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A Wretched Hive of Scum and Villainy: The Star Wars Thread
All that has happened and we still get two more episodes.
Phantoon
I cuss you bad
I kind of hope that he didn't. Thematically it's what Luthen talked about. He dreamed for a sunset he knew he wouldn't get to see - you realise he knew he wasn't getting out, which is why resolving to escape was so hard for him.
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Thematically he shouldn't. On an emotional level he deserves to. We'll likely never know for sure either way, and that's the best way to handle it IMO.
Also this show is still so GOOD and somehow keeps IMPROVING with each episode which is a real rare thing. If the quality keeps up then I think the two seasons of Andor combined with Rogue One will end up being one of the absolute best stretches of Star Wars there ever was.
Also this show is still so GOOD and somehow keeps IMPROVING with each episode which is a real rare thing. If the quality keeps up then I think the two seasons of Andor combined with Rogue One will end up being one of the absolute best stretches of Star Wars there ever was.
I have finished Andor. It was fine. Harry Potter’s aunt gave a great speech/stole the episode. The look of rage and disgust on that one Nazi’s face when she had to contend with the idea of Corpo being her savior from the mob was pretty delicious. And of course, it wouldn’t be Andor if the titular character was barely in his own show. I thought the finale was fine. A fair bit underwhelming/anticlimactic, but entertaining enough that I don’t regret my time. Hopefully next season they manage to give Andor more to do in his own show now that he ostensibly has seized some agency for himself as a character.
Also there’s a short post credits scene that was completely disposable. Those weren’t Tie Fighter struts, he was making the Death Star!
Also there’s a short post credits scene that was completely disposable. Those weren’t Tie Fighter struts, he was making the Death Star!
Phantoon
I cuss you bad
It's not really about Andor; like Rogue One it's actually about the Rebellion. It's just Andor is the catalyst in the story. I thought it was brilliant. The quote from the manifesto was a great start, the whole reason why you fight fascism despite it seeming completely hopeless.
Then you have the most hilarious and in character use of a brick ever (and I'm talking about the brick's character here), huge tension over who survives and some really interesting developments for next season. Dedra and Syril have some terrifying sub / dom thing starting here
Then you have the most hilarious and in character use of a brick ever (and I'm talking about the brick's character here), huge tension over who survives and some really interesting developments for next season. Dedra and Syril have some terrifying sub / dom thing starting here
Well it isn't, but it also very much is.
Which is a tricky thing to pull off. It isn't only about Andor, certainly. It's more about what Andor's about, and how he got there, and how he wasn't the only one, how anyone can get there if there's no other way. Ripples and waves.
Really the show is kind of like one of those "journey of a single bottle through the recycling process" shorts. Pick one person (one we know, to draw people in with some familiarity) and show how they go through the machinery and heat and ultimately are recast into something new. One of countless many, but still unique in his specific path. Diego Luna is also a really good actor who knows how not to hog the stage.
Which is a tricky thing to pull off. It isn't only about Andor, certainly. It's more about what Andor's about, and how he got there, and how he wasn't the only one, how anyone can get there if there's no other way. Ripples and waves.
Really the show is kind of like one of those "journey of a single bottle through the recycling process" shorts. Pick one person (one we know, to draw people in with some familiarity) and show how they go through the machinery and heat and ultimately are recast into something new. One of countless many, but still unique in his specific path. Diego Luna is also a really good actor who knows how not to hog the stage.
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Phantoon
I cuss you bad
At times like this I wish this forum had likes
It's also about fascism and oppression. How does it work? What does it look like? What people are required to make it work? What can be done to fight it, and what must one be willing to sacrifice? It gives both the Empire and the Rebellion a weight that they've never had before.
And I have to give Diego Luna huge props here for his selfless performances. He elevated everyone with no ego
The way the funeral sequence built and maintained tension was just incredible. The way that was staged and shot, I kept thinking of Belfast.
The score was incredible throughout and when the back end of the credits hauled in themes from Rogue One I had genuine Feelings
One other thing about the show’s title: it could just as easily be referring to his mother, whose funeral speech absolutely just kicked off the rebellion.
The writing in this show is top-notch, too. Not just the plotting, but the actual words said. A lot of times there was a line that you might hear in another show, and then Andor takes that line and adds a few choice additional words to it and makes it really poignant. "Tell him I love him" --> Tell him I love him more than anything he could do wrong." And just excellent turns of phrase, like "This was about washing the taste of Aldhani out of the Emperor's mouth." Very evocative!
Phantoon
I cuss you bad
I like the restraint in not having the Emperor show up. We're too low rank to see him. He's the singularity at the heart of the evil whose effects are omnipresent but the man himself is unseen.
Also the Belfast comment - I'd imagine in a show full of British actors Maarva being Irish was no accident
Also the Belfast comment - I'd imagine in a show full of British actors Maarva being Irish was no accident
Not gonna lie, I was kinda hoping that Syril would pratfall on top of an explosive to save Dedra and she wouldn't even notice he was there. But I guess they're going to be a thing next season. Ah well.
Aside from that, fantastic finale.
Aside from that, fantastic finale.
Phantoon
I cuss you bad
They may be, but they're playing characters with an English accent. Maarva isn't, and Tony Gilroy has said that the history of Northern Ireland played into this.
Ferrix as a whole feels like the Northern Ireland planet. Banging objects to make a distraction when the occupying troops are around is literally something they did!
I hope he gets to show up at least once though. McDiarmid seems to get such a kick out of it, and the final dissolution of the senate seems a natural scene for it that would lead directly into Rogue One.
Except that happened in the beginning of A New Hope, plus Mon Mothma had already fled Coruscant by that point, as seen in Rebels
Tarkin received word of it at the start of ANH. That leaves enough room for it to be one of the last things to happen in the series. Mothma fleeing already is fine, that was long before R1. Bail hadn’t yet and I imagine Smits will make an appearance.
karzac
(he/him)
Oh I wasn't disagreeing with you. Just agreeing that the show has a lot of Irish roots. Although I do actually think Fiona Shaw's performance downplays her Irish accent a bit.
Phantoon
I cuss you bad
Apparently Covid helped with the series. They shot in England and there were a bunch of British character actors who were looking for work as a result of the virus. That's why there's so many really good and memorable characters in the show, they had a really good pool to pull from
Phantoon
I cuss you bad
Season 2 sounds like it could be incredible:
“[We’ll] examine how difficult it is to put a revolution together, how difficult it is to become a leader, how difficult it is to be a victim.
What happens to the original gangsters? What happens to the outliers? What happens to the people who were…every revolution consumes people and glorifies people, and not always the people that did the thing that mattered.
How do you scale up something that essentially does not thrive in the sunshine? How do you do that? And those issues and all the chaos of that is going to be of great interest to us going forward.”
“[We’ll] examine how difficult it is to put a revolution together, how difficult it is to become a leader, how difficult it is to be a victim.
What happens to the original gangsters? What happens to the outliers? What happens to the people who were…every revolution consumes people and glorifies people, and not always the people that did the thing that mattered.
How do you scale up something that essentially does not thrive in the sunshine? How do you do that? And those issues and all the chaos of that is going to be of great interest to us going forward.”
I've watched ten episodes of Andor, and I didn't even want to wait until I had finished out the season to come say this shit is insanely good.
The thing that stuck out to me from the beginning is the costuming, props, and set design. They had that worksite where the outer wall had hooks where all the workers hung their big chunky space gloves when they started working, and every pair of gloves was different but they were all recognizably the same kind of glove. They had that greebly little mechanical whatsit that the kid was geeking out over. They had Stellan Skarsgård picking an outfit off of a space clothes hanger. That one nazi's terrible mom's kitchen with the space cereal to go with the blue milk and a tray with a couple of kiwanos on it, and then he went to work at an absolutely incredible space cubicle, wearing a space tie. The throughline of the pure, sanitary white of the Tantive IV and the Kaminoan cloning facility being repeated in the ISB conference room, Mon Mothma's state residence, and the prison.
The show is based on the question "What is the Empire?" and it's answering it by rendering the lives of people who relate to it at various levels down to the most minute detail. No vague gesturing about darkness here: they are using the framework of one of the world's most recognizable fantasies to depict a very truthful authoritarianism.
And they're doing a very skillful job of it. There's one part I have to call out as especially masterful. They reveal the conceit that they have repurposed the sound of a genocide into a torture device, connect the resulting screams to the whirring of industrial machines in a prison factory, and link the scenes together by quoting the shot from A New Hope where they shut the door on terrible things happening to Leia.
I feel like they're showing off the edge that got sanded off of Rogue One.
The thing that stuck out to me from the beginning is the costuming, props, and set design. They had that worksite where the outer wall had hooks where all the workers hung their big chunky space gloves when they started working, and every pair of gloves was different but they were all recognizably the same kind of glove. They had that greebly little mechanical whatsit that the kid was geeking out over. They had Stellan Skarsgård picking an outfit off of a space clothes hanger. That one nazi's terrible mom's kitchen with the space cereal to go with the blue milk and a tray with a couple of kiwanos on it, and then he went to work at an absolutely incredible space cubicle, wearing a space tie. The throughline of the pure, sanitary white of the Tantive IV and the Kaminoan cloning facility being repeated in the ISB conference room, Mon Mothma's state residence, and the prison.
The show is based on the question "What is the Empire?" and it's answering it by rendering the lives of people who relate to it at various levels down to the most minute detail. No vague gesturing about darkness here: they are using the framework of one of the world's most recognizable fantasies to depict a very truthful authoritarianism.
And they're doing a very skillful job of it. There's one part I have to call out as especially masterful. They reveal the conceit that they have repurposed the sound of a genocide into a torture device, connect the resulting screams to the whirring of industrial machines in a prison factory, and link the scenes together by quoting the shot from A New Hope where they shut the door on terrible things happening to Leia.
I feel like they're showing off the edge that got sanded off of Rogue One.
Phantoon
I cuss you bad
It's showing that you should be pushing what Star Wars can be; the potential is enormous. Instead we're getting retreads, when Andor shows the benefit of going for all new things. You don't need magical laser sword dudes for it to be gripping. As long as you do it with care it can work.
karzac
(he/him)
Exactly my feeling. This is succeeding at what Rogue One tried to do.
Phantoon
I cuss you bad
I think Rogue One walked so this could fly to be honest
Having thought about this it's a real shame we're not getting a third series where Mon Mothma has to form a functioning government from her band of rebels. Seeing the tensions there written by a great writer sounds like something that could be hugely interesting.
Having thought about this it's a real shame we're not getting a third series where Mon Mothma has to form a functioning government from her band of rebels. Seeing the tensions there written by a great writer sounds like something that could be hugely interesting.
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