Andor Fandoring

Cassian started out as a traumatised and selfish young man who loved a select few. Sometimes he made bad choices, all too often others chose for him. Slowly, the circle of people he cares about expands. He also finds hope in the midst of loss and conflict and wants to make a Home with the love of his life.

But that was never meant for him.

Sometimes the decisions others make for us help shape our path in life, whether we like it or not.

The Messenger is finally where he needs to be. The centre of the rebellion. In this beautiful shot – the symbol.

For the Melshi we first see in Narkina, a big part of staying free happens in the mind - in learning and communicating the truth, in refusing to take comfort in illusions and instead naming the dehumanizing operations of the system. By offering to Keef/Cassian the narrative of power he's developed ("never look at the numbers"), he's trying to give Cassian a way to hold onto the relative autonomy of clear, uncompromising thinking: they can keep us here as long as they want, but we don't have to believe their lies. By the time we meet him, Melshi already seems very familiar with Kino's reaction to his brand of shop talk (so familiar that I suspect Kino is not the first authority figure who's found Melshi profoundly irritating), and when Kino throws him against the wall, Melshi doesn't resist or fight back, but he does look Kino in the eye. He knows why Kino needs to do this, and as his little rueful shrug to Cassian suggests later, he's easier on Kino's need for self-delusion and displaced frustration than he is on the guards' willful misrepresentations and casual cruelty.

For Kino, moving people toward freedom is a question of organization, discipline, and management. He runs a tight ship because he's trying to get his guys the best deal he can, and he encourages them all to throw their weight into the work they're assigned because he thinks that's the best chance to get his floor through their sentences as efficiently as possible. That goal makes Melshi into a troublemaker (as his remarks threaten to undercut people's faith that good behavior matters), and Kino seems to be in the habit of throwing Melshi around to manage the expression of discontent and muttering on the floor. But of course the bigger threat Melshi poses is to Kino's faith in the system itself, and thus his belief that by maintaining order he's protecting his men - from more frying or from railing it in despair (thus his much more out-of-control response to Melshi's "they set them all free" after a whole floor's been killed for no discernible reason). Kino wants to get out himself, yes, but he also wants to get his guys out, and that's why it's Ulaf's death and the doctor's confession that provides the final push in his radicalization: he has to admit that he's been enforcing the rules of a bad-faith system, and the way he's been trying to get his men home was never going to work.

This is very compelling to me because the progression of the Narkina arc reveals that the structure of antagonism in which we first find Melshi and Kino (with Melshi needing to speak out to feel internally free and Kino needing to keep his men aligned around a shared purpose to feel that he's fulfilling his external responsibilities) is in crucial ways environmental: it's a manifestation of the forced competition and hierarchy imposed by the distribution of power in the prison. Once Kino accepts that he needs a new set of tactics to liberate the floor, and once Melshi steps up to fight for what he likely on some level still thinks is a dream, any lingering animus is quickly set aside for cooperation. Melshi is the one to throw Kino a wrench, and Kino is the one to hand Melshi a blaster. Their different methods and theories of power put them in conflict while they were still operating within a system that tried to foreclose any development of solidarity; but they share an impulse toward freedom and care for others, and Andor suggests that's finally stronger than their personal differences.

and on that same tangent I think about Niya, the woman working in the Sienar test facility in the first episode of s2, and Cassian reassuring her that she’s “coming home to herself.”

and how this scene really enhances his “welcome home” line in R1, adjusting it from something almost familial and domestic, and kind of corny IMO— to something more meaningful about how Cassian understands radicalization and participation in revolution. that’s what home is to him.

and— before someone jumps me, this isn’t negative— to a point, Jyn was just another Niya to him, as well. that is not to say that they started off on the same foot, that she was already in the know and willing. but rather, that she was a younger woman, still growing into herself, observed by Cassian who was put in a position to support her and her decisions because he has already seen what it takes for people to act. it takes reassurance. he can like her and flirt with her but he may not have spent much time with her if the mission hadn’t gone that way, if he hadn’t made those decisions like the one not to shoot Galen, etc., or even if they had lived at the end. but her participation would have nevertheless been worth it all because it was for a greater cause. he’s used to interacting with people in this fleeting yet formative way, for the rebellion.

then obviously circumstances changed and they continued working together to the end and we can speculate about feelings and all that. which I am in agreement with but that’s not my point. it’s that: he’s met this kind of person before. she also reminds him of himself, and his sense of self is shaped by everyone that shaped his story and whose lives he shaped in turn. because prospective heroes are everywhere. we are everywhere. I have friends everywhere. the frontier of the rebellion is everywhere. and we can all be important parts of that, whether we are “home” just for a moment or for a few days or for years. and we are drawn to similiar people, we love to recognize patterns and rhymes, it came free with being human.

✨Details✨ Take a closer look at different sections of one of my illustrations

Created with Procreate

𝙵𝚒𝚊𝚝 𝙻𝚞𝚡 𝙸𝚕𝚕𝚞𝚜𝚝𝚛𝚊𝚝𝚒𝚘𝚗

YEESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS

me when I'm in a yearning competition and cinta kaz is there

eat your young | dedra & syril get some! pull up the ladder when the flood comes. syril never left that sunless room. dedra falls alone.

made for @nubreed73's vidukon 2026 vidshow on physical space and its emotional significance

0:09 All the cuts between Ghorman and Ferrix are amazing at showing the parallels, but I especially like this one. 

0:25 And love how you showed the ways both Dedra and Syril used meticulous data and witness reports to put together their cases through this vid. 

0:37 Really cool transition from the hologram of the Ferrix bell tower to a shot of the real thing. 

0:56 Really like these three cuts where they’re all so focused on the same unassuming hologram. 

1:06 All these quick cuts centred on Syril shows the shot composition of Andor so well. 

1:09 “Throw enough rope until the legs have swung” while the Corpo’s ship crashes because it was tied by rope is just 👏👏

1:35 And then this! Love this for some reason. Both of them with their kinda mentor figures, who are on opposite sides of the war, looking so similar. 

1:52 The lyrics “Let me watch the dressing start to peel” while Dedra falls apart after Syril is dead, intercut with the time he saved her. Ow. 

2:03 “Old and young are welcome to the meal” with parallel shots of Xanwan and Enza’s deaths!!

2:09 “Honey, I’m making sure the table’s made” with Syril and Dedra’s first and last meetings, and then “We can celebrate the good that we’ve done” with her trying to justify it to him while the Ghor are rioting is just!!! THAT’S IT! THAT’S THE SCENE!

2:34 Oof. All the shots of her being grabbed in quick succession. 

2:37 Oh. My. God. Literally had to pause the video. The transition from Dedra’s sniper shooting to Syril being shot is DIABOLICAL! And then you added the shot of Dedra falling as if she’s been shot too??

2:40 SHE’S BIX. SHE’S BECOME BIX IN THIS SCENARIO OMGGG

The whole ending. Insanely good. Every time you juxtaposed the clean sterile walls of the Empire with Syril’s broken dirty corpse was a gut punch. Loved the spark of hope with Cassian and the future.

But it's the end quote that really changed the game for me. I'd only had the thumbnail and the title to go off of, so the whole video I was mainly thinking of the “young” being eaten as the citizens and rebels, with the singer’s pov being Dedra and Syril but now I realise that no. None of the Imperials had happy endings either, not the ones at the bottom and not the ones at the top. Like the green troops sent out into the Ghorman riot as bait, they were all chewed up and swallowed by the machine same as everyone else.

I rewatched with this in mind and wow all the scenes have a whole new layer of meaning. Right from the first line “I’m starving” with a lost and hopeless Syril, showing how the system preys on people just like him, desperate to prove themselves and vulnerable to propaganda that tells them they can be useful and wanted. 

2:31 “Pull up the ladder when the flood comes.” This part is so good. She gave them Axis and Ghorman and yet they throw her under the bus when it starts going wrong. 

thanks for the open tag @colleybri

slowburn or love at first sight // fake dating or secret dating // enemies to lovers or best friends to lovers // there’s only one bed or long-distance correspondence* // hurt/comfort or amnesia // fantasy au or modern au** // mutual pining or domestic bliss // smut or fluff // canon-compliant or fix-it // reincarnation or character death // one-shot or multi-chapter // kid fic or road trip fic // arranged marriage or accidental marriage // high-school romance or middle-age romance // time travel or isolated together // neighbours or roommates // sci-fi au or magic au** // body swap or genderbent // angst or crack // apocalyptic or mundane

*one of my all-time favorite fics has a good chunck of it that's just long-distance corrispondence, but that's only after they had a coerced co-habitation period. whereas the way it's put here it seems like the correspondence should start off the relationship instead, which doesn't appeal to me

**an AU per se doesn't do much for me or spark my interest, but i can obviously enjoy it immensely if it's well-thought and well-written