Star Wars: Andor

[Celebrim]

So, 7/10.

I really think this show did an amazing amount with it's budget and yet at the same time was held back by not enough budget. Everything about the show was good, and yet I felt the need for a bit of desert that was just not forthcoming.

This episode really needed about 20 minutes more and a bit more ambition. I love all the build up, but the longer you build up the more payoff you are promising and this was good but not great.

 

[pukunui]

Yeah, for sure. A good show that was a major departure from typical SW fare that still could have been even better with a bit more polish.

 

[Celebrim]

Unfortunately for Mon, even if she’s turned against her world’s traditions, her daughter has completely bought into them, even going so far as to hold the equivalent of Bible study classes for her friends. She looked happy to be getting married off.

Notice also the very subtle thing where the daughter glances at her mother checking for approval, but Mon Mothma is looking away and doesn't see, and then when the daughter looks back, Mon Mothma focuses her attention on her with concern and fear - but the daughter doesn't see it. It's a microcosm of the two characters inability to communicate with each other.

I love the Mon Mothma story line, but it hasn't gotten enough attention and didn't finish with enough closure. I think 15-20 more minutes of dialogue could have made this much more epic, building up more of the complex relationship she has with her husband, showing Mon Mothma being more devious and skilled of a politician, and in particular I would have loved that they showed that dinner party with Sate Pestus and the other members of the Imperial High Council and how she had to navigate the treacherous waters and convince them of her loyalty to the Empire. And I also would have loved if in the finale episode of the season, they brought back her son from the Legends canon - home from the Imperial Academy (a soldier like his father) - and furious about his mother fraternizing with this gangster from the home world.

 

[Vael]

If this was the series finale, I'd agree, but this was the season finale and I'm glad Andor didn't completely up end the board. Mon Mothma's initial problem, her bank accounts, may be settled, but that doesn't deal with the Imperial scrutiny she's under, or any of the complications that are sure to rise by choosing to work with Davo. So those issues are there and sure to take up her story in the next season. Which will be an unbearable wait for.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

I love the Mon Mothma story line, but it hasn't gotten enough attention and didn't finish with enough closure.

This. It was well written and well-acted, and there was nothing like enough of it.

Instead, we got irrelevant and incoherent snapshots of Cassian's childhood, and a missing sister subplot that went nowhere.

I think the show should have been called something like "Rise of the Rebellion" and Cassian just one of many characters, rather than the lead.

 

[reelo]

One think I thought of when I saw the funeral marching bands: Gilroy is the guy who gave us the Bourne flicks, so spy-thrillers are his thing: the marching bands must have been an callback to another classic spy franchise, namely James Bond, Live and let Die.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

A head-butt? What does Storm Trooper armour even do?

In Rebels, Rex does complain about how rubbish Stormtrooper armour is compared to the old clone armour.

 

[Dioltach]

Stormtrooper armour is actually made from eggshells. Or perhaps it's just bodypaint.

 

[pukunui]

Notice also the very subtle thing where the daughter glances at her mother checking for approval, but Mon Mothma is looking away and doesn't see, and then when the daughter looks back, Mon Mothma focuses her attention on her with concern and fear - but the daughter doesn't see it. It's a microcosm of the two characters inability to communicate with each other.

Agreed. I loved this show’s subtleties and attention to detail.

I love the Mon Mothma story line, but it hasn't gotten enough attention and didn't finish with enough closure. I think 15-20 more minutes of dialogue could have made this much more epic, building up more of the complex relationship she has with her husband, showing Mon Mothma being more devious and skilled of a politician, and in particular I would have loved that they showed that dinner party with Sate Pestus and the other members of the Imperial High Council and how she had to navigate the treacherous waters and convince them of her loyalty to the Empire. And I also would have loved if in the finale episode of the season, they brought back her son from the Legends canon - home from the Imperial Academy (a soldier like his father) - and furious about his mother fraternizing with this gangster from the home world.

If this was the series finale, I'd agree, but this was the season finale and I'm glad Andor didn't completely up end the board. Mon Mothma's initial problem, her bank accounts, may be settled, but that doesn't deal with the Imperial scrutiny she's under, or any of the complications that are sure to rise by choosing to work with Davo. So those issues are there and sure to take up her story in the next season. Which will be an unbearable wait for.

While I agree, it also feels a bit like they’re rushing things. Going by the timeline established by Rebels, there’s still ~ 3 years to go between the end of Andor and when Mon finally denounces the Emperor and flees Coruscant. If she loses both her daughter and her husband in quick succession, she‘s going to end up isolated for quite some time.

 

[Enevhar Aldarion]

I don't have the link to the interview handy, but the director, Tony Gilroy?, said that the beginning of season two is set a full year after the end of season one. So we will not see any of the immediate aftermath of the finale, unless we get more flashbacks.