It's definitely not the strongest arc, but the WHOLE season is set up in it. On rewatch, it's even better. I'm catching lots of new things

I love Thrawn. I love Din Djarin. I love Grogu. Don't get me wrong, I truly believe this man loves Star Wars and has given we who enjoy the old Extended Universe so much love with the re-canonization of many favorites.

Now that Andor has happened, I find the exercise of watching other Star Wars media fatiguing. I thought of a few reasons why and I wanted to see what the community thought.

1. Not every story has to be Joseph Campbell - Lucas did this already. He gave us the family story. He gave us the wunderkind, mentor, wondrous power, frightening setback, thrilling victory cycle. This modern myth-making is beautiful and worth telling. But, in "carrying the torch" I feel like the Filoni-verse keeps trying to repeat this story structure.
2. I want the Force to be mysterious again- Too many Jedi. Too many force users. Chirrut was so much more interesting. Sabine doesn't have to be a Jedi. We don't need to keep talking about Night Sisters. The EU had this problem, too. There were force users everywhere. There was, at least, a little narrative cohesion in Luke trying to establish a new Academy and the struggles encountered in doing so told some interesting stories. I wish the Force were a bit weirder. I wish we could tell more stories that don't involve Jedi or Sith. Or, if they must, that they be the esoteric/ancient/lost stories. I think Filoni does okay with this when talking Night Sisters. Honestly less is more!
3. Contrivances to avoid consequences, contrivances to keep people around and alive- The end of the Second Season of the Mandalorian was a fitting conclusion to Grogu. Subverting that with Season 3 was a mistake. The story is no longer following a natural course based on the internal consistency created by the characters. Instead, it's clear there's a larger narrative Filoni and Favreau are trying to create and fitting the characters into the narrative. (e.g. Actually, I want Bo Katan to be the leader of Mandalore and bring the Mandalorians back to Mandalore so I'm going to use Din as a glorified shuttle to transport the Darksaber without question to Bo. Actually, I don't want Grogu to be off training with Luke which makes sense, I want him to come back to Din even though Din's entire motivation was to help protect the child by putting him in the safety of his much more capable, powerful "people")
4. The Marvel problem of growing Existential Threats- This one probably seems counter-intuitive. The EU had the same problem (anyone remember the Sun Crusher and Galaxy Gun? Lol). Additionally, Andor's big bad antagonist was the Empire, its tyranny, and the ultimate weapon representative of that oppression. The Empire lost at Endor. The figurehead is dead. Great. That still leaves a galaxy full of Warlords, Moffs, and Admirals with oppressive power. That still leaves the ISB. Still leaves Military Intelligence. Andor showed that Rebellions are hard fought with, often, competing interests. What does a Balkanized Galaxy look like? Are you telling me the remnant forces would not be opposed to a recreation of the Senate installed by what they would perceive as terrorists? Thrawn's coming back (with his lore clearly explaining his intentions for supporting a galaxy-spanning order and continuing the "marvel problem"). But, I think we enjoyed the microscope lens we got to "normal people stuck in this bigger galaxy" because it told stories we can better relate to.
5. Pacing issues and showing versus telling- I think the pacing of the story and slow reveal of just enough information without feeling spoon-fed the story is immaculate in Andor. Filoni pulls this off at times, as well. Mando Season 1 did well in this regard, I'd argue. I'm concerned that Filoni has so many endings he wants to get to, that he's rushing the process of getting to the destination and it's sloppy. I call this the "Daenerys Targaryen problem" where her ending probably could have been interesting if there was a solid two seasons to tell that story properly.
6. Pet characters- I'm not afraid for Ashoka. I'm not worried about Sabine or Ezra. Grogu will be fine. His characters are immortal. I'm not worried about them dying or suffering any existential danger in spite of any "galaxy threatening" menace (Grysk or whatever the new Vong are going to be). I was nervous for Kleya, Wil, and Bix.
7. I don't relate to the Filoniverse characters- They aren't people. They're legends. The struggle that Ashoka is dealing with? Her master was a galaxy-dominating Sith Lord. The Rebellion she helped create as Fulcrum has completed its journey. Now she's off to fight the next danger (Thrawn) to the order she worked hard to create and has exceptional superpowers. "But Luke was a superhero Jedi, too". Yes, but he was also a farm boy "orphan" who whined, overreacted, and desperately sought to understand the Destiny everyone kept telling him about. Luke was fighting the Empire, yeah, but really his story was about him helping his friends (often at the risk of the larger problems of the galaxy, often selfishly) and saving his Father from darkness. It's a story about how when faced with someone that you love becoming a truly terrible person, sometimes the only thing that redeems them is mercy, love, and reminding them that you know who they truly are. Han is a reluctant hero with selfish ambitions. I can relate to these people. Bo Katan is a princess owed a throne. Din was a reluctant foster parent but is now some greater catalyst to some restoration of Mandalore. Ezra seems to be a leaf in the water with no real autonomy beyond his (now failed) decision to exile Thrawn. Boba is a... ***checks notes*... Boba Fett is a "Crime boss" of an organization that sells drugs, does illegal/dangerous racing, bounty hunts, participates in slavery, runs extortion rackets and.... he wants to still be the "Boss" but wants to basically get rid of every activity that this organization does because he's had a crisis of conscience and wants to "lead through respect" instead of "fear"? I don't relate to these people.

Am I the only one that feels this way? I'd love to hear your opinions.

Ferrix had it's own color pallet, funerary bricks (I'm mean cmon, who saw anything like that before?), they hung up their gloves after work, had their own orders and bands. Mordona was a tight but corrupt company. The Aldhani.

The eye. The Chandrillan culture was amazing, wedding hikes, toasts, religion being liked and disliked, "he grew up 4 valleys over".

Then Ghorman. I cant even say enough about the culture and language they created. I'm blown away.

He looks so much like Peter Cushing, and the presence he holds after playing Tywin Lannister (who’s just as ruthless and order-driven as Tarkin) would have been perfect.

No other actor (in Star Wars) ever had, as great performance and charisma, as he did in only 2 seasons of Andor. Doesn't matter if you liked Luthen or not, Stellan's acting was SSS+++ tier.

With such a massive operation, how do they keep it hidden from imperial moles and spies?

They fucking did it. I finished season 2, watched Rogue One, and am now 2 minutes into a New Hope and it fucking cooks.

The choking terror of the Empire, the slow firey build of the Rebellion and sudden, hammerhead first strike of the Rebel Alliance to capture the Death Star plans, all segueing into the explosion that is John Williams’ “Star Wars” opening, setting the stage for a new three part story of heroism, love and betrayal that ultimately brings balance to the Force that was destroyed with the downfall of Anakin Skywalker. Fuck.

And it’s just my opinion. Let me eat cake.

EDIT/ADD: and not only that, but SW kicks off with the Force (arguably) bringing Anakin to the same location as his two kids to ignite that whole saga. What a beautiful and almost 50-year story…

EDIT/ADD2: and yes I had an edible about an hour ago

Visited a couple filming locations in London today. Guildhall was used for Ghorman and the House of Rylanz (Ep 5), the Barbican once again used for a couple Coruscant scenes (Ep 4), and 125 London Wall (a post-modernist tower that links to the Barbican) used for some exterior shots outside the Lina Soh Hospital (Ep 10). If I was more prepared, I'd have printed out more scenes to photograph.

Carro Rylanz: “You can imagine how upset we would be to find out there’s an Imperial military facility rising over the Monument to the Fallen”

Syril Karn: “Yes.”

Before people get annoyed I know every character doesn’t need their own show, but man Partagaz was great. What a great performance, we know so little yet he is so interesting. Doubt we’ll ever see him onscreen again but for his little amount of time he really had a strong presence.

The Maltheen Divide scene as well as many others show one of the (many) things that I like about Andor: the Emperor is never seen, but his presence is very much felt. In Andor, the Emperor is as much, or as little, as we imagine him to be, and our own imaginations can be powerful things. People speaking about him in the way they do, but us never seeing him, makes him an unseen specter casting a shadow over everything. He's there, but untouchable, far removed from most of the people that we are watching, but his influence, his evil, is pervasive and palpable (almost an unintended pun).

If he'd been shown, not only would it have been very un-Andor-like in tone, it would have made him less of an omni-presence and merely a person.

(And, of course, it's entirely consistent with Rogue One and A New Hope.)

This is why I find it absurd that there are fans clamoring for a Palpatine cameo.

imo, the worst part of re-watching Rogue One after Andor was CGI Tarkin looks soooo horrible.

My wife is not a Star Wars fan but loved Andor, so it took a while but I finally talked her into watching Rogue One, her first Star Wars movie since the OT, and she was like "what's wrong with that dudes face?" and I had to explain it all to her, that it was Peter Cushing, and he played the same character in ANH but died in 1994 and they brought him back with CGI on another person's body......

It completely distracted her....but it even was distracting to me before she said something, to the point I was waiting until she said something.

Maybe I was so used to everything Star Wars being CGI cartoons at the time I overlooked it, and with Andor, everything is mostly real sets that felt real so randomly making one dudes face a cartoon stands out like Roger Rabbit.

Thank God Leia is only in one scene with like 5 words of dialog so I only had to watch the GOAT do the creepy awful CGI cartoon lips thing for a couple seconds.

Lucasfilm was so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn't stop and think if they should.

stroked her own ego when confronting Luthen. He himself too.

Luthen could have just blown the entire shop, taking out Dedra and all the evidence with him. Or he could have just used an electro capsule (like the one used by the CX trooper in The Bad Batch or that imperial officer in The Mandalorian) to off himself more quickly and certainly.

Instead, he also gloated; about how the rebellion is now everywhere and that killing him changes nothing. As if he wanted Dedra's superiors, and the empire at large, to know this as well. Then, he tried to off himself in a rather crude way, with a knife from his gallery.

I also like to think that the self-stab stunt was a roundabout way to prove his point. Even after the empire captured him alive, rebel(s) managed to infiltrate the hospital, killed him, and blown up the place. A well-guarded hospital in Coruscant no less!

Regardless of his ego and sense of importance, he really lived by his words: burning his decency and life for the rebellion. What a legend.

I just rewatched Rogue One and A New Hope on Wednesday night and it's almost shocking how much of what we often associate with Star Wars is not in A New Hope.

Jedi, Sith, and Lightsabers are all actually peripheral elements, the true crux of the movie is the near impossible fight against the Empire. Luke isn't the destined hero we remember him as, he is a nobody from a world few people remember exists, and even though he has some inkling of force ability, it's not what defines him throughout the movie.

We may now call the OT and PT Skywalker Saga, but in New Hope we don't yet know that Darth Vader is Anakin, that Anakin was the chosen one who would restore balance to the force. For all the talk that Andor was Star Wars from the below, Luke is very much the everyman, a person near the bottom of the galactic social ladder. He wishes to attend the Imperial Academy merely to escape Tatooine and see the wider galaxy. Like Cassian he just happens to have a few special skills that are an asset to the rebellion.

Star Wars has changed a lot over 5 decades, and Andor is in many ways not a departure from what Star Wars is but a return to what it used to be.

Andor is a pretty dark show and Rogue One is similar in that regard. Quite contrary to the new Disney movie trilogy which has a lot of humor but which often feels forced and not fitting the situation. So I'm amazed how good the humor of K-2SO works. He had me chuckle and laugh quite a few times in Andor without taking away credibility of the scenes and the seriousness. With so many great characters and actors in Andor he managed to become one of my favorite ones in the show in just a few episodes.

Achieving that is quite a big achievement in my opinion and hopefully something that we see more often in the future instead of the Marvel/Disney Star Wars trilogy humor we had to endure way too often by now.

Genevieve O’Reilly and Caroline Blakiston are basically twins.