Latest news with #Leia
The Star
18-05-2025
- Entertainment
- The Star
'Andor' has brought untold stories of trauma and humanity to Star Wars
The complex effects of personal trauma have not traditionally been the stuff of sci-fi and fantasy. They tend to get in the way of the quest. Game Of Thrones made a meal of it. Battlestar Galactica tried to consider the effect on survivors of losing a planet of people. But it hasn't fit in the swashbuckling world of Star Wars. How could the mission to destroy the Death Star have quickly concluded if Princess Leia needed to mourn the loss of nearly all her loved ones on Alderaan? Andor changed all that. Coping with inner pain has been a theme throughout its two-season run, which has now come to a close with Disney+ releasing a series-finale trilogy of episodes. It starts with its title character, who is left rootless by the deaths and destruction around him. 'Everything has been taken away from him since day one,' said Diego Luna, who plays Cassian Andor. 'And he has to understand that home is inside. That he can be home. That home can be there. And therefore there's a reason to fight.' The three final episodes take Andor and the rest of the characters up to the events of Rogue One , the 2016 film that spawned the streaming prequel series. Tony Gilroy, who wrote Rogue One and is the show runner for Andor , has loved playing in the Star Wars galaxy, but he's made it clear his real mission is to tell universal stories of the effects of war, revolution and colonisation on human (and occasionally non-human) souls. Nearly every character he's created is ravaged in one way or another, and even the light- hearted moments of the series are fraught with emotional pain. Senator Mon Mothma (O'Reilly, left) has to suppress a lot of emotions in order to complete her duty as a secret rebel. (Spoilers ahead for episodes 1-9 of Season 2.) When Andor goes undercover as a moussed-and-mulleted fashion designer named Varian Skye and makes small talk with a hotel staffer, he learns the man's family was killed in a notorious massacre by Grand Moff Tarkin, the imperial leader who would later order the destruction of Leia's world. And in a widely-memed moment of drunken techno dancing by senator and secret rebel Mon Mothma at her daughter's wedding, she is, as Genevieve O'Reilly who played her said, 'dancing to stop herself from screaming' after tacitly agreeing to have an old friend murdered for the cause. No one on Andor undergoes more trauma than Bix Caleen, played by Adria Arjona. While still dealing with the fallout of being tortured by an imperial doctor in the first season, she is nearly raped early in the second and has been surrounded by death. Arjona said seeing the script was daunting. 'She has to go from PTSD to sort of being addicted to droppers, which help her sleep and get over the nightmares, to then her last final decision,' said Arjona. 'It's a lot. And reading it was incredibly scary.' No one on Andor undergoes more trauma than Bix Caleen, played by Arjona. — Photos: Handout An utterly new for Star Wars set of scenes between Cassian and Bix explore both the explicit and subtle difficulties of intimate relationships amid trauma. Cassian must comfort Bix, but she doesn't want her pain to define her. The two try to take a trip to the neighbourhood bodega, but even that is subsumed by his fear for her. Cassian and Bix also must deal with the difficulty of the lives they take for the cause. Han Solo never mourned the stormtroopers he blasted, but the Andor duo killed a young imperial soldier during a mission and it haunts the home life they're trying to build. 'I can't stop seeing his face,' Bix says. 'It fades,' Cassian replies. 'I want to tell you it goes away forever, but I'd be lying.' 'We're in a war,' he says. 'I wonder if he knew,' she says. 'He knows now,' Cassian says. Bix is among the major characters who won't go on to Rogue One or other existing Star Wars stories. Andor lets her complete her emotional arc with a tear-jerking but well-earned set of scenes. 'The last speech, I still haven't been able to watch it,' she said. 'I was a mess! It took me takes and takes of me absolutely just bawling through that scene until finally it gets to what I believe they used.' The show's revolutionary leaders, just as those in history have done, try to take their followers' trauma, and their own, and use it to drive the movement. Saw Gerrera, the radical rebel played by Forest Whittaker who has a key role (and one less leg) in Rogue One , gave a call-to-arms in a recent episode that is already being celebrated among fans as the 'revolution is not for the sane' speech. The theme: pain as power. He tells a young prospective follower about his youthful enslavement in a brutal imperial work camp, and the toxic leak there of a fuel called rhydo. 'They worked us naked. Two, three hundred men. Boys really. Back and forth until the only thing you could remember was back and forth. Then one day, everyone started to itch. Everyone, all at once. Even the guards. You could feel your skin coming alive,' Saw says, his raspy voice rising. 'It was the rhydo. They had a leak.' He tells the young man, 'We're the rhydo, kid. We're the fuel. We're the thing that explodes when there's too much friction in the air. Let it in, boy! That's freedom calling! Let it in! Let it run! Let it run wild!' – AP Andor is available on Disney+ Hotstar.
BBC News
15-05-2025
- BBC News
'Our cat was lost - then next door's floor meowed'
Ms Cooper and her 83-year-old father had been in contact with the "lovely and supportive" neighbours throughout their hunt for Leia, and they got in touch to say they thought they could hear cat noises, as first reported by Kent Online. After cutting a hole in the new flooring, they found Leia looking back at them. It is thought the cat crawled under the floor unnoticed during renovation work at the house. "You can imagine what followed - we were beside ourselves," Ms Cooper said. They also found an open can of beer in the hole, and believe the cat survived on this or another unknown source of water. "It's a bit of a mystery," Ms Cooper said, "but perhaps she did drink that beer. She certainly seemed pretty dozy when I picked her up." Ms Cooper leafleted the area and hired a 'pet detective' to try to find the cat. She said the neighbours probably could not hear Leia until then as "there's been so much noise going on" from the works.
BBC News
15-05-2025
- BBC News
Deal cat doing 'much better' after rescue from under floorboards
A cat that survived being accidentally trapped under floorboards for three weeks in Deal is doing "much better now".Leia was missing for three weeks before neighbours heard her meowing under their recently laid owners suspect the cat got stuck during the neighbours' home renovations and survived by drinking beer from a can found beside Cooper told BBC Radio Kent on Thursday that her father Ben Smith, who owns the cat, claimed Leia was "resentful and cross with him" after the escapade but had recently started curling up on his knee once again. Ms Cooper said she could "almost see [Leia] putting on weight each day" as she recovered after being rescued."She was euphoric when she came in the house, playing and eating and drinking as you can imagine, and then spent a day or two really tired," Ms Cooper added. Ms Cooper and her 83-year-old father had been in contact with the "lovely and supportive" neighbours throughout their hunt for Leia, and they got in touch to say they thought they could hear cat noises, as first reported by Kent cutting a hole in the new flooring, they found Leia looking back at is thought the cat crawled under the floor unnoticed during renovation work at the house."You can imagine what followed - we were beside ourselves," Ms Cooper also found an open can of beer in the hole, and believe the cat survived on this or another unknown source of water."It's a bit of a mystery," Ms Cooper said, "but perhaps she did drink that beer. She certainly seemed pretty dozy when I picked her up."Ms Cooper leafleted the area and hired a 'pet detective' to try to find the said the neighbours probably could not hear Leia until then as "there's been so much noise going on" from the works.
Perth Now
14-05-2025
- Perth Now
Cat survives for over three weeks under floorboards by drinking beer
A cat survived for over three weeks trapped under floorboards by drinking beer. Dishevelled feline Leia was rescued from her ordeal earlier this month and a half-drunk can of French lager was found nearby. The 11-year-old moggy had vanished on April 11 - leading to owner Ben Smith, 83, and his family spending £1,000 on a pet detective in an attempt to trace her. However, it turned out that exotic shorthair Leia was under the flooring when neighbours in Deal, Kent, heard the animal crying and it is suspected that she crawled into the space while builders were working before getting trapped when it was sealed again. Smith's daughter Kelly Cooper said: "A half-drunk tin of beer was found and we wondered if she'd had sips from that. "She could have also eaten small mammals, like mice, or insects, and quite possibly drank condensation from piping. "We will never know how she survived all that time. But she had lost a third of her weight when she was rescued."
Yahoo
14-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
'Andor' is ending. It brought untold stories of trauma and humanity to 'Star Wars'
LOS ANGELES (AP) — The complex effects of personal trauma have not traditionally been the stuff of sci-fi and fantasy. They tend to get in the way of the quest. 'Game of Thrones' made a meal of it. 'Battlestar Galactica' tried to consider the effect on survivors of losing a planet of people. But it hasn't fit in the swashbuckling world of 'Star Wars.' How could the mission to destroy the Death Star have quickly concluded if Princess Leia needed to mourn the loss of nearly all her loved ones on Alderaan? 'Andor' changed all that. Coping with inner pain has been a theme throughout its two-season run, which comes to a close Tuesday when Disney+ releases a series-finale trilogy of episodes. It starts with its title character, who is left rootless by the deaths and destruction around him. 'Everything has been taken away from him since day one,' Diego Luna, who plays Cassian Andor, said in an interview with The Associated Press. 'And he has to understand that home is inside. That he can be home. That home can be there. And therefore there's a reason to fight." Trauma runs through everything on 'Andor,' even dancing The three final episodes take Andor and the rest of the characters up to the events of 'Rogue One,' the 2016 film that spawned the streaming prequel series. Tony Gilroy, who wrote 'Rogue One' and is the show runner for 'Andor,' has loved playing in the Star Wars galaxy, but he's made it clear his real mission is to tell universal stories of the effects of war, revolution and colonization on human (and occasionally non-human) souls. Nearly every character he's created is ravaged in one way or another, and even the lighthearted moments of the series are fraught with emotional pain. (Spoilers ahead for episodes 1-9 of Season 2.) When Andor goes undercover as a moussed-and-mulleted fashion designer named Varian Skye and makes small talk with a hotel staffer, he learns the man's family was killed in a notorious massacre by Grand Moff Tarkin, the imperial leader who would later order the destruction of Leia's world. And in a widely-memed moment of drunken techno dancing by senator and secret rebel Mon Mothma at her daughter's wedding, she is, as Genevieve O'Reilly who played her said, "dancing to stop herself from screaming" after tacitly agreeing to have an old friend murdered for the cause. Bix Caleen's struggles — and her the end of her arc No one on 'Andor' undergoes more trauma than Bix Caleen, played by Adria Arjona. While still dealing with the fallout of being tortured by an imperial doctor in the first season, she is nearly raped early in the second and has been surrounded by death. Arjona said seeing the script was daunting. 'She has to go from PTSD to sort of being addicted to droppers, which help her sleep and get over the nightmares, to then her last final decision,' Arjona told the AP. 'It's a lot. And reading it was incredibly scary.' An utterly new for 'Star Wars' set of scenes between Cassian and Bix explore both the explicit and subtle difficulties of intimate relationships amid trauma. Cassian must comfort Bix, but she doesn't want her pain to define her. The two try to take a trip to the neighborhood bodega, but even that is subsumed by his fear for her. Cassian and Bix also must deal with the difficulty of the lives they take for the cause. Han Solo never mourned the stormtroopers he blasted, but the 'Andor' duo killed a young imperial soldier during a mission and it haunts the home life they're trying to build. 'I can't stop seeing his face,' Bix says. 'It fades,' Cassian replies. 'I want to tell you it goes away forever, but I'd be lying.' 'We're in a war,' he says. 'I wonder if he knew,' she says. 'He knows now,' Cassian says. Bix is among the major characters who won't go on to 'Rogue One' or other existing 'Star Wars' stories. 'Andor' lets her complete her emotional arc with a tear-jerking but well-earned set of scenes. 'The last speech, I still haven't been able to watch it,' she told the AP. 'I was a mess! It took me takes and takes of me absolutely just bawling through that scene until finally it gets to what I believe they used.' Turning trauma into fuel The show's revolutionary leaders, just as those in history have done, try to take their followers' trauma, and their own, and use it to drive the movement. Saw Gerrera, the radical rebel played by Forest Whittaker who has a key role (and one less leg) in 'Rogue One,' gave a call-to-arms in a recent episode that is already being celebrated among fans as the 'revolution is not for the sane' speech. The theme: pain as power. He tells a young prospective follower about his youthful enslavement in a brutal imperial work camp, and the toxic leak there of a fuel called rhydo. 'They worked us naked. Two, three hundred men. Boys really. Back and forth until the only thing you could remember was back and forth. Then one day, everyone started to itch. Everyone, all at once. Even the guards. You could feel your skin coming alive," Saw says, his raspy voice rising. 'It was the rhydo. They had a leak.' He tells the young man, "We're the rhydo, kid. We're the fuel. We're the thing that explodes when there's too much friction in the air. Let it in, boy! That's freedom calling! Let it in! Let it run! Let it run wild!' Andrew Dalton, The Associated Press
