The Series is now over. we can now officially declare we avoided it! Not one Jedi, not one sith, not one appearance of Vader of the emperor, not one lightsaber, not one physical manifestation of “The Force”. They actually did Star wars with zero bullshit.
These couple of weeks, Hexbear has been full of Andor posts. Considering these last 3 episodes were probably the best television I’ve ever seen in my life, I figure there are gonna be a lot of people who want to share their thoughts on the finale.
I’ll be honest, until episode 10, I thought Season 2 wasn’t for me. it’s wasn’t bad but I just felt it didn’t have the punch of Season 1. that season gave us novel tropes like a gold heist, a prison break, a riot, etc. season 2 was a more character focused set up for rogue one.
but the last 3 episodes, they changed everything. every minute was amazing.
Andor is often called perfect for someone who doesn’t think they like star wars. If it was just a standalone sci-fi spy thriller, it would be still be the best thing on television, but what’s truly the crowning accomplishment is that if you do know a lot about star wars, it somehow becomes ever better. This show redeems other media in this franchise. it redeems rogue one, it even strengthens Episode 4.
How much the destruction of the death star cost. In episode 4, the audience is shown “It was a longshot, but somehow a backwater orphan pilot managed to score the killing shot and destroy the battle station.”
in Rogue One, they’re shown “Okay, it was an even longer shot than that, because before they got to that point, they had to do a big adventure culiminating in getting the plans off Scarif with just seconds to spare”
And I always thought that was sort of weak, because it’s a work of fiction. fiction naturally collects around the execution of extremely lucky acts. how ever unlikely their success was is ultimately arbitrary, they can always be written to succeed in spite of the odds.
But it’s not about their luck, it’s about their sophistication. it’s that the rebels were doing all of these things collectively and competently, that they had become what they needed to be at their finest hour, and all the contributions, all the sacrifices of every single character all lead to this being possible.
Or I’m just high an none of this makes sense.
Hey, uh, what do I watch after this ends? I’m on the final episode and am supposed to be making mushroom soup.
Read the YA book “rebel rising” which is about Jyn. It peters off, but the first half 2/3 is focused on her and Saw and is fucking fantastic. Pretty much letting Saw proselytize about how a rebellion requires violence and that people will only fight once the empire has created a pile of bodies so high it dwarfs them, and someone needs to create that be it dead imps those fighting back cause, or civilians the empire slaughters, but either way the rebellion will stand atop corpses. The latter half is weak teen romance, though then it picks back up with Jyn depressed in prison and waiting for death. That shit gets dark for a star wars novel
If you want more Andor…
Motorcycle Diaries, then Che part 1/2.
Clearly it’s too late now, but I think the answer is to just jump into watching A New Hope.
click here to read my proselytizing about the Rogue One novelization, which I do every time the film is mentioned
I think the best way to experience Rogue One is to listen to the audiobook. The book papers over the worst parts of the movie and adds some much-needed dimensions to Jyn Erso, and I really like the audiobook narrator they got for it. But then I am biased because of course I saw the movie first. I had already experienced the performances. Do Saw Guerra and Orson Krennic really work on the page if you’ve never seen Forrest Whittaker and Ben Mendelsohn’s performances? I’ll never know. Then again we get some of Galen(Jyn’s father, the scientist)'s POV and I think the character is much stronger in the book than the film, ditto for nearly all the characters but Galen and Jyn especially, so maybe it all balances out.
michael clayton
Rogue One, then Columbo. Unless your dog just passed away last week and you can’t watch the scenes with Dog without bawling your eyes out
I’m halfway through Rogue One and the characterisation is so different. Also, the story mainly revolves around non-Force Rey. Not sure what’s up with the Death Star only destroying a city when the whole point is to keep it secret. Very plot.
Krennic is kinda similar, but he’s more of a power tripping asshole in Andor as he’s the most institutionally powerful person in the story. Also barely shows up in Andor.
I think Tony Gilroy worked a lot better without the constraints of the Disney movie police. Everything is very cartoony in Rogue One.
He didn’t do most of the writing they brought him in at the end to fix it up and someone else directed (Gareth Edwards).
Parts that are good are probably Gilroy, he cut the romance between Jyn and Erso and pushed to have them all die.
Pretty sure they mention it was a low-power test, and they immediately blame it on a ‘mining accident’.
Yes, I thought that explanation seemed papered on. But idk, it’s the Empire and no one ever said fascists were particularly good at thinking their enemies were competent.
Tarkin has been itching to use the Death Star for 20 years at that point and wanted to try out the wunderwaffen
the bourne identity
Rogue One is next chronologically, but I wouldn’t say it shares much with Andor apart from the characters.
Jenny Nicholson pretty much mirrors all the thoughts I had when Rogue One came out, and this is coming from someone who really liked The Force Awakens
Lol @2:15 “Man, it’s starting to feel like all the interesting stuff in Rogue One happened before Rogue One, maybe we need a prequel to Rogue One? Just kidding.” Perfection.
Rogue One is a land of contrasts. It could be the best film ever and it still would be the first time anyone used CGI to resurrect a non consenting dead actor tainting it morally.
But it’s also got wretched vibes at points, kind of orientalist with the force sensitive monk guy, kind of racist in the way Saw’s faction when not scary aliens are dark skinned and terrorist coded, compared to the pasty Yavin 4 crew. Kind of lib too.
And the first 2/3rds is kind of janky, a series of disconnected vignettes, some good, some meh.
But the last 1/3rd is pretty fantastic star wars, the jumping between Jyn and Cassian infiltration, the battle on the ground with the rebels trying to sow confusion, the battle in space, the U-wings and X-Wings racing through the closing shield gate to give support even though it’s a suicide mission with no way back. All really great.
Also the film does a lot to show how the rebellion is an alliance with factions that coalesce and fragment given the circumstances, which makes the original trilogy make more sense. And Andor then expanded on.