#ashlyn commentates

As my last post on Andor suggested, I was getting pretty fatigued by the thought of sitting through several more episodes of this show. However, to my pleasant surprise, the final two or three episodes actually felt like they had momentum, and we were finally headed toward the final act of an uprising on Ferrix (which was very obviously where the season was going to always end). The entire season, there was a very common thread of characters and peoples feeling stifled by the empire, taking every chance to silently and inconspicuously give the empire the middle finger, if not outwardly defying it. Where this started to get on my nerves (and I really despised this plot for other reasons too) was during the prisoner plotline. It was very predictable from the start - that's ok! It's not inherently bad that the audience has an intuition of where the story is going, as that can be a sign that it's set up well and consistently written! My problem with it is that it's a storyline we know exactly where it's going, we know exactly what it's going to say, exactly why it needs to happen, and it takes THREE EPISODES to complete. It's only real purpose was to push Cassian towards an even more adversarial position on the empire and rise up, preparing him to fight for the rebellion outside the prison, too. Thematically, it also serves as an example of the empire's oppression and injustice against the common man. However, there's no reason for this plotline to be as long as it is and only to be full of predictable cliches.

Which takes me to my second issue with that plotline, which is actually an issue throughout the whole season, which is WHY IS EVERYONE A HUMAN?!?! Every single prisoner was a human. EVERY. SINGLE. ONE. This is actually par for the course on this show, though, as there are very very few non-human people in this world. It was really weird to me when I slowly started to realize that with each new planet we visited, the inhabitants were once again humans. I have a hard time excusing this as a budget constraint - it seems more likely to be part of Gilroy's vision (or lack thereof), which, to me, doesn't really seem to have any interest in George Lucas' stories or world at all.

So now for my final point, that I think helps me convey why I think this show feels so foreign to Star Wars - where the HELL is the Force?!?! I say this rhetorically, because in my concern that I hadn't heard a single mention of it, I did some research and discovered that Gilroy intentionally avoided it. His reasoning was that Pablo Hidalgo claimed that nearly no one in the rebellion (I assume those are the people he's referring to) would've heard of the Force. I want to be clear that I am not someone who believes light sabers, Force users, Jedi, Skywalkers, etc. is necessary for a work to be Star Wars - in fact, I firmly don't believe that. I'm referring to the Force as what it is - the invisible energy that binds the whole world together, which also had spiritual and moral aspects through which Lucas would explore good and evil. One didn't need to be Force sensitive to believe and trust in its reality, and, in fact, it was common in the rebellion to wish "may the Force be with you" to their comrades. Andor showcases a completely secular uprising - not even Mon Mothma, who was obviously aware of the Jedi and the Force prior to the fall of the Republic, mentions the Force or having any faith in it. A secular story about the common man choosing to fight an oppressive regime is fine (GREAT even! See The Hunger Games), but does it work in Star Wars? A story in which the Force, while not personal, has a will that we see play out over six films? Where the rebellion is folly if Luke were to fall? Or even in Rogue One, where the prodding of the Force moves the heroes towards choosing to do what is right and trusting the outcome to the will of the Force (even Cassian himself defies his orders from the rebellion to follow the prodding of the Force)? I don't expect a deeply spiritual story that showcases the struggle between good and evil, but I do expect an acknowledgement that there is something higher that binds this world together and is pushing to be brought back to balance. The rebels need a faith in something higher, and it was wonderful to see the Force from the eyes of laypeople in Rogue One. I might be the only person in the universe who has this qualm, but I do feel strongly that the Force is vital to Star Wars, as it is the vehicle through which Lucas showcases the philosophical framework of that world and explores good and evil.

I don't want to be too mean to Tony Gilroy, so I won't say what I really think about the philosophy in Andor (I'll put the nice version in the tags). I also stand by what I previously said about this show being more like the Hunger Games (Game of Thrones, too) than Star Wars. THG is great fiction, and it's a great work to be inspired by. It's also a vastly different work and world than Star Wars.