Star Wars Appreciation **Spoilers Ahead**

Andy Serkis and Stellan Skarsgård flexing their formidable acting chops today.

This. Cassian Andor was almost a supporting character in this episode. Proper Bladerunner monologue vibes from Skarsgård.

agreed Skarsgård was Rutger Hauer ‘tears in the rain’ tastic..

and Andy Serkis in the Control Room with the biggest mic drop ever

Rutger Hauer ‘tears in the rain’

That wasn’t Bladerunner, that was Cool Runnings.

Lol, I could have said ‘tears for fears’

Studio Ghibli posted this today. Maybe they’re doing a Visions episode? Or something bigger…

Laputa, Castle in the Skywalker

Totor-obi wan kenobi

The cat returns of the Jedi?

Just watched Michael Clayton, which the writer of Andor (Tony Gilroy) wrote and directed.

He's got a very good instinct for all of the political/managerial weirdness that's appeared in the show too. Particularly the muted, abbreviated corporate speak of the security council, where it's all too relatable given that it's an authoritarian empire.

There's a pretty good interview with him here too:
https://www.rollingstone.com/tv-movies/tv-movie-features/andor-explained-season-1-finale-season-2-preview-1234626573/

Andor is fantastic, very refreshing after so much mediocre stuff.

Yes, just great. Audio was hard to decipher the dialogue when they were netted so didn't quite understand how they went from trapped to hitching lift, but otherwise a fantastic episode with a great zappy zappy pew pew in space scene near the end which the 9yo enjoyed.

Very much looking forward to the final episode, though the build up for the expected final showdown felt a little bit rushed which is a bit uncharacteristic.

Agreed, trying to bring all the threads together in one episode felt rushed. The acting though... was nearly in tears with Mon Mothma and you could see the anguish in Saw Gerrera wondering whether to burn Kreegyr.
Good to have some aliens and a space firefight aswell.

It was fast paced but that adds to the build of tension I felt?

Yes it does, think I just wanted more of it.
Had it pointed out via ScreenCrush on youtube that the intro music has been, each episode, having instruments added to also ramp up the tension. It works.

Luthen’s ship turned into a Sith Lord!
I was happy Cassian got his loot back.

Has Mon Mothma sacrificed her daughter’s freedom for the Rebellion?

Will Anto Kreegyr’s men die for the sake of one ISB informant?

What plans for Saw Gerrera, rebel extremist?

What will become of Bix Caleen and her state of mind at the hands of Dr. Gorst?

Will Dedra Meero get her comeuppance from Lonni Jung?

How much longer can Luthen Rael conceal his intentions from the Empire?

Where does Cassian Andor go next? Not back to Ferrix, Shirley?

This series finale is television at its best.

I read somewhere that five series were reduced to two.. leading up to Rogue One.. I can only assume that the overlay of plot lines need to be condensed without becoming incoherent

The way the series have been, I would be very happy with watching 5 series of Andor!

Some big time jumps next season then.

Yes five seasons were planned culminating with a lead into Rogue One. Next season will be ten episodes with two episodes representing each year.

Given the team that has produced this, i could watch as many as they release

PSA: *Watch until the end of the credits claxon*

Quiet in this thread, surprisingly.

This was my favourite scene:

1 Attachment

2 years to wait now.

Rebels reboot next yeah?

Enjoyed the last episode, things didn't go down quite as I'd expected them to, but tension build up was excellent.

Street battle did an excellent job of a panicked response by a totalitarian regime against angry protestors/marchers and the subsequent chaos.

More main characters survived than I thought.

Eps 8 - 10 of Andor are easily the most interesting, well-written and executed piece of stars wars media of the entire franchise. The three eps obviously do not work as a standalone story, but as an arc within the universe it is head and shoulders above everything else made with a star wars logo. The slave prison was great place to explore power dynamics of authoritarian societies, both the emotional cost to the slaves and the cracks in social structure that imposes slavery on them. The prison guards are unfortunately not given any depth, and the Empire baddies are still fairly bland baddies. But the discussion in Clerks rings down through the ages when working out the human cost of regimes like the Empire. The detuned synthesisers (finally an appropriate environment for them, not just more neon interior / exterior shots) were also incredible. Music from these eps do stand alone as individual pieces.

Cassian's arc in the series reminded me of Catch-22, or at least Yossarian's view of how he fits into the war, I think similar to Cassian's:

"The thing that the world found impressive was Yossarian’s moment of illumination over Avignon – how he fitted into the big picture. The short answer was nowhere. Watching Snowden bleed, thinking about the roster of his dead friends, Yossarian sees with perfect clarity what is going on: the world is trying to kill him. The Germans firing at him from the ground, the pilots taking him in close over targets, the officers picking the targets, the warlords in Washington running the war: none care a damn about him and all are trying to kill him, just as they have killed a roster of his friends.
...
Great war books are usually about the magnitude and sorrow of loss; Catch-22 is about the insanity required of any man to imagine that the madness of war has anything to do with him. In war, what the world wants and what any sane man wants are radically at odds. Since that is the case, the sane man’s answer is always no."

We watch Cassian recognise that the world wants him dead and also that he means nothing within it. Really only in the last few scenes do we see him consider his larger place in the rebellion - this is a bit of an inspirational false note his development in the series, although Cassian has to be turned into a hero at some point.

Anyway incredible watch. Only real, proper complaint is that the jobsworth nerd turned stalker was given way too much screen time. Fundamentally un-interesting and the whole pyschopath due to overmothering was already done to death the first time Hitchcock rolled it out.