Andor is back and it still rules
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A Wretched Hive of Scum and Villainy: The Star Wars Thread
First arc of Season 2 was aight. Im very glad they decided to scale back their ambitions and not stretch this shit out over 4 seasons.
I respect the heck out of this show’s decision to not hold the hands of the viewer and just keep going as if we know all these characters and their situations, but I forgot most of em.
Also, opening up episode 1 with just “BBY 4” took me out of the show hard and almost had me turn the whole thing off before it even began.
I respect the heck out of this show’s decision to not hold the hands of the viewer and just keep going as if we know all these characters and their situations, but I forgot most of em.
Also, opening up episode 1 with just “BBY 4” took me out of the show hard and almost had me turn the whole thing off before it even began.
Counterpoint: why don't more G1 Transformer series open with BBAC or ABAC-X years?
Andor:
In short, I loved it. The stuff on Yavin was a little slow, but imo still worthy for a few reasons: 1. shows again how there isn't a Rebel ALLIANCE at this point, just individual movements that haven't cohered and don't trust each other (or even work well within their own group; it's amateur hour here), 2. shows that Yavin is already used as a Rebel stopover for at least two groups, which is neat, and 3. reminds us after his somewhat bumbling escape with the TIE Avenger that Cassian is patient and crafty, playing the little cell against each other and picking his moment to run. The subplot keeps him out of the action so the tension of everything his friends are facing can build. I hope he isn't sidelined so much in the future, but it worked for this segment—like Gandalf, he was delayed, and things went badly for it.
Everything else about the first arc was
, especially the back half of the third episode, where Mon Mothma is dancing and drinking herself into numbness while her friend is carted off to be murdered while Brassa is dying and Andor and the others are escaping, worlds away. The intercutting was so well done, to say nothing of the remix of "Niamos."
Everything else about the first arc was
, especially the back half of the third episode, where Mon Mothma is dancing and drinking herself into numbness while her friend is carted off to be murdered while Brassa is dying and Andor and the others are escaping, worlds away. The intercutting was so well done, to say nothing of the remix of "Niamos."
I've had the same reactions as you!
How nice for you.
Everything else about the first arc was
This is something I think is very well done, couldn't have really happened any other way, and tells an important story to the themes of the show. But it's also intensely frustrating and upsetting to watch. Like, showing how feckless and impotent our formal institutions and legislatures are in the face of creeping fascism is important to show in a show like this. Fighting fascism takes more courage and a full dedication of being, and these pampered aristocrats just don't have it/would rather turn a blind eye to continue their lifestyles. But watching Mon Mothma specifically fall into this despair trap and idle away for years on end while not doing anything remotely meaningful for the rebellion is just... frustrating to watch. As an audience member, you want her to grow into the character she was in the original trilogy. And she's just not there yet. And I'm growing as impatient as the budding revolutionaries on Ghorman. Not exactly a flaw of the show or the characters involved; if anything it's a strength. But it's still frustrating to watch.
I guess I have just assumed from the start of the first season that probably everyone, or nearly everyone, who we don't know lives to see Rogue One, will die.
I think Mon Mothma is going to need an inciting event that affects her personally to go all-in the way Luthen is. At this point she is still trying to work the system from within AND has not personally suffered, and I think it's supposed to be frustrating—we know time is matching on, and Luthen and Saw are both far too paranoid to provide unifying leadership (but Star Wars nerds also know things are already happening elsewhere, like Lothal, whose rebels will eventually join up with other groups). Whatever happens, it's probably going to involve her daughter and/or cousin.
I'm thinking about it more: the deaths in the show are probably going to get more frequent, but I think they are purposeful. Every death represents a way people die in a conflict like this. They die because a soldier shoots them in the back while fleeing. They die because some hothead didn't follow orders. They die because someone has a grudge and is looking for payback. They die because a tyrant wanted to land his shuttle. They die for stupid reasons and good ones. The wrong people die, and the right people die, but people die. I think that drumbeat of death is important to the themes here—the Empire is monstrous and must be destroyed, but rebellion is not clean. Rogue One was the first bit of Star Wars to really show us that, with Cassian's murder of the skittish source at the start, and Andor is carrying that along.
And further: I didn't remember the Ghorman Massacre is a canon event already! Referenced in Rebels when Mon Mothma makes her rallying speech for the Alliance cause, and was a flashpoint for the whole Rebellion to really coalesce and kick off. I assume that'll be in the next set of episodes, or maybe the final one, given how they've been building this up. But now I wonder if her daughter will be killed in the crowd there.
I think Mon Mothma is going to need an inciting event that affects her personally to go all-in the way Luthen is. At this point she is still trying to work the system from within AND has not personally suffered, and I think it's supposed to be frustrating—we know time is matching on, and Luthen and Saw are both far too paranoid to provide unifying leadership (but Star Wars nerds also know things are already happening elsewhere, like Lothal, whose rebels will eventually join up with other groups). Whatever happens, it's probably going to involve her daughter and/or cousin.
I'm thinking about it more: the deaths in the show are probably going to get more frequent, but I think they are purposeful. Every death represents a way people die in a conflict like this. They die because a soldier shoots them in the back while fleeing. They die because some hothead didn't follow orders. They die because someone has a grudge and is looking for payback. They die because a tyrant wanted to land his shuttle. They die for stupid reasons and good ones. The wrong people die, and the right people die, but people die. I think that drumbeat of death is important to the themes here—the Empire is monstrous and must be destroyed, but rebellion is not clean. Rogue One was the first bit of Star Wars to really show us that, with Cassian's murder of the skittish source at the start, and Andor is carrying that along.
And further: I didn't remember the Ghorman Massacre is a canon event already! Referenced in Rebels when Mon Mothma makes her rallying speech for the Alliance cause, and was a flashpoint for the whole Rebellion to really coalesce and kick off. I assume that'll be in the next set of episodes, or maybe the final one, given how they've been building this up. But now I wonder if her daughter will be killed in the crowd there.
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With the timing we know about, it should happen in next week's episodes.
I can't believe how good the show is. We didn't get to episode 9 last night, but I'm glad we did watch 7 & 8 back to back. It continues to find ways to top itself. Fascism is supposed to be terrifying! And here... it very much is!
Calling it now: Dedra will be involved somehow in the leak to the Alliance about the Death Star.
I also watched the first two episodes of the batch. What a show. Too many superlatives to list.
Andor has certainly put in the most work to get me interested in the other Star Wars shows. I guess it ties into the most with Rebels? and then, by association, Clone Wars? All I've really watched is Mando (and Obi-Wan but that's a one-shot thing)...
I'd say it's less that Andor ties into Rebels than that it hits a few big events covered there from a different perspective (this week especially). But it's pretty oblique. I forgot entirely that Ghorman was ever mentioned in Rebels until I looked it up, and the reference to Gold Squadron taking Mothma in while they pretend Cassian wasn't involved sets up her appearance on Rebels where she broadcasts another speech. But Rebels is heavily tied into the Clone Wars and Ahsoka (which is functionally Rebels season 5), though. Mandalorian is also kind of a Rebels/Clone Wars show starting in S2 and especially in S3, in the way it wraps up a really long-running storyline (the Darksaber and Bo-Katan and all that) that began in those.
Well, the most sincere complement I can possibly give to this show is that it’s made me care about Andor as a character. Not necessarily a grand feat in and of itself, but certainly it is after Rogue One and S1 of Andor.
Also: IT’S
ABOUT GOD DAMNED TIME
Also: IT’S
ABOUT GOD DAMNED TIME
Andor finale arc stuck the landing in every way possible
It's the sunrise Cassian will never see
That's already happened. The last episodes of Season 2 went up on Tuesday, and Season 2 is the final season.
Great show, great ending. Looking forward to a rewatch of Rogue One to see how the show changes the context.
I found it mainly gave you a little more background for Saw's descent into paranoia and the dysfunction of the Rebel council.
Phantoon
I cuss you bad
I agree. Rogue One is an imperfect film and actually suffers by comparison to Andor, but Saw makes a lot more sense now and seeing Melshi, K2 and Cassian die hurts a lot more.
I really liked S2. S1 was like a 5/10 for me, and S2 was like a 9/10. Only held back by the fact that as a show, it lacked a dramatic climax because it felt beholden to make Rogue One its climax. Which I honestly resent a decent amount. This show deserved to be able to do its own thing more and not be held back by someone else's dumb movie/idea.
I'm very satisfied though with the conclusion the show gave to almost all of its characters. Especially the bad guys. Syril dying as a nobody, and Dedra being stuck in that horrifying prison was deeply satisfying. Let that be a lesson to all aspiring fascist bootlickers. And Partagaz listening to the manifesto from that kid from Season 1 and wondering in awe and horror at who could have crafted such a message was to me, the thematic climax of the show. All around great stuff. And not just as a well made thing, but with a great theme and message for this moment of history we find ourselves in for viewers who aren't educated on such matters or don't yet fully grasp the world we're adventuring into.
This has easily been the best Star Wars thing of the 21st Century. I just wish it wasn't a prequel to Rogue One. And I think it also demonstrates to me how a TV show format is just so much better for telling engaging stories and fully developing characters. Had I spent the time with the Rogue One cast that the Andor cast had gotten, I think that story would have been much more successful.
I'm very satisfied though with the conclusion the show gave to almost all of its characters. Especially the bad guys. Syril dying as a nobody, and Dedra being stuck in that horrifying prison was deeply satisfying. Let that be a lesson to all aspiring fascist bootlickers. And Partagaz listening to the manifesto from that kid from Season 1 and wondering in awe and horror at who could have crafted such a message was to me, the thematic climax of the show. All around great stuff. And not just as a well made thing, but with a great theme and message for this moment of history we find ourselves in for viewers who aren't educated on such matters or don't yet fully grasp the world we're adventuring into.
This has easily been the best Star Wars thing of the 21st Century. I just wish it wasn't a prequel to Rogue One. And I think it also demonstrates to me how a TV show format is just so much better for telling engaging stories and fully developing characters. Had I spent the time with the Rogue One cast that the Andor cast had gotten, I think that story would have been much more successful.
I mean, I get what you're saying but at the same time, Andor the show simply does not exist without Rogue One the movie. It's some other show in the universe where that never got made and someone decided, hey, let's make a show leading up to Star Wars ANH. They had an end point to work toward and they did so beautifully, imo.