Disaster

Andor is so lotr-like. It’s so sincere, so unafraid to seem cheesy or cliche (and the moment this fear is dropped the thing can really become passionate and truthful, and by no means cliche or cheesy!) In a world where every meaningful thing said is constantly “spiced up” (diminished) by absurd, needless humour, in a world where seriousness, love, honour, betrayal is so often ridiculed by the efforts to make it idk customisable? Unchallenging? Easy to watch? Andor is another gem. Because “that’s just love. Nothing you can do about it.” Because “I love him more than anything he could do wrong”. Because “I have made my mind a sunless space. I share my dreams with ghosts.” Because “Id rather die trying to take them down than die trying to give them what they want”. It’s so unapologetically real, so filled with raw, sincere emotions, imo it’s things like that that we can call art. I mean, art could be anything, but Art is recognised instantly by the heart. That’s the thing that forces you to really look around and question yourself, your surroundings, your ethics, your emotions. The thing that reminds you “hey, you have a heart. You get to feel things whether you’d like it or not. And in the real world there won’t be anything to keep you comfortable and idle on your couch. Look, the real world is like this; full of love, full of hope, full of grief, full of cruelty, full of happiness, full of sacrifice, full of regret, full of beauty.” And you sit and think “yes, I do have a heart. And even if I throw it away (which is impossible) I will still be left with a gaping hole for where it used to be. You’re right, living is like this; it’s not what eleven sequels with hip music and characters interrupted right before they express profound emotion want you to believe. There is hope and love and suffering and holes you will never fill and holes you’ll fill with light.”

Mon Mothma is really interesting to me because she is willing to get her hands dirty for a cause. In comparison to Padme, for example, she is a completely different sort of person, rebel, senator, partner. This isn’t about putting them against each other to say who is better, they were, according to canon, very good friends and co-creators of the rebellion, but the way they work to get to their ends is different. Mon admits that she has learned from the Emperor, she has learned how to lie, how to betray, how to be a wolf in a sheep’s skin, the things that Palpatine is the best at. Padme, who has been Palpatine’s friend and, in a way, student would not do the things Mon does. She puts the Rebellion, freedom, politics, war first, but she wouldn’t marry her daughter off to achieve something. She wouldn’t betray Anakin, first of all, because their love is true, compared to Mon and her husband. But also because framing somebody isn’t morally correct in her opinion. Ideals are extremely important to Padme. She is the golden side of the rebellion: honest, honourable. That is inherently why Anakin fell in love with her, that kid from Tatooine where those words meant less than dust. And that nature passed on to Luke, which is why he was able to save Vader and defeat the Empire in the end. That golden side is crucial to the rebels. That’s not to say that Padme isn’t willing to lie or spy or kill, but sacrificing her morals for a greater cause would be near impossible to her imo. Becoming Luthen would never have been an option. And that doesn’t make her bad or useless. Like I said, people like her were the ones who built the Rebellion in the first place, without them it wouldn’t have thrived. Padme is Nemik. Padme is the Jedi. Padme is Luke refusing to fight Vader, refusing to become like him even to save his friends. In the end, that’s exactly what saves them. But Mon, oh Mon is Luthen. Mon is Cassian himself. Mon is the sacrifice of Kreegyr. Mon is shading faces like masks and lying without shame. Mon is all those people who gave up their conscience for a cause. Mon is the shaded side of the rebels, no less crucial than Padme to their eventual victory. Mon is willing to do the things Padme is not, and by that she is unable to be moral and good like Padme, unable to be the golden side. Doomed to use her enemies’ weapons against him. They are two sides of the same coin, one shiny, one rusted, both make up its value, both a heart with which the rebellion beats. Only before we saw more gold than rust, and now Andor really got to show us the black side of the Rebellion.

Andor really went here is our senator she is trapped trapped trapped just like cassian is trapped in a prison she is trapped in the cage of tradition and choice and sacrifice look at all these people they are all trapped in the same cage and the only way out is death and they share their dreams with ghosts and they forsake inner peace and calm and kindness for a purpose they must make choices that will lead nowhere look at these people they are robbers they are shepherds they are prisoners they will either die or win and look here are their enemies and they are people just like them isn’t it horrifying look this man here is the senator’s daughter he gets two seconds of sunlight a day and that sunlight is the woman he believes is the way to true meaning true life he is trapped trapped trapped look here is cassian himself looking in a mirror for the first time and braking it looking at a man suggesting treason and seeing his reflection and shooting him look here they all are trapped trapped trapped with nothing but their own conscience in their trembling hands and the consequences of the decisions that they make with it

my favourite aesthetic

I’ve just rewatched Rogue One and let me just talk about how frickin’ good it is. Like, really.

The simultaneously desperate and hopeful spirit of the movie is something no other SW movie has. Sure the OT is also about how the Rebel Alliance fights the Empire, but it doesn’t have this emotional atmosphere of people fighting an enormous evil machine with nothing left to lose, with nothing but rage and hope and fire in their eyes. They fight not just with, they mostly fight for hope. This is the first fight. This is merely the beginning. And they have already lost, sacrificed so much that they just can’t let themselves not finish the mission.

The impeccable dialogues. Every one of them. Jyn’s speech before they start their attack, Jyn’s last words to Krennic, Galen Erso’s message to Jyn, Saw Gerrera’s last words, Cassian speaking to Jyn after her father dies, Vader being so fucking dramatic it makes me laugh even though he’s choking a man. K-2SO’s replicas, Chirrut’s communication with Baze. ALL OF IT IS SUPERIOR.

I also love the purity of the character’s emotions. You can literally feel it through the screen. The actor’s job was awesome, plus the music and their lines, and it’s just *chef’s kiss*. The horror when Vader appears in that hall. The tears in Jyn’s eyes while she watches her father’s message. Her conversation with the Alliance’s Council. Baze seeing all his friends die. Jyn talking to Krennic. Jyn and Cassian on that beach...I don’t even need to say anything, do I?

The music is actually pretty good too. The characters are really creative and unusual, plus most of the main crew are POC which is also great and adds diversity to the SW Universe. Just the way it’s filmed, there are so many breathtakingly beautiful scenes!

Bonus for adding some scenes with Chopper and the Ghost!

You don’t get it, all of Rogue One’s beauty and amazingness, after the first time you see it. But when you rewatch it a couple times, it becomes clear to you that it’s one of the best Star Wars movies ever made.