#r1

Okay, this may be confusing for a second, but my Star Wars hot take is that Cassian Andor's plotline in Andor would have fit Baze Malbus better.

I won't go over all the details since others have explained their criticisms in much better words, but I am in the camp that the Andor series mischaracterises Cassian a lot and messes up the setup he was given in Rogue One (plus all the extra R1 material). Fest was changed into Kenari. His Separatist background is completely wiped out. A nobody Intelligence officer working in the shadows turned into a macho James-Bond-esque spy. A child who had been in the fight since he was 6 years old was turned into a reluctant rebel who only joined the cause at 27. (This is not mentioning the racist aspects surrounding the entire show in general and having to explain where Cassian's accent came from when we are in fucking Star Wars??? Literally a galaxy far, far away???)

I have seen takes that say Andor!Cassian's story was a beat for beat from Jyn's arc (reluctant rebel with a traumatic past who abandoned the fight for survival and have a complicated relationship with their adopted parental figure (Saw/Maarva)), and also that Kleya's backstory should have been Cassian's as well instead of what we got (hypercompetitive orphaned child taken into the fold of the Rebellion and having a complicated relationship with their recruiter (Luthen/Draven)).

Still, I don't think Andor!Cassian's plotline is bad in and of itself, just not fitting for R1!Cassian's character. Given the many similarities with Jyn's story, I thought: what better way than to give it to the person who had called Jyn 'little sister', Baze Malbus?

Even though we don't have much information on him in Rogue One, Baze was given the setup of a cynical assassin who protects Chirrut and a jaded non-believer of the Force. Now, not all of Andor!Cassian's backstory could fit in with Baze, but the gist of it seems to fit Baze's character really well. (Note that we are getting into speculation territory because not a lot was known about Baze's (or Chirrut's) past but my thesis here is to show how Andor!Cassian's backstory could translate to Baze very well with only a few changes.)

Without further ado, let's go through all the main plot points:

Cassian/Kassa and his sister were surviving on a forest planet, Kenari, that was abandoned due to a mining incident that was believed to have killed all adults present. He was then separated from his sister before getting kidnapped adopted by the Andors who were ship salvagers and taken offworld to Ferrix.

Except for the forest part (for obvious reasons), Jedha seems to fit this backstory setting really well because they have one thing: kyber crystals. We know there's more to Jedha than just the Holy City. There will be salvagers and miners trying to look for kyber crystals outside the walls, maybe evil mining companies or gangs exploiting labourers and villagers who live outside where local law enforcement couldn't reach. Maybe Baze and his family could be one of those people being exploited and forced to work, before the Guardians of the Whills busted the operation and offered to take Baze in to train as one of them.

When Cassian is in his teens, the Galactic Empire overtook Ferrix and his adoptive father, Clem, was killed under the accusation of taking part in the protests. Enraged by his father's execution, a lone Cassian charged into a group of stormtroopers with a baton in hand, but was apprehended and arrested.

Does the last part sound a lot like Baze "carrying a 40000-round cannon and shoot at stormtroopers like Rambo" Malbus? It's a known fact that the Empire occupied Jedha and the Temple of the Whills for their kyber crystals and probably killed plenty of Guardians in the process, with Baze and Chirrut as survivors. We know that Baze hates the Empire a lot for this very reason and unable to hold in his rage, he charged into a group of stormtroopers to kill them all but was eventually outnumbered, apprehended and arrested.

After spending time in prison, Cassian would live on his life for the sake of survival, stealing Imperial tech and trying to find his long-lost sister while avoiding all conflicts, jumping to and fro from Ferrix.

Now, this is where Baze would take up the job of an assassin/mercenary and try to survive on his own. After experiencing much suffering and pain by the Empire, he would also lose his faith in the Force too. His heart will harden and grow jaded at the state of the galaxy under the Empire. I can imagine Baze would avoid going back to Jedha for a very long time because of the trauma of losing his home and the resulting survivor's guilt. This also explains why Baze was so reluctant to join the fight until much later without any of the age discrepancy in the canon timeline (since he's already an adult when he lost the Temple) while keeping the reluctant rebel plot point that seems so central to Andor!Cassian.

It wasn't until Cassian was harassed by police officers for his looks and he shot them in retaliation that his life began to unravel, leading to him being recruited into the Rebellion by Luthen Rael. At one point, he confronts his adoptive mother Maarva about the "meaningfulness" of the cause and suggests the two of them to escape to a far off planet away from the Empire, but Maarva insists on staying. Eventually, after the death of Maarva, Cassian gives himself fully to the Rebel cause.

One day, a job requires Baze to go back to his homeworld of Jedha, where he faces Chirrut for the first time. Maybe Baze didn't go through with his job because he was sent to kill one of his own people and so he became a wanted criminal. On Jedha, Baze finds out that more people have died since he was gone (maybe even his own family too) and confronts Chirrut about it, about his continued devotion to the Force, tells him that Chirrut's efforts were for naught and that they should escape all this suffering by running off to a distant planet far far away, where they might a better chance to rebuild the Guardians of the Whills. While this is the core part of why it doesn't gel well with R1!Cassian and arguably going in the opposite direction of what was established, it would be totally fitting and understandable for someone like Baze who was stricken with anger and grief for far too long and whose desire wish-wash between joining or not joining the Rebellion cause, even if he fricking hates the Empire. (That man is fucking tired, let him rest.)

Eventually, Baze does join the cause because of Chirrut (gotta protect his reckless blind husband partner) but also he realised that he had ran from the fight for far too long and he could still do good by protecting the people of Jedha, better now than never.