Star Wars - Andor Spoilers (And Scot's Old Ass TV)

[sifth]

3 hours ago, Heartofice said:

Funnily enough I thought the Dooku captured arc was slightly better than the episodes surrounding it. So far I've just finished season one and I think I could easily have skipped almost all of it as nothing in there seems relevant to the bigger picture (other than I wouldn't have gleamed from watching the first 30 seconds of any episodes)

I mean to be fair, you can say that about pretty much the entire show. I mostly enjoyed the Clone Wars, for the Anakin and Ahsoka episodes. It's quite refreshing to see Anakin actually portrayed as a hero, unlike the monster and idiot, the films portray him to be. Ahsoka's character development, from season 2 onward is amazing. I went from hating her to loving her during that time frame.

[karaddin]

I don't actually think the show could work as is as a contemporary drama or set in our future for a reason that is not at all the fault of the show - our surveillance technology already significantly surpasses the Empire. Obviously that's not insurmountable though, you'd just need to change some details, add some additional roles etc.

It doesn't take me out of the story because it's internally consistent with the SW universe, but I do notice and chuckle at some of the things that just don't work here.

[Lord Varys]

7 hours ago, IFR said:

I agree with others in that the greatness of the show is independent of its relation to Star Wars. This is something that John Le Carre could have written - a tense, sophisticated spy thriller. Indeed, Luthen really seems like a Le Carre character.

Not saying it isn't a good write ... it is just that there is too little substance for it to make sense in a setting where you actually know how the average man lives and how the repression system works.

8 hours ago, Heartofice said:

Funnily enough I thought the Dooku captured arc was slightly better than the episodes surrounding it. So far I've just finished season one and I think I could easily have skipped almost all of it as nothing in there seems relevant to the bigger picture (other than I wouldn't have gleamed from watching the first 30 seconds of any episodes)

Most of the series is relevant because of the portrayal of Ahsoka. The story-telling is very episodic, so you effectively only need to know the precursor arc if you get a sequel arc. The first season just introduces the characters of Ahsoka, Ziro, Hondo, and Cad Bane.

 

[Corvinus85]

1 hour ago, karaddin said:

I don't actually think the show could work as is as a contemporary drama or set in our future for a reason that is not at all the fault of the show - our surveillance technology already significantly surpasses the Empire. Obviously that's not insurmountable though, you'd just need to change some details, add some additional roles etc.

It doesn't take me out of the story because it's internally consistent with the SW universe, but I do notice and chuckle at some of the things that just don't work here.

When it comes to distant futures, or in this case distant pasts in another galaxy, I don't really wish to compare with our technology. Look at Dune. In some aspects it is more advanced, but in others, it isn't, or we could say it's different.

[karaddin]

Maybe they don't have fingerprints in a galaxy far far away lol.

[RumHam]

I was actually shocked they had video chat, even if the signal was bad. Isn't visual communication usually through blue holograms? 

[Relic]

7 hours ago, karaddin said:

Maybe they don't have fingerprints in a galaxy far far away lol.

pretty sure Wookies dont, at least 

[Corvinus85]

Another theory I have is that Mon Mothma's daughter may be faking her traditionalist ideologies, unwittingly taking a page from her mom's book about presenting the world a façade. She may be doing this because she thinks her mother is ineffectual as a senator and doesn't realize what her mother is really doing. It makes me think of Christian Bale's kids from Equilibrium.

[Lord Varys]

12 hours ago, RumHam said:

I was actually shocked they had video chat, even if the signal was bad. Isn't visual communication usually through blue holograms? 

Communication via screen also happens, think about Vader contacting his officers in TESB, or Gunray and Amidala conversing in the beginning of TPM.

51 minutes ago, Corvinus85 said:

Another theory I have is that Mon Mothma's daughter may be faking her traditionalist ideologies, unwittingly taking a page from her mom's book about presenting the world a façade. She may be doing this because she thinks her mother is ineffectual as a senator and doesn't realize what her mother is really doing. It makes me think of Christian Bale's kids from Equilibrium.

Yes, that's something I also considered. Ditto with her husband simply pretending he doesn't know what she is doing/being this Imperial lackey guy.

[felice]

23 hours ago, Myrddin said:

Just looked at the playlists too. It is weird they didn't add the last three episodes of the series to it (the ones that dovetail into Revenge of the Sith), but included the Bad Batch backdoor pilot.

The Bad Batch arc was released years earlier with rough animation, so the list might predate the final season.

[Kalbear]

The Bad Batch arc was also kind of crap, so leaving it out doesn't miss a lot. Most of Clone Wars is very much filler. The much-lauded ending to Clone Wars was preceded with some of the most garbage filler eps. 

On Andor I could see this being set not as a contemporary spy thriller but instead in either a Nazi setting or (more likely) a cold war Eastern Europe style setting. Tech works, mostly, the blithely uncaring fascism works, the prison settings could easily be something era-appropriate, the money thing works. That feeling of doing absolutely horrible things to eventually have a world you will no longer be a part of is quite good there too. 

[Lord Varys]

12 minutes ago, Kalnestk Oblast said:

The Bad Batch arc was also kind of crap, so leaving it out doesn't miss a lot. Most of Clone Wars is very much filler. The much-lauded ending to Clone Wars was preceded with some of the most garbage filler eps. 

The Bad Batch arc wasn't that great, but I liked the return of and eventual death Admiral Trench there. And I definitely enjoyed the stuff Ahsoka was doing after she left the Jedi Order.

That said - them not properly continuing Maul's story in the wake of season 5 and wrapping up his story with Sidious and Talzin (which they did in a comic) as well as not getting back to Ventress (which they did in a novel) was just bad.

Also not properly wrapping up the political aspects of the Republic/CIS regarding the big corporations to reach the status quo as given by ROTS.

Finally, I think, Obi-Wan and Anakin would have needed another big duel against Darth Tyranus where the latter again wiped the floor with them, perhaps because Tyranus is especially angry there, or Obi-Wan/Anakin already very exhausted. Else their dialogue in ROTS really makes no sense.

12 minutes ago, Kalnestk Oblast said:

On Andor I could see this being set not as a contemporary spy thriller but instead in either a Nazi setting or (more likely) a cold war Eastern Europe style setting. Tech works, mostly, the blithely uncaring fascism works, the prison settings could easily be something era-appropriate, the money thing works. That feeling of doing absolutely horrible things to eventually have a world you will no longer be a part of is quite good there too. 

To a point, but neither regime was actually overthrown by internal rebellion, so this would essentially be a different setting. The Galactic Empire has no outside enemy nor an outside competitor or rival.

[Werthead]

Finished S1 of The Bad Batch and it was pretty good.

Spoiler

Crosshair taking his chip out and still choosing to be an amoral arsehole was good storytelling. I also really liked the early Empire still using Republic tech but repainting it all in the familiar Empire colours.

I could probably done without the "cute kid being the motivation for the good guys" idea once again, as Filoni has tapped that well one time too many. I'm hoping maybe we get a time jump and Omega being a more active, equal member of the squad because otherwise her task seems to be just getting captured for the sake of it.

I'm impressed I managed to feel a bit sorry for the Kaminoans. Only a bit though.

Mount Tantiss! Wayland! The Timothy Zahn vindication continues! Hopefuly not with Joruus C'boath, though.

I was thinking an XCOM-style game using the Bad Batch as the characters would be pretty sweet.

[Denvek]

13 hours ago, Werthead said:

Finished S1 of The Bad Batch and it was pretty good.

  Reveal hidden contents

Crosshair taking his chip out and still choosing to be an amoral arsehole was good storytelling. I also really liked the early Empire still using Republic tech but repainting it all in the familiar Empire colours.

I could probably done without the "cute kid being the motivation for the good guys" idea once again, as Filoni has tapped that well one time too many. I'm hoping maybe we get a time jump and Omega being a more active, equal member of the squad because otherwise her task seems to be just getting captured for the sake of it.

I'm impressed I managed to feel a bit sorry for the Kaminoans. Only a bit though.

Mount Tantiss! Wayland! The Timothy Zahn vindication continues! Hopefuly not with Joruus C'boath, though.

I was thinking an XCOM-style game using the Bad Batch as the characters would be pretty sweet.

They'd be the perfect squad for a spiritual sequel to Republic Commando

[hauberk]

6 hours ago, Denvek said:

They'd be the perfect squad for a spiritual sequel to Republic Commando

That game had so much potential. I really enjoyed what little of it there was. 

[Lord Varys]

I rewatched a couple of early TCW episodes, and so far CIS victories are not even referenced:

'Trespass': Isn't concerned with the Clone War as such, and both droids and clones were killed by the Talz.

The Mandalore Arc: Has both the CIS and the Sith fail at every turn. This is a real defeat for Palpatine himself since he really wanted the Republic to occupy Mandalore so that Death Watch could take over and the planet and its neutral allies be drawn into the war. In the individual episodes all the minor schemes and intrigues of the Separatist-backed Death Watch guys also fail.

The Clone/Kamino Arc: No CIS in the first episode, so no issue there. In 'Rookies' the CIS commando droids are preliminary successful, but eventually their entire plan goes awry thanks to the titular rookies and the sacrifice of Hevy. At best you can say that the commando droids are eerily effective. In 'ARC Troopers' it seems the entire attack on Kamino was a sham, considering the Sith could have easily gotten the clone DNA from the Kaminoans if they truly wanted it. And, of course, the sham attack failed.

'Cat and Mouse': Decisive Republican victory over Admiral Trench. That the guy later returns as a cyborg is clearly kind of a retcon. The implication in the episode is that he was killed. The CIS kind of has the upper hand in the beginning of the episode, but the point of my criticism is that we rarely, if ever, see how this came about.

[JGP]

I don't now if I'm ready for the season break of Andor.

Might put it off until I find my zen.

[Relic]

Season 1 of Andor is my favorite thing in the SW universe aside from ESB. It may not have some of the highs found the movies, but over all it was just a masterpiece of a first season. The adult Star Wars story I've been hoping for since I read the Zahn novels in high school. I had given up all hope after The Last Jedi, but Gilroy showed that it could, indeed, be done. Hopefully Disney is smart enough to see what they allowed to be created here, and they have people taking vigorous notes. 

 

10/10. 

[sifth]

On 11/16/2022 at 6:53 AM, sifth said:

Another Wednesday morning, another great episode. I'm gonna miss this show, after next week.

And I already do, lol

That was a dam good season final.

[Corvinus85]

FYI, there is an after credit scene (we learn what the Empire uses the stuff they were making in the prison ) I only know because I wanted to listen the magnificent soundtrack in the credits.

Strong season finale, with the highlight being the characters of Ferrix. Definitely agree that this is the best SW show and right now it's the best show of the year for me.