Star Wars: Andor - Disney+ - September 21, 2022

[Porthos]

18 minutes ago, Menor Reborn said:

You haven't played KOTOR? Did you try it and it wasn't your thing, or just haven't played at all? If the latter, I'd recommend giving it a shot, it's a great game even if dated. 

 

Not really my thing.  Am currently making my way through the Fallout games though (on 4, heavily heavily heavily modded), so maybe one day.  

[MrPink]

23 minutes ago, Porthos said:

 

Not really my thing.  Am currently making my way through the Fallout games though (on 4, heavily heavily heavily modded), so maybe one day.  

 

Join with the KOTOR remake, if it ever comes out.

 

This show is great, easily better than all the other shows so far.

[Porthos]

14 minutes ago, MrPink said:

 

Join with the KOTOR remake, if it ever comes out.

 

I was thinking along those lines already.  Got a yuge backlog of big titles to go through anyway, so it might actually be out by the time I'd be ready to get to it (I usually play in the CRPG or 4X arena, but I've been taking a bit of a break from them for some spice of life; but I'll probably be headed back that way when I'm done with FO4).

[Ozymandias]

show is good, mind blown

[Kalo]

This is the Star Wars I've been waiting for! it's so good. Ep 4 being my favorite so far (Minor Spoilers ahead): LOVED finally seeing Imperial Era Coruscant. don't know why it took them sooo long to see the center of The Empire.  And Mon Montha's backstory basically about shepherding the start of the Rebellion, I ate up every scene with her. I only hope it dives in deep enough. I'm really interested to see where Syril Karn's story goes. one of the most interesting original character's I've seen in a while.

[4815162342]

I am torn whether Mr. Mothma is actually an idiot fop appeaser who just wants to host dinner parties for important people because it gets him high society perks or

 

Spoiler

It is all an act and he's doing the dinner parties because he secretly suspects his wife is up to something and hosting the parties throws some suspicion off her since she is associating with Imp Stooges and allows her to learn things she might otherwise not by being in the company of Empire People, and he's putting on the act even for her in order to sell it.

 

I think the show is going with the first option, but the second option would be really cool if they are able to pull it off convincingly.

[Cap]

I can’t fucking believe they made me sit through years of skywalkers in the desert WHEN THEY WERE HOLDING OUT ON MONEY MOTHMA AND HER HUSBAND

[Porthos]

You know what's one of the things I really love about this show?

 

How utterly confident it is in its storytelling.  It's a subtle thing, and one I'm not sure I can exactly explain or point to examples of what I am talking about, but there is just a self-assurance that's damn close to a swagger in how it is presenting its story.  

 

There's no hesitancy whatsoever, I suppose is the closest I can come to explaining what I'm sensing.  It's not afraid at all to not just have little character moments, but have those little character moments be the defining purpose of a scene.

 

It's also impeccably edited (so far).  Not a single wasted scene or shot.  No shortcuts whatsoever in the telling of its story (which is my bugaboo recently).  It's also not afraid at all to just tell stories on separate tracks and let us draw whatever conclusions we want.

 

No hand holding.  No over-explaining.  Just methodically telling a story.

 

God damn is it refreshing to watch.

 

(it helps that this sort of "stale beer" spycraft is right up my alley)

Edited October 5, 2022 by Porthos

[Porthos]

Also vaguely non-spoilerish comment.

 

I guess we can see why Syril turned out the way he did. 

 

[Liiviig 1998]

Very good setup episode. We got more time with the crew which I liked.

Cassian was really good in this episode and had some really impactful dialogue.

 

My only complaint is that I wanted more of luthian real in this episode.

 

Yeah syril and his mum made me chuckle quite abit.

 

 

[Inceptionzq]

I love all the time we’re spending with the characters and the development they’re getting. The show just leaves me wanting more and more in such a good way. All the different motivations within the heist group was great.

 

This episode did a great job with the buildup. You can feel the tension in the episode. I think the best thing this episode does is give us a complete mini arc, although it really started in the previous episode.

Spoiler

The heist group and Cassian don’t trust each other to begin, for good reason. By the end of this episode, the group at least accepts Cassian, and maybe even starts to trust him after he was finally honest. Especially with Skeen.

It was something I expected from this episode, but it is done really well.

 

As for some of the other storylines

Spoiler

Yeah just take over a hotel(?) as your HQ on Ferrix. It’s bad enough to that the Empire is establishing their presence there, but to establish in the middle of the town while hurting some civilians’ livelihood? Seems like a bad idea

 

I kinda feel bad for Syril Karn… Unsurprisingly, he seems to blame Cassian for his fall. I assume he’ll pursue him, and I’m excited for that. 

 

Mon Mothma’s foundation is definitely partly a front for Rebellion funds, no?

Man I just love this show so much. Can’t wait for next week

[Knights of Ren]

Another great episode.  This show continues to impress on all fronts and the score is amazing 

[Menor the Destroyer]

Yep, another high-quality episode, really excited to see the conclusion of the arc next week. This is how you do setup episodes and still make them interesting. 

[Kalo]

On 10/5/2022 at 4:06 AM, Porthos said:

Also vaguely non-spoilerish comment.

 

I guess we can see why Syril turned out the way he did. 

 

 

I'm honestly not sure he is evil. he is  company man who prided himself of righting the wrong of his fallen employees. I think he will probably go after Andor and possibly Join the empire. but what if he actually ends up joining the rebel alliance?? maybe after joining the empire...  

[Porthos]

33 minutes ago, Kalo said:

 

I'm honestly not sure he is evil. he is  company man who prided himself of righting the wrong of his fallen employees. I think he will probably go after Andor and possibly Join the empire. but what if he actually ends up joining the rebel alliance?? maybe after joining the empire...  

 

Something about "the road to hell" comes to mind here.

 

Not that I disagree with you, as he isn't EEEEEEEEVIIILLL.  But I also think he's been set up with enough character flaws that I don't see him doing a Face Heel Turn  quite yet. Not until/unless he gets his eyes opened a bit as just to what the Empire is up to and why the Rebels are forming.

 

What they have done is humanize him, and thus make him relatable.  But I tend to think he's gonna spiral down the "This man ruined my life, so I'm going to hunt him down" obsession path as that seems to fit the character archetype a bit more.  But, who knows! Plenty of ways he could still jump.

[Kalo]

9 minutes ago, Porthos said:

 

Something about "the road to hell" comes to mind here.

 

Not that I disagree with you, as he isn't EEEEEEEEVIIILLL.  But I also think he's been set up with enough character flaws that I don't see him doing a Face Heel Turn  quite yet. Not until/unless he gets his eyes opened a bit as just to what the Empire is up to and why the Rebels are forming.

 

What they have done is humanize him, and thus make him relatable.  But I tend to think he's gonna spiral down the "This man ruined my life, so I'm going to hunt him down" obsession path as that seems to fit the character archetype a bit more.  But, who knows! Plenty of ways he could still jump.

 

Yeah I think he could easily go there and it can be done well. but I think it would be interesting to see a redemption arch of from one of the baddies here. he is definitely not a good guy, but he has such good character work and acting from this guy I could see him going anywhere. and he is kind of a victims of his circumstances, even though he so far seems to have chosen the wrong path. 

[Porthos]

9.995/10

 

Spoiler

0.005 taken off for

Spoiler

Black Dude Dies First.

 

2022 and still happening occasionally.  No other comments on that.  Just a faint whiff of disapproval from me.

 

Eta: and to be clear, I'm talking about Tamaryn dying and not Gorn — though it could also apply to him — but I was mostly focusing on the first member of the actual rebel squad to die as opposed to the inside man/sympathizer, as with that role dying really doesn't fit the bill.

 

 

Aside from that, damn near perfection.  Sheer perfection, IMO.

 

Have to admit the episode surprised me one more than one occasion, even if everything made perfect sense in hindsight.

 

More later, but behind elsewhere, so it'll have to wait.

Edited October 12, 2022 by Porthos

[Inceptionzq]

Man this show is so good

Spoiler

Can’t wait for Cassian to read the manifesto… RIP Nemik

[Porthos]

Damnit.  Accidentally wiped out a post that was positively gushing about a smartly written bit about this show.

 

fuck fuck fuck fuck       

 

Gonna try and reconstruct it/summarize it (though since I was In The Zone, I know I won't really be able to)

[Porthos]

48 minutes ago, Inceptionzq said:

Man this show is so good

 

So so sooooo good.

 

Like I did not see

Spoiler

the disintegration of the nascent rebel cell coming.

 

At all.

 

But in hindsight it the seeds were planted there and just waiting to sprout.

 

Along those lines, there's a very smart piece of writing that I want to highlight (enough so that I'm trying to redo my thoughts on this though it's not as well as I originally had)

Spoiler

I also did not see

 

"I don't have a brother"

 

coming.  At all.  But, damn if it wasn't perfectly executed.

 

The smart piece of writing here is that Skeen opened up to Cassian in the first place because he outed Cassian as a merc.  Skeen thought Cassian was just in this for the money, so why wouldn't Cassian be tempted/go along with the offer?

 

The problem here, for Skeen at least, is that he misread Cassian's biggest motivation during this entire operation: Walk Out Alive.

 

And that proved to be a fatal miscalculation on Skeen's part.

 

It's not that Cassian Andor didn't want money.  He made sure he got his cut, after all.  But we knew that money wasn't a driving motivation for him like it might be for others in his shoes, as seen by his reaction to the kyber crystal. 

 

No, what Cassian Andor wanted above all else was to make sure he was still breathing by the end of it.

 

(the second biggest motivation was probably still having his self-respect at the end — which is another way Skeen completely misread Cassian)

 

The ironic thing here is, if Skeen never pressed the issue of Cassian's motivations in the first place (seeing if he was indeed in it for the money like he thought), he never would have tried to rope in Cassian if the opportunity presented itself.  He most likely would have just shot Cassian, taken out Val, and [tried to] spirit off with the money on his own.

 

(that it's likely he doesn't know the first thing about properly laundring thatmuch money further reinforces how shortsighted Skeen really was)

 

There's more I can say about this scene (and trust me, it was better the first time I tried to post this), but I really wanted to highlight the above.

 

====

 

This episode really was fantastic.  Tense and taught.  Beautifully shot and directed.  Expertly written.  Just a gem through and through.

 

Even the little moments like the festival singing?  Sublime.

 

Finally, I do want to make sure to point out that once again even in a more action packed episode like this, it's taking time to show little scenes here and there that flesh out the characters and make them feel real.

 

Spoiler

Things like Luthen's glee at the end and establishing the family dynamics for that Imperial Commander (Leonart).  All it took was one scene and it just sold the stakes and made me care about what happened.

 

Just utterly fantastic stuff.