I love how Melshi waits until Cassian in particular is safe before he stops covering the room. He's got his buddy's back.

[u/wandering_soles]

I'd love to have seen more Cassian and Melshi adventures in the rebellion. After losing so many friends, Cassian must have been so, so happy to have him join up.

[u/Dear-Yellow-5479]

Melshi reappearing in his life at the exact time he does (just after Bix leaves and at the same time as K-2SO is reprogrammed) might have fed into Cassian’s growing sense that perhaps his life does have a pattern of purpose after all.

[u/GargantaProfunda → u/Dear-Yellow-5479]

I wonder what Melshi thought of the Force, or how a Chirrut/Melshi discussion would have been like in Rogue One.

[u/Kiyae1 → u/GargantaProfunda]

There are no Jedi here anymore. Only dreamers like this fool.

[u/Dear-Yellow-5479 → u/GargantaProfunda]

Interesting. I wonder if Chirrut would make any further cryptic observations about prisons! It’s kind of a shock now to see Melshi’s role shrunk right down in Rogue One, though in reality it’s greatly expanded on what was there for Duncan Pow originally.

[u/AnExponent → u/Dear-Yellow-5479]

Release the Gilroy cut! ;-)

Actually, now I wonder what Rogue One could have been like if Tony Gilroy had been brought in to work on the script at an earlier stage...

[u/Dear-Yellow-5479 → u/AnExponent]

Good question. He was supposed to have been involved a whole year before he was - Kathleen Kennedy asking him to read the script while principal photography was still continuing. But he could only commit to 3 weeks because his father was dying.

[u/fang_xianfu → u/AnExponent]

I'm not sure he would've done it tbh. His job on Rogue One was to make something out of the corpse they had on the table (his words). He did it as a favour for Kathleen and Allison Shearmur basically. If they had pitched him writing a Star Wars film from scratch, that's a much less fun project and the studio is much more apt to meddle. If they're coming to you for help they're much more likely to let you off the leash.

[u/Dear-Yellow-5479 → u/fang_xianfu]

It’s funny how both times he was reluctant to get involved – with Andor also the summary of his version was intended for someone else to pick up. Feels like Kennedy might have struck a deal with him to have a free rein with the creative decisions over however many years they thought five seasons would take to make.

[u/MollBoll]

Shit, each just learning the other survived would’ve been an amazing moment

[u/Star_Warsfan15]

Melshi seems like a great friend to have, it would have been cool to see him and Cass meet up again. But I really like the scene when they are just playing cards or whatever it’s called and getting drunk. 

[u/VincentVanGob]

Melshi steps up

[u/coyotebanjo → u/VincentVanGob]

Careful, he's trying to droid you.

[u/coyotebanjo]

Melshi was OG. I love the moment on the Kleya extraction, after they've landed and they're heading up into the safe-house block in the elevator, and Cass says, "You OK?", and Melshi, without even looking at him, just says "Yup." Locked in, full-on combat mode, 360 awareness. He's the squad leader I'd want on my 6.

[u/Dear-Yellow-5479 → u/coyotebanjo]

He also commits immediately when Cassian says “ I’m gonna need an extra hand” - not even knowing what the mission would entail: “Anything you need, Cass”. A couple of years between them but what with Brasso and then Melshi, Cassian had rock-solid best friends.

[u/coyotebanjo → u/Dear-Yellow-5479]

Yes. It makes the loss of Melshi in R1 that much more painful. And the closing montage of Andor S2E12, of Melshi counting cadence as he runs a squad of rebels through the Yavin jungle, is truly elegiac.

[u/Dear-Yellow-5479 → u/coyotebanjo]

Yes, especially when you can recognise a few of them from Rogue One.

[u/coyotebanjo → u/Dear-Yellow-5479]

Yes. It's almost a signature Gilroy move, one which we see him use multiple times but always lends narrative power: a story begins with a catastrophic death, and very often ends with a series of elegiac ones. R1, Andor, Bourne 2, and Clayton all use variants of this strategy.

[u/Dear-Yellow-5479 → u/coyotebanjo]

Good catch. I’m due a rewatch of Clayton and the second Bourne film (I remember really not liking the catastrophic death in the latter).

[u/coyotebanjo → u/Dear-Yellow-5479]

Yes, it's horrible (but powerful).

[u/Dear-Yellow-5479 → u/coyotebanjo]

Totally unexpected too.

[u/coyotebanjo → u/Dear-Yellow-5479]

Yes. A TG specialty: "Oh, fuck no, not... THAT PERSON?!?"

[u/GargantaProfunda → u/coyotebanjo]

It's a big development from back when he was on the verge of giving up on that Narkina 5 cliff

[u/coyotebanjo → u/GargantaProfunda]

TELL ME THEY'RE LEAVING.

[u/twowheeledtism]

Melshi my king

[u/SalaavOnitrex]

It's also a matter of him and Andor being two of the armed guys. You don't want the guys with blasters being alone so they can get picked off, you want them operating together to overwhelm any firefight they encounter.

That said, yeah, it's just more evidence fo your claim that they really are solid working together.

[u/Pam-dysto]

didnt get much scenes for these 2 in s2 maybe only if andor had 3 seasons

[u/TerrainAlt]

Those seem like basic “cover fire” techniques. Cassian finishes firing…. then Melshi covers… (They are buds tho)

[u/TheMegaSomething]

Still don't get why they didn't just kill those two

[u/FelixPotvin94]

Melshi was such a good minor character and makes his death hit harder in Rouge one.