I'm starting a second watching of Skeleton Crew. I know it's nothing like Andor, but I'm curious about how Andor fans feel. I think it's a fun show with great kid actors and a good story. I love the Amblin feel that they were aiming for. What do you think? Is it another one you enjoyed?
Not to mention both Cassian and Ezra took a similar journey but different.
For it’s both, I feel bad for him once he realizes the Empire is evil and his world is falling apart. But I don’t feel bad for him because his hubris and actions caused a lot of trouble during on Ghorman despite doing what he thought was right. Once he focus on Andor, his fate was sealed, he cannot let go of his false rivalry on a guy who didn’t even know him despite what he did on Fennix.
It’s startling to go back to the start of season 1 and see how different Cassian is. Everyone on Ferrix, including his remaining loved ones, is disillusioned and disappointed in him and has effectively written him off as a hot mess, scarred by past trauma and seemingly unwilling to even try to improve himself. He’s kind of accepted that role for himself too, “starting to believe his own sob-story” as Gilroy puts it. He’s as far as he could possibly be from the heroic figure of the final arc of Andor and Rogue One.
He won’t win praise for biological accuracy but Gilroy’s assessment that Cassian is ‘a roach who becomes a butterfly’ is accurate as a metaphor. This journey begins soon enough and I would argue that Cassian undergoes the most profound and complex character development of the whole series. Even before his first scene Luthen has already in some sense gauged Cassian’s potential from afar. It’s made plain that Bix must have mentioned Cassian in association with her black market operation. “You said he wanted to meet me,” Cassian says twice during the scene where he successfully tries to get her to contact her buyer ahead of schedule. Cassian has been on Luthen’s radar for a while already.
Desperation from both men will lead to that fateful meeting in ep 3: Luthen is desperate for Aldhani to work and Cassian is desperate to get off-world until the heat from the murders dies down. The Starpath unit is such an incredible piece of kit to have stolen that Luthen knows that this is the ideal man for the Aldhani job. As he will say four years later: “You appeared when I needed you.” Force believer or not, by this stage if not before Luthen clearly sees that first meeting as the start of a journey.
Cassian wanted to sell the piece because he knew it was valuable but he was putting narrow monetary value on it. Luthen, on the other hand, saw another kind of value - “I didn’t come for the box. I came for you.” The name of the Starpath unit is interesting too because of the theme of destiny: “They’ll hang us both, won’t they… We set that course together the first time we met” says Luthen in 2.09 in a direct echo of the 1.04 conversation in the Fondor : “It doesn’t matter what you tell me or tell yourself you’ll ultimately die fighting these bastards…” But what was a fairly manipulative recruitment statement before becomes much more meaningful later. Luthen looks as Cassian by that point with a certain awe: maybe there is something more to this.
The story is, by its nature as a prequel, one with a set destination. An ending that cannot be changed: all paths lead there and in a way there is nothing that the characters can do to stop that. So I love these moments when Gilroy and the other writers slightly lean on the fourth wall, as it were, by having the characters themselves make reference to this, knowingly or unknowingly.
The series begins and ends with Cassian walking. The opening: along a causeway, a path that will lead to the killings that kickstart the events of the series. It’s night and Cassian is slouched, hooded and furtive. The ending: it’s daylight and he walks straight, with self-assurance and conviction. He has accepted that path and nods at the Force healer on his way to his heroic final mission when he will make it all worth it.
What a journey it is.
I know this can be said for a lot of episodes and it’s true, however “The Eye” is just special. It’s probably my third favorite episode in S1. The special effects are just awesome, especially that shot of TIE fighters taking out. The plot is also amazing, with the payload. I still find myself hoping Nemik makes it out, even though I now how the story ends. So yeah, I know this has been discussed many times before, but just finished rewatching the episode and wanted to share some of my thoughts.
One of my favorite things about Andor is how it portrays the complications of organizing a rebellion, a topic which I'm sure is in no way relevant to the needs and demands of the modern day. My brief academic experience with revolution is primarily with the populist movements in Russia at the tail end of the Russian Empire (and the Cathars during the Albigensian Crusade, if you want to count that as a 'revolution') and I find it remarkable how true to history the show can feel sometimes.
But more than that, the show is great at taking the events happening in the wider world of its story and consolidating their ideas into the inner conflicts of the characters. The titular character and natural rebel Cassian is the clearest example, but in my view, Wilmon Paak is an even better example of how Gilroy managed to do this with his characters.
S1 of Andor shows the difference between Wil and Cass with how they interact with people, rebellion, and where they begin in their journey. Cassian Andor is a natural rebel, born and raised on the fringes of centralized imperial society in every possible way. Without Luthen, Marva's own convictions might have pushed him to join the rebellion anyways. Cassian does not show us how a rebellion builds new members, it shows us how it recruits its key members.
Wilmon is the opposite. Wilmon's introduction to rebellion and violence comes about when he builds a bomb to take revenge for the torture and execution of his father. Wil is a mechanic and engineer, not a thief or a fighter. But those are the skills Luthen's form of rebellion needs, as it is technical skills that allow the rebels to utilize imperial infrastructure to their own goals.
The best scene where Wil synthesizes the two extremes of The Rebellion is with Saw and the Rhydonium. Saw's monologue about them symbolically being the Rhydo itself, the fuel in the air that catches fire when there's friction, represents Saw's perspective on the true spirit of a rebel. To him, Luthen's plans and spies are tools, to be used but not trusted, and not the root of who they are. Saw's intent can't be confirmed, maybe he wanted to completely bring Wilmon over to his group and make him abandon Luthen, or maybe he just wanted to spread the fires a little bit more, but it definitely pushes a marked change in Wilmon.
Wilmon doesn't leave Luthen, but we also see that he isn't completely like Cassian either, who is more willing to step away from Luthen's mission and fight his own fight. Wilmon IS inflamed by Saw and does become more like Saw when it comes to the intensity of his dedication, but that passion is applied to Luthen's methods and operations.
It's Wilmon who ultimately keeps the receiver for Kleya's radio, the last line of connection to Luthen's operations. The young man who began as a just someone angry and lashing out ended up being caught between two opposite extremes of the Rebellion, Luthen and Saw, the shadows and the fires.
He is the entire Rebellion wrapped up in one character, beginning to end. The question of "how do you build a rebellion" is inseparable from the question of "how do you build a rebel." Remember, Cassian was and always will be a rebel, but rebellions can't rely only on those who are already fighting, they need to stir up new resistance and keep the ones who join. For all of Luthen's good work, he himself cannot build a rebel. It is too dangerous for him to be in the field fighting beside his comrades. But not Saw. He is there at the frontlines of battle, prepared to live, fight, and die. Is he paranoid and short-sighted? Yes. But he needs to be.
To inspire a rebel, you need the mind who manage the threads of espionage and the voice who can speak over people's self-interests and distractions. And if you have enough ideal rebels like Wilmon Paak who can bring both sides together, Gilroy shows us that you will have yourself a rebellion.
Me after watching the two latest episodes.
Submission statement: this article explores how authoritarian regimes exploit the ambitions of the mediocre and the incompetent to enforce their will. Offering promotions and benefits to the otherwise undeserving acts as an incentive to commit crimes and atrocities.
While large parts of the article discuss authoritarian regimes generally (including the growing power of ICE under DJT in the US), the argument revolves around hard data from Argentina published by two German researchers.
>"Making a Career in Dictatorship", a new book by two German political scientists, Adam Scharpf and Christian Glassel, reads like what you might get if you crossed Hannah Arendt’s ideas about the “banality of evil” with a business school guide on how to get the most out of low performers.
>Their in-depth study of Argentina’s military during that country’s era of coups and forced disappearances found that low performers — whom they refer to as “career-pressured” individuals — filled the ranks of the secret police. That service allowed them to “detour” around the ordinary military hierarchy, the book shows, achieving promotions and career success they could never have managed otherwise.
>It turns out that would-be authoritarians don’t need to staff their regimes with ideological true believers, offer extreme enticements or impose draconian punishments in order to make successful power grabs. They just need to figure out how to target their ideal labor pool: the frustrated and mediocre.
A very good article and if you are able to pick up a copy of the book as well, I'm planning to. "Meal Team Six" is not just a meme, but a measurable phenomenon.
This will obviously never happen but on a recent rewatch I was struck how Andor leaves us with a seriously amazing line-up for a future story - Vel, Kleya, Bix (and child) and B have so much scope and history to them. Maybe seeing what they're up to between the evacuation of Hoth and the assault on Endor. Can't help but feel that's got far more potential than certain Mandalorians I care to mention....
While watching Andor, one historical event I was reminded of was the May 18, 1980 Gwangju Uprising that happened in South Korea. Some of it parallels the Ferrix riot, like the spontaneity, and some of it parallels the Ghorman massacre, like the perpetrators blaming the victims and the event leading to a larger movement. However, some of it does not, since the 1980s democracy movement wanted to democratize South Korea while the Rebel Alliance aimed to restore republican government rather than democratize the Empire. I am not Korean myself -- American who worked there as an English teacher -- so what I'm writing below is a brief summary. Let me know your thoughts.
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Following the assassination of military dictator Park Chung-hee, General Chun Doo-hwan launched two coups to install himself as acting leader and then president: December 12, 1979 and May 17, 1980. After the second coup and declaration of martial law, which included the closure of universities and restrictions on freedom of speech and association, university students in Gwangju (which had a long history of protesting) began protesting and organized militias that took over parts of the city. Soon, the military and police retook the city and killed several hundred citizens. The dictatorship blamed the "riot" (their term) on Communist agents of North Korea and tried to maintain military rule through a one-party state with rigged elections, but support for democracy increased until June 1987 protests and international pressure led to the start of democratization. After he left office, President Chun was convicted of treason and insurrection, and sent to prison until a later president pardoned him.
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When I visited Gwangju in January 2022 and took these photos on a snowy afternoon, I walked around the 5.18 Democratic Movement memorial and thought about how hard it is to overthrow tyranny and set up a durable democracy. Almost three years later in December 2024, President Yoon Suk-yeol declared martial law but was impeached after massive nationwide protests and later imprisoned for insurrection. After Park Geun-hye (daughter of Park Chung-hee) was forced out of office in 2017 and replaced by Moon Jae-in, this was the second time in modern South Korean history that a presidential impeachment and removal forced a new presidential election, which is how current president Lee Jae-myung was elected.
Maarva's speech hits so hard because it's a confession before it's a call to action. She doesn't stand up and say "fight back" . she stands up and says "I was a coward for decades and I'm ashamed of it." Then she says fight back. A great piece of writing without any doubt .
Does anyone from Ireland watch Andor in awe when thinking about Irelands fight for freedom. I also feel Maarva's speech noting Fight the empire was perfect as she's from Cork in Ireland (known as the Rebel county)
Bix and Dedra's portraits are not new, but they've been retouched slightly.