A Deep Dive Into the Brilliance of Andor Part 1 - Narrative Structure

and or shouldn't exist oh uh what a way to start a video about how much you love something hmm let me elaborate Andor is a show that managed to be so unfathomably amazing despite all the odds being stacked against it that I can't believe it exists at all on paper the concept behind Andor sounds like the worst possible idea imaginable and the type of risk that Disney would never go for a full 12 episode Disney plus series about a rebellious scoundrel from a spin-off movie that I hardly remember outside of that one cool part where Darth Vader kills those dudes in a dark hallway I clapped when I saw Darth Vader where we follow this scoundrel's rise to the Forefront of the Rebellion immediately preceding the events of Rogue one a show nobody asked for or anticipated and that even fewer knew existed until days after its release because Disney had no idea how to Market it in a way that would make it appear both narratively original but also achingly familiar to those hoping for more of the same a show that Disney had no real reason to invest or place its faith in as to date the only tool at Disney's disposal terms of marketing new live-action films and series was borrowing from the past and fueling those inner Nostalgia neurons and eventually that would lead on to the entire Foundation of how they would produce content when it came to the sequel Trilogy a Trilogy that ultimately had almost nothing original to say and entirely relied upon established characters and lore to carry the weight of its massive load of I mean uh disappointment and So speaking personally coming off of the fact that there hasn't been a live-action Star Wars adaptation I've walked away feeling generally satisfied with since 2005 and I was still preoccupied with washing the bad taste of the Obi-Wan series out of my mouth you could imagine that my expectations going into Andor could not have possibly been any lower now I must clarify right at the start here that my involvement with the Star Wars franchise as a whole is relatively limited only to the video games and live action films in series I've never engaged with any of the Comics animated series audiobooks or various other infinite extensions of the franchise and so in this video I'll be discussing and or strictly within the confines of its own existence as a cinematic construct and relative to live-action Star Wars adaptations there may be Star Wars properties out there infinitely better than Andor that I simply haven't watched or read and perhaps I'll get to enjoy those one day as well but speaking purely in terms of a complete Mastery of filmmaking craftsmanship and or may very well be the best thing the Star Wars franchise has ever produced now I realize that immediately may be taken as a bit of a controversial statement and of course draw immediate comparisons between it and the original trilogy however I say this in the context of considering that what George Lucas created is perfect for what it was going for as a Sci-Fi Space Opera epic and nothing will ever tarnish that retroactively but Andor is a perfect encapsulation of what Star Wars can be going into the future perhaps the first true extension of the Star Wars universe that produces something wholly original not relying on the past and Shameless Nostalgia bait to propel its own narrative and absolutely Nails the execution at every possible turn a perfect culmination of everything from direction to set design to even the writing which is an exceptionally rare feat for Star Wars these days firing on all cylinders in a way that Star Wars never really has since the original trilogy it is so outlandishly and bizarrely deliberate and calculated in its creation as a standalone piece of media that I struggle to even characterize it as a Star Wars series although it features some familiar elements obviously based in the Star Wars Universe Andor is not a Star Wars series at its core it is a war drama a political thriller an examination of loss sacrifice deception and morality that lingers in the mind and reaches beyond what a Star Wars series has any right to deliver the foundation of this being constructed as a Star Wars series actually ironically somewhat hampers the degree of serious consideration the series has been given as many like myself were likely driven away at first by the idea of yet another Star Wars series delivering more of the same through a vastly uninteresting concept and many more either stopped watching early on because they didn't get more of the same and misclassified the series as boring or watched the entire thing and merely characterized it as entertaining then forgot about it entirely shortly thereafter Andor is more than mere entertainment and as someone who is relished in the mediocrity of the Star Wars franchise for years because there was simply nothing better to latch onto I can't properly describe how gratifying it is to say that this franchise finally managed to produce something outside the original trilogy that is able to stand out as a singular Masterpiece irrespective of its relation to an established Universe something that could potentially go on to cement the Star Wars legacy Beyond its humble beginnings and paves the way toward a brighter future for the series as a whole because Andor isn't just a great Star Wars series it is one of the greatest series produced in the past several years that desperately deserves to break outside of the preconceived notions that many have when perceiving it as just another Star Wars series so that it may finally emerge into the light as The Magnificent Standalone piece of media that it is and so today let's get into examining what makes Andor so fascinating as we undergo a deep dive into the Brilliance of Andor [Applause] [Music] thank you [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] starting off here I do want to say that providing a summary of each episode in the season may seem a bit redundant for those of you who have seen them but being able to analyze the Brilliance of Andor in full sort of requires touching on a lot of the smaller details that some may have missed out on or forgotten about as I did after my first viewing and I also hope that this approach may help this analysis serve as an interesting case study and exceptional writing for a blockbuster series for those who ultimately choose not to view the series in Full though I can't imagine why that ever be the case go watch the series youth in its first season and or Premiere 12 episodes divided into several three-episode arcs sort of the first three episodes serve as one Arc that I'll refer to as the origins Arc episodes four through six I'll refer to as the aldani heist Arc episode 7 is Standalone episodes 8 through 10 are the prison Arc and episodes 11 and 12 are a self-contained two-part conclusion the big appeal and draw to the series was its Market ambitious scope of telling the story in these unique three-episode arcs with a finite beginning middle and end however not all episodes fit neatly into an arc and certain elements naturally spill over between them with that being said this approach works out exceptionally well in terms of the narrative's pacing instead of dragging out a single story or plot line over the course of 12 episodes it basically anthologizes is that even a word The Narrative into predefined shorter story arcs that each manage to capture a unique setting tone and atmosphere if you don't exactly jive with one chances are high you'll find something to enjoy about another these arcs allow for just enough time to develop the stakes and characters leading up to the explosive conclusion for you to be invested in what's happening without ever really becoming bored or making it feel as though the series is running out of steam there is an assurance that even if a particular episode is a bit slower it is always in service of building towards something greater soon to come much to the surprise of any Star Wars fan I'd imagine there is actually relatively little visual spectacle and bombastic operatic action going on throughout most of Andor some episodes don't even feature a single action sequence and instead predicate themselves on nothing more than dialogue character or plot development although this runs the risk of fading the interest of any prospective viewer of the series expecting more traditional Star Wars fare I can assure you that the exceptional pacing and quality writing overall keeps the series from ever feeling stagnant or dull each episode features several interesting characters and plot threads which slowly wind together and unravel as the narrative progresses which does wonders for keeping the viewer invested as there is always a lot going on and yet it all manages to feel interconnected rather than scattered or convoluted starting with the origins Arc in episodes one through three we open with our protagonist Cassian Andor on a planet called morlana one which features a very stylized almost cyberpunk or neo-noir aesthetic he's looking into a lead on the whereabouts of his sister who he was separated from years prior on his home planet of qunari two primoor Enforcement Officers end up tailing Cassian from the bar he's in and decide to harass and mug him in a clear abuse of their power and Cassian being the rebellious scoundrel that he is decides to take matters into his own hands and attempts to fight back against the officers during the scuffle Cassian accidentally kills one of the officers and then proceeds to murder the other officer in Cold Blood so that there are no Witnesses this is the inciting incident of the entire story and I must admit I was already settled into a bit of an expectation of disappointment with it Andor was heavily marketed as Star Wars for adults where morality is not black and white but rather Shades of Gray and I can't tell you how many times this marketing tactic has been used by Star Wars and other similar franchises alleging to base a story around a supposed anti-hero in order to draw viewers in only for them to find that claim to be only surface level oh the protagonist does a bad thing but they're a good person deep down and that is about as far as things go in terms of moral ambiguity I'm happy to report an and or however that this through line of moral ambiguity is not just a throwaway one-off set here in the opening scenes of the show and that never drawn upon thereafter the exploration of morality and consequence is a Core theme of the series approached Tastefully and in a way that even manages to shake the very foundation of the routine two-dimensional depictions of good and bad that we've grown accustomed to in the Star Wars Universe we come to see firsthand the sacrifices made by several characters both on the side of the Empire and the rebellion in service of the cause that they believe in and this scene is only one of many illustrations of this in the show rather than a Meek singular attempt at appearing maturely competent and edgy following this opening sequence we are formally introduced to pharynx a planet and setting that serves as the emotional centerpiece for the entire season over the course of the origins Arc we are introduced to the inner workings of this remote mining Planet inhabited by a tight-knit community of hard-working traditionalist working-class citizens much of this first Arc of the season is spent establishing pharynx as a lived in Place full of interesting living people that will go on to assist Cassian along his journey toward Redemption also intermixed with a series of flashbacks that illustrate cassian's childhood on qunari with his sister and other tribe members the first two episodes consist almost entirely of plot and character Exposition or backstory that admittedly upon first viewing seemed rather mundane it sort of felt generic and forgettable with very little happening to reel in or hook the viewer outside of the promising Intrigue that something was coming or about to happen it isn't until the third episode as per the three-episode arc structure that the Brilliance of what was being set in motion really kicks in through the remainder of episode 1 we are introduced to Brasso cassian's close friend and trusted confidante Bix Colleen a spunky on-again off-again sort of romantic interest for Cassian but he appears to share a great deal of history with and Cyril Karn Cyril is perhaps my favorite character in the entire series who we will be examining further in part two of this analysis in and in Andor he is introduced by way of being the reporting officer for the murder of those two primor officers Cassian killed on morlana one in direct contradiction of what the viewer was likely expecting when Cyril goes to report the murders to his Superior officer the officer responds by attempting to sweep it all under the rug given that the two murdered officers were in clear violation of their duties and their deaths being labeled as anything other than an accident would not reflect well on him the superior officer allows workplace politics to abscond his own duties and the investigation into the reprehensible murders of two men in Cold Blood and here we are thrusted immediately into yet another interesting moral quandary as the viewer and with Cassian being the protagonist we don't necessarily want to see him get caught not to mention the fact that the officers sort of brought this outcome upon themselves and needlessly harassing an innocent man at the same time we sympathize with Cyril's internal conflict over the fact that two otherwise seemingly innocent men were murdered and he is being told to frame it as an accident and make it seem as though nothing ever occurred this dilemma stirs up a fire in Cyril's soul that will ultimately go on to serve as the sole motivation behind his entire purpose in the show hunting down and apprehending Cassian Andor this essentially serves as the core conflict behind the origins Arc as Cyril and direct Defiance of his commanding officer sets himself up on a path of trajectory toward finally confronting Cassian head-on by the end of the arc and this terrific setup makes that eventual conflict resolution all the more satisfying given that we know who Cassian is being hunted by and facing off against as opposed to the alternative approach where random Stormtroopers 1-5 arrive on pharyx to apprehend Cassian and he kills them all with ease in episode 2 we're introduced to Marva Andor and Sergeant Linus mosque Marva is cassian's adoptive mother who rescued him from qunari after finding him on a crash Republic ship immediately preceding what was likely a mass execution of all of cassian's fellow tribe members Marva is a pillar of the community and although many ferric's residents resent Cassian for hiding away there whenever he gets into trouble they admire and respect him due to their Fierce dedication to his mother Sergeant mosque is an officer Cyril calls upon to help him lead the charge on ferricks for hunting down Cassian in this Arc Cyril and mosque gravitate heavily toward one another over their undying sense of Duty and Justice and mosque's introduction to Cyril and dedication to Cyril's Mission damn near moves Cyril to tears they share a sort of endearing if not woefully subservient dynamic as they descend upon pharynx with a unit of men unaware of the fact that the mission they have been sent on is not one that has been approved by the highest ranking officers of the primor authority Cyril and mosque are determined in their pursuit of Cassian despite the consequences they are likely to face after the fact but you know what they say about Pride good Twice The Pride double the full episode 3 is what finally makes everything preceding it entirely worthwhile a master class of setups and payoffs and developing gradual tension Cyril and his unit finally arrive on pharynx and serve a warrant to Marva in search of Cassian and essentially lay Siege to the entire town as they search desperately meanwhile Cassian is arranging to meet with a mysterious traitor of valuable Imperial Parts Luth and Rael who Bix communicates with via a comms Tower and coordinates to arrive coincidentally just as Cyril is closing in meanwhile it is revealed that bix's [ __ ] boyfriend Tim that nobody cares about was the one who tipped off Cyril on cassian's location and Tim then gets shot trying to rescue Bix from Cyril's men but nobody really cares including Bix because Tim was a dirty rat meanwhile all of this is intercut with more flashbacks of Cassian on Canary yeah there's just a lot happening in this episode but it all ties together perfectly with the help of some masterful editing that never manages to interrupt the constant underlying sense of tension the centerpiece of episode 3 occurs in the warehouse where luthin and Cassian meets to exchange money for parts or so Cassian assumes Luther reveals that he is actually come to recruit seeing on a mission for the rebellion and has been eyeing Cassian for recruitment for quite some time the two share an exchange of dialogue so riveting and intrinsically compelling it's almost criminal that it came out of a Star Wars show it establishes the motivations behind Lutheran and Cassian to steal from the empire what do you need they're so proud of themselves they don't even care they're so fat and satisfied we can't imagine it why would I go anywhere with you don't you want to fight these pastors for you and is then immediately followed by a masterfully directed shootout between Cassie and Lutheran and several men in Cyril's unit making use of the environmental set around them in a clever way what makes this episode so riveting is how it perfectly capitalizes upon what was established prior when Cyril and his men arrive on pharynx they are having to face off against not just Cassian himself but all of pharynx as the residents organize a chain reaction series of elaborate misdirects and distractions intended to disorient the officers and protect their own we get a true sense of pharynx coming alive as a setting and the value in community that its citizens share and while it may have seemed a bit mundane having to sit through all of this establishment of the locations and people of pharynx initially it becomes vitally important here in the third episode and from there on out as farex itself becomes a character of sorts in its own right that morphs and reacts with the shifting motivations of its Collective Hive of inhabitants there's a brilliant moment toward the end of the episode where Marva is being held captive by Cyril's men and they repeatedly ask why the people of pharynx are making so much noise by clanging sheet metal in other devices and she responds by warning them that you wanted to stop but it just keeps coming I told you to shut up when it stops when you really want to start to fret why what happens then foreign which then immediately cuts to Cassian emerging from that very silence having finally gotten the drop on Cyril when he least expected it using the environment of pharynx to his Advantage Cassian and Lutheran then tie up Cyril and leave him muffled in the closet and as a final show of mockery towards hero they staged a speeder On The Run just as one of Cyril's men unties him from his restraints and Cyril rightfully presumes that Lutheran and Cassian are escaping inside the speeder but then it explodes killing three of Cyril's men while Cassian and Lutheran ride off into the sunset entirely unscathed in the final moments of the episode the series also finally makes good on its establishment of cassian's qunari backstory as it goes on to serve as a sort of tragic parallel between his humble beginnings and ultimate fate as a character as is established in the flashbacks Cassian is a person always doing the wrong things for the right reasons never meaning to get into trouble but somehow trouble always finds him and both then and now Marva is the one who is always there to save and protect him and carry him away from danger she is hopelessly devoted to him and continues to sacrifice for him even if it isn't in her own best interests but Cassian is someone who will always be on the run and unable to find true peace in his adoptive home of ferrics in the contrast of Marva carrying Cassian onto her ship to progress onto the next chapter of his life as a child while he years later Returns the favor by running away onto the next chapter of his life while she remains there on farex lost and alone really hits home here [Music] and so in a nutshell that is the origins Arc of Andor a pretty great start to a series with so much more yet to come and already this only three episode Arc ought to serve as enough to hook and Intrigue even the most skeptical and hesitant viewer although this Arc has an ending or conclusion in its own right the arc as a whole is really more just meant to serve as a foundation and plant the seeds for what's to come the aldani high Stark of episodes four through six immediately reckons with the Fallout and consequences of the origins Arc setting up new plot threads characters and settings that are almost entirely reactive to the preceding events one of the most brilliant aspects of andor's narrative structure is its consideration of consequences one seemingly small event or action spirals into an endless web of reactive responses that would have never been introduced had that one thing not occurred and we'll see plenty examples of this as things progress but the first reactive consequence we are left to sit with here almost immediately in episode 4 is the introduction of the Imperial Security Bureau or ISP the ISB is an intelligence agency that reports directly to Emperor Palpatine essentially MI6 for the Empire and they're based out of Coruscant the Galaxy's Capital thereby serving as a poison rooted into the literal heart of the Galaxy in yet another Valiant effort to make the enemies of Cassian and the Rebellion known individuals as opposed to generic faceless evil nobodies we are introduced to the entire ISB board rooted primarily through the perspective of one Dedra Miro a devout servant of the Empire that insists on appealing to the best interests of Peace by Imperial order no matter the costs although the outcome of what happened on pharynx may seem slight and remote it opens the floodgates of Imperial Intrigue and ultimately results in Imperial Authority taking over the pre-ox morlana system which includes pharynx in place of the primor authority that Cyril was a part of and as a direct consequence of his own actions Cyril is needless to say entirely devastated and distraught over what occurred unfair Works disgraced to his absolute lowest point and now forced to move in with his abusive overbearing mother as he is no longer employed it's an interesting subversion of expectations to see how the writers decided to keep Cyril on as a core part of the series and not just throw him away after episode 3 as his Redemption Arc becomes an equally investing element of the overall narrative despite the fact that he was set up as an antagonist against cassian's motivations Dedra takes special interest toward what happened on ferrics despite it not falling within her assigned ISB sector because the Imperial starpath unit recovered from the scene that Cassian was using to trade with luthan for credits turns out to be originally stolen from her sector this begins her involvement with Cassian as she slowly begins to take on a sort of phantom residual interest in Cassian from Cyril despite never even having met Cyril which sets up what will eventually come to draw these two characters together in light of them being almost exact replicas of one another and yes while all of this intriguing drama is being set underway we still have the matter of Lutheran and Cassian who are now on to the next thing irregardless of what is happening on Coruscant and elsewhere after some convincing largely in the monetary sense Cassian agrees to join luthin on his grand plan and the entire reason that he seeked Cassian out a heist of millions of Imperial credits from a vault within the Imperial base on a planet called aldani Not only would it serve to economically [ __ ] the Empire but it would also serve the express purpose of ushering an announcement of the rebellion's existence and intent on becoming more bold in their resistance efforts something so Brazen and unexpected that nobody including the Empire would ever see it coming and so this plan naturally serves as the Crux of the plot behind the eldani heist Arc luthin and Cassian land and aldani and Lutheran gives Cassian a kyber stone worth roughly 50 000 credits which is made out to be a great deal of value as a down payment for agreeing to be a part of the mission Cassian chooses to be referred to under the operative name of Clan M so as to not reveal his true identity to the group and it isn't made known at the time but Clem is later revealed to be the name of his late adoptive father a relationship of which is touched on more as the series progresses Luther meets with Val sartha the leader of the Rebel group leading the aldani heist and we come to learn that at the time of cassian's arrival they are only three days away from carrying out the heist Bell is understandably infuriated and resistant to adding a stranger to the group just three days out from the heist but Lutheran insists that she must work Cassian into the plan or otherwise call off the mission as he does not believe it will work without Cassian on board after Lutheran comments on Cassian being disposable and says to get rid of him if he becomes a problem Vel reluctantly agrees to add him to the group Vel then escorts Cassian back to their camp where we are formally introduced to our Heist group Skeen a CD mercenary type with constantly shifting motivations Tamarin the group's backbone and training and preparation nemec a young and meek gentleman that exhibits an uncharacteristic level of contemplative thought and intelligence Sinta a fierce asset who commits to the rebel cause above all else even if it means damaging her romantic partnership with Vel and finally Lieutenant Gorn the invaluable piece of the puzzle an inside man needed to make all of this work as a high-ranking imperial officer in aldani who decided to actively undermine the Empire following their execution of a local woman that he had fallen in love with Gorn is essential toward getting the group access into the base undetected the plan as it's laid out over the courses of episodes four and five will be to Infiltrate The Garrison disguised as Imperial guards with Gorn placing them exactly where they need to be to gain access to the Vault without raising an alarm throughout the entire facility that would get them all killed and then they would use an imperial freighter station near the Vault to make an escape Cassian is panicked by the thought of carrying out a heist of the scale with such a small group and attempting to escape in a slow and cumbersome ship that could easily be intercepted by Imperial Tie fighters but the catch upon which the group is predicating all of their faith in the mission's success is the eye of valdani the eye of valdani is a grandiose Celestial event that occurs once every three years as a result of the planet passing through a crystal belt where meteors burn up and pass harmlessly through the planet's atmosphere it is a sacred event of spiritual significance to the locals of aldani a visual spectacle to the on-site Imperial guards and a perfect cover for an escape to the rebels of the aldani heist this particular Arc of the series plays greatly to the strengths of having these three episode arcs as over the course of episodes four through six we are given just enough development to be invested in the characters and Stakes behind the heist but not so much that we become bored with what could otherwise be misconstrued as a rather generic and conventional Heist scenario seen in plenty of other media properties to date what makes all of this work exceptionally well in andor's favor is the Tactical Precision with which it carries out the events that lead up to the heist we are slowly given small character moments that help us better conceptualize why each of these characters are a part of this Heist and what their motivations are which helps invest the viewer in the outcome the risk factors and weight of the plan are Made Real from all angles especially from the perspective of Cassian who is inundated with information about a dangerous plan that has no guarantees of working out in their favor just three days before it is to be carried out and in the interest of always having something interesting going on in the background as set up for payoffs later in the season there is actually a fair amount of time spent setting up other narrative threads and characters outside of the heist that will play a larger role afterwards Cyril as mentioned prior is shown living a mundane life with his mother constantly berating him about how much of a failure he is Dedra despite being relatively new to the ISB begins taking bold strides forward in her position butting heads with the ISB supervisor for the sector overseeing pharynx and gradually earning the favor of her commanding officer major petrogas as she begins to instantly make the case for a rebellion lot to steal and make use of valuable Imperial equipment and we are shown a different side of luthin now depicted as an illustrious and deceptive Rebel Spy with an art gallery on Coruscant that he uses as a hub to keep tabs on Rebel activity and meet with various hidden benefactors of the Rebellion one such benefactor introduced in episode 4 is Senator Mon mothma a character of whom has appeared a few times in past Star Wars entries but was never really given the spotlight as she is here it is revealed that mod has been funneling funds from her family fortunes to support luthin and the Rebellion clause which has now placed her in a difficult position as the Empire is tightening its grip across the Galaxy particularly around those like her who actively speak out against Imperial overreach during Senate meetings and even going so far as to arrange her new driver to be an Imperial spy when it comes to the aldani heist luthin intentionally keeps man in the dark as to what her generous contributions are helping fund believing it to be too extreme for her tastes and it isn't until after the fact that she is forced to reckon with the outcome of a mission she knew nothing about that would inadvertently go on to affect her in unfathomable ways the tension between the members of The aldani Heist group and Cassian stemming from them not really knowing who he is or what his motivation is behind joining them on this Mission comes to a head the night before the heist as skein discovers that Cassian was paid to carry out the mission with a kyber crystal that Lutheran gave him as a deposit Skeen gets on his high horse about how this doesn't sit well with him or the others given that they are all doing this for free out of passion for the cause and in skeen's case allegedly to avenge the death of his brother killed by the Empire which will play more into his big character reveal following the heist nevertheless they all find a way to make amends and get in some shut-eye in preparation for the heist the next day and it is here in episode 6 where once again Andor is a series masterfully delivers on everything it has been building up toward in the exact same way that it did for the origins Arc in episode 3. the episode opens with a calm before the storm the morning of the heist as nemec talks to Cassian about the manifesto he's writing in particular a section in which he contemplates the justification of using hired mercenaries like Cassian as a means to an end when it comes to Rebellion Uprising nemec hopes and believes that what they are doing here on aldani will make the presence of the Rebellion known and Cassie encounters by insisting that the Empire is too lazy and arrogant to care about what they're doing here and that it means nothing to them before warning nemec to be careful what you wish for the reason I highlight this relatively minor exchange here is because of its brilliant use of narrative foreshadowing for the outcome of how the Empire chooses to react to the events of this Arc in keeping with the spirit of rooting the viewer in unique and interesting perspectives to help perceive the reactions of narrative events from multiple angles some of this episode is actually told through the perspective of one imperial commandant j-hold bihas a literal physical embodiment of the oafish and blatantly content laziness and Blissful ignorance of the empire in true colonizer fashion j-hole drones on ad nauseum to his associates and family about how dirty and uncivilized the people of are woefully unaware of what is about to happen while he fails to even fit into his own Imperial uniform unbeknownst to him j-hold is actually an instrumental involuntary part of the heist group's plan Gorn arranges for Skeen nemec Cassian and Tamarin to be the escorting Imperial Guard unit for j-hold his family and the visiting Colonel pedagar as they enter into the Garrison which affords The Heist crew the opportunity to lock them all into a room and take them hostage elsewhere Santa and Val block outgoing Communications and then drop in at the perfect moment to Kill Colonel pedigar during a standoff Santa takes J Holt's family hostage as leverage while the rest of the crew descend into the Vault with jehol who they must use for Vault access the Vault consists of relatively few Imperial Troopers as the majority are above ground awaiting the eye of uldani so the heist crew forces them at gunpoint to assist loading Imperial credits onto the Escape freighter a Communications specialist named Corporal Kenzie takes notice to the communications issues and suspects something isn't Miss so he requests a Garrison of men accompany him down to the vault as Goran emerges down in the vault to order the crew to speed things up since they are limited on time much to the disgust of j-hold who has visibly taken aback by the reveal of gorn's betrayal Kenzie and his Garson arrive down in the vault and what I like about this standoff that occurs here is that Kenzie was actually introduced as a character earlier on and we are then rooted in his perspective as he slowly begins to realize something is happening down in the vault which helps add to the tension of the heist as opposed to the complete lack of build up that would have come by way of some random unestablished Stormtroopers just happening to stumble upon the heist as it was occurring there is visible confusion on Kenzie's face as he is caught between following goran's orders as a superior officer telling him to stand down or to take immediate action in defiance of his position much to the Chagrin of Gorn and his crew j-hole decides now is a convenient time to have a heart attack clearly overexerted by the stress of the heist and that basically makes the decision for Kenzie clear Kenzie and his Garrison begin firing upon the heist crew and in the commotion Gorn and Tamarin are shot and killed nemec saves Cassian as he's being choked out and the remaining crew quickly load up the freighter to make an escape upon taking off the propulsion pulls everything back on the freighter and results in a pile of Imperial credits sliding back and crushing nemec the aldani locals and Imperial guards above ground lugan and awe at the eye of aldani blissfully unaware of what had just occurred as Cassian Bell skiing anemic are able to escape through the eye which manages to thwart off intercepting Tie fighters as they planned Cassian makes the decision to divert somewhere to have a doctor look at nemec and it is here that Skeen reveals he was only ever really in it for the money and that the murdered brother he claimed to be his motivation behind the mission and rebel cause never actually existed He suggests to Cassian that they should take the money and hide away somewhere and in response Cassian decides to shoot ski seemingly both out of disgust and in knowing that skein would just kill him if he decided to tell Vel about what Skeen had proposed to him despite Cassian being largely established as the lowest of the bunch in terms of moral convictions and only in it for the money it is Skeen who is ultimately made out to be the worst among them but also a dramatic foil or reflection of Cassian himself and this split-second decision is a defining character moment for Cassian as we begin to see where cassian's allegiances truly lie Cassian returns to Val to find that nemec succumbed to his injuries and then demands she let him go as his part in the mission is over she insists he take namek's Manifesto with him as it was his dying wish [Music] and with that we close out the eldani high Stark an arc that serves the Dual purposes of being a supremely entertaining callback to the swashbuckling action of Star Wars proper and establishing the narrative precipice upon which the remainder of the series will balance itself and by that I mean the episodes to follow serve as a direct narrative extension of the events in aldani furthering the branches of consequence around something that Cassian and likely the audience viewed as relatively insignificant in the grand scope of Imperial oversight the true Brilliance of the aldani high Stark lies in the way that it disguises itself as an exciting and entertaining diversion that ultimately works out in favor of everyone who helped plan and execute it only to find that it actually inadvertently ends up leading toward worsening conditions for everyone involved every action has a cost as we will see in episode 7 and it seems silly to have to illustrate the fact that of course the narrative goes on to reconcile against the fact that the aldani heist occurred but I find it incredibly thoughtful and clever to see that the the writers decided not to frame The Heist as an absolute win for the Rebellion or immediately drop the fact that it occurred 10 minutes into the next episode instead of Simply using the heist as a cheap visual spectacle to keep the viewer engaged the writers buried it into the very fabric of the narrative itself to the point where ripples of it having occurred can be felt up until the very end of the season there is this immensely satisfying through line and sense of progression where elements established in this Arc lead on to unexpected outcomes in subsequent episodes with a calculated and careful attention to detail that actually demands the viewer pay attention to what is going on beneath the surface in order to truly appreciate all that went into tying these elements together and it is here in episode 7 and the following prison Arc that I finally began to take notice of this in episode 7 we begin to immediately see the endpoint of cassian's warning to nemec to be careful what you wish for as the ISB immediately convenes for an emergency session to introduce new measures being enacted in direct response to the aldani heist while some including Cassian may have mistaken The Heist as being something the Empire would hardly bat an eye at much to the contrary Emperor Palpatine turns over complete executive power to the ISB in response and enacts an emergency Senate session wherein he will as it is phrased free a hand in all matters of surveillance search and seizure the Empire seemingly desperate in its search for any justification or excuse to further its Authority uses the eldani heist as a jumping off point to assume complete control over all forms of policing and government stoking the false narrative that the Rebellion is a threat to Public Safety and Galactic order that must be snuffed out under Extreme Measures and although I wasn't really planning on touching on this element of how the narrative relates to the real world I can't help but notice how direct and explicit the establishment of the Empire as a reflection of the Nazi regime or any similar authoritarian dictatorship is here if that wasn't obvious enough already the empire being a metaphor for the Nazi regime wasn't perhaps what George Lucas set out with in his intent when creating them however both intentionally and unintentionally it has certainly morphed into that over time the Nazis would consistently use acts of rebellion as a means of justifying retaliatory responses that would further enable their reach the enabling Act of 1933 for example was was enacted in response to supposed Communists burning the reichstag and was claimed to be a matter of civil protection in order to stomp out Rebel activity but actually ended up Paving the way toward the Nazis having complete control over the entirety of Germany here in Andor the Empire uses the aldani heist as a justification to enacting the public order re-sentencing directive among other harsh measures which then enables the Empire to imprison people across the Galaxy for any crime and of course this naturally leads to them essentially being able to imprison anyone that opposes them for any reason this comparison between the Empire and Nazis has certainly been made in past Star Wars entries but this is the first time in the history of Star Wars where I could plausibly Envision the means by which similar to the Nazi regime the Empire itself was able to take hold across the Galaxy not by brute force in a single day but slowly deceptively and methodically over the course of several years a dictator infiltrates the Senate with like-minded accomplices and then tricks the rest into following their cause by way of convincing them that the attack from Revenge of the Sith was coordinated by separatist radicals in this case the Jedi who need to be exterminated the Empire slowly seeps into every corner of the Galaxy in order to protect the people and enact order as they put it and spreads like a disease as they rule with an iron fist the galactic Senate is overtaken by those that believe in Palpatine's cause or are otherwise intimidated into following it regardless spies are planted everywhere with the intent of detecting Rebel activity and those who remain true to their morals must watch their backs at every turn hard-working citizens get drawn in by the Allure of peace and Order and snuffing out any inkling of Injustice in favor of a new world order separatists get hung in the streets for their crimes and made examples of and Every Act of rebellion against the dictatorship is used as an excuse to enact further power toward them and enables them to assert further control what Andor finally allows us to see is how The Empire manages to gain traction and retain their power it deconstructs their weaknesses that give way to their ultimate demise but also reminds the viewer that through sheer numbers and force of will that opposing them is often futile and costs the lives of millions if not billions people that oppose it are killed people that are complicit are under siege before they even realize it and people that enact the orders of the regime have ideals so blinded by their undying sense of Duty and control that their entire moral compass has shifted in accordance with a power that redefines Society itself [Music] moving back to episode 7 despite all that was set in motion here by the ISB Dedra is actually dissatisfied with the isb's response to what happened on aldani believing that they are not seeing the bigger picture and recognizing it as the very thing that nemec wanted it to be an announcement which also happens to be the name of episode 7 how fitting mon mothma visits luffin in his gallery on Coruscant and asks him about his involvement with aldani concerned what it means for her given that her money helped make it possible Lutheran denies being involved at first but then slowly turns over to revealing his true identity as a hardened jaded devout of the Rebellion as he believes the heist was a necessary measure in making their presence known he has no regrets over making it happen even in light of the fact that as mon warns it was time for that as well exactly he believes that she and everyone supporting the cause must sacrifice their conscience to make good on enacting change essentially because the Empire expects the Rebellion to operate within a moral code and in a way that they can control and so more bold acts of defiance must be carried out to present them as a force to be reckoned with it is a game of escalation between the Empire and the Rebellion with great losses and sacrifices felt across the board on all ends also in this episode we have Sinta who was left behind on aldani witnessing a massive Star Destroyer descending on aldani to enact order Val meets with Lutheran's assistant Clea after completing the mission and delivering the credits and is told she must now hunt down and kill Cassie and to tie off loose ends as Lutheran is paranoid about not knowing whether Cassian May ever rat him out Cyril starts working in a new mundane office job where he Blends in as an indistinguishable blip along an endless backdrop of cubicles Dedra has a defining character moment we'll be exploring more in the next section of the analysis wherein she secures the full confidence of major petrogas after her investigation into the rebellion's plot to steal highly valued Imperial components ends up bearing fruit mon mothma meets with an old friend and Banker from her Homeworld of chandrala take Colma in order to discuss means by which he can essentially launder some of the money she had been funneling toward the Rebellion now deftly afraid that the ISB will be looking into her banking record records and will notice the missing money following Neil Donnie Heist and finally Cassian almost easy to forget about him in his own show with everything else going on Cassian returns home to ferex after the aldani heist mostly to see Marva and try to convince her to run away with him while she takes time to think it over Cassian visits Bix and pays back his debts to everyone on pharynx using the credits that he acquired from The Heist VIXX mentions that he is not well received on ferrics anymore as most people blame him for the Empire now having authority over their Planet a nice callback and connection all the way back to episode 3 as we are allowed to reconsider the chain of events that led from the humble beginnings of Cassian killing two men on morlana one to now indirectly causing the Empire to occupyx and Patrol the streets because of his choice to hide on pharynx and then kill members of Cyril's units that were intercepting him at this point the connections between everything going on in this narrative are so intricate I could make a whole conspiracy flowchart out of it when Cassian returns home the next day he comes to find that Marva has decided not to leave with him ironically enough The aldani Heist stirred in Marva the very thing that Dedra was afraid of a call to action despite her old age and inability to do much of significance Marva now feels inspired and empowered in her convictions to remain on pharynx and Inspire change in opposition against the empire this is the first time the significance of Rick's road is established Rick's road is one of the main roads in the village Marva and the other key characters of pharynx occupy and it goes right through the middle it is symbolic of the heart of pharynx but also Bears significance in the fact that it is the road where the Empire hanged Clem cassian's adoptive father for acts of rebellion years prior Marva states that she avoided walking down Rick's Road for years because the pain of the reminder of Clem hanging there was too much for her to Bear but now the visible presence of the rebellion and hope compelled her to begin walking down Rick's Road once again and not be afraid to face down the Troopers that March the streets Cassian even tries to downplay what happened on aldani as just a heist in an effort to convince her not to latch on to what happened there as a call to arms and it's interesting contemplating the different perspectives of how the heist is perceived between it just being a heist some thugs carried out for money like how Cassian sees it or as a bold call to action meant to inspire further insurrections like how deadra or Marva perceive it this is a significant turning point in this series and character moment for Cassian as we come to see the tragic dichotomy between him and Marva I'll be worrying about you all the time and I've never fretted on anything more but this time you can't you can't and I I can't go the love Cassie and Marva have for one another is real and felt in this moment where they reach the inevitable point of an Unstoppable Force meeting an immovable object Cassian is always running away from his problems convinced that these problems including the Empire itself will simply disappear if he hides away and doesn't ever think of them whenever Cassian reaches a point of conflict that he can't quickly talk or shoot his way out of he runs away but Marva is tired of running and this is a perfect parallel to the end of the origins Arc where we finally see Marva standing in bold Defiance not only of the Empire but also of Cassian himself in making the most difficult decision imaginable for her voluntarily choosing to finally break out from her son's Shadow up to this point Cassian has been dancing around the rebellion and engaging in Rebel activities despite having no real interest or conviction in the cause when Marva decides to stay and put her life on the line for the cause it is out of principle even in knowing that nothing will likely come of it Cassian really has no principles or anything to stand for at this point he has people and ideas he cares about but nothing outside of that which he is willing to take a stand for Beyond himself so it stands to reason that he would never understand why Marva decides to stay this scene stands as a beautiful illustration not just of a relationship between two well-written characters but also on how to construct a character scene that also serves the narrative this isn't just some sappy melodrama intended to make you shed a few tears but rather deeply rooted character drama that stands to define the motives of both characters and then later serves as a motivator for Cassian to further develop as a character the decision to leave Marva this final time contrasted by the events to follow is what ultimately forces Cassian into deciding to turn a new Leaf as a True Believer in the rebel cause that his mother would come to stand for as he comes to recognize all too late that Marva was justified in her insistence on the futility of continuing to hide and run from the ever looming presence of the empire I'm coming back from there Cassian decides to hide away on a luxurious Resort planet called nyamos but his time on vacation is ultimately short-lived when walking unassumingly along the beachfront Cassian is mistakenly identified as being part of a group of men running away nearby and is apprehended for being a part of it why would I be running because you're a part of it out of what I'll ask the questions there's this hilarious exchange where the shore Trooper keeps insisting that Cassian is a part of something and to make matters even more comedic we are never even shown or told what it was or what crime the fleeing men were running from if any and in the end it doesn't really matter because karma inevitably had to come for Cassie in one way or another as a direct result of the public order re-sentencing directive enacted in response to the aldani heist he carried out Cassian is sentenced to six months in prison under charges for crimes he didn't even commit simply because he was walking in the wrong place at the wrong time and if that isn't one of the most hilariously ironic examples of karma coming full circle ever written in a show then I don't know what is foreign [Music] ly leads us onto the last full Arc of the series the prison Arc [Music] in episodes 8 through 10 Cassian and friends are forced to reconcile with the outcome of the aldani heist in the wake of the Empire's tightening grip across the Galaxy the brunt of this Arc draws its focus around Cassian as he is imprisoned at an imperial labor facility on a planet called narkina 5. through outstanding music characterization and set design this Arc manages to stand out as an almost entirely independent setting in its own right almost as if it was its own new show and I don't say that in a bad way it is stylistically and thematically consistent with everything that came before but feels refreshing and exciting and its rejuvenated sense of place within a facility brewing with mystery pertaining to its dynamically shifting inner workings the writers make the ground rules of the facility abundantly clear right from the get-go which helps establish the stakes for what will evolve into an inevitable escape attempt in episode 10. the prison guards wear these silly looking shock resistant boots because the floor is electrified and can be rig to to do anything from mildly incapacitating to flat out executing a room full of men in an instant the prisoners are not allowed the luxury of Footwear and live under constant threat of this deadly trap as any display of Disobedience can be met with a swift death each night the prisoners must enter a single file into their sleeping quarters and aren't allowed to step foot outside of their single cubic bunk until their work shift the next morning everyone lives on a timer counting down the days until the end of their sentence and seem complicit in serving it in full as Cassian is the only one foolish enough upon arriving to even Ponder the idea of an escape each day multiple cell blocks work like clogs in the machines of war from morning to night constructing obscure mechanical devices to be used for purposes they aren't made aware of and each unit of prisoners competes against the other to escape cruel punishment for being the worst performing and Aspire toward food with taste as a reward if they turn out to be the best performing block of the day each block is overseen by a shift manager manager who happens to be in cassian's case one of the most underrated actors of Our Generation that being the great Andy Circus a welcome and wholly unexpected surprise and circus absolutely kills it as Kino Loy a man who like any prison shift manager in a film or TV show starts out as a cynical unsympathetic hard ass who puts up a wall of impenetrable defenses around himself as he is driven by one thought and one thought only reaching the end of his prison sentence and going free which in his case is made out to be 249 days from the time of cassian's arrival Kino is the one that introduces Cassian and by extension the viewer to how all of this works and then thrusts him immediately into work at table 5 where we are introduced to several table mates of whom helped further flesh out and develop the setting here in the prison there is a truly spectacular level of attention to detail that goes into making this prison feel like a real organic environment not only with Hal much like the aldani high Stark we are introduced to care characters and perspectives that help further root Us in the Brewing conflict of The Ark but also with how it is so precise and deliberate and the delivery of information regarding how the prison is intended to operate only to then introduce a sense of unease when that established process and Order slowly begins to fall apart this begins with cassian's fellow inmates almost immediately cornering him and asking him if he has any news from the outside regarding the public order resentencing directive or pord as we'll refer to it going forward and what it means for their prison sentences Cassian having been preoccupied with his time on pharynx and otherwise vacationing without a care in the world isn't even aware of the pord's existence and has nothing to share regarding it much to the disappointment of everyone there one of cassian's table Mates melshi is almost confrontational in his insistence that the establishment of the por-d means that none of them will ever be released which nobody wants to hear or believe in as it would stamp out any remaining sense of hope or moral for them ironically enough melshi is actually right and the worst part of it being that the man largely responsible for this directive being established is standing right there among them without them even knowing it in blatant terms Cassian is in large part responsible for the indefinite imprisonment of himself and everyone in the facility even if he as a character never stops to consider this fact and the implications of his actions unfolding before his very eyes over the course of this Arc but before touching on the events that lead up to the prison escape I also have to touch on the events transpiring amongst our ever-expanding cast of interconnected characters outside of the prison right off the bat in episode 8 Cyril and Dedra are fondly allowed to cross paths as Cyril is pulled from the confines of his mundane office job for a day to help fill in the details of what happened during his mission on pharynx as Dedra notes that most of the specifics were left out turns out Cyril had been filing data requests for access to full reports on the farex incident for weeks since his dismissal remaining persistent as ever to keep up on the whereabouts of Cassian which piques the interests of deadra who is likewise searching for Cassie believing he is at the center of the plot involving organized theft of Imperial equipment given Cyril's history with Cassian and likely nobody in the Galaxy wanting to locate Cassie in more than Cyril himself one would think that Dedra would perceive Cyril as the invaluable asset that he is but in realizing he has no real actionable Intel to offer Dedra lets Cyril go almost immediately expressing no interest in collaborating with him further what Cyril does have however is the same resourcefulness and fiery determination that Dedra displays which he desperately uses in an attempt to convince Dedra to let him assist further but she sadly just isn't interested Cyril's Road to Redemption is cut short but this brief exchange still leaves him smiling as it offers a glimmer of hope however small to now Ponder from the edges of his boring cubicle while Cassian counts down the days of his unknowingly indefinite prison sentence mon mothma on the outside seems to be almost alone in her attempts to speak before the Senate and schmooze politicians into speaking out against pord and Imperial overreach in general were able to hear and see firsthand how some attempt to justify the clear civil violations of the Empire as they make the case for how legislation like pord helps maintain order and keep people safe skirting along the all too common misconception that everyone in prison deserves to be there so who really cares what happens to them an even greater misconception in a series where people are being arrested left and right for things as asinine as walking the scenes with mon mothma in this Arc put out on full display how Shameless and Blissful ignorance and complacency allows for the Empire to grow further as the rich and mighty are able to sit comfortably outside of it and have no incentive to object against anything the dictatorship orders they are not even refusing to act out of fear but rather out of innate carelessness mon must smile through held back tears of frustration as she feigns civil discussions with people who believe that the mass false imprisonment of millions of Innocents is anything but planting the seeds of the Empire's total and complete control of any and all Galactic political Affairs on top of this great point of stress man must also contend with the fact that as is disclosed to her by take Colma her bank accounts will imminently be scanned by the Empire likely to reveal her behind the scenes efforts in funding the Rebellion she has turned to an impossible moral quandary in which she will be forced to launder her money through an Infamous Thug and chandralan Banker named Davos caldrin who is made out to be the only Banker of whom has enough capital in account diversity to be able to make the imbalance in her ledgers disappear without suspicion there would only be one terrible catch to doing business with davo she would have to introduce her daughter to his son solidifying the likelihood that the two would become married which would then allow davo and his family to be legally bound to royalty and able to live comfortably on Coruscant as he always dreamed given dabo's implied reputation and the fact that his proposition Falls just one small step short of an arranged marriage as is traditional on Chandra La man is disgusted and almost immediately refuses his offer if only for the day she insists she will not consider the offer which davo knows to be untrue as it is all she has left to think about in the days to come back on pharynx marva's health is deteriorating quickly after she fell attempting to open the secret entrance beneath the hotel that the Empire has now occupied her slight show of rebellion Bix goes to contact Lutheran via the comms Tower she used to call him to ferrics in the origins Arc but his assistant Clea ultimately convinces him to shut down the comms link Dedra now on site on pharynx and in Desperate search of both luthan and Cassian intercepts the signal from Bix and proceeds to arrest Bix and the owner of the building in which the comms Tower is stationed salmon pack for several days of brutal and unforgiving interrogation in the hopes of obtaining actionable Intel on cassian's whereabouts and as for Lutheran well he's out and about attempting to inspire further acts of rebellion as he typically does in this case going to visit saw Guerrera who was featured in Rogue one only to deliver awkward uninspired dialogue and felt entirely out of place [Music] thank you but here he manages to feel like a natural extension of the ensuing War at the core of Andor and we come to understand why saw has good reason to express great mistrust toward everyone and everything choosing instead to hide away and work alone Lutheran wants saw to offer air support during a planned covert attack on an imperial Power Station led by a man named Anto Krieger who saw does not get along with due to their differing views and approaches to the Rebellion it is later revealed that one of Krieger's men is intercepted by the ISB and leaks to them that plans to attack the station which forces saw and Lutheran into a difficult position but more on that later for now let's segue back to the prison wherein that aforementioned unease begins to set in over the course of episode 9 when it is revealed that something unspeakable has happened to the inmates on one of the lower levels of the facility the expert decision is made not to immediately reveal what exactly happened as it is relayed vaguely via sign language between one of cassian's table mates and another prisoner on an adjacent bridge and it instead leaves the intrinsic horror of not knowing to the mind one of my favorite aspects of this Arc is how this mystery slowly builds to a grand reveal at the end of episode 9 that then pushes Cassian and the other inmates into a position where they are forced to plan an escape and the most captivating part of the execution for me was seeing how the reality of their situation is gradually expressed through the perspective of Kino Loy Kino is a man steadfast in his determination to be released through traditional means once his sentence is up and immediately shuts down any mention of attempting to escape from Cassian viewing it as foolish and pointless when word gets out of something vaguely terrible occurring on another level it visibly shakes Kino's confidence and slowly chips away at his hearty exterior he is the epitome of a man in denial who has likely spent months if not years working slowly toward an end date and that's all he knows any thoughts or concepts outside of that goal are simply imperceivable to him Cassian was already plotting a way to escape irregardless of his release date indirect contrast with Kino who was lulled into a false sliver of Hope and chose to focus on nothing other than that date and so naturally the writers were brilliant enough to make the reveal of what occurred down on level 2 come out to both Cassian and Kino so we were able to see how both of them react one of cassian's table mates ulath has a stroke and is taken aside for medical treatment by one of the facility's Medics who is likewise a prisoner while Cassian and Kino look after him given that the medic is able to travel freely between cell blocks Kino looks to probe him for information regarding what happened on level 2 while they attempt to save ullath we are shown a rare tender side of Kino as he seems genuinely concerned for the well-being of uloff who is the oldest among them and only has 40 shifts left to serve before release the medic euthanizes ulath after discovering there is no hope of recovery for him and states that it is likely better off that way which confuses Kino and compels him to once again insist the medic tell him what happened down onto the medic then reveals that a man who was released after serving his full prison sentence was then readmitted on another level which then incited a riot amongst the inmates who came to realize that none of them would ever be released now that PRD is in effect and so in response the facility staff electrified the floor and murdered every inmate on level 2 in order to keep it a secret Kino is visibly shaken as he comes to the realization that the day he had been waiting for will never come and in having had no purpose outside of working toward that day he begins to emotionally shut down and turn into a point of complete manic distress uncertain of how to proceed this reveal actually empowers Cassian who was always just waiting for a compelling reason to convince everyone into an Escape Plan anyways and he begins to take the lead and give orders to Kino shifting to the dynamic between them as Kino has no idea how to act operate or even think outside the confines of their daily shifts but one thing has now been made immediately clear to them and the rest of their shift Associates their only goal now is to plan and enact and escape and so episode 10 carries out yet another explosive finale wherein Cassian leads his escape plan which revolves around taking advantage of the admittance of a new inmate predicated on the fact that Cassian now knows the facility staff are afraid afraid enough to execute an entire level of inmates before word could spread of them no longer having release dates in order to prevent further Anarchy and so Cassian Cuts away at a water pipe he had been slowly dismantling since he first even arrived that is then used to short-circuit the electric flooring so that his fellow inmates can escape via the lift that serves as the only way in or out of the block the guards on site fire hastily down toward the inmates killing any that they can but are vastly outnumbered as tens of men Ascend the lift toward Liberation eventually Cassian and Kino are able to make their way to the central control chamber before the staff have a chance to fry every inmate in the facility and they demand that the staff shut down power to the entire facility Cassian then has to convince Kino to give a speech over the intercoms every inmate informing them that the facility is now under their control and that they should rush to escape it's another interesting character moment as Kino before had no problem with issuing orders and telling people what to do but here is visibly terrified and nearly in tears at the start of his speech but slowly builds confidence toward assuredly motivating others to do something besides work and so those with the strength to do so are able to escape the facility and swim to safety including Cassian but seemingly excluding Kino who as yet another ironic foil to the core of his character starting off as a hearty leader of confidence doesn't actually know how to swim and has no means of really escaping and sadly in the end the viewer is left to wonder whatever came of Keno as he likely became a victim of the established Trope of a man who spent so much time lending into the prison system that he wouldn't be able to cope with the reality of what now exists outside of it and finally the episode ends with a small cherry on top as it is revealed that one of the isb's agents Lani is actually a spy for Lutheran the Brilliance of this reveal being that it keeps consistent with this concept of nearly every character with spoken dialogue serving a narrative function of some kind Lonnie appeared in previous scenes but it was never made known until this point that he was a spy hiding in plain sight and this reveal is done in such a clever way that when I watched this show the first time extremely and attentively I might add I didn't even recognize him as one of the board members from the ISB meeting scenes in Prior episodes and I thought he was an entirely new character Lonnie meets with Lutheran and informs him of the fact that the ISB intercepted Krieger's pilot and is aware of the planned attack on the Imperial power station and that they also staged the Pilot's death as an accident to make it seem to Krieger that the ISB is unaware of their plan so that they are able to in response Ambush Krieger during the attack Lonnie he turns out to be yet another hero hiding in the shadows oh yeah and then Stellan Skarsgard as Lutheran delivers a monologue so richly layered and Powerful it's worthy of an Emmy nomination on its own and is so good I would argue it doesn't fit at all in a Star Wars series but again when reaching outside the preconception of what Star Wars is capable of I see this fitting perfectly within the scope of what Andor as a Series has already Illustrated itself is capable of doing up to this point I've given up a little chance at inner peace I made my mind a sunless face [Music] share my dreams with ghosts I'm damned for what I do my anger my ego my unwillingness to yield my my eagerness to fight I'm condemned to use the tools of my enemy to defeat them I burned my decency for someone else's future so what do I sacrifice everything while it was somewhat uncertain so far as to where luffin's motives truly lied we come to understand that Lutheran is a victim of the cost and sacrifices of War an empty husk of a human being that is given the entirety of his humanity and soul in favor of a cause greater than himself almost indirect contrast to the character like Cassian and in a way this exchange helped me develop a great sense of respect for Lutheran as a character despite being portrayed as rather Shifty unpredictable and morally repugnant otherwise as we come to realize that every questionable thing Lutheran has done has been in service of the Rebellion you may question his resolve but the intent behind his actions makes logical sense as he makes the case that people like him must exist outside the traditional bounds of morality to make the difficult decisions that ensure the longevity of the cause and so with that we finally close out the prison Arc with only the two episode conclusion now remaining Cassian once again manages to weasel his way out of all of his problems blissfully unaware of the bigger picture of what is happening across the Galaxy and also immediately surrounding him in our final episodes of 11 and 12 all paths begin to slowly converge onto pharynx the heart of the series upon which the final showdown culminating between every character and plot thread must naturally resolve somewhat it all begins with the death of Marva much like Cassian himself we see very little of Marva leading up to her death no final moments of redemption or parting words from her deathbed no Cassian flying in moments before her death to say goodbye she's just gone but the spirit of her cause lives on in pharynx as we will come to see marva's death piques the interest of many who have been searching desperately for Cassian as they believe that Cassian will not be able to keep himself from attending her funeral Deja orders a very public funeral for Marva to draw Cassian out as Val and Sinta now stationed on ferrics to await cassian's eventual arrival password on to luthin who plans to attend as well our old pal Sergeant Linus mosque also receives word of the funeral and manages to pass this information along to Cyril who has rejuvenated finally by the possibility of being able to make amends the only outlying elements of the narrative remaining outside of this Central plot thread of everyone mobilizing toward ferricks for the funeral involved this business with Anto Krieger and the eventual downfall of man mothma on the end of Krieger Lutheran decides to take the information given to him by Lani on the isb's planned ambush of the Rebel attack on the Imperial Power Station back to saw to warn him and present him with a decision Warren Krieger of the isb's Ambush and pull out of the mission which would undoubtedly raise the suspicions of the ISB and exposed Lonnie or allow the attack to commence as planned so as to enable the ISB to think they have the upper hand while knowingly sacrificing Krieger and his entire Garrison of men for the cause saw quickly spirals into a hopeless bout of paranoia uncertain of how Lutheran came about this information and concerned that Lutheran may have men planted amongst his own unit and then proceeds to ask the very pointed question of whether Lutheran would likewise sacrifice him for the cause if the tables were turned and it was instead him and his men walking into a trap instead of Krieger Lutheran steals a blaster from a nearby guard to make saw listen to reason and the two eventually come to a mutual and consensual agreement to sacrifice Krieger and his men for the greater good although this entire plot thread feels very much outside the central narrative and cassian's story in general it does serve as a perfect thematic extension of the exploration of morality and sacrifice during times of War as the viewer is left to ponder yet another of the series various moral quandaries in which there is no clear-cut decision to make it cements the fact that even the squeaky clean Rebel as it's been portrayed in almost every other Star Wars property to date is also naturally forced to make morally questionable decisions as well in order to come out ahead of a malevolent Force like the Empire of which has no reservations in its approach to war [Music] as for mon mothma she eventually reaches the point of having to weigh a very heavy and personal sacrifice of her own that of her family it is revealed during a discussion between Mon and Val that Val is actually mon mothma's cousin of course thereby cementing how she mon and luthin are all connected through this web of the Rebellion Val sits with mon as they discuss the weight of the situation that she has found herself in and mon slowly comes to the realization that she is out of time and options she will have to essentially sacrifice her own integrity and turn her family over to the will of Davos cauldron forever indebted to his assistance and by the end of the series Mon's decision is made clear when she is shown escorting her daughter leida to davo's home as part of the aforementioned arranged meeting between Lita and davo's Son man is also forced into the position of scapegoating her husband as the reason behind their financial woes as an intentional red herring designed to throw off the ISB in an exceptionally clever scene she stays ages an argument with her husband claiming that she caught him gambling again and is furious over how much it has cost them Mon and Perrin request their driver not listen to the conversation but in knowing that her driver is a spy mon actually uses the expectation of her driver listening in on the conversation as an opportunity to plant an intentional misdirect that the missing money from their ledgers is actually due to parents gambling the cost of the Rebellion from mon has become her very own livelihood and that of her families as daggers close in on all ends around her she sacrifices in small ways that nobody will ever see or know as she cements herself as yet another unsung hero of the Rebellion and finally returning to Cassian while he and one of his fellow inmates melshi managed to reach land in an attempt to make a break for a nearby ship owned by a couple locals there but are then captured of course luckily the ship owners almost immediately decided to take Mercy on them in light of the fact that they were prisoners of the Empire and conveniently agreed to take them both to nyamos so Cassian can retrieve his belongings that he left there after being arrested interestingly enough his belongings are still stashed away in the very hotel room he was staying in so I guess nobody ever cleans or checks for leftover Luggage in these rooms and there is a brief touching callback in which it has shown that Cassian still keeps nemec's Manifesto as part of his very limited set of belongings which he then later uses as a source of motivation the night before marva's funeral Cassian manages to get a call through to one of the locals on pharynx named Zan who then tells Cassian of his mother's passing this is then intercut with melshi and Cassie and parting ways as melshi instills a new Mission and sense of purpose in Cassian spread word word of the Empire's atrocities on what happened in the prison far and wide to anyone that will listen cassian's loss of his mother culminates with the realization that he can't run any longer and that Marva was right all along no matter where he goes the oppression of the Empire will always Loom over his and everyone's mere existence no more hiding in the shadows it's time to face the Empire head on and so in that moment the decision is made for him to return to ferrics for marva's funeral which then leads us to the most explosive of all the explosive finales as the ever Brewing tension of the Rebellion building at the core of pharynx finally comes to a head on the day of marva's funeral Cassian hides atopateris overlooking the iconic Rick's Road of which the funeral will naturally take place on Lutheran Center Vel Cyril and Dedra are all in place just waiting for Cassian to show his face so that they can tear him apart blissfully unaware of the underlying conflict Brewing on pharynx between the locals and the Empire that is about to reach its peak and again this is where the development of pharynx is a setting certainly comes in handy yet again as it becomes a thematic reflection of the constant ever Brewing tension between the Empire and the people that they choose to oppress a marching band warms up as they prepare to March down Rick's Road in marva's honor and all the town's folk gather to join them Cyril spots Dedra and wants to jump bumper call out for her in knowing that she is his in to the situation as she proceeds to search for Cassian who is infiltrating the hotel in search of Bix while the on-site Imperial guards line Rick's road holding a hard impenetrable Perimeter at the hotel upon reaching said perimeter marva's Droid projects a eulogy from Marva wherein she ruminates on what pharynx and its people meant to her there is a fantastic intense progression to the scene as the eulogy turns increasingly hostile towards the Empire who have ruined ferrics in the eyes of the locals intercut with several entities searching for Cassian as he searches for Bix until finally the eulogy ends with Marva calling out to actively incite a rebellion and take a stand against the oppressors which then results in the locals starting to attack the Imperial guards after one of the Commander's attempts to cover the projection at first it's all brutal and bloody hand-to-hand combat between the locals and the Imperial guards but then salmon Pack's son infuriated over the empire kidnapping and essentially brainwashing his father decides to throw a bomb at the line of Imperial guards foreign and from there all hell breaks loose as the locals attempt to flee while the Imperial Garrison proceeds to Gun Down unarmed men women and children the reason I'm highlighting so many specific details in this scene is because it is so brilliant on so many levels both in terms of execution and thematic significance all of these characters that we've come to know and understand with very specific goals in mind that have nothing to do with the Rebellion Brewing on ferrics become completely blindsided by the Swift turn of events that occurs here on Rick's Road they are all powerless to stop or avoid a conflict that they wanted no pardon mirroring the inevitability of War and the Empire's reach across the Galaxy even in the most unexpected of places Lutheran has taken aback by the beauty of marva's speech in the inspiration of rebellion unfolding before his very eyes before nearly dying in the ensuing explosion all the injustices the Empire have committed against the people of ferrics boil into a point of exploding both literally and metaphorically on the very road that means the most to its people as enacted by the very person who always sought to inspire change and finally in the spirit of her death manages to do so Dedra despite all of her careful planning and intentions manages to capture neither Cassian nor Lutheran and is brought to her lowest point when she is knocked over during the riot and is about to be dragged off and killed by the locals before Cyril saves her at the last moment this is a powerful moment of redemption for Cyril who finally comes to find a purpose of which he can serve even when circumstances don't go as planned and I'm sure we will come to find out more about where this Crossing of paths between Cyril and Dedra is intended to lead more in season two in the end nobody walks away having completed what they set out on ferrics to do as the machines of War had bigger plans in store for them all such as the central theme of the show there are no clear Victors in times of War only losses through all the commotion Cassian manages to escape with Bix and escort her onto a ship with Brasso and Salmon's son as they fly off into the distance without Cassian who has decided that he must stop running and settle his affairs with luthin in order to do the very thing his path has inevitably been leading him toward all this time he asks Lutheran to kill him now or take him into work for the rebellion and well we all know how that turns out given where he ends up in Rogue one what I really like about the finale when it comes to Cassian is that he like the others searching for him is almost an outsider to everything happening around the funeral he isn't even in attendance and uses it as an opportunity to save the one remaining person he has close ties with I can only imagine the inclination some other writers for Star Wars would have had to just let Cassian roll in like a badass and blow up all of the Imperial guards and save the day and everyone in pharynx but no here he's just a human being like everyone else a ghost sneaking his way through the backdrop of the central conflict in the finale Cassian is allowed to display a different kind of heroism and the only way that he as one person is capable of doing returning home to make amends with the past and save those he can while slowly emerging as a Beacon of Hope in the spirit of his mother he has finally committed to taking the first step towards sacrificing in the name of something greater than himself laughs [Music] and with that we finally reached the end of the series and what do we have to take away from it what is it that allows and or to excel as both a Star Wars series and as a series in its own right amongst a backdrop of so much other content on offer these days in my eyes Andor is just a masterpiece that should be used as a case study in every screenwriting 101 course it introduces a multitude of plot threads and characters that it manages to balance flawlessly without ever feeling disconnected or convoluted it establishes clear rules and logical consistency that are never broken or strained to the point of losing credibility it ruminates on heavy themes through specific actions and decisions of which carry consequences calculated with a staggeringly self-aware attention to detail and it Roots the viewer in several conflicting perspectives that allow the viewer to Envision the full weight of the story and this is the Crux of andor's Brilliance in terms of its narrative off offering up multiple perspectives and not just forcing us to perceive the events of every decision and every action Through The Eyes of Cassian himself Andor manages to develop a level of characterization emotional resonance and narrative investment over the course of three episode arcs that most TV series don't even manage to develop over the course of an entire season and or could have taken the easy Road of Simply following Cassian through his early days as a rebel accompanied by Nostalgia bait and exciting action set pieces carrying with it no real weight or depth but instead decided to use the story of Cassian and or as a vessel to tell a much larger War story about how a dictatorship Rises to power and the consequences of those who decide to actively oppose it or worse yet choose to do nothing at all and despite the expansive Galactic scope of andor's narrative it always manages to remain grounded both in terms of its realism but also in regards to its own established themes and character actors never cheaply wiggling its way out of an introduced narrative thread or offering a scenario that didn't fit in line with what was established prior Andor is above all else masterfully consistent and dependable in the quality of its writing in ways that many shows simply aren't never faltering into moments or sequences that weaken or ruin the overall experience and it is constantly firing on all cylinders from every angle of its creation Andor is a clear product of passion and love from those wanting to tell a truly compelling Star Wars story worthy of its own praise and consideration outside the previously limited scope of the Star Wars Universe much like Marva herself in terms of live-action Star Wars properties this series gives me a faint glimmer of hope for change for the future that we may go on to see equally great content set in the Star Wars Universe from Disney in the years to come that is able to chart its own original path onto Broad New Horizons for the Star Wars franchise all right well that's all I got for today's video uh thanks for everyone that took the time to watch through this if it seems like there's a lot of moments and scenes I sort of glossed over or didn't go as in depth with as seems appropriate especially in relation to characters like Dedra and Cyril who had a lot of great moments that didn't necessarily Propel The Narrative but still managed to stand out as exceptionally memorable it's because admittedly I started off this analysis as an overly ambitious three-part series with a second part intended to dive into analyzing smaller character moments and dialogue exchanges and the third part intended to analyze the Brilliance of andor's Music a lot of which I've been using throughout this video but having already spent months on this part which is already about 90 minutes long and now when going through a major personal life change that will make it so that I'm uncertain as to when I can continue on to another part I just wanted to at least get this first part out there this video is really the meat of what I wanted to highlight about the Brilliance of Andor in terms of the quality of its narrative and there's certainly more about the Brilliance of Andor that I'd love to discuss but for the sake of not making this video too long and not seeming redundant over the course of this video we'll call it here if you enjoyed the video be sure to check out my death stranding analysis or my scenes that make or break a film series on my channel as well as these are my modest Beginnings to creating more Movie video game and TV show analysis or breakdown videos and if you would like to see me break down the Brilliance of the characters dialogue and music and Andor in a future video or videos please let me know down in the comments I do everything I do creatively out of personal interest first and foremost and I don't monetize any of my videos but knowing that there is demand out there to see more may shift my focus to more and or videos before other projects that I'm working on so let me know what you think thanks again everyone for watching and I hope you choose to subscribe and decide to stay tuned here for future screaming Lake analysis videos foreign

Channel: ScreamingLake

Views: 251,722

Keywords: andor, disney, star wars

Id: 5s5VZKQNScg

Length: 87min 12sec (5232 seconds)

Published: Sat Mar 25 2023