****THIS BLOG CONTAINS SPOILERS FOR ANDOR AND ROGUE ONE****
Hello Internet!
I hope you all are doing well and staying healthy! We’ve made it to December which means the year is almost over. Fall is coming to an end and winter is right around the corner. I’m expecting a very cold and snowy winter where I live. It seems like we’re due for a very snowy winter. Also we’re two weeks away from Christmas, so make sure you all are getting your Christmas shopping done soon. I’m pretty much done with my shopping. I have a few things that I’ve ordered that I’m still waiting on but I’m done with the rest of it. I’m always excited for this time of the year. Christmas is definitely my favorite holiday. All the decorations and the music. It just brings me so much joy! I know that Christmas can be a tough time for some people, so if you find yourself down this season, just know that I appreciate you. The last thing I want to say before I move on to the actual subject of the Weekly Blog, is that I’ve published a few Poems in the last couple weeks if you want to check them out. Go ahead and check out “The Hanged Man” and “Wilderness” if you haven’t already.
Now this time of year might make you think about a certain type of movie. It’s December which means it’s time to bring out all the classic Christmas movies, right? Right? Well sure. I like a good Christmas Carol or Rudolph during the Christmas season. But there’s another type of movie that I think about around Christmas and that’s Star Wars. I’m not sure why there’s such a deep connection in my mind between Christmas and Star Wars but it just seems right. I mean there is an infamous Star Wars Christmas Special, but other than that the two don’t really seem to go hand in hand. Maybe it’s because when Disney bought Star Wars and started releasing movies, they seemed to time up the release of the new movie with December. So in a way Star Wars became a Christmas tradition for a few years there. One of these Star Wars movies that was released in December was Rogue One which is my personal favorite Star Wars movie. I’m honestly surprised that I haven’t talked about Rogue One before, but maybe I’ll talk about it in another Weekly Blog. But for this one I want to talk about Andor. Cassian Andor is a character we were first introduced to in Rogue One, but now he is the main character in a Disney Plus show. And before I go any further, let me tell you. If you have not seen this show, I highly HIGHLY recommend you do so. I’m going to be talking about the plot in this blog and I don’t want to spoil anything for you. In my opinion Andor is some of the best Star Wars content ever made and definitely the best original Disney Plus has released and I’ve watched all of the Marvel Cinematic Disney Plus shows. Seriously if you like Star Wars and especially if you like Rogue One, check on Andor. I know some people were kind of burnt out on Star Wars after Boba Fett and Obi-Wan Kenobi, but Andor is worth watching. Trust me!
So what is Andor all about? Well I’m guessing that you’d taken my advice and watched the show and you thought it was great. So you know what Andor is all about. It’s the origin story of our title character, Cassian Andor, and how he joined the rebellion previous to the events of Rogue One. But that’s really just the tip of the iceberg. Maybe the idea of an origin story about a character that shows up for one Star Wars movie and then dies at the end turned some people off of this series. But Andor isn’t just about Andor. It’s about the start of the rebellion. It’s the telling of the nitty, gritty life of so many people who are suffering under the oppressive, all consuming galactic empire we see in full force during the original Star Wars trilogy. Andor shows us the lives of not only Cassian Andor as he tries to stay afloat balancing many debts and dipping his toe into the rebellion, it also shows other major players in the rebellion and the delicate line they walk. We get to see Luthen who portrays himself as a fine arts dealer on Coruscant while also being a major contact between many factions of the rebellion. We get to see Mon Mothma who is a Imperial Senator using her senate seat to be a small thorn in the Empire’s side while also supplying the rebellion with her family’s money.
We also get to see the other side of the rebellion and how the empire operates. We get to see Dedra who is supervisor for the Imperial Security Bureau, a government agency focused on security across the sprawling galactic empire. Honestly I could watch a whole show that is basically petty empire officers bickering about galactic security and proper procedure. This show takes all the trade federation government discussions that were present in the Star Wars Prequel Movies and actually makes it good. One of the biggest strengths of this show is that it really dives deep into the small details and the ground level of what it would be like to live and work under the empire’s watch. This show isn’t about lightsabers and Jedi and the force. It’s about people. People suffering under a tyrannical government. That’s what makes the show so good. Don’t get me wrong, I love the Jedi and Mandaloreans and all of that. But this show just tells a good story. It doesn’t have to rely on fan service or surprise cameos to bring the hype. It’s just a great show that happens to take place in a galaxy, far far away.
I mean I haven’t even talked about the heist episodes or the prison break episodes that make up the core of the middle episodes. We also get some amazing speeches during the course of the show. The monologue that Lucien (played by Stellan Skarsgård) about the sacrifice he is making for the rebellion is incredible. 10 out of 10, peak Star Wars! Then pair that with the “one way out” speech given in the prison break episode. Simply incredible. Then we get the speech from Cassian Andor’s mother in the final episode about her death and that they should fight the empire was also incredible. So many incredible moments. And the acting from everyone in this show is so good. After every episode my roommate and I would just sit there and talk about how great the episode was. And he’s a way bigger Star Wars fan than I am. Just the writing of this show and the story it’s telling. So, so good! I don’t want to turn this blog into saying that this show is good over and over again, but I’m not sure what else to say. My only complaint with the show is that there aren’t any more episodes. We have to wait a year or two before season two comes out and I don’t know if I can wait that long. Especially since we haven’t received any news about when we will get a new Star Wars movie.
Anyway I’m going to wrap up this Weekly Blog here. I don’t want to ramble on too much about how great Andor is. Especially since I want everyone here to go watch it if you haven’t already. I can’t recommend it enough. I’m really hoping that this show gets even better in season two which might seem like an impossible task, but I absolutely believe they will accomplish it. Now if you will excuse me, I’m going to go celebrate the Christmas Season by 1) watching all the episodes of Andor again and 2) watching Rogue One again.
Thank you so much for reading that Weekly Blog! I hope you enjoyed reading my thoughts about Andor even though a lot of it was basically just acting good, writing good, show good. But it is good! If you liked this Weekly Blog, feel free to give it a Like. I also want to hear all about your thoughts on the show. Did you like Andor? Love it? Hate it? Let me know all of your thoughts in the comments down below. Also would you enjoy a Weekly Blog about Rogue One? Let me know! If you really liked this Weekly Blog and want to see more of the stuff I write, I recommend that you Follow me here on WordPress. I’m nearing 900 Followers here on WordPress and I’d love to hit that by the end of the year or early next year. I’m trying to build a positive and creative space on the internet and I’d love it if you were a part of it. Think of it as an early Christmas gift for me. It’s the only thing on my list and it doesn’t cost you a thing. I really do appreciate all the love and support I get from all my readers new and old. It really makes my day.
Thank you again and I hope you have a wonderful week!
-Allen_The_Writer
Header Photo Credit to TV Insider’s article on Andor
https://www.tvinsider.com/show/andor/
Allen The Writer 
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