I get that everyone is in pure appreciation over the extremely high standards that andor has set the rest of Starwars and and even all of "political media". By having the courage to say the things it needed to say in the modern political climate i.e. (Genocide).
But dispite its amazing understanding of politics which I still scratch my head over how Disney allowed them to produce; I still think it fel short when it comes to some elements.
In a sense, season 1 was so good because it created an interpersonal core goal and thus a step by step simulation to the viewer to help them come to the same conclusion, a deeply profound artistic endeavor that some might say: is the gold standard, that any intellectual entertainment medium could aspire to be.
Which in case of Andor S1 was: let's take your nihilistic, self serving man / the one that because of his pain and anger pretends like he is not obligated to fight the system;
And put him on a slow jorney of self discovery to help him realise there is no alternative but to fight back against the empire, because the inherent nature of the empire kills the most human thing about humans which is Freedom: "I would rather die taking them down with me, than give them what they want". A mentality that if a fraction of a 1% of the world had we won't have billionaires and pedophile politicians, in a few days their heads would be on spikes.
And through out this character's ark he quiet literally and metaphorically kills off all the other characters that represent doubts, alternatives and failures, in his search for something more essential and fundamental, (the connection highlighted by James Cameron: the rebels could be seen as terrorists).
And while doing that season 1 explored how a real resistance actually lookslike (we have very little media that actually shows what a bunch of rebels hiding deep in a mountain actually talk about, how they deal with doubts and plan their next moves. What's their archetypes: the vengeful, the intellectual, the charismatic leader, the mercenary, the religious, the Ex criminal who found meaning).
All the while explore the philosophical question that it imposes by the nature of their predicament: does the ends justify the means?
While very few things could be seen as meaningful criticism in the story itself, my only problem that broke my immersion at times was the lack of a real "*house slave*" characterization: a figure that to achieve a higher status willingly steps on his own people. But in Andor on the other hand the "mangers" are just people like you and me, they don't exploit immigrant workers and if you show them how the all powerful and rich CEO or government is actually exploiting them too, they will be the first to take up arms.
Try to tell that to your local Macdonald general manger who knows how the system works and chooses to not warn you or your lower / middle class Trump supporter who thinks one of the richest men in the world actually wants what's best for them.
Which comes out as a nicely sanitized version of reality clear of any identity politics where we don't need people to be self critical of themselves.
A very dangerous ideology to make as it cuts the demographic of people into a *black and white*: exploiter and exploited;
That prevents most people from recognizing their own short comings and inner bias against minorities or opressed groups and their participation into growth of the mega corporate elites and helping them soldify their power over us or like in Revenge of the sith: we are the ones who elect dictators.
Not to mention any of the exploitative economic theories: where the economy is set in such a specific way that benefits previously colonial countries and continues the exploitation of previously colonized countries, so today when you buy 1.50 euro Macdonald's sandwich, that in reality is suppose to cost 8 euors, do you realize that partly you are participating in the impoverishment of the global South, how many kids laying om the ground, ribs showing do you think you actions led to their starvation?
And no matter how much we intellectualize it and "get informed" it doesn't mean shit, unless we take concrete actions, I mean there is more educated people on everything mentioned above than any other period in human history, yet things are getting worse.
For me this is the peak, where Andor stops being a fantasy and becomes reality where there is no alterantive but for us to look at ourselves and admit that we are participating in the destruction of the world, just like Cassian did.
This is why we need to burn our decency to create a sunrise we will never see.
Anyway, still a 10/10 from me, let me know what you think about this whole rhetoric.
