A/V Just Announced 7 Years Ago: Andor!! It happened!!!

I’m confused on one point:

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So why did Maarva have to adopt Cassian?

The way it’s framed, her and her (boy?)friend are scavengers checking out the wreckage and meet a native. Instead of simply putting him to sleep and moving him away from the wreckage, which they have the ability to do, they separate him from his tribe/family/whatever and take the child home with them. He doesn’t even speak Basic, isn’t that sort of cruel? We’re told that the planet will eventually be destroyed by Republic mining activity, but does Maarva know that?

Also, those dead officers on board the ship definitely had the CIS logo on them, no? I’m confused on this too, because Maarva says that the kids killed a Republic officer.

 

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I keep battering in my head "I've been in this fight since I was 6 years old" and lil Cassa certainly isn't 6. also those were Imperial symbols on the crashed ship, I think, but the people who picked him up were talking about "Republic" ships coming in, not Imperial. So I'm a little wonky on the exact timeline and if this is during the Clone Wars or the start of the Imperial era.

Very big Inspector Javert vibes from the Corporate guy chasing Cassian. Also, holy heck, Corporate Sector! I like how it was pointed out they're basically teetering on the edge of being absorbed into the Empire (I think) so the Corporate head honcho has to tell them everything is fine or else they'll get gobbled up by the Empire. Oh and the Corporate guys are working with repainted Clone Wars Republic troop transport second hand gear while the Imperials get all the fancy new stuff.

I liked the final chase how it was a huge tension build, the explosion, and then Cassian and his buddy just bail swiftly. Awesome diversion, not a huge action scene but a great escape. And the closing montage of Cassian across the years jumping to hyperspace was great.

And someone said "%$%$"! I'm so happy! (there was a South Park bit about the first time someone says "%%$" on TV which the offhanded nature of it reminded me of that.)

this is incredibly tonally accurate for fan art from a month ago but, yes, this.

 

Running commentary:

Spoiler: Episode 1

-I liked the Blade Runner beginning, but the brothel was too empty and inactive to look convincing. Could have done more with that without going nudity Disney despies.
-In general, the bulb windows were nice designwise
-Too few aliens for my taste so far
-I like the shows appraoch so far to the average people and worker life aka Les Miserables style, felt very WEG rpg/sourcebook like as if this was an Adventure Journal story, heck one should bring those back and adapt the show in them with stats
-poor Cassians lil sis... hope to learn more of her and meet her older self one day but knowing many characters have tragic ends due to not being around in Rogue One is interesting
-I like cassians droid, the design is so retro 80s old school Disney Star Tours / Droids show style and how it moves and interacts is great

Spoiler: Episode 2

-I like Bix... and wannabe Imperial corporate folks are fun Javer-like nemesis.
-the Lord of the Flies flashbacks also are nice and un-StarWarsy but I am curious about the kids lack of parents
-I love how the casting really chose some interesting faces for these ground level folks, actors known from other stuff but that totally feel lowlevel GFFA citizen here by looks alone, you got plenty of stereotypes covered already, also lots of real world tech in the gffa now, maybe a little bit too much
-nice carrier ship the Corporate Imps got there
-when are they gonna give me Mon Mothma? I need my dose of redhead!

Spoiler: Episode 3

-Stair-Droid is awesome!
-the Dropships are so Tie-Fighter game retro, even if slightly different like crossed with a Laat
-Bryar Blues!
-i need floorplans for the new ships!
-so now that we covered 90% of trailer scenes... aside still lacking Mon Mothma, is her arc next?

A good start for the new Andor show, and plenty to like, but I am missing some of the more mythological Forceuser stuff this show is not about. Well I can do without that, but the feel of mythology still somehow should be there regardless. But I am happy that this feels like WEG 101 all the way through!

 

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the CIS and the Imperial emblem are super-similar. But yah they mention it like those are Republic officers and Republic ships are coming in. Which does seem like Clone Wars (and wasn't Cassian's novel backstory that he was throwing rocks at Republic transports during the Clone Wars anyway). Maybe this is that transitional Republic to Empire period so they're rolling around in Republic ships with CIS outfits but it's still the Empire. Just haven't updated the gear and stationary yet.

Anyway that's totally a bioweapon on there, right. People don't turn yellow!

 

Spoiler

Mava thinks she is saving him because of someone coming to clean up the mess the ship made. The ship certainly looks to be some secret project that all witnesses will be eliminated for, covering the crash up as a mining accident perhaps. So if Marva and her friend are fearing Republic retribution (are they Separatist? or just Opportunist?), maybe the ship was a Separatist project that got shot down by the republic which is on their heels to a) recover whatever they were after and b) destroy any witnesses to it. Separatist logo on officers despite them saying republic ones surprised me too. Unless it is one of those Sheev-y joint ventures like the Death Star where he is having Republic and Separatist folks work on something without knowing they work together or on the same thing ultimately.

And if a REPUBLIC officer killed wore a Separatist logo uniform, was the ship and crew undercover? Did they steal it from Seppies? Maybe Separatists shot it down and Republic will come to cover it up and retrieve anything left?

Spoiler

Cassians tribe looks like Lord of the Flies kids that lost their parents... so maybe they are on the world from an earlier crash or something. While not 6 in this flashback, he is in the fight since 6, earlier on, when he lost his dad to hanging during the Clone Wars. We know from trailers we get more flashbacks with clones.

And yub, my fanart collage seems to truly be one to last long hehe! Javert guy rocks in the show!

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I like the idea of mixed up uniforms, logos and tech in transition period. My above interpretation may also work, but we'll see.

As for bioweapon, I took it to be a yellowskinned species at first.. but then not so sure anymore now. Given Marva was talking about some gas leaking, yub bioweapon.

 

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Everything about the area is so CSA I am somewhat surprised they didn't just make it the CSA, other than I guess this show being less into such references.

Well, galaxy is big enough for two corporate hellholes I suppose, especially since it is mentioned that there is a "Corporate Confederacy" after the Empire's fall, so maybe many such areas exist and band together.

 

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Does the Corporate Sector Authority exist in canon? My brain kept turning the new Corporate guys into the Corporate Sector from the Han Solo novels although I think they weren't called Corporate Sector Authority in the title cards or dialogue.

anyway, Props to Skarsgard's line delivery, and the awesome dialogue bit "The sound of that voice telling you to stop, to go, to move. Telling you to die. Rings in the ear, doesn't it?"

 

Spoiler

There is a CSA in nu-canon...but like Legends they are confined to the actual Corporate Sector and have no authority outside of it. I would think the that what we see in Andor is like the Mining Guild having a TIE variant and policing their own operations. As long as they stay in line with the Empire corporate security forces can operate in territories they have business interests.

 

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first three episodes appear set in a place called the "Free Trading Sector". No idea where it is but it could be anywhere between the Core and the Outer Rim, maybe the edge of Wild Space or the Unknown Regions.

 

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They do. In fact, Canto Bight from TLJ was stated to be in the CSA according to tie in material, and they were a finical backer and ally of the First Order.

 

Was a good start. To a good sci-fi show, reminds me of Shadow Games and the Han Solo trilogy.

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I thought it was a CIS ship with the badge.

I do hope we get more explanation, for his back story.

I saw the trick with the speeder coming.

The inspector? He is interesting, reminds me of the inspector from Les Mis.

I wonder where things will go after this.

 

I usually can't focus for longer than one episode, so when it was announced that they would drop three at once, I was worried I wouldn't be able to watch them all in one day... but I actually watched all three back-to-back! So either my attention span was in rare form or the show is just that good.

Of all the SW shows announced, this was my most anticipated, and I'm pleased so far, particularly with the pacing and sense of suspense.

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Though I'd be happy to see a few more aliens.

I did wonder for a bit why they structured something so similar to the Corporate Sector without it actually being the Corporate Sector, but I'm not complaining. The more corporatocracies, the merrier? But really, I enjoy corporatocracies as settings and baddies.

 

Yeah, that was the point of the character. I was reminded of the first intro to Kylo Ren in TFA; he looked like a total poser who couldn't hold a candle to Vader. This is who the character is now and it's not an impressive starting place, but I expect there will be an interesting journey to whoever he will become. And I expect he'll become someone much more interesting and fearsome.

 

Yeah I definitely get the feeling he will raise through the ranks of the ISB parallel to Andor getting more involved in the Rebellion.

 

That's probably the intent but, right now, the risk is it ends up making the point that Cassian should have gone full Godfather and offed him.

Still, if he ends up better than Ren in villain stakes that would be good and shouldn't be too difficult.

 

My assumption is that there's more going on here with the Republic/Empire than we know, yet. That might account for the whole "since I was 6 years old" thing.

Yeah, I think what we're looking at here is that a lot of fascist wannabes are weenies who want respect really really bad.

Spoiler

He's going above and beyond at his job and not getting it, so then when his boss is away he finally hooks up with a skull-cracker who needs someone higher up who will sign off on letting him use excessive force as much as possible. Then that all goes sideways and he winds up having to save his own ass by going over his boss' head, not to mention that he's now been personally humiliated by Cassian.

He's an absolutely obnoxious backbiter, and he's gonna get worse every time he fails. Even if he doesn't get *tougher,* I think the idea is that he'll be dogged and awful and loathsome, and constantly aligning himself with more brutal people in order to climb the ranks.

 

As an aside, you know what this show is kind of reminding me of? The way that rebels was described by pre-release materials. Yeah, there is a big difference in tone, but still both feel very WEG-y. More specifically, I remember some early rebels material talking a lot about how the Empire was overstreched in the outer rim and had to rely on local allies and collaborators to keep things running there, making it sound like the empire wouldn't be part of the show at first and would only show up after the heroes dealt with local opponents first. Obviously the show itself didn't work out like that, but that is very much what Andor is doing with the corporation.

 

I think this is setting up that the Empire is still playing PacMan with other territories, in this case a Corporate space. but they haven't gone all the way yet

Spoiler

which is why the guy's boss was trying to say everything was Hunky Dory in his sector when he has to go report to the Empire. Obviously, it isn't so that may bring down the Imperial hammer on this sector.

 

That description of the Corpo reminds me of Kirtan Loor...

 

It’s early days, but I could see Syril end up being my favourite SW tv baddie. Provided of course that he is actually the main antagonist of the show.

 

That would probably be my only concern (although I'll state since they gave us the first three episodes at once the concern is very very small IMO). I'm curious if at any point this whole sequence was edited together as a single, extra long episode because, as you said, those endings in the first two were abrupt.

 

They definitely filmed all three of these episodes together, and perhaps they had intended for a feature-length series premiere at some point, but plans probably changed when the three-episode arc format was established. I assume that'll be standard for this season, since they mentioned each arc for the second season will skip ahead a year.

 

I'll agree with the view that this is indeed a very WEG feeling show. Reminds me more than anything of a story (or adventure) you could find turning to a random page in Star Wars Adventure Journal. The idea that all over the galaxy there's all sorts of people doing (relatively) mundane jobs amidst this galaxy of Jedi and Sith and larger scale battles. But also that there were limitless compelling stories among these ordinary people, oftentimes when they brushed up against the Galactic Civil War. I for one, love this type of storytelling. Always grows the galaxy and makes me think we could just as easily turn the camera somewhere else and have just as interesting an adventure going on.

Specifically, I remember an old short story from the aforementioned journal called "Ringers," which was about some sort of galactic (local to some extent) police force solving crimes in the Rebellion era. Under the thumb of the Empire but not Imperial. Forgive me if I misremember the details, but moreso for me it was the idea of people living with the Empire dealing with their own problems with nary a care for a Jedi in the world that was so compelling and stuck with me. Made me wish for a followup on an intergalactic FBI sort of organization chasing ne'er-do-wells. Maybe with the Aquillan Rangers being introduced in Kenobi, they could fill that role in some future material.

 

Okay, so here's my theory right now for all of the flashback stuff:

Spoiler

I'm seeing a lot of people make the assumption that Kenari was abandoned during a mining accident during the Clone Wars, but I don't think that's correct. I think that Kenari was abandoned prior to the Clone Wars, perhaps long before the Clone Wars in fact. The children are in fact the descendants of the survivors of the mining accident, eking out a cargo-cult lifestyle with little knowledge of what happened to their world. The planet is rediscovered during the Clone Wars, but the accident is framed as having something to do with the death of the "Republic" officer and the war; the false-flag operation people keep theorizing about may have been the Republic pinning the accident as being the responsibility of the Separatists.

Andor "has been in this fight since [he] was six years old" refers to the abandonment of the planet when he was six, during which his birth parents probably died. His age of twenty-one might have been invented alongside his fictional birthplace on Fest, to avoid scrutiny into his Kenari background since survivors of the accident would be poised to expose the lies of the Republic/Empire. Maybe he's closer in age to Han Solo, for example. Kenari isn't/wasn't really uninhabitable, it's just been reported that way to avoid the awkwardness of the Republic abandoning a group of children. The characters in-universe might not even know the full extent of the cover-up.

Phasma's homeworld of Parnassos was abandoned by a Republic corporation under similar circumstances, so this may just be an event that regularly occurs in the pre-Clone Wars galaxy.