unmarked helicopter ✨

THE PLOT :

For a little context, I LOVED season 1! I thought it was absolutely fantastic, especially One Way Out, which was probably my favorite hour of Star Wars of all time.

Warning, pretty Andor critical…

S2, Part 1:

So far, this is just not it for me. It could’ve been one good episode, not three pretty mediocre ones. It only got exciting towards the end, and the only plot line I liked was the farm, but even that had its issues. The visuals feel like a step down—the lighting is incredibly flat and some of the CGI feels very fake, the costumes feels too clean and prosthetic, and that might work in Mon Mothma’s storyline, it doesn’t in the others.

The Rebels was probably the worst point of the show so far in my opinion, not only was is incredibly useless and anticlimactic, only there for clumsy social commentary, but it’s attempts at humor were rough to say the least.

Also, I don’t like how Bix almost got raped. There, I said it. I understand why, I understand it’s about the empire, but that’s sort of the problem. It’s not about her. It’s not about her character. She has no personality and nothing interesting about her as a person, she just exists to suffer. It highlights a deeper problem with the female characters in this show, specifically that they’re much less interesting, exciting, and allowed to do far less than the male ones. Both Bix and Mon constantly need to get bailed out and saved by their better-written male companions, and even they aren’t incredibly compelling, more just vessels to experience the commentary than characters that stand on their own.

Bix feels like she’s there to suffer, and her suffering isn’t even about HER character, but to establish how “dark and gritty” the show is.

All that to say; I’m not sold so far. I hope it gets better, or even half as good as people told me it was.

S2, Part 2:

It is getting better, a lot better, but I’m still not totally sold. The last two episodes have had some incredible moments like Saw Guirrerras monologue and the party on Coruscant, but some of it still feels a bit clumsy and forced.

Also, the writers are NOT beating the “all dudes” allegations, because some of these moments are ROUGH, man! Introducing (reintroducing?) a queer woman of color just to kill her off twenty minutes later is… a choice…

That being said, it’s at least getting exciting now?

S2, Part 3:

Okay, yeah, it got good. These last few episodes were so entertaining and well done, but they do solidify my theory that Andor works much better on a macro scale than a micro one. That’s the nice way of saying the characters are uninteresting and I don’t enjoy spending time with them, but the geopolitical plot-lines that really matter are awesome. Who Are You? is an absolutely fantastic episode of television, and it plays to all the shows strengths: commentary, visuals, and spectacle. Andor just isn’t a character drama, and when it stops trying to be is when it really shines.

S2, Part 3:

I loved the Luthen episode and liked the other two slightly less. It was good, though. I stand by my point that Andor isn’t good because of the characters, meaning it isn’t an actors show, so I can see why the cast didn’t really get Emmys. They all did great, but it’s not the kind of show that focuses on performances.

I guess my overall thoughts on the season were that it was good, I liked it. I didn’t love it like everyone else, but I appreciated it and there were some pretty spectacular parts. It’s not something that really affected me, because I didn’t really love the characters, but it impressed me, at least. The highlights of the show were Luthen, Dedra, and Cyril. All the other characters weren’t that interesting to watch. I also wasn’t hugely impressed with the writing of the female characters, I’ll be perfectly honest. It makes sense why Reddit loves the show so much, because the female characters do leave a lot to be desired. They’re all pretty flat and uninteresting (not you, Dedra), especially compared to their male counterparts. It feels like the show tries to walk the line of making them “strong” but never enough to offend the film bros who complain about feminism in tv. Like, Kleya did all that in the hospital but still needed to be saved by Andor? Give me a break. And Bix leaving and her ending?? Nahhhhhh.

Especially Dedra. To have the woman with the most force of presence (who also was the most complex and intriguing female character) be psychologically destroyed and given an almost pornographic ending was a choice. Tom Bissel (director of the last arc) openly admitted, that it was awesome to see her put in her place. Yes, those were his exact words.

Male suffering was treated with respect. Female suffering was graphic and often undignified. Women were breaking down and sobbing. And acting irrationally. And having to be rescued. Only Vel and Cinta didn't, but then again one of them barely had lines and was killed off and the other one was reduced to a background character in season 2.

"The reason why I was so happy to play this role and so excited about the idea of being part of this universe because I thought it was so bold, so interesting, and so unique to have an ending like this. [...] It was one film and I knew what the end was going to be. And it’s one of the things that excited me the most, you know, that Star Wars was going to do that, was going to show what sacrifice means, and was going to go for it." — Diego Luna

Welcome home.

Jyn tried not to tense. She wasn't afraid of what would happen, but she didn't want to suffer. Somehow she found herself closer to Cassian than before. Her breathing matched his, or his matched hers, deep and steady. The Death Star flared too bright to watch and a tremor went through the beach. The placid waves rolled higher, spraying flecks of warm seawater over Jyn's cheeks like tears.