Become a Creator today!Start creating today - Share your story with the world!
Start for free
00:00:00
00:00:01
S02E18: Part Two: Adroitly Analyzing Andor Season 2, Arc 2
20 Plays8 days ago
We're back to Ghorman with more reflection on episodes 4-6. Join Bob, Ben, and Phil for more thoughts on this excellent arc. And get a brief sneak peek at Bob's reaction to the THIRD arc!
Join the Short for a Stormtrooper community!
Discord: https://discord.gg/a89TD3XdFX
Email: SFASpod@gmail.com
Recommended
Transcript
Resuming Andor Season 2 Discussion
00:00:01
Speaker
We're picking up our discussion of Andor Season 2, Episodes 4 through 6, and we're doing it real quick. Aren't you a little short? Aren't you a little short? Aren't you a little short for a stormtrooper?
00:00:15
Speaker
Welcome to our second, actually no, our third episode of Short for a Stormtrooper we're publishing this week. The first one was Sunday for our first anniversary on May the 4th.
00:00:27
Speaker
Our second was discussing Andor season two, episodes four through six with Ben and Phil. We released that on Tuesday, but we didn't get through the whole thing. So today on Thursday, we will share the rest of that discussion.
Exploring Andor's World Building
00:00:42
Speaker
Here's Ben and Phil and me.
00:00:45
Speaker
But, you know I did want to get back a little bit to the world building, which I thought was just phenomenal. And we really didn't get a chance to talk about this last week when we talked about arc one, which is part of the reason why I was like, let's go two episodes on this arc and moving forward.
00:01:01
Speaker
Um, The world building in the first arc on Shandrila was amazing. Like everything with the wedding, the Sagrona, Tima Salam. um You know, i I just kept thinking, Ben, I bet you were thinking the same thing too, was If only the Star Cruiser was still in business and we still had the Chandrilan Star Line, that there would probably be lots and lots of Chandrilan weddings starting to happen on that boat after these three episodes.
00:01:32
Speaker
But I think that's their moneymaker now. They've got that. I think they tore it down. But like that. What a great venue for that. And of course, you could then have, you know, all kinds of. No, you know, they didn't turn it down.
00:01:43
Speaker
Oh, do they still have it? They turned it into offices. But you know I don't know what the central atrium is like, like what the current status of it is. you know That's one of the things that we've always been talking about, setting it up for day trips and stuff like that.
00:01:58
Speaker
So that that could be a thing, despite the fact, right? Despite the fact that Both Vel and Mon Mothma hate the old traditions.
00:02:09
Speaker
Think that they're backwards. You know, a bunch of fans would still jump in there and and absolutely love doing that. But hey, you know, there's some people who like to cosplay as the Empire too. A little backwards, but that's okay.
00:02:23
Speaker
um well So the world building... If those people show up at your wedding, then you've got a problem too. i mean that's Yeah, right.
Cultural Depth and Language in Andor
00:02:28
Speaker
So the world building on Shandrilla was amazing. And... um Absolutely loved it. But holy cow, the world building on Gorman and literally saying, yeah, we want to evoke World War II era France, World War II era Paris, um Disney put out a and or declassified video on YouTube. i Did I send it to you guys?
00:02:54
Speaker
If not, I should have, but you can look it up on YouTube. It was about a 20 minute behind the scenes um after the second arc came out. And they did exactly what you were talking about a little bit earlier, Ben, is they hired French actors.
00:03:11
Speaker
ah the only the only actor of the Gorman people who was not French was the main guy, the father of, now I forget his name. um yeah yeah He was German, right? everybody else was right yeah Everybody else was French. And so you had that French accent.
00:03:32
Speaker
And even the little details like At the very beginning, um you know, he he's the guys going down the street on a speeder, but that speeder looked like a Vespa, right? It didn't look like a Return of the Jedi speeder bike. It looked like a Vespa. And there's even a scene of like a chef with a toque walking across the street with a big pot.
00:03:54
Speaker
um The screen crash Screen Crush guys called out that it was almost like the very beginning of Beauty and the Beast, like a shot for shot remake. But they weren't speaking they were speaking a whole new and invented language.
00:04:08
Speaker
ah And it seems like they took great pains at creating this gore language. One of the actors talks in that behind-the-scenes video about they would just slip into talking gore and have whole conversations in gore while they were in the process of filming. So I'm like, holy cow, if there is not a um A kind of a combination gore costuming group that starts up alongside the
00:04:39
Speaker
um the Coruscant middle class ah business class like Cyril's with that amazing tie that comes out of the slot on his shirt. Yeah.
00:04:51
Speaker
That's gotta be coming. i' am just picturing fans who are are getting, going to get completely immersed in the gore culture. And we're going to be seeing a lot of those for the next celebration. I think there's a lot of really interesting opportunity that I frankly don't think I saw enough of, like say in some of the earlier movies that we had to do this kind of work, right?
New Worlds in Star Wars
00:05:12
Speaker
Like, yeah.
00:05:14
Speaker
The opportunity I think was missed in a lot of earlier star Wars to, go check out new places and to build new things. And, you know, when you look at the original prequel, this is one of the complaints. It's like, Oh, it's Tatooine again.
00:05:27
Speaker
Like somehow we always end up at Tatooine. Yeah. So I thought it was interesting that, that now we're seeing some new worlds. I like that the catalog is opening up a little bit. I like that the costumes are opening up ah a little bit.
00:05:40
Speaker
Um, I remember somebody, somebody, there was an online, I think cartoonist named Dresden Kodak, who said something like, he always thought that like Star Wars, it was weird that the Jedi were always dressed in what were essentially like Obi-Wan Kenobi's Tatooine Bedouin robes.
00:05:58
Speaker
You know what I mean Right. Why would they be dressed like that? And so he had all these kind of redesigns that I thought were really interesting. And it's the same kind of thing here, right? Like i kind of wonder what would it have looked like if you had Jedi coming from Chandril, if you had Jedi coming from
00:06:14
Speaker
all these other places. Gorman. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I want to talk about, um, go for
Character Arcs: Val, Sinta, and Bix
00:06:22
Speaker
it. Yeah. I, well, one I'll say like, and I said this already, I did really like the stuff on Gorman. I really loved sound of that.
00:06:28
Speaker
For instance, it's aspect to it. I will say also, um just, uh, a brief note on Val and Sinta that end in the van when Vela is just absolutely.
00:06:40
Speaker
tearing apart this young guy who I believe was the one who kind of was like being a little cocky and like going against her and Sinta when the planning meeting and then just absolutely like in shambles like can't even kind of really speak and she's just absolutely laying into him and I was it just was heart-wrenching but like I was such a such an incredible moment I think even though was very sad one um I just thought that was really really interesting and a really interesting close I think to Well, maybe not for now, but at least in terms of this arc, like the Gorman plot line.
00:07:14
Speaker
Yeah, I think we're going to go back to gore. ah we're It's not going to be long, guys. We're recording this on Tuesday. It's like another six and a half hours. We'll find out for sure. I will say one other thing. And it's something that we didn't... We talked about a little bit on this one. We really didn't talk about it at all on the last episode, which was Bix. and Yes. And the additional trauma that she endures in episode three of season two, in addition to what she endured in season one, right?
00:07:41
Speaker
And we start off episode four with her hallucinating, right? And obviously we both start and end episode four with her, but we also start and end this arc with her, which is really interesting with her and Cassian breaking into Gorse's office, putting his torture device on him and then blowing it up. I thought that was amazing.
00:08:02
Speaker
It was so, so good. And just the, you know, and they did this in the first season, but the silent reaction to the, to the noises on the headphone, And you're just trying to imagine it's the most unspeakable horrors ever.
00:08:15
Speaker
And his just, read his kind of like pulsating reaction to it. I just thought that was done so well. And they're kind of like little Cassian and Bix's subtle nod at each other as they walk away from the explosion, as all cool people do walk away from explosions.
00:08:28
Speaker
um It was a little bit of a Michael Bay moment, but it totally worked. Yeah, it was great. I thought it was totally great. Yeah. And Bix's little half smile at the very the very last shot. She's got a little half smile, which I think.
00:08:41
Speaker
Any other Star Wars story and most other movie stories would indicate that she was done, right? Like that part was coming to a close. She is over her PTSD. It's done. She can move on.
00:08:54
Speaker
I don't think in the show that she's done. This doesn't happen. That doesn't happen in Andor. It's not quite as neat as that. I was going to say, I do think it's a brave move of Star Wars to imply that vengeance is healing.
00:09:05
Speaker
ah That doesn't sound very ah Star Wars-y to me so far, but I think it certainly is appropriate to the world that they've made and the characters they have. For sure. Yeah. You know, it was interesting. My experience of watching that, the first time that I watched it And as Bix was leaving, i was like, oh my gosh, she's doing this on her own.
Cassian's Revolutionary Actions
00:09:25
Speaker
What is Cass going to find out you know say when he finds out that she did this? Then when he stepped out, it was like, whoa, that's crazy. that he you know He made this happen as well.
00:09:36
Speaker
And then I was thinking... What is Luthen going to think when he finds out that they have done this? But then I was watching some other recap of this who pointed out Luthen must have set it all up. He must have set up the operation because how else did they know that Gorst was setting up shop there other than ah Lonnie passing on that intel through Luthen?
00:10:03
Speaker
So he must have known. It makes lot of sense. And i thought I'll just sort of throw in here too. I think it's a nice little counterpoint to the bit where the, the, the Gorman resistance were like, Oh, you're not much of a revolutionary.
00:10:17
Speaker
And then the closing shot we get in this arc is him being like, I just blew up the the mass torture. They were about to scale to the army and the Navy and the entire Imperial military. Yeah, he is when he when he should be and when he knows.
00:10:31
Speaker
And the interesting thing with that is his whole little fight with Luthan about, you know, should they keep going or should they not? ah Cass was absolutely right.
00:10:43
Speaker
none ah None of them realize that the whole thing is a setup from the Empire. And so, you know, them completely withdrawing from that situation would have been the right thing to do. But we'll see how it all
Luthen's Manipulations and Rebellion Tactics
00:10:54
Speaker
plays out.
00:10:54
Speaker
What do we think Luthan's intentions are here with kind of creat creating this fiction this friction i excuse me between... um I guess he, at least, you know, between fixx and Cassie, at least he tried to. I know that Bix actually told him that Luthing came, but what do you what do we think he's up to here trying to create, you know, sort of these, sow these seeds of discontent or struggle between them?
00:11:18
Speaker
I think part of it is him realizing that Cassian right now is putting Bix first, putting Bix above the cause.
00:11:30
Speaker
And so he wants to break down that relationship so that he can have 100% of Cass. Sounds like he's getting less of him, though. He's certainly sort of having the opposite effect. At least when we kind of last leave that relationship.
00:11:42
Speaker
I think that's basically right, Bob. And i would I would just add to that, that I think maybe almost a little more abstractly, like, I think for him, he wants tools that don't have other attachments.
00:11:54
Speaker
Like the best agent for rail is somebody who has nothing else, does nothing else, is ready moment's notice. We'll do whatever they're told, you know, doesn't ask questions that they're not supposed to ask.
00:12:08
Speaker
You know what I mean Like he kind of wants robotic type agents, but you know, of course what he's going to have in Cassian and I guess with Bix is people who, I think are starting to give us a little bit different model in some way of what the rebellion is going to be. Cause when you watch star Wars, the rebellion is all about this kind of family that does it together and is there for each other. And there's a lot more kind of emotional connection where I think with rail, because he's very much at the beginning of this thing, he's gotta be much colder about it all.
00:12:44
Speaker
And I, I just think that, uh, You know, we haven't yet made that turn. We talked about this before, that we're not quite at the turn from the kind of the Rogue One era to the Star Wars mythology era yet.
00:12:58
Speaker
Okay, that's the end of our discussion on ARC
Listener Engagement and Upcoming Content
00:13:02
Speaker
2. I would love to know what you guys thought about that. Are you happy that we went to episodes for this and had a little bit deeper discussion? Or you want us just to keep it to 15 minutes? Let me know either way. hop onto our Discord.
00:13:15
Speaker
We are always looking for more people to join the Discord and join the friendly chat. So jump on in and give us your thoughts. What did you think about us going to...
00:13:28
Speaker
episodes today. Because I tell you what, the thing is, is i am i'm making this on Wednesday, having just watched the third arc last night.
00:13:40
Speaker
And we will talk about that next week more officially. But let me tell you, i don't think I have completely started breathing again after that arc. That was some intense Star Wars. And there was just some great stuff in in that third arc, episodes seven, eight, and nine. So we will talk about that next week.
00:14:04
Speaker
Be sure to join us for that. But meanwhile, make sure that you hit like, hit subscribe, join the discord, join our conversation there. Tell all your friends, make sure you're watching and or may the force be with you. We'll see on Tuesday.
00:14:19
Speaker
Bye-bye. Who's got mindless toys to do? Podcasts help you see them through. Star Wars is your favorite unit. Let's chat for 15 minutes.
00:14:29
Speaker
Aren't you a little short? Aren't you a little short? Aren't you a little short for a sporn trooper? Aren't you a little short for sporn trooper?