#kerri

because that’s at the heart of the narrrative of both Kerri and Leida, in different ways - cassian who lost the younger sister who was implicitly forced on him to take care of, who was made his responsibility, for no fault of his own, and Mon who knowingly gives her daughter who in so many tiny ways has already been lost to the mere possibility of a rebellion, Mon who takes her daughter to her own living grave. The dual weight of cassian and mon’s very real Missing Daughter complexes could have been, if handled subtly, an absolutely fascinating and constantly quietly brutal through line to season 2 as they (cough the protagonists of this show cough not luthen cough) step into their roles as leaders of the rebel alliance and into not just killing but emotionally manipulating people and then being forced to live with the consequences of what they’ll do for the rebellion. How to handle the weight of his grief and his guilt Cassian has emotionally deluded himself into believing his sister is still alive or at least still findable and to handle the weight of hers Mon has deluded herself into believing her daughter is, on some level, already dead, or at least gone all along. But it can’t be survived, either option, like nothing else on this show can be survived. They never say this out loud, of course, either of them, but you could get the manipulative back and forth of cassian who believes for unstated Reasons that a man with a daughter is a great mark to manipulate because obviously he’d do anything to see her again, and Mon who thinks that’s a bad gamble to make because a lot of parents just don’t actually like their children that much. (There was also a lot to dig into the fact that Dedra meero is a girl who had been lost and had very much been found by the empire. She’s in this too. She’ll destroy them all.)

and then it made me realize how this is, actually, at the heart of the story, because in a very very real way mon mothma and cassian andor gamble the entire fate on the rebel alliance and the entire fate of the galaxy on the possibility that both saw gerrera and Galen erso would do absolutely anything to see their daughter again. Cassian may be all about hope but his hope is pragmatic - he, on some level, truly believes that both the leaders of a rival rebel cell his own isn’t on friendly terms with an an actual imperial officer will gamble their entire fates on the vague chance they might learn whether or not their adult daughter is alive. Both Galen and saw think she’s likely dead. But what if there’s a possibility they can survive that she isn’t? What if? What if?

and that’s what it’s all about, in the end. It’s about how no matter how much time has passed and how scarred and broken either of you is, you’ll do anything, anything at all, to see your daughter again. That’s what it’s about, tony gilroy, that’s the hope. If rogue one is about the woman that the girl who was lost became - and it is - then Andor is about two of the people who lost the girl. That’s the goddamn circle.

“i’m looking for a girl from kenari.”

“When was the last time you were in contact with your father?”

Oh God, the Kerri thing is so frustrating. I'm actually not super shocked that people who are desperate to like the show are making up stuff in their head about it. Because uh, let's look at the facts here:

Kerri is central to the opening of the show. A lot of people who barely cared about Cassian in R1 are basically introduced to him as "the guy who is looking for his lost sister". In a brothel, of course, because this isn't your dad's Star Wars! We look at all the ways in which the world is real and that means mostly implying nonconsensual sex with Latina women, apparently. Anyway.

Cassian is really intense about finding out her whereabouts in that scene. We see how he has made himself extremely unsafe to follow up this lead. This must be really important to him! Next, even as we mostly deal with the fallout of the cop killings, the show gives us a whole scene to introduce us to who Kerri is and why Cassian feels so badly about not having found her. Again, this must be really important to him!

And it's not just in the moral or interpersonal implications, by the way. It's also that we as the audience are introduced to Kerri with a scene that took a considerable part of the budget to film. Most people will not think about that consciously, but this still lets you assume "oh, this scene looks important!". It's in a completely new setting (jungle/forest setting. expensive to film. you have to lug all your equipment and cast and crew to the location). It's all-new, child actors in elaborate costume (for real, this looks expensive. filming with kids is notoriously expensive because of work-hour constraints, they had to cast all these kids, and make all those costumes and put them in make-up etc.). The planet has wide-shots with fully animated landscapes (again, looks expensive!). And then the planet has its own language. And all the child actors are speaking it. Someone got paid to create that language, and all these kids had to be taught that language, which I assume is paid work-time for them?

So, again. Wow, this girl must be really important to the plot of the show I've just started watching! ...nope.