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

[Tyrosh Lannister]

That was pretty bland. Feels like nothing happened and no one's arc was closed. Cassian got into the Rebellion and that's pretty much it. Funeral was just another le hecking speech about how the Empire is le bad with over the top music swelling.

Action was not interesting. Death Troopers were a complete non-threat, they were just there to look cool for a couple of shots. Empire is completely incompetent . The fact that they let the hologram play for so long is hilarious. The fact that they have no ways of crowd control besides police shields and batons is hilarious. Stormtroopers can only shoot unarmed civilians confirmed. The Stormtrooper could have shot the bell tower guy from the ground instead of climbing all the way up. It doesn't make sense for Luthen to come looking for Andor when he just had a narrow escape from the Empire last episode. And to top that off he parks his ship in the same spot as last time. How did Andor find his ship ? Dedra should have looked into this Ferrix funeral custom for Maarva. She and the imperials should have examined the hologram tape that was scheduled to be played.

[sifth]

Anyone notice this week, that the Storm Troopers, were actually hitting their targets? Funny how it only took this small change, to make them scary, lol

[Ser Scot A Ellison]

1 hour ago, Corvinus85 said:

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.

The entire season has been about building tension.  You had the sub arcs and sub climaxes but it was all building to Maarva’s funeral and the defiance of Ferrix.  Beautiful story telling patiently executed with subtlety and grace.  
 

I’m so sad this will only be two seasons.  They absolutely should have given it five.  

(Learning what the prisoners were building was just the icing on the cake.)

[Ser Scot A Ellison]

1 hour ago, Tyrosh Lannister said:

That was pretty bland. Feels like nothing happened and no one's arc was closed. Cassian got into the Rebellion and that's pretty much it. Funeral was just another le hecking speech about how the Empire is le bad with over the top music swelling.

Action was not interesting. Death Troopers were a complete non-threat, they were just there to look cool for a couple of shots. Empire is completely incompetent . The fact that they let the hologram play for so long is hilarious. The fact that they have no ways of crowd control besides police shields and batons is hilarious. Stormtroopers can only shoot unarmed civilians confirmed. The Stormtrooper could have shot the bell tower guy from the ground instead of climbing all the way up. It doesn't make sense for Luthen to come looking for Andor when he just had a narrow escape from the Empire last episode. And to top that off he parks his ship in the same spot as last time. How did Andor find his ship ? Dedra should have looked into this Ferrix funeral custom for Maarva. She and the imperials should have examined the hologram tape that was scheduled to be played.

Go watch “Clone Wars” it will have all the “pew pew” you’re looking for… some Jar Jar too…

[Corvinus85]

1 hour ago, Tyrosh Lannister said:

That was pretty bland. Feels like nothing happened and no one's arc was closed. Cassian got into the Rebellion and that's pretty much it. Funeral was just another le hecking speech about how the Empire is le bad with over the top music swelling.

In terms of individual character arcs you can say there's wasn't much closure, but why would there be? In terms of narrative arcs, the Ferrix arc which started from episode 1 is now done. All the important characters left, the people of Ferrix have revolted though the Empire will likely crack down hard. The after credit scene (besides the reveal of the little components) is a subtle connection between what we know the Empire wants the Death Star for and the constants revolts they are dealing with as shown here.

1 hour ago, Tyrosh Lannister said:

Action was not interesting. Death Troopers were a complete non-threat, they were just there to look cool for a couple of shots. Empire is completely incompetent . The fact that they let the hologram play for so long is hilarious. The fact that they have no ways of crowd control besides police shields and batons is hilarious. Stormtroopers can only shoot unarmed civilians confirmed. The Stormtrooper could have shot the bell tower guy from the ground instead of climbing all the way up... Dedra should have looked into this Ferrix funeral custom for Maarva. She and the imperials should have examined the hologram tape that was scheduled to be played.

The Empire is not that incompetent, just often arrogant and complacent which has been a theme throughout the show. If they were, they wouldn't even have captured Bix in the first place. 

There were only two death troopers and were mainly there to protect Dedra. 

It would have served if there was a line thrown in there about the imperials being aware of the hologram but not realizing that the crafty people of Ferrix gave them only an edited version for review. Not much of the speech was offensive until Maarva mentioned the Empire and by then it was too late.

1 hour ago, Tyrosh Lannister said:

It doesn't make sense for Luthen to come looking for Andor when he just had a narrow escape from the Empire last episode. And to top that off he parks his ship in the same spot as last time. How did Andor find his ship ?

Why? The kill-Andor plot has been in play for a while and Luthen was deeply concerned about it. With so much imperial presence there, they needed an extra body to try to make it happen and get away and Luthen seems to be the most capable of his little group. The spot where he parked his ship had been established by his ship droid as a safe zone back in episode 3, no reason to change it. But Cassian remembered the spot so that's how he knew. A bigger question is how was Cassian able to get past the automated security. But I think that speaks to Cassian's skills, and one more reason for Luthen's decision at the end. That being said, I would have liked a longer dialogue scene between them.

Episode 10 remains the best for me, but this finale was by no means bland.

[Corvinus85]

It was a great idea to have Luthen there. He got to see on a localized scale the fruits of his labor. His face when he watched from a distance as the fighting was raging said it all.

[Ser Scot A Ellison]

Can anyone else see Val flipping out of bitterness?  She seems more committed to the idea of Cinta than Cinta herself.

[karaddin]

I thought the issues with the funeral made sense - the Ferrix ISB staff seemed to want a confrontation that they could crush which is why Dedra was needing to tell them to stay on mission, that they need Cassian alive. On the other hand Dedra doesn't give a shit about the local situation, so she's happy to let the funeral go further for the sake of trying to draw him out.

They knew intervention once it was underway would cause a riot, so they let the recording run until it crossed into explicit sedition at which point they triggered the riot. Essentially it resulted in them not fully committing to population control or the mission and they winded up blowing both, in part because they underestimated the level of opposition they'd been motivating.

[Ser Scot A Ellison]

4 minutes ago, karaddin said:

They knew intervention once it was underway would cause a riot, so they let the recording run until it crossed into explicit sedition at which point they triggered the riot. Essentially it resulted in them not fully committing to population control or the mission and they winded up blowing both, in part because they underestimated the level of opposition they'd been motivating

Imperial arrogance.  A theme running through the series.  They are competent… but extremely overconfident and complacent.  Deedra is one of the few who sees a real problem and she’s pissing against the wind to get her superiors to see it.

She’s interesting because she is more than just “competent” she’s really quite good at what she does… but her own success works against her because it undermines the Imperial sense of invulnerability and invincibility.  That’s why, even though she’s clearly invested in the “bad” side she is such a compelling character.

[Ran]

Wonderful episode. I loved Ferrix, the whole funeral sequence and Maarva's funeral speech really got me good. What a terrific show.  And all praise to Skarsgård -- the look on his face as he heard Maarva's speech and the reaction to it from the people of Ferrix, you could see it was a glimmer of hope that everything he was doing was meaningful and was going somewhere, that people were indeed starting to wake up to what the Empire was.

2 hours ago, Tyrosh Lannister said:

That was pretty bland. Feels like nothing happened and no one's arc was closed. Cassian got into the Rebellion and that's pretty much it.

For a show called Andor where Cassian Andor is the central character and much of the action revolves around him, this is actually the only arc that needs completing. The escape of Axis from the Imperials by way of the extraction of Bix before they got her to break and reveal anything about his appearance was also pretty important, but it's pretty obvious that Luthen's efforts (and his inevitable, eventual downfall) is part of the long-term storytelling of the series.

ETA: Also liked Mon's story, where we can fit the pieces together -- her accusation about gambling shows she'd decided that she had to make her deal's devil with Davo, because that's the sort of thing he deals in, and knew the ISB would hear of it and assume that explained everything, and oh, there she is having her private meeting with Davo and his young son being introduced to her eligible daughter... Good stuff.

 

[Werthead]

Great season overall, but the finale was somewhat disappointing. Not terrible, but a bit rote compared to the rest of the season? I felt this episode was very predictable and most of the twists I saw coming, apart from Mon Mothma scapegoating her husband for her gambling problems. That was quite amusing.

[Ser Scot A Ellison]

2 minutes ago, Werthead said:

Great season overall, but the finale was somewhat disappointing. Not terrible, but a bit rote compared to the rest of the season? I felt this episode was very predictable and most of the twists I saw coming, apart from Mon Mothma scapegoating her husband for her gambling problems. That was quite amusing.

She’s setting Perrin up to explain the missing 400K credits?

[Werthead]

Just now, Ser Scot A Ellison said:

She’s setting Perrin up to explain the missing 400K credits?

100%

She knows the driver is an ISB spy (as she said in the second episode) so she deliberately discusses the matter, knowing the driver will overhear it.

[Ran]

Setting up and setting up -- it's more that he's the explanation. The Imperials won't really care about it so long as they "know" that her transactions are about her husband's gambling. Like, in the end they may use the threat of "exposing" his gambling as to get Mon Mothma to vote how they want or stay silent on something, I suspect, but right now she's put them off the scent. 

[Ser Scot A Ellison]

7 minutes ago, Werthead said:

100%

She knows the driver is an ISB spy (as she said in the second episode) so she deliberately discusses the matter, knowing the driver will overhear it.

Thing is it sounds like Deedra’s nemesis at the ISB is only getting… more… interested in Mon Mothma’s finances based upon that discussion not less.

As though he could use the information to gain leverage over Mon Mothma.

[IFR]

6 hours ago, Relic said:

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. 

Seriously, I hope that this is a model that Disney can get behind. Give talented creators control to do their own thing in the Star Wars universe. It doesn't have to be a large budget or anything. But it would be fascinating to see what someone like David Simon would do with Star Wars (I know, he would never be interested, but it's a fun hypothetical).

Disney can still churn out the vapid stuff. Draw the larger, typical Star Wars audience that enjoys subjecting themselves to shows like Obi-Wan Kenobi, and then draw in a different demographic by producing shows that have a reputation for quality entertainment (in the vein of Andor). It seems like a good way to get more subscribers.

[Ran]

Well, the word from Bob Iger is that giving more control to creatives is part of his plan for Disney going forward, now that he's CEO again... so hopefully we'll get our wish. I just want more good stuff, and I think having more variety than just the Filoni/Favreau flavor of Star Wars is a good thing. 

Personally, what I still would love to see is Disney do some foreign language Star Wars shows. What would a Korean director and cast do with it? What would Zhang Yimou and a Chinese cast do with it? What sort of story could Wong Kar-wai make in the Star Wars universe? How about Kunle Afolayan filming something in Nollywood, or Takeshi Kitano or Takashi Miike in Japan? What could a Bollywood Star Wars film be like? Or some up-and-coming Latin American director?  And so on and so forth.

The Star Wars Visions was a great step forward, but an animated anthology show is just that, a step forward. I'd love to see them take the leap and actually open the door to the whole globe. As Netflix has shown with things like Squid Games and Money Heist can be huge, global hits despite the alleged "language barrier". In fact, somewhere or other was a recent article about the fact that English-speaking audiences are increasingly watching foreign-language fare.

 

[Jaxom 1974]

Damn. 

Honestly, I thought the tension leading up to the riot, and subsequently during it, was more intense then the prison break. 

I do hope season 2 has more focus on Mon Motha and the growth of the Alliance. (Would a Jimmy Smits cameo have been a crime this season...?)

[Ran]

7 minutes ago, Jaxom 1974 said:

(Would a Jimmy Smits cameo have been a crime this season...?)

I wonder if Luthen forging an Alderaan transponder code will be followed up as a possible lead in the interim and that gets us a Bael Organa cameo.

[Corvinus85]

This show didn't have the desire to shoehorn in big cameos. Saw Guerera was as far as they went and that served a good purpose. If they did have that desire, I would have expected a live-action cameo from one of the Rebels characters since their cell was operating by now, possibly sans Ezra. And Ahsoka will have some of these characters in it.