Mike remembering the beat-for-beat editing composition of A New Hope on a cellular level at 40:50, but also having to ask Rich if there were Jedi in The Phantom Menace
I think he can remember movies he really likes, and can't remember a single thing about any movie that he's slightly lukewarm on, dislikes, or absolutely hates.
That's one of the greatest things about *Andor,* is that they managed to make the Empire feel like an actual threat, the way an oppressive fascist army should be. We're so used to seeing plot armored main characters and cute teddy bears slaughter stormtroopers by the dozen, that it's easy to forget how terrifying these guys must be to the average civilians.
Yeah, two moments really stuck out to me; the torture, which is actually similar to an old torture method in real life, which is just horrifying. And their assault on the riot, in which they are just picking off innocent men, women and children with an accuracy that actually makes them terrifying for once.
@@lanceturley7745 "pressive fascist army should be. We're so used to seeing plot armored main characters and cute teddy bears slaughter stormtroopers by the dozen, that it's easy to forget how terrifying these guys must be to the average civilians." Can you all try to think for a few seconds before posting please? It's true the "average civilians" side was quite neglected in OT and ST (Owen&Beru aside), with some bits here and there, however they've been "scary and threatening" on plenty of occasions incl. in Rotj and Anh, alternated with sillier moments elsewhere. Here the "silly moments" are kind of embodied by employees/soldiers who're less competent or are phoning in their jobs etc., in the movies it was more of a scene/tone dependent issue. (Oh and I didn't mention the Vader/inqui scenes from Ob1 of course)
@@lanceturley7745 totally agree, the world feels bigger and more grounded, and you can feel the desperation of powerless civilians in the face of an uncaring imperial machine. Only live action star wars i've enjoyed since the trilogy
@@WreckageBrother-rd5zfit's called diffused tension you git. None of the imperial power display in those media stick because they die in droves in open battle. Why don't YOU think before posting?
i totally disagree with Rich and Mike on Syril's character. He is meant to represent someone who is so committed to his ideals, that he grows more and more extreme in his beliefs to the point where he would compromise his own values in order to uphold them. Andor is someone who starts out as believing in nothing, and slowly gaining the courage to believe in something. Their arcs are meant to be polar opposites the entire run of the show so that you do see how similar they are in some ways and how incredibly different they are in others. To have Syril just switch sides and ally with the Rebels would not only destroy that parallel, but his entire character as well. God I love having a piece of Star Wars media I can actually meaningfully talk about like this now.
Not to mention in a meta sense, it's getting really tired seeing the whole "empire to rebellion" arc, just let a character start on the evil side and stay there, not everyone needs a redemption arc
@@LizardSporkAuthority and Control. I think that all his scenes in coruscant are there to show us that he was raised under the autorithy and control of his mother, and he has been raised to perceive himself better than other people. He wants freedom from the control of his mother, but the only way he knows and wants to excert that freedom is by putting others under his control. He is eager to demonstrate that he is better than others, by being the most fascist of them all.
It won't this time. The reason, I feel, is the writer and show runner have much more control over it. It only worked before because he just guessed the absolute stupidest thing they could do and they did it. Not this time....I hope @@halowaffle25
"Were there Jedis in The Phantom Menace?" You know dementia is really kicking in when Mike doesn't remember a movie he has been constantly bashing for the last twelve years.
Andor is full of fantastic British character actors who aren’t tying to be stars and aren’t afraid to look run down or ‘ugly’ but are just good at their job and know how to make the world feel real
The Brits in general have been better about casting relatable and, for lack of a better word, "regular" looking people in their shows and films. Some American cable shows have been better at this too (Fargo, Better Call Saul, Mare of Easttown) but overall this def felt more like the OT and a British show in that regard.
I kinda like the idea of the empire becoming increasingly incompetent as time goes on due to complacency and as the battle hardend clones are phased out for untrained backworld yokals who are just looking for money because the empire has killed their home planets economy. This would also fit better with why in the origional trilogy the main cast can just half ass their rescue.
I love how in Andor he ends up in prison pretty much by accident. The system is too stupid and bureaucratic to do anything well (like catch him), but also completely uncaring about the damage it does.
Just like real life! That's why only morons _gleefully_ say, "y'know they got Capone on tax fraud, right?" (or what ever huge mobster) It's AMAZING how insanely unjust and stupid IRL is.
Oh, it's not an accident though. They're deliberately imprisoning people en-masse so they can [SPOILER] use them as slave-labour to build the Death Star.
@@ashkebora7262 The thing about Capone is that he was a serious gangster criminal. Everybody knew it. The man was responsible for quite a bit of murder. But Gangs and Mobs operate with a great deal of separation between the decision makers and the guys actually doing the deeds. The guy was committing tons of crime, it just wasn't possible at that time to connect him to any in a way our justice system could convict on. The only aspect of his operation which was sloppy enough to work, was tax evasion.
@@Justowner This is also why RICO was created as legislation, to be able to prosecute leaders of criminal organizations that otherwise _technically_ were never proven to be doing dirty work themselves.
correlating to guardians of the galaxy vol 3 end scene with his grandfather talking about the lazy kid next door not mowing the lawn for his mother , knowing one of the greatest heroes in the galaxy was humble enough to do it for her yet he felt awkward that the kid just watched him do it . while eating his cereal gave such a down to earth element to the scene. And him wanting his grandfather to bitch about it .
Friends. I do see Syril Karn having two paths as a character... 1. Being surrounded by lazy Morlana security folks and/or Imperial ladder-climbers makes him more determined to be the most powerful fascist in the universe. OR that after really trying hard to be a bootlicker, to no avail, he goes full insane rebellion guy. A sort of "I'm gonna start my own business cause this is getting me nowhere" kind of guy. Perhaps he just follows that through line to exacting personal revenge on Andor (lame). I guess I just like that actor his incompetence and unsure-of-himself nature made him charming. I was rooting for him to catch Andor. The fact that his only support system was his elderly mother, made him even more pathetic and likable. Apparently no friends, no partner, etc... just work. The most important moment was when he's in his room and he gets about 30 seconds of sunlight due to the massive volume of buildings on Coruscant. We get a shot of him crying as the sun passes over. Adding a subtle touch of sympathy like that to a villain is shocking in a Star War. Is he a victim of the brutal imperial system? Did his nagging mother push him into being like this? Or was he just born to be one of the many imperial scumbags doing the bidding of the Emperor. Sure, we all know people like that. People with zero personality that are obsessed with work, but he showed no ambitions towards rank or career acceleration. I.e. his motivation was simply "justice" - had their been a line like, "If I catch Andor I'll be promoted to head of Morlana security" I'd have a different ppinion, but the subtle touches to make him likable were placed throughout. Him personally modifying his uniform to look better while the security head guy rolled his eyes, his awkward motivational speech, etc. I suppose I'm just hoping for complexity and some kind of arc other than "he's a guy built to be a cog and will go on to be a bigger one" I liked Syril Karn more than Andor. He's a soulless character molded by the machine of the Empire and the society and it'd be delightful to see him warmed up to have friends and a better purpose. Either way, the fact that a character in a Star War is complex and worthy of discussion goes to show how well written this show was!!! Hats off to you Tony Gilroy and friends! #teamsyril #catchandor
Hope Tony Gilroy goes on to make more politically charged Star Wars, if he wishes to, found Andor to be absolutely superb. (My dream being him adapting KOTOR II someday.)
The way I saw it was that Syril is recklessly chasing the miniscule and only chance of a ticket back to the "justice & order department" of the empire, because that was/is his entire identity. He lives for nothing else and has a need to pursue order to a sick but also quite human-relatable degree. (He may have a crush on Dedra too, but that is besides the point) In any case, it is delightful when characters are this well developed and rich with nuance. It's a rarity, especially in SW.
This was my takeaway, Tony Gilroy and his brother Dan Gilroy wrote for Andor and they worked on stuff like the Bourne films. Whereas for a while Disney and LucasFilms went for experimental and it did not work out.
Really really misunderstood them calling Morlana chief lazy. Dude understood the situation and corrupt guards being instigators of the fight, and wanted to sweep it all to avoid riots or imperial interest, to maintain relative peace on Morlana, exact thing that happened later
It was so accurate that it was basically like the chief was holding a copy of the script. He called out exactly what happened at the brothel, beat for beat, and then warned of the consequences of pulling too hard on this thread. Syril Karn is the most ruthlessly incompetent character in the show.
I loved that character just for that 😅, even a simple glimpse of him in the show, he was like the old veteran that done this and done that and knew every BS of the galaxy could throw at him and forshadowed the entire ordeal. If he appears again, i would like to see him bitch slap the hell out of those guys who survived and say... "Didn't i told you!!?? Didnt I??? But noooo, you just had to show show off how big is your dick is, and you, *talking to the guy who got a thing for the imperial woman* you just wanted to get your balls wet and impress that imperial woman"
Yeah, it's corruption, not laziness. And it's exactly the sort of corruption that totalitarian regimes create, and the sort that ultimately always brings them down. Nobody wants to bring attention to a problem, so problems fester and grow. Nobody wants to take initiative, because it's punished as disloyalty.
Mike in 2019: "What if she was that lady in Phantom Menace that says 'My bones are aching, Ani, there's a storm coming'? You remember her?" Mike in 2024: "Were there jedis in Phantom Menace?"
@@radim279 I agree the way RLM consistently writes Mike Stoklasa as a character should be taught in Universities. Especially with how they brilliantly foreshadowed his shift from solely being the perpetrator of hatred towards the elderly, to the target of his own twisted malice.
Imagine being famous for a video essay that completely ripped the Phantom Menace apart only to come back years later and ask "Were there Jedis in the Phantom Menace?" LOL
That's disconnection for you. Reviewing TRoS Mike asked something like "Does anyone care at this point?". So he clearly doesn't. Why even remember this stuff if it means nothing and goes nowhere? So your brain just tosses it out and makes more space for more important things. Like laundry and parking tickets.
I legitimately am jealous. I want to be that forgetful of the PT (and ST, for that matter). But the memes keep them alive in my head (or more accurately, undead).
Andor was the only Star Wars property that actually looked at the franchise and said “so Star Wars is about fighting against fascism so let’s actually make the empire fascist”
I think the corporate security character’s arc was well done. Not everyone comes to the realization that the system will not give them justice. Sometimes they become radicalized by the “law and order” mentality to believe the government can provide justice if they were the ones in charge
I actually really appreciate that he doesn't realize the error of his ways and turn against the Empire, but buys in completely to the Empire being a force for justice and good. The show seems to want to create a realistic interpretation of a fascistic government and part of that is demonstrating how willing the average person can be to enthusiastically support that system.
I understand where they’re coming from but characters like that are an overlooked but important part of oppressive systems, you need enough little people supporting, even just passively, and believing they’ll someday get their chance to be useful and important. If there’s a perceived outlet for personal gain, there will always be somebody looking to benefit.
Something I thought was great but Mike only touched on with the point about Stormtroopers being in the background, was the show's treatment of the Empire's resources and scale. The show starts with a corporate protectorate, with security outsourced to useful idiots, and Ferrix itself is basically unoccupied. Gradually as events heat up, Imperial army troops begin to appear, the garrison is explored, and gradually more higher echelon forces are revealed until by the end you have Stormtroopers and a full on military occupation. It makes it all feel so much more real.
Andy Serkis is by far the most underrated actor out there imo. Can’t really name a role he didn’t perform admirably in. Even his voicing of Snoke in the-movie-that-shall-not-be-named was top notch
his character was actual trash, an empty cliche plot device but of course fan bois cream their jeans and demand he get an oscar because its Andy Serkis
In an interview Tony Gilroy stated that the second season of Andor would be its last for the simple reason that he can’t keep up the intensity of making this sort of show without sacrificing quality. Talk about restraint!
24:22 it’s funny because Syril Karn’s blaming Andor for his shitty life instead of the Imperial system is INCREDIBLY realistic when you think of how many people handle their politics in the real world
Exactly. Karn doesn’t blame the system for his troubles, he blames other people underneath that oppressive system. He’s a true believer because he once had power that he enjoyed exercising. And who’s to say he won’t go through a transformation like Mike described in season 2?
Right.. I think they missed that his character is helping serve to show the bleak reality of living in the empire, as well as how folks are seemingly unable to identify, in this case, the empire as the cause of their issues. Instead they stick to what they were taught, focusing on something else (like andor) that becomes the reason for their problems.
I don't understand how syril let them down, it's the complete opposite for every people i know who watched the show.....we're all so god damn tired of sw redemption and nobody stays dead. It's much more interesting to have someone like andor but on the other side.
It's actually very personally relatable, when CCP was still enforcing the "Zero Covid" policy after the epidemic had ended and locked down tens of millions of people in their homes, there were so many of "Syril Karn"s blaming the people who actually protested and resisted, instead of the systerm who's forcing it upon everyone
He really had decent enough expectations of the second season, seeing no obvious ways they were gonna fuck it up, then that one Kyber-shaped puzzle piece fell into place and BOOM the single most Disney way possible at fucking up the series just appeared before him like an angry spirit. The one thing Disney simply cannot stop doing: turning everyone and everything into a Jedi or Sith (or close enough to them that they practically are). It's impossible for a Disney Star Wars adaptation to not have Force-dorks with increasingly complex light saber variants in them. Sure, it *might* not happen. The writers and directors *could* fight off studio meddling for just once. But we've seen Disney do it's foul work, the chances are high they'd do it.
I think a lot of people didn't watch Clone Wars, so it likely represents a good portion of the audience. Personally, I was always too turned off by the art style to get into it. That and a lot of it still being aimed at younger audiences, even it does have some depth to it.
@@Descriptor413 For sure, that's valid. For me, I just try to enjoy it for what it is, which is basically "The Adventures of Obi-Wan and Anakin". The show that sort of fills in the gaps that the prequels didn't when they insist upon their friendship. The friendship between Anakin and Obi-Wan feels hollow in the movies but in the show they really flesh it out a lot. I think that show is honestly the single reason why people's opinions on the prequels flipped, because they grew attached to those characters and then watching Episode 3 becomes a cathartic and emotional experience and payoff retroactively.
Mike remembers details from every next-generation episode but does not remember if there are Jedi in The Phantom Menace or that Palpatine was in Rise of Skywalker.
Mirror Universe Mike knows Palpatine's first name and the crew compliment of a Star Destroyer, but can't tell you what deck engineering is on the Enterprise.
The thing I enjoyed most about this show is that it gave me a nice relaxing break from consistently thinking: -That doesn't make sense? -Who would make that stupid choice -WTF are you doing? -Why are you acting out of character? You know, all those things that less well thought out shows have to force on their characters into in order to create drama, conflict, action or other interesting scenarios.
Or even just a show where the dialogue wasn’t written to hit people over the head with the themes of the show. Like “this guy is so evil! Watch him be evil for three scenes in a row! Do you get it???”
The thing about Syril Karn is that he represents a real kind of person who exists, they suffer under the same system and share a class with Cassian Andor, but lack the self awareness to recognize themselves in him.
@@BrentButler Yeah the events in the series just caused him to Double-Down. I've been in that guys shoes...eventually we all learn its an unrealistic expectation and Chaos is uncontrollable...he hasn't seen ENOUGH yet to get there. He may by the end of the series.
Turns out the scariest weapon you can give the Empire in your Star Wars show/movie isn't a mega-laser, or bigger ships, or guys who also have lightsaber-esque weapons ... but competence. These guys are actually scary, and it makes our heroes victories actually feel earned. If you would have told me a year ago that Andor was going to be my favorite Star Wars property since the Original Trilogy I would have thought you were crazy. But here we are.
The big problem with Star wars today is the incompetent "bad guys". As a result the suspension of disbelief gets broken almost immediately. Ahsoka is a recent good example of this with Thrawn.
It also gives grounding to why the Empire fucks up frequently because it’s full of backstabbing careerists just trying to make their résumé’s look good. There are some comments in the ISB conference room that hit so realistically that I was shocked, mostly stuff about how some of the sectors are underreporting issues because they don’t want to get in trouble. It is almost like the people making Andor gave enough of a shit to think about what they were doing for more than 5 minutes
@@phenom568 completely agree. It is frustrating when it feels like a basic tier of storytelling competence to *show* why a significant villain would have a fearsome reputation instead of him repeatedly getting pantsed and his bare butt, back, and balls getting spanked and calmly stating “Just as I planned”
@@deanthemachine8879exactly. The legends timeline goes over this as well, even zahns new novels in Disney canon work. The thing is, Disney should never have touched that brand. Beyond all of its other major problems (pandering, shit writing, key jangling, spectacle over substance), their biggest issue now is their canon and how it constantly gets fucked over. Disney literally de canonized the EU because they said it was too contradictory, but since they've bought over the IP, Disney has CONSTANTLY been fucking up their own canon, and now with a guys and gals like Dave filoni and weinsteins assistant failing upwards more and more, they're going to just blatantly disregard their comics and novels (even zahns nu canon thrawn novels) to make their slop. Genuinely, andor deserves to sit in the legends continuity, it would have made a fine addition to the empire Era stuff there. I'd have loved to see characters like Armand Isard be involved in these stories, the potential is insane.
One of the things I liked about Andor was that the villains weren't cartoonishly evil or incopotent ham heads like they are in the Sequel Trilogy. They are are cold and caculating officers doing their jobs and duty, which to me is more intimidating than having them shout and goosestep.
@@TheCheat_1337Their incompetencies stem from their beliefs and the systems they serve creating realistic blind spots, instead of just the plot needing to happen or the tone to lighten up a bit
They were humanized very well. Those who were career opportunists and hard workers were competent and dogmatic in their beliefs. The incompetent officers are relatable because they’re just clocking in to their 9 to 5 job and trying not to draw attention to themselves
I would say the boss that didn't want to investigate the deaths was very competent. He perfectly predicted what would happen if they took it seriously, and ordered steps to prevent that.
hearing rich say "whatever" to mike explaining how boba fett climbs out of the sarlacc pitt is exactly how i picture disney executives agreeing to whatever pitch meeting theyre in or a script they are finalizing
When people of Mike's age talk about "Star Wars", they mean either the original 1977 film or the Original Trilogy...... because that's all that matters.
I mean, I want to agree but I also remember the seismic charges from Episode 2 causing concussive sound waves in space and I remember that Star Wars is a baby franchise for babies
Mike seemed to forget the smile and laugh of Luthen after finding out that the heist was successful. It was acted brilliantly by Skarsgard after the pressure and anxiety in prior scenes
I'm ok with the show, but he made me think that maybe a small glimpse of what the empire took away from them could've been effective. We're always told about "what they took from us" but are only shown the aftermath. Still yeah, he's forgetting about all those moments. Maarva has a lot of them :')
@@tuppot He's always had forgetful inconsistencies like this. The following 3 quotes are from the ep2 review for instance: "And I'm still not sure which one we're supposed to relate to. I would think people could relate more to Obi-Wan, cause he's basically a good guy who doesn't murder people? But at the same time he's also very distant, cause he's like a weird monk without any personality. **"What?!"** So take your pick, idiots..." & "Now technically they *are* weird space aliens - but we can't relate to their fucking weird, sterile, sexless universe. [Obi-Wan and Mace in the spacious Temple hallway] They seem as cold, and lifeless, and boring, as the computer generated world they're projected against. Simple, real, genuine moments like this: [Han, Luke and Leia hug and celebrate], have been replaced by this: [Neimoidians getting shot at] "Aaaaa-" or rather because of this:" "I guess it's got something to do with, like.. purging emotions, to avoid being tempted by the Dark Side, right? But Obi-Wan, you know, he smiles, he laughs... he gets annoyed; **"What?!"** "Well, you've lost him." he enjoys a good sarcastic quip: "Oh, this is going to be easy." Sometimes, he gets really, really pissed off: "You will be expelled from the Jedi Order!!" So.. so love leads to the Dark Side - but getting fucking pissed doesn't? "Come to your senses!" I mean the Jedis aren't supposed to be Vulcans, right? Even Vulcans took wives and had sex... So really, the only thing that made Obi-Wan different from like a normal person, was that he didn't express any interest in chicks. "I was beginning to wonder if you'd GOT my message." Lack of sex can drive men crazy you know..." Not the contradictory use of the same **"What?!"** clip in the 1st quote there. And here this is from the ep1 of course: "Rich: "He is... ... ..sssssstoic?" Gillian: "I don't remember that character." Mike, off-screen: "Ok he's Liam Neeson - with the beard." Gillian: "Ohhhhh… .. yes...." Jay: "Well he has a beard. [laughs]" Jack: "Qui-Gon Jinn, and, uh he-.. uh, he was…" Jesse: "Uhhhmmm.... let's see here, ummm… ..... ...stern?"" The very thumbnail of that video contradicts these statements, cause Quigon is shown in the splitscreen kinda smiling or something? In the woods? And the other clips from that compilation are equally contradictory - one wonders how lucid or aware Mike was while editing that? And here of course, ironically, that Padme-Anakin shot from TPM is played as a counter-example to Andor's supposed 100% gloominess, along with the "post-DS hugging laughing" which gets played in that AotC review excerpt. Situations are a bit different of course - here they're making a point about the "depressed grim tone" and kind of cite it as a positive, certainly Rich does and Mike almost and then comes around; and here it's a casual review after 1 viewing, so lapses in recollection and/or less literally absolute phrasings and statement are quite acceptable. Maybe you know they didn't **literally** mean not a single smile or moment or good mood, just relatively little of it, compared to what Mike's warm carebear heart would've preferred? While over there, it's all preachy declarative filmmaking-lectury etc. so lapses like that are much less acceptable and really just undermine their whole credibility over there - however of course IF they already allow themselves that kind of sloppiness and amnesia in their "for real analytic video essays", how much can this re:view really be excused for doing essentially the same thing, just in a more casual context? What if it's really just a common bad habit that undermines the accuracy of their reviews and film commentary? However that aside, this re:view in particular is generally pretty good and sound, not much to really complain about all in all lol
for me, it's Andor's mom smiling as she talks to Cassian about how she's been inspired to fight after hearing about the payroll heist the insane thing to me is that he can't understand why she's been inspired to action when he's the reason she wants to take action, and he can't even tell her he was involved. it's a beautiful scene
"I've never really had a reason to hate the empire." I always thought the total destruction of Alderaan seemingly on a whim by the Empire was an understated event in these movies.
Killing all the Jedi was a D move to start with as well. Say what you want about their faults, they were responsible for doing a lot of good in the galaxy. They were basically the galactic 911 for any impossible or too important to fail assignments. If something important was going down, there was a good chance a Jedi would be getting involved.
Well, with planet Endor being an important location in SW universe long before a character named Andor appeared in it it's honestly not that surprising to mess it up )).
Syril's story still works as a parallel to Andor's because it's a negative arc. When Andor got pushed too far he decided to change, when Syril got pushed too far he decided to just keep doing the same thing hes always been doing because that's what the Empire makes its citizens believe, that satisfaction or justice is only achieved when serving the Empire
I think it's a misinterpretation to say that Syril is after justice. What he wants is order. Personally, he is also after meaning and control. He must be part of something bigger. Including his mother is a great touch to give the audience a better insight into his psyche.
Exactly. The show parallels them by contrasting Andor’s strength of character against Syril’s total weakness of character. Syril is a weak little hanger-on who WANTS to be part of something bigger because that means he’ll earn respect. Andor wanted nothing to do with being part of something bigger but his strength of character forces his hand.
Syrill hasn’t had an arc yet. He hasn’t seen the inner workings of the empire. He hasn’t seen that “hang em” guy that hung Andor’s friend. Or the psychopathic torture guy. He hasn’t seen who his love interest really is. He’s like the embodiment of myopic justice. He believes in justice for the sake of it without really understanding that just because you work for an institution it doesn’t automatically makes you moral. It’s why his superior was able to correctly discern what happened to his security officers based on prior interactions with them. And the second to third order consequences of publicly divulging their deaths as murders. Whereas Karn doesn’t care or has little interest in who they are or were. So I think the second season is setting up this revelation to Karn, and from there we’ll see if he has a positive or negative arc. I personally believe that he’ll have a positive one, he’s shown that he’s naive but has not shown that he’s immoral. And I think he serves as a good vehicle or POV for audiences that have similar myopic interpersonal tendencies. Remember, a character arc is dependent on “the lie a character believes about themselves or the world” (you can Google that) and vital information about the lie. What the character chooses to believe or not believe, or how they utilize the truth, determines whether they have a positive or negative arc. And Karn received no vital information in season 1.
theres also a cool contrast in how syril worships this commander who he believes will light the way, while andor sees luthen more cynically. and those leaders too; one farcically loyal to the empire, and the other so rogue he has his own people killed
One thing that you guys missed is that Kenari (Andor's homeworld) wasn't a pre-industrial planet, it was a planet that was ruined by some kind of industrial accident that only left children alive.
That was actually kind of a confusing scene, because it's *said* that's it's a Republic officer that's killed by the kids, but their shoulder patches are clearly CIS.
@@Ian-ot7upits a false flag operation by the Republic, they're going to drop some poisonous gas on civilians somewhere and blaming Separatists for it thats why they were wearing Separatists uniform but Maarva and Clem knew the truth about it, thats they're actually a Republic officer. Thats why the Republic cruiser come to the planet immediately to investigate or retrieve their failed false flag operation. Because someone shoot down that ship or the ship just having malfunctioned or something else happened because we first see them burning in the sky and crash landing, we don't know what happens before that. Republic is the bad guys of the Clone Wars and the Separatists is the real good guys. And i mean the real Separatists not Count Dooku, Trade Federation, Techno Union, Banking Clan and their droids army, they're just hijacking the Separatists cause for their own agenda. The real Separatists only want to seperate from the corrupt Republic.
@@Ian-ot7up It may have been in that transition period where the republic was turning into being the empire, people would have likely still referred to it as such, especially on outer worlds. It roughly adds up with the character's age, i think.
I like this new twist where Rich Evans starts out hopeful at the beginning of an episode and is completely destroyed by the end. That's more dramatic than being completely destroyed at the beginning.
@@STTPMASFTNEyeah lol, I don’t even get why him being a Jedi would ruin him, he’s still a great character. It’s also most likely that he was the lover of a Jedi that died and that sent him down this path
@@dustywaynemusic6297I don't watch Star Wars Theory but I heard about his complaints of Andor through memes, I wouldn't be surprised if @ThePFD518 is in the same boat.
As a Tolkien fan, it is amusing to me that Rich keeps getting confused about the name of Stellan Skarsgard's character and referring to him as Luthien, the name of the most beautiful elf-maiden who ever lived.
Rich would probably love an Office style comedy show based around a Mon Calamari shipyard attempting to keep up with Rebel ship quotas and requirements.
The Munder-Difflin Droid Supply company would be an awesome show. Honestly anything to get us out of dramatic lightsabers, rebels, Jedis and empires would be a nice break. I would legitimately love to see a scene for scene recreation 'the office' swapped out with Star wars aesthetics and lingo.
@@j.w.m.415 The shows equivalent of Michael gets his hands on one somehow and wackiness follows, resulting in him accidentally cutting a vending machine in half. Cut to a staff meeting with HR about how staff, even management, aren't allowed to bring contraband weapons to work. At the end of the episode it is revealed that Jymm froze D'whyts stapler in Carbonite.
@@voltijuice8576It changes the context of his character, and who he *might* be. If the answer is "Jedi" then that ties him down to something that's already too worn out, especially in the post Order 66 world.
@@voltijuice8576 I think @ForwardSythesis is 100% right, but I might add that him having magical powers can also bring into question all the accomplishments he's had on the show. He would no longer be a normal guy doing these things, but someone "special".
In the near future: Mike: "Hey, Rich have you heard of this Mr. Plinkett guy? I was watching him and it turns out he's me!" Rich: "I know Mike, I'm also Mr. Plinkett, let's put you to bed."
@46:00 Better Call Saul was wildly successful, and the actors in it are all 10 years older by the end. I think people are willing to ignore that part of their brain as long as the material is actually worthwhile.
@@Jeneric81 Saul looks different than he did in BB. You just have to look at it as though you're looking at the same characters through a different lens. Mike was even more humanised so you saw the old man tired of life and all the games in BCS, however in BB you saw the other side of him - the ruthless killer - so he appeared that way. Saul is overweight, sleazy and living the good life of women and money in BB, but in BCS we see the more human hardworking side and his appearance reflects that. We all view people and events differently to each other so I find it helps to imagine you're viewing the world and characters in each show with a different perspective
Cyril is also weirdly obsessed with Dedra. He wants to be her and with her. He wants to surpass his mother’s expectations. He’s using “justice” as an excuse to succeed.
The way they filmed Andor was really interesting when compared to every other Star Wars show by Disney. They didn’t use ANY of the volume afaik, and filmed on real locations that were carefully modified in post as set extensions and changes. It was filmed the way they did the Dune movies, which is amazing. Meanwhile, Disney is embarrassed by Andor and hid it on their app for some insane reason.
This one of the reasons why I'm cautiously optimistic for The Acolyte. They built real sets and didn't use the Volume too. They also had a writers' room, which some of the other shows didn't, which really showed
Cause Andor is too smart for Nu-Disney fans. It regularly gets bashed by people who think shows like Book of Boba Fett are "amazing" and have a shelf of Funko pops sitting behind them
@@bridget7539 The Acolyte looks like they took the wrong lessons from Andor. I could be wrong, but it looks like the only thing they did differently from the bad shows was filming on some real sets. I got some pretty heavy Obi Wan writing vibes from what I saw.
As a dork about more niche and arbitrary aspects of Star Wars, this hit it out of the park with the OT's "cassette futurism" and high tech/ low-life aesthetic and look. I also really liked how we saw more boring housing and public area pockets of Coruscant along with the luxurious areas and gritty back alleys.
@@FringeSpectre "But, but, there wasn't any lightsabers and the Empire was actually a threat! Andor is barely even Star Wars!" Where wasn't it a threat?
@@WreckageBrother-rd5zf *insert montage of Storm Troopers consistently missing shots against people in a small hallway and behaving like they've never been trained in combat tactics before*
36:00 Not only do you see the mouse droid, but it's subverted for a purpose. When it's seen in ANH, Chewie scares it away. When you see it in Andor, Syril Karn *is surprised and awkwardly steps around it*. Great use of a reference to say a lot about a new character in one scene.
I disagree about Syril Karn. His motivation isn't justice, it's validation. Justice is what he says is important to him, but the subtext is that he actually wants validation. That's why he's obsessed with Dedra, who he feels is like him, someone who knows that there is something deeper going on. I think it's worth keeping in mind that Syril is from Coruscant, so he is more likely to see being a part of the Empire as a matter of fact then say someone from a corporate planet with a culture disconnected from the Empire. So, from his point of view he would be more likely to see corruption in the Empire as "a few bad apples" as opposed to a systemic issue.
He wants to do something meaningful with his life, and embraces the fascist systems of the empire to give him that meaning and validation. He sees it as a pursuit of justice, but his view of justice is a bit more abstract, a bit more like a good and evil cop show that the real, more systemic, complex justice Andor ends up seeking while just trying to get by as someone born and raised under the foot of the Imperial system.
Syril also did not see the empire failing justice. He saw the corporate fail justice, and the empire pick up where he left off on the trail of Andor. And Syril admiring and obsessing over the ISB as its embodying exactly the justice he thought the corporate structure should have been. I think these guys made the mistake of thinking "corporate == empire" in Syrils mind which is not portrayed that way in the show.
Nobody remembers that show. The shills clapped like seals and cried when they saw anakin but ask them to describe ahsoka’s character or what happened, they have no clue
In Syril's case, I would argue that characters are allowed to fail their character arcs-- to be met with the right answer and simply reject it out of sheer stubbornness, or fail to see the answer at all
I agree, the story never once felt like it was moving towards the flipping over of Syril’s character. I think it was much better to have him succeed partially in helping Meero.
Agreed. Also, I feel they missed the point of his character; he's not some justice-obsessed self-styled batman, he's grown up with a nagging, demeaning mother, and he never, ever seemed to meet her expectations, so when he tries his hardest and fails at catching this one single guy, he gets tunnel vision and starts to obsess with trying to live up to the expectations of some archetypal nagging mother that he must have living in his head.
Andor is so good it resetted Mike's brain and now he craves for deep Star Wars lore. I know people in the comments now way more about the production than them, but I love that the creator didn't want any Easter eggs in the show but the crew did it anyway. Maybe that's why it's never framed as _something_ to be seen, but rather as being there because it's supposed to.
17:10 I love this because it's not even that the guy doesn't care. He correctly assesses the situation in minutes, knows exactly what deeper investigation or imperial oversight means and wants no part of it. Cynical, maybe, but very relatable and understandable: "These grunts were doing wrong, formal reprimand would have meant admitting that it happened under my watch and reflect poorly on me as a leader, so we covered it up. Now they've been killed, almost certainly by their own misdeeds, so we can finally sweep this all under the rug and forget about it. Don't glorify them too much, someone might dig into the details."
@@SanDeygo At the very least the rebellion would've been unrecognizable. Imagine that, a version of Star War where the War doesn't go hot, and lax supervision on the imperial side entices a sort of 'join up and tear it down from within' attitude.
@@SanDeygo Exactly correct and very well put. Empires usually last a long time only under the conditions that they mostly leave their constituent provinces to their own devices. It's only when the Empire reacts to the Rebellion with harsh reprisals that more and more people join the Rebellion cause.
Deedra doesn't reject Syril's help because she wants all the credit, she does it because he's a random self-righteous loser who got his subordinates killed
Their whole read of Syril is crazily off the mark. So very overtly an emotionally stunted fascist-fanboy twerp, the show would have sucked if he’d just turned that whole mess around by the end of one season for… reasons?
He was smart enough to find Andor when it seemed impossible. Failure isn't a sign of being a closer, failure is a part of life and only children expect to be successful 100% of the time. He didn't have practical experience but he seems talented and intelligent at least.
Yeah I was thinking the same. Also, he didn't disobey his superior and go after Andor because of his sense of justice, he was a wannabe cop obsessed with authority and being the big man (mommy issues). Basically, the ideal follower of fascism, a true believer.
@@michaelterry6576 he didn't find Andor because he was smart and deductive, he found him because Timm got jealous about his girlfriend's ex and ratted him out
@@michaelterry6576 failure isn't the part that makes him an apparent loser. She sniffed that out about him because he was so eager to be a striving toadey zealot. Which is ironic, since she's just a more polished and experienced version. Maybe minus the zealotry - we'll see in season two.
The show definitely helped fill a hole that's been in the Star Wars franchise. Like... why is life under the Empire so terrible? Oh, it's because they'll ship you to a fully automated nightmare prison for loitering.
Not my personal observation here, but the idea that you commit the greatest bank heist in the history of thos regime... and 3 weeks later you get randomly thrown into slave camp for loitering
Previously it was shown they could blow up your entire planet if one of its (prominent?) members is a traitor, or could explode your house for accidentally buying some escaped droids with a message, however outside of "cracking down on rebels and you better be somewhere else" yeah it seemed like you could just follow the rules and get by; although here Andor was also near some kinda, uhh, what was that again, some riot or criminal activity? And it was in the context of the Empire cracking down as a result of the heist theft. However he was singled out more or less randomly, without accidentally possessing any "dangerous spy material" or just being in the area that got carpet-bombed or whatever, so in that sense it is a new low, yes. However wouldn't say it was a "gap" in the original movies.
Yeah, it's the first Star Wars for adults. And as an adult, that is so refreshing. Star Wars has occasionally been entertaining, but I've always really been slightly ashamed when I've enjoyed it, even when I was a kid myself. Never had that problem with Star Trek, at least in the TNG era. I can actually be proud of enjoying Andor, and it's actually given me things to think about.
All these years of watching you guys you finally reviewed something that I was in! I was an imperial trooper on the Aldhani episode. Finally I can sleep soundly. Loads of love you guys. Keep up the good work
You know you’re in for a good episode when Mike whips out a neatly folded piece of paper filled with information he could’ve just read off of his phone
Same, but I refuse to believe it. There's no way they would do something so stupid after such a well written first season. Please know I will forever remember this comment and will be returning to it once Season 2 finishes.
@@beerleaguebrodeur7724 The only way that happens if they fire all the writers responsible for this season, and hire a bunch of hacks that are only capable of pandering to the lowest common denominator. This show it`s too good.
I can make that worse! Luthen IS a Jedi who trains Cassian some Jedi tricks one of which is some magic Force forcefield that we didn't see him use at the end of "Rogue One". "Andor" season 3 starts right after "Rogue One" to tee up "Rogue One II"!
I think you made it more complicated than Star Wars requires. Just swapping a few letters, instead of an actual anagram, works well. Stike Moklasa Ech Rivans
Took me years to figure out how I never liked the movie but loved Star Wars at the same time. But after I figured it out the ideas got a little too outplayed for me. Then Andor debuts and is automatically my favorite Star Wars material of all time. The only one in my top 50 top 10 anything.
So glad to see Andor get some love and appreciation after a long time. Such a great piece of artwork that expands Star Wars and takes itself seriously. Loved the brainstorming section on Empire economy, logistics, and outer worlds. Thinking of it as Europe and other factions participating or contributing to each side would parallel a lot of our own world history perfectly. I feel many of the fans couldn't handle listening to the carefully planned smartly written dialogue since it required an attention span longer than the average tik tok. Andor does not rely on nostalgia, it creates it. I found myself going back to Luthen's, Nemik's, and Marva's speech multiple times to think and reflect. Its simply that good. Its a complete disgrace that this show has the least amount of views given how much respect it has for its audience and the lore.
It's so strange. Being free of expectation, as in, being based on characters nobody was interested in, was this show's greatest strength. It gave the writers freedom to do things differently, and that was thrilling.
Not just the writers, apparently the producers were able to take production away from Hollywood so were free from being pressured to take less accomplished production staff and in particular away from the Godawful StageCraft video wall which encourages laziness in filmmakers. Unfortunately just like old mate in the show they have made other people look bad with their competence and work ethic.
I think Mike and Rich’s complaints regarding Syril Karn’s character arc is a misunderstanding of Syril’s character and what he knows to be true in the galaxy. Syril has no reason to betray Dedra, let alone help Andor, at the end of the season. We may be aware of all the terrible things the Empire is doing, but he isn’t. He has a very naive view of the Empire and this view is probably going to be challenged in Season 2.
Syril Karn also isn't enthusiastic about "justice", he's enthusiastic about "enforcing the law" and those are two different things. When his boss explains why he's not going to search for Andor, he is experienced enough to know that this wasn't a murder of two cops. It was two corrupt cops trying to shake down the wrong guy and losing the fight. Its not "just" to bring Andor in because he was on the wrong end of that organization's corruption, that would be punishing him in furtherance of that corruption. Syril Karn is a loser who finds his self-worth in enforcing the law, he doesn't care about whether what he's doing is right or wrong. He wants to be a little cog in a big machine that tells him he's a good boy for roughing up people lower than he is.
@@ForgivingCrossHe's the perfect example of Starship Troopers' "I'm doing my part!" attitude. All that matters to him is that he brings "justice" boot first on Andor's face. Obviously, per Rogue One, he fails, but hey, that's the price of Prequels.
I'm a little surprised the guys didn't make note of the fact that Syril's Commander described *exactly* what happened between Andor and the two dead guards, almost as though he'd been there. He didn't just brush it off, he called it what it was, and said it wasn't worth investigating as something more than it was.
Yeah he was sharp as hell. Knew exactly what he was doing. Syril doesn't understand the world as it is. That's why he never enlisted with the rebels. He doesn't get it.
Not just wasn't worth investigating, it would be counter-productive. He laid out the justification clearly: "I meant that I am on my way this very morning to an Imperial Regional Command review, where I'll be asked to make a report about our crime rates, and the goal of that speech, should you ever be asked to deliver it, is brevity. Minimizing the time the Empire spends thinking about Preox-Morlana benefits our superiors and, by extension, everyone here at the Pre-Mor Security Inspection team, which at the moment includes you."
Yeah Syril’s commander was on it. He literally laid out everything with 100% accuracy 😄 He knew the 2 guys who got killed were assholes and that they were probably asking for it and they decided to mess with the wrong guy. He also knew that it would be best for everyone if they just let this investigation go.
Perfect demonstration of why totalitarian states fail. The incentives are against fixing problems. So problems pile up. Leaders are told lies so they don't even know what's happening. Orders from the top become more and more divorced from reality because they're operating on bad information, which require more lies from the bottom being sent up the chain as they pretend the impossible orders are being followed and report success. Any admission that the state has made any mistake, however small, is treason and punished accordingly by panicking mid-level leaders so they don't have to tell their bosses the truth either. Eventually the mass delusion collapses, all at once, by some external force intruding, or internal revolution from the little people who actually are aware of how bad things are, and nobody at the top understands how any of it could have happened.
He conflated Yoda in TLJ with a gnome from a CG children's movie who was dancing in a thong. His brain melted faster than that person in Andor who had to listen to children's screams.
I do think it's important to note that Syril Karn isn't really just committed to doing the right thing, he's an unsatisfied stunted man with mommy issues, convinced of his own greatness and desperate for a purpose. I think it's an utterly masterful piece of filmmaking that during Marva's final speech, Syril might be the one person whose mind might actually be swayed by her words but surrogate mommy figure Dedra walks across his line of sight and it immediately distracts him.
Mike is right about Karn and Andor being Mirror arcs but the point was the radicalization of both by the end both are “all in” for the causes of both the empire and the rebelling
Look, the thing is: We need everything and every kind of themes and stories from SW. The adult stuff, the drama stuff, the goofy stuff, the action stuff, the funny stuff, stories for children, for young adults, nostalgia shows, etc. Everything. But the real thing we need is good writing. Good writing for all those themes, medias and styles. And if u like the "universe" of SW, then, u can appreciate all those things. The "profound" and the "stupid".
@@shugaroonyStar Wars will never grow up when stunted manbabies like you gobble up dross like Kenobi or Ahsoka and spit your dummy out when you're presented with a Star Wars show for people over 12.
Mike just described Syril Karn 32:00. He is that medium income, things aren't to bad, type character. And he does exactly what Mike wanted, join the Empire. Because what's important to medium income is to cling to whatever promises to maintain their medium income. Because they are close enough to see what low income is like and will willing do anything to avoid it.
The spherical torture droid is Dr. Ball, MD, and his original training before he worked for the Empire was as an OB-GYN. That's when he's covered with gynecologist's tools.
"what are your degrees in poetry? You sorry bunch of hippies for god sake don't use the billions of dollars worth of medical equipment let's just all get on our knees and pray"
They talk about enjoying the restraint, but they should give Andor a lot more credit. The show clearly goes to lengths to NOT do the usual Star Wars plot, imagery, technology. It's all fresh and new because the writers are clearly setting rules like.. no hoth or tatooine planet, no flying car shots of coruscant, no lightsabers or jedi showing up, etc. Andor himself is an interesting character specifically because of his arc. If he is a resistance member by Rogue One, then this season already shows his growth into that role: He goes from a very unwilling participant in the rebellion, to sparking one in the jail and influencing the leader of that jailbreak. It's a lot more subtle? slow? but it's still super interesting IMO. Plus, they didn't call the show "Star Wars: Resistance" because.. yknow.. we already have like four shows named something similar.
I read in an interview that Diego Luna took a lot of inspiration for Cassian from activists he's known. He's been involved in stuff like the Zapatistas for a long time, so he has experience with people who just do all the thankless work and never take the spotlight. It's a really unusual thing in a leading character who is doing a lot but also constantly shoving somebody else at the microphone, from Kino Loy to Jyn Erso.
What you meant by sparking and inspiring a breakout is radicalization. The rebel alliance is a group of terrorist in the eyes of the empire after all. It shows you how someone like Andor, who is a complete civilian, is radicalize slowly and you emphatize with the decision to be a rebel. Thats why I love this show
>The show clearly goes to lengths to NOT do the usual Star Wars plot, imagery, technology. As the show blows your ass out with Imperial Officer's every second and The Death Star? What are you talking about?
@@Elfenlied8675309 Sure there's still star wars references, but the interrogation scene is a great example of what I mean. It's still imperials and similar shots, but it's not the black droid that we would all expect. Something new and more interesting has been placed in this Star Wars shell. There's a lot of that in Andor. The prison? Every prison in Star Wars is a bleak, kinda dirty, metal, angled thing. But the Andor prison is this clean white room, no shoes, electric floors.. it's extremely different and as such so interesting to watch and learn about.
@@Elfenlied8675309I thought the use of the Death Star was great in the show. Andor helping to build the thing that would end up killing him is interesting
Mike remembering the beat-for-beat editing composition of A New Hope on a cellular level at 40:50, but also having to ask Rich if there were Jedi in The Phantom Menace
I think he can remember movies he really likes, and can't remember a single thing about any movie that he's slightly lukewarm on, dislikes, or absolutely hates.
@@erichorvath3590 what about movies he's slightly reywarm on?
I think they play it up that they don't remember to highlight how much they don't think something is great. "Not worth remembering"
You wanna pizza roll?
@@JuliusBriggs oh I get it, like Rey Skywalker!
It's called _Andor_ because it's about the Empire and/or the Rebellion.
Could have just been named "/"
Coming soon: The adventures of Jedi Neithernor!
this is the dadist joke in the world
@@ArchibaldClumpy Actually, _Yeahbut_ is coming to Disney+ next year.
@@xslonk searching for Star Wars Slash might have some provocative results
I appreciate that Andor managed to make a singular TIE fighter terrifying.
That's one of the greatest things about *Andor,* is that they managed to make the Empire feel like an actual threat, the way an oppressive fascist army should be. We're so used to seeing plot armored main characters and cute teddy bears slaughter stormtroopers by the dozen, that it's easy to forget how terrifying these guys must be to the average civilians.
Yeah, two moments really stuck out to me; the torture, which is actually similar to an old torture method in real life, which is just horrifying. And their assault on the riot, in which they are just picking off innocent men, women and children with an accuracy that actually makes them terrifying for once.
@@lanceturley7745 "pressive fascist army should be. We're so used to seeing plot armored main characters and cute teddy bears slaughter stormtroopers by the dozen, that it's easy to forget how terrifying these guys must be to the average civilians."
Can you all try to think for a few seconds before posting please?
It's true the "average civilians" side was quite neglected in OT and ST (Owen&Beru aside), with some bits here and there, however they've been "scary and threatening" on plenty of occasions incl. in Rotj and Anh, alternated with sillier moments elsewhere.
Here the "silly moments" are kind of embodied by employees/soldiers who're less competent or are phoning in their jobs etc., in the movies it was more of a scene/tone dependent issue.
(Oh and I didn't mention the Vader/inqui scenes from Ob1 of course)
@@lanceturley7745 totally agree, the world feels bigger and more grounded, and you can feel the desperation of powerless civilians in the face of an uncaring imperial machine. Only live action star wars i've enjoyed since the trilogy
@@WreckageBrother-rd5zfit's called diffused tension you git. None of the imperial power display in those media stick because they die in droves in open battle.
Why don't YOU think before posting?
i totally disagree with Rich and Mike on Syril's character. He is meant to represent someone who is so committed to his ideals, that he grows more and more extreme in his beliefs to the point where he would compromise his own values in order to uphold them. Andor is someone who starts out as believing in nothing, and slowly gaining the courage to believe in something. Their arcs are meant to be polar opposites the entire run of the show so that you do see how similar they are in some ways and how incredibly different they are in others. To have Syril just switch sides and ally with the Rebels would not only destroy that parallel, but his entire character as well.
God I love having a piece of Star Wars media I can actually meaningfully talk about like this now.
Not to mention in a meta sense, it's getting really tired seeing the whole "empire to rebellion" arc, just let a character start on the evil side and stay there, not everyone needs a redemption arc
hell yeah, great analysis
Syril isn't in love with justice, he's in love with authority. Hence his obsession with Meero - the embodiment of Imperial authority.
@@LizardSporkAuthority and Control. I think that all his scenes in coruscant are there to show us that he was raised under the autorithy and control of his mother, and he has been raised to perceive himself better than other people. He wants freedom from the control of his mother, but the only way he knows and wants to excert that freedom is by putting others under his control. He is eager to demonstrate that he is better than others, by being the most fascist of them all.
The second Cyril gets a little power he abuses it, too (being cruel to Marva). He's just an ambitious bully.
Rich’s turn to “I now hate this show” in the last 5 seconds is the most tragic arc in the history of Star Wars
Didnt they do the exact same with thier mando s1 re:view?
@@TheBenjamanWell the scary part is that, in hindsight, they were right to do so.
It could happen again.
it's like poetry.
It won't this time. The reason, I feel, is the writer and show runner have much more control over it. It only worked before because he just guessed the absolute stupidest thing they could do and they did it. Not this time....I hope @@halowaffle25
Somehow, hating Star Wars returned.
"Were there Jedis in The Phantom Menace?"
You know dementia is really kicking in when Mike doesn't remember a movie he has been constantly bashing for the last twelve years.
15 years.
Realistically, he's probably been bashing it for 25 years.
even i remember that there was jedi, sith, queen amidala, gungans (?) and i watched it like 20 years ago
@@necrosadotor you just googled that man
@@lorenzomizushal3980 nope
Andor is full of fantastic British character actors who aren’t tying to be stars and aren’t afraid to look run down or ‘ugly’ but are just good at their job and know how to make the world feel real
That's because they filmed during Covid. A lot of excellent British actors were out of work, so they could cast them in relatively small roles
Just as the original trilogy intended
@@smileydog5941 Yeah the OT is full of Brits because it was filmed there in the main.
There's quite a few Game of Thrones alumni in the cast but you might miss them because none of them have large or particularly glamorous roles.
The Brits in general have been better about casting relatable and, for lack of a better word, "regular" looking people in their shows and films. Some American cable shows have been better at this too (Fargo, Better Call Saul, Mare of Easttown) but overall this def felt more like the OT and a British show in that regard.
I kinda like the idea of the empire becoming increasingly incompetent as time goes on due to complacency and as the battle hardend clones are phased out for untrained backworld yokals who are just looking for money because the empire has killed their home planets economy.
This would also fit better with why in the origional trilogy the main cast can just half ass their rescue.
Mike not remembering if there was a Jedi in the Phantom Menace but pulling 'Kyber Crystal' out of his ass had me rolling.
Or about that one camera shot
@@MrRoyalOssthat camera shot is iconic
Come on did people really take him seriously when he was talking about Jedis in TPM??
@@LuisManuelLealDias As serious as anything else they've done, lol.
theres been another trilogy of movies and all these star wars spinoff shows/movies. Its too much. Everything becomes a blur
I love how in Andor he ends up in prison pretty much by accident. The system is too stupid and bureaucratic to do anything well (like catch him), but also completely uncaring about the damage it does.
Just like real life! That's why only morons _gleefully_ say, "y'know they got Capone on tax fraud, right?" (or what ever huge mobster)
It's AMAZING how insanely unjust and stupid IRL is.
Oh, it's not an accident though. They're deliberately imprisoning people en-masse so they can [SPOILER] use them as slave-labour to build the Death Star.
@@ashkebora7262 The thing about Capone is that he was a serious gangster criminal. Everybody knew it. The man was responsible for quite a bit of murder. But Gangs and Mobs operate with a great deal of separation between the decision makers and the guys actually doing the deeds.
The guy was committing tons of crime, it just wasn't possible at that time to connect him to any in a way our justice system could convict on. The only aspect of his operation which was sloppy enough to work, was tax evasion.
@@Justowner
This is also why RICO was created as legislation, to be able to prosecute leaders of criminal organizations that otherwise _technically_ were never proven to be doing dirty work themselves.
@@ashkebora7262in what context do people say that "gleefully"?
Somehow, Re:View returned
RE:FRIGERATOR
@@ohboy9077 The Matrix: Re:Loaded
They fly now?
@@xannaduuthey fly now
@@Deagnetic Brandon carpenter!
Syril getting berated by his goblin-mom while he's trying to finish his Kapn Krunch is the best part of the show and I will fight you on that
correlating to guardians of the galaxy vol 3 end scene with his grandfather talking about the lazy kid next door not mowing the lawn for his mother , knowing one of the greatest heroes in the galaxy was humble enough to do it for her yet he felt awkward that the kid just watched him do it . while eating his cereal gave such a down to earth element to the scene. And him wanting his grandfather to bitch about it .
Its the single most relatable thing in all of Star Wars for most of the basement dwelling Star Wars fans
@@holdwhatdoor7629 I resent that; I lived in a basement but my interest in Star Wars is purely academic
I love how they portrayed his mom. The way she is totally explains why Syril is the way he is. Great writing.
She may be goblin-like, but she acted the role like a dragon
Friends. I do see Syril Karn having two paths as a character... 1. Being surrounded by lazy Morlana security folks and/or Imperial ladder-climbers makes him more determined to be the most powerful fascist in the universe. OR that after really trying hard to be a bootlicker, to no avail, he goes full insane rebellion guy. A sort of "I'm gonna start my own business cause this is getting me nowhere" kind of guy. Perhaps he just follows that through line to exacting personal revenge on Andor (lame). I guess I just like that actor his incompetence and unsure-of-himself nature made him charming. I was rooting for him to catch Andor. The fact that his only support system was his elderly mother, made him even more pathetic and likable. Apparently no friends, no partner, etc... just work. The most important moment was when he's in his room and he gets about 30 seconds of sunlight due to the massive volume of buildings on Coruscant. We get a shot of him crying as the sun passes over. Adding a subtle touch of sympathy like that to a villain is shocking in a Star War. Is he a victim of the brutal imperial system? Did his nagging mother push him into being like this? Or was he just born to be one of the many imperial scumbags doing the bidding of the Emperor. Sure, we all know people like that. People with zero personality that are obsessed with work, but he showed no ambitions towards rank or career acceleration. I.e. his motivation was simply "justice" - had their been a line like, "If I catch Andor I'll be promoted to head of Morlana security" I'd have a different ppinion, but the subtle touches to make him likable were placed throughout. Him personally modifying his uniform to look better while the security head guy rolled his eyes, his awkward motivational speech, etc. I suppose I'm just hoping for complexity and some kind of arc other than "he's a guy built to be a cog and will go on to be a bigger one" I liked Syril Karn more than Andor. He's a soulless character molded by the machine of the Empire and the society and it'd be delightful to see him warmed up to have friends and a better purpose. Either way, the fact that a character in a Star War is complex and worthy of discussion goes to show how well written this show was!!! Hats off to you Tony Gilroy and friends! #teamsyril #catchandor
Hope Tony Gilroy goes on to make more politically charged Star Wars, if he wishes to, found Andor to be absolutely superb. (My dream being him adapting KOTOR II someday.)
Well said.
Thank you, Krebs Gorlon.
The way I saw it was that Syril is recklessly chasing the miniscule and only chance of a ticket back to the "justice & order department" of the empire, because that was/is his entire identity. He lives for nothing else and has a need to pursue order to a sick but also quite human-relatable degree. (He may have a crush on Dedra too, but that is besides the point)
In any case, it is delightful when characters are this well developed and rich with nuance. It's a rarity, especially in SW.
did we simply forget the stalker parasocial relationship with Dedra? This dude ain't likable
It turns out that when you hire a competent, experienced and talented screenwriter, you can get a good Star Wars show out seemingly nothing.
Also directors and production. Set design was amazing
Now someone just needs to adapt KOTOR II in a similar style.
This was my takeaway, Tony Gilroy and his brother Dan Gilroy wrote for Andor and they worked on stuff like the Bourne films. Whereas for a while Disney and LucasFilms went for experimental and it did not work out.
@@MildChunkySalsa dude nothing about Disney is experimental.
@@BlueMarsalismaaaan if only!!
When my very good friend, Mike Stoklasa, said "I liked Andor a lot", the dopamine hit from my opinion being correct was absolutely euphoric
LMFAO
The delayed gratification of watching it 2 years ago or whatever made it hit way harder.
@@buzzooie17I've been edging for so fucking long and now it's time for the goon sesh
Well, it's a good show :)
@@buzzooie17 I've been edging all this time man
Really really misunderstood them calling Morlana chief lazy. Dude understood the situation and corrupt guards being instigators of the fight, and wanted to sweep it all to avoid riots or imperial interest, to maintain relative peace on Morlana, exact thing that happened later
It was so accurate that it was basically like the chief was holding a copy of the script. He called out exactly what happened at the brothel, beat for beat, and then warned of the consequences of pulling too hard on this thread. Syril Karn is the most ruthlessly incompetent character in the show.
I loved that character just for that 😅, even a simple glimpse of him in the show, he was like the old veteran that done this and done that and knew every BS of the galaxy could throw at him and forshadowed the entire ordeal.
If he appears again, i would like to see him bitch slap the hell out of those guys who survived and say... "Didn't i told you!!?? Didnt I??? But noooo, you just had to show show off how big is your dick is, and you, *talking to the guy who got a thing for the imperial woman* you just wanted to get your balls wet and impress that imperial woman"
Yeah, it's corruption, not laziness. And it's exactly the sort of corruption that totalitarian regimes create, and the sort that ultimately always brings them down. Nobody wants to bring attention to a problem, so problems fester and grow. Nobody wants to take initiative, because it's punished as disloyalty.
Went looking for this comment. Describing him as lazy was absolutely criminal
Mike in 2019: "What if she was that lady in Phantom Menace that says 'My bones are aching, Ani, there's a storm coming'? You remember her?"
Mike in 2024: "Were there jedis in Phantom Menace?"
He would never forget and elderly person whom he could mock
@@immjoe5979 And in doing so, he became one
What a character arc!
I remember that!
@@radim279 I agree the way RLM consistently writes Mike Stoklasa as a character should be taught in Universities. Especially with how they brilliantly foreshadowed his shift from solely being the perpetrator of hatred towards the elderly, to the target of his own twisted malice.
The first two seasons of Picard took their toll on Mike
Rich, Andor could come back after Rogue: One. We just need an opening title crawl and a line to bring him back.
"Somehow, Andor has returned."
"Space turtles, hombre"
I totally just skimmed the comments to see if anyone said before I typed it. Bravo sir.
No ones ever REAAAALLY gone
lol
He survived the explosion but is hooked up to all those tubes and has burnt fingers and no iris' or pupils like Palpatine in Episode IX.
Imagine being famous for a video essay that completely ripped the Phantom Menace apart only to come back years later and ask "Were there Jedis in the Phantom Menace?" LOL
Years of alcohol and disappointment can do a number on the brain
That's disconnection for you. Reviewing TRoS Mike asked something like "Does anyone care at this point?". So he clearly doesn't. Why even remember this stuff if it means nothing and goes nowhere? So your brain just tosses it out and makes more space for more important things. Like laundry and parking tickets.
Good I love how apathetic Mile is towards star wars. The original trilogy will always have a place in my heart but like who cares at this point.
"The fuck's a jedi?"
-Mike Stoklasa
I legitimately am jealous. I want to be that forgetful of the PT (and ST, for that matter). But the memes keep them alive in my head (or more accurately, undead).
Andor was the only Star Wars property that actually looked at the franchise and said “so Star Wars is about fighting against fascism so let’s actually make the empire fascist”
Fascist
Cringe
@@j.2512 k what a compelling argument
@@Corgifan2 don't expect an intellectual conversation with a Zoomer 😂
The empire was never not about fascism. How would you even have known it was about fascism before Andor?
I hope Mike's middle-class imperial mon calamari show gets made
I'm still waiting on Space Cop: The Revenge.
Another point, the empire is speciest. I agree completely we need a mon calamari show or at least for them to be featured in a show like Andor
@@rutgaurxi7314 Space Cop is a cyber-character! He's not real!
I hope it comes in the form of a sitcom
Star Wars: Squid Game
I think the corporate security character’s arc was well done. Not everyone comes to the realization that the system will not give them justice. Sometimes they become radicalized by the “law and order” mentality to believe the government can provide justice if they were the ones in charge
I actually really appreciate that he doesn't realize the error of his ways and turn against the Empire, but buys in completely to the Empire being a force for justice and good. The show seems to want to create a realistic interpretation of a fascistic government and part of that is demonstrating how willing the average person can be to enthusiastically support that system.
I understand where they’re coming from but characters like that are an overlooked but important part of oppressive systems, you need enough little people supporting, even just passively, and believing they’ll someday get their chance to be useful and important. If there’s a perceived outlet for personal gain, there will always be somebody looking to benefit.
Something I thought was great but Mike only touched on with the point about Stormtroopers being in the background, was the show's treatment of the Empire's resources and scale. The show starts with a corporate protectorate, with security outsourced to useful idiots, and Ferrix itself is basically unoccupied. Gradually as events heat up, Imperial army troops begin to appear, the garrison is explored, and gradually more higher echelon forces are revealed until by the end you have Stormtroopers and a full on military occupation. It makes it all feel so much more real.
That was definitely the point of the story. The Sith empire has cruelty and corruption as the heart of it. Which is fine. That's built in.
The guy was basically brownshirt Javert.
i am really glad Andy Serkis got to come back to star wars and play an actual character
And knocked it out of the park.
One way out!
That was KINO.
Andy Serkis is by far the most underrated actor out there imo. Can’t really name a role he didn’t perform admirably in. Even his voicing of Snoke in the-movie-that-shall-not-be-named was top notch
his character was actual trash, an empty cliche plot device but of course fan bois cream their jeans and demand he get an oscar because its Andy Serkis
In an interview Tony Gilroy stated that the second season of Andor would be its last for the simple reason that he can’t keep up the intensity of making this sort of show without sacrificing quality.
Talk about restraint!
The great shows, books, and movie franchises are they who know when enough is enough.
Or he has other writing projects he wants to do!
They are doing the same thing with Arcane on Netflix.
I guess you either die a hero or live long enough to see yourself become a schlock.
@@maidros85 Arcane was always trash for the very fact that it was connected to the League of Legends IP.
Same with Loki. They said he might return in 2029 or 2030 tho
24:22 it’s funny because Syril Karn’s blaming Andor for his shitty life instead of the Imperial system is INCREDIBLY realistic when you think of how many people handle their politics in the real world
Exactly. Karn doesn’t blame the system for his troubles, he blames other people underneath that oppressive system. He’s a true believer because he once had power that he enjoyed exercising. And who’s to say he won’t go through a transformation like Mike described in season 2?
Exactly the point of his character. He blames the people, and not the system, and fetishizes Deedra Meero.
Right.. I think they missed that his character is helping serve to show the bleak reality of living in the empire, as well as how folks are seemingly unable to identify, in this case, the empire as the cause of their issues. Instead they stick to what they were taught, focusing on something else (like andor) that becomes the reason for their problems.
I don't understand how syril let them down, it's the complete opposite for every people i know who watched the show.....we're all so god damn tired of sw redemption and nobody stays dead. It's much more interesting to have someone like andor but on the other side.
It's actually very personally relatable, when CCP was still enforcing the "Zero Covid" policy after the epidemic had ended and locked down tens of millions of people in their homes, there were so many of "Syril Karn"s blaming the people who actually protested and resisted, instead of the systerm who's forcing it upon everyone
“Watch this, Lisa! You can actually pinpoint the second when Rich Evans’s heart rips in half!”
I cho cho choose you
@@samsschool3639 I bent my wookie
@@AaAa-je5eo my cats breath smells like cat food
@@samsschool3639Just because you win doesn't mean you lose.
@@Tom_Van_Zandt Hi Supernintendo Chalmers!
I love how Rich's spirit gets broken when he gets a prophetic realization.
He’s like Paul usul atreides in so many respects.
My spirit was broken too. F Andor.
The burden of his shining.
Foreseeing B movie plots is his gift and curse
He really had decent enough expectations of the second season, seeing no obvious ways they were gonna fuck it up, then that one Kyber-shaped puzzle piece fell into place and BOOM the single most Disney way possible at fucking up the series just appeared before him like an angry spirit. The one thing Disney simply cannot stop doing: turning everyone and everything into a Jedi or Sith (or close enough to them that they practically are). It's impossible for a Disney Star Wars adaptation to not have Force-dorks with increasingly complex light saber variants in them.
Sure, it *might* not happen. The writers and directors *could* fight off studio meddling for just once. But we've seen Disney do it's foul work, the chances are high they'd do it.
I love how whenever these guys watch stuff like Andor, Obi-Wan Kenobi, the center of their confusion is always "We didn't watch Clone Wars" lol
I think a lot of people didn't watch Clone Wars, so it likely represents a good portion of the audience.
Personally, I was always too turned off by the art style to get into it. That and a lot of it still being aimed at younger audiences, even it does have some depth to it.
@@Descriptor413 For sure, that's valid. For me, I just try to enjoy it for what it is, which is basically "The Adventures of Obi-Wan and Anakin". The show that sort of fills in the gaps that the prequels didn't when they insist upon their friendship. The friendship between Anakin and Obi-Wan feels hollow in the movies but in the show they really flesh it out a lot. I think that show is honestly the single reason why people's opinions on the prequels flipped, because they grew attached to those characters and then watching Episode 3 becomes a cathartic and emotional experience and payoff retroactively.
Mike remembers details from every next-generation episode but does not remember if there are Jedi in The Phantom Menace or that Palpatine was in Rise of Skywalker.
More frequent rewatches, probably.
Also known as: Priorities
Mirror Universe Mike knows Palpatine's first name and the crew compliment of a Star Destroyer, but can't tell you what deck engineering is on the Enterprise.
Sounds like a good life to me.
Good.
The thing I enjoyed most about this show is that it gave me a nice relaxing break from consistently thinking:
-That doesn't make sense?
-Who would make that stupid choice
-WTF are you doing?
-Why are you acting out of character?
You know, all those things that less well thought out shows have to force on their characters into in order to create drama, conflict, action or other interesting scenarios.
Exactly, couldn't have said it better myself
Or even just a show where the dialogue wasn’t written to hit people over the head with the themes of the show. Like “this guy is so evil! Watch him be evil for three scenes in a row! Do you get it???”
I can’t already feel the thousands of handwaves in the direction of that sentiment, I’m afraid
The show does cause and effect really well.
then when you try to analyze it, the creators themselves didn't give a crap either as shown in the plinkett reviews hence the movie/story was shite.
The thing about Syril Karn is that he represents a real kind of person who exists, they suffer under the same system and share a class with Cassian Andor, but lack the self awareness to recognize themselves in him.
Just like most Americans.
It's basically the marxist term for false class conciousness. Andor takes a lot from Marx
Yeah, and this is why I disagree with Mikes take on it.. I think it would have been corny if by the end of the season he switched sides
Yeah, I don't think his primary motivation is justice. He's attracted to order, and power.
@@BrentButler Yeah the events in the series just caused him to Double-Down. I've been in that guys shoes...eventually we all learn its an unrealistic expectation and Chaos is uncontrollable...he hasn't seen ENOUGH yet to get there. He may by the end of the series.
Can't believe you left the Holiday Special out of your Star Wars chronology
Turns out the scariest weapon you can give the Empire in your Star Wars show/movie isn't a mega-laser, or bigger ships, or guys who also have lightsaber-esque weapons ... but competence. These guys are actually scary, and it makes our heroes victories actually feel earned. If you would have told me a year ago that Andor was going to be my favorite Star Wars property since the Original Trilogy I would have thought you were crazy. But here we are.
The big problem with Star wars today is the incompetent "bad guys". As a result the suspension of disbelief gets broken almost immediately. Ahsoka is a recent good example of this with Thrawn.
It also gives grounding to why the Empire fucks up frequently because it’s full of backstabbing careerists just trying to make their résumé’s look good. There are some comments in the ISB conference room that hit so realistically that I was shocked, mostly stuff about how some of the sectors are underreporting issues because they don’t want to get in trouble. It is almost like the people making Andor gave enough of a shit to think about what they were doing for more than 5 minutes
@@phenom568 completely agree. It is frustrating when it feels like a basic tier of storytelling competence to *show* why a significant villain would have a fearsome reputation instead of him repeatedly getting pantsed and his bare butt, back, and balls getting spanked and calmly stating “Just as I planned”
@@phenom568There's bigger problems with that, style over substance, pandering, awful writing, don't wanna write an essay though.
@@deanthemachine8879exactly. The legends timeline goes over this as well, even zahns new novels in Disney canon work.
The thing is, Disney should never have touched that brand. Beyond all of its other major problems (pandering, shit writing, key jangling, spectacle over substance), their biggest issue now is their canon and how it constantly gets fucked over.
Disney literally de canonized the EU because they said it was too contradictory, but since they've bought over the IP, Disney has CONSTANTLY been fucking up their own canon, and now with a guys and gals like Dave filoni and weinsteins assistant failing upwards more and more, they're going to just blatantly disregard their comics and novels (even zahns nu canon thrawn novels) to make their slop.
Genuinely, andor deserves to sit in the legends continuity, it would have made a fine addition to the empire Era stuff there. I'd have loved to see characters like Armand Isard be involved in these stories, the potential is insane.
One of the things I liked about Andor was that the villains weren't cartoonishly evil or incopotent ham heads like they are in the Sequel Trilogy.
They are are cold and caculating officers doing their jobs and duty, which to me is more intimidating than having them shout and goosestep.
They're cold and calculating, but they're also careerist strivers ... very human and compelling
They were incompetent, but in a believable, bureaucratic way, rather than just jokes
@@TheCheat_1337Their incompetencies stem from their beliefs and the systems they serve creating realistic blind spots, instead of just the plot needing to happen or the tone to lighten up a bit
They were humanized very well. Those who were career opportunists and hard workers were competent and dogmatic in their beliefs. The incompetent officers are relatable because they’re just clocking in to their 9 to 5 job and trying not to draw attention to themselves
I would say the boss that didn't want to investigate the deaths was very competent. He perfectly predicted what would happen if they took it seriously, and ordered steps to prevent that.
hearing rich say "whatever" to mike explaining how boba fett climbs out of the sarlacc pitt is exactly how i picture disney executives agreeing to whatever pitch meeting theyre in or a script they are finalizing
Actually it was super easy, barely an inconvenience.
Wait isnt boba fett like in his 30’s and fit? Why did he age 30 years and put on 70lbs? Whatever.
It’s wild that he only survived because a comic writer said “Nah I wanna use him though”
@@DrViperVideos”the digestive juices of the pit” or some bullshit, no doubt. I’m sure there’s a whole book about how the things asshole works.
its like Disney executives never watched that scene in community where Patton Oswalt describes that exact event, scene-for-fucking-scene.
"Every frame of star wars is in my memory banks"
Earlier: "Were there Jedi in the Phantom menace? Was Palpatine in Rise of Skywalker?"
Im guessing he means the original
Episodes IV-VI: Star Wars
Episodes I-III: Prequels
Episodes VII-IX: Fanfiction
Elderly cognitive decline is setting in fast for Mike.
When people of Mike's age talk about "Star Wars", they mean either the original 1977 film or the Original Trilogy...... because that's all that matters.
He meant Star Wars, not Star Wars.
Knowledge is knowing that Star Wars is fantasy with space paint.
Wisdom is knowing that doesn’t mean riding horses along the outside of a spaceship.
It was "almost a ground battle", but yeah kinda true.
iT BrOKe NeW GrOuND!
@@PseudoNym13 It's like alive horses beating someone else
thats funny
I mean, I want to agree but I also remember the seismic charges from Episode 2 causing concussive sound waves in space and I remember that Star Wars is a baby franchise for babies
Mike seemed to forget the smile and laugh of Luthen after finding out that the heist was successful. It was acted brilliantly by Skarsgard after the pressure and anxiety in prior scenes
It was very touching.
Luthen's life is really hard, and I was happy to see him relish a victory.
I'm ok with the show, but he made me think that maybe a small glimpse of what the empire took away from them could've been effective. We're always told about "what they took from us" but are only shown the aftermath. Still yeah, he's forgetting about all those moments. Maarva has a lot of them :')
@@tuppot He's always had forgetful inconsistencies like this.
The following 3 quotes are from the ep2 review for instance:
"And I'm still not sure which one we're supposed to relate to.
I would think people could relate more to Obi-Wan, cause he's basically a good guy who doesn't murder people?
But at the same time he's also very distant, cause he's like a weird monk without any personality. **"What?!"**
So take your pick, idiots..."
&
"Now technically they *are* weird space aliens - but we can't relate to their fucking weird, sterile, sexless universe.
[Obi-Wan and Mace in the spacious Temple hallway] They seem as cold, and lifeless, and boring, as the computer generated world they're projected against.
Simple, real, genuine moments like this: [Han, Luke and Leia hug and celebrate], have been replaced by this: [Neimoidians getting shot at] "Aaaaa-"
or rather because of this:"
"I guess it's got something to do with, like.. purging emotions, to avoid being tempted by the Dark Side, right?
But Obi-Wan, you know, he smiles, he laughs...
he gets annoyed; **"What?!"** "Well, you've lost him."
he enjoys a good sarcastic quip: "Oh, this is going to be easy."
Sometimes, he gets really, really pissed off: "You will be expelled from the Jedi Order!!"
So.. so love leads to the Dark Side - but getting fucking pissed doesn't? "Come to your senses!"
I mean the Jedis aren't supposed to be Vulcans, right? Even Vulcans took wives and had sex...
So really, the only thing that made Obi-Wan different from like a normal person, was that he didn't express any interest in chicks. "I was beginning to wonder if you'd GOT my message."
Lack of sex can drive men crazy you know..."
Not the contradictory use of the same **"What?!"** clip in the 1st quote there.
And here this is from the ep1 of course:
"Rich: "He is... ... ..sssssstoic?"
Gillian: "I don't remember that character."
Mike, off-screen: "Ok he's Liam Neeson - with the beard."
Gillian: "Ohhhhh… .. yes...."
Jay: "Well he has a beard. [laughs]"
Jack: "Qui-Gon Jinn, and, uh he-.. uh, he was…"
Jesse: "Uhhhmmm.... let's see here, ummm… ..... ...stern?""
The very thumbnail of that video contradicts these statements, cause Quigon is shown in the splitscreen kinda smiling or something? In the woods?
And the other clips from that compilation are equally contradictory - one wonders how lucid or aware Mike was while editing that?
And here of course, ironically, that Padme-Anakin shot from TPM is played as a counter-example to Andor's supposed 100% gloominess, along with the "post-DS hugging laughing" which gets played in that AotC review excerpt.
Situations are a bit different of course - here they're making a point about the "depressed grim tone" and kind of cite it as a positive, certainly Rich does and Mike almost and then comes around;
and here it's a casual review after 1 viewing, so lapses in recollection and/or less literally absolute phrasings and statement are quite acceptable.
Maybe you know they didn't **literally** mean not a single smile or moment or good mood, just relatively little of it, compared to what Mike's warm carebear heart would've preferred?
While over there, it's all preachy declarative filmmaking-lectury etc. so lapses like that are much less acceptable and really just undermine their whole credibility over there - however of course IF they already allow themselves that kind of sloppiness and amnesia in their "for real analytic video essays",
how much can this re:view really be excused for doing essentially the same thing, just in a more casual context?
What if it's really just a common bad habit that undermines the accuracy of their reviews and film commentary?
However that aside, this re:view in particular is generally pretty good and sound, not much to really complain about all in all lol
for me, it's Andor's mom smiling as she talks to Cassian about how she's been inspired to fight after hearing about the payroll heist
the insane thing to me is that he can't understand why she's been inspired to action when he's the reason she wants to take action, and he can't even tell her he was involved.
it's a beautiful scene
@@WreckageBrother-rd5zf Hey thanks for taking the time to write that reply! I haven't noticed until now.
"I've never really had a reason to hate the empire."
I always thought the total destruction of Alderaan seemingly on a whim by the Empire was an understated event in these movies.
There are flight logs of US presidents visiting an island which purpose was underage sex slavery.
But to us it was 'good guy planet.' Still a moustache twirling move.
To be fair, that hadn't happened yet in universe. They didn't even know they were building the Death Star in prison.
Also, remember that the stormtroopers burned Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru while they were still alive.
Killing all the Jedi was a D move to start with as well. Say what you want about their faults, they were responsible for doing a lot of good in the galaxy. They were basically the galactic 911 for any impossible or too important to fail assignments. If something important was going down, there was a good chance a Jedi would be getting involved.
I regularly forget Andor is a person and think it's a planet
"The forest moon of Andor."
Well, with planet Endor being an important location in SW universe long before a character named Andor appeared in it it's honestly not that surprising to mess it up )).
I forgot that it was a person and not a small kingdom situated on the border between France and Spain
@@alexroselle pretty sure that's Aragon so probably more suitable for a Lord of the Rings video.
i thought it was a planet until i read this comment
Syril's story still works as a parallel to Andor's because it's a negative arc. When Andor got pushed too far he decided to change, when Syril got pushed too far he decided to just keep doing the same thing hes always been doing because that's what the Empire makes its citizens believe, that satisfaction or justice is only achieved when serving the Empire
perhaps the contrapositive arc
I think it's a misinterpretation to say that Syril is after justice. What he wants is order. Personally, he is also after meaning and control. He must be part of something bigger. Including his mother is a great touch to give the audience a better insight into his psyche.
Exactly. The show parallels them by contrasting Andor’s strength of character against Syril’s total weakness of character. Syril is a weak little hanger-on who WANTS to be part of something bigger because that means he’ll earn respect. Andor wanted nothing to do with being part of something bigger but his strength of character forces his hand.
Syrill hasn’t had an arc yet. He hasn’t seen the inner workings of the empire. He hasn’t seen that “hang em” guy that hung Andor’s friend. Or the psychopathic torture guy. He hasn’t seen who his love interest really is. He’s like the embodiment of myopic justice. He believes in justice for the sake of it without really understanding that just because you work for an institution it doesn’t automatically makes you moral. It’s why his superior was able to correctly discern what happened to his security officers based on prior interactions with them. And the second to third order consequences of publicly divulging their deaths as murders. Whereas Karn doesn’t care or has little interest in who they are or were. So I think the second season is setting up this revelation to Karn, and from there we’ll see if he has a positive or negative arc. I personally believe that he’ll have a positive one, he’s shown that he’s naive but has not shown that he’s immoral. And I think he serves as a good vehicle or POV for audiences that have similar myopic interpersonal tendencies. Remember, a character arc is dependent on “the lie a character believes about themselves or the world” (you can Google that) and vital information about the lie. What the character chooses to believe or not believe, or how they utilize the truth, determines whether they have a positive or negative arc. And Karn received no vital information in season 1.
theres also a cool contrast in how syril worships this commander who he believes will light the way, while andor sees luthen more cynically. and those leaders too; one farcically loyal to the empire, and the other so rogue he has his own people killed
One thing that you guys missed is that Kenari (Andor's homeworld) wasn't a pre-industrial planet, it was a planet that was ruined by some kind of industrial accident that only left children alive.
it also was not harmed by the empire. when we see young andor? the ship that crashes is a republic ship, not imperial
That was actually kind of a confusing scene, because it's *said* that's it's a Republic officer that's killed by the kids, but their shoulder patches are clearly CIS.
@@Ian-ot7upits a false flag operation by the Republic, they're going to drop some poisonous gas on civilians somewhere and blaming Separatists for it thats why they were wearing Separatists uniform but Maarva and Clem knew the truth about it, thats they're actually a Republic officer. Thats why the Republic cruiser come to the planet immediately to investigate or retrieve their failed false flag operation. Because someone shoot down that ship or the ship just having malfunctioned or something else happened because we first see them burning in the sky and crash landing, we don't know what happens before that. Republic is the bad guys of the Clone Wars and the Separatists is the real good guys. And i mean the real Separatists not Count Dooku, Trade Federation, Techno Union, Banking Clan and their droids army, they're just hijacking the Separatists cause for their own agenda. The real Separatists only want to seperate from the corrupt Republic.
@@Ian-ot7upYeah that part really was confusing, as the control panels and terminals inside the starship looked distinctly Republic as well.
@@Ian-ot7up It may have been in that transition period where the republic was turning into being the empire, people would have likely still referred to it as such, especially on outer worlds. It roughly adds up with the character's age, i think.
Oh, man! If this doesn’t fix my parent’s shattered marriage and general familial dynamic, nothing will!
It will And/or won't.
@@cbook7096if not, maybe the inevitable The Batman (2022) Re:View will, haha! I’m RLM-ental for these guys!
Ha! Nice try, dad!
Nothing will
@@cbook7096only the Sith hedge their bets.
Mike and Rich growing old together watching sci-fi makes me so happy.
That's good, because it makes them miserable!
I like this new twist where Rich Evans starts out hopeful at the beginning of an episode and is completely destroyed by the end. That's more dramatic than being completely destroyed at the beginning.
That's his character arc. We, the audience, get to see the rebirth of his childlike innocence and its inevitable and ultimate death.
Rich Evans is the only force that can truly stop Rich Evans, much to Mike's chagrin.@@STTPMASFTNE
He makes like a change, that is called an arc
@@STTPMASFTNEyeah lol, I don’t even get why him being a Jedi would ruin him, he’s still a great character. It’s also most likely that he was the lover of a Jedi that died and that sent him down this path
Gold comment
Watching Mike rightfully compliment the sets of the show after seeing Star Wars Theory complain about bricks and screws makes this so much better
You watch Star Wars Theory? 😂😂😂😂
StarWarsTheory has become a bit of a crybaby-complaining, hack..
@@afanofpeanuts7381 I dont watch or even know of the channel, but hasnt that been the Star Wars MO for like... idk 20 years?
Star Wars theory’s got a Darth Vader toy stuck in his brain
@@dustywaynemusic6297I don't watch Star Wars Theory but I heard about his complaints of Andor through memes, I wouldn't be surprised if @ThePFD518 is in the same boat.
Boba Fett climbing outta the Sarlacc: "I want that juicy 'Lacc meat!"
💀
Would unironically have been better
That’s basically what the comic book writer who made that escape up was thinking, I imagine.
We need the Bo & Lacc miniseries
i want it rare!
As a Tolkien fan, it is amusing to me that Rich keeps getting confused about the name of Stellan Skarsgard's character and referring to him as Luthien, the name of the most beautiful elf-maiden who ever lived.
Well...for a white girl
Whenever Mike pulls out a folded piece of paper with a list on it you KNOW you're in for a good time.
but the list is incomplete.
where is ewoks? where is the crhistmas special?
The fact that Rich REMEMBERS the name of Andor's home planet shows that the show is good.
This episode alone is going to provide so much fodder for the next generation of RLM dementia compilations.
When he genuinely gets dementia everyone is gonna point and laugh because he'd want that.
Rich would probably love an Office style comedy show based around a Mon Calamari shipyard attempting to keep up with Rebel ship quotas and requirements.
The Munder-Difflin Droid Supply company would be an awesome show. Honestly anything to get us out of dramatic lightsabers, rebels, Jedis and empires would be a nice break.
I would legitimately love to see a scene for scene recreation 'the office' swapped out with Star wars aesthetics and lingo.
@BasicWorldbuilder A light saber accident in the conference room however, would be hilarious.
@@j.w.m.415 The shows equivalent of Michael gets his hands on one somehow and wackiness follows, resulting in him accidentally cutting a vending machine in half.
Cut to a staff meeting with HR about how staff, even management, aren't allowed to bring contraband weapons to work.
At the end of the episode it is revealed that Jymm froze D'whyts stapler in Carbonite.
"My human self wants..."
Spoken like a true human being, Mike
Based and buddahpilled
Next you’re going to say he’s thinking with meat.
When the realization that they're going to turn him into a jedi hits Rich. Chef's kiss.
He’s going to be Obi-WAN’s brother.
@@profbaconoh FUCK I hope you're wrong ffs
I don’t get it! That would mean that he’s already a jedi, and he’s already their favorite character, so nothing has changed.
@@voltijuice8576It changes the context of his character, and who he *might* be. If the answer is "Jedi" then that ties him down to something that's already too worn out, especially in the post Order 66 world.
@@voltijuice8576 I think @ForwardSythesis is 100% right, but I might add that him having magical powers can also bring into question all the accomplishments he's had on the show. He would no longer be a normal guy doing these things, but someone "special".
I wish they had talked more in depth about the prison arc and money heist arc. Those were fantastic parts of the series.
In the near future:
Mike: "Hey, Rich have you heard of this Mr. Plinkett guy? I was watching him and it turns out he's me!"
Rich: "I know Mike, I'm also Mr. Plinkett, let's put you to bed."
I BURN MY NUKIE TAPES TO MAKE A SUNRISE I'LL NEVER SEE!
SO WHAT DO I SACRIFICE?
EVERYTHING!
BEETLEJUICE!
TABLES!!!!!
@@ohboy9077 Chables?
@@kubli365 my grandpas name was Chuck hoffman! And my middle name is Chuck! They've been beetlejuiced! And beetlejoshed! THE TABLES KEEP MY HOUSE HOT!
“NUUUUUUUKIE!!!!!”
@46:00 Better Call Saul was wildly successful, and the actors in it are all 10 years older by the end. I think people are willing to ignore that part of their brain as long as the material is actually worthwhile.
It was really hard accepting Jonathan Banks as a believable badass by the end though.
Ngl it was VERY distracting. Really hurt the show.
@@Jeneric81 Saul looks different than he did in BB. You just have to look at it as though you're looking at the same characters through a different lens. Mike was even more humanised so you saw the old man tired of life and all the games in BCS, however in BB you saw the other side of him - the ruthless killer - so he appeared that way. Saul is overweight, sleazy and living the good life of women and money in BB, but in BCS we see the more human hardworking side and his appearance reflects that. We all view people and events differently to each other so I find it helps to imagine you're viewing the world and characters in each show with a different perspective
@@tincano-beans2114 Only if you're watching both shows at the same time
Plus we had to fight through fat Todd in El Camino. If our brains can survive that, they can survive anything.
Cyril is also weirdly obsessed with Dedra. He wants to be her and with her. He wants to surpass his mother’s expectations. He’s using “justice” as an excuse to succeed.
Yeah but pew pew lightsabers. God I can't stand the uber fans who don't appreciate what they've been given here.
Bro just simping hard.
Cyril is an excellent character because he shows us the psycho-sexual pathology of a regular fascist
Cyril is a fascist. It’s really not anymore complicated than that.
oedipus complex
Episode 9 had one major flaw: They should have used velociraptors instead of horses. Then it would have been perfect
The way they filmed Andor was really interesting when compared to every other Star Wars show by Disney. They didn’t use ANY of the volume afaik, and filmed on real locations that were carefully modified in post as set extensions and changes. It was filmed the way they did the Dune movies, which is amazing. Meanwhile, Disney is embarrassed by Andor and hid it on their app for some insane reason.
This one of the reasons why I'm cautiously optimistic for The Acolyte. They built real sets and didn't use the Volume too. They also had a writers' room, which some of the other shows didn't, which really showed
Cause Andor is too smart for Nu-Disney fans. It regularly gets bashed by people who think shows like Book of Boba Fett are "amazing" and have a shelf of Funko pops sitting behind them
@@bridget7539 The Acolyte looks like they took the wrong lessons from Andor. I could be wrong, but it looks like the only thing they did differently from the bad shows was filming on some real sets. I got some pretty heavy Obi Wan writing vibes from what I saw.
Anything filmed in The Volume is unwatchable for me. It's like the uncanny valley for scenery. Like it almost hurts my eyes.
@@itsd0nk I didn't get that at all from the trailers so I guess only time will tell
As a dork about more niche and arbitrary aspects of Star Wars, this hit it out of the park with the OT's "cassette futurism" and high tech/ low-life aesthetic and look. I also really liked how we saw more boring housing and public area pockets of Coruscant along with the luxurious areas and gritty back alleys.
Btw didn't find Syril's low-sun housing environment boring I found it *reeeeeeaaaaally cooooool*
But, but, there wasn't any lightsabers and the Empire was actually a threat! Andor is barely even Star Wars!
@@FringeSpectre "But, but, there wasn't any lightsabers and the Empire was actually a threat! Andor is barely even Star Wars!"
Where wasn't it a threat?
@@WreckageBrother-rd5zf *insert montage of Storm Troopers consistently missing shots against people in a small hallway and behaving like they've never been trained in combat tactics before*
@@FringeSpectre Where do you mean
Cutting to George using a laser pointer on the big screen to explain his VFX had me dying.
He's good at the cyber.
Better than modern directors embarrassing themselves using VR at least (Looking at you, Matt Reeves!).
A funny little cyber character.
36:00 Not only do you see the mouse droid, but it's subverted for a purpose. When it's seen in ANH, Chewie scares it away. When you see it in Andor, Syril Karn *is surprised and awkwardly steps around it*. Great use of a reference to say a lot about a new character in one scene.
I disagree about Syril Karn. His motivation isn't justice, it's validation. Justice is what he says is important to him, but the subtext is that he actually wants validation. That's why he's obsessed with Dedra, who he feels is like him, someone who knows that there is something deeper going on. I think it's worth keeping in mind that Syril is from Coruscant, so he is more likely to see being a part of the Empire as a matter of fact then say someone from a corporate planet with a culture disconnected from the Empire. So, from his point of view he would be more likely to see corruption in the Empire as "a few bad apples" as opposed to a systemic issue.
Yup
He wants to do something meaningful with his life, and embraces the fascist systems of the empire to give him that meaning and validation. He sees it as a pursuit of justice, but his view of justice is a bit more abstract, a bit more like a good and evil cop show that the real, more systemic, complex justice Andor ends up seeking while just trying to get by as someone born and raised under the foot of the Imperial system.
Syril also did not see the empire failing justice. He saw the corporate fail justice, and the empire pick up where he left off on the trail of Andor. And Syril admiring and obsessing over the ISB as its embodying exactly the justice he thought the corporate structure should have been. I think these guys made the mistake of thinking "corporate == empire" in Syrils mind which is not portrayed that way in the show.
The silence from Rich when Mike said "Ahsoka" spoke volumes
I’m surprised though, I was convinced they have watched it and barely knew it existed.
Nobody remembers that show. The shills clapped like seals and cried when they saw anakin but ask them to describe ahsoka’s character or what happened, they have no clue
I felt that in my lower intestines. The fascist ones
"Luke, did I ever tell you about Ahsoka Tano? She was your father’s exotic teenage alien apprentice..." - Obi-wan Kenobi
Rich is a cyber animal, and they forgot to animate him there.
In Syril's case, I would argue that characters are allowed to fail their character arcs-- to be met with the right answer and simply reject it out of sheer stubbornness, or fail to see the answer at all
The best villains are people who had a solid character arc but learned the wrong lesson
I agree, the story never once felt like it was moving towards the flipping over of Syril’s character. I think it was much better to have him succeed partially in helping Meero.
Well said.
Agreed. Also, I feel they missed the point of his character; he's not some justice-obsessed self-styled batman, he's grown up with a nagging, demeaning mother, and he never, ever seemed to meet her expectations, so when he tries his hardest and fails at catching this one single guy, he gets tunnel vision and starts to obsess with trying to live up to the expectations of some archetypal nagging mother that he must have living in his head.
@@april5054 He wants Mommy Dedra to approve of him and tell him he's a good boy.
Andor is so good it resetted Mike's brain and now he craves for deep Star Wars lore.
I know people in the comments now way more about the production than them, but I love that the creator didn't want any Easter eggs in the show but the crew did it anyway. Maybe that's why it's never framed as _something_ to be seen, but rather as being there because it's supposed to.
17:10 I love this because it's not even that the guy doesn't care. He correctly assesses the situation in minutes, knows exactly what deeper investigation or imperial oversight means and wants no part of it.
Cynical, maybe, but very relatable and understandable: "These grunts were doing wrong, formal reprimand would have meant admitting that it happened under my watch and reflect poorly on me as a leader, so we covered it up. Now they've been killed, almost certainly by their own misdeeds, so we can finally sweep this all under the rug and forget about it. Don't glorify them too much, someone might dig into the details."
He is my favorite character in the series. If there were more people like him working for the empire, the empire would have won.
@@SanDeygo At the very least the rebellion would've been unrecognizable. Imagine that, a version of Star War where the War doesn't go hot, and lax supervision on the imperial side entices a sort of 'join up and tear it down from within' attitude.
@@SanDeygo Exactly correct and very well put. Empires usually last a long time only under the conditions that they mostly leave their constituent provinces to their own devices. It's only when the Empire reacts to the Rebellion with harsh reprisals that more and more people join the Rebellion cause.
Deedra doesn't reject Syril's help because she wants all the credit, she does it because he's a random self-righteous loser who got his subordinates killed
Their whole read of Syril is crazily off the mark. So very overtly an emotionally stunted fascist-fanboy twerp, the show would have sucked if he’d just turned that whole mess around by the end of one season for… reasons?
He was smart enough to find Andor when it seemed impossible.
Failure isn't a sign of being a closer, failure is a part of life and only children expect to be successful 100% of the time.
He didn't have practical experience but he seems talented and intelligent at least.
Yeah I was thinking the same. Also, he didn't disobey his superior and go after Andor because of his sense of justice, he was a wannabe cop obsessed with authority and being the big man (mommy issues). Basically, the ideal follower of fascism, a true believer.
@@michaelterry6576 he didn't find Andor because he was smart and deductive, he found him because Timm got jealous about his girlfriend's ex and ratted him out
@@michaelterry6576 failure isn't the part that makes him an apparent loser. She sniffed that out about him because he was so eager to be a striving toadey zealot. Which is ironic, since she's just a more polished and experienced version. Maybe minus the zealotry - we'll see in season two.
The show definitely helped fill a hole that's been in the Star Wars franchise. Like... why is life under the Empire so terrible? Oh, it's because they'll ship you to a fully automated nightmare prison for loitering.
succinctly put
Not my personal observation here, but the idea that you commit the greatest bank heist in the history of thos regime... and 3 weeks later you get randomly thrown into slave camp for loitering
Previously it was shown they could blow up your entire planet if one of its (prominent?) members is a traitor, or could explode your house for accidentally buying some escaped droids with a message, however outside of "cracking down on rebels and you better be somewhere else" yeah it seemed like you could just follow the rules and get by;
although here Andor was also near some kinda, uhh, what was that again, some riot or criminal activity? And it was in the context of the Empire cracking down as a result of the heist theft.
However he was singled out more or less randomly, without accidentally possessing any "dangerous spy material" or just being in the area that got carpet-bombed or whatever, so in that sense it is a new low, yes.
However wouldn't say it was a "gap" in the original movies.
That prison was the most chilling depiction of evil in any media I've seen.
Andor actually feels like it was written and intended for adults. That's the first time I can say that about a piece of Star Wars media.
Yeah, it's the first Star Wars for adults. And as an adult, that is so refreshing. Star Wars has occasionally been entertaining, but I've always really been slightly ashamed when I've enjoyed it, even when I was a kid myself. Never had that problem with Star Trek, at least in the TNG era. I can actually be proud of enjoying Andor, and it's actually given me things to think about.
All these years of watching you guys you finally reviewed something that I was in! I was an imperial trooper on the Aldhani episode. Finally I can sleep soundly. Loads of love you guys. Keep up the good work
Oh btw, I survived the aftermath and I'm in season 2😜
Are you going to rebel?
@@jamesfelstead4096 Rebel and wave at the camera
@@jamesfelstead4096 Nah man, I've had a promotion 🤫
😂Never! For the Empire!
You know you’re in for a good episode when Mike whips out a neatly folded piece of paper filled with information he could’ve just read off of his phone
He's old-school. I respect that.
Andor hid in a space fridge and survived the death star blast
Wait a minute
Maybe he sliced open Jyn Erso like a Tauntaun and hid inside her corpse
@@SleepingGiant77 that's an amazing suggestion
Was that before or after he worked as a teacher "part time"?
@@SleepingGiant77 They smell even better.... on the inside?!
39:50 you need a smile? You get one. When Cassian convinces Luthen that he's gonna fight the empire now. That smile man...
He got even two. The other one is Maarva's smile to Andor in the moment of "it's just love, nothing you can do about that".
I can’t wait until next season when Luthen tells Vader to strike him down while Cassian watches him die from afar
Rimes like poetry. 😆😆😆😆
While on his way to be defeated by Obi Wan .... again
Also its ok.. as no one aparently dies anymore of lightsaber stabbing
Totally in character for Luthen. Better to die than be interrogated.
That clip of Lucas saying "that guy's a cyber character... he's not real" at 11:47 made me giggle.
And then later "they're cyber animals"
You got to climb the ladder to get to the CGI room 😂
I'm surprised that reporter was in there. I thought Skywalker Ranch had a 'No Girls Allowed' policy.
@@Masshuzai 😂
I've never heard anyone refer to cgi as "cyber people" or "cyber animals," and it is such a Lucas thing to say.
I absolutely loved Andor. Slow burn, excellent acting, not stupid and inconsistent.
Mike: "A smile would be nice."
The characters in Andor: "Nothing to smile about in my life."
Well, there were at least two smiles in Andor, Mike just didn't remember it ).
I didn't catch on that Luthen might be a jedi until this video. My disappointment is immeasurable. Thank you Hack Frauds
Same, but I refuse to believe it. There's no way they would do something so stupid after such a well written first season. Please know I will forever remember this comment and will be returning to it once Season 2 finishes.
@@beerleaguebrodeur7724 The only way that happens if they fire all the writers responsible for this season, and hire a bunch of hacks that are only capable of pandering to the lowest common denominator. This show it`s too good.
He's just like Palpy, but a jedi in secret instead of a sith lord. Now you have to believe it. You're welcome. It's just like poetry, it rhymes!
No! Stop it! Please God no!
I can make that worse! Luthen IS a Jedi who trains Cassian some Jedi tricks one of which is some magic Force forcefield that we didn't see him use at the end of "Rogue One". "Andor" season 3 starts right after "Rogue One" to tee up "Rogue One II"!
Mike Stoklasa..
Kiem Klastosa
Rich Evans..
Nav Reschi
I like Klastosa, that's good!
Thank you for this
Klastosa & Reschi: a Star Wars Story
I think you made it more complicated than Star Wars requires.
Just swapping a few letters, instead of an actual anagram, works well.
Stike Moklasa
Ech Rivans
Shic Revan & Kek Salomista
Andor is one of the first pieces of Star Wars media that feels like it has a point to make. And oh boy does it make it well. Masterpiece storytelling.
Took me years to figure out how I never liked the movie but loved Star Wars at the same time. But after I figured it out the ideas got a little too outplayed for me. Then Andor debuts and is automatically my favorite Star Wars material of all time. The only one in my top 50 top 10 anything.
Its FAR from a masterpiece. Good sci-fi thriller stuff yes. Phenomenal Star Wars? No.
@@shugaroonyit is phenomenal Star Wars. You can’t name a reason why it isn’t.
@@oXRaptorzXo Literally nothing made by modern Disney is a "masterpiece" unless you're extremely brain damaged🤡🤣
@oXRaptorzXo nothing will beat the fantasy adventure feeling of the original trilogy to me but I liked andor a lot all the same 😊
So glad to see Andor get some love and appreciation after a long time. Such a great piece of artwork that expands Star Wars and takes itself seriously.
Loved the brainstorming section on Empire economy, logistics, and outer worlds. Thinking of it as Europe and other factions participating or contributing to each side would parallel a lot of our own world history perfectly.
I feel many of the fans couldn't handle listening to the carefully planned smartly written dialogue since it required an attention span longer than the average tik tok. Andor does not rely on nostalgia, it creates it. I found myself going back to Luthen's, Nemik's, and Marva's speech multiple times to think and reflect. Its simply that good.
Its a complete disgrace that this show has the least amount of views given how much respect it has for its audience and the lore.
So many RLM videos so fast? Rich Evans contract must be up for renewal. I hope they don't sell the gremlins
I hope they don't sell their most valuable IP Rich Evans.
It's so strange. Being free of expectation, as in, being based on characters nobody was interested in, was this show's greatest strength. It gave the writers freedom to do things differently, and that was thrilling.
Not just the writers, apparently the producers were able to take production away from Hollywood so were free from being pressured to take less accomplished production staff and in particular away from the Godawful StageCraft video wall which encourages laziness in filmmakers. Unfortunately just like old mate in the show they have made other people look bad with their competence and work ethic.
I think Mike and Rich’s complaints regarding Syril Karn’s character arc is a misunderstanding of Syril’s character and what he knows to be true in the galaxy. Syril has no reason to betray Dedra, let alone help Andor, at the end of the season. We may be aware of all the terrible things the Empire is doing, but he isn’t. He has a very naive view of the Empire and this view is probably going to be challenged in Season 2.
Syril Karn also isn't enthusiastic about "justice", he's enthusiastic about "enforcing the law" and those are two different things. When his boss explains why he's not going to search for Andor, he is experienced enough to know that this wasn't a murder of two cops. It was two corrupt cops trying to shake down the wrong guy and losing the fight. Its not "just" to bring Andor in because he was on the wrong end of that organization's corruption, that would be punishing him in furtherance of that corruption.
Syril Karn is a loser who finds his self-worth in enforcing the law, he doesn't care about whether what he's doing is right or wrong. He wants to be a little cog in a big machine that tells him he's a good boy for roughing up people lower than he is.
@@ForgivingCrossHe's the perfect example of Starship Troopers' "I'm doing my part!" attitude.
All that matters to him is that he brings "justice" boot first on Andor's face.
Obviously, per Rogue One, he fails, but hey, that's the price of Prequels.
Ohlala that's sooooooooooooo interesting for a show 🙄
@@claudegrenier3180 go eat boring slop
@@claudegrenier3180👍
I'm a little surprised the guys didn't make note of the fact that Syril's Commander described *exactly* what happened between Andor and the two dead guards, almost as though he'd been there. He didn't just brush it off, he called it what it was, and said it wasn't worth investigating as something more than it was.
Yeah he was sharp as hell. Knew exactly what he was doing. Syril doesn't understand the world as it is. That's why he never enlisted with the rebels. He doesn't get it.
Not just wasn't worth investigating, it would be counter-productive. He laid out the justification clearly:
"I meant that I am on my way this very morning to an Imperial Regional Command review, where I'll be asked to make a report about our crime rates, and the goal of that speech, should you ever be asked to deliver it, is brevity. Minimizing the time the Empire spends thinking about Preox-Morlana benefits our superiors and, by extension, everyone here at the Pre-Mor Security Inspection team, which at the moment includes you."
Yeah Syril’s commander was on it. He literally laid out everything with 100% accuracy 😄 He knew the 2 guys who got killed were assholes and that they were probably asking for it and they decided to mess with the wrong guy. He also knew that it would be best for everyone if they just let this investigation go.
Perfect demonstration of why totalitarian states fail. The incentives are against fixing problems. So problems pile up. Leaders are told lies so they don't even know what's happening. Orders from the top become more and more divorced from reality because they're operating on bad information, which require more lies from the bottom being sent up the chain as they pretend the impossible orders are being followed and report success. Any admission that the state has made any mistake, however small, is treason and punished accordingly by panicking mid-level leaders so they don't have to tell their bosses the truth either. Eventually the mass delusion collapses, all at once, by some external force intruding, or internal revolution from the little people who actually are aware of how bad things are, and nobody at the top understands how any of it could have happened.
Mike really relates to a character who gets fired and moves in with his Mother.
I couldn’t tell if Mike was being facetious about the “Somehow Palpatine has returned” line or is actually just becoming senile
Yes
He asked if the Phantom Menace had Jedi in it…
With every passing day, we stray further from the Mr. Plinkett glory days.
He conflated Yoda in TLJ with a gnome from a CG children's movie who was dancing in a thong. His brain melted faster than that person in Andor who had to listen to children's screams.
Somehow palpatine has returned is literally one of the worst ideas ever. I can understand why one would want to forget it…
Feels like I've been waiting forever for RLM to talk about this magnificent series. The wait was worth it.
Now we just need them to review The Batman 😅
I still can't believe Palpatine's return was announced in *Fortnite* of all things.
How embarrassing…
*sigh*
Somehow Palpatine returned.
How appropriate, for the state of Disney Star Wars.
Guess which group of people labeled "target audience", all the Disney War Room White Boards have big red arrows pointed at?
I do think it's important to note that Syril Karn isn't really just committed to doing the right thing, he's an unsatisfied stunted man with mommy issues, convinced of his own greatness and desperate for a purpose. I think it's an utterly masterful piece of filmmaking that during Marva's final speech, Syril might be the one person whose mind might actually be swayed by her words but surrogate mommy figure Dedra walks across his line of sight and it immediately distracts him.
Syril is a Space-INCEL. 🤷♂️ The performance & writing were incredible.
Mike is right about Karn and Andor being Mirror arcs but the point was the radicalization of both by the end both are “all in” for the causes of both the empire and the rebelling
Exactly this. Both become believers in their cause
A Star Wars for adults, which is a rare things. Glad season 2 is being made
Andor season 2 is the only Star Wars project I'm looking forward to.
Then perhaps you should move on from Star Wars, since its not for you it seems now.
@@shugaroony Enjoy your dross, bro.
Look, the thing is: We need everything and every kind of themes and stories from SW. The adult stuff, the drama stuff, the goofy stuff, the action stuff, the funny stuff, stories for children, for young adults, nostalgia shows, etc. Everything. But the real thing we need is good writing. Good writing for all those themes, medias and styles.
And if u like the "universe" of SW, then, u can appreciate all those things. The "profound" and the "stupid".
I'm the same. After Andor season 2 I'm done with Star Wars.
@@shugaroonyStar Wars will never grow up when stunted manbabies like you gobble up dross like Kenobi or Ahsoka and spit your dummy out when you're presented with a Star Wars show for people over 12.
Mike just described Syril Karn 32:00. He is that medium income, things aren't to bad, type character. And he does exactly what Mike wanted, join the Empire. Because what's important to medium income is to cling to whatever promises to maintain their medium income. Because they are close enough to see what low income is like and will willing do anything to avoid it.
The spherical torture droid is Dr. Ball, MD, and his original training before he worked for the Empire was as an OB-GYN. That's when he's covered with gynecologist's tools.
loved that sketch
"SHE'S LOST THE WILL TO LIVE???"
"what are your degrees in poetry? You sorry bunch of hippies for god sake don't use the billions of dollars worth of medical equipment let's just all get on our knees and pray"
"We don't have knees, you motherf*ckers!"
Seeing someone joining the Imperial army just to pay for college is a storyline I am desperate to see
They talk about enjoying the restraint, but they should give Andor a lot more credit. The show clearly goes to lengths to NOT do the usual Star Wars plot, imagery, technology. It's all fresh and new because the writers are clearly setting rules like.. no hoth or tatooine planet, no flying car shots of coruscant, no lightsabers or jedi showing up, etc.
Andor himself is an interesting character specifically because of his arc. If he is a resistance member by Rogue One, then this season already shows his growth into that role: He goes from a very unwilling participant in the rebellion, to sparking one in the jail and influencing the leader of that jailbreak. It's a lot more subtle? slow? but it's still super interesting IMO.
Plus, they didn't call the show "Star Wars: Resistance" because.. yknow.. we already have like four shows named something similar.
I read in an interview that Diego Luna took a lot of inspiration for Cassian from activists he's known. He's been involved in stuff like the Zapatistas for a long time, so he has experience with people who just do all the thankless work and never take the spotlight. It's a really unusual thing in a leading character who is doing a lot but also constantly shoving somebody else at the microphone, from Kino Loy to Jyn Erso.
What you meant by sparking and inspiring a breakout is radicalization. The rebel alliance is a group of terrorist in the eyes of the empire after all. It shows you how someone like Andor, who is a complete civilian, is radicalize slowly and you emphatize with the decision to be a rebel. Thats why I love this show
>The show clearly goes to lengths to NOT do the usual Star Wars plot, imagery, technology.
As the show blows your ass out with Imperial Officer's every second and The Death Star? What are you talking about?
@@Elfenlied8675309 Sure there's still star wars references, but the interrogation scene is a great example of what I mean. It's still imperials and similar shots, but it's not the black droid that we would all expect. Something new and more interesting has been placed in this Star Wars shell. There's a lot of that in Andor. The prison? Every prison in Star Wars is a bleak, kinda dirty, metal, angled thing. But the Andor prison is this clean white room, no shoes, electric floors.. it's extremely different and as such so interesting to watch and learn about.
@@Elfenlied8675309I thought the use of the Death Star was great in the show. Andor helping to build the thing that would end up killing him is interesting