>Text and subtext just perfectly melded. In that scene there
>is SO much going on. We’re seeing what Cassian said earlier
>about the Empire being arrogant right in front of us. (We even
>saw the Empire LITERALLY being fat and satisfied with that
>officer.
>
>Also during that conversation you have Gorn right there
>listening to it, knowing he had a past relationship with a
>native there. He responds to them in conversation with very
>careful wording - being truthful but not giving up his
>allegiance.

Yeah man, this what happens when people who understand Star Wars AND filmmaking get to play in the sandbox. To clarify, understanding Star Wars has NOTHING to do with knowing what the name of the alien was standing next to the droid in the background of a Cantina scene. It's not encyclopedic knowledge of minutiae and it certainly isn't the Abrams-level understanding of "people love Star Wars because people yell, and run from one place, planet, plot point to the next"

It's a DEEP understanding of the simple, even elemental core themes and realizing THAT is what made Star Wars timeless.

Then, because Gilroy and Best understand filmmaking/storytelling and have assembled every. single. element. services the story and those themes.

>On top of that we get foreshadowing. Why is the engineer
>there? What is it he had planned for the planet in destroying
>the valley and putting the natives to work? We have no idea at
>this point.
>
>This is episode 6 with HALF the season to go and I have no
>idea what will happen. It’s wonderful.
>
>That brings me to another point about why this is so good, and
>also not fair to compare other Star Wars stories. We have ZERO
>expectations watching this. The only thing we know is thet
>Cassian makes it out alive until Rogue One. So they have all
>these completely new characters that can be explored, with
>unknown fates. Even the known characters like Mon Mothma are a
>blank canvas that they can explore - not like writing about
>Kenobi or Luke or Boba Fett or Anakin or Ahsoka where
>there’s all of this baggage and known history. That’s GOT
>to be easier as a writer/director, not having people think
>“that’s not what MY Luke would have done!” I hope this
>show is successful and encourages Lucasfilm to use the SW
>universe to tell completely NEW stories.

I'm gonna push back on this a bit. The sequels had a whole host of new characters and they squandered each and every one to a man/woman. It was just obvious they had no idea what to do with them and who they were and why they were important. Some of that is a virtue of how they went about the production process and also who they brought into that process. Playing "Pass the story" was a horrible idea. Kicking it off with JJ Abrams, a filmmaker who has never met a story he couldn't tell and tries to hide it behind mystery box bullshit and bombastic propulsion. He's not a magician. He's a pickpocket. He distract you with mystery box-this, macguffin-that and a lot of loud noise, before you're left with less than you walked in with. He can't tell the difference between situations and stories and he doesn't give a damn about characters. That's why everything he's made is as empty as his head.

For a non-Star Wars example, see what he contributed to Mission Impossible franchise, which is actually the perfect franchise for him, versus what McQuarrie (someone who understands story and character) has been able to do. But I digress.

My ultimate point is, all those new characters were blank canvasses the problem is they stayed blank. Which was really the problem. Contrast that with characters we meet in Rogue One. A movie that, because it's a "Men on a Mission" film has to introduce us to a whole slew of characters and make us care about them in 90 minutes, or the movie just doesn't work. The fact that, until Andor, it's the best SW property since Empire and looked on so fondly is a testament to that work and the fact is I cared for them more than any new characters (or OT characters or that matter) in any of the sequels.

While we might not have expectations about the specific characters, we will always have expectations tied to Star Wars itself. The height of those expectations is often tied to what SW films we grew up with and what we really respond to in them. For example, is it cool space shit or is it more than that?

The problems with Solo, Kenobi (what I saw of it) and Book of Bobba Fett (again, what I saw of it) weren't really the legacy characters themselves.


>Thinking about this gives more context to what Kathleen
>Kennedy said about going away from Legacy characters in that
>interview a while back. She likely already knew how good Andor
>would be, along with anticipating some of the response to
>Kenobi and Boba Fett.

I hope they'll continue to not only move toward new characters/stories but more than that move away on thinking they need names to sell/make Star Wars films. You don't need JJ Abrams, Colin Trevorrow (remember that?), or Taika Waititi's names to bring people in. If they think filmmakers like they are the hands that Star Wars belongs in they'll keep getting fair-to-mid outputs that are maybe liked but really only loved by people who'd love a snuff film of their family's murder if you put a droid in it.

Really enjoy your thoughts/posts on this show/SW. Between the show itself and your contributions here this is the most thought I've given to Star Wars in decades.