#andor theme

[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

[wheelercurse]

NEW YEAR, NEW FONTS DAY 2: ONLY ONE ↳ CATCHING FIRE + NEMIK'S MANIFESTO

Font: Lemon Milk

[antianakin]

It's really depressing that the only real Jedi centric and Jedi positive show in existence is written for preschoolers, while many of the more "adult" shows are edgy and about morally ambiguous or straight-up evil characters. As if lessons about being kind and selfless are somehow not important or relevant to adults just as much if not more than they are to children.

It feels like characters who are unambiguously good are seen as only enjoyable by the very young and adult viewers will only actually appreciate characters who are cruel and selfish (and the requisite "tragic backstory" that always goes with it to help excuse their cruel and selfish choices).

It's just really sad and disappointing.

[swan-orpheus]

Definitely felt the symbolism in Luthen, whose extreme competence we’ve witnessed all throughout the show not to mention his martial prowess last episode, spending this episode merely observing as the fires of Rebellion sparked on yet another planet. As the light rose. He went there intending to act, but in the end he quietly admired, still an orchestrator in the shadows, in the literal shadow of his hood, drinking in the words of the eulogy, seeing what he had helped to create whether he realized it or not because of Aldhani and the hope that it gave to Maarva Andor, That desire to fight, to stand up, to TRY as we hear Nemik’s voice say.  Luthen lives in darkness in order to give other people light. 

Luthen wasn’t really there to kill Cassian, not really, though he consciously thought so. He was there to have his faith restored, the faith he hadn’t even realized was faltering, that was tested with his unplanned confession to Lonni Jung and showed signs of breaking when he told Saw that he was no longer sure about sacrificing Anto Kreegyr... to be gifted the light that he so assiduously denies himself every day that he draws breath for the cause. 

And then the last shot that we see of Luthen Rael this season is of him smiling at Cassian. A real smile amidst all of the fake ones that we’ve glimpsed on him and on other people all season long. He asks Cassian on a sigh, “What game is this?” because he is all about games. all of the time. He has to be. But not today. 

“No game. Kill me. Or take me in.” 

Cassian is the sun in his sunless space offering him another possibility. 

And Luthen Rael smiled. 

[jynjackets]

REBELCAPTAIN / JYN ERSO / CASSIAN ANDOR ICONS

(づᴗ͈ˬᴗ͈)づ emojis below the cut for @jynersso

7 ship icons + 10 individuals each

250 x 250 px transparent .pngs

j: kyber crystal + jedha scarf outfits

c: yavin jacket + blue parka outfits

reblog or like if save. feel free to use and add backgrounds. credit not required but greatly appreciated. also taking requests <3

other works: velcinta

[andorerso]

cassian andor + reckoning by smash into pieces (requested by @fulcrumstardust)

[coolmaycroft]

I am really tired of this discourse

[the-marshals-wife]

The New Republic really out here stripping people of their identities and reducing them to literal numbers in the name of preserving peace and order JUST LIKE THE EMPIRE DID TO THE CLONES

Dude I know we're here for Mando and Grogu funtimes, but you can't be sleeping on these parallels

[hegodamask]

“It took the combined ingredients of idiocy, ineptitude, and total disengagement for this farce to have reached the full apex of incredulous disaster.”

Ben Bailey Smith as SUPERVISOR BLEVIN

[oatshow]

#43 for jynmelshian, pleeeassseeee.

Number 43: Amy aka Spent Gladiator 1 by The Mountain Goats

(Send me a character and a number 1-100 for a drawing based on the corresponding song in my spotify wrapped!)

[gracelandmp3]

.

[merrysithmas]

cassian andor being like a vague acquaintance to all star wars' on-screen gays is so funny to me for some reason

[sparklingbinjuice]

[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

[jynjackets]

don’t get it twisted

as if my woc latina card got revoked for months because these men-crazed white women care sooooo much about minorities.

saying we’re equal means you’re part of the problem

[psychoblush]

Andor - S1E1 "Kassa" - Structural Analysis

This is a written analysis of the plotting and structure of Andor from a screen/TV writing perspective. I'm an aspiring screenwriter studying TV, film, and theater writing in college and this is my pet-project: to examine the way Andor constructs story in order to achieve certain dramaturgical effects. I hope to do similar analyses for the rest of the season as well. Thank you for reading!

This will contain spoilers for all of episode 1, spoilers for the first arc (E1-E3) and mild spoilers for the rest of the season.

Show premise

Petty-thief Cassian Andor is hunted by the Empire while a revolutionary movement coalesces across the galaxy.

Ferrix Arc (S1E1-S1E3)

Stories (Arc-wide)

A-story: When a pursuit for information regarding the whereabouts of his long-lost sister leads to him being a wanted man, petty-thief Cassian Andor is forced to do anything he can to remove himself from the attentions of corporate security, but the ensuing confrontation leads to death and destruction within his community.

B-story: (in flashback) When a mysterious starship de-orbits over Kenari, young Kassa embarks on a quest to prove himself as a capable member of his community, but the confrontation results in the destruction of his community and his abduction by off-world scavengers, never to see his family or his sister again.

C-story: Deputy inspector Syril Karn seeks to prove himself as a capable officer and a force for justice by apprehending the killer, but does so by disregarding his orders and endangering the lives of his comrades.

D-story: When Timm gets jealous of Cassian’s reentry into Bix’s life, the relationship is strained by mutual secrecy and miscommunication, leading to Timm’s death at the hands of a corporate cop.

S1E1 - “Kassa”

dir. Toby Haynes, wri. Tony Gilroy

streamed September 21st, 2022

Stories

A-story: Petty-thief Cassian Andor seeks to lay low and cover his tracks after a fatal shake-down with two corrupt cops leaves him a wanted man, but finds that his community distrusts him after overdrawing one too many favors.

This A-story is very central to the entire episode and with the exception of the B-story, all other stories causally spring from this story and end up relating to it in some way by the end of the arc.

B-story: In flashbacks, young Kassa wants to prove his worth by embarking on a scouting mission with the other “adults”, but abandons his sister in doing so.

The B-story serves both in the arc and the episode as a way to provide an elegate symmetrical structure. There’s a scene in the beginning of the primary action of Cassian’s pursuit after the opening sequence, one in the middle, and one in the very end. At the same time, the flashback serves to articulate some of the internal dysfunctions of the character, even though it takes a few episodes for it to fully manifest.

C-story: Security deputy Syril Karn wants to solve the murder of the two cops to fulfill his vision of justice, but finds that nobody in his organization, especially his boss, wants to help with his pursuit of the killer.

Here, Tony starts to flex his muscles in devising institutional drama and plotting. The main antagonistic force in the story does not operate unimpeded; he instead is faced with his own antagonism that articulates two key themes: 1) the empire stifles the freedom of those that serve it, and 2) fascist societies generate fanaticism regardless of whether or not it advances their cause or helps to maintain the preferred status quo.

D-story: Cassian’s reentry into Bix’s life prompts friction and secrecy between Bix and her romantic/business partner, Timm.

This almost functions as an addendum to the A-story, but gets its own special attention in how it chooses to articulate the Bix/Timm relationship. But it comes to have a direct causal effect on the A-story in subsequent episodes. Infact, the way causality transcends the stories becomes extremely intricate in its own right. Dramatic action becomes an emergent property of these interactions.

Scene sequences

OPENING/CLOSING IMAGES

OPENING IMAGE: Streetlights moving rapidly in the rain; Cassian in pursuit of his sister.

CLOSING IMAGE: After Kassa leaves his sister for the last time, she watches him as he runs away.

1: I./E. BROTHEL, MORLANA ONE - NIGHT (A-STORY)

Cassian enters an upscale brothel in search of his sister. When he receives special attention from the hostess, two on-duty corporate cops start antagonizing him. Cassian gets too pushy in getting information from the hostess, prompting him to get kicked out of the club and his pursuit thwarted.

2: EXT. MORLANA ONE - NIGHT (A-STORY)

Cassian tries to exit discreetly, but is held at gunpoint and shaken down by the two offended corporate cops. They attempt to rob him, but Cassian is able to outwit them, inadvertently killing one of them in the scuffle, and recovering the gun. With the tables now turned, the remaining cop tries to persuade Cassian to spare him, but Cassian kills him to make his escape.

Let’s talk about these two scenes as a sequence, because they function as one discrete unit of storytelling. Andor doesn’t do cold opens - though this sequence could very easily serve as a riveting cold open if they moved the title card to right after this scene. Being a streaming exclusive without commercial breaks, Andor also doesn’t use hard act structure with distinct act outs, even though we’ll come to see Andor as employing techniques similar to traditional TV act structure at times.

In TV writing, we sometimes encounter this idea of cold opens or opening sequences serving as story microcosms. In the sense that the structure and action of the sequence is representative, in a small way, of the way the world we see in the episode, season, and series functions. Andor’s opening sequence has him engage in a seemingly innocuous pursuit, enter a highly dangerous yet extremely familiar situation of power-tripping LEO, and leads him to make a difficult choice to escape the dangerous situation. It’s telling us that this is a world where good people have to make hard choices to survive because of the danger of the society they live in, which we will come to see in subsequent story units, is a racist, fascist, imperialistic, and capitalist society.

3: I./E. FERRIX / MAARVA’S SHIP - MORNING (A-STORY)

An extremely quick scene introducing us to Ferrix before work-hours, B2’s winning personality, and establishes the pretenses for Cassian’s flashbacks in the B-story. 

This isn’t really a real scene because it doesn’t have conflict, it doesn’t have antagonism, and it doesn’t have pursuit. But it serves as a good framing device and orients us to where we are on Ferrix.

4: EXT. KENARI VILLAGE - DAY (B-STORY)

This scene introduces us to Kenari, Cassian’s sister, and Kassa (the young uncontacted version of Cassian). We don’t get much action or context in this scene, but discerning viewers are able to pick up on the fact that this is a society populated solely by children and teenagers wearing and using old industrial equipment. Something very bad clearly happened here. We also see the mysterious ship de-orbiting, and the reaction the community has tells us this isn’t something they’re used to.

The decision to completely eschew subtitles is a pretty fascinating directorial choice and one that has gotten a lot of attention online. But It does a lot to ground the movement solely on the acting and visual language, as opposed to dialogue construction - though arguably it makes the plotting of this story a bit more sparse.

5: INT. MAARVA’S SHIP - DAY (A-STORY)

We get a short scene with Cassian where he starts to formulate a plan. We also get some indication that Cassian has a community on this planet with Bee mentioning Maarva and Brasso. In some ways, Maarva’s the antagonist in this scene because she’s besmirching Cassian to the others, even though she’s not there and it’s coming from Bee.

“Spectral” antagonist: A representation of the antagonistic force in the story by a character who isn’t that main antagonistic force. Bee’s just passing on information from someone else, but in doing so, he’s softly acting as the antagonist for the moment. We see this technique employed a lot in this episode and this show, especially since shows operating in the prestige mode often go entire episodes without main oppositional characters meeting (i.e. Cass and Dedra still haven’t met).

6: EXT. RIX ROAD - DAY (A-STORY)

Cassian convinces Brasso to spin a lie for him, but in doing so, it becomes apparent that Cassian’s sleaziness has overstayed its welcome in the community.

This is when the main sense of antagonism in the episode starts to crystalize for Cassian. Maybe once, his petty crime and hustler antics were overlooked in the community, but those days are coming to an end as Cassian’s options dwindle. That’s the source of danger, more than the possibility that he’ll be caught for the time being.

7: INT. PRE-MOR SECURITY CHIEF’S OFFICE - DAY (C-STORY)

Syril delivers the report of the double-homicide to Chief Hyne - keen on making a good impression and presenting himself as a dutiful officer, but Hyne sees through the bullshit and orders him not to investigate the murder in an effort to sanitize Pre-Mor’s crime reports under Imperial jurisdiction, leading Syril to be incredulous.

This is a great scene. It works wonderfully schematically, the scripting is stellar, and the acting is spot-on. This is the scene where I was truly convinced of what Andor’s storytelling was capable of. Syril comes in with a pursuit (deliver a report) with a deeper motivation (pursuit of justice) which is fueled by dysfunction (he is deeply insecure about his position as an officer and is desperate to please). The pursuit is met with opposition (Hyne has a completely different perspective on justice, being a pragmatist and someone who doesn’t want to rock the ship) and reversal (Hyne orders him to drop the matter and implies he wants to fire him), which leads us with a clear emotional context from Syril (anger and disbelief) which propels him into action (go behind Hyne’s back) for the rest of the story arc. It’s Emmy-worthy writing in a single scene. And it all happens in 3 minutes.

8: I./E. TIMM AND BIX’S SALVAGE SHOP - DAY (A-STORY) / (D-STORY)

Cassian comes in to convince Bix to contact his black-market dealer so he can sell his Starpath unit for a premium, but it generates friction between him and Bix because Bix assumes he’s been undercutting him. When Bix offers to buy it off him, Cassian refuses and convinces her to make the call. Timm expresses resentment for Cassian’s past with Bix - when Cass tries to dissuade his concerns, Timm gets more jealous of the two of them.

This scene’s also a banger. It has a complex shape - the danger is threefold: Cass doesn’t want Bix to know what trouble he’s in, he’s externally threatened by the sense of fear he has over being caught, and neither Bix nor Cass want Timm to discover the extent of their black market side-hustle. Bix is an antagonist to Cass, Timm is an unknowing antagonist to both Cass and Bix, and Timm thinks Cass is his antagonist. It’s great, and from here the causality gets pretty wild.

9. EXT. KENARI VILLAGE - DAY (B-STORY)

Kassa tries to go on the war march by joining in on the face-painting, even though he knows it means abandoning his sister. An older boy tries to stop him from participating, but the older female leader lets him join, prompting him to paint his face the same way she did.

This is a good scene with sparse plotting befitting the style of this story. The antagonistic force is the sense that Kassa should stay with the community and be with his sister, while the pursuit is that Kassa thinks he’s of more service if he leaves with the war party. The two antagonists are his sister and the older boy. Kassa gets what he wants in this scene, like he does in all the scenes this episode. This is because this story functions on an inverted sense of danger: the closer Kassa gets to what he wants, the more dangerous things will be for him. So the stakes are actually higher if his actions aren’t opposed very firmly. His dysfunction drives the story forward, with opposition deferred until it gets extremely bad in the third episode.

10. INT. PRE-MOR CORRIDOR / AIR TRAFFIC OFFICE - DAY (C-STORY)

Two security workers laugh and greet Syril in the hallway - Syril’s awkward response causes him to feel isolated. Syril corners the air traffic controller into reviewing the logs for him, but when the controller expresses apathy over the matter, Syril threatens him into compliance by invoking his authority.

GREAT LITTLE SCENE. It illustrates dysfunction: Syril is lonely, all he has is his job and a black-and-white view of morality and justice. It shows him acting transgressive to get what he wants, specifically by abusing his power over others. And it articulates the antagonism the same as the previous scene with him: what he perceives as laziness and apathy is what keeps him from getting what he wants.

11: EXT. FERRIX BACKALLEY - DAY (A-STORY)

Cassian is cornered and hustled by Nurchi, a local to whom he’s greatly indebted. Nurchi attempts to intimidate him with the help of Vetch, but Cassian is able call Nurchi’s bluff and escape from the situation.

It’s a good scene, really short and sparse. Thing to track here is that the town is becoming increasingly hostile to him and he’s generally unliked by folks.

12: I./E. TIMM AND BIX’S SALVAGE SHOP / FERRIX STREETS - DAY (D-STORY)

Bix is cagey about where she’s headed when Timm asks. Bix leaves, Timm attempts following her but quickly loses her trail when it’s clear Bix knows the streets better than he does.

13: I./E. PAAK WORKSHOP / RADIO TOWER - DAY (A-STORY)

Bix goes to Salman and Wilmon Paak’s workshop, asking to use the radio. Bix radios the buyer to come to Ferrix.

I put this as A-story because this scene has more to do than the previous one with Cass’ situation than the friction emerging between Timm and Bix.

What’s important about this scene is that it clues us into a larger underground network on Ferrix - Salman, Bix, Cass. It's a community where folks otherwise look the other way at this kind of stuff. Otherwise it’s sparse, no conflict, no antagonism.

14. INT. PRE-MOR SECURITY HQ - DAY (C-STORY)

Syril recruits the main security IT staff to help him apprehend the killer, but the staff express a general unwillingness to help him - both because they don’t care and because Syril doesn’t actually possess the authority to sanction an operation like this. Syril bullies the staff into compliance, telling them to put out a notice for the killer on Ferrix, despite the lack of authority Pre-Mor has there.

I like this scene, it plays slightly double-beaty because Syril is employing the same tactics as before on different staffers, but it also establishes it as a pattern. Syril advances unopposed in this story - especially in the context of later events, we know this is because we need to see him get into danger faster. It's another example of inverted danger.

15: EXT. PEGLA’S JUNKYARD - DAY (A-STORY)

Cassian tries rewire the ship he borrowed’s transponder codes, but in trying to justify his actions, pisses off Pegla and tells him he’s no longer welcome to take out favors from him.

This is a pretty lowkey scene, but it’s the closest we get to a crisis/climax moment for Cass in this episode. I’ll talk more about why that is later; it refers specifically to the way Andor modulates story in ways that work distinctly from other TV shows. Still, it has everything a scene should. A pursuit/tactic, opposition, reversal. And those elements push the story forward in more dangerous ways, as we’ll come to see in the next two episodes.

16: EXT. KENARI VILLAGE - DAY (B-STORY)

His sister tries to plead with him to stay, but Kassa leaves with the other war party members - promising to return for his sister.

Yeah, this bookends the episode. The episode begins with Cass in pursuit of his sister, the episode ends with Cass leaving his sister, never to return for her.

What do we hear Bix say of Cass in the last episode? “Cass always comes back.” It’s a gut-punch.

GENERAL NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS

Andor is a show that functions in a strange and specific way compared to a lot of serialized long-form narrative TV. Andor uses episode as building units to articulate larger discrete units of story within the season. In this sense, Andor’s “pilot episode” (I put this in quotes because most streaming dramas don’t have pilots) isn’t really the first episode, but all three of the episodes in its first season story-arc.

The way I was taught TV, is that all three-act narrative hinges on the elements of set up, play out, and pay off. Andor’s three tri-episode story arcs - which I will call the Ferrix Arc (S1E1-S1E3), the Aldhani Arc (S1E4-S1E6), and the Narkina Arc (S1E8-S1E10) - all hinge on this principle of modular three-act structure. Kassa doesn’t have a typical hard crisis/climax because it isn’t really a complete self-contained episode of TV. I suspect that’s also why the Ferrix Arc was ultimately aired all at one, as opposed to one episode at a time.

Still, Kassa is a strong and capable episode of TV because it demonstrates the strengths of Andor’s storytelling: the principles of causality, dysfunction, and institutional characterization.

causality: the chain of events in story that facilitate and heighten dramatic action in a linear manner. Andor shows us the investigation of the murders that happened in the first sequence - having the action of earlier scenes spiral into increasingly dramatic and complex action in subsequent scenes. The way the D-story with Bix and Timm loops into stuff that happens in the next two episodes is absolutely exquisitely done. Later in the show, the fallout of the Aldhani Arc is central to all of the action that happens in the second half of the season.

dysfunction: a character’s internal dilemma, ideology, or experiential understanding of themselves and the world that makes them operate transgressively within the world of the narrative. This is sometimes a character flaw, but can also be a sense of righteousness that puts them against unjust actors within the narrative. Cassian’s dysfunctions have to do with his desire for self-preservation and an easy payday, Syril’s dysfunctions relate to his inability to live up to his idealized notions of justice, and Timm’s dysfunctions come from the feeling that he can’t be as close to Bix as someone like Cassian can appear to be.

institution: the man-made structures that characters navigate within the story world and define the shape of the narrative. These institutions function as characters in their own right; Pre-Mor has as much of an effect on the narrative as a character like Cassian, as does Ferrix’s tightly knit working class community. And in subsequent episodes, we’ll look closely at how the empire’s administrations and power structures have material effects on the world. This principle is why Syril and Dedra spend much more time fighting their own institutions than fighting Cassian or the rebels. It’s a story about how highly-motivated actors navigate the challenges of their environments; dramaturgical complexity is almost an inevitable emergent property of this paradigm.

This episode and the one following it are among the least-tightly plotted of the season, but there’s still some intricate stuff. There are little moments in scenes where a single line provides an oppositional reversal that redirects the character’s trajectory for the rest of the episode. This isn’t a testament to Kassa’s weakness, it’s an appraisal of how Andor as a whole is a narrative that benefits from emergent complexity. When things go on for longer, more moving parts are in play, the story can move in unpredictable and highly dynamic ways. It’s a staple of prestige TV as a mode and Andor’s first season executes it exquisitely. With that being said, a lot of fans tend to underwrite the first arc of this season. And while I agree that it is personally my least favorite, it’s still really well-done. In the same way Andor has three tri-episode arcs, this is the “set up” one, and it does a lot of heavy lifting that allows the show to play uninhibited in future episodes. Don’t underwrite this one.

Thanks for reading! Let me know if there are any questions about terminology, theory, or just about the show in general, or my interests as a fan and writer.