Star Wars: Make Ten Men Feel Like a Hundred With This Cassian Andor Breakdown
One of the Rebellion’s most important heroes, Cassian Andor, did more for the galaxy with no powers than some Jedi could dream to do.
Since the opening of Rogue One, Cassian Andor has been one of the fandom’s favorite new characters. The spy was instrumental in one of the biggest missions in galactic history. Notably did so without any of the powers of the force. Let’s delve a little deeper into Andor’s background and talk about what makes him so special.
Cassian Andor’s Early Life
Andor was a Kenari human whose birth name was Kassa. After some sort of mining disaster killed all of the community’s adults, Kassa and his sister were among the children remaining in the village. At some point after this disaster, a Republic Ship crashed on Kenari. A curious Kassa went to explore the ship for anything salvageable and was subsequently rescued and taken off-world by Maarva and Clem Andor.
Maarva and Clem adopted Kassa as their own, calling him Cassian Andor. Together, the family began their lives on Fest.
On Fest, Clem was arrested and executed by the Empire. In retaliation, a sixteen-year-old Cassian attacked four stormtroopers and was arrested. He was held in prison and then forced to fight for the Empire on Mimbam. After, Cassian returned to Maarva on Fest where he spent his time looking for his long-lost sister from Kenari and dealing in stolen imperial technology.
The Radicalization of a Rebel
It’s fair to say that prior to formally joining the Rebellion, Cassian was somewhat ambivalent about it. The Empire fueled his hatred. The woman who raised him was ready to rebel at a moment’s notice. However, Cassian himself was mostly interested in surviving and getting by.
An incident on Morlana One, where he killed two security guards while trying to find his estranged sister, forced him out of his relatively safe anonymity. This put the eyes of the Empire and budding Rebellion alike on him. Luthen Rael took advantage of this uncertainty. Rael recruited Cassian to join a mission stealing 200,000 Imperial Credits from a base on Aldhani. This mission, against all odds, found most success. However, it forced Cassian to become a fugitive.
Assuming the name ‘Keef,’ Cassian traveled to a beach resort on Niamos and acted as a normal tourist until he was wrongfully arrested and sentenced to six years in prison on Narkina 5. In prison, Andor and his fellow inmates were forced to make components for the Death Star for twelve hours a day. And once they learned that there was no hope of leaving and that the end of a sentence meant the start of another, Cassian helped lead an uprising and prison break.
He returned to Fest briefly to attend his mother’s funeral. There he witnessed the violent uprising of the people against the Empire. Here he met up with Luthen once more and asked to join the Rebellion.
Rebel Intelligence
After joining the early Rebellion, Andor became a captain and intelligence officer. As a veteran spy, he embraced the most morally ambiguous missions. Cassian Andor earned a reputation for always doing what was necessary, no matter the difficulty. He worked under the codename Fulcrum for a time and funneled information into many Rebel cells throughout the galaxy.
He eventually captured an Imperial KX-series security droid from a facility on Wecacoe in a hurried and messy attempt to secure information. After a number of attempts to memory wipe and reprogram the droid, where a partially-programed security droid attempted to murder Cassian, he successfully had a new ally in K-2SO as well as all of the information stored in his databanks.
Cassian Andor in Rogue One
One of Andor’s final missions involved a secret Imperial Kyber Crystal transportation ring and the rumors of a super weapon. Cassian and K2 broke Jyn Erso out of Imperial custody, knowing that her father, Galen Erso was involved and a former associate, Saw Gerrera would be a helpful resource. The three formed a team. They learned what the Death Star was and how to steal its plans and hopefully destroy it.
Their final mission took them to the tropical planet of Scarif. There, they sought to get the plans and send them back to Rebel command. Unfortunately, this mission ended in one of the first uses of the Death Star. Unsurprisingly, killing everybody on the base, including Cassian. But not before they were able to make sure the Death Star plans were safely in Rebel hands.
What is your favorite Andor moment or quote? Are you excited for season two of his stand-alone show? Did you predict what he was building in the prison on Narkina 5? Let us know in the comments!
May the Force be with you, adventurers!
