• he/him

cohost's first star wars fanblog, official "Big Name Fan".

 

in my "bad batch s3" era currently



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I see a lot of takes trying to parse why Andor is such a successful installment of Star Wars. Invariably, there’s an attempt to discern Andor’s success in terms of how it differentiates itself from other entries; as if there’s some secret element its discovered, or some strange sin the other productions have committed that keeps them from salvation.

It drives me crazy!


The truth is, Andor is great because it is deeply Star Wars. Like the original trilogy, its a pastiche of the genres and films its creator loves. Like the original trilogy, too, the story tells an expressly political tale. Tony Gilroy is not some strange outsider with secret wisdom deep fans cannot ken; he’s a passionate storyteller that tells meaningful stories about characters he cares about. Guess what, that’s why George Lucas made his movies; that why The Mandalorian works; that’s why anything works, really. There are, despite what you have heard, plenty of goofy aliens, silly puppets, and sweet baby robots that absolutely enter the foreground and hold emotional weight. Very few characters in Star Wars begin as grand heroes; Luke is a farm boy, Han Solo a minor smuggler, R2D2 and C-3P0 the least of all of these.

And Andor IS going on a hero’s journey! I know we want to pretend like Cassian Andor is free from the monomyth but he’s on a journey of self discovery and that puts him in thousand-face territory by definition! Track it:

  • Receives the call - Hired to do Aldhani job
  • Meets the mentor - Luthen
  • Crosses the threshold - Leaves Ferrix (note he stops being “Cassian Andor” at this point)
  • The Road of Trials - Aldhani heist
  • Temptation - Niamos!
  • Death and Rebirth - Narkina-5
  • Magical Flight - Episode 11 Spoilers!
  • Return to Home <— NEXT EPISODE
  • Master of Two Worlds <— SEASON 2 “Cassian Andor, Rebel Operative”

Like my guy is just as much a Campbellian hero as Luke, Rey, or Moana, even if his adventure is smaller and scuzzier on the whole.

You are enjoying Andor because it is Star Wars, and Star Wars is fun, creative storytelling that remixes good stories and excellent performance with the most imaginative, tactile production design and sound design visual media gets. That’s why it works. Its the thing the other things are, just executed to a really high level by passionate artists along every axis. Who could have guessed! Star Wars was always good!


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