Dabo

here's the thing,

tremendously famous internet personality jenny nicholson and renowned new york times columnist jamelle bouie are fundamentally right about this, of course they are

there's not a universe where this scene, where a cartoon character talks to a deepfake homunculus about a cash-in muppet and his toy analogue psuedofather, ranks near any given scene for the duration of andor

------------------but!¹

they're wrong about literally every reason why its wrong! and that's bugging me! and I, I don't, I don't want to write this, I don't want to be that soccer ball, and yet, fuck me, here I am, writing this right now, pregretting the post, because, I don't know, there's some stupid part of me that prickles at common wisdom, I guess?

because of course, everybody knows its better to film things with real actors on real sets, instead of that goddamned Volume that makes all the Disney+ shows look like crap. its better to have dialogue about characters and themes than about plot and lore advancement. the whole rotten state of modern entertainment is a meaningless shiny digital pablum that dazzles even as it stupefies, like one of those old cartoons where one spinning spiral will let you convince your mom to be a chicken or something.

BUT!

This is shot on a real set! Outdoors! Its not a real forest, but its most of a proper bamboo grove, and they're not even using stagecraft² for the set extension, just simple chromakey matting. You know what else used mostly complete sets with traditional chromakey set extensions?

Fucking Andor! Because even if you build a whole town or go on location, the specifics of your shot needs still might not be wholly met, and at this point digital set extension is really really really really good and almost entirely invisible! Almost EVERYTHING you watch has digital set extensions or manipulations!

And the actors are real! The only digital manipulation is on Luke's face and voice, and-- let's not be unclear here, that sucks, but his body is a real actor on set who looks ASTONISHINGLY LIKE A YOUNG MARK HAMILL and it makes me mad they think he needed any post processing-- anyway!

and the dialogue is... NOT building out lore??? this bit bugs me! There's worse examples to pull! but all ahsoka says to luke is "hey the mandalorian dropped off this gift for froggo" which is... perfunctory, yes, flat, yes, but its a clear communication from one character to another about relationship and event context for a lil bundle-- its-- its not the-- its not like a pop quiz on jedi beliefs or chemical qualities of beskar or god help me some shit about kyber crysals again, its-- is it really a mandalorian name drop if the mandalorian is a character who is in this show and visible in the show and present in the narrative of the show previously?

its not like modern star wars doesn't commit these sins constantly or greviously³, that's the thing, but right here is just, just, just a dull scene! you don't like it because the face replacement and AI voice is affronting but for some goddamn reason everybody wants to be an aesthetician when it comes to star wars and point out how unhandcrafted the bad stuff is and how fucking artisinal the good stuff is and and and and and by god the same fucking artisans are making the good stuff and the bad stuff simultaneously in the lucasfilm sweatshops you goobers, the problem is that a lot of TV star wars just doesn't have like, pep in its step, that's all. 9 times out of 10 you are looking for some clever craft answer to what is ultimately just a basic storytelling problem-- this scene is not bad for its filming, its not bad for its content, its just a little slow and flavorless, because for some reason Disney TV stuff talks like 12 year olds trying to be serious instead of a screwball 40s comedy where everybody is bickering and half drunk, which is the thing you actually want out of Star Wars in the first place, that god damned pep!

look, i-- like i said, i don't ultimately disagree with anything either of those much smarter and more accomplished internet people said at the top, nobody would or does, but its just, its just in this one particular case, the things they're citing don't actually apply, and that's just, i don't know, that's weird right ? that's--- anyway, i uh, agh, bye

1. fuck me, i'm doing this, aren't i, i'm sorry, i don't want to, the thrall of the nerd is upon me, the eye of the redditor, something, i don't know, i'm going to be staring at a dark wall in my bedroom wishing i didn't post this later, i hope that's recompense

2. did you know they made a whole outdoor mos eisley set for tbobf? almost none of that is shot using stage craft. or that the garbage rooftop chase in obi-wan-- that whole terrible city bit basically-- all soundstage sets! not volume at all! i know right??

3. NOT A PUN