#i would've preferred rogue one the tv series

[sambargestuff]

I don't hate Andor but I am conflicted about it. Specifically.... well, there's a lot and I don't want to write a dissertation here.

I just saw a gift of "I've been in this fight since I was six years old," and it got me thinking about the annoying, wholly unnecessary retcons in Andor again.

ETA: Actually, I will add a bit of a dissertation.

I think Andor has some beautiful moments, excellent actors, and good writing (in both character development and plot).

The speech by Luthen, for example ("I burn my life for a sunrise I'll never see") is brilliant both for the sentiment AND for Skarsgard's delivery. As a person that works in labour activism, I actually use that speech in training. Movements are full of people like Luthen (and Andor) and that's something that Star Wars never acknowledges but it's a truth that can inform movements; yes, Martin Luther King was a hero but he wasn't the Civil Rights Movement. There were countless activists that "burned their lives for a sunrise they'll never see" and we should understand their struggles. We should understand that even if we can't be MLK (or Luke Skywalker) that we can be an integral part of the movement.

If you're older than 12 and you want to remain a fan of SW, then you need the franchise to offer some adult content* and Andor (and Rogue One) does that. But....

They could've let some (or all) of Rogue One survive the movie and made a series of their activities through the next 3.5 yrs of rebellion (the length of time between Battle Yavin and Battle Endor). The writers would have been able to get across all the good things in Andor without destroying the seeds in R1. I love Diego Luna (I was a fan before R1) and I love Cassian but I also love Jyn, Bodhi, K2, Chirrut, and Baze. I would've watched the hell out of a show with them fighting the Empire and getting the plans for the 2nd Death Star. Imagine them fighting for a cause they believe in while struggling with the morality of some of their actions. Think of Cassian in the scene where he kills Tivik. Now imagine him being challenged by Jyn, influenced by Bodhi, needled by K2. Come on. Also, the characters would be aging with the actors so we wouldn't have to believe that 40 yr old Diego is 20 yr old Cassian. Just saying.

The retcon of Cassian's background was not only unnecessary; it completely changes his character arc in R1. If they really needed to make a prequel for Andor, what's wrong with a story of a rebel that's been in the fight since he was 6 yrs old?! Remember the image of Cassian when R1 came out was of Palestinian kids throwing rocks at Israeli tanks. That's a fucking awesome story. Instead we get a character that makes a lie out of the character of Cassian in R1. Also, there's no explanation for why no one can know he's from Kenari and they had to create a backstory about Fest or why the planet he was from was called Kenari and not just called Fest. It's a small thing but it also isn't a small thing, if you follow me.

Andor has a lot of good characters and story lines in it but it has some egregious missteps. Maarva is a character with good and bad in her but she's not developed enough for fans to see that, so most people hate her and see her as an abusive foster parent. Has Gilroy never heard of the 60s Scoop? Even if he hadn't, did he think drugging a child and abducting him was a morally neutral act? You know that fans hate Maarva because there's all this fan fiction that includes Cassian's hag of a foster mother who he inexplicably loves and cares for. Mosylu's Hold Me Like a Grudge does Maarva the best, I think, and gets her complexity but clearly people dislike the fuck out of her.

Bix is another misstep. She's essentially fridged for Andor and that's just weak and a disservice to the character. They created a woman with her own life and career, who apologetically sleeps with her boyfriend (SEX?! In SW?!) and tortured her until she was dependent on Andor to save her. I mean. Okay. I guess.

The good stuff - Mon Mothma, her family dynamic and struggles, Dedra and Karn as villains - could've been part of a series that is consistent with R1 canon. Even Luthen could've been part of it all without all the changes.

I can't shake the feeling that Andor is actually a slap in the face to Jyn Erso. Maybe it's the way they gave Cassian some of Jyn's actual back story or maybe it's because Jyn was the protagonist of R1 and she's probably not going to feature in Andor except as a fan service call back right at the end. The old feminist in me gets her hackles up whenever a female character is sidelined in favour of a male character. One of the joys of R1 is that Jyn and Cassian were equals. I would have loved a series that maintained that dynamic, romantic partners or not (but imagine the slow burn of that).

I could go on but I really need to walk my dog and go to the gym and work. I need to keep burning my life for a sunrise I'll never see.

*Or you end up being one of those people that doesn't understand the Vader and the Empire are the baddies, ffs. Boba Fett is not a hero of the franchise, ffs.

hmmMM I might actually hate andor. specifically I always hated that it retconned so much of what little backstory we had for cassian, and for literally no reason except a quick buck - they could have created a new character instead of making cassian a hypocrite in rogue one. but the real issue is how obnoxious andor fans have been. to hear some of them discuss it, you'd think tony gilroy had invented communism and was leading a revolution 🙄

also it's become impossible to find fic that doesn't use the andor backstory, because no one tags properly, and as a "I've been in this fight since I was six" enjoyer, that's very annoying.

[agentem]

Emily watches "Deadpool and Wolverine"

I'm not sure where to start. I liked it. I don't think it's as good as No Way Home. But it's certainly better than a lot of Fox X-Men movies. It's not really the big cameo-fest that some internet people were suggesting. I mean, there are background mutant bad guys. But there are only really five or six characters from the 20th Century Fox and New Line Cinema Marvel movies that matter.

You need to have seen the Deadpool films, Logan, and the Loki TV series for this to make sense. I worry some people aren't going to know the TVA stuff.

And there are only really two characters from the actual MCU that make an appearance. (And one of them I didn't know about and if you had TOLD ME she was in it, I would've bought my tickets even faster.)

I guess I should spoiler cut

WUMNI MOSAKU!!! My beloved Hunter B-15 (I hope she has a name now?) I love that she gets to be, like, the head of everything in this. Once she shows up, you know shit's gonna be fine. I was told it was going to be Mobius. And B-15 is better in my opinion because I love a woman in charge.

The other is Jon Favreau as Happy Hogan, who turns down Wade's application to join the Avengers in the beginning. That is set in Earth-616 (which is what Kevin Feige insists on saying the MCU is even though Iman Vellani has told him otherwise). But then he's in another universe, which I assume is the Fox universe, later. And I'm not sure how that works because he had Cable's time turner thing but I didn't know he could leap universes. Whatever, he's Deadpool. He does what he wants.

The fact that Dafne Keen was in it as X-23 was spoiled from the trailers but I didn't realize she was the Laura from Logan until she took out the sunglasses. I gasped. (And I'm kind of bummed to find out those kids Logan saved got to have maybe 5-7 years before their entire universe went away? And that's it?)

But somehow she is magically saved at the end--even though the other cameos "died heroically"--which is the only thing that matters (thank you, B-15!!!).

After seeing Channing Tatum's Gambit, I am very glad that movie didn't happen. It looked quite bad. Honestly, I prefer Taylor Kitsch.

Do you think they are saving the actual X-Men actor cameos for Secret Wars? Like where is flying Rogue. I want to see Rogue fly.