Andor characters as shirts that go hard, part 6 i think

Andor is honestly one of the only pieces of more mainstream Star Wars media (so none of the little comics and very very few of the novels) I've seen since the Prequels that REALLY encapsulates the themes of non-attachment and everything that means in the way George Lucas truly intended. The only other thing I've seen that is its equal is the Obi-Wan Kenobi show.

And this makes me want to discuss Timm Karlo.

Yeah, Timm, the character everybody remembers most from Andor right?

That's what I thought.

This is Timm. He was Bix's boyfriend in the first three episodes of Andor. He seems to be pretty normal but he gets jealous when Cassian shows up because Cassian and Bix used to date and he can tell the two of them are cooking up some kind of secret together that he's not involved in. He decides to cover up his jealousy with fear for Bix's safety because Cassian is clearly in some kind of trouble and eventually ends up ratting Cassian out to PreMor security behind Bix's back. This results in PreMor invading Ferrix and getting Bix captured and beaten. Timm himself is murdered when he tries to help Bix.

All we ever get to see of Timm is that he's an insecure little asshole whose actions nearly get Cassian and Bix killed. He's an antagonist in this story.

But Bix loved him. He seems like a fairly average dude before this and presumably treats Bix fairly well outside of this particular incident. He's not a villain, he's just... a dude who lets fear of losing the woman he loves consume him to the point of making a REALLY stupid choice and it costs him everything. But that choice turns him INTO a villain for Cassian. Cassian will now always remember Timm as the man who betrayed him and wanted him dead. Cassian will always remember Timm by the selfishness of his final choice. That's the legacy Timm leaves behind in the end. Bix mourns him, but even Bix recognizes that Timm fucked up and nearly cost herself and Cassian their lives.

And if any of that sounds kind-of familiar, it's because it should. It's Anakin. Timm makes the Anakin choice. He wasn't a villain by default. He wasn't a villain his entire life. He was a normal dude who made one really awful choice out of fear and it ended up being the choice that defined him. He had the capacity for both good and bad in him and he chose to act on the bad and it was the last choice he ever made.

And this choice is what really screws up Ferrix, it calls down PreMor security on them which is what causes the massive screw-up when they try to capture Cassian and Luthen and that gains the attention of the ISB agent in charge of Ferrix as well as Dedra Meero who ultimately brings an entire battalion of stormtroopers and officers to occupy Ferrix. Ferrix gets far far worse as a result of Timm's one choice made out of insecurity in his relationship.

But it also ultimately leads to Ferrix realizing that enough is enough and they rise up and riot and throw the Empire out of their home. It helps push Maarva into joining a rebellion at the end of her life and making that recording that inspires the people to fight back. Maarva says that the Empire has been creeping in like a disease while they slept. And if Timm hadn't made the choice that took their situation from tolerable to intolerable, maybe Maarva and the people of Ferrix never would've bothered to fight back. If Cassian had been able to just silently slip out of town with no one being the wiser, Ferrix would've just kept going on as it had been.

None of this means Timm gets to claim credit for Ferrix and Maarva's own choices, obviously, but much like Anakin, the selfish choices he makes lead to unintended good things happening down the line, too. Anakin's selfishness leads to his relationship with Padme which ultimately creates Luke and Leia who, together, are the ones that manage to bring down the Empire for good. Anakin doesn't get any credit for how Luke and Leia turned out obviously, or the things they do that cause the Empire to fall, but they wouldn't have existed without Anakin's selfishness.

Timm's choice makes Ferrix worse, it calls down the Empire, but it also leads to the push that ultimately pushes Ferrix into rebellion.

Timm makes Anakin's choice. He's the villain of Cassian's story, but he is not WHOLLY a villain because Andor tells us that no one is ever JUST a villain or JUST a hero. People will always be people and that means they all have the capacity for both selfishness and selflessness within them. Timm loses himself to his fear for just long enough to destroy everything he cared about. Maarva chooses to stand up rather than run. Bix chooses to persevere in the face of impossible odds. Luthen gives up his morals to try to create a future for the rest of the galaxy. Mon Mothma sells her family for democracy. Cassian has to give up his dream of a normal happy life and settle for taking control of his own life.

And this is what makes Andor one of the best pieces of Star Wars media I've seen in a LONG time. It doesn't have any Jedi in it, it doesn't have any Mandalorian super soldiers, it doesn't have any Sith or Inquisitors or witches. It's just a group of people from different walks of life all having to figure out what matters most to them in the end. Some of them make the selfish choice and some of them rise above and make the selfless choice. It takes all of the themes that we've gotten from Star Wars via the Jedi and Sith conflicts and applies them to the little people, too. It's not JUST the Jedi and Sith who have to abide by those thematic narrative rules. Everybody else does, too, actually. Timm would never have become a Sith because of his choices, Dedra Meero and Syril Karn are never going to be Sith, but they can still become villains in someone else's story everything they claimed to care about can come crashing down as the result of one selfish choice.

THAT'S Star Wars. THAT'S what it's all about. THAT'S why Andor feels like Star Wars should to me without a single Force user showing up while something like the Ahsoka show feels like the opposite of a Star Wars story despite all of its fan service and nostalgia bait. Andor gets it. Andor took the time to understand the core of Star Wars even when telling a Star Wars story in a very different way.

These days will end, Cassian. The way they laugh. The way they push through a crowd. The sound of that voice telling you to stop, to go, to move. Telling you to die. Rings in the ear, doesn't it?

hmmmm

hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm wait wait wait, nooo

nnnooOOOO

it's the same

it's the same fucking cereal bowl

scientific curiosity

propaganda:

timm: this excerpt from an actual article a human person wrote:

kylo ren: i'm not googling him, you probably have a opinion already

All of the negative events in Andor could have been avoided if Timm Karlo hadn’t been dating a girl way TF out of his league while having small dick energy about it.

Also, I find it funny that he’s eating that blue cereal in his apartment before Bix comes over to bone. It’s like blue cereal is the fascist small dick energy meal of champions in the galaxy far, far away.

OKAY. So I have not yet finished the first 3 episodes of Andor and I know there are so many amazing gifs and discussions I'm missing rn because I still have the tags blocked to avoid spoilers.

Below the cut, I am going to share one of my favorite things (so far) about the show at only 2 episodes in. Warning for Andor spoilers.

I am enjoying how these two episodes have so far portrayed the role that white people and the every-day person play in upholding oppressive and authoritarian regimes.

And I bet you think that I am going to start to talk about Syril Karn, and the role his ambition, dedication, and commitment to order and rules and a strict sense of right and wrong play in the upholding of an authoritarian regime. But I'm not. Because Deputy Inspector Karn is the quintessential, even archetypal, authoritarian sycophant that white people think of when they think of who plays a role in the conservation of injustice and tyranny. When you ask a white person to think of a fascist or of someone who upholds an unjust, tyrannical system, they may often imagine a man in uniform. They imagine an officer, someone with more status, or someone with rank. *Those* are the people who actively uphold unjust systems.

They don't, however, imagine the mechanic down the street. He never crosses their mind as someone who is capable of, willing to, or even a participant in the maintenance of authoritarianism or inequity or injustice or the surveillance state.

Syril Karn is predictable to white people-- to everyone. We know what he is going to do. And I found myself exhausted by his persistence, but generally uninvested in the question of whether or not his character will make the morally right choices. Because I know he won't. He's making the morally correct choices according to the system he exists within, but the morally wrong choices according to the reality we live in. He's a "good guy" according to the ruling power base and the Preox-Morlana corporate authority, but we the viewer know he is the main antagonist and is making choices we should be morally opposed to. And we know he isn't going to make decisions we morally approve of. Why? Because he is the quintessential authoritarian lackey.

But Timm Karlo? He's just your average guy, right? And every time he appeared on screen, I felt like I was was mentally debating with and berating a brick wall about making a morally correct decision. And, so far, he repeatedly hasn't (unsurprisingly). He has repeatedly chosen the "morally correct" course of action *according to* the ruling power base and the Preox-Morlana corporate authority, but the morally incorrect course of action according to the reality we live in and the context from which we viewers are consuming this show.

I think I know where his character is going. I knew that he wasn't going to let up. I knew he was going to continue to stick his nose where it didn't belong. I didn't have hope that he would actually make the correct decisions. That's why I felt like I was berating a brick wall. Because I knew nothing I said or did would get through to him because 1.) he's a fictional character inside a TV show, and 2.) he's your average white guy who feels spurned.

When he first decided to follow Bix Caleen, I literally cringed in the same way someone might when they're watching a gory horror movie. Honestly? I was getting second hand embarrassment. My coworker asked what was wrong after my very visceral reaction (I may have watched half an episode during my lunch, don't judge), and my response was, "I'm watching a white man stick his nose in brown people's business." I commented that he was going to get himself and all of them in trouble because he couldn't mind his own and he couldn't be trusted not to run to the cops, either. And I was right. Because he essentially turns Cassian in. He is the anonymous tip that is going to lead the authorities to Cassian, Bix, the buyer, and even him. In doing the "morally" correct thing according to the system he exists in, he was going to endanger everyone he loves and himself. Why? Jealousy? Because he felt threatened by Cassian? Because he was suspicious and insecure? It's going to cost him everything, namely Bix.

Timm plays an integral role in the surveillance state and the control that the government maintains over the populace. "If you see something, say something" doesn't work if no one's saying anything. But at the same time, if everyone's afraid and suspicious of their neighbor, what community do you have to organize against injustice? Your neighbor is a part of the surveillance state and they think you are too. Whether it's insecurity or a strict sense of right and wrong, there will be people driven to uphold the status quo. Timm is the spy next door.

There are countless stories of real people who lived under authoritarian regimes talking about the danger and importance of dinner parties. One glass too many and you might let something slip. There are stories of people who kept secrets from their spouses for years. There are stories of people who had a friendly chat with a neighbor and the police showed up the next morning. There are stories of someone muttering under their breath in a public space and the person sitting next to them at the train station or the coffee shop either demands their papers or turns them in.

When white people think of who upholds and plays a part in an oppressive system, they think of officers who pull the triggers or force prisoners to dig graves. They don't think of a woman who knits socks for her son on the front, or a neighbor or lover or confidant who tips off the authorities maybe out of insecurity or maybe out of a misplaced hope of protecting their own, or the towns people who ignore prison camps or labor camps. They don't consider the "small" actions or the inaction or the normalization of surveillance.

And that is why it's so important we see Timm Karlos on screen portrayed in the way he is as an insecure and maybe petty man who can't be bothered to mind his own or play it cool or trust his significant other. It's important that he's not portrayed as a completely morally upright or completely morally corrupt person, but as a very average man who will make questionable decisions and, like the average white person, has a stake in the preservation of the status quo.

the way I yelled “ARE WE GETTING A SEX SCENE???? SCANDALOUS” like a Puritan

ROUND SEVEN CATEGORY: Most Likely to Be on a Reality Show

Two will win and go into the yearbook. Who's it going to be?

(had to stretch my imagination to make some of these shows Star Wars-y, please roll with it)

Round eight category: Best Looking

NOMINATE NOW

this might be controversial but i have never hated a star wars character more than i hate timm karlo

⚠️ANDOR EPISODE 12 SPOILER⚠️

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"Kill me, or take me in."

Screaming crying throwing up punching the air rolling on the ground slamming my head against the wall ripping my hair out throwing myself into a volcano

“She seems upset."

“It's good to see you, Timm.”

“Seems like that happens every time you come around.”

“I wouldn't worry. She's tougher than both of us.”

“I'm getting tired of hearing that."

“Then you'd better find yourself a less-complicated woman. Good luck with that.” - Timm Karlo and Cassian Andor about Bix Caleen (Andor, Episode 1.1)

I’ve been watching Andor with my family and we tend to give new characters nicknames before bothering to learn their actual name. (Or sometimes never actually learning them 😅)

We’ve got Percy for Syril (for Percy Weasley, who was not as bad as Syril, but was very invested in the government being right like Syril is), Nemik was Hobbit (I literally had to look up what his actual name was, to give you an idea of how much we use this nickname), Dedra’s assistant is Ghoul (sorry but he was literally gray when we first met him), and Timm got his actual name but was always some variation of Two M Timm, or Timm With Two Ms. Needlessly making a name longer can be fun.

Edit: I forgot Santa Claus! Aka Cinta Kaz. After the heist when we weren’t sure she survived leaving the planet, and we were joking that there wouldn’t be any Christmas presents from Santa Claus this year.