Spoilers Star Wars: Andor season 2

Stalker0 said:

I would argue that there was no real character Development for Dedra. At the end of the day she was what she was...its just that her house of cards ultimately came crashing around her at the end.

I mean she was still the same arrogant relentless "I have to do it myself" individual in the second season she was in the first. Syril's relationship with her showed she at least had the potential to care for someone...though it also showed she had no issue manipulating him as well. And I don't see how his death really changed her actions. She was always obsessed with axis and getting the credit for it, heck they even commented after the botched work that had been warned about overstepping on other people's assignments. Syril's death didn't change her character in anyway I could really detect.

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Yes, this is what I thought was missed. It seemed that there were some development possibilities- her obsession with Axis vs her relationship with Syril showing some capacity for caring at the least- culminating in that moment when Syril died and everything came crashing down on Ghorman.

Then... nothing. It was disappointing.

Paul Farquhar said:

That kind of explains the "younger audiences" interpretation, since the High Republic is largely marketed at younger audiences.

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I think it is now because of the fact that the YA stuff took off more than the more mature stuff- I think because the writing sucked.

chuckdee said:

Then... nothing. It was disappointing.

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Not everyone is redeemable, or deserves redemption.

Paul Farquhar said:

Not everyone is redeemable, or deserves redemption.

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The problem wasn’t that they didn’t go that direction…it’s they went no direction.

If Dedra had started to hate her imperial workers after his death, that would have been interesting.

If Dedra had become crazed, so dogged in her pursuit of axis that her fellows were terrified of her, but she kept getting results so the higher ups kept her around…that would have been interesting.

If Dedra had literally shrugged off Syrils death so nonchalantly that we realize that she is just a complete heartless manipulative b.**tch that only cares about her goals.,,even that could have been interesting.

But we get nothing. Dedra cries for a few minutes and the returns to the exact same character. The relationship is a major time sink in the show and ultimately provides no closure for Syril, no real plot driver, and no character change for Dedra.

Now that may be realistic in real life…but it is not narratively satisfying

I have to disagree, Dedra's arc was quite narratively satisfying, it demonstrates that fascism destroys even its most ardent supporters. Dedra is shown to be a true believer. And despite that, Syril, her and Partagaz are crushed by the very system they support.

Vael said:

I have to disagree, Dedra's arc was quite narratively satisfying, it demonstrates that fascism destroys even its most ardent supporters. Dedra is shown to be a true believer. And despite that, Syril, her and Partagaz are crushed by the very system they support.

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Exactly, she was a cog in the machine who ended up making cogs for the machine.
Her ending was poetic to me.

Paul Farquhar said:

Not everyone is redeemable, or deserves redemption.

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Not necessarily redeemed- I wasn't talking about redemption. I was referring to any development whatsoever. What was her reaction? Did Syril's death matter to her? None of that was answered. In the long term, it didn't matter to her story at all, which considering how much she was putting into him and that plotline didn't ring true.

Older Beholder said:

Exactly, she was a cog in the machine who ended up making cogs in for the machine.
Her ending was poetic to me.

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I don't think her ending wasn't satisfying. It was the manner that they used Gorman. It was a big deal, we're told. But we're not shown that after the fact. In each other time skip, we see some remnants of the prior period- some way it developed. But not for Dedra and Gorman. It might as well not have happened.

chuckdee said:

Did Syril's death matter to her? None of that was answered

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Yes it was. In an amazing bit of acting by Gough. Do you need everything spelled out?

Vael said:

I have to disagree, Dedra's arc was quite narratively satisfying, it demonstrates that fascism destroys even its most ardent supporters.

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so to be clear, I do agree that Dedra's ultimate arc and ending was perfectly fine and poetic, no problem with it. I am just saying that the Syril's involvement and all the time spent on their relationship had 0 to do with it...and so the payoff wasn't worth the time investment.

You could have had dedra's arc be just as poetic and satisfying with only a tenth of the time they spent on their relationship and it would have worked just as well.