Favorite Characters: Cassian Andor, Revisited (Star Wars)

*Rogue One spoilers—and if anyone still needs the warning, a spoiler from A New Hope, too.*

With the premiere of Andor fast approaching, I obviously needed to rewatch Rogue One. Just as obviously, I needed to write about it for Y tu Luna también. However, I’ve already done a review of the film, a Favorite Characters post for Cassian, and a Relationship Spotlight for him and Jyn. So in looking back at Cassian and Rogue One today, I’m just going to follow my thoughts where they take me.

First, though, here’s Y tu Luna también addendum to my original review:

 

Recommend?

In General – Yes. Outside of the original trilogy, it’s the film that best captures the feeling of Star Wars for me. Equal parts action-packed, beautiful, and hard-hitting.

Diego Luna – Absolutely. Luna is so great in this role, but in a really subtle way. Excellent work.

 

In the years prior to Rogue One’s release, I’d seen Diego Luna in a handful of films. At first, he was, “Hey, it’s the other guy from Y tu mamá también!”, and then later, “Hey, isn’t that Diego Luna?” I didn’t seek out his work, but I was always pleased when I saw him pop up in things.

And even though my first viewing of Rogue One didn’t send me immediately turning his filmography into a to-do list, there was still a shift that took place. In fact, I’d say Rogue One was the film that set me on the path to being a legitimate Star Wars fan. I’d always enjoyed the franchise, but it didn’t excite my passion like the MCU, or Jane Austen, or Lord of the Rings. I remember I’d seen The Force Awakens a few weeks after it came out, when I made time for it. But after Rogue One, I was strictly opening weekend, often opening night.

I’ve spoken before about my franchise rewatch earlier in the pandemic, and it was revisiting Rogue One under those circumstances that really made me realize I needed all the Diego Luna content. That led me to Narcos: Mexico, to Maya and the Three, and beyond, so it was really cool now to come back to the film after having started my exploration of his career.

So what is it about Luna’s portrayal of Cassian that hits me so hard? I love the subtle journey he goes on over the course of the film. He’s someone with decades of experience fighting the Empire, a matter in which he had no choice, but he’s become a loyal soldier to the cause. Through him, we see that just because the Rebellion is fighting for good, that doesn’t mean that everything it asks you to do is good, and Cassian has gotten his hands dirty in ways that’s hard to reckon with. But during the film, he reconnects with fighting for, not just against. Sometimes that means defying orders, and sometimes it means dying to give others a chance to live.

I love Cassian’s relationship with K-2SO. The focused spy and the blunt reprogrammed droid are very different, but the history between them is clear in their interactions. K-2 doesn’t always do what Cassian tells him, but he worries about Cassian’s well-being and sometimes follows him to make sure he doesn’t get into trouble. Cassian gets irritated by the droid’s strategic analysis and they bicker over tactics, but they care about each other—Cassian’s panic when K-2 locks him and Jyn into the vault on Scarif, realizing something’s going very wrong on K-2’s end, hits me right in the gut.

And probably most of all, I love the evolution of Cassian’s relationship with Jyn. Even though they only know each other for a few days at most, every beat of their story together rings true. Again, it’s subtle, but I absolutely buy their gradual shift from wariness to trust as they keep one another live on Jedha. Cassian’s guilt as he wrestles with his orders to take out Jyn’s father as a valuable Empire asset, Jyn’s hurt as he realizes what he was about to do, their passion as they argue about the fight against the Empire and all it can take from someone. And then, still standing with her, defying orders again to execute the mission to Scarif. Walking into the belly of the Empire beast together, defending one another. Sending out their all-important beacon at the last possible moment, the tiny spark of hope that Luke Skywalker will use to set the Death Star ablaze. Realizing they won the day but won’t get out alive, holding each other on the beach at the end of the world.

I just… gahhh! It’s too wonderful. But while the greedy part of me wishes we could’ve had more of Cassian and Jyn’s interactions, more from the entire Rogue One crew, I’m also content with what we got, an exquisite capsule of a film about fighting alongside your comrades in arms and dying for a cause that’s bigger than yourself. And so, I’m okay with the fact that the coming Disney+ series is just about Cassian and the formation of the Rebellion. I’m so excited to dig more into this character’s origins and learn about what shaped the man we meet in Rogue One.

On Manic Pixie Dream Girls in Skins

This was yesterday's update - sorry, the time got away from me.  I'll give you two today.

Skins loves playing with Manic Pixie Dream Girls.  Each generation of the show has a girl that fits this trope to varying degrees.  Despite plenty of nuts-and-bolts differences between the three characters, they all serve some form of the MPD Girl’s traditional function.  However, at its best, Skins takes tropes and does something unexpected with them, and each girl (with unhappily-diminishing returns, it seems) veers off from MPD Girl standards in her own way.

We’ll start at the beginning.  Cassie is easily the most Manic Pixie-ish, with her quirky dress sense, spacey demeanor, and unusual habits.  This is a character whose first romantic scene takes place on a trampoline and who later names a pet slug after the boy she likes.  Her relationship with Sid has some definite MPD Girl hallmarks, too, the idea that he does crazy (as in odd, not as in ill-advised) stuff under Cassie’s influence.  But, as I said when I wrote about Cassie, she’s not just a kooky vessel for Sid’s life lesson.  She has a lot of real pain, much of which stems from her severe body-image issues, and in part, her cheery flightiness is a way of masking that.  She’s spent time in a mental health facility, she’s tried to kill herself, and for her, eating a hamburger is a major personal victory.  The most important departure Cassie makes from the typical MPD Girl is that her story is about her:  her problems, her fears, her longings, and her growth.

Effy actually appears first in generation one, as Tony’s younger sister.  Already, she catches the eye – she refuses to speak through most of series 1, and in series 2 she’s a shrewd puppet master who quietly fixes everyone’s lives – but she doesn’t really resemble an MPD Girl until she joins the main ensemble in generation two.  Here, the show doesn’t lean so heavily on the Manic Pixie part; if anything, she’s a “free spirit,” mainly in the form of an unapologetic zeal for partying and hallucinogenic drugs.  That said, Effie is a serious Dream Girl.  Freddie, Cook, and JJ are all instantly drawn to her, and all three boys find themselves in love with her at variously points throughout series 3 and 4.  Unfortunately, Effie winds up being the object of the plot far more often than the subject; generally, she’s viewed through the boys’ lenses, making her a less-successful subversion than Cassie.  She does take the trope to new places, though.  Like Cassie, Effy is a bundle of issues, particularly in series 4, where she struggles hard with her mental health.  Although her story still tends to come from Freddie or Cook’s perspective, they start to see Effy as a person outside of themselves, and even more, they see that her “free spirit” life isn’t easy or enviable and their own lives aren’t magically bettered simply by loving her.  It’s complicated, and it’s difficult, not some MPD Girl fantasy of what they want Effy to be.

Franky is in some ways the most unusual version of the trope, but in others, her story is played the straightest.  She stands out in that generation three doesn’t really starting going to the MPD Girl well with her until series 6.  In Franky’s debut season, she’s certainly odd, but she’s a real outsider, not an MPD Girl.  She’s a shy amateur filmmaker with an androgynous appearance who’s been bullied so severely she’s had to switch schools.  She’s no Manic Pixie, and while she does catch Matty’s attention, it takes her a long time to think anyone could want her.  Series 6, however, makes all sorts of slight adjustments to her character that brings her closer to the MPD Girl.  More than anything, as Nick starts to fall for her, she becomes so much less of a person and so much more of an idea, Nick’s vision of who she is and how gray his life will be if he can’t be with her.  It’s… I don’t know.  It’s not quite an MPD Girl story, not in the details, but it feels like one, which takes it even further from the gorgeous things the show does with Cassie.

Favorite Characters: Cassie Ainsworth (Skins (U.K.))

Cassie is one of the characters who drew me into Skins in the first place, a sad, unsteady girl whose pain and confusion is so real, so specific.  Even as I recognize that she causes a lot of her own unhappiness, I root for her to figure things out, for good things to happen to her, and for her to realize her own strength and potential.  This is Cassie.

In her initial appearance, it’s easy to confuse Cassie with a classic Manic Pixie Dream Girl – she’s a quirky, flighty type brought in as a potential love interest for Sid.  She’s not the flawless, put-together beauty like Michelle, who Sid really loves, but she’s good-looking in an odd, waifish way, and she’s all trampoline-jumping and funky jewelry and pet slugs.  Surely, this is a role Zooey Deschanel would have played in her youth, right?

However, Skins has never been one for playing a Manic Pixie Dream Girl straight.  It loves to toy with the trope – each generation of the cast has a girl who seems to fit the bill – but it never works out the way the conventions dictate.  In Cassie’s case, the first fly in the ointment is the fact that, while she’s enamored of Sid from the first, he lightly regards her as a passable consolation prize in lieu of Michelle.  There’s no sense that she’s changed his life the instant he meets her, and he doesn’t come alive under her influence, getting swept up in the joy and verve of her free-spirited nature.  Rather, he receives her advances distractedly, barely considering her feelings when he bails on her at the last minute.

Another reason Cassie isn’t your typical Manic Pixie Dream Girl is that the show is genuinely interested in her point-of-view.  Since she’s not a catalyst for Sid’s growth, she’s allowed to be a character in her own right, one with plots, problems, and goals outside of him.  Even in their storylines together, the focus is often more firmly on her than him.  Girl’s got it bad; she lives for him to look at her, and when he brushes her off, she’s deeply hurt.  Her first thought of him is that he’s a nice guy, someone who will care about her, and she doesn’t handle being disillusioned well.

Finally, the show really delves into the darkness that plagues this “kooky” girl.  Her dreamy voice and wide-eyed smile often mask her largest issue, her quiet battle with food.  When we meet Cassie, she’s just left a mental health facility and is easily convincing her disinterested parents that she’s “better,” all the while using sleight-of-hand misdirection as she pretends to eat and reverently running her fingers along her hidden stash of fastidiously-organized candy.  It’s all too simple for her to fool people, because no one really looks out for her (this is a big part of the reason she gloms onto Sid – a bit of offhand niceness, and she thinks she’s found the one person who gives two figs about her.)

This is where Cassie’s demons come out.  Food is her obsession and her nightmare, her recklessly obstinate way of “controlling” her uncertain life.  She clings to the people that she needs to care about her, and she lashes out at them when they let her down, but she lashes out so much more at herself.  She wallows in destructiveness, and it’s not the least bit “fun” or “zany.”  It’s serious business, and her main storyline is ultimately about choosing to be healthy, choosing to be happy, and finding strength within herself when others don’t supply it for her.  She’s such a rich, complex character, one that’s almost startling to find on television.