Spoilers Andor - Season 2

[David cgc]

Even more than their tactics I think it was personality thing.

Like Saw and Luthen were my way or the highway assholes who never played nice with others. Even more than just blowing stuff up and killing people, they didn't tell other people what they were doing which is kind of a breaking point when you're putting together a Rebel Alliance. Both seem to come from a place of paranoia and the secrecy needed to operate with the resources they had at the time. Saw's pretty straight forward with this, and we see the part where he realizes the error of his ways shortly before his death in Rogue One.

Luthen's a bit more complex though, he worked so hard to bring different rebel cells together into his network in the first place. It seems like he always intended for the Rebellion to outgrow his network, and he was always so fatalistic, I almost wonder if it a bit of ego where he was trying to ensure they didn't become dependent on him, and tthat his operatives would go on to do more once he was gone.

I think it helps that Saw wasn’t always as paranoid as he was in R1. The whole plot is set in motion because Saw and Galen were true friends, Saw helped Galen and his family escape Coruscant and go into hiding, and Saw saved Jyn with no practical benefit, so when Galen made his move, he sent his agent directly to Saw because he’d proven he could be trusted implicitly.

Luthen, on the other hand, didn’t show the same kind of loyalty to his allies and agents, and it cost him. He destroyed his relationship with Mon by not even trying to find a way to keep Tay alive. He most assuredly did not smuggle Lonni and his family off Coruscant, and I guarantee you that Orson Krennic would not have personally tracked the family Jung to the end of space with a squadron of Death Troopers to get him back. I think that goes more to his motivation than his desire to foster the Rebellion by ensuring he’d grow into a liability rather than a messiah. Luthen was driven by hate, but, like the tagline says, rebellions are built on hope. Killing a bunch of pricks piecemeal is a start, it punctures the aura of invincibility a dictatorship uses to protect itself from opposition, but it won’t destroy the Empire spiritually in a way that crumbles the institution and gives rise to something better.

 

[Set Harth]

and not only that, but Jedi: Fallen Order reveals that they were already working on turning Illum into Starkiller Base before A New Hope.

Didn't the Ahsoka novel already go there?

( I have to wonder how the existence of Ilum fits into Andor/R1's focus of "they need Jedha for kyber". )

 

[Crewman6]

I'm pretty sure this was a scheduling issue and not necessarily a creative choice. Alan Tudyk is pretty busy with Resident Alien right now, so he probably was he didn't have a lot of time for Andor. And I'm fine with that, given the choice I'd much rather have more Harry Vanderspeigle than more K2. K2 is fun, but Harry is the best role that Tudyk's career, and the fact the he hasn't any Emmy's yet or even been nominated, is just ridiculous.

Tony Gilroy is now on record as saying they wanted to use K2 sparingly for numerous reasons: You can't really bring along a hulking Imperial droid on most undercover missions and having him around while he's so powerful gets the characters out of danger too easily.

 

[Set Harth]

Episode 10 is pure perfection.

 

[Crewman6]

By the way, one of the other things I'm very grateful for this show doing is that it didn't find it necessary to needlessly kill off its supporting characters.

I was worried that, since so many important characters don't appear in canon in the events we know take place after the show's timeline, that there would be a huge body count. Perhaps even borrowing from Rogue One and killing all of the supporting characters.

So I'm very relieved that Vel and Kleya and Wilmon and Bix are all still alive and kicking at the show's conclusion. Obviously, not everyone made it out alive. Luthen's death was pretty much always a fait accompli and there were some shocking losses like Brasso.

But at least the show didn't feel it necessary to clean house just because we technically never saw Vel on Yavin or whatever.

 

[cooleddie74]

Talk about a deep visual cut.

 

[Yistaan]

Perrin and Leida getting off is actually a new canon thing I just realized. In Legends Captain Needa ("Apology accepted Captain Needa" from ESB) had his entire family wiped out by Imperial order after his failure. In Legends Mon's daughter and son (who doesn't exist in the new canon) fled with her to the Rebellion and no husband is ever mentioned.

Palpatine in Canon is even nicer than Gowron, who pretty much stripped Kurn of everything once Worf spoke out against him in DS9.

 

[Tosk]

Talk about a deep visual cut.

It's funny, I remember getting some mild THX vibes but I never considered it was such a specific recreation.

 

[cooleddie74]

 

[Newt]

This has already been covered by several comics, books, and at least one game.

Not really my thing. I tried a Star Wars book years ago. Couldn’t get into it.
For me Star Wars is a visual concept and belongs on the cinema screen. Or tv shows if done well.

I know the books comic and video games have filled in almost all the cracks. And it appeals to many fans. And there have been times things have been lifted from the books and animated shows into shows and movies.
So I’m not knocking it. But I’d rather have my Star Wars live action.

 

[Set Harth]

I like how Luthen's real name is Lear so he just spelled it backwards.

 

[fireproof78]

The sequel "Just Keep Swimming" is more memorable.

I like how Luthen's real name is Lear so he just spelled it backwards.

How else do you expect a king to hide amongst common folk?

 

[Yistaan]

An interview with Bratt is up: https://ew.com/andor-benjamin-bratt-weighs-in-playing-bail-organa-again-11733565 . Say what you will about his performance as Bail (I blame the writing more than Bratt) but Benjamin knows his stuff. He even pointed out to Gilroy that Organa is a longtime friend of Mothma's going back to the Clone Wars and should've been at the wedding scenes but by the time Bratt came on board it was too late to add him in. Guess Bratt should've been on the writing team from the start, Gilroy.

 

[Set Harth]

I don't see how it was too late if the wedding shoot was at the end of the schedule.

 

[Jedman67]

A few thoughts:

I loved Mandalorian. Yeah, S3 got a little cheesy. A couple of eps in S1 & 2 were skippable.
Ahsoka was pretty balanced and did the campy stuff with a very light touch.
Kenobi and BoBF were a mess.
The High Republic tried so hard and got so far, but in the end it didn't even matter.

Conclusion: Don't take away my campy Mandos and Jedi Star Wars. We need the crunchy, campy spaghetti westerns and space battles as much as we need the political intrigue.

Where Andor succeeded critically is due the writing and the investment of the showrunners to deliver a tightly written, character driven, solid story with barely any plot holes.

What I want is the new seasons of Ahsoka and Mando is to have stronger character motivation, more tightly written. I don't want Ahsoka turning into a slow burn political intrigue, I want it to explore the Mortis gods and the space whales and Thrawn and all that. But don't dumb it down for the audience. Let it build, make it shine. Prove that campy Star Wars can be just as good.

 

[Starkers]

So those episodes were superb, I can see what people mean about the last episode mainly setting everything up for Rogue One but I don't seem that as a huge issue, I think as many people would have been annoyed if the show hadn't run straight into R1.

I managed to avoid most spoilers except I did see photos of Bix and the baby.

The scene between Dedra and Luthen was superb, although she should have just gone in mob handed and stunned him straight away. Her smugness cost her everything.

I'd have been massively surprised in Luthen had made it out of the show alive but the nature of his death surprised me. The flashbacks were interesting and it was nice to see their history.

Kleya's one woman assault on the hospital was awesome. I liked as well that it was Vel who reached out to her on Yavin given they'd never been close.

Not sure if anyone else thought this, but the scene with Dedra and Krennic felt like a call back to season 1 with Syril in that interrogation room. When Krennic left I half expected Dedra to shout "I was a good deputy inspector!"

Dedra's comeuppance was perfect, even better than being sent to the Death Star. I do wonder if you'd really place a person with a lot of sensitive information in her head, including the existence of the Death Star into gen pop however!

I don't agree it's necessarily the end for her. The prisoners could get busted out by a Rebel attack, and even if it's not till after Endor, presumably the prisons will be closed eventually. For all we know she's in there under a fake name.

There's also the old "We have a dangerous mission and need someone expendable" option.

It's not beyond the realms of possibility that she winds up an officer in the First Order.

Quick question, when Cassian had the dream about a little girl(?) was that his sister or was it a Force prophesy or his child?

Also so Perrin wound up with his daughter's mother in law?

I'm going to watch Rogue One tonight. I'm a little wary because I've never been the biggest fan of it (fills a plot hole that didn't need filling and created new plot holes in the process) but suspect I might see it in a whole new light (and I don't hate it, in fact after Solo and The Rise of Skywalker it definitely went up in my estimation)

I know people are saying Rogue One is episode 13 but actually given it's length, and the length of some Andor episodes, you could almost watch it in three parts and call it episode 13/14/15

Anyway, I loved it. Just sad it's over.

 

[marillion]

Ok... Am I crazy or was the name of the supervisor/inspector in the final episodes, Piett, as in Admiral Piett? I could swear that's what they call him, but I don't see him listed in any credits.

 

[Yistaan]

Ok... Am I crazy or was the name of the supervisor/inspector in the final episodes, Piett, as in Admiral Piett? I could swear that's what they call him, but I don't see him listed in any credits.

Lagret

 

[cooleddie74]

Ok... Am I crazy or was the name of the supervisor/inspector in the final episodes, Piett, as in Admiral Piett? I could swear that's what they call him, but I don't see him listed in any credits.

Heert, wasn't it? But yeah, he looked a lot like Kenneth Colley with those big eyes. I was wondering if that was supposed to be him or a family member.

 

[Crewman6]

Not really my thing. I tried a Star Wars book years ago. Couldn’t get into it.

Consider yourself lucky. I read 3-4 star wars books and, granted, it was a long time ago. But they were among the books most beloved by fans.

And they were absolutely terrible.

I've read a few of the comics, some from the prequel era and a few from the post-Disney era.

They were....fine. But didn't inspire me to keep up with them.

For me Star Wars is a visual concept and belongs on the cinema screen. Or tv shows if done well.

Completely agree.