#and Gilory et al mentioned that there will be

[swan-orpheus]

bix caleen’s sacrifice

We were told that this show was going to highlight how morally grey the Rebellion is, whatever the heck that means. I phrase it like this because I always get a little wary when folks vaguely insinuate that the Rebels are even remotely on the same level as the Empire in terms of being a nasty bit of business bent on taking over the entire galaxy and causing mass suffering. What’s the old saying, “When the force of example no longer works, there’s just the example of force”?  When you take away someone’s tools to object, to protest, and make it a fight for their very existence, what other choice do they have? You fight or you perish. This is what it means to be radicalized. There’s nothing pretty about rebellion. You can’t invoke the revolution and then expect to be comfortably home in time for tea. That isn’t how it works. And after all, folks who murder and control and oppress who say, “Well you gave us no choice but to crank the murder and oppression up to 11 for daring to protest!” are not justified in what they are doing under any circumstances no matter what Luthen Rael has up his sleeve. It’s the usual villainous bullshit of, “If I point a gun at everyone in the room and decide to open fire, it’s your fault! You murdered them.” Yeah, no, sorry that is insane emotional blackmail villain logic. 

The point that I’m working towards is that if there is something to find rather disturbing and that makes this show the big moral grey space that we were informed it would be, then it is Bix’s sacrifice to a cause that she did not agree to join.

Bix Caleen and her sacrifice, Bix Caleen caught in the center of the maelstrom as much as Cassian, Bix Caleen who didn’t take a vow or sign up for this. 

From what we hear in Episode 9, Salaman Paak met with Kleya two years ago and was being paid to maintain the radio, I am assuming that he had an inkling of what she was about based on the contents of their apparent conversation about Paak wanting to “be more political” (If you check out his son, Wilmon, when Bix asks to go in back in Episode 1, his eyes look like they are vibrating in his head. He knows it’s risky.) But then Paak hands operation of it over to Bix and from what we see she has no knowledge of the radio’s true import. She thinks that she signals a “buyer” to come buy parts so that she can earn some more credits. Sure you could say that she could have asked questions, but why? It’s business and she is a professional. You steal, you sell, you lie low for a bit. Making money at the expense of The Empire is a crime in their eyes, but it is not the same as actively, and here is the keyword, actively, being a rebel. And considering the amount of corruption within the Empire itself being practiced by Imperials, this is small time. Even Dedra acknowledges that being a thief is not in the same league as being “a fish”, though I do not doubt that it is a punishable offense.  

Vel, Mon, the heist crew, Anto Kreegyr, Cassian, Lonni Jung, all know what they have gotten themselves into or have at least walked into it willingly. They took a vow, or made a deal for credits, accepted a job. But Bix never makes the conscious decision to get involved. When Luthen speaks of Kreegyr and his men dying, it is lamentable to say the least, but at least they likely go into an operation (forgive the wording there owch Nemik) knowing full well that they might not come out of it alive. This is what the rebellion entails. Their eyes are wide open to paraphrase Kleya Marki when she accuses Luthen of slipping. 

Folks are talking about Kreegyr and Jung and how now we are getting into the tough and disturbing choices that the rebels are having to make for the future of the galaxy. Narkina 5, Spellhaus, the Aldhani heist are big spectacles. But for me Bix’s fate is a lot more shocking because it is so vile and so intimate and goes largely unwitnessed. It makes you wonder what else we do not see.  

To use Dedra’s phrasing, Bix is put up “on the carving block” for the machinations of Luthen, and Kleya. (Not to mention Paak getting tortured and hanged for merely having this dubious fractal radio.) Of course so are the prisoners and anyone in the galaxy suffering because of PORD, but Bix is all alone in a room, friendless, companionless being tortured in one of the most horrific ways imaginable. It’s even worse than the floor being lava and she has nobody to talk to about it. There is no “One Way Out” for her. She can’t even take her own life if she wants. She is in the Empire’s net and has no means of escape. 

I’m certain we have not seen the last of her and I do not think that she will blame Cassian. As she said he and the buyer ‘don’t have a relationship’. Unless of course Dedra and company have poisoned her mind with torture and psychological duress to the point that she now believes that he was complicit. Apart from that, Bix has already gone through it emotionally with her past relationship with him, the incident on Morlana One and its collateral damage with Timm being murdered, and the Imperial occupation. She knows that Cassian is also a victim of the system. But in terms of the Rebellion and being press-ganged into assisting them, without her consent, she might not be so sanguine if she eventually realizes who precisely was at the other end of that radio. We get a small glimpse of this in the prison with Ulaf and Xaul angrily commenting on how the rebel activity has lengthened their sentences. 

I am hoping that this is leading to a long and complex storyline for Bix, one in which she resists along with the others, but questions some of the decisions being made. It would be incredible to have a mirror to Mon Mothma in someone working class who knows that the Rebellion is necessary, but who is trying to reconcile the strategies being employed with who is being forced to make sacrifices as a result. I think that Bix would be more willing to use violence at this point considering what she’s been through and who they’ve hurt in her community, but might draw the line at  something like sacrificing fifty men. At any rate, I cannot wait to find out. 

#star wars #andor #andor spoilers #bix caleen #adria arjona #andor meta #i do think that Bix makes it out #and Gilory et al mentioned that there will be #changes in allegiance #so I wonder how her story will unfold next season #i hope that it involves a bit of agency at the very least #i want Bix to have a main active role #p.s. i love her she's ride or die #i will follow her storyline anywhere #anywhere #just saying