u/Dear-Yellow-5479

Rogue One hits even harder with the full context. The Past/Present theme music being adapted for this sequence to include the “Future” part over the final shots was the very definition of bittersweet.

What were your favourite moments from the final episodes? One of the lesser praised characters for me in Ep 12 is Vel. I love how she supports Cassian, Mon and Kleya. And as for Melshi, his death hurts so much more now that we’ve really got to know him.

At least B2EMO is safe and happy and will soon have a lil Andor to play with - in a free galaxy.

Among the several parallels between Cassian and Syril one of the most prominent is that both lost their fathers when they were younger, with the adult men having complex and often difficult relationships with their mothers. How each man behaves towards his mother reveals a lot about the past as well as the present dynamic.

Maarva almost certainly saved Kassa’s life by taking him from Kenari, but she also did so knowing that she was likely separating him from his family. He was saved but the price was a whole lot of trauma from that separation from his sister that still haunts him, many years later. Maarva and the adult Cassian only share three scenes together, and the second of these is really short, yet despite the little screen time we get a strong sense of their dynamic.

Maarva has obviously been trying her best to give her adopted son the love and support that he needs, even though it’s pretty clear to see that he has disappointed her by “starting to believe his own sob story” as Tony Gilroy put it in one season 1 interview. Maarva’s guilt about her part in this is all tied up in the terrible loss of her husband and of Cassian when he was arrested and incarcerated for trying to take revenge on the Empire. It makes for a captivating but edgy dynamic between them, clear from their first scene together when he lies to her and she sees right through it and is yet again disappointed – this time, that he didn’t tell her the truth. And that he’s yet again in trouble with the law.

But there’s one really important thing that Cassian has from Maarva: unconditional love. “Tell him, I love him more than anything he could ever do wrong”. It’s a shame that this was not said to his face, but at the same time you can see that he knows it’s true when Brasso passes on her last words of comfort, reassurance, faith in and love for her son.

In contrast, can you imagine Eedy Karn ever saying anything like that? That right there is the big difference. Syril’s father abandoned the family and Eedy took on the single parent role. But the trouble is, her love - unlike Maarva’s - is very conditional. She is extremely judgemental and believes that individualism is the path to chaos. She has micromanaged Syril and brought him up to believe that rigid adherence to rules and order is the best way to avoid emotional pain, and as a result, he is emotionally stunted. Unformed. His father figure becomes the Empire and he seeks its approval because he never got approval from his mother.

I think another crucial difference is that Maarva brought up Cassian in a true community: Ferrix. Eedy brought up Syril in cold isolation, so that he became her whole world. It’s claustrophobic and breeds toxicity. She values him, but as a possession - with all the unreasonable pressure and judgement that comes with that. She’s the kind of parent who selfishly wants to live vicariously through their child. I think Syril’s never known proper love. “What is the return on my investment?” is a particularly horrible thing to say about your son, and even though both mothers have some disappointment in their sons Maarva is more disappointed that Cassian is not the man he would clearly like to be, that he hasn’t reached his full potential as an individual, whereas Eedy would like Syril to be someone she’s moulded in her own image and she really hates individuality. Maarva also has self-awareness and guilt about her own potential failings as a mother and Eedy has absolutely nothing like that. It’s catastrophically bad parenting.

The series ends with an image of someone who is soon to become another single mother. Bix comes from Ferrix, was close to and looked up to Maarva (especially as she had seemingly lost her own parents) and has gravitated back to another supportive community on Mina-Rau. Bix comforts her child by saying “It’s ok” and we can assume that it will be, because that child is going to be loved - and loved unconditionally.

We go from the moving, almost spiritual Force healer scene to the building dread of what’s happening in Ghorman. Then the almost nauseating escalation of that into full-blown horror, and the full epic impact of Syril’s tragic (in the drama sense) realisation of his self-deception. Then the grief as Ghorman collapses and characters and a world we’ve grown to care about are savagely slaughtered. Bleak, hopeless despair and the bitter taste of irony as Eedy Karn watches the Imperial news. Then the tension builds again as Mon decides to speak up. The cathartic release as she voices the truth. The excitement and tension of the escape and the moody counting of the cost afterwards, in a safe house. Then, just when we think there might be a brief peaceful respite, the Bix goodbye scene. Like Cassian, the tears are still in our eyes when we’re thrown straight into the K-2SO reanimation scene. Emotional whiplash? Yes… I think that’s the point.

Roll credits.

I took a week to recover. I think it’s the most varied and meanly efficient on-screen storytelling I can remember, at least from anything recent .

How do you feel about these episodes now?

I have to say, I think this is the most underrated of all the arcs. I absolutely love all the espionage in it and if there’s one thing I would’ve liked to see more of in that hypothetical longer story it would be that: more missions, more subterfuge and coded messages, more undercover work … but I also love this block for many other things. It really highlights the core relationships, and the pressures on them. It showcases both Syril and Cassian as being excellent actors, in universe. It is full of tension, tragedy and excellent world building of Ghorman. With Bix, it shows a moving and realistic portrait of profound trauma. With Lonni, it shows what an absolute behind-the-scenes genius he is. With Luthen, we see the cracks starting to show. Although it’s mostly about building up to the events a year later, I really appreciate that this block could also very much do its own thing. Beau Willimon was the writer, and apart from everything else here he gave us the mad genius of Saw’s Rhydo monologue.

And as for episode 6: the tragedy of Cinta’s loss intercut with Kleya’s attempts to remove the listening device, all just a few feet away from Krennic… so much tension and tragedy. We then have the most cathartically uplifting ending: Kleya and Luthen in total relief, joking about how they should have killed Krennic while they were up there followed immediately by Bix getting sweet, sweet revenge on the man who has plagued her mind for so long, bringing a spring to her step and a smile to her face. Maybe the most unadulterated triumphant ending to an episode in the entire series and boy did I appreciate it after all the misery and tension.

What are your favourite moments from this block?

… I’ve seen the show too often to need the episode recaps for any practical reason, but I really enjoy them as new ways of appreciating previous scenes and as an often subtle indication of what is to come in the new episode. This, for example, is the ending sequence of the s2 ep 4 recap, an episode which is set one year after these events but still shows the emotional aftermath of the end of ep 3, ‘Harvest’.

Don’t get me wrong; I adore the use of Niamos! in the episode itself, for the emotional dissonance that it creates. But there’s something really beautiful about seeing this part of the sequence again… especially Mon dancing to the sound of the track “Your Mother is Dead”. This music first appeared at the end of s1 ep 11, when Cassian found out about Maarva’s death. Here, he looks similarly stunned by grief and misplaced guilt as he tries to process the horror of it all. But as for Mon, she’s just lived through a terrible three days in which she has effectively killed her relationship with her daughter. So I find a particular tragic beauty in this recap.

I always play the end credits too, for the music. Sometimes you hear cues that are not on the official soundtrack. And of course, that particularly nice musical Easter egg in the credits of the final episode.