Ah, space Florida, we hardly knew ye… but we’re about to get to know one of the Empire’s worst prison complexes.
Recap
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Cassian is brought to a transport that will send him to Narkina 5, where he will serve out his six-year Imperial sentence. Syril Karn is located at his current job and brought in for questioning by Dedra Meero; he’s been making false inquiries with the Empire to try and find any possible information on Andor and she wants to know why. She gives him Blevin’s write-up on the Ferrix situation and tells him that she expects him to fill in the blanks. She then gives her report to the ISB officers and Yularen, explaining her theory on the coordinated rebel activity and referring to a person they call “Axis,” the one responsible for pulling all of these things together (they don’t know it’s Rael). Later, she asks Karn to give her more information on the Rebel informant on Ferrix, but he doesn’t have much left to give her. He tries to insist that he was a good officer and could be of use. She tells him to stop filing false reports and stay out of her way.
Cassian arrives on Narkina 5, where all the inmates go barefoot due to the disciplinary system being run through the floor of the complex, one that can cause anything from unbearable pain to death when activated. He is put to work assembling tech for the Empire, in a room run by Kino Loy (Andy Serkis). He’s assigned to Table 5 with a team; whatever room works fastest for the day gets flavor in their food; whatever room works slowest gets killed. Cassian notices that one of his table-mates has been signaling other prisoners in the facility using their own form of sign language. His table-mates manage to ask if anyone has noticed the latest legislation that went through, the PORD (Public Order Resentencing Directive), one that doubled everyone’s sentences. They want to know if people outside are talking about the rebellion, but Cassian insists that he knows nothing. One night, a man steps out of his bunk and onto the red floor on purpose, dying by suicide.
Mon Mothma is having another party to try and put a stop to this far-reaching legislation. Tal arrives and tells her that the current climate has made it very difficult to handle her money the way she requested, and Mon worries that the 400,000 credits she already pulled from her accounts will be missed.
On Ferrix, Bix has come to check on Maarva; she has been attracting attention and causing trouble, trying to pry open an old tunnel under the hotel where the Imperial prefect is holed up so that rebels can get in. She’s hurt her leg and is also having trouble breathing, but she tells Bix that she’s already seen a doctor and doesn’t need more help. Brasso also comes by to check on her, and tells Bix that they need to be much more careful. Vel and Cinta are watching Maarva’s house for signs of Cassian. Cinta insists that she could rent a room nearby, since this is the only lead they’ve got. Vel wants them to stay together, but Cinta reminds her that the cause comes first, and that Vel only loves her because she’s a mirror and shows her what she wants to see. Vel leaves and Cinta stays nearby. Bix asks Salmaan Paak (Abhin Galeya) if she can use the message tower again; he doesn’t think it’s a good idea, but she tells him it’s urgent and sends another message to Rael.
On Coruscant, Kleya intercepts the message and tells Rael—she also says that he should tell her to shut down this line of communication and that he’s slipping. Rael tells her that he’s just been in hiding too long, but agrees to shut it down. The next day Bix learns that Salmaan was taken in for questioning last night and never came home; the Imperials are now after her, and she runs, but gets captured anyway. Meero is at the hotel, there to ask her questions about Cassian, having already tortured Salmaan. Rael takes a ship to Segra Milo to meet with Saw Gerrera (Forest Whitaker). They both accuse each other of being responsible for the Aldhani job. Rael brings equipment that Saw can get for free if he agrees to meet with a fellow named Anto Kreegyr, who needs help taking down an Imperial power station on Spellhaus. Rael tells Saw that to achieve their desires, they all need to start working together. Saw has no interest in risking his crew for people whose ideologies are “lost” to his mind—separatists, Neo-Republicans, and so on. He sends Rael away.
Commentary
I really hope this series isn’t trying to reposition Saw Gerrera as an anarchist, because that would be… entirely inaccurate from both a political and a philosophical standpoint. Sure, it’s a fictional universe, but this is being developed largely by Americans and westerners, and anarchy as a political alignment does actually mean something. You shouldn’t just toss the term around when you’re trying to indicate a person who doesn’t care about collateral damage or collaborative effort—that’s functionally erroneous.
That said, the idea that Saw is uninterested in joining forces because he cannot abide the political leanings of other rebel operatives checks out. I’m a little put out by how vague Star Wars has been on Saw’s development in general, because drawing a line from the character who was introduced in Clone Wars to the guy we’re seeing now is still difficult to parse, but I buy that he’s viewing all these potential allies by alignment labels that he finds distasteful. The idea that he’s the one “true believer” amidst people who aren’t up to the task jives with everything we’ve seen of the man in this era. Bringing this forest-for-the-trees conversation to the table would be interesting if they genuinely put the time in on it. Obviously, Saw believes that if he helps these “lesser” rebels, he runs the risk of empowering people who will create a galaxy that’s just as bad as one under the Empire to his mind.
Does anyone else have questions about Cassian’s credentials, being whether he paid for some really impressive fake IDs and identity-building, or the Empire really doesn’t check out anything at all, or is that just me? I would like any explanation on that side of things, given how thoughtlessly this stuff tends to be built into these narratives. Din Djarin had to scan his face at an Imperial facility for no discernible reason in The Mandalorian’s last season, and I will never be over it, so I need them to give me something.
Also, I would like even one line about what they’re building at that prison facility and why it’s more useful for the Empire to use human manual labor for these purposes? (I kept looking around for any form of alien and didn’t see one, so that’s clearly intentional.) The Empire uses slave labor for plenty of purposes, and it’s not necessary to the plot to tell us why this particular prison works this way, it would just be a favor to me, a person who wants more bad bureaucratic hell reasons behind the absolutely awful infrastructure the Empire builds. Please?
So they’ve finally made it clear(er) that Vel and Cinta are together, but I… don’t understand how we’re supposed to feel anything about this incredibly sad love story when we know next to nothing about either character? It feels very in keeping with how big companies handle queerness on screen now—making it the entirety of how they’ve thought of a given character, and believing that will be enough of a “hook” for modern audiences. It’s not. Try again, Disney, these actors deserve better material.
The rest with Meero and Karn and everything happening on Ferrix is tense, for sure, but I’m not all that pleased about the fact that we never get to watch Maarva Andor committing any of these acts of resistance. She talks about walking across the square in the last episode, and this time we find out that she was trying to pry into a secret tunnel that the Rebellion could use against the garrison, but it’s pretty bullshit that we don’t get to see any of the action centered around the one older woman in this cast.
Can we have a sidebar here about how the Star Wars galaxy now features not one, but (at least) two planets where girls are encouraged to the public service sector at tender ages, and one of those planets is completely okay with teenagers getting married because tradition? Padmé was queen of Naboo at fourteen years old, and became a senator directly after her two terms ended. Mon Mothma became a senator at sixteen, and was already married the year previous. Leia was a senator for Alderaan at nineteen, and probably started much earlier than that. Obviously there are plenty of questionable and outright abusive practices throughout this galaxy—this one just happens to be a very odd niche to carve out…
Bits and Asides:
- We’re supposed to be getting the sense that Tal was the person Mon was actually in love with, right? I’m guessing her marriage to Perrin was arranged if they were so young, which does explain a few things.
- Does the worm make the drink alcoholic because if so, I have questions, but also wanna try it, gimme.
- Bets on whether Perrin is using their daughter to spy on Mon, place your bets right here…
Next week we’ll hopefully find out what that sign language is all about?
It’s just a widget. We don’t need to know what the widget is for.
Old Saw is anything but an anarchist. This show does so many things right in terms of showing the systemic bads of the Empire. One almost hoped they would have had a good understanding of what an anarchist critique of empire would look like. It would be interesting to know what real world history and critiques the writers used for inspiration when writing these stories.
It still bugs me how human-centric this series is, with the only aliens being background extras. Good grief, even Andy Serkis is playing a human! How weird is that? An all-human prison in particular makes little sense, given how human-supremacist the Empire has been portrayed to be. Usually prison populations consist disproportionately of the subaltern groups in a society.
As for why they were using human labor to assemble the gizmos, I figure it’s just busywork as punishment, like making prisoners break rocks. Or maybe it’s cheaper to use expendable, interchangeable live prisoners, a resource in abundant supply in a fascist state, than to build droids and machines that need to be repaired and maintained.
After seeing Saw Gerrera show up, I’m kind of hoping Luthen’s next meeting will be with Hera Syndulla. I think we’re a little before the start of Rebels in the timeline, or overlapping season 1.
I won’t comment on the marriage, but I don’t see how letting teenagers get into politics is abusive, except insofar as getting into politics can mess up anyone of any age. As we’ve seen with the Parkland shooting survivors, Greta Thunberg, Malala Yousafzai, etc., teenagers can be very politically active, motivated, and effective at rallying support for important causes, often more so than older career politicians who’ve lost their idealism and don’t give a damn about anything but their careers and their pensions. I think our culture doesn’t give adolescents as much credit as they deserve for their ability to contribute meaningfully to society. (Although maybe that’s partly because I’ve been bingeing Stranger Things lately.)
If you people are expecting a Disney show about Star Wars to put any effort into connecting the dots between one of their fictional characters and a real world political movement, well I guess you’re entitled to expect whatever you want, but it seems to me like you’re setting yourself up for disappointment. I assume they are using the word “anarchist” in its colloquial form only, divorced from any irl political baggage.
I’d just like to point out that one of the prisoners working at the table Cassian is assigned to is named Melshi. If this is NOT the Melshi who fights (and dies) at Scarif in Rogue One I will be pi$$ed! Actually, hearing his name makes me hope there’s a jailbreak story coming up.
Also, I imagine Andy Serkis likes playing a human on occasion. He’s been excellent at CGI roles, but working in the motion capture suit looks like a real hassle. :)
Is it odd that I got a little bit of a nerdy joy at seeing Andors future commando buddy Melshi from the Scariff raid as part of the Table 5 crew?
Leida is definitely up to something, but I’m not sure what. Your guess is as good as mine.
And yeah, the treatment of Vel’s and Cinta’s relationship is really bad.
@5/MarieB: “Also, I imagine Andy Serkis likes playing a human on occasion.”
I was kidding, of course. The most recent role I’ve seen him in was Alfred in The Batman. It was just an ironic commentary on how overwhelmingly human the characters are in this show compared to what would make sense in the Star Wars universe.
I mean, really, why is that? It’s not like they don’t have the budget for prosthetics or creature effects. It wouldn’t be that hard to stick some Twi’lek or Togruta headpieces onto a few speaking characters, or reuse an animatronic head left over from another production. For some reason, they’re making a conscious choice to focus almost exclusively on human characters, and I don’t understand the benefit of that.
Just a theory — Maybe they’re trying to connect it with the original movie and the Rebellion there being all human, save for Chewbacca. I doubt there was an in-universe reason for this back in the 70s; presumably, it was about time and budget. But this wouldn’t be the first instance of someone bringing attention to this sort of stuff in SFF. “Those are Klingons?”
I had a feeling Agent Meera and Karn would cross each other’s paths, and boy did they ever click. Those two crazy kids belong together.
I have a feeling Maarva will decide she has nothing to live for other than the cause, and become a suicide bomber. I hope I am wrong, but…
This is another episode where nothing much appears to happen, but is building tension that will pay off down the line.
Now that we’ve established that Luthen knows how to get in contact with other rebel leaders while (presumably, based on their conversation) supposedly not knowing what heists and jobs they’ve pulled makes it almost inevitable in my mind that at some point in this show we will at least have a reference, if not showing, Fulcrum (I just realized while typing that Fulcrum and Axis are synonyms and that choice of wording can’t be accidental). EXCEPT, and this is important, as others have mentioned the show is predominately Human-oriented. My guess is they want to focus on the politics and drama while keeping it “grounded”. Ahsoka is the opposite of that. Alien, mystic, and apolitical (except in the “against the empire” aspect), I can’t see her fitting in with the show’s established tone.
@MarieB and dawfydd MELSHI! I was so excited to see him. It makes sense that Cassian meets some of his future Rogue One rebels/colleagues in prison. It’s the perfect place. Can’t wait to see who else shows up.
Maarva’s scene with Bix and Joplin was very good. As a middle-aged person taking care of my Dad, it hit close to home. And B2 “telling” on Maarva and her real injuries – perfect! I agree that it’s a lost opportunity to see her walking through the square and checking out the tunnels.
As for Vel and Cinta and the ambiguity of it all, it’s ridiculous. It dilutes the power of their story, their characters, and the actors’ talents. It’s clear that Jyn’s love for her father and commitment to his ideals is enough to make her storm Scarif. This are they/aren’t they with Vel and Cinta is a waste of screen time and disservice to the viewer.
@11/Echthelion: “Luthen knows how to get in contact with other rebel leaders while (presumably, based on their conversation) supposedly not knowing what heists and jobs they’ve pulled”
Luthen knew perfectly well that Saw didn’t pull Aldhani, because that was Luthen’s operation. He was just pretending to ask if Saw did it in order to preserve his own deniability. Naturally the Rebellion would depend on compartmentalization, sharing as little information as possible with other cells in case they get compromised.
@12/lululario: “As for Vel and Cinta and the ambiguity of it all, it’s ridiculous.”
What ambiguity? Cinta said explicitly to Vel “You love me because I’m a mirror.” It’s quite clear from their dialogue and their behavior together that they’re a couple. They don’t have to kiss to prove that. And they did hold hands, IIRC.
I assumed the worst with the Imperial prison; the prisoners are only humans because non-humans are not imprisoned but killed (with a few exceptions, like the enslavement of the Wookies and Noghri). Even if that is not the case, this specific prison may be all-human as the security system may work best on those with specific tolerances.
The one thing I still would love to delve more into is WHAT they are fighting for. So far Nemik has given us the clearest vision, and we learned a little of some of the Aldhani rebel stories (although Skeen was clearly a lie) and we have a feel for Mon’s sympathies. But what is Luthen’s end game here, and what lines is he willing to cross, and why is that, to him, justified?
Saw’s comment was actually pretty interesting to me and I’d like to see more of that. We know from some other works (including a book which I have not read but apparently does paint Saw as doing some really extreme stuff) that Saw is an extremist to the point that even other Rebels are uncomfortable by him. I can see why he might think they are too soft (although I personally disagree, I have no fondness for extremism in any form, or treating anybody as expendable/disposable in a casual manner).
But of course he has good reasons to hate the Separatists (although I’ve always wondered – were the Separatists (aside from the corporate interests and SIth manipulation) actually that wrong? Did they have legitimate grievances? We see a little of that in the TCW, of course. And does Palpatine morphing the Republic into something even more authoritarian effectively make them feel, well, we were right!). What is Saw’s ideology vs the Separatists?
And some of the other groups he mentions – neo-Republicans (is that meant to be a neo-Nazi, or somebody that just wants to bring back the Republic? I don’t want to try and box them into some 20th century American context). Sectorists and human-cultists and galaxy partitionists though – what’s that? Are those groups that are just opposed to the Empire not out of any lofty galactic sentient rights goals, but because they’re just mad that THEY are not the ones in charge of their own little sectors or slices, and would potentially be just as tyrannical, at least in their own slice of the pie? (And it IS a little weird that the human cultists are thrown in here as the Empre does typically get portrayed a a ‘humans first’ kind of group, but maybe they want to take it even further?)
So in a way, I don’t blame Saw for not wanting that, but I agree we haven’t completely got a clear idea of what it is he IS fighting for, aside from the fact that he’s just been fighting constantly against any oppressive force. Would he want to restore the Republic, or at this point would he feel like even that was overreach?
FWIW I did get the impression Luthen was using ‘anarchist’ in a casual way, meant to call attention to his refusal to be part of a larger group.
Speaking of human-centricism, I did find it weird that there were no other races and also no women in this prison. Granted, sex-segregated prisons aren’t uncommon, and I could see Andor’s pod being male only, but if I recall we don’t see ANY women in any of the groups. The labor they were doing didn’t seem particularly intense. Even if, speaking generally, men would be more likely than women to be fit for it, there’d still be a non-insignificant amount of women able to do it. I’m wondering if them makeup of the prison was intentional (especially given what we know about the Empire using alien species for exactly this kind of slave labor), or just one of those lazy defaults in writing (similar to how Andor’s group in Rogue One has zero women aside from Jyn which also kind of bugged me – surely there are women spies/assassins/whatever that were also sympathetic. Then again, if this group of Andor’s is a group he has particularly close ties to, and Melshi is a part of that group, maybe it actually calls back to those prison days).
A few other things I meant to say and then forgot:
-I didn’t get the impression the losers were killed, just that they were ‘fried’ which seems to be the euphemism for ANY use of the floor technology. Somebody even mentions later to Andor that he had the misfortune to be fried ‘twice in one day’ which I assume is because they did in fact lose. The level on the floor during the sleeping period does seem to be more intense though.
The Cinta/Vel relationship – there was something so tragic to me about Cinta’s comment about the struggle coming first and them taking what’s left. Assuming Skeen was telling the truth and the stormtroopers killed her whole family she obviously has her own very powerful reasons for fighting back. And while I totally understand that sometimes personal needs have to be subordinated to the greater good in a case like this (I don’t think Cinta was necessarily wrong that their mission has to come first, although I also think their mission sucks) it does in some ways echo that same question of what is it you are actually fighting FOR, and has the fight itself become the end? Maybe it’s a little bit reminiscent of the (clumsily expressed) sentiment The Last Jedi eventually tries to get at regarding saving what you love vs destroying what you hate, and where that balance lies.
Maybe in a way it also reflects Mon’s struggle with her family. Her husband sucks, but how much is Leida’s frustration over Mon only pretending to care about her genuine and how much of it is due to her husband manipulating her? (or just her being a teenager)? I’m not blaming Mon but maybe it’s meant to be another statement about how these causes can require huge sacrifices like that and difficult priorities to balance. Although I do have some feelings about how it kind of leans into the trope of ‘a woman can either fight for a larger calling, or care for her family, but not both, which we do NOT see with Bail, and was also implied to be true for Leia).
@11 – I had the exact same thought when they said Luthen was an ‘Axis’. Oh, you mean…like a fulcrum upon which it all hinges? That said they could do that even without bringing Ahsoka in as I got the impression from Rebels (and we even see it) that multiple people can have the name.
@15/Lisamarie: “And some of the other groups he mentions – neo-Republicans (is that meant to be a neo-Nazi, or somebody that just wants to bring back the Republic? I don’t want to try and box them into some 20th century American context). Sectorists and human-cultists and galaxy partitionists though – what’s that?”
Many different political, social, and artistic movements over the ages have put “Neo-” at the start of their names, since it’s just Greek for “new.” A Neo-Republican would simply be someone who wants to replace the Empire with a New Republic — which is what they’ll get in five or so years.
“Sectorist” sounds like the equivalent of a nationalist, someone who prioritizes local power and interest. They’re probably people who are fighting for their own sectors and don’t care about the rest. “Human cultists” seems to speak for itself, although it’s not clear why they’d be rebelling against a human-dominated Empire. And “galaxy partitionists” seems like the equivalent of Brexit or the American Civil War, a group that doesn’t want a politically unified galaxy but wants it broken up, sort of like the Separatists.
@16/Lisamarie: “Although I do have some feelings about how it kind of leans into the trope of ‘a woman can either fight for a larger calling, or care for her family, but not both, which we do NOT see with Bail, and was also implied to be true for Leia).”
I don’t think that’s intended to be about the difference in Mon and Bail’s genders — more just that Mon got saddled with an unhappy arranged marriage and a jerk husband who doesn’t share her Rebel sympathies, while Bail and Breha are a happy couple and are on the same side.
As for Leia, are you talking about her breakup with Han prior to the sequels? I took that as more of a falling out over what happened with Ben than a cause-vs.-family conflict.
And didn’t the prequels and TCW put that trope on Anakin? He was torn between his love for Padme and his commitment to the Jedi Order. On the other hand, Padme seemed to have no trouble balancing her political and personal lives. I never got the sense that she had to choose between them; the only source of conflict came from Anakin’s need to keep their marriage secret.
There’s also Hera and Kanan. Hera certainly had little trouble balancing her relationship with her commitment to the fight.
Oh yeah, – I do not in any way believe there is an intentional subtext there, but it’s just kind of an unfortunate optic. With Leia, I’m talking more about the idea that maybe the reason Ben went astray and her marriage fell apart was because she was too busy running the New Republic or whatever. I don’t actually believe that myself, but I definitely remember people theorizing/talking about so even though I don’t think it was actually intended (textually or otherwise) to be the case, it’s one of those things that unfortunately due to surrounding culture could be interpreted that way. I don’t know how fair it is to hold the show accountable for that though because sometimes that’s just the story you want to/have to tell, and realities are often complex.
I guess it’s kind of similar to the discussion on if Mrs. Banks in Mary Poppins is intended to be a portrayal of a mother “neglecting” her kids to march for suffrage and then at the end she finds her place (although I always figured that by hanging the sash on the kite she was celebrating her beliefs, to say nothing of Mr. Banks and his obsession with HIS job, and the point was just about finding balance.)
But to be clear – I’m a professional woman myself, BUT, some of the circles I run with do at times (either consciously or unconsciously) have that idea that it’s really best if a woman is home/tending to her family and that can only look one way, and if she works outside the home it is to her family’s detriment if it’s not for a really good reason – so I am in no way advocating for this belief, nor do I harbor any negative feelings myself towards these characters. Of course maybe that’s also why I’m seeing the trend.
Anakin is an interesting case, as the very secret nature of his marriage to Padme complicates things a bit, and unfortunately we don’t really get to see Padme do much mothering (allthough she probably would have been good at it!).
I’m in a feminist Star Wars FB group and we were talking about this (and mothering in Star Wars in general) and Hera definitely came up :) I absolutely consider her to be a great space mom and a great portrayal of a ‘strong’ female character who kicks ass in a lot of ways, but it doesn’t mean she has to give up on her more nurturing side (not that every woman has to be nurturing, of course, but it’s nice to see female characters can only fall into a few defined boxes). I really, really love Rebels though…. :)
I mean, I can’t say parenting in Star Wars gets a huge focus – Din (and later Hunter in Bad Batch) is probably the best example we see of healthy fatherhood, at least until we get more of the Bail/Leia relationship!
My guess on the human-only prison is that it’s for uniformity’s sake — one kind of atmosphere, one temperature range, one kind of nutrients, one form factor for bed, toilet facilities, work station, etc. Everyone there needs all the same stuff, can sleep in the same kind of bed, has the same nutritional needs, can use the same tools, etc. Throw in someone like a Wookiee and you’d need a different-sized cell, possibly different nutrients, and he’d have to stoop at the workstation, or else it would be too tall for everyone else, and that would mean lower productivity. With a mix of species, they wouldn’t be able to pump uniform nutrients through the prison or have identical cells. It’s more efficient to segregate the prison populations into groups that all need the same sorts of things. There are probably other prisons for other races.
@13 Obviously Luthen knows he did it himself, but Saw doesn’t know this, and appears to believe that Luthen is capable of believing that he (Saw) did it.
Another note about Saw I find interesting is how he is refusing to work with and Seperatists, despite them being more or less on the same side now (i.e, against the government). They didn’t reference it, but I expect this is at least partially due to Saw’s sister being killed by droids. Knowing Saw, he likely has kept a grudge.
The prison is perhaps not entirely well thought out. The Empire has just cracked down on dissent, which means more prisoners will be coming in, but it has also increased the length of prisoner’s sentences, which means fewer prisoners will be leaving. This means the prisons will all fill up, unless you build more prisons (expensive and time consuming), or work the prisoners to death on very little food (but they are feeding the prisoners as many calories as they want to eat, and they seem healthy). The Empire doesn’t seem to have a goal of rehabilitating or reeducating or brainwashing prisoners – you’d think there would be a lot of that here.
The prison is also nicer than any similar place I’ve seen in the Star Wars universe (however I haven’t seen everything). The all white look of it reminds me of THX-1138. It’s also nicer than the (quite nice) factory I worked in one summer as a teenager. Nothing every breaks, nobody gets injured, everything is clean.
@21/Chris Jordan: “The prison is perhaps not entirely well thought out. The Empire has just cracked down on dissent, which means more prisoners will be coming in, but it has also increased the length of prisoner’s sentences, which means fewer prisoners will be leaving. This means the prisons will all fill up, unless you build more prisons (expensive and time consuming)”
I bet that’s exactly the goal, though. Fascism is always about supporting corporate greed, and building and running prisons is an industry in itself. If it’s a for-profit prison system, then increasing the number of inmates to justify building more prisons could be exactly the goal. That’s basically the way it works in the United States these days. The penal system is basically designed to feed socially disadvantaged people into the prison system to maintain a steady or increasing supply of prisoners, rather than rehabilitate them to diminish the prison population.
“The prison is also nicer than any similar place I’ve seen in the Star Wars universe (however I haven’t seen everything). The all white look of it reminds me of THX-1138.”
That’s an interesting point. Star Wars stood out in its day for embracing a grungy, broken-down look in contrast to the sterile futurism of most 1970s sci-fi, yet here we have a Star Wars universe prison, what should be one of its worst places, and it’s the part of the universe that isn’t grungy and lived-in. Although I guess that ultra-clean look has always been part of the design of Imperial ships and facilities.
@21/22 – in fact, I am pretty sure that in one of the earlier Aldhani episodes, they pretty much state that they are intending to use the Aldhani natives as slave labor for all the projects they have planned, so I am sure (aside from the power trip aspect) the fact that they will have MORE prisoners is a feature, not a bug.
@19 – I like that idea. It’s cruelly efficient!
When Andor was brought to the transport, they specifically asked him what planet he was from and sent him to a particular prison based on that. So the prisons are obviously all tailored to a particular species, which makes sense for the reasons Shanna have upstream….
—Keith R.A. DeCandido
@24/krad: “So the prisons are obviously all tailored to a particular species, which makes sense for the reasons Shanna have upstream….”
Maybe that makes sense in-universe, but the deeper question is, why are this show’s makers so averse to including nonhuman characters in any significant way? Maybe it’s because they’re going for a more serious dramatic tone, but I’m sure there have been other serious, adult SF/fantasy dramas that have featured non-human prosthetic-makeup characters in significant roles.
As for the proposed advantages to single-species prisons, we know that not every prison in the Empire is single-species. In the original movie, the Death Star detention center guards weren’t suspicious about a Wookiee prisoner being transferred, so it can’t have been a human-only facility. Although I’d guess that the DS’s detention facility was more for detaining enemies for interrogation or just holding them prior to transfer elsewhere, rather than being set up for labor and long-term imprisonment.
Leida seems to be hiding something from both of her parents. In a lighter show I’d assume she was sneaking out to see a boyfriend/girlfriend, but given the nature of this series it’s likely she’s gotten involved with a rebel group (which could lead to an ironic tragedy if she does anything reckless) or an Imperial-Youth group like COMPNOR (which could be equally tragic, and could lead to Mothma’s going on the run to become an open revolutionary).
(COMPNOR [the Committee for the Preservation of the New Order] was part of the EU since the 80s [via the West-End Games RPG] as a Star Wars version of the Hitler Youth program; a way of indoctrinating young men & women into becoming loyal, unquestioning Imperial cultists, willing to turn in their own parents for anti-Imperial activities.)
@25. One of the foundational differences between Star Wars and Star Trek (as the two “iconic” franchises that every other sci-fi franchise must either mimic or subvert) is that, while Star Wars has much more visually interesting aliens, it’s always been loathe to actually do anything with them.
Aliens in Star Wars are either scenery (Two-Tubes, whose whole job is to stand outside Saw Gerrera’s place), non-verbal pets (Chewbacca, Artoo, or Baby Yoda), supporting characters (Jabba the Hutt, Yoda, Jar-Jar, Maul, Threepio, the Ewoks), or so fully assimilated that their alien-ness is irrelevant (Ahsoka, who only ever identifies as “Jedi” or “ex-Jedi,” but never as “Togruta”). Every important character, and any unique culture that we get a look at, must be either human (the Naboo, the Mandalorians, the Kenari, even the Clone Army), or so fully integrated that any aliens are, again, in the background (the Jedi).
The only real exceptions are the Ewoks (back in the 80s) and in Rebels (where Hera and Zeb’s respective Twi’lek and Lasat heritages are important character details).
Andor specifically wants to stand out from the typical “for kids” Star Wars content by being a gritty, sombre, “grounded” —respectable— look at the horrors of war. The producers see aliens as clowns and caricatures, so they have no place in a Serious Mature show for Serious Mature people, saying Serious Mature things.
@26/Cybersnark: You phrase your last paragraph as a statement of fact, but unless you can cite a source where the producers actually say on the record that they think that way, it’s only your own speculation. It occurred to me as a possibility, but suspicion is not fact. And the only person qualified to testify to someone’s state of mind or motivations is that person.
Anyway, I disagree with your premise; I think you’re downplaying the counterexamples that refute your putative pattern. Chewbacca is no mere “pet,” but a major character who often plays a significant role in driving the story. He’s very verbal; the other characters understand his words and react to them even if we don’t know the language. (Have you ever seen the behind-the-scenes footage from Empire Strikes Back? Peter Mayhew actually delivered scripted English dialogue that was dubbed over with growls. What Chewie was saying was narratively important.)
As for Threepio and Artoo, I think you downplay how important they are as well. They’re the main characters we follow for pretty much the entire first reel of the original film, so if they hadn’t been well-developed enough characters to capture the audience’s interest, the franchise would never have gotten off the ground. By the same token, Yoda is just as important a mentor character in the second film as Obi-Wan was in the first.
And it’s contradictory to say that assimilated aliens are always in the background and Ahsoka therefore “doesn’t count” because she’s assimilated, even though she’s very much in the foreground and is possibly the most important, enduring character to have come out of the Prequel Era. I also reject the premise that aliens have to be non-assimilated in order to “count,” because the SW universe is one where countless species have been assimilated into a shared civilization for millennia. That routine, casual integration is exactly why the lack of aliens in Andor — even in supporting roles — is so weird to me.
#26
What little I saw of the Obi-Wan show also seemed overly serious and dour, which kept it at arm’s length for me as well. I wonder what’s behind this move. I understand wanting to provide a variety, but I never thought tone has been a problem in Star Wars proper. Rather, it’s bad plotting, tiresome dialogue, and a lack of focus that’s derailed things like the prequel trilogy and The Flipbook of Boba Fett. I never thought, gee, I wish this had fewer aliens and monsters and were as serious as a family drama about heart attacks.
In the context of the current story, I’m ok with not showing Maarva’s efforts. Because they’re as yet fruitless, it’s more important to display how her efforts make her and the others around her feel. They could have shown her feebly attempting to open a grate but if so it’d be crucial to integrate the feelings of those close to her into it. I’m trying to imagine how such a scene would be filmed and I don’t think it would convey more than what we’re already shown and at worst, it would convey less or a conflicted message.