cadeteyes asked: If you're taking rogue one prompts, could you do headcannons for the tragic space bbys (those being Cassian and Bodhi. I have a few of my own but I'd love to see what other people think)
I am…sorry…it’s possible I went Full Tragic with these.
Cassian
- Cassian Andor has a home planet—Fest—but only in the most generously technical sense. (When Jyn asks, he shrugs and says “It’s cold, somewhere out on the Rim. My sister showed me how to throw snowballs there when I was four.” That’s about what he knows.) His parents are merchants—legitimate merchants, thank you very much—and he learns young how to act like he knows where he’s going and what he’s doing, because wandering young children are always kind of a popular target for trouble.
- Cassian doesn’t remember a single day when someone flipped a switch and he lived in the Empire, it was more of a slow slide until suddenly everything was Stormtroopers and the whispers of Darth Vader and the Imperial Flag high overhead. And one day he looked up and saw the flag, and looked down and saw his parents smuggling information out of merchant centers for those who needed it, and he decided he was going to do something. That’s the day he remembers.
- Cassian has never been naïve. Three weeks later, he learned that spies die, and that, sometimes, saving something is worth paying with your life. His parents and his sister bought his escape with theirs. Watching their blood cool as he hid, he decided he was still going to do something, even if he died trying.
- Cassian speaks…a lot of languages. The running joke in the Rebel Alliance is that if you need a translator and none of the droids can manage, it’s time to call Cassian. He just kind of picked them up as he drifted, after his parents died, and hell, he was six then and it’s been twenty years, he’s worth his weight in gold as a linguist. Of course, he’s only fluent in about eight, but if you need to talk to some random guy from Fuck All Nowhere, Outer Rim, Cassian’s your man. It doesn’t matter if he’s never heard the language before, he’s going to Make It Happen. That’s the other thing Cassian’s known for: Making It Happen. It’s a good trait in a spy.
- (Cassian never meets Luke Skywalker—he dies just hours too soon. But Luke would have liked to listen to Cassian curse in a cluttered mix of Bocce and Huttese and Force knows what else. It’s the sound of home.)
- Cassian was formally recruited into the Rebellion because he managed to pick a spy’s pocket successfully, and then the spy watched this skinny eleven-year-old lie his ass off to a Stormtrooper and steal a speeder. The spy (Cassian doesn’t remember his name, the man died on his next mission and Cassian cried for him) basically tucked Cassian under his arm like a football and kidnapped him. He was welcomed like a prodigal into the Rebel Alliance, his family remembered for their sacrifice and his information collected over his wanderings a desperately needed help.
- His method of official entry to the Rebellion had a serious impact on Cassian’s recruiting style.
- Cassian has met Leia—she’s almost seven years younger than him, and she acts like he should know how high to jump before she gives the order. He thinks she’s Great™. He once watched her slay a man with nothing but words at forty paces and it was the most amazing thing he’d ever seen. He thinks Bail Organa is Also Great™ and is absolutely flattered beyond belief when he one time hears Bail refer to him as their best spy.
- And finally: Cassian has done some bad shit. He’s killed, he’s lied, and he’s been on both sides of the interrogation table more than once—sometimes nicely, other times…less so. But the Rebellion is his home, it’s the only home he’s ever had since the warmth of his sister’s hand and his mother’s smile and his father’s voice, and he’s willing to do what he has to in order to protect it. He regrets very little, and he still holds his hope for victory close to his heart. And it burns him that Jyn Erso is so ready to act righteous when she’s hidden from the war all these years. It burns worse because he watches her speak and watches her rage and Force she’s like a star given human flesh, and he can’t breathe with how much he wants to see her lit up with belief in something.
- He dies at peace, breathing easy, because he’s protected his home and he’s seen Jyn on fire with passion and righteous anger and it was all he’s ever dreamed.
Bodhi
- Bodhi Rook doesn’t remember this—there’s a lot he doesn’t remember, from Before—but he has met Baze and Chirrut before. Actually, he met Guardian Malbus and Guardian Îmwe, when he came up to their knees. All he remembers is that he loved the Temple of the Whills, loved the smooth warmth of the carved stone walls and the way the altar glowed dimly in the dark and the feeling of breathing in energy when he stood near the crystals. He doesn’t remember Guardian Malbus’ booming laugh as he gaped up at the arches of the ceiling, nor Guardian Îmwe’s wide grin when he breathlessly said that it was beautiful. He doesn’t remember the way he touched a kyber crystal—so daring he could barely believe it of himself—and felt it sing under his fingers and saw Guardian Îmwe’s milky eyes turn toward him as if summoned by the thrum in the air.
- Bodhi also doesn’t remember that he swore up and down for a full two years that he was going to be a Guardian.
- Bodhi does remember a specific day when the flag of the Empire rose overhead. The clones they had come to trust as the strong arm of the Jedi swept through Jedha City like a storm, and Bodhi remembers with horrible clarity the stark white of their uniforms, scrubbed clean of the individualized markers they’d been so proud of. He remembers most clearly of all the body of one of the Guardians who had been most indulgent of him, a tall, powerful Togruta woman with a lightning-like scar branching down the length of her arm, splayed broken on the ground with her glazed eyes pointed to the flag hung out from the Temple wall.
- Bodhi remembers the lesson he learned that day: even the best fighter can’t stand against the Empire.
- Bodhi has two mothers and twin baby brothers and they need to be fed. The Empire pays. He’s sixteen when he swallows down his nausea and takes the cargo job. He’s a good pilot—they don’t care about his age.
- It doesn’t hurt as much to watch them rip out the kyber crystals if he doesn’t watch.
- Bodhi has seen more combat than you might think. He’s been hit by raiders three times, Rebels twice, and perfected the fine art of ‘running like hell,’ but it doesn’t always work out. He’s only ever had to shoot someone twice.
- He doesn’t want to talk about it.
- Bodhi is a little in love with Galen Erso. Not so much with the man himself, although certainly there’s an appeal to the nimble fingers and soft voice and steady gaze, but with his courage. Bodhi, who misses the steady pulse of the kyber crystals, listens to Galen speak quietly about resistance and courage and finding a way to do the right thing, and sees the bright flicker of brave-hearted determination beneath the veneer of the Imperial engineer. He listens, and Galen’s voice washes over him, and Bodhi loves him for the steady gaze in his eyes.
- The same brave-bright storm lights in Jyn, as she fights to convince the Alliance of her father’s message, and she looks at him with a steady fire in her eyes, and Bodhi loves her for it.
