Andor Andor Episode 1.11 Discussion Thread (Spoilers Allowed)

For some reason, this episode didn't resonate with me as much as the others. And I say that as someone who appreciated the "slow burn."

And then there is the problem of Mon Mothma not knowing how to launder money, or knowing but not knowing well enough.

 

Luthen has a badass ship, by golly!!

and I said it earlier.. Andor is THE SW series, sorry Mandalorian (But you're still great, too!)

Plus... Colin Cantwell is now immortalized! He's even a ship class now!!! Damn! The Feels again!!!!

 

Gonna need an entire series just on the Saw and Luthen dynamic please and thank you.

 

With only one more episode to go, I wonder if the finale will have a Force user or a lightsaber, or both. I don't think there's any need for it, but I have a sneaking suspicion some execs might insist. "The viewers are morons, Tony. For their sake you must put a Force wielder or a lightsaber in it at least once, otherwise they might forget its Star Wars."

 

Well. Luthen's ship almost became a double sided lightsaber. So there's that lol.

 

less blah blah blah more pew pew pew

 

He used a proxy ID if I understood correctly.
Appears to be from Alderaan, when it's really not.

 

Plus, his walking stick looked a little like a hilt from a weapon of a more civilized age!

 

I get the feeling Tony had Lucasfilm change the mandate for this project from “The viewers are morons” to “Star Wars Fans are the worst, forget’em.”

 

This series has done so well without Jedi, and for the first time has made me believe that the Jedi could be considered "all but extinct" and long forgotten. No need to change course.

 

Small observations:

The hanging smoke from the two TIEs Luthen Inquisitor saber-ed makes me think the were in high atmosphere rather than the vacuum of space.

Melshi was clearly affected by his time in prison, given his choice choice of shirt on Niamos.

 

I gotta admit I didn't really understand why Luthen was putting the responsibility of the choice on Saw for the choice of what to do about Kryger , and why do it in earshot of so many?

 

The planet took up enough of the screen and the curvature of it was low enough that it definitely looked more like the high atmosphere rather than hard space.

 

I don't think that was the original plan.

From the sound of it, Saw contacted him, and now wanted to join the attack on Spellhaus, provided Lucien would give him the equipment he offered earlier. Luthen then tried to talk him out of it again, because he knew the attack was doomed. This change from earlier on made Saw suspicious and he wanted to know why Luthen had changed his mind. This left Luthen with little choice but to tell him. And by doing so, created the possibility of Saw contacting Anto Kreegyr to prevent the assault. Luthen wouldn't contact Kreegyr, but now he needed to convince Saw not to do it either. Basically, Saw's interest in finding out why Luthen changed his mind caused the responsibility of choice to fall onto Saw, it wasn't something that Luthen really wanted.

I don't think there were all that many people around. No one apart from Saw's right-hand man could hear them.


Overall, I think this episode wasn't quite a match for the ones that came before. Then again, that was hard anyway, seeing how this was a setup-episode and the last one was the end of an arc, with all the action and emotion connected to it. Still really really good though.

 

It’s pretty clear. Mon Mothma keeps secrets from her family, both for their safety and to avoid the risk of saying something she shouldn’t. Her husband disagrees with her about the Empire and Empire loyalists, and sees her secrecy as a sign that she doesn’t trust him because, well, she doesn’t. Leida has to deal with the normal stresses of having a political mother, as well as the fact that her mother is constantly doing weird things like inviting her ex bf around to their house. Moreover, she has her douchenozzle father in her ear. Perrin is a manipulative jerk, and makes sure to position himself and the “fun” parent, while Mon, being responsible, is trying to just be a “parent” even though her daughter doesn't really trust her. So now you have this situation where Mon is incredibly stressed. She’s trying to fund an armed insurrection whilst constantly lying to her family. Her family recognises that she’s lying to them and resents her for it. Her daughter specifically recognises that she’s lying to them and also that Mon despises her father, and since Perrin is the one who is actually present and doesn’t tell her no, Leida takes his side. She’s not old enough to recognise that the reason Perrin is always around is because he’s a moocher that doesn’t have a real job; while Mon is literally a Senator. Also the fact is that Perrin and Mon were married too young and it turns out that they are extremely different people. It’s likely that Mon grew up in the weird tradcath culture of Chandrila that Leida is adopting and felt pressured to marry him as a result. (That “the bonds keep us safe” stuff REALLY reminded me of “under His eye” btw.)

And so you have this toxic mix of lies and deception that is destroying the family that it touches.

 

“I don’t want to be alone, I want Marva.” I about started crying at that line. I just want to hug that poor little droid.

 

The fact that a teenager is hostile toward her mother is no news, nothing strange there, what is not clear to me is why the writers insist so much on this detail being important. In other words, where will this subplot lead us. We get a glimpse of the daughter's relevance in this marriage proposal, but it seems like something big is yet to be done with her, or otherwise I don't know why the writers would randomly put that character in so many scenes.

 

Incoming Obvious Comment! Mon tells Vel about the financial situation she's in. The audience already knows this information but the point of this scene is to foreshadow Vel helping Mon out of her situation.

I could see a situation where Vel finds a way for Mon to avoid marrying off her daughter, much to Mon's relief, but by then it's too late! Mon's daughter is smitten with Davo's son and her being super traditional, Mon's daughter is cool with the arranged marriage.

 

Blasting his way out of an inspection? With one ship with rather distinctive countermeasures? That's...tipping his hand a lot. Not sure the Bond gadgets are going to save him now.

Unclear how many escapees, oof.

Mothma still stumbling in the dark at the sole job of money laundering...and the family side of things imploding just as much. It's interesting that the husband was suspiciously "open minded" about not liking what the daughter's doing...

Poor, poor Cassian and Maarva. Nice that the show still isn't pulling punches about the after effects of people's actions.

In a word, this episode would be "set up"...for next episode's dominoes?

Saw is an infamous paranoid and there is good reason to suspect that Luthen is ISB. Giving Saw the choice is a calculated trust building exercise. Like he says himself, he's no longer entirely sure- and if you want to be cynical, he has a hunch that Saw is likely to be on exactly the same page for exactly the same reasons about acceptable losses.

I mean, I'm uncharitable about Disney Mothma but this...kinda is entirely in keeping with my read on her character and abilities. (One could be unkind but accurate and say she's literally the one unqualified person in all the rebel networks and that this doesn't really change during her career...)

 

It's just that your critiques are usually based on...factual inaccuracies about what the show is presenting. And so I am compelled to respond to that.

There are some people here who don't like the serious style of the show, or miss the camp and the adventure and the force. And I leave them alone. Because that's a valid opinion. But if you say a character doesn't know how to launder money when they've already laundered a lot of it...then I leap!

Plus, it's just fun to poke fun at you because you love Avatar so much.

It's not that she doesn't know how. She laundered a lot. It's just that with one 400,000 credit transfer, she left tracks that the Empire is likely to detect, given their newfound scrutiny. And so she needs to get a loan from someone who is expert enough in big finance to mask it.

 

I mean, the whole point of laundering money is that you don’t get caught, if she’s getting caught it means she can’t do it right. Which is weird because she’s supposed to be the legendary leader of the Rebel Alliance and one of the top senators, you know, someone who’s competent. But they just resolved her story arc with her not moving the money around well enough. Not exciting, or interesting.

You know what would have been a much better plan for her character? Instead of the obnoxious daughter and husband, have a villain for her to play off of, like a Grand Moff or a rival senator or something. I know you think this is like the best writing in all of Star Wars or whatever, but I just don’t see it, sorry.

Anyways, wanna go rip on Avatar a bit on that thread? You need to get your practice in before the Decade of Avatar begins, I’m looking forward to the haters.

 

I like that we actually got some space action, though it seems Luthen's ship is powered by 'something special' except for the countermeasures, they are still clockwork.

Wait for it, wait for it...