Andor Andor Episode 2.02 Discussion Thread (Spoilers Allowed)

The reason that one guy shoots the other is that what happened two days ago (a massacre) is still fresh, and it looks like there was cowardice and betrayal involved. That one guy shoots the woman pilot because she accuses him of having hidden during that recent fight, and the emotions are still raw. They're in total disarray after a massacre, a chaotic retreat, the loss of their leadership, and what they believe was a betrayal. By day twenty, a lot of these issues would have likely been resolved. But here we are on day two, and they haven't figured anything out yet. And on day three, they finally find a rudimentary way to end their destructive division and choose a leader. It's a group right after a major disaster. The first couple episodes of Lost, basically. Had they been there longer, they would have been more organized. And they would have figured out the food and water situation. But they'd just been dumped there a couple days earlier.

Agreed. It makes perfect sense to break the stalemate with a game of chance. And it's also just funny. You expect them to fight it out, and then they play a kid's game. Roski rules!

The key scene that maintained my suspension of disbelief is when the one side questions the wisdom of the other side trying to shoot them with the TIE, as they risk hitting Cassian, the pilot. And so ithe absurdity of the division comes to a head, as does their hunger, and they decide to resolve things with a game of chance. Survival, at that point, trumped grievance. Made sense to me. Though I would have added a couple more days for that transition.

And not just that. Their leader had been killed two days prior, along with forty others and six downed ships, then they were transported to Yavin and dumped there, and then one of the RIB's siblings took off with their only means of transportation (presumaby to collect other survivors) and never came back. And then beasts were hunting them in the jungle. So they were leaderless, had grievances about what just happened, were on a strange planet they knew nothing about, and were prey. Recipe for total chaos.

 

I haven't read Lord of the Flies since high school. One of these days I should give it another look.

 

I will say what makes RPS specifically work as a resolution to conflicts of interest is its structure. Unlike a coinflip or a dice roll, the players are granted with a sense of agency. The outcome is determined entirely by each player’s choices. However at the same time, the game is so simple there isn’t room for any “real” strategy. A veteran who’s played a million times can just as easily be defeated by a novice. It allows both players to feel comfortable to agree knowing they’re not at any secret disadvantage due to the opponent’s background. (Compare to the battle of wits in The Princess Bride, where the Dread Pirate Roberts deliberately suggests a game that’s seemingly 50/50 when played between two random people, but that he has spent a long time preparing for such that it’s rigged in his favor)

 

Maybe they had to strip it for parts to repair the ship that got them there so they could go back to look for survivors (or "look for survivors")? Maybe it was damaged by jungle beasts? Maybe their pilot girl doesn't know how to fly that kind of ship either and crashed it? Maybe it got damaged during the fire fight with Porko (this one seems far fetched, but who knows)?

 

I gave this an 8/10.

This one was another good one. I have to say seeing Eedy was...something. I'm not sure what to think about Dedra and Syril's relationship honestly. That imperial who was questioning Bix totally gave me the creeps (and we see why in episode 3). This is show that you really have to pay attention to every detail to and I like that though. I'm really liking how they're exploring more these internal machinations with the wedding as well.

 

Yeah, there are an endless amount of possibilities. And it doesn't really matter what the exact reason it. "Doesn't quite make sense" isn't really a phrase worth using in this regard. You could apply it to dozens upon dozens of scenes in the franchise. E.g. the Empire could have shot at 3PO's and R2's escape pod, it didn't, because one person randomly decided not to. One could harp on about why exactly he opted against it, but why would one want to do that? It's focusing on something irrelevant instead of the actual story. In a way, it's like wondering why the Falcon was such a mess in ESB when it didn't have any of these issues at the end of ANH. Sometimes things happen off screen. Not every bit needs to be spelled out, it is indeed rather harmful to pacing to try and explain everything that could possibly need an explanation. The ship is damaged now, that's all one needs to know.

It's not like this was an "Obi-Wan hides Leia under his raincoat and no one notices" moment.

 

Chaos, confusion, lack of trasparency, information, trust. Those were all deliberately baked into the scene. And not knowing why that ship was damaged is part of that. It makes perfect sense in the context of the scenes. Wherein chaos reigns.

 

Do you think there's meant to be a contrast here between the survivors In S2 and the children's survival in S1?

The language issue from S1, I think, is interesting. i.e., Collective/shared leadership being established without knowing the words (S1) versus squabbling, child-ish, games and killing (S2).

We know Luthen is going to say "Stop thinking like a thief and think like a leader" (or something similar). Which is what the RIBs need(ed).

 

Cassian: I’m thinking like a soldier
Luthen: Think like a leader

 

I kinda thought that after a first watch, but did a complete 180 after my second watch. It's on the edge of satire, and I love it.

 

The reason I thought one of them was Andrew Wilson at first glance, was his similarity to Beef Supreme in Idiocracy.

 

Idk how far removed y’all are from college, but I felt a real sense of familiarity with a group of (mostly male) people that age left together unsupervised and trying to figure things out. I got a big chuckle out of “Simple, if he doesn’t teach us we’ll kill him” “He can’t help us if he’s dead!!” “You’re always so negative!!!” because it felt like a conversation I’ve had/witnessed plenty of times in real life when people in their late teens/early twenties are involved. (A time I remember fondly, because in my case the stakes surrounding the bickering were much lower lol)

 

And I'm a couple of decades past "Very. "

 

Of course! "Thief" was S1.

 

You're not completely off base, some of the previews have had a longer version of that exchange:
Luthen: You're thinking like a thief.
Cassian: I'm thinking like a soldier.
Luthen: Think like a leader.

I'm a little concerned that you feel like you've had conversations about killing someone, so have no follow up questions.

 

I’ve had conversations where someone proposes a solution to the problem which includes a massive flaw if you actually think it through for 2 seconds, but they are not appreciative if you point that out to them, even though that’s better than finding it out the hard way.

 

I guess if you really want to stretch it, maybe 2 days on Yavin is longer than 2 days elsewhere.

 

I assumed as much, just an attempt at humor.

 

I also figured it likely, but you can never be too clear when communicating over text. (Especially with all the olds in here apparently )

 

Who you calling olds???

 

Yavin 4 doesn't have its own solar cycle. It's a moon orbiting a gas giant named Yavin Prime, which in turn orbits the star Yavin.
Maybe there's an agreed upon duration for a day, which does not necessarily coincide with day & night cycles for a given locale.

 

And given for cycles in Star Wars they tend to use rotations as the standard time setter, maybe a day or in this case two days is really different.

 

once in high school was enough for me. ranked there with Moby Dick. Don’t call me, Ishmael. Thanks.