#andor episode 8

[hellothere-generalangsty]

Narkina 5

Okay. I have a lot to say about Narkina 5 and the prison.

So first thing first. Back to ep7 were Cassian has been very unfairly assaulted by a sandtrooper, then violently assaulted by a droid, then arrested and "put on trial" where really, no jury, not lawyer, not even a moment to justify himself or try to clear the misunderstanding. Only a judge and executioner. The whole scene was so unfair and violent; I hated the way the sandtrooper made it sound like Cassian was being aggressive and angry when really Cassian was keeping his calm and trying to explain with a calm tone that he was just a tourist.

This scene was important, because it only get worse after that. That arrest scene was a glimpse of how far police brutality can go. It was made clear in a previous episode that Cassian hates to be grabbed by the arm or touch without consent, and episode 8 really explained why. The sandtroopers then the prison guards were all firmly grabbing, pushing, and being physically violent toward Cassian and the other prisoners (lot of which were men of colour, like. At least ⅔ of them. And almost all the guards are white. Didn't go unnoticed.)

--

The fact that we as viewers don't know shit about what's going on, the same way Cassian doesn't know, that was a smart thing to do. It really adds to the chock of the brutality unfolding as each minute goes by.

The whole "take your shoes off" thing was unsettling; first it's dehumanising to force them to be barefoot, and it's worse to see the guards walk with these thick boots, like you know something bad is a out to happen and you dread what it will be (did you notice that the first shot of the guards is like. Down to up so the firsh thing you see are the boots? Very smart)

I assume the "roaster" is like. A very powerful electric device. Which would explain the paralysis/ distortion of their bodies + why they say it "roasts" you. It made me think of the electric chair, and not to say there are a lot of parallels with US prisons, but there are a lot of parallels with US prisons.

--

Now here comes the second part: forced labor.

I knew i would write a post about it, and I thought "I could say it's pushed to the extreme but no. It's just capitalism. We already reached that extreme."

12h shifts, everyday, nonstop. Setting it up as a "game", a "competition" where you get an award if you are the most productive of them all, and a punishment if you fall "last" on the productivity podium. Creating an environment that puts you under so much pressure, so much stress to win the game, to be the best, to always push your limits; an environment where everything is hostile enough to keep you alert at all time, where things are just comfortable enough that it feels wrong to complain compared to what you could have had, where fellow prisoners/ workers become your enemy instead of the people who put you in the system in the first place.

--

Because the guards are not armed - except for their electric sticks and their little remote. One push of a button and everyone is distorted and crying in pain. No need for more when you hold an entire prison at your mercy, thanks to a simple button.

The white decoration is just. It's bland. It's soulless. It's cold and honestly hostile. You don't feel safe or welcomed. All you have is the orange stripe that tells you you're a prisoner, the black outfits that lurk all around, keeping an eye on you, and the red dots on the floor. And the red dots mean pain.

The environment is hostile enough to keep you alert and unsafe, but comfortable enough for you not to complain: hey, the food is tasteless and liquid and you eat it through a tube; but at least it's unlimited and you have food. Hey, your box is open and small and you have to pee in public and you have no intimacy; but at least you have a bed of your own and a mattress and it's cleaned everyday. They even allow you to have a little light for the night. Hey, your shower is also public and you are completely naked round everyone else and it's just warm fog spread over you; but at least the fog is warm and you can feel somehow cleaner than before. It's better than nothing at all.

--

This is a system in which people are purposefully put in enough comfort to feel like it's not worth fighting to leave it. The Devil you know and all that. And it's a very dehumanising system. You have no intimacy, you have no hobby, you have nothing for yourself, nothing but a box and a table to work at. Your only purpose is to stay on top of the list, and to aim for the win. And after a while, winning becomes the only thing that matters.

I mean. A man commits suicide and the only thing everyone around say is "it going to stinks all night" - "he really had to do it here? If you do it here, I don't regret you" and "we're going to lose our spot on the list! We don't care how he felt, we're going to lose!"

It's terrifying to see and hear as an outsider of the system, but when you are in. What do you think of it when you are in? What do you do with what you are given? Cassian's lack of reaction says it all: you can't do anything. You can try to fight your way out, and die. You can give up, and die. You can try to hold on and remain on top and pray you finally get the award - until you die.

You have no choice, you can't have any, when the only options are to die or to survive. None of them are fair, the way they are presented to you make them unfair and horrible. Either way you will suffer, either way you will lose. Victory is temporary, victory is faint and minimal.

At the end of the day, the only winners at the people in black outfits holding the remote.

And I think this idea, this idea of illusion of choice, of picking the solution that keeps you alive rather than the solution that is morally right or ethical or righteous, it's really the core of Andor and later Rogue One. Sometimes good people are thrown in a system they have nothing to do in, it's unfair, it's brutal, unjustified, wrong, horribly wrong. And when you are outside of the system, it's easy to say it. It's easy to point it out and call these people heartless for ignoring the death of a person, for competing so hard, for focusing only on their well-being and for trying to survive using means that are wrong or violent. But this episode really brings in a new perspective: you see why these people act the way they do. You see them being brutalised, and hurts and constantly in danger, and stripped away from their belongings and from their identity and from who they are as individuals. You see the guards being violents, you see the psychological and physical abuse, and you see that there is no ethical choice. It's just surviving or not.

[kchuangart]

Wait why isn't anyone talking about how the forced prison labor is actually just Amazon warehouses.

The quotas, the obsession with metricizing productivity, pitting workers against each other via gamification, punishing the slowest team.

They also literally wear orange and white it's not subtle folks.

Can't wait for Cassian to bust the heck outta there.

[starwarstrack23]

Andor not even showing a scene of them being fried because the implied horror is so strong already. Just a long scene of sitting, waiting, preparing to be in so much pain after a day of working for the empire. God this show is amazing

[infinitelystrangemachinex]

streaming tv is like the fantasy/fiction need for a mid list. big money thrown at projects expecting that big money can make anything too big to fail, when the reality is that there’s only so much profit to make in an oversaturated market and only so many properties that can be the number one most popular thing at a time, but no matter how many projects fail or how variable the quality of the art is, it’s never going to be acceptable again to shore up most of your projects with only SOME money and letting that “mid list” find longlasting audiences that provide your baseline business

i wish both streaming tv and the publishing industry would spend less money on more projects that cultivate good writing. i want good writing and long projects to get invested in so bad that i'm caring less and less for production

my thesis statement is that tv shows are being canceled because they cost too much money. a mid list would have saved most canceled shows. higher production costs don't mean better writing, and lower production costs don't mean worse writing

the publishing industry is asking for shorter fantasy books and is canceling series and leaving authors behind because it is throwing all its money at shiny new things that are not actually new and don't stick

all of this without investment in a "mid list" to keep baseline profits coming or to keep a foundation of writers paid and busy

if companies spent less money on shows, would they last longer? would they hone writers' skills more? does this extend to animation where the budgets are so much smaller? or is there no world where i could get multiple 25-episode seasons of arcane and i'm just deluding myself

fantasy books especially have had an oversaturation problem for years, but the biggest problem is an over-reliance on debuts without investment in originality or in authors’ futures. what this looks like is big money thrown at marketing shiny debuts or at a subset of the old familiar faces in fantasy that established themselves before the shift in industry mindset. everyone else either gets scraps or can’t find their footing after their debut. you either go viral somehow or you go home. to make money, the only acceptable projects are generic or are recognizable rehashes of previously popular but specific ideas. fantasy is considered a popular genre now, but in my opinion, fantasy has never stopped being niche, but the need to find bigger audiences and bigger investment has resulted in pushing fantasy series that don't do anything new or interesting and actively spurn good prose, but can appeal to as many people as possible (instead of weird fantasy freaks, aka me, i'm freaks, now most of the freaky fantasy i can find is in video games and a single tear is rolling down my face)

now tv. buffy the vampire slayer cost about 1-2 million per episode. star trek tng cost 1 million per episode

look where we’re at with streaming services. tv shows that cost millions and tens of millions of dollars per episode. the sopranos redefined what prestige tv meant and it cost 2-6 million per episode. chasing the new prestige mindset, game of thrones started out at 6 million per episode. today, early game of thrones’ budget from about 2011-2013 is joked about like it’s chump change, especially for game of thrones or hbo. but prestige tv reeled in that subscriber money. the streaming model today is the continuation of the prestige tv model, except that every show needs to be prestige, no matter the audience or genre or story structure. because prestige tv made money

now that the baseline model for helping your subscription/channel make money is to throw 6 million+ per episode, it's no longer a mystery why seasons are getting shorter and shorter. and the demand for higher and higher production will only mean that shows take longer and longer to make

netflix shelled out 6 million per episode - what an oddly familiar number, huh? - for stranger things season 1. season 4 cost 30 million per episode

wheel of time season 1: 10 million per episode. rings of power season 1: 58 million per episode. these are adaptations btw, not original IPs, but this is SEASON ONE money you’re looking at. i liked both rings of power and wheel of time decently, but my hot take is that both of these shows are under-written and over-produced. why so much money thrown at projects with writers at the helm who are inexperienced in the fantasy genre? rings of power in particular is bank-breaking and it was originally planned to run for several seasons

the mandalorian season 1: 15 million per episode. andor season 1: 20 million per episode. the acolyte season 1: 22 million per episode

remember that the subscription model requires subscribers to make money and requires NEW subscribers to satisfy the hunger for growth, and star wars is a single IP with established fans. the mandalorian, andor, and the acolyte all took major risks in different ways. the mandalorian actually fell back on star wars fundamentals (rather than being something net new in my opinion) and its risk was in being a show, not a movie, and the first of its kind on streaming for star wars

andor could be the riskiest fantasy/sci-fi show to hit streaming, ever. 12 episodes for season 1 that cost 250 million overall, not 6-8, explores marxist themes, and did not pull in new subscribers. what popularity it does have is purely due to word-of-mouth and plain old good writing, rather than marketing or by simply being part of star wars. it was originally going to be 5 seasons but is now going to be 2 because... 250 million dollars is a lot to spend on one season of television that didn't make you a lot of money. simple as that, even if andor is the best live-action thing disney has produced in decades in my opinion

the acolyte season 1 was 8 episodes and cost 22 million per episode, which armchair critics on social media are stating is the reason why the show has been canceled. haters will just say it was canceled because of bad writing, and fans are saying it was because of review-bombing and the diversity of the cast and crew

i disagree on some level that the acolyte is the first star wars show to be canceled, because again, andor was going to be 5 seasons and is now going to be 2, losing over 50% of the original story. even fans of the acolyte will agree that its writing wasn't the best. most fans who have seen andor will agree that it is the best-written star wars media ever on par with the best episodes of clone wars. both shows brought me over to disney plus when no other show or movie did

but in effect, both shows have been canceled

my take is that if a mid list existed, both shows should have been on it. they are part of an established IP with established fans who were going to watch the shows no matter what. most people with star wars fatigue would not have heard about the uniqueness of these shows until later and would have probably picked them up by their finales or by their season 2s

if they were not star wars properties and were original stories instead, both of these shows were still fairly unique doing things that appeal to "weird" subsets of sci-fi/fantasy fans. the mid list would have been perfect either way

i firmly believe that a mid list would have saved both of these shows. 6 million per episode MAXIMUM. ideally less. not because i dislike either show, but because i care about writing above all else. pay 1 writers room a fair wage and let them go fucking nuts for a few seasons. as long as everyone else in the production is being paid a fair and living wage, i don't care how little is spent on the show

stranger things should have been a mid-list anthology series that ran forever, wheel of time should have been a mid-list tv fantasy with at least 12 episodes per season to do any justice to those massive books but also to pay homage to the book series' roots as high fantasy that goes on and on without much of a plan and with often mid and sometimes junky writing but with appeal in that it was long-running, made readers familiar with the same characters every book for many hundreds of pages each, and is something of a comfort read now for many fans

i think that reality is catching up to streaming services and things are going to get worse before they get better

but i also think that the next "evolution" of tv should be the return of the mid list

[haaam-guuuurl]

Watching Andor Ep 6

[boogieboba]

“Do you know anything about that rebel attack on Aldhani?

Cassian:

[e-the-village-cryptid]

having the time of my life listening to the A More Civilized Age podcast on Andor because they were frequently like. absurdly correct in their predictions and on picking up on themes a couple episodes before they become more major and explicitly stated but then occasionally they are just wildly wrong and there seems to be absolutely no in-between

[someinstant]

So I had to watch the last two episodes of ANDOR on my phone because first I was taking a bunch of teenagers on a trip to DC, and then I was in a cabin with my family on the edge of a swamp and my sister is only up to episode four and no one else has watched the show. Thus, last night I was able to finally sit down and watch episodes 11 and 12 on a television, and now I have a few Thoughts I would like to share:

Remember how in episode 8 Bix and Brasso are talking about Maarva's decline, and Bix says she fell? Brasso asks how, and Bix says she was trying to see if the drainage grate on Rix Road was open-- because she wanted the Rebellion to be able to go into the hotel and take on the Empire. And she says it with that sad little smile, like, We know all know she's imagining things, she's on her way out, but wouldn't that be nice?

IT'S CASSIAN. CASSIAN USES THE DRAINAGE GATE AND GOES INTO THE HOTEL AND TAKES ON THE EMPIRE TO HELP BIX. HE'S THE FUCKING REBELLION, MAARVA. My whole heart, jesus.

When Cass stops by his adoptive father's funerary stone (and gives that sweet, sad half-smile that Diego Luna can just break me with), his fingers and hand are all bloody, and I couldn't figure out why-- and then I remembered he'd been bare rock climbing with Melshi to escape patrols on Narkina 5 in the previous episode, and I wanted to kiss the continuity supervisors for this show on the mouth, because actions have weight and consequences, and injuries take time to heal, and of COURSE Cassian is marked by Narkina 5. Of course it bit into his body the same way it bit into his soul.

The folks over on the A MORE CIVILIZED AGE podcast are absolutely right: Cassian is a water-type Pokémon. The man is always in association with water: breaking out of a dam-slash-base that holds back a sacred river on Aldhani, hiding his money and weapons in a shower in the hotel and then arrested by the sea when he tries to run away to Niamos, marooned in a prison surrounded by water, caught (like a fish in a net! LIKE MEERO'S 'ARE YOU A FISH' SPEECH WITH BIX!) by fishermen by a lake on Narkina 5, finding out Maarva has died while the waves crash on Niamos, listening to Nemik's manifesto as the rainstorm comes down on Ferrix, wading through the water of the Rix Road drain to get to the hotel to liberate Bix-- the water imagery is just there.

And you know why? DO YOU KNOW WHY? It's because water is fucking impossible to pin down. It flows. It shifts. It can freeze solid, become a vapor, bring life, drown the unwary-- it's necessary to life, and antithetical to it. It takes the shape it's forced into. You want an elemental association for a spy? It's fucking water.

In conclusion, I hate everything, Tony Gilroy et al are monsters, I HAD MY CASSIAN ANDOR OBSESSION UNDER CONTROL YOU BASTARDS WHY DID YOU HAVE TO MAKE THIS SHOW SO GOOD.

The only good news is now I have about eighteen months to write an ABSURD amount of fic to fill the void Wednesdays will now represent.

[thelaurenshippen]

alright, I decided to just go and actually LISTEN to all the andor title themes back to back (and put them into a playlist, only the ones up through Episode 8 have been released it seems) and pick out the biggest differences, so here we go. my music degree is ten years old and very dusty, so there's absolutely better people out there to talk through this but I haven't seen anyone else doing it yet! this is my attempt.

the theme melody is in each episode, but the orchestrations are incredibly different. each theme starts with two tones - a bass tone that acts as a drone initially, and a higher tone that is usually pulsed. then the melody comes in and builds up to...well. it changes based on the arc. okay. here we go:

FERRIX ARC

Episode 1- droned low tone, pulsed higher tone, and then establishes the theme with sweeping strings and steady, then bombastic, percussion. brass come in to double the theme as it builds, before falling into a B section - very much what we'd expect from a Star Wars theme, big and orchestral and memorable.

Episode 2 - starts roughly the same, is melodically the same, but has waaaay less texture. it relies entirely on strings that feel bare, there's no brass or percussion, instead texture created from the strings overlapping and then abruptly cutting off and reverberating into nothing. no B theme whatsoever.

Episode 3 - the first time the low tone is pulsed, the higher tone is plucked this time, which gives it a very different feel. the melody is initially on synths and more of a vague suggestion at the melody before the actual melody as we know it comes in on the strings. my favorite thing about this one is that the percussion is through the kind of stick hitting sound that ferrix uses for their warning system in this episode, so it's a little preview of that.

ALDHANI ARC

Episode 4 - no opening tones at all, just intense percussion and then what sounds like some electric guitar texture way in the back. the melody is very hidden initially before coming in on our familiar strings, but it stays behind the percussion the whole time before it all suddenly stops, the reverberation shorter this time than in other episodes.

Episode 5 - an interesting mix of Episodes 2 and 3 feelings-wise in my opinion - both tones at the top are pulsed/plucked as in Ep 3 but the whole thing has a very delicate feeling to it, akin to Episode 2. this is the first theme where piano features prominently, playing the lead melody and it's also the first time we have our B section from Episode 1 again. I've been trying to figure out why we get the full theme this time, B section and all, and why it's so delicate, and I think it's because this is really the episode where all the various plot lines we've been following are all present and everyone is carefully constructing their missions, hence the delicacy.

Episode 6 - we start on strings and there is no low tone at all. everything is very percussive outside the melody and percussion only comes in toward the very end, an organic beat that brings us out alone. in general, this theme feels way more "organic" than the rest - no synth instruments, more warm and round tones, I think probably meant to reflect the people of Aldhani's celebration of The Eye. I also find it fascinating that for an episode that is so tightly choreographed, that has such a bombastic sequence, this theme feels like disparate staccato parts that don't build like the rest. nicholas britell, let me into your mind.

THE ANNOUNCEMENT

Episode 7 - this episode is sort of a standalone in between arcs, and the theme reflects that - it's a little confusing, using synths and a a bunch of instruments that are also probably synths but that I can't identify. there's a fuller sound than the last episode, but more chaotic texture, with these moaning synths punctuating throughout. and we do fall into the B section again (which I'm beginning to think is the mark of transition points), but it happens more subtly than previously.

NARKINA 5 ARC

Episode 8 - we get percussion right at the start and, in one of my favorite choices, we get the melody on synths but they're pitch bent to sound distorted. the strings come in and the drums build, but it cuts off quick, the distorted synths the last thing we hear

(had to go back into the episodes themselves for these last two)

Episode 9 - the beginning is completely different from other themes, a fast and frantic...synth? of some kind? with an adagio melody coming in right away, rather than one of our familiar tones. we can hear the same distorted synths in the background, but the melody is a little clearer. but everything feels....further back. the melody is quiet, without one piece of the overall orchestration really taking the lead. think there's probably a lot to explore here re: nobody's listening! and also the prisoners working in perfect lockstep on the floor.

Episode 10 - starts more traditionally, low tone then high, except the higher tone is on a wind (?) instrument I think and, to me, evokes the feeling of an orchestra tuning up (fwiw, it is literally playing A440, the tuning pitch) and the wind instrument builds the melody before the strings come in and take over, then handing it off to the brass. like Episode 1, it is more traditionally orchestral, and there's something really lovely about the instruments handing off the melody to each other, in the way the prisoners all join together for the escape. it doesn't build into anything bombastic, but falls into that B section and, because I had to go back into the episode to listen, I realized that the B section (at least for this one) is over action in the show, not the title.

anyway, thank you for reading this if you read this far and also apologies for splattering my brain over your tumblr dash, I just had to sit down and listen to all these. someone much smarter and better at musical orchestrations has probably already done a whole youtube video essay on this, so please send those links if you've got them

[clementineskesh]

as a star wars lesbian, i love that andor is giving us a fraught, complicated f/f relationship that is subtle but natural and interesting and compelling, but as an out lesbian watching this show weekly with my homophobic parents, i wish they were even subtler ksdfbjksdfjksdf

[ireallyamabear]

I'm starting to see a theme concerning Cassian Andor and the natural environment. Kassa who grew up in a jungle and freaks out the first time he sees himself by the (dis)grace of technology. Technology destroyed his planet. His adopted mother keeps a green wall of plants in her house. Is it for Cassian? We see him being in his element on Aldhani, blending into the surroundings and being his most competent yet. The Eye of Aldhani sees him, this natural piece of the force. Now we see him totally cut off from any nature in prison. Just stark infrastructure. No escape. I think he needs the connections to something living around him. And the show shows us a person who is connected to nature, to slowly growing surroundings, someone who is the antithesis to the clinically white sheen of the empire.

[fulcrumstardust]

more than I can contain (ao3)

He still carries a rifle but he’s out of reach and the nights are filled with stars again.

Except when they aren’t. White constellations bleed out on the floor. Red hard lights.

Cassian shudders and slips under. He snatches her by the waist with both arms. He doesn’t have time to think about it. He knows what comes next. He needs to get her off the floor. Off the floor. Off. Now.

[starwarstrack23]

I haven’t seen Star Wars content like this since the end of the Clone Wars. And just like that final arc, Anakin was hanging over so much of episode 8 for me. He grew up a slave and wanted justice, but now he protects a prison industrial complex. Even if he sneers like he does for the death star, thats just the same as these privileged, partying senators uselessly saying that Palpatine is overreaching.

[rotzaprachim]

the thing about a you want it darker edit for andor is. “I struggled with some demons they were middle class and tame” is a line that doesn’t make any sense for cassian. But is just biting for Mon mothma

[propalahramota]

I like Andor but this show makes Andor from Rogue One look like such a melodrama queen

"I've been in this fight since I was 8 years old"

Yeah, bestie, more like 38.

[sadlazzle]

how the FUCK does andor hav an 83% audience score on rotten tomatoes. that’s too high for that pile of shit tbh