Author Topic: Andor Season 2  (Read 7565 times)

Offline Syren

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Re: Andor Season 2
« Reply #15 on: May 14, 2025, 04:50:39 PM »
Same - I only watched ep 10 yesterday and will space the others out this week before settling in with a R1 rewatch to cap it off.

See, this is where I think the truncated seasons hurts the show - what we got here with Luthen and Kleya's relationship building toward the inevitable ending/action she would need to perform in service to the cause would have been far more beautifully spun over the course of a season, weaving their history in and out, which would then make the outcome hit much harder. Not that it didn't - it absolutely did.

Kleya is a badass - never underestimate what a gal can do with just an outfit change. Once I saw her in those heeled ankle boots gathering herself in the empty safehouse for what must be done, I was like, yeah, girl. Yeah. You got this. You can do this.

I very much enjoyed the banter between Dedra and Luthen, she almost came off as likeable for a moment, but we all know better.

Previously, I was a bit disappointed with how they handled Bix, so I'm hoping they may tie something up with the last two episodes. I thought it was kind of cheap to have her just bounce, without even a pregnancy reveal or something equally dramatic. We never got to see her heal or be swallowed by the trauma - but it did look like she pulled herself out of it, made a chill life with our boy despite the rising rebellion, but ultimately knew his focus would be split if she stayed. It didn't ring as much of agency as I would have liked, but sad boy Andor is a dangerous Andor.

Excited to see how they end this!
Syren

Offline Medivh

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Re: Andor Season 2
« Reply #16 on: May 14, 2025, 05:48:00 PM »
Same - I only watched ep 10 yesterday and will space the others out this week before settling in with a R1 rewatch to cap it off.

See, this is where I think the truncated seasons hurts the show - what we got here with Luthen and Kleya's relationship building toward the inevitable ending/action she would need to perform in service to the cause would have been far more beautifully spun over the course of a season, weaving their history in and out, which would then make the outcome hit much harder. Not that it didn't - it absolutely did.

Kleya is a badass - never underestimate what a gal can do with just an outfit change. Once I saw her in those heeled ankle boots gathering herself in the empty safehouse for what must be done, I was like, yeah, girl. Yeah. You got this. You can do this.

I very much enjoyed the banter between Dedra and Luthen, she almost came off as likeable for a moment, but we all know better.

Previously, I was a bit disappointed with how they handled Bix, so I'm hoping they may tie something up with the last two episodes. I thought it was kind of cheap to have her just bounce, without even a pregnancy reveal or something equally dramatic. We never got to see her heal or be swallowed by the trauma - but it did look like she pulled herself out of it, made a chill life with our boy despite the rising rebellion, but ultimately knew his focus would be split if she stayed. It didn't ring as much of agency as I would have liked, but sad boy Andor is a dangerous Andor.

Excited to see how they end this!
Since you haven't see it all, I will do my best to avoid spoilers.
I will say this:  I liked the last three arcs, and I really enjoyed those episodes.
I did not like episodes 1, 2, 3,  - that Andor went on a mission is cool, but didn't add to the story.  If there was a whole season of micro-missions, it might have made sense, but for a whole arc on stealing a fighter (which by the way, didn't show up in later episodes, so it didn't move the story forward), seemed like a waste, especially since that is the only thing we saw him do that entire year. That Mon Mothma married off her daughter was yes, a continuation from season 1, but again, that was it.
If year 1 had been a full season, we'd have seen when her close childhood friend mysteriously died in a tragic accident, and Mon Mothma grieving over it, and feeling conflicted for the role she had in his death. Nope, just skip ahead.

Bix - Bix got her revenge (episode 6, I think).  But in 4 years, that was the only affirmative thing she did.  In 1-3, she was waiting for Andor, in 4-6, she was, in the safehouse, largely, waiting for Andor, in 7-9, she was on Yavin, yup, waiting for Andor.  We know she was dealing with PTSD.  But that doesn't cover half of what she did.  We assume she had recovered enough that between 6 and 7, she was out on missions, helping set up Yavin, something.  But no narrative follow up there.  Just the next bounce to a year later

The same is true of the remaining arcs. There was so much reaction we didn't get to see; follow up after the Ghorman massacre (or even lead up to the Ghorman massacre).

The last three episodes - again, no spoilers - were satisfying because we know there is a continuation, we know exactly what happens next (Rogue 1, ANH, etc.).
And I liked how they resolved certain characters, and also resolved some characters without killing them off.  The rebellion is far and wide and many players, etc. etc.

But I would have invested in five years of watching five seasons, and wanted to see more.


([][:][][][DDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD
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Offline gallpizi

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Re: Andor Season 2
« Reply #17 on: May 14, 2025, 11:35:41 PM »
I get what you are saying Med and when I was halfway through Ep 2 I was feeling the same way. And then the storytelling choice grew heavily on me. I enjoy that we don't know. It leaves them room to expand in print media. It leaves it up to our imagination. I don't need to see it all. I've been around PTSD enough that I don't need to see Bix between 3-4 all fucked up in the head. I don't need to see Mon do more than get drunk and dance and forget she allowed her childhood friend to be killed and her daughter married off. 

I like that we can imagine it as we want.
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Offline Syren

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Re: Andor Season 2
« Reply #18 on: May 15, 2025, 09:41:53 PM »
Wait, is Kleya...? Nooo, whaaa

My darling ISB mo, a human shield. Pouring one out for your sassy ass, babes.

Respect to the officer for giving Partagaz a moment.

They done Dedra diiirty.

Bix! Goddamn, I'm good. It's almost like I've been writing a highly dramatic Holo drama for more than a decade.

Mothma roughing it - I do like that they bridged where she was prior and where she is in R1, tonally speaking. I was always mystified as to why she wasn't more assertive in R1, but even the rebellion has skeptical bureaucrats.

Still digesting, but yeah, this was solid. Prestige TV Star Wars.

Syren

Offline SWSF Eidolon

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Re: Andor Season 2
« Reply #19 on: Yesterday at 10:03:10 AM »
Done.

Amazing tale.  Best SW series format material by far.

Bix and the baby-  it'll be a Forcie.  Has to be.  Maybe NJO appearance if they actually are doing it.  Great explanation for her departure, it all fits awesome.

Dedra at Narkina????? And then she shows emotion?!  Every body has a breaking point.

Partagaz scene and end.  Pure gold.


When Cassian is with the Rebel Command at Yavin, it seemed inferred with his tone to everyone when he mentioned he got Mothma out the senate, but I woulda liked a bit more blatant statement to Bail about if everyone had gone with his plan, Mon would be with the ISB.


I woulda also liked to see a more aggressive speech from Mothma from Yavin cast to HoloNet, bordering on or actually being the Delcaration of Rebellion.

K2 is great.  It's gotta be hard to do a Droid and measure up to Threepio and Artoo but he does.  His reminisce of the parade with 200 KX units and the Emperor was nice touch, it sounded almost like a fond recollection, showing an interesting twist in his new and old programming.

Filoni was at top of my list.  Gilroy has usurped him.  Really hope they get more SW out of that guy or at least his work inspires more of this 'mature' story telling angle.


« Last Edit: Yesterday at 10:07:51 AM by SWSF Eidolon »
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Offline SWSF Eidolon

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Re: Andor Season 2
« Reply #20 on: Yesterday at 02:52:19 PM »
Just rewatched final 3 instead of my usual work post beer-lunch desk-nap- my favorite final take aways..

Luthen to Dedra

  "There's a whole galaxy out there waiting to disgust you."



Is something I've picked up on whole series but now finally realizing what makes her such a draw  is the uncomfortable/adjustment facial expressions when in scenario after scenario she lays down what she believes to be her trump card but still gets a defiant reaction.  In this sense she is a bit of an automaton in being a slave to her preference for perfect order, which she and Syril shared in common, though Syril still drew distinction between his desire for order and his own humanity.  The final Narkina scene with her when she breaks is an incredibly fucked up kind of rebirth.  Her desire for order, her service to the new order, her final plight. She is broken now but her mind has awoken.
« Last Edit: Yesterday at 03:01:32 PM by SWSF Eidolon »
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Offline Syren

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Re: Andor Season 2
« Reply #21 on: Today at 12:17:53 AM »
Finished my Rogue One rewatch and goddamn that is a solid story—an epic piece of the larger fight to come. It hangs together so well.

Knowing that on Yavin, Kleya, Vel, Wilmon, and Dreena were out there, although unseen, was strangely comforting to me. Leia too, given that Threepio and R2 were there and they all launched for Scarif aboard the Tantive IV. It gave additional context to all the things I had wondered about as a child when I first watched A New Hope. Where was Leia coming from? How did she get those plans? How did they get to that point? Jumping into the story so suddenly and without a frame of reference drove me insane over the years, but I am grateful, despite my general distaste for the corporate cash-grabs along the way, that we finally got this to see and understand what it took to rebel against the Galactic Empire.

My only thing that made me go hmmm is when, on Jedha, while they were in the cell, Cassian tells the others it's a first for him, which we know isn't true because he was imprisoned on Narkina 5. Now, he may have just been covering, considering he did not know whether he could trust them yet, but it still bugged me a little. A quibble, although a minor one. I suppose holistically Star Wars canon has been shot to shit and means nothing, aside from what it means to us.

Reminiscing a bit, when Vel told Cassian not to wait too long to reconnect with Bix it is because she waited too long to do so with Cinta, and she doesn't want him to waste that time, even though we all know he would be dead soon. I think Kleya was more of a leader than Luthen - by his own admission, he had been cut off for too long - and she kept him focused, grounded. There were times he teetered on being erratic, doubtful even, and she calmly, ruthlessly set him back on the path. I thought for a moment Kleya might be Andor's sister, but that has been debunked by Gilroy. It wouldn't make sense anyway when I really think about it. Leaving that unresolved, whether that be to constraints of the rushed final structure or a deliberate choice, resonates as something, someone Cassian could not save. It haunted him even in those final days.

I agree with you, Eid, that Deda and Syril shared a belief in order, but Syril's belief was still tied to a humanity Dedra had suppressed for power. It ended their relationship, and it ended her career. She got order alright - the tidy, restrictive order of an authoritarian system she perpetuated. 

I think there was confirmation that the planet Luthan and young Kleya were on was, in fact, Naboo, which was quite a cool throwback.

Gonna have to sit with this a while, but ultimately, I am entirely satisfied with this entry in the series. Really hoping Gilroy or others decide to tell other tales with such reverence for the characters and story.

Cheers!
Syren