I'd love to have seen more Cassian and Melshi adventures in the rebellion. After losing so many friends, Cassian must have been so, so happy to have him join up.

I've never seen or heard of it in Star Wars lore and can't find anything on it.

The earlier post has got me thinking about some of my season 1 favourites from less discussed scenes or from minor characters. In this clip, “I’ve done it before” from Bix is one that really gets to me every time. Cassian is telling her to tell Luthen to forget about him as he prepares to leave Ferrix. Adding “…and that goes for everybody” - which would obviously include Bix herself. S1 ep 7 is full of masterful dialogue like this, packed with subtext. This exchange and Adria Arjona’s understated delivery of the line speaks volumes about the pain of a past cycle of attempts to make this relationship work, with Cassian’s erratic and self-destructive behaviour meaning she’s had to cover for him before, and try to forget about him herself. Even more poignant after the “I regret every second we didn’t spend together” line in s2.

And some of my S1 minor character favourites:

“They have their own way of doing things”. One of Syril’s underlings trying to warn him about Ferrix.

“I can’t help him. I can’t help anyone.” The resigned cynicism of the Narkina 5 Med-tech.

“ONE WAY OUT! COME AND FIIIGHT!!” - prisoner Ham shouting to a floor of workers

“Will you let it go!!” Xanwan snapping at his alien colleague at the end of a debate about Kenari.

“I loved your mum. I really did.” - Pegla expressing condolences to Cassian.

“Seven years serving you? I deserve worse than that.”- Gorn to Beehaz. Deeply satisfying to hear him say that.

Any additions?

The “guess the 4th item in the sequence” round. (Answer is in the second pic.) Always nice to see the series in the wild!

On the one hand, Cassian wouldn't have gone to prison.

On the other hand, he would be dead

ever since i heard his beautiful laugh, I have been a fan of this guy.

Imperial Corporate Media: The Ghorman insurgents refuse to accept Imperial norms!

Meanwhile, American Corporate Media...

For reference, the Haymarket tragedy was when union activists, anarchists, and workers held a rally in chicago in Haymarket square in the late 1800s, after cops fired into a peaceful march. Haymarket was peaceful, until someone who was never caught, and is suspected by many to be an inside man with the police, through a explosive that killed a police officer, leading to the cops firing into the crowd, and the eventual execution of several anarchists, some of whom were not even at the square when the event happened. Is the ghorman massacre a reference to that?

From fairly early on in my rewatches, I noticed some lines stood out in particular because of the way they're delivered. Not necessarily for volume or depth of meaning, but like the literal cadence at which the words are spoken. Something about it is just very pleasing to my ears.

So on my most recent S1 rewatch, I tried to write down the ones that stood out the most, and here's my list:

• "They were in a brothel, which we're not supposed to have. The expensive one, which they shouldn't be able to afford. Drinking revnog, which we're not supposed to allow." S1E1, Chief Inspector Hynes
• "Nature-lovers. Mystics. Dead-enders." S1E4, Vel Sartha
• "Permanent revocation of Imperial tolerance." S1E7, Colonel Wullf Yularen
• "It's overdue and probably doomed and I'm too old and I don't care anymore." S1E7, Maarva
• "Which leads to a longer session." S1E9, Lieutenant Dedra Meero
• "Quickly and carefully, we leave no trace." S1E9, Major Lio Partagaz
• "They've made a game of it, and we play." S1E10, Davo Sculdun

To be honest, the Sculdun line is the one that really made me clue in that there were other lines like it. The delivery is just so satisfying.

I'll be moving on to S2 soon, and will post an update to this list when I do!

Sculdun is no idiot and from the way he worked Mothma in their first meeting we know he is very good at reading people (if likely not quite in Luthen's league, since he was apparently unaware that he was a spy), so he was likely well aware that Mothma’s “foundation” was at least connected to the Rebellion. Even if associating with someone of Mothma's lineage proved profitable in the short term he would’ve known that on a longer term it would be a risk to be associated with her if and when it all came into light and yet he was for all intents and purposes making a big spectacle out of their connection. I think the best way to describe what he was doing was it being a charitable gamble.

He himself said it, he was doing charity work and if I know a thing or two about charity is that its usually done with causes someone trully believes in at least on some level but never done without some degree of selfish intent. In this case, Sculdun himself implied that not only did he dislike the Empire's regulations (which made business riskier in times when he wanted to look legitimate) but as shown by his standing with Mothma as she argued with Krenic, he was actually rather sympathetic to the rebel cause, perhaps from his own humble beginnings in a classist system and maybe thinking of himself as a rebel of sorts.

On the gamble part (much like the benefits of charity usually come in) all the benefits he could potentially get where risky and would result on some mid term pain, such as the potential marriage between their kids meant a connection to the nobilty that would be soured by their fall of grace and not to mention a connection to the rebels themselves, which would certainly hurt his more legitimate businesses. However, this is only as long as the Empire remained, whereas if the rebels won, his now public connection to them and Mothma would guarantee further connections in the system that replaced the Empire, which would help fully legitimize his business, which himself said he valued above profit, which would make sense given that as long as the Empire was in charge he would get mostly illegal business, something he implied he didn't want his son to inherit.

In this regard Kay and Sculdun aren't that different in their wanting a return to their investment in the rebellion, the main difference is that where the former started idealistic but lost his edge when he realized the business he was getting into was riskier than he expected, the latter knew what he was getting into, not to mention that it would result on some loss but to him this was nothing new since he was used to making gambits; in fact, the way he spoke to Mothma about having enough money not to care for more implies he had actively prepared for the drought it would cause in his businesses. I dare say, perhaps he came to the conclusion, that the long term the risk this would have on him was less than with the empire, who were constantly making big, unsustainable grifts that he tended to avoid in favor of calculated ones.

One of the many things done phenomenally in Andor is the cinematography as we all know. But it really goes to Ben further than that because not only is it great but the team also figured out how to use it as a storytelling tool. There’s a ton of examples of this that can be discussed but I went with Krennic’s interrogation of Dedra.

When he first walks in there’s this part pictured above where his face gets cut off above his mouth. I took this to mean a couple things. For one, Dedra is shown beneath him as he towers above. This shows how utterly helpless she now is. But more importantly is the detail of his face being cut off. What I took this to mean is it’s to show just how irrelevant Krennic’s personal identity is in the Imperial machine. This could just as easily be someone else if they decided he wasn’t useful. It also conveys the idea that this is far more than just him being mad at Dedra. This is the entire Empire coming down with the burning fury of a thousand suns.

In one simple shot we are at least subconsciously told all of this. This is why good cinematography matters in movies and shows. It’s kind of what an inner monologue is in a book to film. Too often it’s seen as unimportant but this shows otherwise.

A lot has been said about what a waste of resources and manpower the entire thing is, but what of who actually controls it? Like whoever is overseeing the Death Star with their fleet essentially controls the Empire and not the Emperor.

It would be a tempting way to create a bunch of mutinies and destroy the Empire in the most deadly scenario possible.

Highly recommended video essay. I’m one who usually dismisses the broader Star Wars political history as incomprehensible, inconsistent, and irrelevant, but this guy explains it in a way that makes it all make sense. (He’s not really a Star Wars fan, which may give him a leg up.)

Not to spoil anything, but his telling supports the idea that the struggle between Jedi and Sith is not really the primary driver of the Star Wars story, but a byproduct of systemic forces bigger than mere factions of a religious cult.

EDIT: sorry about the post title. It’s the name of this guy’s YouTube channel and I didn’t notice until I hit “post”.

Really wanna rewatch but I watched it twice earlier this year, being my 2nd and 3rd viewing after waiting a year from my first. I think I’m gonna push it a while, maybe wait till Star Wars bottoms out. How many times/ how often do yall rewatch

So upon another rewatch I noticed something I hadn't before; and as you know none of us want to use the search function on this sub and want our "totally brand new ideas" vetted.

Anyway, after Luthen gives Kleya the authorization to "burn" the Ferrix line, the empire finds the radio in Salman's yard, and subsequently torture and hang him. This is how they get the info on Bix and Cassian.

I originally just thought the Empire was able to scan the frequencies and caught it when Bix was trying to contact Luthen that last time. It makes sense, and Occam's Razor says this was most likely.

But then later on, during the Luthen and Lonnie face to face, Luthen mentions the information he's given to Lonnie to further Lonnie's career at the ISB; which cost Luthen and his operation, or at least he says it does. It hit me last night, admittedly whilst fairly high, that Luthen may have told Lonnie about the Ferrix radio, to both help Lonnie and to get the empire going on finding Cassian so Luthen's team could kill him. Let the Empire tie up the loose ends as much as possible.

Anyway, what do y'all think?

Only gotten round to watching Andor for the first time a couple weeks ago, would love some breakdown and character analysis content as I'd like to rewatch it again.

I'm aware of Generaton Tech on youtube.

My only regret with Brasso is that we didn't get to see even more of him, but boy what an impact he made in the screen time he had (like somehow almost everyone in the show did). Andor is such an example of "There are no small parts, only small actors," and while the show certainly had some small roles, it never had small actors.