The Brilliance of Andor

hello there I'm that of George and Star Wars um it's an interesting franchise from 2015 to 2019 Disney released Five Star Wars films The Last Jedi in particular completely divided the fan base making many question how much they really liked the force awakens and the latter two did not receive overwhelming praise but through all this Rogue one appeared to be the only one that had survived which is very interesting but by 2019 Disney had put any potential films on the back burner and instead focused their efforts with TV shows these series range from Hollow embarrassing and contradictive however there was a series on the horizon a prequel about the supporting character in Rogue one uh okay I don't really know who wants this but it's worth a shot Andor I guess you're my only [Music] hope oh okay wow that was actually awesome guess we may as well break down why there are many different components to Andor but this first season is split into four main arcs we have the recruitment Arc The aldani Heist Arc the prison Arc and the finale all these different plot lines meet the first Arc of Andor showed viewers that after such a long time we would finally be getting a grounded and mature story within the Star Wars Universe when Cassian is searching for his sister on Milana 1 he gets on the wrong side of two corpo security officers and when he's cornered he proceeds to kill both of them in most pieces of media the deaths of two insignificant characters would be very quickly brushed over but in Andor this event kickstarts the story story and has a huge ripple effect on how everything plays out because following this we are introduced to one of my favorite characters sirel Khan he is extremely passionate about his job unlike most of his colleagues and when he hears about two fellow officers being killed he puts his awe into trying to track down the person who committed this Injustice I love this aspect of the story although sirel has some strict methods and is operating under the bad side side I would overall call him a good person trying to do the right thing we are finally seeing the nuances of the good and bad sides in this universe this is not an aspect I expect any of the films to explore as a decent amount of screen time is needed for this however these TV shows should theoretically be the perfect opportunity to do just that we saw a glimpse of this aspect in the Mandalorian as the Stormtroopers are happy to see who they believe to be fellow Troopers have survived showing us that they are immensely supportive and look out for each other never thought you'd be happy to see Storm Troopers in obi-1 Kenobi we saw an individual who is pro Empire and doesn't see anything wrong with a little bit of order in the Galaxy nothing wrong with a little order right and in Ahsoka there's a brief moment where it's stated that a lot of workers are either Pro Republic or Empire and will simply work for whoever can provide them a job this is then thrown out the window when someone cartoonishly screams for the empire all three of these examples are very interesting aspects within their respective shows but unfortunately all three of these examples are very quickly moved past and do not continue on to the greater narrative the reason this is such an important component in the Star Wars universe and is worthy of exploration is because every character is going to have some form of motivation for why they do what they do you'll have characters motivated by money characters that are motivated because of the loss of people close to them or characters who who believe in the greater good however there is no reason why these motivations would be exclusive to one side or the other Boba Fett for example wait sorry I'm not sure what he's doing on screen I prefer the real Bob [Music] effect I said the real Bob Fett we would be honored if you would join us Perfection anyway he wasn't necessarily Pro Empire he was only involved with the bad guys to hand hand solo over to Jaba and receive his paycheck we then have a character like lofin who is a driving force for the rebellion and yet when those working for him want out he doesn't allow it ironic how the Rebellion fights for others freedom and yet people on their own side become trapped luffin believes in the greater good but will do whatever it takes to get get there boba fetch before things got complicated and then really contradictive seemed to only be bothered by bounty hunting and the money he received for doing so whether he was hunting down a good or bad guy didn't seem to really phase him the best pieces of media will understand that morality exists on a spectrum and will present why it's often a lot more complicated than a character simply being good or evil no matter which side they're on but for this to be effective there needs to be importance and or depth to the story so despite being in favor of the priox Milana and the Empire Siro is not doing a bad thing here and why he believes what he is doing as right is fly explored through numerous character interactions and the way he tries to motivate his co-workers it's also nice that we have competent antagonists back in Star Wars media as siral makes a lot of correct judgments and decisions which leads to a fellow man from fck sending a report on cassan and sir also has a witness who saw him on Milana 1 with with all these pieces in place Siro and lus another passionate worker under the preo Milana assemble with team to go to fic and arrest Cassian fortunately for Cass luofan who he was going to sell an ns9 stara unit to instead turns out to be a lot more invested in working with him up to this point in the story Cass has simply been hustling for himself he hates the empire for killing his adopted father CLM Andor he will happily steal from the Empire but accepts they're unlikely to go away anytime soon but whilst being cornered as the blues close in on him he decides to escape fck alongside lofin the two of them making very tactical decisions and killing a bunch of corpos in the process leaving sirel absolutely devastated in the second Arc cassine has been offered an opportunity to make a lot of of money and hurt the Empire by joining up with a small Rebel team on odani with a plan to steal a quarterly payroll for an entire Imperial sector whilst he settles in we see the aftermath of everything that went down with fck now being under Imperial Authority all of a sudden the Empire getting involved in something that was incredibly significant the presence of a few Imperial officers and soldiers roaming the streets now seems like a huge deal now I've often spotted defenses for previous Disney star content stating that the Empire has always been incompetent so therefore it's okay when it's present in these recent movies or shows and in response to that I feel people need reminding of the Empire's skill in A New Hope in the opening scene we see a star destroyer going after a reel parade Runner by the scale of the ships alone the Empire is already seen as a much more imposing threat once the Stormtroopers board the ship they were able to wipe out most of the rebels with ease this time without the need for dartha to to even be involved there are very few Stormtrooper casualties compared to the deaths of rebels the remaining Rebels are held as prisoners alongside Princess Leia and this kickstarts the plot of the entire film all of this is due to the Empire and their competency establishing them as a threat in the opening of the film and making them a challenge for Our Heroes to defeat this scene results in huge consequences establishes the stakes and makes that final Act feel like an immense accomplishment compar the competency from the empire in A New Hope to Obi-Wan Kenobi where Storm Troopers can't even handle a slap to the face and somehow dozens of Troopers don't realize the guy wearing a trench coat has four legs yeah to say that storm troopers have been embarrassing in stallers over the past few years would be an understatement thankfully Andor returns to the traditional roots of this franchise with the bad guys being competent and a threet to our heroes and a team of seven going up against an imperial Garrison of 40 men is something that has required so much prep work and skill in order for the heist to be successful and for the team to obtain all those credits even then the plan didn't play out as smoothly as the team were hoping resulting in two men being killed in the crossfire the rest of the team managed to narrowly escape but neic is crushed during the takeoff and passes away later as a result this Heist has resulted in quite devastating consequences but they are still not in the clear yet he simple free Tie fighters are deployed from alenzi Air Command the threat of the empire in this show combined with the consequences that have already happened makes the following scene a very stressful one to sit through the team use the I as a cover to escape as the meteors Wipe Out the Tie fighters despite the casualties of free men Alani is viewed as a win for the rebels and a loss for the Empire but to add further nuances to the good versus evil in this show it turns out that one of the team members SK isn't quite who he said he was he proposes to Cassian that they should take the credits for themselves and split it 50/50 his idea being that the two aren't so different after hearing this proposal Cassian quickly shoots him after all the trouble they've been through he is disgusted to hear this offer Cass takes the cut he was promised for assisting with the heist and leaves the leader V with the rest [Applause] after the Alani Heist Cassian tries to lay low for a little while on the planet NEOS but where you try to hide in the Galaxy does not really matter anymore as the Empire is spread out everywhere and his avoidance of them turns out to be the very thing that gets him caught ironic he is sentenced to prison for 6 years and will be working on Nina 5 putting together important components for a gigantic project that the Empire is working on after 30 shifts it would seem that Cassian is used to working in this environment and is just as efficient as the rest of his teammates but not too long after word starts traveling around the facility that something is not quite right on level two and later it's confirmed to both Cassian and his floor manager Kino ly that all the men on level two were fried Kino is yet another superb character in this show and up to this point he has been a great leader he accepts the situation he's in ensures that everyone gets along and convinces himself that there is light at the end of the tunnel however that attitude changes once he understands the reason why level two got fried was because a man from level four was supposed to be released but instead got put on two the idea here is to transfer these inmates to other prisons once their supposed sentence is up however in this case they made a fatal error and went into full damage control when word began to spread even though this is building towards something big these are still fairly low stakes in the grand schemes of the Star Wars Universe especially considering that all of these men are seen as Expendable to the Empire but that is the exact reason why Keno's change of attitude cassian's well fought out plan and the team spirit behind all 5,000 men is so powerful these are normal everyday hardworking people that have lost their freedom now a couple of inmates rebelling will do nothing the guards have ways of dealing with them Rebels alone are weak but Rebels together are strong and if motivated can easily Escape so unit 52d although of casualties managed to escape and now Cassian and Kino are in control of the command center following an empowering speech from Kino so many men are able to escape the facility and seeing those tiny little bod swim out from such a huge building makes this an incredible accomplishment the use of scale in this show puts all the threats in the Galaxy into perspective starting each Arc with fairly low stakes has made both those threats and payoffs a lot more engaging it's why one star destroyer showing up on odani feels so powerful and why thousands of Star Destroyers buried beneath the surface in the rise of Skywalker feels utterly nonsensical bigger doesn't necessarily mean better that's why I try telling myself anyway setting the stakes too high in your story can often ironically bring down the tension this unfortunately has been a common mistake in a lot of the recent Star Wars media I found Obi-Wan Kenobi specifically to be quite frustrating because the large scale of that show feels very forced episode 1 was the better episode of that series because it begins with Obi-Wan simply working and going about his life and if the series were to remain consistent and be both a good sequel to Revenge of the Sif and prequel to A New Hope then the rest of the episode should have continued this we saw in Andor that the Empire is infecting every corner of the Galaxy and that same level of conflict that Cassian faces could have been the Crux of Kenobi forcing him into situations where he needs to avoid Stormtroopers on a small scale but because it has the Star Wars label it needs to have lightsaber jewels and hundreds of Stormtroopers Andor proves that starting out small and slowly scaling up results in a far more satisfying story Ark for the finale is where all of these main plot lines meet after Cassian escapes the prison and gets back to NEOS he finds an associate of hiss on feric but unfortunately is informed of his mother's passing after hearing the tragic news he looks out to see at the sunset reflecting the finale of Rogue one we already know what's going to happen to this character but witnessing the full Journey understanding why he believes the things he does and seeing him become an Unstoppable Force for good has been so emotionally satisfying but with that news Cass will be returning to F and he will not be the only one fck is still under Imperial control and de from the ISB will be there in attempt to C apture cassan sirel and lus will be going as this case is very close to them and could be a good opportunity to clear their names and finally Vel C and luffin will be there in attempts to kill cassan as he knows too much about their operation and is seen as a liability just a quick reminder that none of this would be possible if Cassian hadn't killed those two corpos this is a superb use of Corson effect and demonstrates clear consequences in the story for the funeral B2 has a saved recording of a speech from Marva much like the other monologues in this series this one is simply brilliant my name is Marva carassi Andor want to be a daughter of F and honor to be worthy of the stone my name is kinoy I'm the day shift manager on level five and what do you sacrifice kindness kinship love how long we hang on how far we get how many of us make it out all of that is now up to us I wake up every day to an equation I wrote 15 years ago from which there's only one conclusion I'm dead damed for what I do and now I'm dead and I earn to lift you we will never have a better chance than this my eagerness to fight the set me on a path from which there's no escape and I would rather die TR trying to take them down than giving them what they want I burned my decency for someone else's future I in my life to make a sunrise that I know I'll never see not because I want to shine or even be remembered it's because I want you to go on now the ego that started this fight will never have a a mirror or an audience or or the light of gratitude we know that they are making up our sentences as we go along there is a Darkness reaching like rust into every into everything around us we let it grow and now it's here now we know that when they say we are being released we are being transferred to some other prison to go and die so what do I sacrifice everything the Empire is a disease that thrives in darkness and that ends today there is one way out perhaps it's too late right now the building is ours if I could do it again I'd wake up early and be fighting these bastards if we can fight half as hard as we've been working we will be home in no time fight the [Applause] [Music] Empire what's I especially like during marva's speech are the Expressions on luff's face there is a wound that won't heal at the center of the Galaxy the Empire is a disease is that thrives in darkness and how even afterwards he still struggles to process it all he's mostly been operating behind the scenes and talking to extremely powerful figures he never got a true sense of how the good everyday people in the Galaxy felt towards the Empire the episode ends with Cassian saving those close to him and sending them to a place where they're out of Harm's Way he then Waits on luan's ship and confronts him once he's aboard knowing full well that he came to F to kill him Cassian gives him a choice to shoot him down or take him in showing that despite years of trying to ignore the Empire he is now fully committed to fighting with the Rebellion season 1 of Andor is a great season of television and something I love about it is how it feels like several different miniseries in one these different arcs present us with settings that were previously absent in the Star Wars Universe the gritty parts of feric the beautiful mostly natural planet of Alani and the seemingly never ending Labyrinth of Nina 5 with these locations in mind the show clearly has a very different feel to it and as a result I've spotted a few criticisms claiming that Andor is not true Star Wars this is also due to the lack of superficial elements in the show such as there never being a single lightsaber ignited now if one wants to Define Star Wars with its memorabilia and imagery then that's fair enough however I would strongly argue that's the exact reason why a lot of content from this franchise in the last few years has felt extremely safe and watered down relying too much on the past not adding anything new and often contradicting the original media Andor had something new to bring to the table it has the same paint job as Star Wars but offers different stories various character perspectives from both the rebellion and the empire in ways that we've never seen before whilst also incorporating some inspiration from other mature science fiction properties like Blade Runner the end result is something very different but something that absolutely broadens our understanding and very much has its place in the Star Wars Universe in conclusion Andor is a very well written show with clear Stakes a great use of cause and effect fough exploration of characters and why they believe the things they do a more nuanced look into the Empire and the rebellion and an effective pacing building up to the action making those payoffs very satisfying the World building of Andor is also superb and really goes out of its way to create a Galaxy that is believable a problem with Star Wars in general is that we often get introduced to characters whose only purpose is to move along the plot attack of the Clones very much contains an example of this after a very um conf loed attempt to assassinate Padme Kenobi and Anakin managed to catch the Assassin who is then killed by Jango Fett with a Camino saber Dart but thankfully Obi-Wan happens to know someone called Dex Jeter who owns a 50s diner who happens to have knowledge over Camino saber darts he is a very amusing and memorable character but his only purpose is to shift Obi-Wan over to kamino Andor on the other hand goes to huge lengths to strengthen that World building I completely buy that luffin has a contact on an industrial planet who is close to someone who can obtain important Imperial components having these connections may help the Rebellion but it also gives the Empire a better chance of tracking down those who are responsible for going against them hence why Cassian was seen as a liability it is both a believable and interesting way of showing how all these characters connect to one another and if one goes down they all go down this does wonders for andor's World building by presenting us with the enormous scope of the Galaxy but also all the tiic communities that exist within it overall this Series has consistent quality writing that elevates far beyond the rest of modern Star Wars media however the show is not only well written but essentially every element of production is excellent as well the use of practical sets makes you feel so immersed in these episodes and a great amount of thought has gone into each location from the Industrial Field with fics to the pristine white clean F of mon muff's home or the ISB headquarters the shock composition further adds to this stunning presentation with a lot of shots having the perfect alignment of everything in the frame pretty much what Star Wars would look like if it was directed by Stanley cubrick this might be a hot take but I think the music from Nicholas bratel is the best in the franchise it is quite the varied OST my personal favorites are the awesome soundtrack Pilgrim the intense tourist don't run the insanely catchy NEOS Galaxy Mix and the incred incredibly uplifting past present Suite all very appropriate to the atmosphere and tone of the scene the performances from all cast members were terrific with a whole range of emotion I really bought into these characters and that further added to the maturity of the story it can be easy to get caught up in the Doom and Gloom of modern Star Wars but this series led by Tony Gilroy proves that with the right ideas and with so much passion you can create brilliant stories in this universe making us all feel a little bit more optimistic about the future I've been your host that of George and thank you for watching

Channel: That0therGeorge

Views: 159,049

Keywords: video essay, that0thergeorge, thatothergeorge, that other george, review, andor, season 1, star wars, recap, breakdown, explained

Id: qc2ziiOOXGQ

Length: 25min 24sec (1524 seconds)

Published: Fri Nov 24 2023