Andor **** SPOILER Discussion ****

[catdlr]

This is the complete review of Andor for the first season, authored by "Filmanalysis". The presenter is easy to listen to, employing a slow and detailed pace. It is recommended to watch this video before doing a full re-watch.

Dec 11, 2025
In this video, I'll break down all four arcs of Andor Season 1, tracing recurring themes and motifs throughout 9+ hours of episodes. I'm entirely convinced that the Andor creators placed these details on purpose, and I hope to prove it to you in this comprehensive analysis.

Timestamps
00:00:00 Introduction
00:01:10 Ferrix Arc Analysis
00:24:58 Aldahni Arc Analysis
00:43:43 Narkina 5 Arc Analysis
01:07:29 Rix Road Arc Analysis

[Blackstar]

[catdlr]

This guy dives into the deepest parts of the script and brings new insights to the series. He's moving slowly, tearing through a scene at a time, one by one, piecing together an episode. Even after he's finished, he's back at it again a few weeks later with even more insights. Others and I critique his script, make tweaks, and add our own views to strengthen this. I hope you enjoy.

New Insights Inbound! The Ultimate Andor S01E04 Aldhani Deep Dive Analysis

Dec 10, 2025
This analysis moves through the full structure of Andor episode four and focuses on how the series builds political tension, rebellion psychology and Imperial worldbuilding across Coruscant and Aldhani. I look at the Luthen Rael gallery scene as a study in Star Wars espionage where Mon Mothma, Kleya Marki and Luthen perform layers of cover behaviour inside an environment designed for secret conversations. The video explores Coruscant power dynamics, the performance of aristocratic masks, the pressure of surveillance and the way Andor uses production design to show how rebellion leadership and Imperial politics collide in a single room. I also focus on Mon Mothma's character development, Perrin Fertha as a portrait of privileged complicity and the way Coruscant high society reveals the casual cruelty that keeps the Empire stable.

The breakdown then shifts to the Aldhani storyline where the rebel operation shows the harsh reality of early rebellion logistics, resource scarcity and command pressure. I examine Vel Sartha's leadership decisions, Lieutenant Gorn’s double life inside the Imperial machine, Cassian Andor’s forced adaptation to guerrilla planning and the internal tensions created by a group trying to prepare a heist while lacking equipment, time and trust. The rebel camp scenes feature the Eye of Aldhani myth, Nemik’s model, the fragmented belief systems inside the team and the moment Cassian recognises the ambition and madness of the mission.

I also look at the Imperial Security Bureau briefing room and the conflict between Dedra Meero and Blevin as a sharp example of Star Wars bureaucracy, authoritarian performance metrics and the political culture that rewards brutality while suppressing insight. The episode uses architecture, posture and dialogue to show how Imperial control functions as a climate that every character must breathe. I explore how Luthen’s dual identity, Vel’s leadership strain and Dedra’s battle against institutional inertia. The Empire shapes the air itself, and every act of rebellion becomes an attempt to create space to survive.

This chapter of the series examines Andor’s layered storytelling, from Coruscant intrigue to Aldhani heist preparation, using character analysis, political commentary, production design interpretation and Star Wars lore to trace how a rebellion slowly forms under pressure.

[Blackstar]

[Blackstar]

https://gizmodo.com/mads-mikkelsen-lego-death-star-star-wars-2000702593

[Blackstar]

It's not Andor, but it is funny.

[catdlr]

Now this is Andor:

https://twitter.com/skywalkersound/status/2003544612179443752

[Blackstar]

I like that. Wish I had it earlier. I would have used it in my Christmas cards.

[catdlr]

Since there was an X-Wing at Yavan Yavin right at the end of Andor, I'll sneak this article on how ILM built these models. The article is linked below the "x" post.

As a side note, the reason this article is being published now is that Lucsfilms annually honors its workers with service awards. For the first time, they are recognizing those with 50 years of service, including Ben Burtt, who created the laser wooshing sound and the R2-D2 speaking sounds.   The article about that is here:  https://www.lucasfilm.com/news/lucasfilm-service-award-ben-burtt-dave-filoni/

https://twitter.com/ILMVFX/status/2003149103102910817/photo/4

Industrial Light & Magic

@ILMVFX
50 years ago in December 1975, the artists at ILM completed their first X-wing miniature. On http://ILM.com, historian and modelmaker Jason Eaton takes us behind the scenes, showcasing his decades of research about the many, many ingredients that went into this iconic starfighter.

Read more:

How to Build an X-wing: 50 Years After ILM Completed Its First ‘Star Wars’ Model

[Blackstar]

Since there was an X-Wing at Yavan

Yavin.

Over a decade ago a bunch of the original SW models were touring. They were appearing at museums around the country. I saw them in Philadelphia and again six months later in Los Angeles (maybe at the Discovery Science Center?). You could get very close to some of the models and they were not behind glass. What is amazing is how good the paint and build quality is really close up. The artists had the ability to make a small miniature look like something much bigger scale, and that creates a weird sensation. I had my nose about 10 inches from the Millennium Falcon model (the big one, before they went to a smaller model that was easier to maneuver) and my eyes were telling me that this thing was huge, and my brain was telling me that it was just a small model. It was a weird kind of cognitive dissonance.

On a related note, a number of years ago I got to see a studio scale model of the refit Enterprise from Star Trek: The Motion Picture. I had seen the move many times, many still photos, and many subscale models. Until you see the full size model, which is about 8 feet long, you don't really appreciate it. You can move around and look at it from every angle and appreciate it as a real piece of art, not just a model. It was really weird seeing it in three dimensions instead of two.

[catdlr]

This is the complete review of Andor for the Second season, authored by "Filmanalysis". The presenter is easy to listen to, employing a slow and detailed pace. It is recommended to watch this video before doing a full re-watch.

Dec 24, 2025
In this video I'll break down all four of Andor Season 2's arcs, tracing recurring themes and motifs throughout 8+ hours of episodes. I'm completely convinced that Andor creators placed these details on purpose, and I hope I can prove that to you in this comprehensive analysis.

Timestamps
00:00:00 Introduction
00:01:19 Wedding Arc Analysis
00:20:36 Ghorman Heist Arc Analysis
00:41:39 Ghorman Massacre Arc Analysis
01:00:45 Finale Arc Analysis

[Blackstar]

https://reason.com/podcast/2025/12/23/andor-creator-tony-gilroy-on-bureaucracy-and-the-surveillance-state/

[Blackstar]

I'm a Trekkie, but I admire skill, and this guy has skill:

[Blackstar]

Not Andor, but the overall design look of Star Wars:

[JAFO]

When I was a starving CFI back in the '90s I taught an employee of Lucas Sound to fly. As a reward he took me and my companion out to Skywalker Ranch for lunch and gave us a tour. I was  in geek heaven, even saw Mr. Lucas from a distance (my former student: This is as close as we're going to get. Don't stare.) The workmanship on the main house was as beautiful as you'd expect, and it was very cool to see props from all the Lucasfilm movies under glass around the property.

In 1988 the Marin County Fair persuaded Lucasfilm into opening up the vault and for the first time props from Star Wars, Indiana Jones, and other movies were exhibited. My girlfriend and I were two of the geeks who stood in line for an hour or so to get in, totally worth it. You could get right up close to the models, I was even able to find the Champion Spark Plugs decal on the Millennium Falcon.


I have a feeling we'd all react like Kevin Smith if we ever got to visit a set:

[catdlr]

There's a little "Andor" in it, but it's a video about the "FORCE". If you can identify where every clip in this video originated, you're doing quite well. This is the broadest use of video clips from almost everything Star Wars, except for Visions and a few episodes from "Tales Of."

[catdlr]

What REALLY Happened to the ISB After Andor!?

Dec 31, 2025
What REALLY Happened to the ISB After Andor!?

In this deep-dive breakdown, we unravel the shocking collapse of the Imperial Security Bureau after the Death Star leak, exposing how a paranoid loyalty-over-competence culture turned one of the Empire's most feared organizations into a cannibalistic mess of betrayal, suicide, and implosion.

From the downfall of Major Partagaz to the tragic brilliance of Dedra Meero, and the resurrection of ISB tactics in the First Order through agents like Moff Gideon, this video traces the full spiral of the ISB from dominance to oblivion and 'rebirth'.

Discover how the Rebellion didn’t even need to beat the ISB. AND let us know what do you think happened to Dedra Meero???

Chapters:
00:00 Intro
0:31 The ISB Spiral - Week by Week
07:16 Dedra Meero - The Empire's Greatest Mistake
11:37 Why the ISB Isn't in the Original Trilogy
13:29 The ISB's Secret Resurrection
How this was made

[Blackstar]

Somebody posted this to Twitter. Dunno where it is from, some Star Wars book. But it's somebody's contrarian view that the Empire wasn't all that bad. Sure, they killed and enslaved billions of people, but they kept the trains running on time...

The person who posted it contrasted it with Andor, saying how Andor really demonstrated how wrong this view is.

[catdlr]

Dark Horse Comics circa 2011.

Website here, but I can't find that article:

https://www.darkhorse.com/newsfeed/tag/horsepower/?p=3

https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Dark_Horse_Comics

[Blackstar]

Dark Horse Comics circa 2011.

Website here, but I can't find that article:

https://www.darkhorse.com/newsfeed/tag/horsepower/?p=3

https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Dark_Horse_Comics

Thanks. I think that a columnist for The National Review also The Weekly Standard wrote something like that. TNR is TWS was a conservative magazine, and the columnist meant it tongue-in-cheek, also along the lines of "Mussolini was a bad guy but at least he made the trains run on time..." I can remember that getting circulated around. People could laugh, because it's fictional, but is it really funny if you're using fiction to joke about genocide? It's that squishy overlap between fiction and real life.



Addendum: I found it. I had the publication wrong. Date was 2002. (However, the debate was revived in 2015 in The National Review, as the new Star Wars movie was coming out. That discussion spilled over into The Washington Post.) The Weekly Standard folded in 2018. The article appeared in several places. I found it here:

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/1881387/the-case-for-the-empire-2/

A snippet:

"Lucas wants the Empire to stand for evil, so he tells us that the Emperor and Darth Vader have gone over to the Dark Side and dresses them in black.

But look closer. When Palpatine is still a senator, he says, “The Republic is not what it once was. The Senate is full of greedy, squabbling delegates. There is no interest in the common good.” At one point he laments that “the bureaucrats are in charge now.”

Palpatine believes that the political order must be manipulated to produce peace and stability. When he mutters, “There is no civility, there is only politics,” we see that at heart, he’s an esoteric Straussian.

Make no mistake, as emperor, Palpatine is a dictator–but a relatively benign one, like Pinochet. It’s a dictatorship people can do business with. They collect taxes and patrol the skies. They try to stop organized crime (in the form of the smuggling rings run by the Hutts). The Empire has virtually no effect on the daily life of the average, law-abiding citizen.

Also, unlike the divine-right Jedi, the Empire is a meritocracy. The Empire runs academies throughout the galaxy (Han Solo begins his career at an Imperial academy), and those who show promise are promoted, often rapidly. In The Empire Strikes Back Captain Piett is quickly promoted to admiral when his predecessor falls down on the job."

And:

"But the most compelling evidence that the Empire isn’t evil comes in The Empire Strikes Back when Darth Vader is battling Luke Skywalker. After an exhausting fight, Vader is poised to finish Luke off, but he stays his hand. He tries to convert Luke to the Dark Side with this simple plea: “There is no escape. Don’t make me destroy you. . . . Join me, and I will complete your training. With our combined strength, we can end this destructive conflict and bring order to the galaxy.” It is here we find the real controlling impulse for the Dark Side and the Empire. The Empire doesn’t want slaves or destruction or “evil.” It wants order.

None of which is to say that the Empire isn’t sometimes brutal. In Episode IV, Imperial stormtroopers kill Luke’s aunt and uncle and Grand Moff Tarkin orders the destruction of an entire planet, Alderaan. But viewed in context, these acts are less brutal than they initially appear. Poor Aunt Beru and Uncle Owen reach a grisly end, but only after they aid the rebellion by hiding Luke and harboring two fugitive droids. They aren’t given due process, but they are traitors."

And in conclusion:

"Which makes the rebels–Lucas’s heroes–an unimpressive crew of anarchic royals who wreck the galaxy so that Princess Leia can have her tiara back.

I’ll take the Empire."


In 2015:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/act-four/wp/2015/10/29/the-destruction-of-alderaan-was-completely-justified/

https://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2015/11/05/just-wars-episode-iv-the-destruction-of-alderaan/