Star Wars will NEVER be the same again...

hey guys how about Star Wars right the last Jedi was a massive box office hit and it's a masterful movie brought To Us by our Lord and savior Ryan Johnson who as you can tell just can't miss I don't care what original trilogy purists in the anti-wolf Brigade on Twitter have to say about it at the end of 2017 Star Wars was in a great place but then it got in some trouble for a minute solo came out at the wrong time uh only a matter of months after the Last Jedi and for whatever reason they decided hey that's a great idea let's drop this Han Solo origin film four months or so after the most controversial Star Wars film ever made at the time and it flopped and then hey remember those whiners on Twitter you know how their fan theories don't matter because they're not the creative team behind Star Wars and how their complaints matter even less well naturally Disney Cowtown do seemingly every single one of them with the spaceship wreck at light speed that that is the rise of Skywalker and since then we've gotten an endless run on of increasingly mediocre to downright embarrassing live action shows on Disney plus I am still really bummed out about Obi-Wan and I don't think I'll ever forgive them for the book of Boba Fett pretty bleak right you could even say there's no hope well three months ago that might have been true let me call your attention to something that was Unleashed onto the world when Star Wars was still in that better place in between episode 7 and 8 my favorite Star War Rogue one that was a movie that fundamentally changed my view of Star Wars that enriched the lore in a meaningful way that for the first time in live action focused entirely on characters I had never seen before made me care about them and even though they didn't survive Star Wars made their deaths mean something Rogue one is a film that I walked away from having had a profound emotional reaction one which has stuck with me and which has even been Amplified over the countless times since that I've rewatched it and out of all the awesome characters that introduced for all the love I have for jyn urso or k2so or cheer at inway I think the one who stood out to me the most was Diego Luna's morally gray Rebel Cassian Andor he was a bold New Frontier for characterization in the galaxy far far away where the only real comparison I could make it a big stretch to another character would be to say he's like Han Solo in some ways only more desperate and more willing to bend his morals because he's not a mercenary out for profit he's a man who needs the Rebellion to succeed and no price and service of that is too high in the end for him he is if anything selfless in Rogue one what at first seems like desperate moves of self-preservation earlier in the movie are ultimately motivated by the fact that he has Vital Information that will die with him if he doesn't get it to the rebellion and since the film already explores generoso's backstory Cassian seemed like a co-lead who still had a lot of questions one could ask of him so that brings us now to 2022 to that only hope Star Wars has had lately and or Tony Gilroy has brought this exceptional character back for the first live-action Disney plus series that doesn't feel like an endless run-on of fan service something that reaffirmed my love of Rogue one and you already know how much I love that movie I mean [ __ ] I did a video on it a couple months ago you can go check that out over there but still Andor managed to tap into what worked so well about Rogue one and make it better it's honestly astonishing that this show exists Under the Disney Banner it is so far and away different from anything they've ever produced it's actually mature it's nuanced it has something to say and it's unafraid to say it it is the product of Tony Gilroy and his incredible creative team and the fact that Disney just allowed him to make this feel what blackmail does Tony Gilroy have on the higher-ups of Disney because [ __ ] man let him make Star Wars until the end of time he just gets it it's a series that feels like it was made for television and it takes advantage of what tv offers them as a medium to tell their story no stretching out a two-hour long movie or cramming a 12 episode TV series into six episodes this is The Sweet Spot this is what they should have been doing all along with these shows and just god it feels so good to love Star Wars again to feel like Star Wars is doing something is getting back to the roots of what may made us all fall in love with it there are a lot of angles I could come at Andor from elements to highlight as to why it's one of the best things Star Wars has ever offered us its methodical Pace that emphasizes character and allows its plot to unfold over the course of three three episode mini arcs rather than get shot at our faces like Blaster bolts it's deeper examination of the Empire's inner workings on a level we've never seen before the diverse and charismatic new worlds that the creative team's Vision has sent us to but all of those smaller points are consequences of what I believe to be the big one andor's pocket ace this is not the Star Wars you or I grew up with in some ways it isn't even the Star Wars George Lucas grew up with though in as many ways it's also the most lucas-esque the series has been since well since before Star Wars now that's a lot to unpack I know it might even seem paradoxical it probably makes no sense we're gonna get there I promise but we're gonna start at the beginning no no no no no not that beginning not yet at least I mean the beginning of casting andor's story there are a series of flashbacks interspersed through the first three episodes only which I really commend this season for not suddenly diverting back to later on they frame cassian's Origins as kind of a refugee story where Cassian is separated from his people in the aftermath of colonialism and resource exploitation going as murderously wrong as possible and raise an ethical question with no cut and dry resolution around taking him away from his home in order to save his life despite abandoning the rest of the planet's inhabitants to their fate and that's the place the present day of the series initially finds itself in with an adult Cassian desperately looking for his long separated sister with the same kind of desperation and general refusal to back down that he still carries with him during his quest in Rogue one and I think it Bears mentioning that right from from the go the show gives us more corners of the Galaxy Beyond hey here's a planet this is the aesthetic on to the next one we don't spend much time at all in this rain-soaked neon lit Blade Runner planet with Cassian but we get a lot of the lowdown of how Shady it is the ins and outs of how it operates even the fact that the corporate security [ __ ] seem to run this sector which we quickly learn really means the Empire runs it but what these episodes really excel at is how we get to know Cassian himself whether it be how he's perceived by his village as a child his flaws and inability to call it quits as an adult his self-serving rage how he'll make Shady deals or even screw people over just to get what he wants I love that cassian's just wheeling and dealing with everyone making enemies and constantly weaseling his way in and out of precarious situations he's Wayward without feeling directionless and it's so in line with him being up and ready to cut people off when they're of no use to him in Rogue one one that's not unfamiliar Behavior compared to the Cassian we meet in Rogue one but the motivation behind it the at its core selfish element immediately gives the character room to grow over the course of this series the show tells us in this first scene what cassian's priority is to know who he really is yes he wants to find his sister and his people but he also needs to find himself whether he's aware of it or not at the time and so even though circumstances go on to change throughout the season and he's forced to seek out other objectives to put the search for his sister on the back burner even though the literal immediate goal he pursues shifts that larger desire to find his truth is what fuels every decision he makes from episode 1 through episode 12. and by the way I love that first moment things go to [ __ ] where he accidentally kills the one corporate security guy who accosts him and is forced to shoot the second as a witness it flips his first scene in Rogue one on its head perfectly he hesitates he's sickened at himself for this killing it might not be the first time he's killed but it might be the first time he had to look the person in the eyes while he did it and as things progress we learn about who Cassian is up against his equal on the opposition Cyril in the flashbacks of cassian's Youth progressively show the sudden decay of the life he once knew how rapidly it all went away because of one mining ship we get more and more pieces of who this guy we knew in Rogue one is and who he will become by the time he lands on the beaches of scarif and man I love Diego Luna I already did in Rogue one but here he goes from frantic desperation as he evades the Empire to deep compassion for his surrogate mother to rage at the roadblocks that so frequently pop up in this way I think of the third episode in particular where he juggles all of these emotions across the 45 minutes and its masterful stuff it's obviously easy easy to say a show named after its main character won't work if the character itself doesn't but Andor doesn't merely work on the foundation of Luna's complex performance it's sores and by spending so much time with him the other characters get ample screen time too but you know there's no book of Boba Fett type band of otter where another character suddenly hijacks the story for two episodes we experience the commentary of the show through Cassian he Bears the full impact of what the series is saying about our society amidst these extremist groups last grasp and about the dangers and Terrors of a police state hell the first thing that happens in the entire show is Cassian getting profiled and shaken down by these wannabe cops it's worth noting that this is something that will come into play later on and cause Andor to be arrested really this is much more of a critique in commentary on police brutality specifically as it pertains to immigrants and corrupt Blue Blood [ __ ] than I was expecting I mean I'm not complaining I'm all for it but damn I didn't expect it to go there the revolution is present but it's portraying the Empire's Iron Fist in 1984 like police state as the reason behind the Rebellion I mean the entire plot kicks into gear because Cyril can't get over his blue lives matter mentality and pushes a disproportionately in-depth investigation into two dead corporate security officers even when his Superior tells him to let it go would that energy have been expanded by the Empire had it been Cassian or any citizen who was found dead in the dark alley of course not the show does an excellent job of conveying the bleakness and horrors of a police state but also the banality of it Cyril is the formation of a young fascist extremist who goes Full Tilt into this investigation as if it'll make him the big [ __ ] of corporate security or whatever it's like he believes that he should be the king of the ISB because he's just earned it but ultimately he's deeply insecure and is Longing To pledge himself to to a cause that he feels passionate about and I'm not even necessarily sure he believes in the core ethos of the Empire or their beliefs but they've afforded him opportunities I mean his relationship with his mother perfectly illustrates why he would gravitate towards something like the Empire he wants to matter he wants to mean something and that caused him to go down to far more extremist path it's also pretty clear right from the start that this guy is fairly unstable and yet the Empire kind of exploits him every chance they get whether it's Deidra using him for information and then casting him Society or him getting fired for doing the dumbest thing he could possibly do and tracking down Cassian and starting a mini Skirmish in pharynx he doesn't get the politics of it all and that's kind of where his conflict comes into play I'm not saying that I feel sorry for Cyril no he's an incredibly terrible person but I think it's interesting how the show shows how someone likes Cyril who is already committed to a cause out of insecurity can then be turned into something pretty dangerous when it's all said and done because of how that system treats him how it oppresses him and the idea of Oppression is really the core exploration of this series Star Wars has generally taken a macro level look at the bad guys being Nazis villains who most people can traditionally get behind hating but Andor explores the Empire with a modern lens by also invoking police state imagery because realistically that's what law enforcements become an arm of the government by which they can assert their dominance Gilroy asks okay so we all agree that fascists are bad right cool well let's apply that same logic to these emissaries of capitalism who are basically doing the same thing in service of the same interests it's the tendency of capitalists to support fascist regimes because the regimes are preying upon the fears of the wealthy Elite hence why these regimes privatize infrastructure as a means to Rally the supports of the wealthy the irony of this whole thing is that because fascism isn't restricted to the ideologies of capitalists when it has no further use for certain corporations or private entities fascism casts them aside which is again how we get a character like Cyril who's been so manipulated and ironically is pushed that much further towards becoming a young fascist even though fascism is what threw him under the bus in the first place the Empire manipulates emotions and it does it so well that so many under its oppressive thumb may not even realize it's doing it they fall back on their chest thumping nationalist control whenever these private entities fall out of line they use the illusion of Independence and freedom of operation as a means for control but even though the people behind the corporation have devoted their finances their lives to a cause they think they believe in the Empire isn't afraid to step in and take it all away if they feel said Corporation has served its purpose that ties into andor's gradual radicalization Nation to the side of the Rebellion too he's been aware his whole life of what the Empire really is and despite his initial hesitancy to actively fight and instead merely survive he is held angry anti-empire beliefs and disdain for the system since his childhood especially after the mining ship crashed on his home planet and one of the survivors callously murdered a member of his tribe those sentiments were exacerbated a thousand-fold after his adoptive father was executed for an act of rebellion he wasn't even responsible for so despite his distance from the actual fight the Mamie ways his life has intersected with the Empire has allowed him to amass knowledge to pinpoint their weaknesses and Be an Effective self-serving Thief so many of us are like Andor we may be anti-authoritarian anti-fascism but unless we're doing something about it that doesn't make us Pro Revolution that doesn't make us a backer of the cause the they're not the same thing the real test comes when we're asked to put our anti-authoritarian beliefs to the test and do something about it will we take action and honor that conviction or do we need to be financially motivated will we sheepishly back out we see this with Cassian in the aftermath of the heist he's gotten his end he's pushed to the precipice of truly joining the bigger fights and he backs down it's also worth noting the fact that cassian's Heritage is drawing on the idea of our own planet's indigenous cultures and the flashbacks it gives his future confrontations with the law added weight considering the thorough damage the governments in law enforcement have wrought upon those communities all around the world colonization is actually a fairly vital factor in the story of Andor its colonization from multiple angles that separated Cassian from his home his people and there's a heavy emphasis on it in the second three episode Arc that ends with the heist we see the Imperials utilize tactic mix of relocation cultural suppression for anything not deemed acceptable under the Empire you know stuff we've seen from every fascist regime throughout history the aldani celebrate this meteoric event that only comes once every three years from a location that holds special meaning to them and here the Empire is limiting how many of them are allowed to attend after having already committed a genocide via aggressive Force relocation after having already drastically reduced their population as is and even the rebels while screwing the Empire over with the heist and helping their cause financially exploit this ritual a bit for their own gain they make off with all this currency they make a big mess on the planet and who's left to Bear the Empire's immediate scorn in response not the rebels that's for sure the only ones who were caught are dead and sure you could argue the secondary intent of the heist utilizes something of cultural importance for the people to attain victory over the Empire and make a statement liberating these people the team certainly have conversations to that effect but it proves to be much more of a Liberation throughout the rest of the Galaxy a shock wave that has a greater effect the farther away it moves there's no indication that the heist does anything to directly help the aldani I mean maybe it does maybe it inspires them we can dream right that's something which intellectually The Heist team really do know despite their vocalizations otherwise and that's why the goal is fund the Rebellion with this Heist not get rid of the Empire's presence here and free the aldani they know deep down they can't do much here with the heist and they all have much larger Ambitions but nemec in particular is a True Believer a youth spurred into action because he's sick of what the regime has taken from him he wants to do something about it which for what it's worth is very much in line with young progressives who are actually trying to do something about the state of our democracy and so he's providing the Rebellion with a handbook a Manifesto on what it is the Empire is doing their tactics and his observations which comes full circle in the finale when we finally hear what these words are his consensus on the Empire and their constriction we learned that he not only knew how to fight it but because we know what the Empire is from the original trilogy we learned that he saw the empire for what it really is the galaxy has grown reliant on Imperial Tech gotten comfortable living under the thumb of the Empire and its Dynamics who are few and far between who need to remind people of what has always been known about the Empire and the thing they've pushed citizens to forget such as Freedom which also gives the show big THX Vibes remember when I said this is lucas-esque Star Wars that goes all the way back there's your first taste of it nemix words Inspire Cassian to join the fight his Manifesto is proof that rebellions aren't built on physical retaliation alone otherwise it'll be discovered started written off as an agitation and forgotten you need to understand the enemy understand how they Rose to power how they maintain power and then pinpoint where you can dismantle their attacks how you can dismantle the oppressive establishment this also ties into Lutheran's words in episode 10 in that absolute Triumph of a goddamn monologue from stellen Skarsgard God it's so good about using the tools of his enemy to defeat them and I don't think it's a coincidence that later in the finale luthin gets a big moment of emphasis a shot that really lingers on him while Andor is reading nemec's Manifesto Cassian knows what he hates but he hasn't committed to a cause and isn't quite sure about aligning himself with a resistance group anyway the manifesto is the thing that tilts the needle for him in the finale and pushes him right towards Lutheran out of the other members of the highest skiing stands out as well functioning as a great mirror to Andor he lies he steals he doesn't trust and he only sees the ugly side of the world he lives in partly due to his upbringing but also in part because he doesn't actually believe that anyone can do anything to change the status quo so why bother fighting against it his aim is to just find ways to skirt around it and live for himself and himself only it shows the path cassians on should he continue to lean into the jaded untrusting self-serving side of himself it's a really Bleak and cynical way of viewing the world and once Cassian hears it from the mouth of someone else he realizes how much he detests that side of himself he detests the person he'll become and it incites him to kill skein that look at the life not lived or rather the life that is to be lived scars Cassian and in a way it informs his actions post Heist and distinguishes them from his behavior before the heist I think Cassian also made the decision to kill Skeen after the latter revealed that he lied about his brother Cassian thought they had an understanding a mirrored history and then he found out it was all nonsense to gain profit Cassian lost his sister to the Empire so for someone to exploit the emotions associated with that is going to screw with his head but his journey towards dedicating himself to a cause is incredibly profound you really get inside his head with a deeper interrogation of whether or not he should why he should regimes change all the time why would the Rebellion be any different it's basically the ambivalence that jyn urso ends up sharing because the big picture doesn't care about either of them so why should he care about it in return the world is ruthless and his best odds are in working the system and working people for his own gain the parallels with jyn are fantastic and retroactively deep in that relationship a ton it kind of reminds me of how solo deep in Han and Rey's bond by knowing him working through a similar Dynamic and struggle but while I do appreciate what solo did I think Andor represents a far more effective hint at what will come in a later story Cassian can be informed he can be told how to become a rebel just like so many people in our society can be told what to do they can be informed about the evil they face and the tactics they use to oppress them but that doesn't mean they're going to enlist it doesn't mean Cassian is going to immediately become a rebel and he doesn't right away he tries to run away with his mother now that he has the means to escape and live the life he wanted to at the start of the season but it's not enough to free him as he learns through his imprisonment so long as Imperial Flags fly across the Galaxy he'll never truly be free and is bound to fall victim to the oppression of the Empire he has to experience something that will shape his View and actually Forge a rebel out of him his imprisonment forces him into a situation where he has to use what he has learned to inspire Kino Loy and the prisoners to rise up he has to leave his comfort zone and make a stand it's funny to me because Cassian is someone who's acting to become comfortable in the Empire repeatedly butts into his life and refuses to let him be comfortable I actually think Kino is a mirror of Cassian as well in a lot of ways he just wants to keep his head down serve out his sentence and move on with his life because doing the opposite is what got him in narcina 5 in the first place and yeah Andy circus acts the [ __ ] out of that part you could arguably say it's the best performance of the season I mean I I go with stone Skarsgard but we're talking about two 10 out of 10 performances here they're putting on master classes circus especially there's this great interview with vulture where Andy Circus breaks down his approach to Kino and I think his view of Kino is something that he excels in nailing throughout the three episodes of the show I wanted Kino to come from a place that felt very real the whole way the empire were works like many totalitarian systems is by divide and Rule he cared about others now that he's in prison he's sort of shut down in that respect he's really only looking after himself until Cassian arrives then he sort of sees a version of himself walk into the room and it reignites who he was I was thinking about him as someone who perhaps has a family he's doing this penal service his incarceration he just wants to keep his head down and get out until he's reminded of the power of the group to change the future in a sense the entire narking of five Arc is incredibly orwellian in both aesthetically and tonally oozes thx1138 I mean you've been waiting to find out where the Lucas of this whole thing comes in well from episodes 8 through 10 there it is staring you in the face it's not just people who are in prison but every element of who they are is dictated by this totalitarian regime the Imperial symbol-shaped prison is a beautiful way to symbolize life under the Empire on a micro level along with critiquing the US prison industrial complex which is something exacerbated and perpetuated by the same far-right policies that Gilroy is critiquing through the way he portrays the Empire at large the prison is isolated at Sea a trap Laden maze which misdirects and disorients the prisoners until they resign themselves to being trapped and simply go along with it or find themselves fried and it's only when they're able to understand that they're never actually going to get to leave that the prison leaves no choice but to resist and fight free many know Kino included that they might not survive the breakout but they'd rather die trying than live under oppression and this is another thing echoed beautifully by Lutheran speech which in this case occurs in the same episode as the narkina 5 Escape I burned my decency for someone else's future I burn my life to make a sunrise that I know I'll never see the prison escape is the collective consequence of everything that has happened leading up to it Tony Gilroy elaborated beautifully on how each of the places Cassian has been ultimately inform who he is in prison and his choice to give the glory of the breakout to Kino in an interview with rolling stone potassians in the world of ferrics which we're gonna watch get radicalized we watch aldani get turned upside down this is a revolution I said he can't be a leader in the prison Revolt he has to learn the trick of leadership get someone else to stand up in front when he gets Kino to make the speech finding him as the mouthpiece that's the beginning of Spartacus and outside of its prison system I love how we get an affirmation of the power structure of the Empire we saw from Rogue one and see how similar it is to that of a corporation even down to the double crossing backstabbing in the people at the top just watching as the subordinates carry out their whims while fighting against each other Denise goff's Deidra is one of my favorite Star Wars villains being a woman in the workforce makes her work 10 times harder even though she's clearly better at her job than at least one of her peers probably all of them if we're being honest and because of that and her Vigor she's found a vicious streak and risen through the ranks as a monster rather than as an officer I see her as another damning indictment of the Empire The Empire created their own monster because of their discriminatory infighting corporate culture someone like Deidra is the kind of person whose ruthlessness knows no bounds and ultimately causes more problems than it fixes she becomes more and more unhinged as the story progresses and I imagine it won't end well for her in the second season that exchange between Deidra and her boss where he scolds her for overstepping her bounds only to immediately congratulate her for the other good work she was doing in her area felt so [ __ ] true to how conversations with management often are I think any of us who have worked in the corporate setting can relate to this a lesser writer would have written it as a total demeaning lecture but that's not how how management works they discipline undesirable behavior and then throw you a bone on something you're doing well to reinforce the idea you should behave without having to be told to in that same Rolling Stone interview Gilroy added about Deidra we weren't quite sure where she was going to go along the way but you're rooting for her there's only two women in that whole place and like most women she's doing a better job than everybody else around her and she's not getting any credit then we got to ferrics and we're in the torture room we're like what are we doing and that's when you know it's going really well we wrote her like we loved her but here we are now and there she is I really have to shout out goth's performance too the moment where she's interrogating Bix acknowledges that it doesn't really matter what she says because she'll be tortured anyway and Deidra not only admits it but the muscles in her left cheek twitch with this mixture of Menace and perhaps even enjoyment really all of the actors get something big to you on Skarsgard with his speech in episode 10 Fiona Shaw in episode 7 circus with the triumphant speech over the prison PA but as a single individual performance beat this is the kind of thing that sticks with you and is tremendous it makes Deidra a terrifying presence and I don't think any Imperial other than a Darth Vader has ever really managed to be the degree of intricacy and Nuance in their depiction here makes everything else look cartoonishly broad by comparison which isn't a problem for those other projects in their own right I actually like when we have a campy snarky but doesn't really do much Imperial hierarchy and A New Hope but Andor makes a new frontier for them I mean it's pretty easy to see why mon mothma while an Ardent Shadow supporter of the Rebellion one who you would presume would be willing to die for the cause is so desperate to claw herself out of the hole she's put herself in funding it to escape Discovery and commensurate reprisals she's terrified of them and this is one of if not the most stoic character that we've ever seen in Star Wars I do actually fear for what she might be forced to do or suffer next season her appearances in Rogue one and return to the Jedi have never particularly screamed this is a woman with a vibrant family life in order to make her the mon mothma that we're much more familiar with in the stories to come after Andor I also imagined the hunt for the Rebellion will find its way on mothma's doorstep sooner than she anticipated first because of the aldani heist but then because of the riot on Rick's Road on top of that you've got an infuriated Empire when all is said and done here in a lot of ways it feels like the characters are just embarking on an adventure and joining the fight but it also feels like the Hunt is really on for their capture and elimination it's kicked off by marva's funeral in her pre-recorded speech where she Spurs pharynx to fight against the empire we had each other and they left us alone we kept trade lanes open and they left us alone we took their money and ignored them we kept their engines turning and the moment they pulled away we forgot them she says which reaffirms the fact that the Empire is a corporate machine as much as it is an orwellian dictatorship there is a woman that won't heal at the center of the Galaxy there is a Darkness reaching like rust into everything to everything around us we let it grow and now it's here it's foreboding I think honestly the only reason marva's final speech ends up feeling at all hopeful and empowering is because we know how things will ultimately end years later for the Empire without that knowledge there's a sense that she's alluding to and has awakened a monster just as much as she's awakened hope and expanded the Rebellion nemec even Echoes this in a similar speech from Beyond the Grave with his Manifesto highlighting the haphazardness of rebellion freedom is a pure idea it occurs spontaneously and without instruction this is true but it's also by that definition chaotic and on the verge of falling apart without structure the Imperial need for control is so desperate because it's so unnatural tyranny requires constant effort it breaks it leaks authorities brittle oppression is the mask of fear that's true it takes more effort to exercise Authority and fascism than it does to let people be free that's why we see the ISB tightening their grip against the band of civilians just Gathering to mourn a Beloved Community figure but fascism backed into a corner is going to lash out from a place of desperation from a place of fear and insecurity do I think Marva ignited a positive movement abso [ __ ] lutely and the massacre that happened to miss the ensuing Riot proves this in a way things are going to get a lot uglier before the change Marva argued for is able to take effect when fascists are met with aggression they Panic they get scared they don't know what to do because their control of the situation is in disarray and yet again probably because we all know how things end up marva's speech does ultimately remind us that rebellions aren't enacted and carried out by the saviors like Luke Skywalker people like him come into play because of the people who lit the match and burnt their lives to make a sunrise they know they'll never see Andor is a story not just about its titular Rebel but one about the people who make a difference who restore freedom for the rest of us the lives laid down to make Freedom possible the people who Inspire hope in all of us the same hope that Leia Organa will go on to plant in a three-legged Droid who will go on to save the Galaxy the seed of hope that destroyed the Empire began with everyday people like those on pharynx who fought back those whose names are not chanted Years Later by the Rebel Alliance but to whom the latter owes an unpayable debt in an interview with collider Diego Luna really puts that final scene of Andor into perspective all this time since aldani the Rebellion has been trying to put Cassian down because he knows too much and because the Empire is on the verge of capturing him and getting those Secrets out of him this is no life take this thing I have away from me because it means nothing unless you let me Fight For Freedom there's no point of living like this it's the moment he finds out he can be different from what everyone sees in him and what he sees that there is a chance to transform to evolve and to become part of a solution I think that's ultimately what this series means it's the true in-depth look at the Rebellion from the ground up from the perspective of those who were on the front lines from the beginning not just the Farmers on the sand planets who happened into a couple of droids who had the key to Victory hidden with them oh and you know who were the son of the big Baddie too I love Star Wars I love Luke Skywalker the force in the Jedi but Andor represents something perhaps even greater than that I can't remember the last time Star Wars felt this textured and brimming with life it turns what George Lucas originally wrote and directed as a spectacle-laden Opera of good versus evil and goes several layers deeper to affirm that hey this is what the kid from Tatooine was fighting for when he flew that ship through a trench and blew up a planet killing weapon and or therefore is the epitome of Star Wars prequels the gold standard for how to flesh out an area we've all always been familiar with but to make it something that we feel we finally have the foundation for and stylistically it is really Bridging the Gap between the broad political themes of the prequels and the rough gritty 70 sci-fi of the original film it feels equally related to both sides of the divide it occupies and yet wholly unique in its own right and yes it is the most Lucas that Star Wars has ever been since before Star Wars it's all Lucas it's his THX orwellian Pursuits integrated into the most iconic world he created but because he's already told the larger epic stories of the Skywalkers it's able to get back to that raw angry punk rock side that he started out with as a filmmaker from THX to American Graffiti all the way to that dope ass 60-second student film he made that changed the entire [ __ ] playground for film School filmmaking George Lucas was a rebel and no other Star Wars anything captures the very essence of that the way Andor does and as a bonus for me this just makes Rogue one hit so much harder in in many ways differently I can't get over it man I love my favorite Star Wars movie more than I already did thanks to this show hell maybe this is my favorite Star War now [Music]

Channel: FilmSpeak

Views: 162,471

Keywords: star wars will never be the same again, star wars will never be the same, andor is a masterpiece, andor is perfect, andor review, andor analysis, andor video essay, andor explained, star wars video essay, star wars analysis, why andor is the best star wars show, why andor is the best star wars series yet, andor is good, andor is bad, andor season 1 review, andor, why andor is so good, rogue one is a masterpiece, rogue one, why rogue one is the best star wars movie, filmspeak

Id: hxfVslD1dFw

Length: 38min 23sec (2303 seconds)

Published: Mon Dec 12 2022