Potato is yum

I’m not gonna lie, when I made that first starwars post I had only reached episode 8 of the 2nd season. And at that time I was completely taken in by the story. The more I sat through the final four episodes of the show the more I could see the parallels between the story and real life. From a few articles I could tell that these parallels aren’t an accident. So yeah. I’m gonna go through the ones I especially like and stuck with me after watching the whole show. So spoilers after this line. You’ve been warned.

I want to first start this by saying I’m not a binge watcher for media that encourages deep thought. Andor is a show that I consider one that provokes deep thought and as such I only watched an episode every week for my mind to mentally reset and process all the events of the previous episode. I think this improved my enjoyment of the show as I was able to go into every episode with a fresh head open to thinking through the ideas presented before me.

Episodes about the stolen space ship was a pretty great hook for me. I did not remember much from the first season except for the prison break and the poor guy that couldn’t swim (I didn’t cry. I promise) so having a very quick reintroduction to all the main characters was very welcome. I found that the portrayal of Cassian and Bix as unstable just trying to get by in life was incredibly relatable. When I think about it, aren’t almost all of us rebelling in some way during our lives? From malicious compliance, internet piracy, to simple boycotts and other actions we also in a way do these “acts of rebellion.” And just like Cassian and Bix I wouldn’t say any of us are fully in control of our lives. Of course, Cassian and Bix’s instability is amplified to accelerate the story and portray a stronger image but the messaging from their characters stick in my mind as “normal people trying to get by” which is something not many other shows (I watch) do.

Last time I made a post about Andor I mentioned the childhood banker friend. But before we go through that, let me compliment the characters. I suck at names. I’m like seriously bad. I can’t remember almost any of the characters. But these characters were so well done that I can remember nearly all of them. They all feel so distinct. So human. The flaws of each of them is put on full display and amplified to really make them more memorable. Like the senator has to make her speech about Gorman even though she knows the empire is gonna try to stop her at all costs. Whenever we saw the senator on screen the word “safety” seemed to be eating away at her. Luthen repeatedly mentions her safety at the cost of her friends, her allies, everyone around her. Right before the speech she looks around and realizes nobody around her is truly on her side. Everyone is working for something else. Something she doesn’t understand. And she’s scared of it. Scared of the rebellion. Scared of something new. I think the senator represents so many people in our society scared of change, scared of the people changing around them. Yet just like everyone today, to survive she pushes forward.

Holy crap. Uh. So I wrote more than expected. Sooooo we’re splitting this post in half. If you couldn’t tell I really loved the show. It was incredible.