Writing Female Characters - What Happened to Bix?

For the last year I’ve been writing about the ways in which male writers can assess their female characters and make small tweaks that will save them from tired tropes. In these articles I always state the difficulty of avoiding these traps when we see so many bad examples in our popular media… and that’s why I’m writing this. 

But before we begin…

I love Andor. 

As a spinoff series, it’s incredibly strong. By ditching the Star Wars proclivity for shoehorning hero characters into every peripheral narrative, the writers ensured that the story would stand on its own merit. And it does. With bells on.

It was an incredibly brave decision. The anxiety around spinoffs is real. Fans invest in characters and the Star Wars franchise comes with years of data that proves which characters are most likely to draw in the viewers. So excluding all of them and focusing on a planet nobody’s ever heard of… and a hero from another planet nobody’s ever heard of… and a security guard from a corporation nobody cares about… and a rebel spy who’s never mentioned again… and a Senator who’s barely even seen in the original films… that takes guts.

The writing is intelligent. The narrative is delightfully knotted and beautifully structured. It’s expansive, yet tight, and the characters are nuanced and complex.

This is a rave review and I really wish I could leave it at that.

Unfortunately, amongst a cast of superbly written female characters, there is one who falls devastatingly short - Bix. 

I’m still confused about this. Whether her status as “love interest to the hero” relegated her to the role of “prop” in the eyes of the writers, I don’t know. But like so many instances where a female character’s narrative agency is sacrificed on the alter of male heroism, a few minor tweaks would have made all the difference.

In The Beginning

When we first meet Bix, she’s Cassian’s ex. There’s residual intimacy between them but it’s clear she knows him well enough to be skeptical about every word that comes out of his mouth.

All of this is very promising. She’s capable, morally grey, and doesn’t take any crap. 

Where Does It Go Wrong?

After our hero leaves the planet to do his hero thing, Bix is captured by Imperial Security, tortured to within an inch of her sanity by Dr. Gorst, and questioned about Luthen/Axis. And that’s it. There she stays until Cassian rescues her in the final episode.

Now, it’s not unrealistic for someone tortured and imprisoned to remain in prison. But, it’s also a narrative choice and one that is rarely made in male story arcs. Instead, when male characters with names and speaking parts are captured and tortured, they do at least try to escape.

The closest example I can think of is in Game of Thrones, when Theon Greyjoy/Reek is brutally tortured by Ramsay Snow. However, Theon is allowed autonomy and heroism in a way that Bix never is. For a start, when Theon’s sister, Yara, attempts to rescue him, he refuses to go with her. Yes, this is an act of subservience to his master, but it also shows agency. He chooses to stay behind. He fights his rescuers and wins. Yara is not allowed her moment of heroism… but Theon is. Later in the story he rescues Sansa and they escape together. He finds his own way to redemption.

In contrast, Bix passively waits in her cell, and when Cassian rescues her she protests for all of thirty seconds before allowing herself to be carried away. At this point in the story, she is a prop.

What could have been done differently?

While imprisoned, we could have seen her noticing cameras, testing window frames, watching and observing the comings and goings of the Imperial Guard. Ideally she would have seen something useful that, when Cassian comes to rescue her, aids in their escape. This would have made her an active participant. 

For the sake of zero added run-time, she could have at least observed something.

The Waiting Game Begins…

The rest of Bix’s storyline involves a great deal of waiting. She and the two other escapees settle on Mina-Rau, and work as mechanics. The other two find love, but for some reason Bix is now waiting for Cassian.

It’s worth remembering that before being hauled off by the Imperial Guard she was angry with Cass and in a relationship with another man – Timm. She watched Timm die in the street and was emotionally traumatised by the event. Weeks later Cassian rescues her, and we’re meant to believe that this is enough to make her his one true prize.

Now, we could put Bix’s transformation from cynical rebellious criminal to lasting devotee down to brain trauma. But then we’re seeing dubious romantic decisions being made as a result of mental injury… and Cass encouraging it. Which isn’t better.

The Mina-Rau sequence culminates in Bix heroically fighting off a sexual assault only to be held at gun-point by another Imperial Guard and… rescued by Cassian. Again.

What could have been done differently?

The instant flip from not-girlfriend to committed love interest would have benefitted from a period of uncertainty. On Mina-Rau she could have been seeing someone else while recovering a sense of independence and autonomy, even if it was made obvious that the relationship wouldn’t last.

The Waiting Game Continues…  

When Bix and Cassian move to Coruscant, Cassian goes off on missions for the Rebellion while Bix stays at the safe house “recovering”. Recovery is important. But on Mina-Rau we did see that she’s capable of being a mechanic. We know she can perform tasks and fix things, so the lack of useful work is perplexing. Instead she just mopes around, fails to sleep and develops an addiction to tranquilisers.

There are passing references to her maybe doing work for the Rebellion and Luthen does visit to assess her progress… but nothing comes of it.

What could have been done differently?

There’s plenty she could’ve been doing from an apartment. She could have been cleaning antiques for Luthen’s gallery. She could have been helping Kleya by listening for intelligence on the communication device we later find out is hidden in that very apartment. She could have been repairing things. Any things.

Ideally that thing would have fed into the main plot somehow. Perhaps she repurposed weapons and stashed them in walls so that later, when Cass goes back, he has more of an arsenal at hand to fight the Imperials.

At the start of the sequence we see her sleepwalking with a blaster, suggesting that it’s not safe for her to be around firearms… but, again, that was a narrative choice.

A Brief Reprieve

Just as they’re leaving Coruscant, Bix takes her revenge on Dr. Gorst. This was a genuinely great moment made better by the fact that she carries out the act herself and Cassian helps, but doesn’t do it for her.

Fantastic.

I was momentarily relieved.

But then…

The Waiting Resumes…

As the story moves to Yavin 4, I hoped that Bix would reclaim a shadow of her former vibrancy. Instead, her lack of agency reaches new heights when she becomes a full-time tree-housewife. We never know if she does anything with her time there. If she is fixing ships and transports for the Rebellion we never see it.

Instead, she waits.

What could have been done differently?

We should have seen evidence of her doing active work. Perhaps when Cassian arrived home she could’ve been in overalls and covered in engine grease. Instead of finding her at home every time, some of their conversations could have happened in the hangar while she worked. At one point she might have been off planet, fixing something elsewhere. Any evidence of activity would have been better and the scenes could have otherwise played out the same way.

She Shows Herself Out

In the end, Bix showed herself out of the story. She left a heartfelt message about how she was holding Cassian back from becoming the hero he was always meant to be… and that was it. Gone. 

I can’t tell you how frustrating this was to watch. She fell on her narrative sword and retired from any sense of purpose in a way that’s completely unrealistic. 

Bix is a thinking, breathing human being and despite this… she did absolutely nothing. She had no independent motives, which is the greatest error you can make in character development.

What could have been done differently?

Bix could have decided to take a job elsewhere. She could have broken up with Cassian because their relationship just wasn’t working for her. After all, even when he was at home he was only half there. And if she had any purpose beside him, it would’ve been easy to inject personal motive for the decision. 

She Has A Baby - The End

Of course she’s wearing white.

A female character retiring from action because she’s pregnant and therefore sacrifices everything to answer the call of motherhood… well that trope’s older than the Bible. And there’s absolutely no need for it. 

Even if it was somehow significant for Bix to have Cassian’s child, women keep on living lives with children in tow - we know this. Kids are raised in the Rebellion. We know this. Instead we see her walking through a dreamy cornfield, gazing at the sky, waiting for Cassian to find her… again. A possibility that doesn’t even exist given what we know happens in Rogue One.

What could have been done differently?

Supposing she did have the child… the snapshot could have been handled differently. She could have been fixing an engine, pausing to reach out and rock the baby while she worked. That would’ve been a fun inversion of the trope. But no. She’s now a trad wife in a corn field longingly awaiting Cassian’s return.

Why Was She There At All?

This is a good question. At the end of Season One, Cassian needs to use the tunnel to get to the Hotel, thus accidentally throwing off the Imperial Guard. His motivation for doing that is Bix, but it could have been something else.

Cassian races to her aid on Mina-Rau, but he could’ve been rushing to rescue his other friends. On Coruscant she does nothing except provide a bit of domestic complication and the attack on Dr. Gorst doesn’t affect the wider plot at all.

On Yavin her main task is to provide Cassian with internal conflict. But that conflict could come from something else. He wasn’t devoted to the Rebellion at the start and it’s clear that he’s frustrated by the increasingly onerous protocols threatening his autonomy at every turn, so more could have been made of that.

Instead, we’re left with a frustrating void where an enduring character should have been. A love interest with no autonomy, who shows herself out when the male MC needs to take the next step in his journey.

Again… I love Andor. The show is superb. But if you’re aiming to write well-rounded female characters do not use Bix as a blueprint. Look at Mon Mothma and her daughter, look at Vel, look at Kleya and Cinta and Dedra Meero and Maarva. Basically, look everywhere else.