Andor - Season 2, Part 1

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The rebellion that will ultimately bring down the Empire doesn't begin with lightsabers or space battles – it starts with ordinary people pushed beyond their breaking point. Andor Season 2's first six episodes masterfully explore this transformation through multiple storylines that reveal the true cost of resistance.

Following Cassian, Bix, and their companions as they hide on an agricultural world, we witness how the trauma of Imperial oppression shapes their decisions and drives them deeper into rebellion. Meanwhile, Mon Mothma navigates the treacherous waters of Imperial politics on Coruscant while trying to protect both her family and the secret resistance she funds. When these disparate storylines converge at a wedding sequence scored to hauntingly beautiful music, the result is some of the most sophisticated storytelling ever seen in Star Wars.

The series doesn't shy away from showing the Empire's true nature. From propaganda campaigns that villainize entire planets to casual discussions about ecological destruction for resource extraction, we see how Imperial authoritarianism operates at every level. Orson Krennic's return adds crucial context to the machinations behind the Death Star project, while the addition of the planet Gorman – with its distinct culture and ecosystem built around unique spiders – demonstrates how thoroughly the creators have considered this world.

What makes Andor exceptional is how it grounds these galaxy-spanning conflicts in deeply human stories. Bix's struggle with PTSD after Imperial torture, Saw Gerrera's dangerous Rhydonium addiction, and Cyril's misplaced faith in Imperial ideals all reveal different facets of life under tyranny. By examining the psychological cost of both oppression and resistance, Andor achieves a depth rarely seen in science fiction television.

As the groundwork is laid for the unified Rebellion we'll eventually see in Rogue One, these episodes remind us that revolutions aren't built on spectacular moments, but on countless small acts of courage by people who simply refuse to accept injustice any longer. Ready to witness how ordinary people become the foundation of an extraordinary rebellion? Join us for this unforgettable journey into the heart of Star Wars.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Alrighty, guys, we are.
You know, here in theundergrounds we are a rebel sect
called the Gentle Lads and youknow we are hiding from the
Empire.
Welcome to episode 124 ofProject Geekology.
And this week we are coveringthe first six episodes of Andor,

(00:21):
season two.
And I know, I said you knowRebel Sect of Gentle Lads.
You know it's a little insidejoke that we have off of the
podcast.
You know now it's on thepodcast, so you guys have joined
us.
But, yes, I am one third ofyour host, anthony, and joining
me, as always, is Dakota.

Speaker 2 (00:41):
And yeah, gentle Lads is the name of our text group
and I will be sure to changethat as soon as possible because
we have to keep you guysguessing.
Yeah, I'm really excited to betalking about Andor, season two,
the first six episodes, a lotof rebel sex activity and yeah,

(01:01):
yeah, my name is Dakota and I'mjoined as always with, and, yeah
, my name's.

Speaker 3 (01:05):
Dakota and I'm joined as always with Rich.
Glad to be with you guys.
You know, honestly, myredonium's running a little low
and I just needed a little bitmore of a fix of Andor.
So happy to be talking aboutepisodes one through six with
you guys.

Speaker 2 (01:20):
Now I'm kind of upset that I didn't start the podcast
in my Saw Gerrera voice.

Speaker 3 (01:25):
That's pretty good.

Speaker 1 (01:27):
You can do that next week.

Speaker 2 (01:29):
Rhydonium, it's like my sister.

Speaker 3 (01:32):
That was wild.
I was very confused, like thefirst time around.
I was like wait, what's goingon?
Man Guys, this guy is.
We find a lot more about SawGerrera.

Speaker 1 (01:43):
We do.
But before we get into that,it's been two weeks.
We had a little bit of a weekoff, but now we are back to it,
strong, with Andor, season 2.
Like I said, it's going to bethe first six episodes this week
and then we'll do the remainingepisodes next week.
Too bad, we don't wait on RogueOne, because we could have let

(02:03):
up to Rogue One, but we alreadydid a Rogue One episode.
So after you listen to thisseason, you can go back to the
Rogue One episode and go listento that.
But yes, like I said, it's beentwo weeks.
I'm going to go to Rich.
Rich, what have you been up to?
And we do know that it's been alot of baseball, but what else

(02:26):
have you been doing outside ofbaseball?

Speaker 3 (02:29):
I.
So I I shockingly do haveoutside of baseball news,
although there was much baseballI.
I do want to highlight that.
But I got a for father's day.
My son and my wife got me this.
I should.
It's this it looks like anaction figure but it's actually

(02:49):
like a kind of piece ofplexiglass, almost that has the
image inside of it.
So it just has me and it saysgamer dad.
This is like a normal dad, butmuch cooler.
And then the controller next tome has my son's name under it.
So I got that and my son's ideawas to grab me a N64 controller

(03:11):
that connects to the Switch.
And I promptly schooled him inMario 64.
I'm not going to lie, the purejubilation.
So he immediately was like thisis much faster than Mario Kart
Deluxe.
He felt that even the 50ccs wasfaster for some reason.

(03:34):
And man, I remember those.
I wasn't sure if I wouldremember the shortcuts and where
I needed to drift and where Ihad to stop drifting, but it all
came back.
You, you fell back into step.
Yeah, it was impressive holdingthat controller.
It was different, like I, itfelt different than playing

(03:54):
mario kart deluxe.
I, I just I really enjoyed it.
And then I did something alittle crazy.
We've gotten my son a number ofthings for graduation.
He's graduating fifth gradethis year, even though it's just
kind of a legal staterequirement that everyone has to
go through, because it's notmuch of an accomplishment.

Speaker 2 (04:10):
It's not like you have a choice, but anyway we got
to celebrate him yeah, youcan't get held back in new york
state anymore at that early ofan age.

Speaker 3 (04:19):
Yeah, so, but he's been talking about the switch to
a lot and I finally I was gonnaask about that.

Speaker 2 (04:26):
I found a tracker.

Speaker 3 (04:27):
I found a tracker.
I found I started following atwitter account and there was,
uh, the.
There was news that they weredropping it on june 11th, so at
like 11 o'clock luckily, myclasses are pretty much winding
down.
The rumor was from 9 to 12, soI just basically was just
spamming the reload button and,as luck would have it, I got

(04:50):
myself a pickup model, so itshould be arriving on friday.
By the time you guys hear this,I'll hopefully already have it
and unveil the news to charlie.
So I'm very happy to find outthat the controller is
compatible with the new one,cause I was like, oh no, what if
it's not compatible?

Speaker 1 (05:09):
but it all is.

Speaker 3 (05:10):
And I'm very excited.
I'm going to be driving to Yonkto go grab this and luckily
it's not a GameStop in Texas,because I don't know if you guys
heard of the news, but it wassomething like $1.6 million or
more than that.
Switch 2s were stolen.
A shipment was hijacked on itsway to GameStop Texas, so

(05:32):
something like 280,000 units orsomething were stolen.
And just imagine if you had apre-order and you were about to
go pick that thing up.
That's crazy.

Speaker 2 (05:42):
That's wild actually.

Speaker 1 (05:44):
Yeah, that is actually I did.
That's crazy, that's wildactually.

Speaker 2 (05:45):
Yeah, that is actually.
I did not know that.
That is awesome, though it'samazing that we hold these
things like N64 controllers aspinnacles of creation, but it's
one of the least ergonomicalcontrollers.

Speaker 3 (05:57):
How do you hold it?
It was terrible.
He's like how do you hold thisfor racing?

Speaker 2 (06:05):
And I'm like oh, you got in the middle here, buddy,
it makes sense, but what an eraof gaming like.

Speaker 3 (06:08):
It was such a such a fun time.
I cannot wait till I play himwith what is it called slappers
only in golden eye this good oldslap fest golden eye session.
And then you pick odd jobbecause he's slightly shorter
than the other guys and you havean unfair advantage because
their chops go over your head.
I can't wait to spam him thatway like I'm just.
I'm so excited to use myknowledge to once again assert

(06:32):
my gaming dominance in thehousehold yeah, but you know can
.

Speaker 1 (06:36):
Can you beat him in diddy kong racing?

Speaker 3 (06:39):
oh, I mean, that was one of my favorites, I'm not
gonna lie, I really loved usingthe helicopters in that game,
loved the diddy kong racing man.
Yeah, I think that like one ofmy favorites, I'm not gonna lie,
I really loved using thehelicopters in that game.

Speaker 1 (06:47):
Loved the diddy kong racing man.
Yeah, I think that like one ofmy favorite things about it was
mario kart was fun, but diddykong racing had like all these
different types of vehicles theyhad like airplanes, these like
hovercraft, you know regularvehicles, like it would change
up and so like that was one ofmy favorite things.
And then you had a bunch oflike characters across rare that

(07:09):
you could play.
That was fun, but but yeah, uma good tracker?
I don't know if I know that yousaid that you had been following
a tracker but, there is a goodone that I had used in the past
called now in stock, and I hadactually used that one to snag a
ps5 way back when.
Oh yeah, that one.

Speaker 3 (07:28):
I think I used that one because I had it.
I had that one going on thecomputer the entire time.
I was searching for a ps5 onthe desktop and like that was
during like pandemic time, so Iwas teaching from home and
everything.
And one late night my wife issitting in front of the computer
and I hear that beep.
Look, it could have beeninterpreted as other things, but
I launched her from that chair.

(07:49):
Essentially I jumped like theBlack Panther and just jumped to
get that.
I'll never forget the feeling.
I mean, those were days where Iwas waking up at I had to teach
at nine or like 830 and I wouldshow up at Walmart in yonkers
or something, because I heardrumors that there were three
available, and I would walk intothe store.
They would just be like it'snot available.

(08:10):
I'm like thank you, have a goodday.
Turn around and then get back,jump in front of the computer,
be like hi guys, sorry, I'm acouple minutes late, it's got
back from walmart.
They're like did you secured abag?

Speaker 1 (08:19):
I'm like I did not, guys, I did not so you know, the
the funny thing is is that, asmuch of a gamer as I am, I just
I.
I don't care to do all that.
I'm like no, I'm sorry, but no,you're just gonna wait till
it's.

Speaker 2 (08:32):
I'm gonna wait until I can get one.

Speaker 1 (08:34):
That's just my thing and dakota knows like I am the
gamer of this podcast or likefor the longest time.
Like you know, I I talk aboutall the time that's my thing.
You like where you guys arelike watching stuff, I'm feeling
that time gaming.
But when it came to the ps5, Iwasn't gonna go try to go to
some back alley behind walmartand do a handshake deal to get a

(08:57):
ps5.
I'm not doing all that.
I saw that they had themavailable to buy at gamStop.
One time I happened to goonline.
I ordered it and picked it upand called it a day other than
that.
I'm not doing all that.
I'm sorry, I just don't getinto the FOMO like that.
When I get the PS5, I get thePS5, you know well, to be fair,

(09:17):
I can't remember what game itwas.

Speaker 3 (09:19):
There had to be a wrestling game or something.
There's always a reason.
Or maybe it was FIFA.
There was a reason why I neededto get the ps5, not because I
wanted the ps5, but because Ithink that fifa wasn't releasing
one game.
And maybe it wasn't fifa.
There was a game that was notgoing to be releasing on ps4
anymore.
Maybe it was marvel and withthe switch.

(09:39):
Honestly, the only reason I didthis is because of charlie.
So, yeah, no, I get that thisone.
I actually was like telling himlike, dude, the launch titles
are weak.
I mean, you know, mario kart'sgonna be fun, but like, then
it's over, that's it.
Like, you know, you don't needto rush to get this blah blah,
but he's been watching all thosevideos on.
He's got, you know, watchesyoutube as much as the rest of

(10:00):
us.
So he's like, oh and, and theway the controllers go?
Like he's.
And I'm like, dude, you gottastop watching reviews of the
console, you're gonna go crazyare you?

Speaker 1 (10:10):
did you get the mario kart world bundle one?
Or yeah, yeah, yeah yeah, okay,that, honestly, that's the
smart play right there.
Yeah, because mario kart worldis 80 on its own, but when you
get the bundle, you're gettingit for 30 cheaper oh, I'm glad
that happened, yeah, yeah so.
So the system itself is 450,the bundle is 500.

(10:33):
So mind you, you buy the 450,say you get the 450 bundle, and
then you buy the game.

Speaker 3 (10:39):
You know you're spending an extra 30 and, gentle
lads, I left this part out.
You know what happens with theSwitch 1, right?
This guy right here just got anew Switch 1 to play, so it's
the very first hand-me-up in myfamily that's going to happen.
Where he's going to hand me upthe Switch, oh, I like that.

Speaker 2 (10:58):
He doesn't know this yet, but yeah, it's mine so I
just find it so funny that we'vegotten to a point in, like tech
cycles that you know we have tomake back alley deals, like
they're like drugs, you know,like my precious right.

Speaker 3 (11:18):
So yeah, it just makes you wonder it makes me
feel like I was part of therebellion, honestly like I feel
like I could be hanging out withandor and bix and cintra not,
not val.
I don't, she doesn't.
I don't like her much I don't.

Speaker 2 (11:34):
Yeah, she's a little harsh.

Speaker 3 (11:35):
I feel bad for her on occasion, but she's a little
harsh yeah, what were you up tothe last couple weeks dakota,
last couple weeks, dakota.

Speaker 2 (11:42):
Last couple weeks yeah, because it's been two
weeks since we recorded last butyou know, not a whole lot.
I in my personal life my, youknow, secular work I am training
.
Right now I'm doing like abunch of test prep for my
journeyman's license, so I'mexcited about that.

(12:02):
That should be coming twoSaturdays from now that I take
that test, and so just a lot oflike studying learning diagrams,
understanding Ohm's law, stufflike that, and, yeah, a lot of
like last minute.
Not a lot, you know for richesand a lot, but for me it is a
lot of baseball games.
I've just been supporting mylocal New York teams.

(12:24):
One team won and the other teamlost, but I enjoyed myself.
Baseball is fun.
I went to two games.
It wasn't a Mets versus Yankeesgame, it was Yankees versus Red
Sox.
They won.
And I went to a Mets game andthey lost, but the food was
better.
The food was better than YankeeStadium.
That's what matters in the end.

Speaker 1 (12:45):
I know you made Rich proud by going to see the Mets.

Speaker 2 (12:50):
I will also make Rich proud by announcing that I had
two hot dogs at the YankeeStadium and I had two hot dogs
at Mets Stadium.
The two dogs at Yankee Stadiumwere the worst glizzies of my
life.
Like they were just it was likepre-made, like wrapped hot dogs
and the buns were like squished, like they were like rolled

(13:10):
into little burritos.
I was and I was like what is?
This is the worst.
The condiment station sucked,so that was rough, but I I had a
pretty good hot dog, two hotdogs actually at that stadium.
So, and listen, you know if youever field, if you ever.

Speaker 3 (13:26):
If you ever feel in randy and you want to go out on
a tuesday?
All right, on tuesdays they gotfive dollar dogs and if you
hang with me I have a 15discount.
All right, so that's even.
You're getting better guzziesat a discount price wow, it's
like 425 a dog.
That's crazy, I am honestlywowed that you were able to do

(13:47):
that math in.
Never in a million years wouldI have a time.
I just get really happy.
Whenever I use the discount,I'm like, oh, look at that.

Speaker 2 (13:56):
I never have a conception of what I actually
don't know if that math iscorrect.
I'm gonna look that up reallyquick.
Five times 0.15.
Yeah, I was right.
Wow, oh, 4.25 a dog Plus taxbaby Can't beat that, anthony.

Speaker 3 (14:11):
you got to come up here, man, just for the glizzies
on Tuesdays, does it?
It's actually really good, justfly up from my, I'll pick you
up from LaGuardia.
It's right outside the stadium.
All right him, all right, andthen we'll go grab some dogs,
and then you know and then maybewatch some people throw a ball
around.

Speaker 2 (14:25):
Anyway, anthony, what have you been up to this past
couple weeks?

Speaker 1 (14:27):
tell me, tell me I'm gonna be honest with you, though
.
Like hot dogs are, like noteven my favorite.
Like if they're.
If I'm at a party and there's achoice between hamburgers and
hot dogs, I'm going burger allthe time.
That's fair.
I'm a burger guy.
Let me ask you a question,anthony.

Speaker 3 (14:43):
He's not in new york you're walking in new york
you're walking throughwashington dc, you're walking
through apalachia, you'rewalking through vegas all that
have been hit by nuclear bombs.
When you're walking aroundthose locales, you know what you
never see.
You never see a hamburger.
But you know how many hot dogsI've seen in fallout 76.

(15:06):
My friend, the structuralintegrity is fine.
Here's the thing abouthamburgers.
That person at that party doyou know if they know how to
cook a burger the right way?
What if you get slightly illfrom the temperature of the meat
?

Speaker 2 (15:19):
hot dogs, or or the opposite, the opposite.
You can be like having, youknow, a cookout with my
father-in-law and you get servedsome hockey pucks.

Speaker 3 (15:29):
There you go but hot dogs you can't really.
They're already cooked, man,they're already.
You don't even need to reallywarm them up, man, you can just
eat them.

Speaker 1 (15:36):
I'm sorry, man, but it just I mean and and honestly,
like if, if you're gonna gofallout, dude, there's still
brahmin, I mean you can groundthat beef, but that's true, all
right.
So what I've been up to thesepast couple of weeks is that.
So I had a con that was asandwich between this hot dog.

(15:59):
No sandwich between.
Like these two weeks, like Igot to go to Otaku Fest.

Speaker 2 (16:05):
Nice, tell us.

Speaker 1 (16:08):
But yeah, I had Otaku Fest.
It's con time.
Cons are kicking in the ticketsfor this convention.
I actually had won them back inFebruary by cosplaying Obi-Wan
Kenobi.

Speaker 3 (16:21):
Oh, that's right, I've seen that picture.

Speaker 2 (16:23):
Clever, clever.

Speaker 1 (16:27):
Best show on TV?

Speaker 2 (16:28):
Yeah, man always I mean, you know how it is man.

Speaker 1 (16:29):
I always have a good time going to conventions and
stuff man yeah, you'redefinitely a con man I am a con
man you should come up to nyccman.

Speaker 3 (16:39):
I just procured tickets.
The fam and I are definitelygoing on friday up here oh, and
they started selling ticketsyeah, yeah, I secured the pro
pass or educators pass, and thenthey got the friday passes well
, nice I mean I have beenwanting to go to new york
comic-con.

Speaker 1 (16:56):
It's been a while but yeah, I went up there and I I
went with dakota and gen oneyear anthony, listen, we're
thinking about going asthunderbolts.

Speaker 3 (17:05):
Okay, I was gonna be bucky.
All right, my wife is going tobe elena, my son is going to be.
Who do you want to be?
I'm blanking out right now, butwe need a red guardian.
Oh yeah, he wants to be century.
You could be red guardian man.
I've seen you bald, like, Ithink a little good, and I can
be the leader.

Speaker 1 (17:25):
Let's go all you have to do is just get stung by a
dozen of bees.
Jen could be the that betsythat look like him who's betsy?

Speaker 3 (17:39):
she's got some relation to the hulk.
Betsy ross somehow is relatedto hulk.
Maybe, uh, jen could be betyRoss.
I don't know.

Speaker 2 (17:46):
Somehow, some way.

Speaker 3 (17:48):
Something about there's some relationship to
Hulk.
I don't know what it is.
Is that his estranged daughter?

Speaker 2 (17:53):
No, that's the nurse that stuck him with Gamma.
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, she sucks.

Speaker 3 (18:02):
Well, maybe we should .
Sorry, but I think we'vedeviated.

Speaker 2 (18:06):
Alright, go ahead, tell us about otaku con or otaku
fest otaku fest man.

Speaker 1 (18:10):
Yeah, dude, just straight.

Speaker 2 (18:13):
Otaku tastic man, you know so, for those of you who
don't know, this is a animethemed convention, correct?

Speaker 1 (18:22):
yeah, I mean, you know you can there.
There's always going to bestuff that's not anime related
there, but it's definitely alittle bit more geared towards
that when you think of otaku.
You know obviously that's.
You know they're.
They're using that japaneseword that kind of describes
somebody who's like obsessiveover, you know, nerdy stuff.

(18:45):
And yeah, man, it was good it.
They had moved it back to theoriginal convention center that
it was at.
I guess it had outgrown it andso they tried to like move it to
another one, but that one wasway too big for it and I think
that it costed a lot more money.
So now they moved it back toits original space.

(19:06):
The problem with the last timewhen it was in that space, I
think they oversold.
It's just crazy that theseplaces like they oversell and
their tickets and stuff, youknow yeah, oh question, anthony.

Speaker 3 (19:19):
You said that you were seeing how to train your
dentist over the weekend how totrain your dentist these guys,
these guys all right, wait, wait, rich explain it so I'm, you
know we have a group chat goingon and anthony goes hey guys, I
think I'm gonna go see ht how totrain.
Yeah, httyd, and I'm I'mracking my brain over here.

(19:43):
Guys, I have no idea.
I'm like, and after just likean hour, I think, of pulling my
hair, I was just like cansomeone please tell me what hd?
So now they go off with uh, howto train your dentist?

Speaker 2 (19:57):
it's just how to train your dog.
Yeah, I mean.

Speaker 3 (20:00):
I got the message loud and clear after that, but I
felt a you know.
I guess I just completelyforgot because I think in my
worldview it doesn't feel likethat long ago that I saw how to
Train your Dragon.

Speaker 1 (20:13):
You know, like my son we watched it Same for me, so
like.

Speaker 3 (20:16):
I've seen it within the last five or six years, so I
didn't know that there was aneed for another one.

Speaker 2 (20:21):
It's a it's, so it's a live action version of the
animated film and it's very,very closely like, linked to the
animated film.
Apparently.
That did you.
Did you watch it, anthony?
I haven't so.

Speaker 1 (20:33):
So that was the plan with my group of friends, but we
ended up not being able to goand see it.
We just got caught up in in ourown stuff.
But it was the plan, but by thetime that time kind of rolled
around, we're too tired from youknow just just living.
Yeah, just tired of living justliving yeah but it is, it is a

(20:56):
plan.
I do want to see it.
I mean, maybe I might I couldgo and see it tomorrow, because
I don't work tomorrow.
Tomorrow is juneteenth andsince it's a federal holiday,
you know, the bank follows thefederal holiday and so we all
have it off awesome, coolawesome, you got that you have
tomorrow off as well, rich rightyeah, actually I got a sweet

(21:19):
four-day weekend because myson's graduation on friday.
So well, you should be finishingschool up soon, right?
Next Friday is the last day.
Yeah, there you go, the kidsdown in South Florida.
They've been done with schoolfor a week or so now.

Speaker 3 (21:36):
Yeah, but they go back a little earlier, I think.
I think you guys, they go back,yeah, they start earlier, yeah,
they do.

Speaker 1 (21:43):
But yeah, that's what I've been up to, but we're a
bit deep into the recording.
Shall we talk about and orseason two?

Speaker 3 (21:52):
episodes one through six just call it an episode.
I think this is good.
This was fun.
Uh, we'll see you guys nextweek.
Thanks for uh being thanks forlistening.
Leave.

Speaker 2 (22:00):
Leave a review for four stars, we'll make an and or
season two, one through sixmini.
So that is not sorry guys.

Speaker 1 (22:08):
Let's start talking about that, right, donium boys
no, you have to say it the rightway, dakota let's start talking
about the right donium boys.

Speaker 2 (22:17):
No, that was a bad.
That was a bad one.
I I'm really good at likeredoing his lines, but I can't
just create new lines for him,like if that makes sense.
But yeah, so Andor is back andpotentially better than ever.
A lot of people are saying thatthis is the best season of the
two seasons.

(22:37):
You know, it's not a super, itis a high bar, but it's not like
an incredibly high bar becausethere's only one other season.
What do you guys think of thestart to this season?
Some people are like in thecamp where first six episodes
are boring.
Some people are like, you know,getting on their knees and just
like bowing down, like it's,it's the best thing since sliced

(22:59):
bread.
What do you guys think?

Speaker 1 (23:01):
I think it was pretty good.
I would say, like the the first.
To me it starts off a littlebit stronger than maybe the
first season of andor, and thefirst season of andor was really
good anyway.
But you have to get thosecharacters established.
But now that you have thosecharacters that are established,

(23:21):
it was able to go.
You know a little bit, you knowstart a little bit.
You know start a little bitstronger.
You know we don't have tofigure out who Luthan is, we
don't have to figure out who Bixis, because they were explained
in that first season.
I would say the first seasoncrawled so that this season
could run not walk but run andit was solid.

(23:43):
I mean, I liked the first sixepisodes and there's a lot of
parallels to things thathappened in real life that I
definitely picked up on in theseepisodes.

Speaker 3 (23:53):
Rich.
What are your thoughts?
So I think I would have been inthe first camp after my first
watch through, because I thinkthat I appreciated some of the
relationships more.
I mean, I love the series.
I just think that it would the.
It's difficult for me to justsay like this first six are slow

(24:13):
, because I think once you watchthe whole thing on second
rewatch and of course I did likea third rewatch, but it's all
the interactions are so what'sthe word pregnant, that there's
so much to them that you don'teven know until you finish the
series.
And then you go back and nowthese moments, the way they're

(24:34):
playing off each other, themoments between the Imperial,
the ISB and kind of that dancethat's going on there, even the
dance between Deirdre andCyril's mother, between Deirdre
and Cyril's mother, I meaneverything like once you know
more just becomes.
They did such a great job ofsetting the groundwork for the

(24:54):
series to have a reallyimpactful end and I mean that
cutaway scene from the wedding,you know, is just.
It's amazing how they made thatjust be something.
That was so.
Even though I already watchedit, I was on the edge of my seat
again.

Speaker 2 (25:12):
Yeah, so you're talking about the cutaway to the
wedding, specifically inepisode three.
I'm assuming it's the scenewhere everyone's dancing.
Yes, correct, yeah.
So that's such a fantasticmoment for me and that was like
a big like wow.
I can't believe they pulledthat off.
So there's a couple thingshappening all at once.
You know it's the climax ofseveral plots within this 4 BBY

(25:37):
setting.
So it's like a year, a littleover a year, since the first
season took place.
And you know, andor, bix,brassoso and wilmon are on the
on the run.
They're living on thisagricultural world being
mechanics and they're basicallyjust hiding away from the empire
while also doing luthensbidding.

(25:58):
Andor is often like a side sidejob for a bit of this first
three episode arc and it allcomes to a head.
You know where the, the empirecatches up to them.
They rasso ends up dying andthey leave that planet.
All the while, there's a wholebunch of stuff happening with
mon mothma at the exact sametime, or we assume it's the

(26:20):
exact same time.
It could.
It could be different timeperiods, but whatever and what?
What's fantastic about the waythat they did that was they used
the music of the dance.
So there's a bunch of stuffhappening with Mon Mothma.
She doesn't want her daughterto get married to this thug's
son, basically.

(26:40):
But she's young, she's dumb andshe thinks that she's in love
and she know she's gonna go fullsteam ahead with this marriage
and on top of that, theintegrity of, or the secret of,
their rebellion and her you know, funds that go towards it are
about to potentially be driedout in the open, as her friends

(27:04):
is now ready to.
He's not getting that end ofthe deal anymore and he's
starting to wonder when he'sgoing to get his cut and it's
starting to get agitated.
You could see he's likesweating for most of this, like
wedding arc and luthen basicallytells mon that like we got to
kill this guy.
You know, like no amount ofmoney is going to fix this
problem.
This is going to keep comingback to bite us and to drown out

(27:28):
her sorrow in.
You know, like this childhoodfriend who has to be killed to
pacify this issue, she literallyjust drinks and starts dancing
and it's such a fantastic scenebecause you can see there's no
joy on her face.
But, like when you watch thetrailers for this, you're like,
wow, mom's really like gettingdown at this party.
But when you see the context ofwhat's happening, it's so

(27:49):
fantastic.
And that music that they play,like with the, with the droid
the droid, that's like DJing theparty is also used diegetically
.
So diegetic music is like inworld music that you hear but
also works as the score for theepisode.
They use that diegetically atthe end with cassian as well.

(28:10):
So like the intense upbeatmusic while you know they're on
the run, his friend's just beenkilled, been murdered, and the
look on his face, you know,mixed with mon dancing super
chaotically and drinking heavily.
It's's just such a fantasticbuildup to that last episode.

Speaker 1 (28:30):
Right, it's almost like the emotion is kind of
matched there.
You know, I mean sure, you knowyou have Cassian that is
mourning the loss of his friends, but then you also have Mon
Mothma that's kind of mourningthe loss of, you know, her
daughter in daughter.
In a sense, you know that she'sbeing married to somebody that
you know she didn't want her toget married to.

(28:52):
But, dude, you know, thatmoment was so strong and it left
me like like wow, this isintense, like it's crazy.
I'm actually a little side noteand I I don't know and I hadn't
really realized this in thefirst season, but then when I
looked at the cast, so I don'tknow if you realize, but the

(29:16):
actress that portrays Mon Mothmaactually does the voice for
Moira in Overwatch.

Speaker 2 (29:22):
I did find that out online recently.
Yeah, I thought that was pretty.

Speaker 1 (29:27):
I was crazy and then, like, when I thought about it,
I was like I see thesimilarities in a way, you know,
like the look, but you know, Ithought that that was like a
little neat aside thing.

Speaker 2 (29:36):
But man, it's such a it's actually, like you know,
leaning into that a little bit,it's such a weird contrast
because this is such a fantasticvisual actor.
You know, like her presence onscreen is crazy and that usually
doesn't always translate tovoice actors, so it's cool that
she has that ability to do both.

(29:58):
You know, like there there areactors who do both.

Speaker 1 (30:01):
Mark hamill is a actor who's very famously both
on screen and, you know, justvocal, but it's cool that
there's others in star wars thatdo that too yeah, yeah, in the
first three episodes you getsomething that you just don't
see in star wars and you havelike an imperial officer, that

(30:22):
is, you know, he proceeds to tryto assault bix, you know, yes
and you don't see that in starwars ever, really, you know we
haven't, yeah, and there's been,there's been, like certainly
they've kind of teased the ideaof it.
You know it's been skirted butit hasn't been shown in this

(30:46):
capacity and I thought it wascrazy because you know I could
very much so see the Imperialsyou know pretty much abusing
their power for stuff like thatand it's insane, like I was,
like man.
You know this show is powerfulin more ways than one.

(31:06):
It shows a part of Star Warsthat some people you get caught
up in the mysticism of thelarger part with the Jedi and
stuff, but you don't get thecommon man and this is what you
get.

Speaker 2 (31:19):
You don't get the nitty gritty as often as and for
me when it comes to Star Warsit doesn't get any more nitty
gritty than Andor and Rogue One.

Speaker 1 (31:30):
It really this season , you know, at least in this
first part, it really just blewmy mind.
Something else that I reallygot that kind of blew my mind
was Gorman, and Gorman drew likesuch a heavy parallel to World
War II Europe, like I mean youcould place Gorman, it could be

(31:56):
a European country and likethink of the way that they dress
and like think about the waythat it was intense for them.
You know that they're trying tobuild up this like rebellion.
You know I can imagine thisbeing europe before the war was
in full swing, you know, beforethe invasion.

(32:16):
This is what europe in thattime period was in the 30s.
You know, and yeah, man it.
It really it blew my mind howthey were able to do that,
because with Star Wars a lot oftimes we get the Western side or
we get the samurai side, but wenever get that side.
I mean, you get parts of it butyou don't get it as strong as

(32:38):
you do in this show, like theWorld War II influence that Star
Wars has, you know, and youknow it's very much so.
You know that's a huge part ofStar Wars, that influence and
you get it a lot in this showman.

Speaker 2 (32:53):
Yeah, I totally agree .
I think you know to tag alongwith what you're saying.
It's funny because we've seenso many things that are Star
Wars related.
We've read Star Wars, we'veseen comic books and so on and
so forth.
There's a whole bunch of StarWars out there, but it's amazing

(33:15):
that we're continually gettingnew vantage points and looks at
the Star Wars galaxy that weprobably didn't think that we
needed or wanted, but justexpanded not only the lore but
the reality of what's at stake.
And as that comes into the fourwith gorman, yeah, there's a lot
of parallels you can make withgorman and basically it's not

(33:36):
just like world war ii and allthat.
It's pretty much everyoppressive government, every
authoritarian regime trying toput another party down, and that
that has been the case likethroughout history.
And I think that they nailedthat down with how the
propaganda is being spread, howeasy it is to, you know, make
the population dislike thosepeople.

(33:58):
Like with Mon Mothma in theSenate building.
She was trying to curry favorwith a bunch of different people
whom she probably agreed onwith certain bills in the past,
but there was one senator who'seven like.
I don't think Gorman is a goodthing to be vying for right now
I forget the correct wording,but basically saying like I

(34:19):
don't want anything to do withGorman right now, that's a bad
look for me.
And you just see everyoneturning a blind eye to what's
happening and ultimately wedon't know what's happening with
Gorman.
At this point.
We don't really fully get it.
I mean, we as the audience getit, but the people inside the
show, outside of a few, have noidea that they're going to be
mining for Kalkite in the nearfuture.

(34:42):
So they have no idea what'scoming for them.
They have no idea why theImperial Destroying the planet
pretty much, yeah, which iswhat's going to happen, yeah
yeah they have no idea why theempire have decided to make
gorman their enemy, but it'sapparent that that's what's
happening and it is.
It is a really scary thing.
But I want to take like a briefmoment to like just talk.

(35:02):
Sorry, rich, you haven't.
You haven't actually chimed inon on these two topics.

Speaker 3 (35:08):
Yeah, I'm so, as I was listening to you guys talk
about this, it just kind of mademe think about a couple of
things.
So I don't think andor worksuntil now and I, like I was
thinking, like I think part ofthe reason we're enjoying it is
because it's a star warsproperty.
But it's not a star warsproperty, right, it's like star

(35:30):
wars property that exists inthis universe that we know very
well, right?
And if, let's say, you juststarted watching andor and you
hadn't seen anything else forsome random reason, or even if
you, you know, you startwatching andor and you just go
through rogue one, right, you'vegot this universe that is, you
know, a long time ago in agalaxy far, far away.

(35:52):
But it doesn't.
I don't think it would jump outat anybody.
It's well done, right.
But I think that why it's beingso well received is because we
feel a lot of you know, I'lljust like kind of our star wars
nerds over here.
We feel like we've explored somuch of the galaxy in one

(36:14):
direction that we want to see itin another.
You know, that's a good way toput it right, because I I don't
like this doesn't come out in1977 and people are like, oh man
, this is the franchise.

Speaker 2 (36:25):
I'm getting into.
That's an OK yeah, yeah, I like, I like that idea that because,
yeah, I see what you're saying,that like what, what may have
appealed to audiences back thenis different than what appeals
to audiences now.

Speaker 3 (36:37):
So it's not necessarily playing to the times
, but it is, in a way I don'twant to say encyclopedic,
because you don't really, but Ithink the type of person who's
going to like andor is very welleducated about the star wars
universe right from myexperience online, a lot of
people who had never seen starwars are watching andor and
they're considering it.

Speaker 2 (36:57):
They're considering it like some of the best tv
they've ever seen.

Speaker 1 (37:01):
Well, well, I think.
So.
What I think about Andor isthat, yes, I agree that right
now is the time for Andor toexist, but you couldn't have had
Andor be the first thing tocome out, because Andor is not a
foundational series in the waythat, like the mainline Star

(37:24):
Wars movies are.
That's the foundation.
Everything else is built uponthat.
You cannot, you know and orwould be telling a story about
something that just doesn'texist.
Now we know exactly whathappens, because what's
happening in this show you know.
So this is just something thatis being built on the foundation

(37:47):
of the greater storyline youknow in star wars, the skywalker
saga, if you will.
But I also do agree that mostpeople have some sort of idea
about star wars.
Even if they haven't watched it, they know it exists.
They've probably heard of lukeskywalker.
They've probably heard oflightsabers definitely heard of

(38:11):
stormtroopers.
You know like it's hard toescape, even if you don't watch
it.
I could imagine you watching,and or without watching, the
mainline series and enjoying it,just in the same way that you
can watch the mandalorianwithout having watched the
mainline series.
You know, and there'sespecially like mandalorian

(38:32):
season two, there's stuff fromother series that you.
It wouldn't mean much to youhad you not seen it, but you
know it's definitely somethingthat's really good.
It's something that's different.
I don't know what would youcall it.
Is it espionage, the spy seriesthat exists within the star

(38:52):
wars universe?
Like you know, it's not a starwars show, it's something else
that that exists within the starwars universe I see what you're
.

Speaker 2 (39:03):
Yeah, it's hard to really pinpoint why it works.
I think that you're both kindof right, in the sense that it
does build on everything thatcame before, and for it to even
exist requires these otherproperties to have existed for
ages.
You know, this is a prequel toa prequel, which in and of

(39:26):
itself, is a sequel to theprequels.

Speaker 3 (39:31):
It's a sell for my 10-year-old right.
He has enjoyed everything StarWars with me.
We have our lightsabers.
He's definitely knowledgeableabout Star Wars in the way that
most kids his age aren't.
You know, we played the legogames to their just maximum, so
he knows the most random ofcharacters and I don't think

(39:55):
that I haven't had him watch ityet.
But I don't think he wouldenjoy and or right like I just
yeah, it's not like it's not thestar wars he's looking for.
You know.
Yeah, I love it, I love thisshow, but when I look I walk
around, work and I have.
I used to have anover-the-shoulder bag but my
chiropractor told me I needed towear a backpack to balance the

(40:18):
weight.
So I have these Chewbacca likethe bandolier right but with
hair, and it's really you canuse it in your car, but I use it
as like.
So I have these two chewbaccastraps, bandolier straps, with
the fur on my backpack at alltimes at work.
You know, like I've got starwars stuff in my room.
I teach revenge of the sith,like I'm known as the star wars

(40:41):
guy, and I guess, when I thinkof like Star Wars in that way,
from the outside, looking infrom the person who's not a big
fan, you know it's just what'sodd, what makes Andor great, is
that almost it doesn't screamStar Wars in the slightest.
You know there's.
There's no Wookiees, there's noJar Jar Binks, there's no Ewoks

(41:02):
.
You know there's very and Ihonestly got to the point where
rewatching it with the Bix storewhen Bix was assaulted, I felt
uncomfortable in a way that Idon't want to feel when I'm
watching Star Wars, which soundslike a child you know.
And then as I'm rewatching theGorman plot, because I just
think that these episodes are sopacked with stuff that if

(41:24):
you're not hyper focused you'regoing to kind of miss something.
So that's why I also enjoy therewatches and to know what is
going to unfold and see it now,see the seeds happening.
Let's just look around for asecond right and then you look
back to the show and it's a bitstartling, like anthony was

(41:44):
saying, it is like so much ofyou guys were saying earlier,
the authoritarian playbook andhow easily it's working.
You know how you said thesenators were so quick to oh, I
don't want to get the stink ofGorman on me too, you know,
instead of them all bandingtogether and how, just the
little things you know.
Well, you know the crime ongorman has increased to 36

(42:07):
percent and just all theserumors and the spin doctor stuff
, it honestly scared me.
I was kind of like, oh, it'sscary stuff.
Yeah, and it's such a differentfeeling than I'm used to
watching star wars.
I mean, I know like when handied I lost my mind in the movie
theater.
I couldn't believe it.
But you know, I got over it, Iwas okay.
You know, I I felt a littleshaky after watching these

(42:30):
episodes again because it's soreal, right, like, like anthony
said, it could be vania orestonia.
I'm just trying to think ofother countries I've never been
to or can't really point to on amap, that are nowhere in europe
, you know right, I mean it'sdifferent.

Speaker 1 (42:45):
I was was thinking Poland or something you know.

Speaker 3 (42:48):
Oh well, yeah, that's a good one.

Speaker 1 (42:50):
You know the thing is , is that the reason why I think
that Andor is so important forthe Star Wars universe is that
you know?
Yeah, I understand like youknow, yeah, there is a you know
a discomfort when you witnessthese things on screen.
There is a you know adiscomfort when you witness

(43:11):
these things on screen.
But you know, we've always beentold that the empire is bad,
the empire is bad.
The empire is bad, but we'rebeing shown how bad they are in
this show this is why they'redoing what they're doing.
We've only ever been told thatthey're bad.
You know it's always been blackand white.
But why, okay?
What?
Okay?
Why is it what you know?
Show me some color.

(43:32):
Show me why and this is why theshow is showing why and that
these people are willing to puttheir lives on the line to do
what they're doing.
You don't have that wholerebellion that destroys the
death star twice without thesemoments.

(43:52):
There has to be a build-up.

Speaker 2 (43:54):
It's.
That's such a really that's agreat point, because little
things that have led to theoriginal trilogy stack up like
dominoes.
You know, like they, like, youcan't have all of this that
happens in rogue one without allof this that happens in andor.
You need the, you need thegorman I'm not going to say the

(44:14):
m word because that's a spoilerfor next week.
We need what happens on gormanto happen because that's what
catalyzes the rebel alliance tofinally form a united front.
You know, right now they're therebels are a disparate, leader,
almost leaderless group ofrandom bands of rebels
throughout the galaxy and and weactually see in the the first

(44:37):
couple episodes of, you know, Ithink, episodes one and two we
have cassian going to yavin fourto meet up with a friend and he
comes into contact with 15rebels that don't seem to have a
leader right, there's hugeleadership, huge huge leadership
issues that you know everyone'sfighting for leadership and

(44:58):
that's the problem with theserebels at this point, there's no
organization, and that's thatneeds to change if they're ever
going to defeat the empire andcassie.

Speaker 1 (45:08):
This is like cassian's like wake up, like, oh
wow, maybe these guys need somehelp and yeah, yeah, that was
crazy, like when when you youget that realization that he was
on yavin that whole time thatthat was insane.
I was like dude, what you knowlike we're there's about to be a

(45:28):
battle there soon, uh, but acouple years.
That was insane.
This season brings back acharacter that we haven't seen
since rogue one in orson krennicand oh yeah, dude, I mean he's
such a good bad guy man.
I really do.
I'm glad that they brought himback, like I am so happy that

(45:50):
they brought him back because Idefinitely wanted to see that
character again.
He just he kills that characterman and I I loved his.
I loved his, like cal kiteramble that he just goes oh yeah
, um cal kites, cal kites.
Alternatives like synthetic yeahlike yeah, dude, that was just

(46:11):
so that scene that when luthanand what's his, name again when
they were at that party andshe's trying to get rid of that
listening device dude it was sointense what a great and then
they had lonnie there, like it'slike, oh, poor lonnie's, just
in the middle of all this messman, this guy's just trying to

(46:33):
survive at this point I knowpoor lonnie, I wonder if he'll
make it.

Speaker 2 (46:39):
Yeah, ben mendelsohn returning to to replay orson
krennic a couple years prior tothe events of Rogue One.
Fantastic stuff, him being thecatalyst.
I keep saying the word catalystand I think it's because the
prequel novel to Rogue One iscalled Catalyst, so that's just

(46:59):
in the back of my head wheneverI'm thinking of these characters
.
So anyway, he is the catalystto why the whole Gorman front is
happening.
He knows that the Empire needsthe calcite, the synthetic
calcite, the calcitealternatives.
He needs all that.
But it can only be mined viabasically destabilizing Gorman.

(47:19):
And I love that scene where hebrings in certain ISB members
and other people within theEmpire to just have a little
brunch you know, have some cakeswhile talking about how they're
going to potentially killmillions.

Speaker 3 (47:33):
It's just a really great scene, really fascinating
um, in that scene that's the oneof the I think one of the guys
that's to me was one of the mostchilling things when they were.
Somebody asked one of the isbguys essentially like can't we
just tell them that you knowthere's like a disaster coming
or something and get them offplanet?
And his response is somethingto the effect of we've seen that

(47:57):
not work before and generallyit's just better to do away with
the whole thing.
And that means that they'vedone it on multiple planets,
right oh?

Speaker 1 (48:09):
yeah, you know and that's.

Speaker 3 (48:11):
That's what that was like.
Oh my goodness, you've donethis so much that you have
freaking data on it right.
Like you can't do somethingtwice and have data on it right.
You have to do something likefive times, I'd minimum, I would
assume.
I don't know what the number is, but then it's just like how
many more planets have they donethis to?

Speaker 2 (48:29):
oh, they've done it to a bunch and I I did do a
little bit of research on likeother planets that they've done
that too.
So in response to someoneonline who thought it was like a
dumb thing, like there's abunch of like haters online for
everything, this one I I don't Iwant to bring attention to
because it was prettyastronomically stupid.
There was absolutely no reasonto militarily occupy Gorman.

(48:53):
It was one of the dumbestthings Palpatine could have done
.
The Gormans were perfectlyhappy with their planet and its
industry.
The Emperor could have simplymined the material needed and
left the Gormans alone.
Why would he bring this kind ofnegative attention?
For no reason.
Blah, blah, blah.
And I'm like it's perfectlyclear the empire needed the
calcite found in gorman's core.
The empire makes it very clearthat the mining of said resource

(49:15):
was to destabilize the core andlead to ecological collapse.
But poverty needed it more thanhe believed.
The empire needed good pr and Iexplained that it's not the
first time this has happened.
In the book a new dawn, the, theEmpire mined Thorolite on Cinda
, causing the core to nearlycollapse.
In Rebels we learn thatGeonosis was completely
sterilized to cover theconstruction of their Death Star
project.
In Rogue One we learn that theEmpire destroyed Jedha City,

(49:38):
partly to cover their extractionof kyber from beneath the city.
And there's also Ilum, which iswhere the Padawans used to get
their kyber crystals.
Also ilum, which was where thethat's where the padawans used
to get their kyber crystals.
They used that planet, theymined it out and basically a big
fissure erupted on the planet'ssurface, causing the planet to
start splitting in half and theyhad to, like, hold it in place.

(50:00):
And that planet, ilum, laterbecame star killer base in the
sequels.
Um, so it's something that theEmpire is well known for doing.
So the idea that like and theykind of do explain why one of
the ISB guys basically saysPartagas, partagas.
He says they have a strongSenate presence.

(50:24):
You know, like this is a strongplanet, they're not going to go
down lightly.
So they need to create thisfalse image of gorman to the
rest of the galaxy to make itokay for them to do what need,
what they believe needs to bedone.
And it's it's just crazy, it'sjust it's so sick and twisted,
but you could totally picturethe empire doing that, because

(50:46):
they need what they got, youknow, and there ain't no more
Kalkite alternatives elsewhere.

Speaker 1 (50:52):
Nope, something else.
So two characters that we alsoget back from the first season
is Cyril and Deidre, and in thisone they're kind of like you
know, there's some romance there, you know.
So what?

(51:12):
What did you all think aboutthat dynamic it?

Speaker 2 (51:15):
it was definitely kind of awkward yeah, they have
a very healthy relationship.
It seemed.
You know they both respectedeach other's boundaries very
clearly.
Yeah, no, it was very good.
I'm happy for cyril, very happyfor deidre.
They both look and feel veryhappy in their new roles.
No, it's the weirdestrelationship I've seen in star
wars period.
This is weirder than when thosefrog people, like that frog

(51:39):
lady with all her eggs, like metup with her husband and just
like touched heads at the end ofthat mandorian episode.
This was bizarre and it's soclear that Daedra is not a
psychopath but a Sociopath.
Sociopath, yes, she'ssociopathic.
She has no emotions, she has nofeeling.
Everything she does is to getahead, to move up a ladder, and

(52:06):
Cyril just happens to be presentand isn't moving out of her way
and is willing to help her outright.

Speaker 1 (52:11):
So she's, she's cool with it and she's even like
holding a secret, like from him,and he's helping them out.

Speaker 2 (52:17):
Like you know, locate these rebels on gorman I
actually really do feel bad forcyril I do too like, honestly,
he, he's someone who clearlyneeds a lot of structure in his
life and he's gone about it theentire wrong way.
And he wasn't wrong in that,you know, in the first season he
wasn't wrong for wanting to dohis job correctly, to go

(52:41):
apprehend and or and all that.
He just was barking up thewrong tree with the wrong people
.
And then he got involved withthe Empire and the Empire feeds
you all these lies about.
You know this and that, andit's so easy, you know, as it's
explained.
You know, just by watching thehollow news, like it's so easy
for you to be brainwashed by allthe propaganda.

(53:04):
And Cyril is conscious thatthere is propaganda being
perpetrated about Gorman in thisseason.
He knows that what's beingpresented on the news isn't
what's actually happening on theplanet.
You know, and it's such afascinating concept because he's
undercover for these people,which does make him complicit.

(53:26):
He knows that the Empire isdoing something and they're
trying to incite a rebellion onthis planet for some reason, but
he doesn't know why or how it'sgoing to play out.
You know, and I feel bad forhim because he thinks he's doing
the right thing for the rightcause.
He still truly believes thatthe Empire is what's good in the
galaxy and that the rebels areterrorists.

(53:48):
And with that mindset it's hardnot to fault the guy.

Speaker 1 (53:51):
But right, right he is an antagonist.

Speaker 2 (53:54):
You know like it's hard to it's.
It's hard to make that balance,so I I feel bad for the guy.

Speaker 1 (53:58):
He's an antagonist.
He is an antagonist but he'salso a bit of a patsy.
You know like he is definitelythe type of guy that would be
set up to be a fall guy.
You know that the empire wouldleave him out to dry and what
we'll find out.

Speaker 2 (54:17):
You know I don't want to get ahead of myself, but
it's so easy in the empire forthere to be fall guys.
You think of, like all of thesebig players, like we saw in
rogue one, that orson krennic,the guy who basically designed
the entirety of the death star.
He ran the project, he was thefall guy for tarkin.

Speaker 1 (54:35):
Tarkin stepped in, yeah, and there is a hierarchy
in the empire but there's noloyalty yeah, there's a lot of
like stepping on backs in theempire, a lot, a lot of stepping
on backs in the empire, a lotof stepping on, backs,
backsteppers.

Speaker 2 (54:50):
Yeah, there's a lot.
There's a lot that this season,even these first six episodes,
you can like read into, andwhat's amazing is the timeliness
about, like, some of the thestuff in the first couple
episodes.
You know like we have withinamerica right now a big issue of
like being for or againstillegal immigration, people

(55:11):
being deported back to theircountries or detained whatever.
Say what you will about that.
This show was filmed severalyears before any of that was
mainstream news.
You know, like we've haddeportations for illegal
immigration for years in America, but right now it's coming to a
head because whatever, butwithin Andor, it's so

(55:34):
fascinating because these arethe characters that we love,
these are the characters thatwe're rooting for and they are
the illegal immigrants on thisplanet and the empire is
technically the lawfulgovernment that has the right to
deport them because they don'thave their papers and it's.
It's such a timely contrast tothe our real world discussion,

(55:56):
you know, and like the political, political landscape, because
they didn't know that this wasgoing to be an issue when when
the show was coming out, but itkind of just fits perfectly in
the narrative and I think that'spart of why this show is so
timeless.
You know you guys were sayingthat it needed to be released at
this point in history, at leastin terms of Star Wars, for it

(56:19):
to like really resonate itself.
Even if it didn't like focus onandor and wasn't a prequel to
rogue one directly and all thatit would.
Using these themes, it's kindof timeless, you know, like it's
always going to be relevant tosome, some degree and I I think
that that's what's really coolabout it yeah, it's definitely a

(56:42):
great show.

Speaker 1 (56:43):
You know, it's sad that we lost your boy, brasso
Brasso.
I love Brasso dude.
Yeah, man, he was definitelythat homie.

Speaker 2 (56:52):
He was the homiest of all homies.

Speaker 1 (56:54):
Yeah, that guy that you could rely on.
He watched out.
I miss B.

Speaker 2 (57:01):
Oh man, B2Emo.
I love that droid so much and Ifeel so bad that they just
leave B2Emo on that planet.

Speaker 1 (57:11):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (57:11):
I love that droid Like it's my own pet, like it's
my own child.

Speaker 1 (57:15):
Right.

Speaker 2 (57:15):
Seeing them leave so unceremoniously, oh, it kills me
every time.

Speaker 1 (57:20):
And you feel so bad because, like you know, you do
like hear that depression, likehe just he wants to be with
cassian, you know, and it's notthat cassian doesn't want him
around, he just he knows thathe's going to be doing dangerous
things and in a way he's kindof like the last bit of of

(57:40):
memory of his mother, you know,and if you lost marva yeah, if
you lost him, that that would be.
you know, it was definitely agood call on that front.
Something that we didn't reallytalk about was your boy Right
on him.

Speaker 2 (57:55):
Wait, wait, wait.
What were you going to say,Rich, about B?

Speaker 3 (57:58):
Well, I love B and I was so sad that he had to be
left behind.
I know this is Star Wars and ithappens all the time, but man,
just like he had to arrive atthat exact second for them to
get off of there.
You know, like talk aboutfortuitous, I mean, you know
it's, it's a big galaxy, and he,he pulls up just right at say,

(58:19):
you know, without really kind ofknowing about it, which is kind
of all that more right, he justhears like blockade or whatever
from clay, and then heimmediately goes there, right,
but well it's.

Speaker 2 (58:30):
It's interesting like it's going to be a major plot
thread in the the next coupleepisodes.
But you know the idea ofcassian as a messenger.
You know he wants to send amessage to bix on this planet.
He finds out, oh he can't sendmessage, so he's going to go
there directly.
And he is the messenger, youknow, for all of these little

(58:52):
adventures.
He's the one relaying all theinformation to all these parties
.
That eventually culminates in anew hope and it's so.
It's so good the way that theywove that idea into the show and
we're going to talk more aboutspecifically him as a messenger
next week because I think thatthat is a really fascinating
discussion.
But yeah, going back to B2Emo,I feel so bad for that guy.

Speaker 3 (59:16):
He just B's two emos and that's he's just so sad, and
you know you guys were talkingabout Saw.
You know this guy.
I mean, can I ask a question?
So do we believe that themechanic in training was working

(59:36):
with the Empire?
Is that a real, or did he justmake that up and then his friend
agreed?

Speaker 2 (59:43):
What's his friend's name?
I think it's Two Tubes orsomething like that.
I think that's actually likehis name in the character
encyclopedia.
I don't think that this guy was.
It came out of nowhere.
And I don't think Saul wouldhave humored this guy making
Rhydonium for as long as he didif he was going to kill him
anyway.

(01:00:04):
And I don't think that heplanned on killing him.
I just think that he saw thatthere was a need for ridonium
and that wilmon couldn't leave,because clearly wilmon didn't
think like there was someapprehension when wilmon said he
thinks he's ready for, you know, this production yeah,
essentially he's like, he's goodenough, you know like there,

(01:00:27):
but with, with, with ridonium,there's, there's there's no
margin of error.
There's no margin of error, yeahyou're gonna blow up the whole
party.
So yeah, it's really I.

Speaker 1 (01:00:39):
I don't personally think that he was a empire spy
right, like maybe he just neededa reason to kind of kill him in
that moment.
But yeah, no, I I agree.
I think that, like he realized,okay, this guy's not, he's
obviously can't, he can't do thejob, and it's like we kind of
put ourselves in a hard spotbecause we can't let this guy

(01:01:01):
leave, because he knows too muchand he's the best bet for this
job.
So I guess he's going to becoming anyway.
I find that process ofextracting Rhydonium so
fascinating Like that.
Just it's a eight step process,dude, and it looks so cool,
like you know, just like kind oflike you know the rotating of

(01:01:22):
like the machine, and to me itjust it looked awesome, like it
looked so complicated and it wasa really cool like scene to
have.
And man, your boy I know yourboy is just cracked out for
ridonium.

Speaker 2 (01:01:38):
No wonder why he's insane, saw so in uh rogue one,
we all thought that he was likehuffing off oxygen, you know
like.
We thought that he was justlike ill and he needed the, you
know the inhaler.
Turns out he's just beenhuffing rhodonium good boy.

Speaker 1 (01:01:52):
I mean, it's a drug to this man.
He's just how does.
Oh, it's a drug cracked out onhim, man how is he now?

Speaker 3 (01:02:00):
how is he so like I?
How does he weather it, I mean,and then like, will I, don't
under.
Did he just like get peerpressured, like it sounds like?
It's the worst thing in theworld you would ever do to
yourself and like it's not likehey take a hit of this joint

(01:02:20):
Right.
It's like I don't know.
Hey, here's some ether.
I don't.
It seems insane, right.

Speaker 2 (01:02:29):
It's a very extreme high.
Yeah, give's some ether, itseems insane.
Right, it's a very extreme high.
Give me some spice.
He just tells.

Speaker 1 (01:02:33):
Wilmon like just accept it.
Wilmon just looks like he's inexcruciating pain.
Dude.

Speaker 2 (01:02:39):
Yeah, it's interesting.
And Wilmon's so surprised.
After he starts releasing theRhydonium, saw just kind of goes
up to him like oh, how I'vemissed you.
And Wilma's like what on earth,how are you doing this?
Because Saw just went on thistangent about how your skin

(01:03:00):
starts to itch and you startfeeling your skin crawl like
it's alive.
And as a kid he like hooked onthis stuff.
You're asking how he weatheredit.
I think it's just tolerance.
You know, like you give you,give a kid a taste of bourbon,
they're gonna hate it, they'regonna spit it out.
It tastes gross to them.

(01:03:21):
There's no way that they'regonna enjoy that because it just
tastes like spicy and bitterand all of that.
But as an adult you growtolerances to certain things.
Now bourbon tastes fantastic tome.
It feels really good going down, burning.
The burning sensation is partof the fun of it and I think
that is what we're experiencingwith the Rido.

Speaker 1 (01:03:43):
Yeah, man, you know it's like at this point, are you
going to use this forsarsaparilla?

Speaker 2 (01:03:51):
fuel fuel, or are you gonna like just huff it all?
Yeah, I don't got an answer foryou.

Speaker 1 (01:03:53):
I, everybody else will use it for starship fuel,
but saul's just gonna use it forhis own weird reasons yeah, no,
it's, it's bad.

Speaker 2 (01:04:03):
I want to look this up actually, right don't?
I know?
I've heard that like so manytimes before, like in random
things I mean, like this guycould just be using regular
spice.

Speaker 1 (01:04:13):
You know whatever would happen a good old spice
it's probably not strong enough,man, not that it doesn't have
that rhododium strength, youknow, because like rhododium
because when you say rhododiumstrong like, I mean it sounds
strong, but when you think ofspice, I'm thinking of like
maybe pepper right, some, youknow pepper salt, you know
oregano, whatever but you knowyou think of rhodonium.

(01:04:36):
That honestly, doesn't evenrhodonium sounds like, it sounds
like an ore, it doesn't evensound like a liquid.
You know yeah, but but yeah, no, it's crazy.
I'm not too sure.
Is there anything else that you, that you guys want to talk
about?

Speaker 2 (01:04:52):
I really liked luthen and kleia in this arc.
I feel like we've talked alittle bit about them and I
appreciate that their dynamic isgrowing.
We didn't really know whattheir dynamic was in the first
season and we still don't knowat this point in the show, like,
what their dynamic is.
Are they related?

(01:05:12):
Are they friends?
Are they just partners for along time?
Could be in any number ofthings, but I think it's really
cool that they have such aprofessional relationship, even
on their downtime.
You know, like there istechnically, there is no
downtime for them.
They're on 24 7, because that'swhat it takes to run a rebellion

(01:05:34):
and they're running it from thecenter of civilization.
They're in the hornet's nestwhile they're doing what they're
doing and it's it's so cool theway the show uses them as
accesses.
They're literally an axis.
It's such a like fascinatingword because you think of an

(01:05:56):
axis, it's what the rest of,it's what turns in the center of
things.
It's what turns in the centeris the one who's running all the
shots and they're partiallyright, he's one cog of the

(01:06:16):
greater rebellion, but he islike a mastermind of what's
going on in the galaxyrebel-wise, and you think of
another term that's used inmachinery that's been applied to
characters like fulcrum.
Fulcrum was given to characterslike Ahsoka, later it will be
given to Cassian, and it makessense that there's multiple

(01:06:37):
fulcrums but there's only onetrue axis, so a fulcrum is a
pivot point on the spinningmechanism of the axis and these
characters Ahs, ahsoka, cassianand others are fulcrums,
basically like they're pivots inthis moving cog and it's.
It's so cool the way that thisis all being explored

(01:07:01):
subtextually but also like inreal time on the show and I
think that it's just brilliantwriting.
It's so cool.

Speaker 1 (01:07:08):
I agree.
Oh yeah, and we also lose Senta, which she was kind of not
around too much, Right, she waskind of here and there, but she
ends up getting killed duringthat heist.

Speaker 2 (01:07:24):
That heist on Gorman.

Speaker 1 (01:07:25):
Yes on.
Gorman.

Speaker 2 (01:07:27):
Yeah, I felt bad.
Val clearly was in love withthis person and the moment she
gets since a back since is likeliterally killed by mistake by
some kid who, you know, thoughthe could do his own thing on the
like as part of the rebellion,and that's why leadership is so
necessary.
You know and talking aboutgorman really quickly the

(01:07:51):
culture of this world was sofantastically realized.
I am amazed every time it's onscreen because it feels legit,
it feels like a real world andit what?
What helps it is that all theactors are French.
They're not speaking French,but they're speaking an alien
language based off of Frenchlinguistics, which is why it

(01:08:13):
sounds like French, but youcan't actually pick up any of
the words.
It's so well done.
It's the cultural worldbuilding of Gorman, making it
centered around these spiderswho create weaves and silk that
the galaxy needs, and thenbringing in Cassian to kind of
play onto that, because you know, this whole world's ecosystem

(01:08:34):
runs on these spiders, basically, and he's playing a designer so
that he can blend into thisworld's ecosystem and it's dude.
The writing on this show isnext level and it just blows me
away.

Speaker 1 (01:08:49):
Oh yeah, and also something that I kind of wanted
to just kind of cap thisconversation on is PTSD.
And Bix has that big time withwhat happened to her in season
one With Dr Gorse.

Speaker 2 (01:09:06):
Yeah, yeah, and actually these episodes cap that
like plot line off really,really neatly.
We learn a couple episode, orlike an episode prior to this,
that dr gorse the guy whoinvented the torture device or
the torture method that we sawused on bix in the first season.
They want to embiggen thisproject, they want to get more

(01:09:29):
people involved, they want tomake a whole team involved in
this interrogation process.
So they give Dr Gorse thisbrand new wing within the
Imperial Complex on Coruscantand I just love that Bix, who is
so distraught about this, getsthe opportunity to get her

(01:09:49):
comeuppance with this guy.

Speaker 1 (01:09:50):
Yeah, and then Cassian just straight blows him
up.

Speaker 2 (01:09:54):
Yeah.
What did you think of the PTSDRich?
What did you feel about thisplotline with Vix?

Speaker 3 (01:10:00):
Well, I think the first time I understand that to
properly short you need to do itover a little bit more time.
But I I was just I was unsurewhere it was really going.
But then the visit from luthan,I think when I saw it the
second time around, made it waymore interesting.
And doors questioning of.
Well, if luthan did that and hedidn't tell me that and he came

(01:10:25):
home he knew you would tell me.
So he had to know that he'salways doing something for like,
and you could just really seeandor's paranoia.
But I don't want to call itparanoia because he's right.

Speaker 2 (01:10:38):
I mean he's yeah no, he's pardon, he is being
paranoid, but he's also right.
You know, you don't just getvisits from luthan.

Speaker 3 (01:10:46):
There's a reason so I thought that again, like it's
just, I appreciate it way morethe second time.
I think I wanted to just kindof get to some big resolutions a
little earlier than I, than Ishould have the first watch
through, right.
So when I now know whereeverything was, watching it

(01:11:06):
again, it really is paced well.
I think the way they did it wasexcellent and without spoiling
too much for next week, rightLike this PTSD arc is really
important.

Speaker 2 (01:11:19):
Totally yeah.
So one last thing I do want tomention, because I do think that
, you know, nothing is trulyperfect, and if I could give it
a criticism, I would say thatthe jumps in years for every
three episodes is a littlejarring and there's a lot that
goes unsaid between episodesthat you just kind of have to

(01:11:41):
pick up the pieces on and try tofigure out.
And this will come into like Ithink, like, think, like
technically, next week, the jumpfrom 3 BBY to 2 BBY is probably
like the hardest jump for me interms of like wow, I really
wish there was more to thisstory.
I wish they told all of thosethings that they're talking
about.

Speaker 1 (01:12:01):
You know they will eventually.
Oh yeah, I'm excited about thebooks.

Speaker 2 (01:12:05):
They teed it up so nicely for publishing.
Oh yeah, I'm excited about thebooks.
They teed it up so nicely forpublishing and their publishing
is literally just finishing upthe High Republic.
It's five years, I think, atthis point, and they're going to
need new territory and I thinkthey're going right into Andor
hopefully soon, because this issuch a ripe area, for I just
don't know that they can writeit as well.
I'm genuinely like will theygive us good stories in Andor?

Speaker 1 (01:12:28):
Or will they give us good stories in Andor, or will
they not?
I think it can be done.

Speaker 2 (01:12:30):
you know it can be done, but it's tough.

Speaker 1 (01:12:32):
You know when you're going from.
You know a big huff ofRhydonium to, you know Spice.

Speaker 2 (01:12:39):
Oof, yeah, Speaking of which do next week, boys.

Speaker 1 (01:12:43):
Yes, next week we shall be doing the last half of
Andor and you know that'll becapping off the series because
the series rolls right intoRogue One.

Speaker 2 (01:12:58):
Yeah, I do kind of wish we, like you said earlier,
I wish we hadn't done Rogue Oneand A New Hope so soon, because
it would have been nice to gointo it.
Hopefully, like in some futureepisodes, we can go back and
like revisit certain things Iwould like to do, like a Rogue
One and A New Hope rewatch afterAndor.

(01:13:20):
I know, rich, you already didit, but I have I have yet to do
it yet, so I really can't waitto like see how the story
unfolds in a new manner and anew light after watching andor.
So it could be something we we,you know do at some point.
But, guys, thank you forlistening to us here for our
124th episode of projectgeekology.

(01:13:41):
We hope you enjoyed ourramblings on the star wars
galaxy as a whole.
Please be sure to check outnext episode where we cover the
final six episodes of Andor asthey lead up to the events of
Rogue One.
We're excited to finally get towhat I believe is probably the
best couple hours of Star Warsever produced.
And yeah, thanks so much forlistening.

(01:14:03):
If you want to check us out onany of our socials, be sure to
click down into the show notes.
You'll find us there.
And, yeah, boys, stay juicy,like that Rhydonium that you
know, like that Rhydonium thatSaw Gerrera is huffing and
puffing.
You need some of that juice inyour life, and to do so, I think
what you'd really need to do isAnthony, you want to explain it

(01:14:26):
to them?
What do we?

Speaker 1 (01:14:27):
need.
You know we need that strongRydonian.
You know five star review.
You know we want it to be sostrong that it even knocks.
You know, saw Guerrera back afew pegs and you know, just keep
them coming for more yeah, yeah, speaking about pegs, we never
like figure out how he lost hisleg.

Speaker 2 (01:14:48):
Anyway, guys, yeah, this is.
This is episode 124.
We shall see you or you'll hearfrom us, anyway, next week bye
guys.

Speaker 1 (01:14:56):
Long live the gentle lads.
Love it peace.