The everyday-ness of Andor is purposeful. Evil isn’t just a comedic foil… it’s a very real side effect of normal people acting normally. Which is terrifying
One thing that comes to mind is that unlike the OT, our heroes don't come from the outer rim. In the show we mostly see characters who have been raised in worlds where the presence of the Empire is unwielding. One could argue that the accents being british is representative of the dimineering nature of the Empire's oppression
If I could add an addendum to the video, I’d say that British accents on Ferrix are fine (especially because it seems like a close knit community where you’d eventually generate a common dialect), same with rich people from Coruscant, but what really distracted me is the prison. I’m fine with having no aliens in the prison, and it makes sense that they’d put people with the same language together but I think different accents in that situation is a no-brainer. Perhaps it’s my own bias for seeing so much of what I consider familiar (being a Brit myself) in the media I’m watching.
@@WrongIdeasChannel Yeah, it probably would have been better if the people in the prisons had a bit more variety in accent. Although there are potential excuses one could give. Maybe the prison mostly takes prisoners from systems near the heart of the empire (for transport and logistical reasons). Maybe spending years in an imperial prison makes it difficult to maintain any sense of individuality after so long (accents can change). But more realistically, I just didn't think about it when watching, and the filmmakers probably didn't put a ton of thought into that aspect. Maybe I would have felt it more if I wasn't Floridian. Having my accent, basically any other accent is more interesting by comparison.
@@samvsmedia8680 I think you’re right - most viewers didn’t notice, and none of the filmmakers did either, regarding the accents. Many people did notice things like ‘kaf’ as a lame replacement for coffee though, I’m sure season 2 will iron out that VERY minor but nevertheless annoying problem… It might be that accents are more distracting to those who are familiar with them. For example, I know a lot of Americans hate how the Willow TV show doesn’t sound ‘fantasy’ enough and people talk in modern accents and with modern slang. But I’ve never really been that put off by the American accents in Skyrim/Elder Scrolls for example.
@@WrongIdeasChannel Kaf has been in star wars for quite some time, mostly in books but its kind of an ester egg for those that are familiar with some of the star wars books.
Honestly I like the worldbuilding of Andor as is. I've watched the series five times over and every single time I am blown away by the worldbuilding in new aspects. The news programs that are so similar to our own world, the take-out boxes of tired office workers, and the guns that seem to be actual guns with drawbacks and not just "haha fantasy gun go brrr" guns
I didn't really like the news being on screens. From an aesthetic point of view it made it feel very 1984 which is great. But it seems strange when the Prequels and OT are full of holograms (e.g Leia recording, holochess) for the news to be in that format. But if I had to choose between Andor's worldbuilding and the rest of Disney Star Wars, the choice is easy.
Personally I like space AKs(although I wish they changed them slightly more). In real life AKs have long been used by various rebel and insurgent groups so having Star Wars Rebels use them really fits.
I don't think it quite works though, since they already have a stash of imperial guns and they hide the AKs when the TIE fighters fly over regardless. It fits if they were acting as out-and-out rebels but that's not the case, they're pretending to be shepherds - I doubt every shepherd on this remote planet would have a gun, especially a proper millitary gun. Just my 2 cents
@@pac1841 100%. Although I'd be okay with them keeping the action quite sparse, there will definitely be more of it since Cassian has committed fully to becoming a rebel
I absolutely agree with PAC 1 on this, and I also think it matches the tone andor is going for, the original trillogy was very black and white, hero vs villain, and so it's fitting for their weapons to be derived from WW2, where as here I think we are meant to see the ties between the rebels and terrorists, and whether the ends justify the means, in the end delivering a much more thought provoking experience.
@@WrongIdeasChannel I’m going to defend space AK’s from a stylistic point. Guns, like any prop or costume, carry an inherent meaning. The AK is a clear visual indicator of “rebel” or “terrorist.” The E-11 blaster of the empire is literally just an older British submachine gun (A Sterling, to be precise). The empire’s blaster rifles are basically just Lewis guns. They likely brought their rifles prior to them stealing the imperial blasters. They stole the blasters with the rest of the imperial uniforms, but it’s not out of the realm of reality for them to bring other weapons with them- and to have weapons that wouldn’t be as vital to mission to hand out, in case they had to ditch them in an emergency.
The thing that frustrating me the most is people can tolerate lore breaking, inconsistent story telling and other things,but when it comes to Andor, suddenly accent and appearance of food became a serious problem.
In my case that's because Andor holds itself to such a high standard. The rest of Disney's stuff is written by clowns so the worldbuilding is rarely the chief concern - character and plot are hilariously awful so they take precedent
I'm a huge Star Wars fan but I honestly couldn't care less about the British accents and real- life swear words. It never bothered me and I never really noticed it or paid attention to it. I think the show has great in-depth worldbuilding
Rumor has it, Gilroy wanted Maarva to say, "Fuck the Empire!" in her eulogy. But, Lucasfilm execs were like, "Fuck no" and had him change it to 'fight'.
@@jayhernandez5508I got a very humorous scene in my head about that playing out 🤣 Cant let the product say bad words but youll hear that “fuck no” echo off their walls
A good story is a good story in whatever universe it's written. Much of "A New Hope" was lifted from previous stories. Somewhere out there waits a hilarious comedy to be written in the Star Wars universe.
It’s been said that the original Solo film was almost a parody/comedy before it was completely reshot and redone. I agree, it has excellent potential for humour as long as you don’t break the 4th wall like Marvel
The accent uniformity comes from the Covid-19 pandemic requirements. The had to only use local folks for the cast. I don't think this will be a problem for S2. But hey, the guys are only human after all and there is only so much time to devote to set development, etc. some minor things slide by but not enough for me to dislike the show. And Bravo on this vid!!...loved its construction/editing and how you laid out your concerns. Subbed !
Also from the interviews I've heard it's possible many of the actors would have been much harder to get without the London theaters being shut due to Covid.
@@WrongIdeasChannel I like it when something really bad happens in a dream and you wake up to realise it didn't actually happen and breathe a huge sigh of relief
The most interesting thing is that this criticism, albeit valid, makes no sense to most fans around the world. I grew up in the 80s with dubbed Star Wars where everyone spoke Brazilian Portuguese. The Empire did not speak European Portuguese. Back then, cinema was all in original language with subtitles and movies on TV were dubbed 95% of the time. I had VHS recordings of Start Wars from TV... dubbed. I suppose it was similar in most of the rest of the non English world. Nowadays, even most movies on cinema are dubbed. So really, it may be a flaw, to English speakers only.
I'm a simple rebel. I see Andor, I click. Thanks for such a balanced and measured take on the worldbuilding. I imagine that, similar to what my contemporaries have discussed below, that most of the budget for the show went to locations and building sets. I'd much rather that than blasters shot in the Volume. But I don't hold it against others for their positions.
I'm actually a fan of the concept of a Star Wars AK, but I wish it had a little more Star Wars aesthetics. A better execution exists ironically in Rogue One, wherein Cassian himself was equipped with an AR15 chopped down into the size of a pistol essentially. While the Andor AK was modified with other firearm bits? Its overall silhouette still has a striking resemblance to our real-world counterpart.
Agreed. The gun he has in Rogue One is being used in a totally different way to our world, but the AKs in this are being used exactly like they would be IRL
I do find it's funny a bit that almost no one noticed SW AK which appeared before Andor. The sherif's blaster rifle in Mando season 2 is an AK but with, as you said, SW aesthetics
Watch Brandon Herreras Video about it. It is ineed a mixture of different guns. AK, MP40 etc. The problem is, that the visiual of an AK is so well Knien, that our brain just corrects the changes they made
English accents? Andor was filmed in the UK. Cost considerations leading to getting local actors could be a major factor. And besides, not all characters had English accents. The major characters like Luther, Andor, Bix, Cyril had none.
Someone else pointed out that lockdown rules probably prevented them from flying over any minor actors from other places around the world. Still, there are plenty of actors in the UK who could do a different accent. It's not a huge problem and dwarfed by how good the storyline is, but still distracted me
@@WrongIdeasChannel sure mamy actors could speak in different accent, but how many of them actually fit the need of the show? How many of them are competent actors? How would scheduling be effected? The accent never bothered me, i never even notice that there isnt a difference in accent.
I felt that a corpo eating take-out was pretty damn legit. It did not break me out of the feeling at all. Blue noodles. Ok... I can absolutely see how that fits into the big picture. No joke.
It is incredibly relatable, maybe too relatable for me...at the time, not only was I working in the exact same industrial areas where Andor was being filmed (complete with leftover prop sand they used for Ferrix), I was eating a lot of takeaways on the job!
To me all the things you mentioned are nitpicking at best. Andor was the first time since the original trilogy, that I was really invested into this universe - up to the point where I was full of tearswhen episode 12 finished. It reignited my love for Star Wars, that seemed to be lost (apart from Rogue one^^), and elevate it to a point that I never imagined possible. The pacing is a bit slow at times, sure, the space-AKs are a bit misplaced analogy to some of Lucas‘es weapon choises, but that WHAT COUNTS … how this piece of art made me care for the people of Ferrix, for each of them, how it actually unveils the full scale of the empires evil, and at the same time, made me partly understand how people could join the empire in the first place??? This is something I didn‘t expect. Andor is a 10/10 masterpiece that really deserves a full bag of Oscars.
It is a 10/10 for me as well. When you say 'what counts' though...the attention to detail in every aspect of the show is why it's so good. The fact that the writer did a full redraft during the Pandemic to make it even better before filming started. Because nothing in the show feels like an afterthought, anything out of place is then more noticeable than something of terrible quality like Book of Boba Fett. I don't believe there is such a thing as nitpicking. Take Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. The film is one giant plot hole. Moody could have turned anything into a portkey and had Harry touch it to take him to the graveyard for Voldemort. But he waits an entire academic year until Harry is in the dangerous maze, which jeopardizes the odds that Harry will be the one to make contact first. It makes very little sense. But the film is still pretty enjoyable to me. Then compare that to something like Prometheus. Prometheus is full of smaller conveniences and dumb character moments but nothing on the scale of that. Still, when I think about which is worse on a plot level, I wouldn't choose Goblet of Fire. The error is larger but subjectively I can ignore it far more easily, for various reasons. The smaller mistakes add up into a less enjoyable experience. I don't think there's any point dismissing criticisms as nitpicks because they vary in importance to different people, and 10 'nitpicks' might pull someone out of a story just the same as 1 plothole.
While watching this video I noticed you had only 51 subscribers and I am just absolutely shocked Your video deserves so much more! I am eager to see more of your content!
As a big prequels fan I really like Rogue one and Andor. They make Original trilogy even better. Andor is really great show and it's sad how Mando, Boba and Kenobi series are bad.
Great video. I found this to be a smart take on some of those details that a lot of other channels often miss. I'm curious to see if the Andor crew will manage to fix any of those issues in the second season. Anyway, I've got the notification bell for it for another upload if you've got another video in the works, so keep up the good discussion!
Thanks so much! I have one or two Last of Us videos to work on and then I’ll be covering The Mandalorian season 3. It won’t always be videos on current media though. Apparently the accents thing may have been due to the flight restrictions 2 years ago so it should be cleared up for season 2. Anyway, thanks for watching
I agree on the accents, and I've pointed it out myself. The dialogue in this series is immaculate, and my favorite part of it. Every word and every of the actors' delivery help paint the worlds they live in. And the accents, unfortunately, narrow those worlds down a little bit. In the flashback scenes on Kenari, we didn't even have subtitles to know what they're saying. And we get to see an Aldhani tradition carried out as the Eye commenced. Culture matters in the series and it makes the accent issue more noticeable. Still, this is an amazing series. The only one on Disney+.
Thanks for the comment, and I agree, it's the only thing on there worth watching more than once, unless you count watching Boba Fett for the lols. It's also got a great way of showcasing how culture works instead of people just saying 'this is my culture, I like it, I won't break from my culture', it actually has consequences and means something.
From a worldbuilding sense, they should have included more aliens. But I think the creators wanted to avoid Mos Eisley Cantina vibes. Aliens are great but telling a more serious story has always been the job of the human characters in Star Wars.
On one hand, you could argue that the lack of aliens, especially in empire-led/financed institutions is due to the xenophobic nature of the empire. But on the other hand, it is true that in other places, they don't show aliens to a degree that it looks kinda off.
Star Wars Theory decided he didn't like Andor because Star Wars is fantasy and Andor has too much realism which...okay. He dislikes it for the same reason people like it, and he's since only doubled down despite the consensus now being that Andor is one of the best pieces of recent Star Wars Media. AK's in space was definitely immersion-breaking, but Luke's aunt/adoptive mom also wore a jean jacket in A New Hope. I think even the original trilogy missed on costume design on occasion.
He's still saying that bricks are bad? Oh dear. Andor was the only good thing Disney have come out with and it's a shame he's not on board. And yeah there's a lot of goofiness in the OT like blue milk
Throughout most of the video I was kind of sceptical, but when at the end you summarized and I briefly went through the points made in this video in my head, I realized that you are actually (for me personally) completely right. I love Andor, it's an amazing show, it does so much right, but for some reason some small things felt off, even when I could only really see things that they did well. Your video expertly explains this in my opinion.
Many thanks for this insightful video! As someone who doesn't know anything about guns, let alone being able to identify specific models, the authenticity of firearms in Andor doesn't bother me at all - don't even notice!
I absolutely agree on the Earth curses thing. It needs to stop. My only problem with the space AK's is the simple fact that it has straps. That adds an Earth-look to it A note about the airbase thing. (I'm not excusing the air wing) This has been used before in The Clone Wars. I think it's excusable because it's designed to stop things like the robbery on Aldahni
I was kinda agreeing with you, calling it an air base makes sense if the TIE fighters are just patrolling the surface, even though they obviously don't use air to fly like planes@@officialmonarchmusic
Wonderful video! While I am not so harsh on some of Disney’s work like the Mando or ahsoka or even kenobi and book of boba get (although I’ve heard obviously got gripes), I think you produced an excellent video and earned a sub! I’m not sure if anyone else said it but they had hiring issues due to Covid and couldn’t get alot of international cast because of Covid restrictions. It’s unfortunate but not in their control.
given the track record I'm happy they limited the scope & prioritised story/character. Who knows what might have fallen flat otherwise. tbh, for me starwars lost most of its shine when they added ewoks and removed Leia's spine.
I am amazed that some people wanted them to introduce people like Ashoka or Luke into the Andor show….it would have ruined the vibe completely. The idea is that we follow a bunch of nobodies on their way to become somebodies…..they all start off in a relatively similar moral position, but some achieve their goals through evil, others, self sacrifice. Adding in some already developed characters from the Disney canon would have been a big issue
Most of Ferrix having RP english is a bit weird. The Aldhani crew was fine, except Cinta, whos supposed to contrast Vel's affluent and privileged background. The Narkina-5 crew is weird, but it's pretty uniform. Everyone except Melshi, who has a highland scottish accent. The argument that I'd make is Narkina-5 specifically takes prisoners from core worlds. They did show a scene where a shoretrooper was sorting out prisoners and asking them where they come from, meaning the made an effort to show us that the prisoners are being selected based on their origins, and maybe Niamos is a core planet. As the labour in Narkina-5 isn't the most backbreaking, it might serve a purpose to send prisoners from the core world, or mid rim systems who have a more british-than-most accent. Laborers that are used to light industry, instead of the hard industry types found in the outer rim.
That's a good headcannon. It makes sense that they'd want to group similar prisoners together so they work more smoothly. Maybe they'd use aliens for the really brutal work since The Empire seems to hate non-humans. About the RP on Ferrix, yes it is very unnatural. RP is literally an unnatural creation, it has to be forced into you if you don't speak like that from infancy, so anyone trying to communicate on a loud, bustling, crude trade world is going to drop the accent fast in favour of cockney, or piratey sounding accents. To be fair, I though Cinta was more of a moral contrast to Vel, somebody who was ruthlessly willing to get her revenge, vs Vel who had more lofty goals, though they both share the same mission. For those two, I just wish we'd have got a scene showing them being happy or at least just 'at peace' in some way, to inform more of their relationship, instead of being 'at work'.
Except core world=\=British accent in Star Wars, that's us projecting the relative poshness of certain accents. Alderaan is a core world but all the Organas have American accents, Correlia is a core world but Han has an American accent, Coruscanti people have American accents as well, and the Jedi's accents are weirdly all over the place for people who were literally raised together since they were toddlers. Rey, OTOH, has a British accent and is from the Outer Rim (and from a planet more poor and underdeveloped than Tattooine!), I imagine Ferrix is in a similar situation, though RP in particular is an odd choice
@@kajamiletic3223 Now you've mentioned it, Rey's accent is probably the worst one here. It seems so 'drama school' in a place where everybody should talk like they live in the gutter.
@@WrongIdeasChannel the only coherent explanation I can think of is that Basic doesn't have an RP variant like English does. Both my first languages, Serbian and Italian, have a "formal/official/news-anchors-talk-this-way" variant that's based on one of its regional accents/dialects, Sumadija and Tuscany respectively. So even a poor person from said region will sound a lot like a TV anchor, and you'd have to look into breadth of vocabulary and correctness of grammar to infer anything about their class. If I had to translate characters speaking this way into English, I guess I'd choose RP English. This is just fanwanking at this point, tho
There are actually diegetic reasons for the accent uniformity in the Narkina 5 facility - when Cassian is part of the line of "convicts" being sent to the various transports from Niamos, the scout troopers ask each one for their home planet and dispatch them accordingly, so they were very much sorting them by culture. Additionally, I suspect that they wanted to have people who were more accustomed to imperial rule on Narkina, because of the high urgency/importance of the labor and the tenuousness of their control
Interesting...I missed that part. I actually assumed it was designed to split up people from the same place and help to divide and fracture any resistance cells that might crop up. But it could easily be what you're suggesting
To me the biggest problem is a general lack of urgency and purpose. Granted, I have only seen the first 6 episodes so far, but after every episodes I find myself lacking a story related reason to continue watching. It's a well made series, no doubts there and it does a lot of things right. But as it is, I have no problem waiting with the next episode after I've seen one. Andor, so far, doesn't have that quality that makes me want to binge watch all of it, all at once, and that's a pity. I'm not saying that I want cliffhangers, but there is something missing to really keep me invested in the story. I hope that will change soon.
If you're still waiting to see the last episodes, it really does get better and more compelling. After the first 6 episodes Andor himself feels a bit lost, without purpose. I think episode 7 is the weakest in terms of progression through the plot, though one of the strongest for the politics. But after episode 7 every episode is brilliant. Episodes 10 and 12 are really something else. It is a slow burn on a 1st watch but gets better every time you see it.
@@WrongIdeasChannel I've watched it all by now, and I think the prison escape plot was the most well done of them all. It added all that I said was missing in my original post. It had a clear goal, and you really wanted to see what happened to the characters. It made you care about them. I wish the whole season had that level of quality. Again, I'm not saying it's bad at all, just that that prison part was the best one and there was something there that was missing in the rest of the season.
When the series starts, Cassian is looking for his sister. It seems that while he hasn't abandoned his burglary against the Empire, he is trying to do the right thing and make sure she's okay. But as we know, the two security guards at the very start kick off a fight, and the plot unfolds from there, leaving Cassian fighting for survival from the Empire after what happened on Morlana, and even from the Rebels who are trying to terminate their loose end. I can see how this makes the first 7 episodes seem more like a series of temporary quests than Cassian trying to achieve his dream. He only becomes a Rebel once he realises the true evil of the prison on Narkina 5, which is 2/3rds of the way into the season at least. He gets completely distracted from his first, more long-term goal, but I actually love this choice. It's like he nearly did something worthwhile with his life, only to be forced into survival mode once again, only to realise that mere survival isn't even possible under the thumb of the Empire. "Don't you want to fight these bastards for real?" is the central question of season 1. It makes me excited for season 2 (assuming it happens) because he will have to juggle the search for his sister with the kind of obligations that Luthen is inevitably going to place on him. Anyway, thanks for your comment. @@MrsHjort
13:16 I think the accent choices were purposeful. As you said, in the OT the accents were carefully used to portray a distinction between good and bad, light and dark. It only makes sense then, that in a show about the grey areas in between we’d have characters using accents in ways we’re not used to hearing. I think it was a good choice. That said, I didn’t notice or care when I first watched it. If anything I may have had a subtle unconscious reaction similar to what I described above, but it would’ve been unconscious and worked to improve the immersion for me.
I can see the appeal of having an Imperial guard and the prisoner he is guarding have the same accent - Andor doesn’t focus so much on racial or species based policies (which you can imagine the Empire used against alien populations) and more about the self-selection of psychopaths into positions of power. The only thing differentiating the guard and his prisoner would be the lack of morality. Which is exactly how it was in the Soviet Union - the system selected the most murderous thieves to be its enforcers. I have no doubt that Tony Gilroy read Gulag Archipelago in preparation for Andor (and I suspect that Luthen is based on young Joseph Stalin). So yes, in that sense the break from tradition re accents might be intentional and smart. But I’ve heard that the lockdowns played a large part in hiring only Brits so I don’t know how intentional it was.
Loved your video and nuanced commentary on Andor!!! BTW, I cringed every time you showed a clip from other Disney Star Wars media (BoBF, RoS, OWK) because it reminded me that sadly, Andor takes place in the same universe as all that other garbage. Not saying you should’ve left the clips outs. It’s just that the fact that crap is canon stings!!! Oh well to me the only Disney Star Wars that’s canon is the Gilroy stuff.
What I didn’t really understand is why they needed the AKs in the first place. A group of shepherds wouldn’t need more than one gun between them, to appear normal to any imperial patrols. They hid their AKs anyway so why two sets of guns? Just use the imperial blasters they already had for defence. If they have to start shooting before heist day then the mission is kaput regardless. With one rusty looking rifle it makes them believable shepherds, not a visible threat to the Empire, and gives them the ability to hunt and do basic defence, anything more dangerous and they should get the imperial blasters out. Having the AKs only made them more likely to get caught. I agree, they could have at least changed the sights…..
First, congrats on getting 3.8k on ur first video Second, I doubt the little things that kinda feel iffy in Star Wars aren’t the main reason why andor had lower viewership, it feels like too specific and niche of an issue to affect wider audience, hell I watched all of andor and didn’t pick up on as much of the issues (though fair criticisms) in this video as much. I think it’s mostly due to Star Wars fatigue and the fact that we’re getting a show for such a minor character few even remember, plus I would say that the fact there’s not as much lightsaber pew pew type stuff definitely has some impact even if that’s kinda a stupid reason
Cheers bro, thanks for watching! Yes, I agree that part of the issue is people mistaking lightsaber duels for real, genuine character conflict. Obviously lightsaber duels can be great but Disney’s are generally poor, and just fan service or spectacle. I do think that if this show came out in 2019 after Rise of Skywalker it would have saved Star Wars. Instead we’ve had 4 poor to terrible seasons of TV which has destroyed people’s interest in the storyline, we’re not now just watching to see how bad the next thing is
I agree with Bears here. Viewership in Andor started way lower than Obi Wan or Manadalorian, so it doesn't have anything to do with anything the show did right or wrong because people didn't actually see the show. It has to do with outside influences that are important: wether people are interested or not in this kind of story, their bond to the main character from seeing Rogue One, the fatigue of a series of Star Wars after so many others of irregular quality, and so on. That leads to an initially midling or weak performance that, none the less, seem to have been changing as word of mouth and critics have been pointing out this is something different. Always, when you analize ratings, you have to take into account that if the ratings of any product are X, it's not based on the product itself but the expectations around it. Han Solo wasn't a miss because it was a poor movie (which can also be true) but because it followed Episode VIII. By now, we've created specific expectations on what a Star Wars show is on Disney+, following Mandalorian/Bobba Fett, Obi Wan and Bad Batch for example, so without having seen Andor those previous products set your expectations when you decide if it is worth it to invest your time into Andor or not.
@@CostanSequeiros Yeah when I heard they're making a freaking Cassian Andor show, I just rolled my eyes. It really felt like they're desperate to milk every single ounce out of the brand. Watching the trailer I thought "ok this looks pretty and different, but so did Rogue One and it was an ok movie at best". I was also over The Mandalorian at that point, which was the only good thing Disney made as far as I was concerned, but destroyed my interest with the S2 finale. It's only after I've seen some reviewers I respect talk about the writing actually being good that I took interest in the series. Thought I'd give it a chance and watch the first two episodes and then binge-watched the entire series. I never binge-watched an entire season of a show before, but a prequel of a spinoff about a secondary character I barely remembered somehow did it. They really pulled off a miracle there but I'm not surprised not many witnessed it. It's a good thing they only have 2 seasons planned and then that's it, because I'm afraid it would get cancelled after that anyway.
The lack of aliens in the prison i think it makes sense. It's tight controlled. And it produces a single piece of tech used in the death star, in an industrial way where the proccess is always the same. You can't have aliens that for some different reasons may avoid the security measures thought for humans. Or too short for the line of assembly. Or with different hands that won't grip the same way. The show shows several other similar prisons around. It's quite possible other prisons hold each an alien species, and is prepared to better control that species, for them to make a piece in a way compatible with them their anatomy (not because the empire is nice, but to maximize efficiency)
This is well made and interesting video, you clearly have quite a knack for this vein of content. I do think all your critiques of Andor’s worldbuilding are completely laughable, but this was still an interesting watch. I’m interested to see what you put out next, hopefully it’s a little more analytical and little less nit-picky. -The accent critique was particularly weird. COVID restrictions or not, the Imperial ‘posh’ or RP-like British accent is definitely not the same as the Scottish or working-class English accents of Ferrix or the prisoners of Narkina 5. I’m not sure why, as a Brit, you’re trying to conflate the two as just being “British accents” when they have very different connotations in terms of social status.
Thanks...lol. I appreciate the feedback. I can address some of it: - The first half of the video was written slowly in small chunks over about a month, in the small amount of free time I had. I'm proud of that part. However, the second half, the critique of the show's negatives, was written in two evenings before recording the audio. Ideally it would have been redrafted and improved like the rest if given time. - The next video is on Halo, and will feature no nitpicks at all. Although I think they can be an interesting insight into other, larger failures of writing by a creative person or team so they're worth talking about sometimes. - I like it when a show uses regional accents to its advantage, but Andor doesn't really do this. There are RP-ish accents on Ferrix which to me makes no sense. Instead of giving it a consistent feel it makes it sound like some of the actors are straight out of drama school. And this happens again on Narkina 5, to my recollection. Without splitting these up properly into the social classes that you mention I believe it's fair to label them all 'British'.
The Ak-47 blaster was prob the only misstep that took me out for a second. No deal breaker. It does create connections in the brain of locals fighting a large imperial force. Andor is a great show and looking forward to season 2.
What I would like to see above all else is another set of major motion pictures with Tony Gilroy and his team as lead writers. This would allow another set of sequels they way they should have originally been made ... with ideas incorporated from the original Timothy Zahn books perhaps, and recast with the newer set of actors from the latest sequels. Yes, this kind of project would be a nightmare for Tony, with Disney execs bending his storylines at every turn to ensure commercial success. But you know the outcome would be an even better set of movies, much like Empire became the best movie in the original series not in spite of but because so many more people had input. In this way the expanded universe might be reimagined. Someone please at Disney make this happen...it will save Star Wars.
It would absolutely save Star Wars. Tony Gilroy has a real passion for the universe which goes far beyond the so called 'saviours' of the franchise (Jon Favreau and Dave Filoni). And you're right, his philosophy and vision would be compromised for the sake of spectacle and entertainment, but it would be turning a 10/10 into an 8/10 instead of a jumbled mess of nonsense into an expensive jumbled mess of nonsense.
I think the firearm thing is true. Star wars is basically a ww2 caper and the weapons in it reflected that. I have no problem with more firearms in a show about normies but base in on a mp40 or something. AK style weapons still feel contemporary. I'm aware they are almost 80 years old but its the feel.
Exactly. Nobody goes into battle with Tommy guns or MP40s these days, basically no weapons from WW2 are widespread on the battlefield, but the AK is still the most popular assault rifle even though it's barely younger than WW2.
This is a neat take, and well thought out. Not to mention I hadn't considered it at all. But I'd counter that allowing for a variety of accents gives two advantages: 1) It allows the show to avoid problems of tokenization entirely. You mention this, but I think it becomes harder and harder to create a diverse cast if we have to create individual backstories that explain them. 2) More importantly, it allows actors to subtly represent real-world issues and offer themes by piggy backing off their identities. Seeing, I dunno let's make up a planet, a Frangltorian, get hanged is tragic. But seeing a black man singled out and hanged allows us to quickly and easily make connections tying the Empire to truly nightmarish and real-world problems and the history of America. Allowing Cassian to just /be/ Hispanic, and not just Kenari, makes the moment where he's harassed by cops who ask if he swam over instantly relatable to the real world. You're right - this DOES make the story lose a bit of texture. But it also allows it to effortlessly gain real-world value.
Thanks. To be honest I saw the moment when he was arrested by the stormtrooper as a reference to the ideas of arrest quotas in police states, where they will arrest enough people to keep their superiors happy by going after random (usually innocent) people
The Polaroid camera was BY FAR the worst offender to me. The show didn’t even modify it at all, and they tried to pass it off as a “navigation tool”. I’m surprised more people aren’t talking about it specially
Empire of Britons fighting American rebels - this is ironic because Lucas himself admited, that one of his inspirations was Vietnam war, and Empire was based on USA, and rebels were Vietcong.
Its my opinion that modern earth weopans have no place in alterantive universes. After all its a completetely different world. insightful prespectives though.
"complaining about brick is silly" Well, SWTheory is silly in general. He's not a bad guy per say, but his general attitude towards Star Wars makes him the kind of fan that is detrimental to the franchise, because the traction he has indicates to executives that plastering a show with cameos will work. Because I feel like it is all he seems to want. My memory might be playing me tricks, but I think I remember him wanting to have Q'ira as the main bad guy for Book of Boba Fett and making videos, super excited as he hoped for that idea to come true, idea that held not a single interesting point relevant to plot OR character. And BoBF was already a "smashing Star Wars toys together" kinda show.
Absolutely. At this point I’m sort of convinced that a large portion of the fanbase watches the show like a soap opera, with hints about returning characters, cameos from old rivalries, etc. Except that’s never been what Star Wars is, it’s a story with a beginning, middle and end. Your imagination is meant to fill in the details after Episode 6. There’s a reason why the only interesting material Disney has created has been Rebel prequels set between Episodes 3 and 4. They actually have to give their characters a decisive ending, which means writing their arcs before to start and end to vaguely line up with events, which means giving them actual characters traits so that they can actually make decisions and learn from those decisions. Whereas the bucket of boring planks in the Mandalorian have no obligations to do anything or really get anywhere, because their time is unlimited as long as Disney makes money from them. Nobody talks about anything other than the plot. I simply cannot understand WHY anyone is excited about Bo Katan showing up. She has one character goal and no personality.
tbf qi'ra has a lot of involvement with bounty hunters in the comics so maybe if they had focused on and set that up from the start it could have worked. but yeah that show was just smashing star wars toys together and another face wouldn't have improved it if added later on in the season
People forget that Disney has only been telling / recycling only one story for decades, the Hero/Princess theme. The fact that they have lucked out and have a great writing staff for Andor is a pleasant surprise. Everything else has been at best average or worse. It is a "real" story with consequences unlike most of the other junk they have been pushing of late. I am happy that they have an actual story and characters worth watching. There has been a shortage of good shows with interesting stories of late from media in general.
The space AK-47s also took me out of it for a moment, they were just a bit too recognizable. Same with the goats. I noticed a greater presence of UK accents but you can easily attribute it to being a regional thing, and fits the parallel between Ferrix and English/Irish working class towns. I must admit I caught myself forgetting that I'm watching Star Wars several times - you can take that as a good thing or a bad thing I guess. It's a very good series either way and definitely stands out because of its grounded and gritty nature. It might not be the best Star Wars, but I think it's one of the best stories told in the Star Wars universe.
In regards to the guns…Han’s beloved blaster pistol is just a real life C-96 with one or two things slapped on. Another OT blaster is just a slightly modified MG-42…this isn’t anything new. As for the accents, another poster said how they were constructed by Covid during filming and had to make use of UK locals only for the most part l. So they couldn’t help it, it was not their choice to do that.
The unchanged AK-47s almost seem like a deliberate choice. Zero concerns about bricks and screws. The preponderance of British accents made me think those individuals were from the Inner Rim. I like the noodles and pizos. The name "Tim" wasn't great, but maybe it was short for Timzel or some such.
They gave him an extra 'm' to make it star-warsy lol. And yeah they do feel deliberate because they weren't even necessary, they had imperial guns stowed away
Stellan Skarsgård was the best thing in the show followed by Mon Mothma's performance. Syril's character arc kept me to around to finish the show. I have only watched it once as I believe there will be overlap with other upcoming shows. I continue to watch Mando, Kenobi and Book of Boba Fett multiple times. I just watched the Patterson cut for Kenobi and the pacing was incredible.
Stellan Skarsgård's character was nothing more than a watered down amalgam of Garm Bel Iblis and Talon Karrde from the Thrawn trilogy. And I found Mon Mothma in Disney canon to be an insufferable, self-righteous, naive, holier-than-thou hippie, who has been written to be the most stereotypical overworked "career woman" possible to make us "sympathize" for her : loveless marriage, rebellious teen daughter with no real character, constantly whines about muh principles because she has to deal with shady folks to get what she wants. And just where in the hell is Bail Organa ? Shouldn't he and Mothma be working closely, since they were like-minded close friends since the Clone Wars ? Also, Mothma is the reason why the Disney New Republic sucks. Oh and all those other shows you continue to watch ? Those are garbage.
@@yrooxrksvi7142 Clearly the show didn't vibe with you, but there are tons of small details hidden in the story if you pay close enough attention. Characterisation done in a subtle way. I mean you claim she is whining about dealing with shady folks. You have to pay attention to what's actually happening - she is being spied on and her family are probably all dead if The Empire finds out about what she is doing.
@@WrongIdeasChannel Lots of people have recut the Kenobi show into a movie, Kai Patterson's cut is most well known because he made it first. Each version is said to be much better than the actual show. The biggest one so far, that is still being worked on is Kenobi: Trials of the Master, which isn't just a recut, it switches the vfx, recontextualizes moments, and even has entirely new scenes shot. I'm not rewatching that show, no matter how good the movie is, but I'd recommend checking out PixelJoker95's videos on the subject, the work he did is absolutely amazing
The mandelorian was brilliant and it saved Star Wars afrer the sequel trilogy disaster. It also gave us the Luke Skywalker we wanted. His scene received a major applause from fans. I don’t think you know what you’re talking about
It's almost shocking to see a character go down after 1 blaster shot with how SW has protected characters so much with plot armor. Andor sets the stakes high and it's so much better for the story. It's not a game.
The accents can be explained as: ferrix is nearly a core world. Aldani is Space Scotland being run by the empire, and space miami is overrun with core world tourists. No yank accents needed. Becoming a rebel doesn't change your accent. Living in the outer rim does, and nobody in Andor season 1 does, except Cassisn himself who was born on that mining planet. Hence his Hispanic accent.
If the model is that American accents are more common further out into the galaxy and British are more common closer to the centre, this makes a bit more sense, and kind of fits with how things work in real life. I personally found it distracting the first time round just because it felt instinctively different to Star Wars. But I like this explanation
You think maybe the accent thing is to blur the lines of people being clearly good or evil? I think so, plus pandemic going on and it's easier to hire local, so I don't mind it at all. All the nitpicks here are just that, and if people can't get their mind around it I think they have some larger mental problems. I didn't recognize the AK because it's not the model that I'm familar with seeing. Andor is more of a grounded show meant to connect more with the audience. The show still looks and feels like Star Wars to me and stuff like we saw in the prequels really made me cringe. Thank god you didn't go into the lack of aliens, because that's a pretty weak point as well. Just because you can do things doesn't mean you always have to. This series is meant to compliment Star Wars: ANH. Not any other movie aside from that. Andi IMO they are succeeding with that. But with Season 2 I'm expecting to see more aliens as the Rebel Alliance grows. I really want to see the Mon Calimari deciding to throw in and give their support with capital ships. Great use of Arcane as well.
The pandemic as a reason is something that completely slipped my mind, but it makes perfect sense. Even if Ferrix had used all British accents, that would have been fine, I think maybe adding in just a few non-British accents to the prison would have done the job. About nitpicks, on a second watch, these are things I just accept. Good storytelling always wins the day, no matter what the medium is. But my brain is always skeptical on a first watch, and given the recent Disney track record they had to work to win back the trust of a lot of people in the audience. I don’t have an issue with the aliens either, you see them in places you’d expect (Sol’s Rebel base, Ferrix, Niamos) and you don’t see them in places where the Imperials would ban or segregate them (Narkina 5, ISB, Aldhani, Kenari, Morlana 1). Maybe we could have seen just a few more in Coruscant, however, I will grant that the imperials probably started driving out aliens from positions of power in government by this time. I would love to see a space battle done in this show. Not because it needs space battles, but because this writing team would nail it from a tactical point of view, and visually too. Thanks! I will definitely be making a video on Arcane season 2 when that releases at the end of this year :)
@@WrongIdeasChannel Thanks for hearing me out! Maybe we'll get more American accents in season 2, but if we want to think about it a little more, Leia was speaking with a British accent in ANH and dropped it once her planet was destroyed. I wonder what sort of accents there were in the Revolutionary War. Did the Americans have their own accent or was it still British? If it was still British, this could be a way for the show to make it feel that everyone is still part of the Empire and as they break away from the British accent, we feel the Rebellion growing as we hear more American accents.... But I'm fine with British accents as long as the script and acting is as great as we got here.
@@artboymoy Do you think that was intentional? I always heard people put it into the ‘stormtrooper bonked his head on the door’ category of weird things about A New Hope. If intentional it’s actually kinda genius…. Early American accents were very interesting. They were obviously British descended but from certain parts of England, Ireland and Scotland mostly, especially rural areas. It’s said that early Americans (and even some modern Americans) sound more like Brits from the 1700s than many modern Brits do. I think Marva probably has the most revolutionary sounding accent, which is fitting.
@@WrongIdeasChannel For Leia losing her accent? Honestly I think she just couldn't pull it off so they said, yeah, we'll ditch it. Or maybe since she's a politician, she's able to localize her speech with whoever she's with as a superpower.
I disagree on the weapons point...Mando's pistol is a 130 year old Bergmann and he is the titular charatcer. The blasters in New Hope are straight up real life weapons, just remove a magazine here or add a scope there. The AK 47 may look odd at first glance but it perfectly fits with how they did back in the day.
For me it might be the fact that the wood looks exactly the same. Not only is the design the same but the materials too. If they made it all black and silver that could work
fun fact sheep like andors exist inreal life, useually with 4 horns, but as many as 8 are possible. they used to be the most common type of sheep in the uk and europe in general. but have been slowly bred into a minority.
firstly, good video. on topic of the guns, as someone who never in his life saw a gun irl this is somewhat nullified. I dont recognise any. In the end most of andors criticism is based on personal view.
Thankyou! I agree, some thought it was too slowly paced, or not enough action, these are all subjective things. For me it is 10/10 on character writing, 9/10 on most other things and 7.5/10 on worldbuilding
The ak47 was the only part that took me out of the show. I loved the takeaway and logically giant bucket excavators make sense Edit: Only now. After years of rogue one being out and watching the hammerhead corvette seen, I only just realised the guns wobble when it contacts the ISS. Edit edit: Marva calling the Empire bastards is one of the most powerful lines in all of star wars imo. That was a necessary and well done swear.
Good spot, the VFX in Rogue One are second to none. And yeah. Marva delivered that line so well. Somehow Bastard fits way better that s**t, imo. Disney does this weird thing with the non-Andor stuff where they use made up swears but then say stuff like 'godspeed'
Great observations, I don't really mind any of that though, but gotta admit the space ak-47 was funny and probably that wasn't the intention. The bricks in the other hand don't even qualify as a nitpick, I mean in OT you have headset with cables... And about the low views, as a person who just recently watch this, I think is mostly because Boba fett and Obi wan were so bad and that Cassian Andor isn't a protagonist that you may be intrested in watching an origin story, I mean he did his part in the movie and that was it. Regardless, I was wrong and this series is one of the best star wars material out there.
Thanks. I agree that the franchise is now damaged because of the really bad shows like Boba and Obi-Wan (though Mando season 3 is a strong competitor for worst show already). The problem with Boba, Obi Wan etc was that their shows were so bad you can't really look away, I want to watch them just to laugh at them. Whereas everyone saw the 1st two episodes of Andor and decided it was too boring because it wasn't blowing their minds in a good, or a bad way.
A)Definitely not enough languages especially since they note Andor knows multiple B) Not enough aliens!! Cal Kestis was also in a corporate zone and there tons of aliens but Ferrix is mostly human, & the prison was all human C) The AK was a noticeable misstep but I doubt it’ll happen again as well as the ‘earthly’ words Still a solid show through n through!
I too love Andor. However, Sinta one second is watching the home 24/7 and the next second is following someone important, only later go back to watching home 24/7 etc... She is of course planted so they have the strong female character that magically can do everything. How she was able to just walk away from their first mission is still head scratching. Meanwhile, we have Bix, because she is not a super hero we actually care for her well being and what happens to her. She is you or I. She is hanging on by a thread and is a much better story.
I think she just needed more screen time. She kind of acted as a plot device after Aldhani. I think escaping from the base is very possible given the distractions of the eye and the raid
I understand what your trying to get across but if it comes down to choosing one actor over the other simply on their spoken dialect alone i'd much rather just have the better actor play the part. I will recognize, however, that their are probably plenty of actors who could take up some of the minor rolls and provide that type of diversity.
I agree, quality of actors always comes first. Peter Dinklage's British accent is sort of weird in Game of Thrones but he is clearly the best pick for the role. Though I feel like many of these actors could probably manage to do other accents, it just wasn't considered at the time. Apparently there were covid restrictions too which made it hard to use anyone from outside Britain where it was filmed
Yes! someone finally says it, the accents and language have been the major factor making it hard for me to slog through the show. It just feels so dreary and repetitive
I am fortunate enough to enjoy most parts of the show. I agree that it is kind of dour but subjectively I quite like this kind of tone, and what observations you can make about human morality etc with it. It definitely helps the show along if you liked Revenge of the Sith and Rogue One
Definitely a big part of it, though the people who tend to like those shows are the ones who typically weren't big fans of Andor, from what I could see.
Nemik being crushed by weight of the Empire's wealth... How did I not realize the meaning?
The everyday-ness of Andor is purposeful. Evil isn’t just a comedic foil… it’s a very real side effect of normal people acting normally. Which is terrifying
One thing that comes to mind is that unlike the OT, our heroes don't come from the outer rim. In the show we mostly see characters who have been raised in worlds where the presence of the Empire is unwielding. One could argue that the accents being british is representative of the dimineering nature of the Empire's oppression
If I could add an addendum to the video, I’d say that British accents on Ferrix are fine (especially because it seems like a close knit community where you’d eventually generate a common dialect), same with rich people from Coruscant, but what really distracted me is the prison. I’m fine with having no aliens in the prison, and it makes sense that they’d put people with the same language together but I think different accents in that situation is a no-brainer. Perhaps it’s my own bias for seeing so much of what I consider familiar (being a Brit myself) in the media I’m watching.
@@WrongIdeasChannel Yeah, it probably would have been better if the people in the prisons had a bit more variety in accent. Although there are potential excuses one could give. Maybe the prison mostly takes prisoners from systems near the heart of the empire (for transport and logistical reasons). Maybe spending years in an imperial prison makes it difficult to maintain any sense of individuality after so long (accents can change). But more realistically, I just didn't think about it when watching, and the filmmakers probably didn't put a ton of thought into that aspect. Maybe I would have felt it more if I wasn't Floridian. Having my accent, basically any other accent is more interesting by comparison.
@@samvsmedia8680 I think you’re right - most viewers didn’t notice, and none of the filmmakers did either, regarding the accents. Many people did notice things like ‘kaf’ as a lame replacement for coffee though, I’m sure season 2 will iron out that VERY minor but nevertheless annoying problem…
It might be that accents are more distracting to those who are familiar with them. For example, I know a lot of Americans hate how the Willow TV show doesn’t sound ‘fantasy’ enough and people talk in modern accents and with modern slang. But I’ve never really been that put off by the American accents in Skyrim/Elder Scrolls for example.
@@WrongIdeasChannel Kaf has been in star wars for quite some time, mostly in books but its kind of an ester egg for those that are familiar with some of the star wars books.
@Luca Gerulat Sadly I only read one EU book, 'Betrayal', before Disney threw the EU into the trash
Honestly I like the worldbuilding of Andor as is. I've watched the series five times over and every single time I am blown away by the worldbuilding in new aspects. The news programs that are so similar to our own world, the take-out boxes of tired office workers, and the guns that seem to be actual guns with drawbacks and not just "haha fantasy gun go brrr" guns
I didn't really like the news being on screens. From an aesthetic point of view it made it feel very 1984 which is great. But it seems strange when the Prequels and OT are full of holograms (e.g Leia recording, holochess) for the news to be in that format. But if I had to choose between Andor's worldbuilding and the rest of Disney Star Wars, the choice is easy.
@@WrongIdeasChannel I totally agree
Personally I like space AKs(although I wish they changed them slightly more). In real life AKs have long been used by various rebel and insurgent groups so having Star Wars Rebels use them really fits.
I don't think it quite works though, since they already have a stash of imperial guns and they hide the AKs when the TIE fighters fly over regardless. It fits if they were acting as out-and-out rebels but that's not the case, they're pretending to be shepherds - I doubt every shepherd on this remote planet would have a gun, especially a proper millitary gun. Just my 2 cents
@@WrongIdeasChannel That is true. I hope we see more of them in Andor season 2 in a more overt rebel action.
@@pac1841 100%. Although I'd be okay with them keeping the action quite sparse, there will definitely be more of it since Cassian has committed fully to becoming a rebel
I absolutely agree with PAC 1 on this, and I also think it matches the tone andor is going for, the original trillogy was very black and white, hero vs villain, and so it's fitting for their weapons to be derived from WW2, where as here I think we are meant to see the ties between the rebels and terrorists, and whether the ends justify the means, in the end delivering a much more thought provoking experience.
@@WrongIdeasChannel I’m going to defend space AK’s from a stylistic point.
Guns, like any prop or costume, carry an inherent meaning. The AK is a clear visual indicator of “rebel” or “terrorist.”
The E-11 blaster of the empire is literally just an older British submachine gun (A Sterling, to be precise). The empire’s blaster rifles are basically just Lewis guns.
They likely brought their rifles prior to them stealing the imperial blasters. They stole the blasters with the rest of the imperial uniforms, but it’s not out of the realm of reality for them to bring other weapons with them- and to have weapons that wouldn’t be as vital to mission to hand out, in case they had to ditch them in an emergency.
The thing that frustrating me the most is people can tolerate lore breaking, inconsistent story telling and other things,but when it comes to Andor, suddenly accent and appearance of food became a serious problem.
In my case that's because Andor holds itself to such a high standard. The rest of Disney's stuff is written by clowns so the worldbuilding is rarely the chief concern - character and plot are hilariously awful so they take precedent
Well you see, this is because Andor is good
I'm a huge Star Wars fan but I honestly couldn't care less about the British accents and real- life swear words. It never bothered me and I never really noticed it or paid attention to it. I think the show has great in-depth worldbuilding
Fair enough!
Rumor has it, Gilroy wanted Maarva to say, "Fuck the Empire!" in her eulogy. But, Lucasfilm execs were like, "Fuck no" and had him change it to 'fight'.
@@jayhernandez5508I got a very humorous scene in my head about that playing out 🤣 Cant let the product say bad words but youll hear that “fuck no” echo off their walls
Right? Is temura Morrison not allowed to be in star wars with his accent?
A good story is a good story in whatever universe it's written. Much of "A New Hope" was lifted from previous stories. Somewhere out there waits a hilarious comedy to be written in the Star Wars universe.
It’s been said that the original Solo film was almost a parody/comedy before it was completely reshot and redone. I agree, it has excellent potential for humour as long as you don’t break the 4th wall like Marvel
The accent uniformity comes from the Covid-19 pandemic requirements. The had to only use local folks for the cast. I don't think this will be a problem for S2. But hey, the guys are only human after all and there is only so much time to devote to set development, etc. some minor things slide by but not enough for me to dislike the show. And Bravo on this vid!!...loved its construction/editing and how you laid out your concerns. Subbed !
Wow, thanks for the sub! I will try to maintain this level of editing for future videos when I have enough clips to choose from.
Also from the interviews I've heard it's possible many of the actors would have been much harder to get without the London theaters being shut due to Covid.
I like that you respond to all the comments
I like that you left a comment
@@WrongIdeasChannel I like it when something really bad happens in a dream and you wake up to realise it didn't actually happen and breathe a huge sigh of relief
@@asherloat8570 This happens to me once a week
The most interesting thing is that this criticism, albeit valid, makes no sense to most fans around the world. I grew up in the 80s with dubbed Star Wars where everyone spoke Brazilian Portuguese. The Empire did not speak European Portuguese.
Back then, cinema was all in original language with subtitles and movies on TV were dubbed 95% of the time. I had VHS recordings of Start Wars from TV... dubbed.
I suppose it was similar in most of the rest of the non English world. Nowadays, even most movies on cinema are dubbed.
So really, it may be a flaw, to English speakers only.
I'm a simple rebel. I see Andor, I click.
Thanks for such a balanced and measured take on the worldbuilding. I imagine that, similar to what my contemporaries have discussed below, that most of the budget for the show went to locations and building sets. I'd much rather that than blasters shot in the Volume. But I don't hold it against others for their positions.
Yeah, if the choice is between Ferrix and an original blaster I'd take Ferrix every time. Thanks for watching
You articulated exactly all the things that I liked and didn't like about Andor but couldn't seem to really express, even to myself, thank you!
Thanks for watching!
Good points all around. The accents did not bother me when I watched the show. But I appreciate your analysis and agree in hindsight.
Thankyou kindly
I'm actually a fan of the concept of a Star Wars AK, but I wish it had a little more Star Wars aesthetics. A better execution exists ironically in Rogue One, wherein Cassian himself was equipped with an AR15 chopped down into the size of a pistol essentially. While the Andor AK was modified with other firearm bits? Its overall silhouette still has a striking resemblance to our real-world counterpart.
Agreed. The gun he has in Rogue One is being used in a totally different way to our world, but the AKs in this are being used exactly like they would be IRL
I do find it's funny a bit that almost no one noticed SW AK which appeared before Andor. The sherif's blaster rifle in Mando season 2 is an AK but with, as you said, SW aesthetics
Watch Brandon Herreras Video about it. It is ineed a mixture of different guns. AK, MP40 etc. The problem is, that the visiual of an AK is so well Knien, that our brain just corrects the changes they made
English accents? Andor was filmed in the UK. Cost considerations leading to getting local actors could be a major factor. And besides, not all characters had English accents. The major characters like Luther, Andor, Bix, Cyril had none.
Someone else pointed out that lockdown rules probably prevented them from flying over any minor actors from other places around the world. Still, there are plenty of actors in the UK who could do a different accent. It's not a huge problem and dwarfed by how good the storyline is, but still distracted me
@@WrongIdeasChannel sure mamy actors could speak in different accent, but how many of them actually fit the need of the show? How many of them are competent actors? How would scheduling be effected? The accent never bothered me, i never even notice that there isnt a difference in accent.
excellent video, man; got yourself a new subscriber!
Can’t thank you enough. More videos coming soon, both Star Wars and non-star wars content
@@WrongIdeasChannel I'm here for it, duder
I felt that a corpo eating take-out was pretty damn legit. It did not break me out of the feeling at all. Blue noodles. Ok... I can absolutely see how that fits into the big picture. No joke.
It is incredibly relatable, maybe too relatable for me...at the time, not only was I working in the exact same industrial areas where Andor was being filmed (complete with leftover prop sand they used for Ferrix), I was eating a lot of takeaways on the job!
Great breakdown of the show, loved the vid and hope to see more!
More is on the way, thanks for your comment. I was delayed heavily by various things but back on track with video production now
Good video. I semi agree to be sure.
Cheers my dude
To me all the things you mentioned are nitpicking at best. Andor was the first time since the original trilogy, that I was really invested into this universe - up to the point where I was full of tearswhen episode 12 finished. It reignited my love for Star Wars, that seemed to be lost (apart from Rogue one^^), and elevate it to a point that I never imagined possible. The pacing is a bit slow at times, sure, the space-AKs are a bit misplaced analogy to some of Lucas‘es weapon choises, but that WHAT COUNTS … how this piece of art made me care for the people of Ferrix, for each of them, how it actually unveils the full scale of the empires evil, and at the same time, made me partly understand how people could join the empire in the first place??? This is something I didn‘t expect. Andor is a 10/10 masterpiece that really deserves a full bag of Oscars.
It is a 10/10 for me as well. When you say 'what counts' though...the attention to detail in every aspect of the show is why it's so good. The fact that the writer did a full redraft during the Pandemic to make it even better before filming started. Because nothing in the show feels like an afterthought, anything out of place is then more noticeable than something of terrible quality like Book of Boba Fett.
I don't believe there is such a thing as nitpicking. Take Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. The film is one giant plot hole. Moody could have turned anything into a portkey and had Harry touch it to take him to the graveyard for Voldemort. But he waits an entire academic year until Harry is in the dangerous maze, which jeopardizes the odds that Harry will be the one to make contact first. It makes very little sense. But the film is still pretty enjoyable to me.
Then compare that to something like Prometheus. Prometheus is full of smaller conveniences and dumb character moments but nothing on the scale of that. Still, when I think about which is worse on a plot level, I wouldn't choose Goblet of Fire. The error is larger but subjectively I can ignore it far more easily, for various reasons. The smaller mistakes add up into a less enjoyable experience.
I don't think there's any point dismissing criticisms as nitpicks because they vary in importance to different people, and 10 'nitpicks' might pull someone out of a story just the same as 1 plothole.
While watching this video I noticed you had only 51 subscribers and I am just absolutely shocked
Your video deserves so much more!
I am eager to see more of your content!
Wow, thankyou kindly! There is definitely more on the way once I finish this next script.
Interesting for a channel to have 1 video and it to be this quality
Why thanks! There will be more than 1 soon
As a big prequels fan I really like Rogue one and Andor. They make Original trilogy even better. Andor is really great show and it's sad how Mando, Boba and Kenobi series are bad.
100%. Not sure what happened to Lucasfilm which meant they only hired competent writers for this show and Rogue One...
Great video. I found this to be a smart take on some of those details that a lot of other channels often miss. I'm curious to see if the Andor crew will manage to fix any of those issues in the second season. Anyway, I've got the notification bell for it for another upload if you've got another video in the works, so keep up the good discussion!
Thanks so much! I have one or two Last of Us videos to work on and then I’ll be covering The Mandalorian season 3. It won’t always be videos on current media though. Apparently the accents thing may have been due to the flight restrictions 2 years ago so it should be cleared up for season 2. Anyway, thanks for watching
I agree on the accents, and I've pointed it out myself.
The dialogue in this series is immaculate, and my favorite part of it. Every word and every of the actors' delivery help paint the worlds they live in. And the accents, unfortunately, narrow those worlds down a little bit.
In the flashback scenes on Kenari, we didn't even have subtitles to know what they're saying. And we get to see an Aldhani tradition carried out as the Eye commenced. Culture matters in the series and it makes the accent issue more noticeable.
Still, this is an amazing series. The only one on Disney+.
Thanks for the comment, and I agree, it's the only thing on there worth watching more than once, unless you count watching Boba Fett for the lols. It's also got a great way of showcasing how culture works instead of people just saying 'this is my culture, I like it, I won't break from my culture', it actually has consequences and means something.
It’s the lack of aliens in a star wars show that Bugs me! Great vid btw!!
From a worldbuilding sense, they should have included more aliens. But I think the creators wanted to avoid Mos Eisley Cantina vibes. Aliens are great but telling a more serious story has always been the job of the human characters in Star Wars.
On one hand, you could argue that the lack of aliens, especially in empire-led/financed institutions is due to the xenophobic nature of the empire. But on the other hand, it is true that in other places, they don't show aliens to a degree that it looks kinda off.
I think you've got the Right Idea
Star Wars Theory decided he didn't like Andor because Star Wars is fantasy and Andor has too much realism which...okay. He dislikes it for the same reason people like it, and he's since only doubled down despite the consensus now being that Andor is one of the best pieces of recent Star Wars Media.
AK's in space was definitely immersion-breaking, but Luke's aunt/adoptive mom also wore a jean jacket in A New Hope. I think even the original trilogy missed on costume design on occasion.
He's still saying that bricks are bad? Oh dear. Andor was the only good thing Disney have come out with and it's a shame he's not on board. And yeah there's a lot of goofiness in the OT like blue milk
13:48 the way you said Tim just made me laugh so hard
lol
Throughout most of the video I was kind of sceptical, but when at the end you summarized and I briefly went through the points made in this video in my head, I realized that you are actually (for me personally) completely right. I love Andor, it's an amazing show, it does so much right, but for some reason some small things felt off, even when I could only really see things that they did well. Your video expertly explains this in my opinion.
Ah, thanks! I think a lot of people feel this way, but for me, when I rewatched the show I was able to ignore the issues and the show got even better.
Many thanks for this insightful video! As someone who doesn't know anything about guns, let alone being able to identify specific models, the authenticity of firearms in Andor doesn't bother me at all - don't even notice!
I had the same thing with Nemik's navigation tool - apparently it's just a Polaroid camera, I never noticed!
andor was much better than the sequel trilogy. Andor story had some sence in it how rebellion was building it wasn't perfect but still worth watching
6:27 Goddamn I love hearing the Halo 2 soundtrack.
I absolutely agree on the Earth curses thing. It needs to stop.
My only problem with the space AK's is the simple fact that it has straps. That adds an Earth-look to it
A note about the airbase thing. (I'm not excusing the air wing) This has been used before in The Clone Wars. I think it's excusable because it's designed to stop things like the robbery on Aldahni
To be fair it does make sense for Aldhani actually.
@@WrongIdeasChannelWhy?
I was kinda agreeing with you, calling it an air base makes sense if the TIE fighters are just patrolling the surface, even though they obviously don't use air to fly like planes@@officialmonarchmusic
Andor is fantastic! Thank you for this video!!!
Thanks for watching!
Wonderful video! While I am not so harsh on some of Disney’s work like the Mando or ahsoka or even kenobi and book of boba get (although I’ve heard obviously got gripes), I think you produced an excellent video and earned a sub! I’m not sure if anyone else said it but they had hiring issues due to Covid and couldn’t get alot of international cast because of Covid restrictions. It’s unfortunate but not in their control.
Great content!
Thanks! Appreciate that
Do I smell an Arcane fan? I instantly recognized "What Could Have Been" in the beginning : )
Very much so! One of the best shows I have ever seen. Andor is up there too of course.
given the track record I'm happy they limited the scope & prioritised story/character. Who knows what might have fallen flat otherwise.
tbh, for me starwars lost most of its shine when they added ewoks and removed Leia's spine.
I am amazed that some people wanted them to introduce people like Ashoka or Luke into the Andor show….it would have ruined the vibe completely. The idea is that we follow a bunch of nobodies on their way to become somebodies…..they all start off in a relatively similar moral position, but some achieve their goals through evil, others, self sacrifice. Adding in some already developed characters from the Disney canon would have been a big issue
Most of Ferrix having RP english is a bit weird. The Aldhani crew was fine, except Cinta, whos supposed to contrast Vel's affluent and privileged background. The Narkina-5 crew is weird, but it's pretty uniform. Everyone except Melshi, who has a highland scottish accent. The argument that I'd make is Narkina-5 specifically takes prisoners from core worlds. They did show a scene where a shoretrooper was sorting out prisoners and asking them where they come from, meaning the made an effort to show us that the prisoners are being selected based on their origins, and maybe Niamos is a core planet. As the labour in Narkina-5 isn't the most backbreaking, it might serve a purpose to send prisoners from the core world, or mid rim systems who have a more british-than-most accent. Laborers that are used to light industry, instead of the hard industry types found in the outer rim.
That's a good headcannon. It makes sense that they'd want to group similar prisoners together so they work more smoothly. Maybe they'd use aliens for the really brutal work since The Empire seems to hate non-humans.
About the RP on Ferrix, yes it is very unnatural. RP is literally an unnatural creation, it has to be forced into you if you don't speak like that from infancy, so anyone trying to communicate on a loud, bustling, crude trade world is going to drop the accent fast in favour of cockney, or piratey sounding accents.
To be fair, I though Cinta was more of a moral contrast to Vel, somebody who was ruthlessly willing to get her revenge, vs Vel who had more lofty goals, though they both share the same mission. For those two, I just wish we'd have got a scene showing them being happy or at least just 'at peace' in some way, to inform more of their relationship, instead of being 'at work'.
Except core world=\=British accent in Star Wars, that's us projecting the relative poshness of certain accents.
Alderaan is a core world but all the Organas have American accents, Correlia is a core world but Han has an American accent, Coruscanti people have American accents as well, and the Jedi's accents are weirdly all over the place for people who were literally raised together since they were toddlers.
Rey, OTOH, has a British accent and is from the Outer Rim (and from a planet more poor and underdeveloped than Tattooine!), I imagine Ferrix is in a similar situation, though RP in particular is an odd choice
@@kajamiletic3223 Now you've mentioned it, Rey's accent is probably the worst one here. It seems so 'drama school' in a place where everybody should talk like they live in the gutter.
@@WrongIdeasChannel the only coherent explanation I can think of is that Basic doesn't have an RP variant like English does.
Both my first languages, Serbian and Italian, have a "formal/official/news-anchors-talk-this-way" variant that's based on one of its regional accents/dialects, Sumadija and Tuscany respectively. So even a poor person from said region will sound a lot like a TV anchor, and you'd have to look into breadth of vocabulary and correctness of grammar to infer anything about their class. If I had to translate characters speaking this way into English, I guess I'd choose RP English.
This is just fanwanking at this point, tho
There are actually diegetic reasons for the accent uniformity in the Narkina 5 facility - when Cassian is part of the line of "convicts" being sent to the various transports from Niamos, the scout troopers ask each one for their home planet and dispatch them accordingly, so they were very much sorting them by culture. Additionally, I suspect that they wanted to have people who were more accustomed to imperial rule on Narkina, because of the high urgency/importance of the labor and the tenuousness of their control
Interesting...I missed that part. I actually assumed it was designed to split up people from the same place and help to divide and fracture any resistance cells that might crop up. But it could easily be what you're suggesting
To me the biggest problem is a general lack of urgency and purpose. Granted, I have only seen the first 6 episodes so far, but after every episodes I find myself lacking a story related reason to continue watching. It's a well made series, no doubts there and it does a lot of things right. But as it is, I have no problem waiting with the next episode after I've seen one. Andor, so far, doesn't have that quality that makes me want to binge watch all of it, all at once, and that's a pity. I'm not saying that I want cliffhangers, but there is something missing to really keep me invested in the story. I hope that will change soon.
If you're still waiting to see the last episodes, it really does get better and more compelling. After the first 6 episodes Andor himself feels a bit lost, without purpose. I think episode 7 is the weakest in terms of progression through the plot, though one of the strongest for the politics. But after episode 7 every episode is brilliant. Episodes 10 and 12 are really something else. It is a slow burn on a 1st watch but gets better every time you see it.
@@WrongIdeasChannel I've watched it all by now, and I think the prison escape plot was the most well done of them all. It added all that I said was missing in my original post. It had a clear goal, and you really wanted to see what happened to the characters. It made you care about them. I wish the whole season had that level of quality. Again, I'm not saying it's bad at all, just that that prison part was the best one and there was something there that was missing in the rest of the season.
When the series starts, Cassian is looking for his sister. It seems that while he hasn't abandoned his burglary against the Empire, he is trying to do the right thing and make sure she's okay.
But as we know, the two security guards at the very start kick off a fight, and the plot unfolds from there, leaving Cassian fighting for survival from the Empire after what happened on Morlana, and even from the Rebels who are trying to terminate their loose end.
I can see how this makes the first 7 episodes seem more like a series of temporary quests than Cassian trying to achieve his dream. He only becomes a Rebel once he realises the true evil of the prison on Narkina 5, which is 2/3rds of the way into the season at least.
He gets completely distracted from his first, more long-term goal, but I actually love this choice. It's like he nearly did something worthwhile with his life, only to be forced into survival mode once again, only to realise that mere survival isn't even possible under the thumb of the Empire. "Don't you want to fight these bastards for real?" is the central question of season 1.
It makes me excited for season 2 (assuming it happens) because he will have to juggle the search for his sister with the kind of obligations that Luthen is inevitably going to place on him.
Anyway, thanks for your comment.
@@MrsHjort
13:16 I think the accent choices were purposeful. As you said, in the OT the accents were carefully used to portray a distinction between good and bad, light and dark. It only makes sense then, that in a show about the grey areas in between we’d have characters using accents in ways we’re not used to hearing. I think it was a good choice.
That said, I didn’t notice or care when I first watched it. If anything I may have had a subtle unconscious reaction similar to what I described above, but it would’ve been unconscious and worked to improve the immersion for me.
I can see the appeal of having an Imperial guard and the prisoner he is guarding have the same accent - Andor doesn’t focus so much on racial or species based policies (which you can imagine the Empire used against alien populations) and more about the self-selection of psychopaths into positions of power. The only thing differentiating the guard and his prisoner would be the lack of morality. Which is exactly how it was in the Soviet Union - the system selected the most murderous thieves to be its enforcers. I have no doubt that Tony Gilroy read Gulag Archipelago in preparation for Andor (and I suspect that Luthen is based on young Joseph Stalin). So yes, in that sense the break from tradition re accents might be intentional and smart. But I’ve heard that the lockdowns played a large part in hiring only Brits so I don’t know how intentional it was.
Loved your video and nuanced commentary on Andor!!! BTW, I cringed every time you showed a clip from other Disney Star Wars media (BoBF, RoS, OWK) because it reminded me that sadly, Andor takes place in the same universe as all that other garbage. Not saying you should’ve left the clips outs. It’s just that the fact that crap is canon stings!!! Oh well to me the only Disney Star Wars that’s canon is the Gilroy stuff.
Thanks for the lovely comment, sorry for the cringe though 🌝 I agree, Disney Star Wars under anyone but Gilroy has been utterly childish nonsense
The British thing I noticed but didnt bother me, The AK did stand out, they should have just added something Sci fi to it.
What I didn’t really understand is why they needed the AKs in the first place. A group of shepherds wouldn’t need more than one gun between them, to appear normal to any imperial patrols. They hid their AKs anyway so why two sets of guns? Just use the imperial blasters they already had for defence. If they have to start shooting before heist day then the mission is kaput regardless.
With one rusty looking rifle it makes them believable shepherds, not a visible threat to the Empire, and gives them the ability to hunt and do basic defence, anything more dangerous and they should get the imperial blasters out. Having the AKs only made them more likely to get caught. I agree, they could have at least changed the sights…..
First, congrats on getting 3.8k on ur first video
Second, I doubt the little things that kinda feel iffy in Star Wars aren’t the main reason why andor had lower viewership, it feels like too specific and niche of an issue to affect wider audience, hell I watched all of andor and didn’t pick up on as much of the issues (though fair criticisms) in this video as much.
I think it’s mostly due to Star Wars fatigue and the fact that we’re getting a show for such a minor character few even remember, plus I would say that the fact there’s not as much lightsaber pew pew type stuff definitely has some impact even if that’s kinda a stupid reason
Cheers bro, thanks for watching! Yes, I agree that part of the issue is people mistaking lightsaber duels for real, genuine character conflict. Obviously lightsaber duels can be great but Disney’s are generally poor, and just fan service or spectacle. I do think that if this show came out in 2019 after Rise of Skywalker it would have saved Star Wars. Instead we’ve had 4 poor to terrible seasons of TV which has destroyed people’s interest in the storyline, we’re not now just watching to see how bad the next thing is
I agree with Bears here. Viewership in Andor started way lower than Obi Wan or Manadalorian, so it doesn't have anything to do with anything the show did right or wrong because people didn't actually see the show. It has to do with outside influences that are important: wether people are interested or not in this kind of story, their bond to the main character from seeing Rogue One, the fatigue of a series of Star Wars after so many others of irregular quality, and so on. That leads to an initially midling or weak performance that, none the less, seem to have been changing as word of mouth and critics have been pointing out this is something different.
Always, when you analize ratings, you have to take into account that if the ratings of any product are X, it's not based on the product itself but the expectations around it. Han Solo wasn't a miss because it was a poor movie (which can also be true) but because it followed Episode VIII. By now, we've created specific expectations on what a Star Wars show is on Disney+, following Mandalorian/Bobba Fett, Obi Wan and Bad Batch for example, so without having seen Andor those previous products set your expectations when you decide if it is worth it to invest your time into Andor or not.
@@CostanSequeiros Yeah when I heard they're making a freaking Cassian Andor show, I just rolled my eyes. It really felt like they're desperate to milk every single ounce out of the brand. Watching the trailer I thought "ok this looks pretty and different, but so did Rogue One and it was an ok movie at best". I was also over The Mandalorian at that point, which was the only good thing Disney made as far as I was concerned, but destroyed my interest with the S2 finale.
It's only after I've seen some reviewers I respect talk about the writing actually being good that I took interest in the series. Thought I'd give it a chance and watch the first two episodes and then binge-watched the entire series. I never binge-watched an entire season of a show before, but a prequel of a spinoff about a secondary character I barely remembered somehow did it. They really pulled off a miracle there but I'm not surprised not many witnessed it. It's a good thing they only have 2 seasons planned and then that's it, because I'm afraid it would get cancelled after that anyway.
I love Andor man it’s soooo cool to see a realistic approach to the Rebellion. At least in its early days they could NOT afford moral righteousness.
6:25 Peril from Halo 2, awesome
2nd best track from Halo 2 after the Steve Vai shredding version of the intro
Bro, how do you only got 135 subscribers? This is high-grade stuff!
Thanks friend. There is more on the way...hopefully I can get 500 by the end of this year
3:16 Nine divines? Are you quoting Oblivion????
Of course
The lack of aliens in the prison i think it makes sense.
It's tight controlled. And it produces a single piece of tech used in the death star, in an industrial way where the proccess is always the same.
You can't have aliens that for some different reasons may avoid the security measures thought for humans. Or too short for the line of assembly. Or with different hands that won't grip the same way.
The show shows several other similar prisons around. It's quite possible other prisons hold each an alien species, and is prepared to better control that species, for them to make a piece in a way compatible with them their anatomy (not because the empire is nice, but to maximize efficiency)
This is well made and interesting video, you clearly have quite a knack for this vein of content. I do think all your critiques of Andor’s worldbuilding are completely laughable, but this was still an interesting watch. I’m interested to see what you put out next, hopefully it’s a little more analytical and little less nit-picky.
-The accent critique was particularly weird. COVID restrictions or not, the Imperial ‘posh’ or RP-like British accent is definitely not the same as the Scottish or working-class English accents of Ferrix or the prisoners of Narkina 5. I’m not sure why, as a Brit, you’re trying to conflate the two as just being “British accents” when they have very different connotations in terms of social status.
Thanks...lol. I appreciate the feedback. I can address some of it:
- The first half of the video was written slowly in small chunks over about a month, in the small amount of free time I had. I'm proud of that part. However, the second half, the critique of the show's negatives, was written in two evenings before recording the audio. Ideally it would have been redrafted and improved like the rest if given time.
- The next video is on Halo, and will feature no nitpicks at all. Although I think they can be an interesting insight into other, larger failures of writing by a creative person or team so they're worth talking about sometimes.
- I like it when a show uses regional accents to its advantage, but Andor doesn't really do this. There are RP-ish accents on Ferrix which to me makes no sense. Instead of giving it a consistent feel it makes it sound like some of the actors are straight out of drama school. And this happens again on Narkina 5, to my recollection. Without splitting these up properly into the social classes that you mention I believe it's fair to label them all 'British'.
It’s the Halo theme in the background the hooked me haha
Next video will be on Halo
@@WrongIdeasChannel I’ll be there haha
Great video but I had troubles focusing in the beginning of what you were saying...because the song is too awesome and i had to sing along :D
The Mando theme? Ha
@@WrongIdeasChannel no..the first song, is a piano version of the song from arcane sting feat,. ray chen - "what could have been"
@hoot.hootTV Oh yeah I love that one
@@WrongIdeasChannel im a bit confused..you chose this song deliberately, didn't you? Or was this somehow an accident?
@@knuppelwuppel No I know it well :) I thought it worked well for a slow intro
The AK is fairly modified, everything behind the handguard looks much more like the receiver of an MP-40
Smaller magazines too
The Ak-47 blaster was prob the only misstep that took me out for a second. No deal breaker. It does create connections in the brain of locals fighting a large imperial force. Andor is a great show and looking forward to season 2.
Good video. Subscribed.
Thankyou! New video coming in the next 1-2 weeks and then will be covering Mando season 3
Now I just have John Cleese in my head saying, "There are some who call me.... Tim..?"
What I would like to see above all else is another set of major motion pictures with Tony Gilroy and his team as lead writers. This would allow another set of sequels they way they should have originally been made ... with ideas incorporated from the original Timothy Zahn books perhaps, and recast with the newer set of actors from the latest sequels. Yes, this kind of project would be a nightmare for Tony, with Disney execs bending his storylines at every turn to ensure commercial success. But you know the outcome would be an even better set of movies, much like Empire became the best movie in the original series not in spite of but because so many more people had input. In this way the expanded universe might be reimagined. Someone please at Disney make this happen...it will save Star Wars.
It would absolutely save Star Wars. Tony Gilroy has a real passion for the universe which goes far beyond the so called 'saviours' of the franchise (Jon Favreau and Dave Filoni). And you're right, his philosophy and vision would be compromised for the sake of spectacle and entertainment, but it would be turning a 10/10 into an 8/10 instead of a jumbled mess of nonsense into an expensive jumbled mess of nonsense.
I think the firearm thing is true. Star wars is basically a ww2 caper and the weapons in it reflected that. I have no problem with more firearms in a show about normies but base in on a mp40 or something. AK style weapons still feel contemporary. I'm aware they are almost 80 years old but its the feel.
Exactly. Nobody goes into battle with Tommy guns or MP40s these days, basically no weapons from WW2 are widespread on the battlefield, but the AK is still the most popular assault rifle even though it's barely younger than WW2.
3:12 "It's almost like a story" 🤣🤣
This is a neat take, and well thought out. Not to mention I hadn't considered it at all.
But I'd counter that allowing for a variety of accents gives two advantages:
1) It allows the show to avoid problems of tokenization entirely. You mention this, but I think it becomes harder and harder to create a diverse cast if we have to create individual backstories that explain them.
2) More importantly, it allows actors to subtly represent real-world issues and offer themes by piggy backing off their identities. Seeing, I dunno let's make up a planet, a Frangltorian, get hanged is tragic. But seeing a black man singled out and hanged allows us to quickly and easily make connections tying the Empire to truly nightmarish and real-world problems and the history of America. Allowing Cassian to just /be/ Hispanic, and not just Kenari, makes the moment where he's harassed by cops who ask if he swam over instantly relatable to the real world.
You're right - this DOES make the story lose a bit of texture. But it also allows it to effortlessly gain real-world value.
Thanks. To be honest I saw the moment when he was arrested by the stormtrooper as a reference to the ideas of arrest quotas in police states, where they will arrest enough people to keep their superiors happy by going after random (usually innocent) people
Weird that accents are an issue, I thought the cast assisted in it feeling like a gritty British drama that you watch every Friday at 8pm
they did make it seem more 'grimy' haha
True, but this isn't set in London.
The Polaroid camera was BY FAR the worst offender to me. The show didn’t even modify it at all, and they tried to pass it off as a “navigation tool”. I’m surprised more people aren’t talking about it specially
I didn't even notice that...well spotted
"Hey, TK-926, affix that camera to the wall please."
"We're out of molecular bonding strips..."
"Oh my god, just use a fucking screw."
Empire of Britons fighting American rebels - this is ironic because Lucas himself admited, that one of his inspirations was Vietnam war, and Empire was based on USA, and rebels were Vietcong.
Just like how the founding fathers of America were Englishmen that hated the king of England
Its my opinion that modern earth weopans have no place in alterantive universes. After all its a completetely different world. insightful prespectives though.
"complaining about brick is silly"
Well, SWTheory is silly in general. He's not a bad guy per say, but his general attitude towards Star Wars makes him the kind of fan that is detrimental to the franchise, because the traction he has indicates to executives that plastering a show with cameos will work. Because I feel like it is all he seems to want. My memory might be playing me tricks, but I think I remember him wanting to have Q'ira as the main bad guy for Book of Boba Fett and making videos, super excited as he hoped for that idea to come true, idea that held not a single interesting point relevant to plot OR character.
And BoBF was already a "smashing Star Wars toys together" kinda show.
Absolutely. At this point I’m sort of convinced that a large portion of the fanbase watches the show like a soap opera, with hints about returning characters, cameos from old rivalries, etc. Except that’s never been what Star Wars is, it’s a story with a beginning, middle and end. Your imagination is meant to fill in the details after Episode 6.
There’s a reason why the only interesting material Disney has created has been Rebel prequels set between Episodes 3 and 4. They actually have to give their characters a decisive ending, which means writing their arcs before to start and end to vaguely line up with events, which means giving them actual characters traits so that they can actually make decisions and learn from those decisions.
Whereas the bucket of boring planks in the Mandalorian have no obligations to do anything or really get anywhere, because their time is unlimited as long as Disney makes money from them. Nobody talks about anything other than the plot. I simply cannot understand WHY anyone is excited about Bo Katan showing up. She has one character goal and no personality.
tbf qi'ra has a lot of involvement with bounty hunters in the comics so maybe if they had focused on and set that up from the start it could have worked. but yeah that show was just smashing star wars toys together and another face wouldn't have improved it if added later on in the season
People forget that Disney has only been telling / recycling only one story for decades, the Hero/Princess theme. The fact that they have lucked out and have a great writing staff for Andor is a pleasant surprise. Everything else has been at best average or worse. It is a "real" story with consequences unlike most of the other junk they have been pushing of late. I am happy that they have an actual story and characters worth watching. There has been a shortage of good shows with interesting stories of late from media in general.
The space AK-47s also took me out of it for a moment, they were just a bit too recognizable. Same with the goats. I noticed a greater presence of UK accents but you can easily attribute it to being a regional thing, and fits the parallel between Ferrix and English/Irish working class towns. I must admit I caught myself forgetting that I'm watching Star Wars several times - you can take that as a good thing or a bad thing I guess. It's a very good series either way and definitely stands out because of its grounded and gritty nature. It might not be the best Star Wars, but I think it's one of the best stories told in the Star Wars universe.
100% agree!
In regards to the guns…Han’s beloved blaster pistol is just a real life C-96 with one or two things slapped on. Another OT blaster is just a slightly modified MG-42…this isn’t anything new. As for the accents, another poster said how they were constructed by Covid during filming and had to make use of UK locals only for the most part l. So they couldn’t help it, it was not their choice to do that.
The unchanged AK-47s almost seem like a deliberate choice. Zero concerns about bricks and screws. The preponderance of British accents made me think those individuals were from the Inner Rim. I like the noodles and pizos. The name "Tim" wasn't great, but maybe it was short for Timzel or some such.
They gave him an extra 'm' to make it star-warsy lol. And yeah they do feel deliberate because they weren't even necessary, they had imperial guns stowed away
Stellan Skarsgård was the best thing in the show followed by Mon Mothma's performance. Syril's character arc kept me to around to finish the show. I have only watched it once as I believe there will be overlap with other upcoming shows. I continue to watch Mando, Kenobi and Book of Boba Fett multiple times. I just watched the Patterson cut for Kenobi and the pacing was incredible.
What's the Patterson cut?
@@WrongIdeasChannel ua-cam.com/video/GuqQqyXLB4E/v-deo.html
Stellan Skarsgård's character was nothing more than a watered down amalgam of Garm Bel Iblis and Talon Karrde from the Thrawn trilogy. And I found Mon Mothma in Disney canon to be an insufferable, self-righteous, naive, holier-than-thou hippie, who has been written to be the most stereotypical overworked "career woman" possible to make us "sympathize" for her : loveless marriage, rebellious teen daughter with no real character, constantly whines about muh principles because she has to deal with shady folks to get what she wants.
And just where in the hell is Bail Organa ? Shouldn't he and Mothma be working closely, since they were like-minded close friends since the Clone Wars ?
Also, Mothma is the reason why the Disney New Republic sucks.
Oh and all those other shows you continue to watch ? Those are garbage.
@@yrooxrksvi7142 Clearly the show didn't vibe with you, but there are tons of small details hidden in the story if you pay close enough attention. Characterisation done in a subtle way.
I mean you claim she is whining about dealing with shady folks. You have to pay attention to what's actually happening - she is being spied on and her family are probably all dead if The Empire finds out about what she is doing.
@@WrongIdeasChannel Lots of people have recut the Kenobi show into a movie, Kai Patterson's cut is most well known because he made it first. Each version is said to be much better than the actual show. The biggest one so far, that is still being worked on is Kenobi: Trials of the Master, which isn't just a recut, it switches the vfx, recontextualizes moments, and even has entirely new scenes shot. I'm not rewatching that show, no matter how good the movie is, but I'd recommend checking out PixelJoker95's videos on the subject, the work he did is absolutely amazing
"There are some who call me... Tim?"
the air wing could easily have been a fighter wing- that's a fairly quick fix
At 16:10, is that ship crashing into the Senate building? If so, when did that happen? Thanks.
Cloud city/Bespin end of TROS
Btw you’re the first Brit I know of who’s actually okay with the “villains have an English accent while the good guys have an American one” trope. 😂
The mandelorian was brilliant and it saved Star Wars afrer the sequel trilogy disaster. It also gave us the Luke Skywalker we wanted. His scene received a major applause from fans. I don’t think you know what you’re talking about
i think they were just filming in the uk and didnt have the spare budget for international extras
Definitely part of it
By the nine divines
The amulet of kings!
@@WrongIdeasChannel Deadra overran kwatch
Ruuun awaaaaaaay
It's almost shocking to see a character go down after 1 blaster shot with how SW has protected characters so much with plot armor. Andor sets the stakes high and it's so much better for the story. It's not a game.
Yes! It was insane seeing people go down in one hit when normally they can survive any level of explosion or lightsaber cut
The accents can be explained as: ferrix is nearly a core world. Aldani is Space Scotland being run by the empire, and space miami is overrun with core world tourists. No yank accents needed. Becoming a rebel doesn't change your accent. Living in the outer rim does, and nobody in Andor season 1 does, except Cassisn himself who was born on that mining planet. Hence his Hispanic accent.
If the model is that American accents are more common further out into the galaxy and British are more common closer to the centre, this makes a bit more sense, and kind of fits with how things work in real life. I personally found it distracting the first time round just because it felt instinctively different to Star Wars. But I like this explanation
You think maybe the accent thing is to blur the lines of people being clearly good or evil? I think so, plus pandemic going on and it's easier to hire local, so I don't mind it at all. All the nitpicks here are just that, and if people can't get their mind around it I think they have some larger mental problems. I didn't recognize the AK because it's not the model that I'm familar with seeing. Andor is more of a grounded show meant to connect more with the audience. The show still looks and feels like Star Wars to me and stuff like we saw in the prequels really made me cringe. Thank god you didn't go into the lack of aliens, because that's a pretty weak point as well. Just because you can do things doesn't mean you always have to. This series is meant to compliment Star Wars: ANH. Not any other movie aside from that. Andi IMO they are succeeding with that. But with Season 2 I'm expecting to see more aliens as the Rebel Alliance grows. I really want to see the Mon Calimari deciding to throw in and give their support with capital ships.
Great use of Arcane as well.
The pandemic as a reason is something that completely slipped my mind, but it makes perfect sense. Even if Ferrix had used all British accents, that would have been fine, I think maybe adding in just a few non-British accents to the prison would have done the job.
About nitpicks, on a second watch, these are things I just accept. Good storytelling always wins the day, no matter what the medium is. But my brain is always skeptical on a first watch, and given the recent Disney track record they had to work to win back the trust of a lot of people in the audience.
I don’t have an issue with the aliens either, you see them in places you’d expect (Sol’s Rebel base, Ferrix, Niamos) and you don’t see them in places where the Imperials would ban or segregate them (Narkina 5, ISB, Aldhani, Kenari, Morlana 1). Maybe we could have seen just a few more in Coruscant, however, I will grant that the imperials probably started driving out aliens from positions of power in government by this time.
I would love to see a space battle done in this show. Not because it needs space battles, but because this writing team would nail it from a tactical point of view, and visually too.
Thanks! I will definitely be making a video on Arcane season 2 when that releases at the end of this year :)
@@WrongIdeasChannel Thanks for hearing me out! Maybe we'll get more American accents in season 2, but if we want to think about it a little more, Leia was speaking with a British accent in ANH and dropped it once her planet was destroyed. I wonder what sort of accents there were in the Revolutionary War. Did the Americans have their own accent or was it still British? If it was still British, this could be a way for the show to make it feel that everyone is still part of the Empire and as they break away from the British accent, we feel the Rebellion growing as we hear more American accents.... But I'm fine with British accents as long as the script and acting is as great as we got here.
@@artboymoy Do you think that was intentional? I always heard people put it into the ‘stormtrooper bonked his head on the door’ category of weird things about A New Hope. If intentional it’s actually kinda genius….
Early American accents were very interesting. They were obviously British descended but from certain parts of England, Ireland and Scotland mostly, especially rural areas. It’s said that early Americans (and even some modern Americans) sound more like Brits from the 1700s than many modern Brits do. I think Marva probably has the most revolutionary sounding accent, which is fitting.
@@WrongIdeasChannel For Leia losing her accent? Honestly I think she just couldn't pull it off so they said, yeah, we'll ditch it. Or maybe since she's a politician, she's able to localize her speech with whoever she's with as a superpower.
I never noticed the accents. What a knick pick
No such thing as a nit pick 😉
I disagree on the weapons point...Mando's pistol is a 130 year old Bergmann and he is the titular charatcer. The blasters in New Hope are straight up real life weapons, just remove a magazine here or add a scope there. The AK 47 may look odd at first glance but it perfectly fits with how they did back in the day.
For me it might be the fact that the wood looks exactly the same. Not only is the design the same but the materials too. If they made it all black and silver that could work
fun fact sheep like andors exist inreal life, useually with 4 horns, but as many as 8 are possible. they used to be the most common type of sheep in the uk and europe in general. but have been slowly bred into a minority.
We need to get them back
The Space AKs are pretty much the only thing that took me out.
Everyone has their limits hah
I think it makes 100% sense that takeaway noodles exist in star wars,
"And" "Or" ... pfff x')
Congrats. It took me several attempts before I noticed !
heheh
firstly, good video.
on topic of the guns, as someone who never in his life saw a gun irl this is somewhat nullified. I dont recognise any.
In the end most of andors criticism is based on personal view.
Thankyou! I agree, some thought it was too slowly paced, or not enough action, these are all subjective things. For me it is 10/10 on character writing, 9/10 on most other things and 7.5/10 on worldbuilding
The ak47 was the only part that took me out of the show. I loved the takeaway and logically giant bucket excavators make sense
Edit: Only now. After years of rogue one being out and watching the hammerhead corvette seen, I only just realised the guns wobble when it contacts the ISS.
Edit edit: Marva calling the Empire bastards is one of the most powerful lines in all of star wars imo. That was a necessary and well done swear.
Good spot, the VFX in Rogue One are second to none.
And yeah. Marva delivered that line so well. Somehow Bastard fits way better that s**t, imo.
Disney does this weird thing with the non-Andor stuff where they use made up swears but then say stuff like 'godspeed'
@@WrongIdeasChannel they use Karabast, Sleemo and Bantha Poodoo. Which are quite creative in all honesty
Great observations, I don't really mind any of that though, but gotta admit the space ak-47 was funny and probably that wasn't the intention. The bricks in the other hand don't even qualify as a nitpick, I mean in OT you have headset with cables... And about the low views, as a person who just recently watch this, I think is mostly because Boba fett and Obi wan were so bad and that Cassian Andor isn't a protagonist that you may be intrested in watching an origin story, I mean he did his part in the movie and that was it. Regardless, I was wrong and this series is one of the best star wars material out there.
Thanks. I agree that the franchise is now damaged because of the really bad shows like Boba and Obi-Wan (though Mando season 3 is a strong competitor for worst show already). The problem with Boba, Obi Wan etc was that their shows were so bad you can't really look away, I want to watch them just to laugh at them. Whereas everyone saw the 1st two episodes of Andor and decided it was too boring because it wasn't blowing their minds in a good, or a bad way.
Best show ever
yes, definitely the best star wars show, very tough to beat
A)Definitely not enough languages especially since they note Andor knows multiple
B) Not enough aliens!! Cal Kestis was also in a corporate zone and there tons of aliens but Ferrix is mostly human, & the prison was all human
C) The AK was a noticeable misstep but I doubt it’ll happen again as well as the ‘earthly’ words
Still a solid show through n through!
yep, not enough aliens. Though in the prison that's fine
I too love Andor. However, Sinta one second is watching the home 24/7 and the next second is following someone important, only later go back to watching home 24/7 etc... She is of course planted so they have the strong female character that magically can do everything. How she was able to just walk away from their first mission is still head scratching. Meanwhile, we have Bix, because she is not a super hero we actually care for her well being and what happens to her. She is you or I. She is hanging on by a thread and is a much better story.
I think she just needed more screen time. She kind of acted as a plot device after Aldhani. I think escaping from the base is very possible given the distractions of the eye and the raid
As a Tim, I feel offended
😂
@@WrongIdeasChannel how do you only have 25 subs. This video is great. Keep it up
@@ImBored8141 that’s so nice of you to say, thanks.
I understand what your trying to get across but if it comes down to choosing one actor over the other simply on their spoken dialect alone i'd much rather just have the better actor play the part. I will recognize, however, that their are probably plenty of actors who could take up some of the minor rolls and provide that type of diversity.
I agree, quality of actors always comes first. Peter Dinklage's British accent is sort of weird in Game of Thrones but he is clearly the best pick for the role. Though I feel like many of these actors could probably manage to do other accents, it just wasn't considered at the time. Apparently there were covid restrictions too which made it hard to use anyone from outside Britain where it was filmed
"...and / or Alderaan." Cute.
Yes! someone finally says it, the accents and language have been the major factor making it hard for me to slog through the show. It just feels so dreary and repetitive
I am fortunate enough to enjoy most parts of the show. I agree that it is kind of dour but subjectively I quite like this kind of tone, and what observations you can make about human morality etc with it. It definitely helps the show along if you liked Revenge of the Sith and Rogue One
17:11 I think it's just from the amount of horrible shows Disney has been farting out, and that everyone has started to grow tired of it.
Definitely a big part of it, though the people who tend to like those shows are the ones who typically weren't big fans of Andor, from what I could see.