassian keeps being in situations where he effectively has no choice but to put his life in the hands of more privileged characters

i think its so interesting...

i’m fascinated and horrified by luthen’s collection. (btw take note, the rest of star wars—that’s how easter eggs should be done! things for people to notice in the background! adding a little context for new characters! not Hey Do You Remember Liking This Guy.) i think it’s easy to react strongly to his ownership of beskar or a kalikori and forget that he’s doing this on purpose so he can stay undercover on imperial coruscant. to ultimately help take down the empire that is destroying those cultures. this is a mask he’s putting on. but it’s equally ghastly that this happens and that he can do it and that it’s a complete non issue for someone like mon mothma to buy from someone like that. i’m glad they’re confronting the idea of different levels of privilege within the rebellion bc it can’t be ignored between mon mothma’s pristine dining room and perfect hair and clean hands and cassian doing the ugly work on the ground

it’s hard to say more abt maarva bc i feel like we haven’t seen much of her yet. i think her relationship with cassian is so interesting, especially that he isn’t telling her he’s looking for his sister. i loved the bit where they’re listing people who know that cassian’s from kenari, and cassian mentions a couple names and she says, shocked, “that’s family” and he says “if we’re making a list we’re making a list”. she obviously has a much broader idea of family than he does and i wonder how that applies to their relationship. it’s fun to see a more complicated take on the usual star wars found family trope bc i’m getting a bit tired of them just pouring that stuff in readymade

[kanansdume]

LOVED your post on Luthen & Ferrix, I thought all the “sorry Luthen but Maarva is just better” from the fandom was a little hollow after how much he maneuvered to get things in place. I think it’s a strength of the show that it trusts it’s audience enough to think harder about the show but no so much that you can’t follow what’s happening. Like Mon said in ep 2 or 3 it’s doing the “show the rock in your hand while hiding the dagger at your throat” trick. Sorry I hope it’s okay I sent an ask for this but I just thought that post deserved huge kudos.

Totally fine to send an ask, thank you!

Yeah, that was kind-of my feeling on all of those posts, too. Like I don't think Luthen was ANTICIPATING what happened on Ferrix, why would he? So yes, he seems shocked, but that doesn't mean that we as the AUDIENCE aren't aware of the role he played in this rebellion coming to fruition the way it does. Even Maarva has no idea how Cassian and Luthen and Aldhani were all intertwined since Cassian never told her about it before he left again.

I think that's one of my favorite aspects of the show, that the way these characters all connected to each other wasn't necessarily obvious to anyone but us, but it didn't make those connections any less impactful. As you said, trusting the audience to piece those clues together rather than stating it more outright.

It also just wasn't about Luthen or Maarva being better than the other, or right and wrong. I think that's also just kind-of... going against the whole theme we get in this show that EVERYBODY is complicated, everyone's got skeletons in their closet to some degree but that they all also have their own struggles you might relate to. Luthen isn't wrong, or stupid, and Maarva somehow right or better or more clever. They're connected, sure, but they're also operating on two completely separate wavelengths and pages. Luthen's been actively rebelling for 15 years or so, while Maarva's only just kind-of getting around to it, she's reacting to a discontent that's already been building. Maarva's also moving much more small-scale, she ONLY cares about Ferrix, while Luthen is actively working across the entire galaxy with tons of agents and informants and different threads he's weaving. Comparing them the way fandom was doing feels a little like apples and oranges in some ways.

[ireallyamabear]

whoops sorry, sent this as a message by mistake (not used to send asks) so again, for the ask game, 12 and 25 for Maarva! Again have a nice day, sorry for being a bit stupid lol

all is good my friend, you did everything right :D but oh man, Maarva is a complicated and controversial character ...

12. What's a headcanon you have for this character? Here's actually a crazy thought i always had: When Bix says to Cassian in the finale "I saw Maarva", i thought she didn't mean the maarva hologram, but that maarva actually visited her through the tunnels. It doesn't really make sense with what we see of the guards and soldiers in the Hotel, and Maarva's very frail state, but the way Bix says it. Always makes me think ... that she had seen Maarva in person one last time. There's something there.

25. What was your first impression of this character? How about now?

this is a hard one. I did like Maarva when we met her, and I do still like her character - not necessarily what she does. Like so many other characters in Andor, she gets peeled over the course of the season, and I think you need to see all of it and then go back and evaluate the whole character from the start. I like that we have this flawed old woman as a character in star wars, that has a really strained relationship with her adopted child and thinks of herself as totally different to what she is. The line about how she hated how her mother was a whiner! How ironic. I think they absolutely nailed the portrayal of her and Cassian's relationship, and how they struggle with their affection which is always overshadowed by the sin at the start of their relationship, the kidnapping. I love that they show this relationship between two adults that try to move around the hole in their life (Clem) and dont know how to talk to each other, and I love that they show how easily you miss the point in life that is actually the last chance to say something to your parent and then they just die, and you're an adult and should have expected that, but you didnt. and then when you get the miraculous gift of one last message from them it's just another reminder how they failed you while they were alive ("I love him more than anything he could ever do wrong?" Really Maarva, really?). And you still miss them, mostly because now it will forever be too late and the dead parent will never apologize to you now. You thought you had more time.

[inebranlabl]

𝐂𝐇𝐎𝐎𝐒𝐄 𝐖𝐈𝐒𝐄𝐋𝐘 . . . an independent, mutuals only, low activity multi-muse 𝐟𝐞𝐚𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠 muses from star wars, myth, the hunger games, dune, the boys, gotham along with original characters. legendized by 𝐀𝐌𝐄 , she / her, 30+ , cst. warning! due to the nature of several characters this blog will contain dark themes, including, but not limited to: war, death, torture, murder, gaslighting, gore & abuse.

affiliated with: @alootus , @debelltio & @wornkindness

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𝐌𝐔𝐒𝐄𝐒

𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐑 𝐖𝐀𝐑𝐒

& featured muses Grand Admiral Sloane , Karitza Ren ( oc ) ✱

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𝐆𝐎𝐓𝐇𝐀𝐌 & 𝐃𝐂 Oswald Cobblepot

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✱ featured muses are located on side blogs attached to this blog, due to high focus.

𝐑𝐔𝐋𝐄𝐒

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𝐌𝐔𝐒𝐄 𝐒𝐏𝐄𝐂𝐈𝐅𝐈𝐂 𝐈𝐍𝐅𝐎𝐑𝐌𝐀𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍

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[jyndor]

Andor episode 1 review:

it’s good guys. notes and heavy spoilers behind the cut so don’t read until you’ve watched.

opening scene is beautiful and moody.

cassian’s walking in the rain while he goes to a brothel in search of his sister, who doesn’t work there anymore. it’s atmospheric.

cassian shows off his natural talent for fitting into places.

some fucking bully mall cops are at the bar too - the sex worker shows a clear anxiety about the mall cops. cassian literally chuckles once at them being subtly mocked by the sex worker. there’s a bit of a commentary on exotification i think? it’s subtle but she assumes he’s looking for a sex worker from kenari because he wants someone who has “dark brown eyes” iirc, also clearly she was far more interested in him than the mall cops lol ofc

those idiot mall cops pick a fight that they aren’t ready for - cassian accidentally kills the first in the fight, and when the second is like begging for his life/being a coward, cassian kills him too. he clearly hasn’t ever killed someone before and is not prepared for that.

commentary on police brutality obviously, cassian puts his hands up and says he’s not moving while trying to bribe the mall cops, tells them to check his coat pockets. and i think they were saying xenophobic shit in the background but i can’t really hear it soooo??? anyway they had it coming

mall cops work for basically a corporation that runs the system for the empire? its a good example of how fascism works - oppressive governmental structures work hand-in-hand with corporations.

lol not bee getting pissed on by a hog XDDD

great way to show the setting omg

also he sounds like alan tudyk???? hes not but cassian keeps having types lmfao

and omg we see cassian dreaming of his childhood when the separatists??? or the republic??? idk i think the separatists but when they crash and burn, and his sister ugh my heart shes so cute

i really like how it is all from his people’s pov, how they don’t have subtitles when they speak, how you can see their confusion and also these are all kids???

huiwahduhasudh LOLLL “maarva said you were out ruining your health and reputation with friends of low character”

“thats two lies” cassian and his droids i stg, but he cares obviously - the detail of cassian pulling the wire out of bee’s whatever

love the world building - love the bricks and the yellow colors, love the focus on workers and labor. the gloves! even though we don’t really see them working, we don’t experience the toils of working because cassian is busy scheming lolll jk he’s busy annoying the shit out of his friends in order to create an alibi and also to sell something.

love the mall cops! most of them, including karn’s boss who literally is like lol the guys cassian killed had it coming, are like... dude this is doing too much lol we’re mall cops, but karn is such a bootlicker and such a fascist in the making. he is interesting because he is interested in justice not because justice is important but because he is loyal to the mall cop company, and he cares about order. none of these people are good, they’re all enforcing a system that is no doubt exploitative even if they’re not actively bullying people (and being xenophobic) like the guys cassian killed. but karn is clearly an ideologue.

next on cassian’s bothering people at work tour is bix. bix is a delight and i love her. she has a friend who buys some stuff sometimes and cassian has something that he’s been holding on to for a day when he needed an exit. btw the thing is a macguffin it doesn’t matter. cassian is the thing, as is foreshadowed when cassian is trying to convince bix to contact her friend - who apparently has been interested in meeting him.

their dynamic is... complicated is the only thing I can think of. they’re clearly former lovers who still deeply care for each other, first loves, but cassian is so caught up in his own problems and bix seems to be trying to move on - to some success. in fact, if there is a moment that she seems to have some hope for their relationship, cassian squashes it by saying he’s not looking for a partner in his little scheme to get offworld.

its at this moment that timm, bix’s new boyfriend and a clown, mentions the ‘wobani run’ and they break apart. wobani, where prisoners work on death star parts, and where jyn erso will be in several years.

put a pin in that for now.

the flashbacks kill me. cassa’s sister is too cute, cassa is too cute, they’re all kids and also im curious about who their leader is - like she has to be too young to be cassa and his sister’s mom, but like... idk she seems to look after him a lot. it’s beautiful world building even if i miss fest and the cassian who grew up there in the snow. i really don’t understand why they made that change but it’s great anyway.

lol im sorry everyone keeps saying cassian looks like shit and it’s so rude because he’s just being played by an old man like ??? also not cassian gaslighting everyone he’s conned XD

timm is a weirdo and doesn’t deserve bix but i can understand why he’d be suspicious - i mean the chemistry between bix and cassian is wild. but idk dude just ask her???

i LOVE them having a secret comm system hidden from the corporate goons. bix is too great my god cassian doesn’t deserve her lol

lol cassian sabotaging the imps with his little chip or whatever fake science thing <333

oh god his sister the last time he sees her im so sad im so weak shes adorable what the fuck

final thoughts on the first episode: I mean it really is the first of three parts, it’s not a standalone episode. but I don’t think it’s necessarily slow, it feels like a simmering pot and I mean for the love of god, spending time with characters to let them develop is a GOOD thing. the writing, the acting, the everything is great.

diego is fantastic. every expression is purposeful. he really embodies this character in a way that is rare to see. I also can see his fingerprints on things - knowing a bit about his politics I imagine he had a bit to do with some of that - but oh my god he’s great.

I think bix is a total standout, as is the karn as the mall cop with delusions of grandeur but like in a totally gross, i hope he dies horribly way.

I love the choice to get really ground level with average people, I mean we see them at work and just living their lives and it’s greatness. the bricks and the industrial laborer’s town feeling makes me think of places near me, like philly and pittsburgh and the du pont mills in delaware. it feels familiar and I wonder if that’s just me.

I have some reservations about cassian being maybe 10 (according to fiona shaw) in the flashbacks but I will reserve judgement on how much they retconned the eadu fight (if at all) until we know his backstory in full. frankly I think you could easily say that he has been resisting the empire since he was a kid but I am gonna need to see more before I can say that he’s not just being a hypocrite when yelling at jyn about how she, a former child soldier who was abandoned and didn’t choose to leave the rebellion, has had the luxury of anything.

i’ll write up the second episode in a bit and then the third <3

[someinstant]

16, 18, and 19 for the A03 wrap asks!

Hello, hello, sorry for being so slow to respond to your ask! I've been meaning to get to this, but it's not the sort of thing I like to do on a phone, and I've been avoiding my computer during this holiday break (except for writing and such) so that I don't do silly things like open my work email or do any lesson plannings while I'm off from school.

But! I have the time and the bandwidth this evening, so I'll go ahead and do this now!

16. What’s your most common “Additional Tags” tag?

I'm really inconsistent with my Additional Tags on AO3, honestly. I tend to be one of those folks who just tags characters and pairings and big genres or tropes, and possibly things like violence or content warnings. Other than that, I don't do a lot of additional tagging? But I think my favorite additional tag I used on AO3 this year was "Rampant backstory speculation that will likely be undone in future episodes but I'm okay with that." Because that is what happens when you're writing during a season of episodic television instead of after the fact.

18. The character that gave you the most trouble writing this year?

This is going to be so unsatisfactory, but-- none, really? I don't really think of it as having trouble writing a character, honestly. The trouble comes in writing something that isn't true to a character, or doesn't make sense for the character's understanding of a situation. I've definitely had trouble writing scenes before, or figuring out how to resolve a situation, but generally if I just think, "Well, what's the natural way for this person to feel about this situation? What would they say? What would they do? What are they noticing?," I find that I know the answers to those questions. So the issue it's so much having difficulties writing a character-- it's finding that the situation I've written is inconsistent with the honest portrayal of that character and their reality. And so long as I'm willing to delete the stuff that doesn't fit and move with the internal logic of the characters and their world, I can find my way out.

That said, I had such fun writing Clem and Cassian and Maarva. They're probably the easiest, most natural-feeling characters I wrote all year. I think one of my favorite bits of character-building where everything just flowed and felt right was the bit in It's the same old theme where Cass has just gotten into a fight at school. I felt like I understood a hell of a lot about those three characters in that passage, and I'm really proud of it. (And yes, I know it's a controversial take in ANDOR-fandom, but: I find Maarva fascinating, and I am going to write about her a lot, because it's so complicated and dense and I eat that shit up. YUM.)

19. What’s one pairing you want to explore next year?

Eh, I dunno! For all that I've read a ton of it, I really haven't written much in the way of direct Jyn/Cassian romance-- my only other ROGUE ONE fic previous to this year alluded to a Jyn/Cassian relationship, but it was in the past and never onscreen, as it were-- and I think I'd like to see if I can find my way into writing something that lets me dig into that in a way that feels earned and meaningful enough for me to be content. And while I am MASSIVELY uninterested in paying any attention to ship wars or any of that nonsense, I could definitely see myself writing about Cassian's relationship with Melshi, or another male character-- because he does read as bi to me, and I'm interested in how he relates to men vs. women in the show, and what that means in terms of desire and its expression.* Honestly, my feelings about pairings (or moresomes! let's not be limiting!) is: whatever, man. I like what I like, I write what I want, and y'all should do the same. This is how we build a fandom that is low drama, which is all that I want.

--

*Okay, I'm going to ramble a bit here about something that I've been considering wrt Cassian and desire, okay? Okay. So: has anyone really grappled with what it means that Cassian was a thirteen-year-old boy who was incarcerated for most of his mid-teens? Prisons aren't exactly known as locations with a great deal of respect for bodily autonomy, and the Empire and most of the Core worlds seems to have a strong heteronormative traditionalism to them-- so it seems to me that if you were a boy who might be discovering that you're attracted sometimes to other boys, Sipo would not have been a kind place. And if you take that into consideration with how aggressive Cassian can get when some men get into his physical space (think about Taramyn, and Cassian's sharp, "Don't touch me"), versus how willing he is to be in close physical proximity to women-- I dunno, man. Something happened there, and it wasn't good. What I'm wondering is if Cassian desires both men and women (and all the spectrums beyond, perhaps), but feels less safe with men unless he really knows them. Because the way Cass relates to that unwelcome touch doesn't seem to be an expression of performative hypermasculinity, or anything like it-- Cass is more than willing to touch men, to hug them deeply, and let himself receive physical affection from them. Brasso and Pegla and Melshi all hug him, and he lets himself be vulnerable in all of those circumstances. But I think it happens less often with men for Cassian, because he feels at far greater risk.

[ao3feed-rebelcaptain2]

Only We Know

read it on the AO3 at https://ift.tt/FylipWL

by CaptainRebel (straightouttaketterdam)

Being part of the Rebellion means accepting death and capture's impending possibilities with each mission ventured. Three years ago, Jyn Eros went into such an endeavor expecting these for the usual 'worst-case' outcomes and found herself involved in something far more complicated. Choices were made. Words were said. Some things can never be forgotten, only actively repressed. Forgiving was even harder.

Now, on another mission with the same expectancy of demise or imprisonment hanging above her head, she discovers that she not only has to navigate the treacherous waters all spies find themselves treading, but to do so with the reminder of the long-ago decision she permitted herself to be guided towards rather than actively wanted constricting through thoughts that need to remain clear.

Words: 3173, Chapters: 1/?, Language: English

Fandoms: Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016), Andor (TV)

Rating: Teen And Up Audiences

Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings

Categories: F/M

Characters: Cassian Andor, Jyn Erso, Maarva Andor, Saw Gerrera, Ruescott Melshi, Luthen Rael, Dedra Meero, Syril Karn, Tay Kolma, B2EMO (Star Wars), K-2SO (Star Wars)

Relationships: Cassian Andor/Jyn Erso

Additional Tags: Inspired by Persuasion, POV Alternating, Alternate Timeline, What-If

read it on the AO3 at https://ift.tt/FylipWL