Hope? Yeah. Rebellions Are Built On Hope.

Star Wars: A New Hope dir. George Lucas | 1977

I love Andor for giving their antagonists shitty endings. We follow Dedra and Syril for such a long time that there are moments where we kind of root for them or feel bad for them, even though we know they're terrible people. Andor creates situations to put ourselves in their shoes AND it treats these characters as they should be treated- as villains. There is no "she was just misunderstood" or "there was good in him." These bastards are straight up, unrelentlessly evil, and their endings reflect that. Syril's death is overshadowed by the cleansing of the ghors. He's filthy and at a low point and fighting a man who he's convinced is the enemy, even though the man has no idea who the fuck Syril even is. Dedra, who's whole character revolves around her ambition with her career, ends up being arrested for overreaching on her job. She ends up in a max security prison, not for the crimes she's genuinely committed, but because she disrespected the chain of command at work.

These are genuinely some fucked up endings for these two characters and I love it so much. These bitches got exactly what they deserved, I've never seen karma and justice work so swiftly.

"You give way to an enemy this evil, with this much power, and you condemn the galaxy to an eternity of submission. The time to fight is now!"

ROGUE ONE: A STAR WARS STORY (2016) dir. Gareth Edwards

@pscentral event 37: color challenge (insp)

He's sweet 🥺🧡

Empire Strikes Back Luke >>>

THIS 20TH ANNIVERSARY POSTER FOR LUCASFILM ANIMATION IS AMAZING

one star war viewing experience that i think has been totally 100% lost to time / cultural dominance: obi-wan being a mysterious and lowkey dubious figure in a new hope. he’s introduced doing this absolutely terrifying screech (which he never does again? before or since?), in a cloak with his face covered (classic villain coding, also very close to the emperor’s exact look) and this comes after a build up of him being some “old wizard” luke is told is dead, that he shouldn’t be going to see at all—and his dialogue only raises more questions than answers. a big part of it is alec guinness’ expert ptsd performance, of course, but there’s such a real strangeness to obi-wan’s debut. he’s a mentor, but he’s also a hardened warrior, also a deliverer of some incredibly ominous lines, also a disembodied voice, an undead, unkillable entity. i don’t think it was some accident that the “fake twist” used to hide the real twist in empire was that obi-wan killed luke’s father, is all i’m saying really. i think there’s an undercurrent in anh that, as the jedi/obi-wan/star war grew in popular culture and the light side/dark side lore got more ironed out, isn’t really accessible now. but it’s fun

I would have been a lot more okay with the way Cinta died if killing off black and brown characters for the sake of the development of white characters weren't already a pattern for Andor.

I see the tragic sort of irony in the fact that Cinta seems almost invincible in the face of danger from the Empire— she's so alert and competent and ready for anything— of course it could only be an accident that she wouldn't see coming. And I see the interest in the concept of there being a death on this mission not because of the Imperial crackdown the group was afraid of, but because a green kid could only see that outside danger instead of the even more likely dangers of within-group panic and disorganization.

But it all rings hollow when over and over and over, the writers of Andor kill off darker-skinned characters just so the lighter-skinned ones can have their character development moments. Taramyn and Gorn dying first and fastest at Aldhani, Birnok being introduced just to help Cassian plan before he's killed off immediately so Kino and Melshi can get their moments instead. Then tossing Nurchi in there just to die just because, I guess. The way Clem is mostly there for his death to be a catalyst to Maarva and Cassian.

And so all I can think about watching this scene is wow, what a surprise, we killed off the brown girlfriend so the white one can have her moment of tragedy and eloquent monologue. It makes me furious, it makes me sad, it makes me bitter and resentful that this just keeps happening and happening in a show where I KNOW the writers are capable of doing better and yet they CHOOSE not to every. single. time.

thought about this again. kind of amazing how we’re all just chasing ways to duplicate how this scene makes us feel, either in life or in art.