Andor Andor Episode 1.11 Discussion Thread (Spoilers Allowed)

@Bor Mullet, I was kidding about the money laundering thing. That is probably the weakest criticism of this episode I can imagine.

 

Why doesn't morally upright Rebel Senator know how to launder money correctly!?

 

Much of Breaking Bad's plot was all about the challenges of money laundering. The idea that it's the sort of thing that experts don't get caught at is amusing and sounds like fan logic. Oh, and Ozark too -- Marty is an expert but in trouble all the time.

This is the highest quality show possible and SW fans who enjoy it like me are very lucky people right now.

 

Clearly people who criticize Mon Mothma's money laundering skills have never money laundered before. It's tougher than you think. Not that I know. But seriously. It's super hard.

 

Especially space laundering!

 

YOU try washing money in zero G.

 

I once worked at financial advisor firm for a year. During the first week new employees had to watch a host of government compliance videos, then take and pass tests on them, and then sign in blood that you understand the material and would never do them. I walked in not knowing a damn thing about money laundering and after the first week going "huh, so that's how that's done. Thanks, job.".

 

Did I tune out and miss the part where some Star Wars fans started hating Mon Mothma on a personal level?

 

Nice to finally see this ship realized


The Arrestor cruiser seen in ep 11, was originally designed by SW ANH concept artist Colin Cantwell as a Sith Cruiser. He recently died and so they named it a Cantwell Class ship.

 

I'm half surprised there hasn't been a heated discussion about why all rebel space ships in the OT didn't have anti-tracker beam devises and lasers on the sides of their ships like Luthen's! I guess some would rather talk about money laundering instead.

 

Luthen said his ship was custom designed. So guessing those things aren't exactly showroom floor standard. His ship also has a computer capable of navigating off hyperspace lanes to avoid capture.

The entire ship is created for illegal rebel activity. Probably pretty pricy. Maybe too pricy to install across a rag tag fleet who's financing is in trouble from the start.

 

The SWTOR Imperial Agent wants their gadgets back.

More seriously, those gadgets seem like pricey white elephants that don't really work in a full on war. Good for a "civilian cargo ship" to escape death by boarding action against a complacent cruiser and sucker punch some backwater's TIE fighters...bad for anything else.

Also ngl they seem like a huge red flag that's memorable in all the wrong ways- in universe, I mean. The Flechettes you could see as being a pirate gimmick (if suspiciously well made), but those lasers?

tl;dr: Disney Mothma in literally every appearance has been kinda useless at best, self-serving and craven at worst (Hi, star wars rebels) and in From A Certain Point of View literally was going to go surrender to Palpatine (thinking she'd be kept alive) so speaking for myself at least, she's...kinda an unlikable character as written in the canon media. Andor's portrayal of her as rather inept and against doing actually effective means of resistance doesn't exactly help her there.

It's not bad writing, it's just the character has consistently been written in an unsympathetic way, intended or otherwise.

 

There's a difference between an Arrestor Cruiser and a Death Star. Ways of evading tractor beams are commonplace in the E.U.

 

Reminder that Star Wars is set in a galaxy far, far away (from our own galaxy). That doesn't mean an Aztec calendar is incapable of falling into a wormhole and ending up in the Star Wars galaxy (regardless of how improbable that may seem).

 

I thought it was pretty clear Vel expects Luthen to use the Aldhani money to bail out Mothma (they still have about 79.4 million left for Rebel activity), hence all the "does Luthen know" questions. Obviously Luthen doesn't want to admit he was behind Aldhani, so he is reluctant to volunteer the Aldhani money.

Not to mention a big part of his Rebel activity is moving stolen tech around. Not surprised he would find some special mods he could use in his own ship.

 

After reaching the climax of the previous arc, we're back to our regularly scheduled 10/10 setup episode, which I would be more than willing to bump up to an 11 or 12 in honor of the continued Melshi and Saw content. Saw honestly has no right to be as fun as a character as he is considering he's a rando from TCW aged up into a space terrorist.

 

I'll put my vote in on wanting more focus on forensic accounting. I want Tony Gilroy to go full Michael Clayton on this.

 

Watch this again. Whoa it when Cassian Milchi sprint down to steal the ship.

That entire bit was very JRR Tolkien the Hobbit through a Star Wars filter. The netting the catches Cassian is like rubber spider webs. The there are two troll like aliens. One speaks in a sing songy sort of rural English accent mixed with alien. The other speaks alien. The way they ask questions the butcher knife.

It’s very Tolkien. This show even get the tone of weird and goofy Star Wars right do it mixes in perfectly with the rest of the series.

 

It also made a very brief appearance in Solo. When the Stormtroopers are looking for Han in the Coronet spaceport, there's an Imperial recruitment video playing on a screen that shows an Arrestor flanked by two Star Destroyers. Hot Wheels put out a die-cast toy in conjunction with the film. As you mentioned, it's nice to see this ship fully realized, not just on a low-res spaceport screen.

 

Coincidentally, on Tuesday I was hoping we'd see an Interdictor at some point. The Arrestor brings us one step closer...

 

With all the great highs this show has presented us, it was inevitable that I had to give this one an 8/10. I love that all of the chess pieces are in place, and we're all set for the season finale.
I knew that Cassian would have to return to Niamos, because along with the credits he left in his case, he also had to get Nemik's manifesto. I wonder if someone will tell Cassian "You're a Rebel now!" next episode?

 

One of the aliens in the bed in Niamos was the same species as the one in the prison transport with Jyn Erso at the beginning of Rogue One. I don’t know why, but I love that species. Like little cuttlefish cousins of Quarren.

And Andor, who up to this point has been portrayed as an expert with ships (including the make and model of ship Luther is flying) is dumbfounded by what the ship can do, including when it jumps. Crazy custom job.

 

Mothma should've rounded them all down and dropped the remainder into a secret account like Superman 3.

EDIT: I wonder if in the finale Luthen will die and Kleya will be left running the antique shop and Vel will pressure Kleya into helping Mon Mothma with her money problem?