the ghost of you lingers

(it’s a long time to be without you)

Fmabruary 2025 #24 : strength

Alex Armstrong's greatest strength doesn't come from his strong arms.

they introduce cassian andor and it’s like this man has a missing sister, a dead planet, and the biggest saddest brown eyes you’ve ever seen. he’s killed two guys sort of by accident but this is also kinda par the course for him. everyone in his town kinda loves him and kinda wants to shake him down for coins. he treats his droid like a person. he’s a mommas boy and a terrible boyfriend. some guy halfway across the galaxy is dying to meet him. and it’s like cool that is my best friend i would protect him with my life hope nothing terrible happens to him in the ensuing months of his life.

murderbot singlehandedly rekindling my love for drawing?? no way

Redacted.

Based on this 🤭

✨🌙 ART LOG -> @404ama

i go to work. i draw cody from memory. repeat

it's so important to me that ppl don't forget that McCoy never attended Starfleet Academy in TOS.....seeing references to him at Starfleet Academy does in fact set my back teeth on edge tbh.......it's soooo important to me that he was a civilian all through his schooling, and imo it helps inform so much of why he is the way that he is.....this is a huge pet peeve of mine tbh, truly does make me wince, I'd almost rather you give him brown eyes than say he went to the Academy lmao

Agreed--The Ultimate Computer makes it pretty clear that McCoy didn't go to Starfleet Academy when he asks Spock to explain the term "Dunsel," which is an in-joke for undergraduate cadets (or "midshipmen") at the Academy and not used elsewhere. His foundational years of schooling weren't military in any way, and his loyalty is first and foremost to his medical training and oath.

Part of the reason the Kirk-Spock-McCoy triumvirate is so interesting and valuable in TOS is that Kirk's two main confidantes and advisors are both partially picked due to being outsiders. While Spock attended the Academy, he represents a Vulcan perspective, the better able to comment on things that humans might take for granted as normal or moral that aren't seen that way on other worlds. Despite sharing many of its values, McCoy similarly represents a perspective outside of Starfleet, allowing Kirk to consider whether the orders or rules he's been given actually best fit the situation from a moral sense.

Sure, Kirk respects, likes, and trusts both of them, but he's also deliberately setting up this system of checks and balances for his own potential biases and prejudices. It's great when this is acknowledged and when it informs writers' understanding of the characters and series.

this is so dumb but I have a very specific vision that they get told they have to pose for the Coruscaunt Times and they just end up doing shit like this until the editors give up and decide to just photoshop them together

ref below

Character Appreciation Friday - Cassian Andor

Name: Cassian Andor, aka: Kassa, Clem, Keef Girgo (plus more to come) Played by: Diego Luna Appearances: it's his show, he's in them all

Happy Friday gang! Alright here we go. One more for all the marbles. Time to think about what we love about the reason we're all here. A reluctant hero who's destined to light the spark of hope in the galaxy.

Without further ado, tell me what you appreciate about the one and only Cassian Andor in a reblog, comment, or ask!

Cassian's original introduction in Rogue One is one of my all-time favorite scenes in Star Wars, from a narrative perspective. We hadn't seen this angle on the Rebellion previously, especially not with a central character. The readiness with which Cassian kills his informant--after calming him down so that the man doesn't see it coming or panic--and his clear struggle to rapidly compartmentalize all of that and save himself afterwards, immediately demonstrate an up-close-and-personal familiarity with deadly force and a ruthless willingness to use it, even if he doesn't like doing it.

The Cassian we meet at the start of Andor...isn't that person. He's a liar and a thief, sure, but hey, the galaxy's a big place and he's just one dude trying to get by in it. He's absolutely horrified to find that the first of the security officers is dead because of him, and if his solution--in a direct parallel to his Rogue One introduction--is to shoot the second, it's clearly not something he's used to doing. We may see him talking his way out of trouble with creditors in an echo of Han Solo's scenes in the original trilogy, but Cassian doesn't stroll out with a coin flip the way Han does after shooting Greedo; Cassian runs.

And he keeps running, or tries to. It seems like maybe that's something he's been trying to do for his whole adult life. He's trying to outrun trouble, and it constantly finds him anyway (sometimes with his help, sometimes not). We spend twelve episodes watching him do his damnedest to survive, and very nearly failing.

We also spend twelve episodes finding that when push comes to shove, that drive to stay alive is something valuable in itself. It's valuable to the Rebellion, when he uses it to help keep the Aldhani crew focused on the practicalities. It's valuable in the Narkina 5 prison break, when he helps devise a plan that doesn't require a huge number of prisoners to kill themselves rushing the guards. Cassian, by the time of the prison break, is fully prepared to die to try to escape, but he still does everything he can to survive, and to keep the people around him alive, too, even if that ultimately fails.

We've met any number of people in Star Wars who would die for the Rebellion--whose top priority is the Rebellion--and we admire the hell out of many of them. Cassian becomes one of those people. But in Season 1 of Andor, what he is first and foremost is a person who wants to be alive. We come to feel the value of that life, that living, with visceral intensity: the close-knit community Cassian is part of on Ferrix, which becomes ever clearer and ever more present over the course of the series even when he's absent from it; the drive of so many people incarcerated on Narkina 5 to work together and get each other out even in a place designed to pit them against each other; even the beauty of the Eye, which Cassian is in no position to appreciate at the time, but which we as the audience see through the eyes of the Aldhani pilgrims.

Life, as Andor depicts with eloquence, is inherently worth living, even in the darkest of times and the most hopeless of places. Cassian--liar, thief, and murderer that he is--believes it, and makes us believe it in living alongside him for twelve episodes. He's ultimately willing to commit himself to the Rebellion because life is worth living. The Empire is hostile to life--Cassian's and everyone else's--and he stops running to confront it head-on.

Or rather, stops running in order to confront it in shadowy corners. There are nuances and complexities here.

God, I love him. And he's not yet entirely the person we meet in Rogue One. This next season is going to hurt.

I'm having an art block moment where a couple of the bigger complicated things I really want to do aren't working so I decided to fall back on some simple painterly stuff

I hope he's having a nice time.

Gideon Nav bug sheet I commissioned from @jejejijiju! Look at my girl! (And go check out their page for more fun art. They've currently still got commissions open!)

Character Appreciation Friday - Cassian Andor

Name: Cassian Andor, aka: Kassa, Clem, Keef Girgo (plus more to come) Played by: Diego Luna Appearances: it's his show, he's in them all

Happy Friday gang! Alright here we go. One more for all the marbles. Time to think about what we love about the reason we're all here. A reluctant hero who's destined to light the spark of hope in the galaxy.

Without further ado, tell me what you appreciate about the one and only Cassian Andor in a reblog, comment, or ask!

where do we start? the most logical place, i suppose, is the beginning.

i've been here since 2016. rogue one came out during a time in my life when i, personally, really needed the reminder that hope isn't something you give up on, no matter how hard it may be to find sometimes. the whole movie resonated with me to the point that it instantly became my favorite star wars movie and still is, and while there are so many things about it that contributed to that lasting impact, i can tell you there's one thing above all: the characters. and one of those incredibly resonant characters for me? cassian andor.

cassian, in rogue one, is a guy who's really lost a lot of hope. he's weighed down by his choices, he's carved off pieces of his soul until there's practically nothing left; he's given up too much, he's put in too much, to turn away now. but over the course of the film, he regains that. he remembers why he's here, and he gives his life for it, clear-eyed and with his head held high. he exists in a place that puts him in a unique category among star wars heroes, with what he's willing to do, and how far he's willing to go — but he is, undoubtedly still, a hero.

his death is powerful, and the unfinished sense about it is part of what gives rogue one its profound tragedy, but i always thought this was a character who more stories could be told about.

when andor was first announced, there was a certain amount of "who asked for this?" circulating the internet. i was one of those people who firmly said, "i did."

and even i, someone who asked for this show, could've never dreamed of how good it turned out actually to be. i could've never dreamed of the richness it would add to a character who was already so personally beloved to me.

cassian may start season 1 in a place that's much different from where we eventually find him, but his evolution is always completely in tracking with the man we know he will become. he's achingly human, he makes mistakes, he acts like a real asshole sometimes — but he has a good heart that shines through; he cares about his loved ones, and risks himself time and time again for their sake, forms community even in the bleakest of prisons, and recognizes that one person acting alone can't do much.

but people can. people can, when they come together.

one of the greatest things about cassian, what lends him to such incredible potential as a leader, is that he doesn't want any kind of spotlight or power. he reads situations and he reads people, and he looks for the most suited person to stand up — and he encourages that. he takes a step back and lets kino loy lead the prison revolt on narkina 5, because people will listen to him. this is the guy who will undoubtedly, easily, convince all those people to join him on that unsanctioned suicide mission to scarif, who will be able to convince them, through his own earnestness, that this is the right thing to do.

he embodies hope — the gritty kind that gets its hands dirty and fights tooth and nail for that sunrise on the other side. he's the guy whose name may not be in the history books, but he gave everything, because he ultimately believed in something bigger than himself.

i can't wait to see the final chapter in his story, how the dots connect and how the landing sticks. it's going to hurt — but don't a lot of the best things in life?

Character Appreciation Friday - Cassian Andor

Name: Cassian Andor, aka: Kassa, Clem, Keef Girgo (plus more to come) Played by: Diego Luna Appearances: it's his show, he's in them all

Happy Friday gang! Alright here we go. One more for all the marbles. Time to think about what we love about the reason we're all here. A reluctant hero who's destined to light the spark of hope in the galaxy.

Without further ado, tell me what you appreciate about the one and only Cassian Andor in a reblog, comment, or ask!

its his show <3 godddd diego luna's acting is so good. everything and everyone about/on this show is so wonderful but of course one must appreciate the main special guy. the subtle transformation from skeptic to rebel is so well done and so encouraging for the average person to say: you can make a difference. you can do things that matter

𝐿𝑒𝓉'𝓈 𝓉𝑒𝓁𝓁 𝑒𝒶𝒸𝒽 𝑜𝓉𝒽𝑒𝓇 𝓈𝑜𝓂𝑒𝓉𝒽𝒾𝓃𝑔 𝓌𝑒'𝓋𝑒 𝓃𝑒𝓋𝑒𝓇 𝓉𝑜𝓁𝒹 𝒷𝑒𝒻𝑜𝓇𝑒~ . ݁₊ ⊹ . ݁˖ . ݁

The Sun Chaser, YT-2660 Light Freighter

i'm glad there are episodes in the next generation where data gets reprogrammed/possessed/we meet his evil twin/etc, because as much as brent spiner is amazing as data, his real talent is playing weird little freaks

my sleep paralysis demon at 3am

this line is literally canon and he delivers it with such gusto