Alright folks, let's get the hot take out of the way: Andor sucks. Those three episodes were some of the most boring, most overwrought, piece of shit writing I've experienced since Rings of Power. And, maybe it's just me, but I'm starting to feel this sense of dread about it all. I felt absolutely no need for a show about Andor. He's the second worst character in Rogue One (right behind Jyn Erso!), with so many foundational flaws that I was scratching my head as to why on earth anyone would make a show about him. But that's only half the real problem: a prequel show for Andor isn't necessary. Star Wars was not defined by its abundance, but by its restraint.
You don't need to know what Luke was up to before the sequel trilogy.
You seriously don't.
Y'know why you don't need an Andor show or a Luke Skywalker post-OT show, just by default? Because the most important part of a story is what it doesn't say. If you're going to add something you have to act like you're touching a hot stove: lightly and with the expectation of harm. Part of what made the OT so good was how much was not stated. You didn't need to know what happened to Vader. You didn't need to know just how in the wrong Obi-Wan was. You had plot points and a story of great pathos, and the rest could be left to your imagination.
No, I'm not commenting against the prequels. Or the sequels.
Now, what happens betwixt those ears of yours is really important. Pretending that it's not is to discount all art, ever. Art is about an object reactivating your interior world. If the piece does not do that it is not art, but just an object, content. And the way art does this is by suggesting just enough to get your heart beating, your brain working, together in concert. The gaps left by the OT are masterful and they suggest something that you can think on for actual decades. That space is sacred and if you add to the work, you invalidate whatever happened in that space. Denying otherwise denies the existence of art.
The principal backlash against the prequels and sequels is the violation of this space. And that's a legit backlash. Anytime someone screams "BUT LUKE WOULDN'T DO THAT" or "WHY IS EVERYONE SO PATHETIC" or anything else, the root emotional cause is that the work they were able to do on themselves because of the OT's permission was interrupted. And because we have absolutely no understanding of art in our day and age it comes out garbled, childish, and sometimes oddly sociopathic.
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| Yes, Gene Wolfe went and added more than double. |
No, I'm really not thrashing the prequels. Or the sequels. Adding to previously established stories isn't a bad idea, but you have to be really careful about it. Gene Wolfe's Solar Cycle was seemingly complete with Book of the New Sun and Urth of the New Sun. So was the Earthsea trilogy: yes, I know there's six parts to it now, but it was originally a trilogy. The Solar Cycle particularly does this right, by jumping to a completely different part of the universe and exploring the same themes from Book and Urth of the New Sun in a completely different way, through different characters. Severian is barely referenced in the ensuing 2400 or so pages, and even then most of the references are oblique at best. And the one time he is directly referenced is so controversial there are people who steadfastly maintain that it's not Severian at all! Despite the clear implications of what's said, people cannot seem to accept the really hard truth Wolfe drops on us about Severian during those sequel 2400-ish pages. Y'know what you get with adding Long Sun and Short Sun? Y'know, the green, orange, and multi-colored volumes in the picture above? Not just an epic story that is an incredible commentary on grieving and forgiveness, but something that mostly indirectly changes the Book of the New Sun and Urth of the New Sun respectfully, even if not without some controversy. By changing things up there are now more gaps to be explored and thought about.
The genius of The Skywalker Saga is how the gaps in the narrative are leveraged. There's decades between each trilogy, sometimes a decade between each episode, and there is no apology made for it. And Lucasfilm has been mostly good about respecting this fact, with the best examples being the animation shows Clone Wars, Bad Batch, and Rebels. And we can zero in further, focusing on Saw Gerrera. Y'know, the dude who's pictured at the top of the post.
See? I was getting there.
When we first meet Saw in The Clone Wars he’s a green terrorist in the making. He’s got the edge to him, but can’t quite follow up on his aspirations. There’s a softness to him, like a tiger cub who’ll maul you, and do it while being soft and cuddly and probably mewing the whole time. You know what he’ll end up being, but he doesn’t know, and can’t. And that's sad. We then drop in on Saw about 15 or so years later. Saw’s now a fully formed person, ruthless, good at it, and not ashamed of it. But you knew what he was before; you know there’s still a spark of that dumb sweet kid in there, somewhere. And it helps ground you. This is a person with history. You know that. And you hope he’ll turn around.
And, in a way, he does! Saw is last seen as an old man. His years of ruthless behavior have caught up with him, rendering him crippled and alone. I don't need to know what happened to Saw and what's in my head is a lot better than anything any writer can come up with, by default. The one person Saw hoped would care for him, Erso, is estranged from him. That clearly cuts deep in his soul. And you see that kid in the face of the old man. He clearly has regrets. But he is what he is and can’t change it now.
These snapshots of Saw’s life are done over multiple creators and years. Each time their stay isn’t overdone; you get out before you’re tired of it all. If anything the weakest entry in this little series of vignettes is the shortest, but Rogue One’s a pretty disappointing film in general and that doesn’t surprise me at all. I find Rogue One to just be… mostly okay. At best.
This is another obligatory reminder that Andor sucks. Sorry not sorry.
That aside, y’know what I thought of when I first met young Saw again?
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| This poor old asshole. |
And that got a genuine reaction out of me. I didn’t want this young and dumb tiger to end up alone and broken. I heard Saw wheezing on that ventilator. I saw the limp. I felt the regret. Saw had sold his soul and lost. And yeah, in that brief moment that arc suggested itself to me. I felt that within me, deep down in my soul. I tried to take a moment to comfort the part of me that ached. I reassured it that Saw realized that he was in the wrong, and that even at the end, with no time, he tried. I have time. I have hope. And I can do a hell of a lot more than Saw in his wretched last moments.
That. Is. Art.
And what's why you need it.
Now, can you see what my problem is with Disney owning Star Wars? Disney isn't Gene Wolfe or George Lucas or Ursula K. LeGuin. It's a corporation. It's a shark. It needs to make money, it has to keep moving. If it's not gaining it's losing. That's not an indictment against Disney or any other corporation. It's just a fact about the nature of what it is. With each release Disney makes I keep asking myself "Is this just the corporate cash grab? Or is this actually art?" So far Disney has had more wins than losses: Rogue One is about as artful as a painted prostitute, Andor ain't lookin' good at all, and season one of the Mandalorian is a sham, just straight up. And don't get me started on Book of Boba Fett, we could be here all day listening to that rant about the failure to actually write a coherent show that has any form of respect for Boba or his story and instead places corporate interests above-
Despite my opinions on Disney buying Lucasfilm gradually souring I have to admit that they’re doing a form of storytelling not even being attempted elsewhere. So long as we get more of Saw Gerrara’s type of corporate "fan service" and not… I can’t believe I’m saying this…
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| THIS. |
Y'know, totally unrelated to the story…
I think I may be on board. I loved Kenobi. I know that’s probably controversial. But I don’t care. It actually added something substantial, something that I couldn't have come up with on my own. Long as Disney keeps that up I guess I’m happy. But we're asking a corporation to show restraint. That's not something corporations are known for. So, I hope that they do. I really do. But I'm never going to forget that this is what Disney has always been. and what they will always be:
I don't think anyone should.
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