ScreenCrush: The Podcast! - ANDOR Finale Review - What Disney Can Learn From this Show

Episode Date: May 15, 2025

Let's dive deep into "Andor" and discuss what makes it stand out among other Star Wars TV shows. We'll explore the show's compelling themes, character-driven narrative, and production quality. Comparing "Andor" to shows like "The Book of Boba Fett" and "Ahsoka," we examine why "Andor" succeeds in creating a powerful and engaging story. Join us as we analyze the differences in storytelling approaches and what lessons Lucasfilm can learn moving forward. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Rebellions are built in hope. Hey, welcome back Screen Crush. I'm Ryan Erie, and let's talk about Andor, specifically what other Lucasfilm TV shows can learn from this masterpiece. A little later, I'm going to talk to two Star Wars, All-Stars, Heather Antos and Joanna Robinson, and then I'm going to tell you why I think this show is so much better than my least favorite Star Wars show, Asoka. As always, remember that Screen Crush is available in all your favorite podcast platforms, and check out our merch store links below to get fun, cool stuff. Now, for my money, and or isn't just the best Star Wars show. I think it's one of the best Star Wars stories of all time. This show had something that other stories, like the Book of Boba Fett and Asoka, were missing. It had a theme, and the theme of this show is sacrifice.

All through the story, the heroes had to sacrifice something for somebody they cared about to win the revolution. Luton spelled this out in season one. I burned my life to make a sunrise that I know I'll never see. But then, Tony Gilroy and his team filled this story out with characters that were challenging. challenged by this theme. Mon Mothma had to sacrifice her daughter in her career. Deidreus sacrificed her relationship to Cyril and Cassian sacrifices his autonomy all to serve a cause that they feel is greater than themselves. And this theme is actually perfect because we know how the story ends, with Cassian and other rebels sacrificing their lives to save the galaxy.

So when I talk about Andor like this, it may sound like it's pretty simple to make a good Star Wars. You have a theme, some character, exorbitant production design, and an A-plus cast and crew. But a lot of Star Wars I think have focused first on being Star Wars and they have ignored things like theme and character. For instance, the Book of Boba Fett. Now, I think it's a fun Star Wars show. There's the mods.

There's a Wookie, a Rancor, Grogoo's there. But it's the equivalent of dumping all your action figures out on the floor and playing with them at the same time. The show did not have a cohesive theme, and it also never really established why Boba Fett wanted to move from bounty hunter to Crime Lord. Now, you can make similar complaints about the Acolyde or Asoka or Mandalorian Season 3.

See, Lucasfilm seems to be split into two camps. There are people who want to give us something new, like Leslie Headlin and John Watts. You may not have liked the Acolyte or Skeleton Crew, but they are very different from all the Star Wars we've seen before. But then we have the Philoonyverse, which seems to be intent on delivering more of the same characters. More Luke, more characters from rebels, or connections to the Mandalorian lore that was established during the Clone Wars. Now, I don't think one approach is always right and the other is always wrong,

but Andor shows us how to strike a balance between the two. In Andor, we know how everything ends, just like how we know how the events of the Mandalorian and Asoka will end with the Fall of the New Republic. But Andor also introduces new characters that we care about, and we don't know how their story ends. And this is why the Mandalorian also works so well. We're invested in these new characters against the backdrop of this Galactic Saga. And even though we already know how Mon Mothma, Andor, Melchie, and K2 stories end, the best prequels are able to enhance those endings by giving us more context. For instance, after watching Revenge of the Sith,

Vader's sadness and return to the Jedi means so much more. You're going down a path I can't follow. It is too late for me, son. And you guys know how much I am always rooting for Star Wars to be good because I love Star Wars. And this season, we have had a blast designing these Star Wars parody shirts like Fight the Empire, I have friends everywhere, free Gorman, stay on Target, happy Empire Day, and Rebel Scum.

And if you sign up to become a member of our merch store, you can earn free stuff and all of the, those links are below. Now, as of right now, Lucasfilm is only creating one live-action show, Asoka. Disney has really pulled back on their spending after the accolite costs $230 million. And I think the only reason they're making Asoka Season 2 is because it leads directly into the crossover team-up movie that Dave Filoni is creating. Like, I am excited that Star Wars is coming back to theaters, but I don't want them to stop making TV shows. Andor and the Mandalorian have shown us how well Star Wars can work in this format. But the key is, make sure your story

work first, even if they're not Star Wars stories. In the case of the book of Bobafet, if you never had any pre-existing attachment to this guy, then you would wonder why this dude with veneers is walking to town twice a day to put money in a helmet. And Asoka is like the worst offender here, but I'll talk about that after checking in with what Heather and Joanna have to say. Andor showed us that long-form storytelling can also widen the scope of Star Wars. Like maybe we'll get a special about Sinta's accident or the mission where Cassian and Bix killed an imperial soldier. Like what happens to Dedra after the Battle of Endor. Gilroy created all these rich characters that can now be used by other creators. Andor went from a show that no one asked for it to being essential

television because it was given room to breathe and to build a following over the years. And it's a shame that shows like the Acoite never got that chance. Now later on I'm going to talk about what I hope Asoka Season 2 takes away from this show. But first, I am so happy to be joined by two of my favorite, most knowledgeable, insightful Star Wars friends that are walking this planet right now. We have Heather Antos, group editor of licensing in IDW Comics, and of course, Joanna Robinson from the Ringerverse. Very rare appearance from you, Joanna. I want to really quickly remind everybody about your book, The Rane of Marvel Studios. It's one of my all-time favorite reads. You guys have to get this book if you're a Marvel fan. So let's just kick it off. Joanna, what did you think

about the season of Andor? I think it's a masterpiece. I think it's not only one of the best Star Wars things I've ever seen. I think it's one of the best TV shows I've ever seen. And I think I am devastated that it's over. I'm devastated that we only get two seasons of it. And then I can't believe how lucky we are to have gotten what we got from the current, I would say, regime at Lucas Solomon Star Wars. Like, this is just astonishing stuff. To hear, I don't know, to hear the word genocide on Disney Plus, you're just sort of like, what are we doing? This is so incredible.

And I cried and I will be thinking about it forever. and I want to rewatch it forever and I just feel really lucky that we have it. Yeah, you bring up a good point. You know, the Dukes of Hazard ran for seven seasons and 174 episodes. I know because I just looked it up. But we only have two seasons of Andor

24 episodes of that masterpiece. I know. I did not walk around with that information on the top of my head. Right, right. Normally know exactly how many episodes the Dukes of Hager and I had to look it up. I'm excited for your Duke of Hazzard podcast.

You're going to be launching next year. I think it's going to be incredible. And I can't wait. Yeah, great. I'm doing it with my imagination. friend from childhood, whose name was Duke, honestly. So that's a little fun fact for everybody listening right now. Heather, what about you?

Just your raw, unfiltered thoughts on Andor season two. I'm sure you hated it. I mean, God, I can't wait to see where the story goes next. I'm just, I'm really hooked in. No, absolutely blown away. I mean, it's always really, really difficult when you have such a perfect season one of a show. Right? And Andor's season one was a near perfect season.

really intense, really fell in love and cared for all the characters and set the bar super, super high. So going into season two, especially with all of the setbacks that happened in between filming, you know, everything, I was nervous, you know, is, and the release of three episodes at a time and, you know, all of these things. I'm still angry about that. Absolutely blown away, you know, as someone who is a super multitasker who, you know, I'm always, you know, answering emails while I'm watching TV, you're like, you know, whatever. I was hooked in, you know, from beginning to end, edge of my C. It just truly, truly everything Joanna said, like, it is a perfect television show, top down from production levels, acting, seeing the arcs with Genevilla Varelai as Mamathma, seeing Cassie and Andor's arc, even, like, even between seasons one.

and two. And with the year transitions in between, you know, understanding that all of these characters are most likely not going to make it to the end of the season was also, like, devastating, you know. I personally am very relieved Bix did not die. I think after the first three episodes, I was already sitting and thinking, oh, God, her death is going to wreck me. so I'm very grateful she didn't but you know they made every death matter even when in the world it didn't right like Cyril yes yeah just truly I love I truly love that that fascist dweeb's story arc yeah that guy ended up being one of my favorite 100% just you're you're watching his life happen to him and he thinks he's in control and he just never ever was because only person in control in an empire like this is at the top of the pyramid, and that's Palpatine. Let me ask you guys a question, though. I thought watching, when I first watched it, right?

I was, like Joanna, you had mentioned, at one point it was going to be five seasons. And then in the middle of production of season one, Gilroy went, there's no way we could do this on this scale. Diego Luna will age in the next 10 years. It can no longer work as he'd be in his 50s, you know? So they made this decision to condense it. And I did feel like, and maybe this isn't a bad thing,

maybe this is just Star Wars, that each of those three episodes did feel, like the last three episodes of a 12-episode season. Joanna, did you feel that way? And if so, did you feel like that was any kind of drawback to it? I think it was a huge challenge for them to hop, skip, and jump through four different years, to have these vast lots of time between these three-day chunks, essentially, that they did and not make you feel like you missed everything that happened.

There are a few cases, a few moments. Again, I do think Andrew is a masterpiece. piece, but there are a few moments like a character like Sinta, you know, when, when her death happens midway through the season, so many people are going to die this season. But Sinta is someone who showed up very briefly at the beginning. You're like, oh no, Sinta's here to kill Ticoma. And then you don't see her again until the episode she dies. And so I, like, that's a character where if we'd had 12 episodes of that year, we could have seen a bit more of her. And then her death feels like it's even more rooted in her character versus like what her death.

how her death impacts other people. Does that make sense? So, like, there's just a few moments where I was like, I would have liked a little bit more about this arc or this character. But also, I can't divorce that for my feelings of I just want to live in the world of and or forever. So that might be part of it, too. I didn't feel like it was chopped up.

I didn't feel like it had huge holes in it. But I did feel like, could we have done three seasons? Like, maybe one more season, like expand it out into three seasons. I really understand not wanting to work on it. show for a decade of your life. I really understand all the reasons that Tony Gilroy gave her not wanted to do five seasons. But I was like, what if we did three? Would that have been great? I agree. So let's, yeah, but otherwise I felt like they did an incredible job. Heather, you know, there were times in this. For instance, I'll give you an example. When Bix in episode four is feeling traumatized

from Cassie and killing a soldier. And that was one of those moments where they really have to do a lot of exposition to catch us up. Did, for instance, that storyline work for you? Were there any other aspects where you felt that pinch other than just wanting more of this incredible show? Yeah, I mean, it is, this is a show that you have to pay attention to. You know, if you are haphazardly watching it and doing other things and you miss, you know, the line that like, you know, Sinta hasn't been in contact with, with her partner in so long. Or, you know, you you miss the implication of what's happening to Mamathwa's friend when he's getting picked up by one of the rebellion people. You know, like you have to be paying super, super, super close attention because you will miss things.

And but I think it's done in a way that's very artful and very intentional rather than, you know, sometimes we get in other TV shows a level of, I think, laziness in the writing where you have to pay attention because, they're not being very clear about what's going on. Or there's no character stakes attached to people. Exactly, yeah. Like in Asoka. I wasn't trying to make jigs that Asoka, but sure. I mean, I'm going to talk about Asoka a little bit later in the video. And I am going to ask you guys about other Star Wars TV, but I think it's a fair example.

Go ahead, Janer. To Heather's point, in terms of, like, second screening, watching TV shows, I've heard from people who make television that they get notes from studios that you have to over-explain, over-explain, reiterate in case people missed it because they were looking at their phone or looking at their laptop or whatever. And so I do love that and or that Tony Gilroy doesn't not care about that. He's like, I'm not going to hold your hand through this. You do need to pay attention.

He respects the audience, exactly. He also knows that Star Wars fans are going to be paying close attention anyways no matter what. Sorry, Heather. I was going to say it's also just well crafted in a way where you don't need to, you know. Like, it's people who are signing up for this show. The stakes are very, very well implied, whether or not you are invested in these personal characters. storylines. And I think that is what really makes this work on so many levels is that the stakes are so clear. They could not be more clear. They could not be more apparent and they could not

feel more real. And so regardless if you know of, you know, Bix's trauma from season one, regardless if you know about, you know, Cassian's hesitations, regardless if you know of. the long-term relationship or basically selling off her own daughter, right, that Mamathma did, like regardless if you remember and know those details intimately from season one, you feel it in the stakes of the world that's surrounding these characters. And that's truly, truly a testament to the directing and the acting of all of these characters to be able to pull that off. I want to give this season all of the Emmys, like every single one. Everyone. Well, and I agree with Joanna's point earlier. I think it's one of the best shows of all time, not just Star Wars shows. And also, the show had a lot of small things in it, even in these last three episodes that were just so human, like Admiral Radis going, Who's Clayah? Made me laugh out loud. Of course, he's not going to know who the hell Clay is. But also, when Cassian's getting ready to leave and he waters his plants. And I'm so worried about his plants. Who did he put in charge of them when they evacuated Yav and what happened to them? I need to spin off comic about the plants.

The plant thing broke my heart because that's a Marva thing like that's something he gets from his mom and that's just like I'm thinking about you always Marva

always You know Jimana you had a great what do we call in them Skeets on Blue Sky tweet whatever like we were on all platforms and you pointed out the choking metaphor with Deirdre

and we talked about it in our Easter egg video yesterday and I credited you and everything about how there's the symbolism of choking throughout the thing where it's the empire

choking is so slow we don't notice Vader choking people. And the show is just filled with details like that or historical references to real things and like All Great Star Wars. It's a mashup of all this different stuff. What's a favorite little detail that you had, apart from the choking one that I just stole from you, that you know, stood out in the show? Well, I will sort of just say embedded inside of that choking idea. That choking idea comes from, I'm obsessed with Cyril Carn's obsession with his

own tailoring and the fact that they, when they sent Cyril Carn to be a double agent for the empire. They sent him to a planet of tailors. And like, so he, like this thing that he has been obsessed with since we met him, the piping and the tailoring on his, his uniform from the very beginning and the high collars. And then he goes to a planet that's all about textiles. How could he not fall in love with those people? And how can that not complicate the mission that he's on? So I just think that that is like such a brilliant thing in creating the culture of the gore. And that is something that and or has done so beautifully is create these distinctive cultures for all these places when we go to Aldani, when we go to Narcina, when we go to all these places, it's not just like

with love and respect to all historical Star Wars desert or jungle. It's like here are cultural practices. Yeah, here we have a specific language. And the reason that that is so interesting to me is in a story about imperial takeover, this idea of what is lost, what are the individuals distinctive cultures that the empire is interested in flattening. Like, it's just so brilliant in that regard. And I think to just echo what you said, Ryan, the idea that Tony Gilroy spent his whole life studying the idea of revolution and rebellion, like, throughout history,

that this has been a longtime fascination of his. And he just poured it all into a Star Wars show that's full of all of these real world moments that he plucked from our history that cycles again and again. And again, throughout our history, I can't believe we get to watch this in the Star Wars show. It's just so impressive. And cinematic history. I've watched some great videos, not only about how, you know, based on Stalin and Vell's based on Patty Hurst, but also about, like, this film of the Battle of Algiers, there's a little bit of Battleship Potemkin, all these classic films that are about revolution and mutiny that are just part of this cinematic language that he pulls from. I say it all the time, but I think that's when Star Wars works the best because it feels familiar and new to us.

Heather, what about you? What's a small detail or a big detail that really you love about the show? You know, it's not really a small detail, but one of the things I did really appreciate, especially about this final arc, is that ultimately, it really brought forward how much Deidre and Luton were the same person just on opposite sides. Just really chess players, you know, whose ego is what was their ultimate demise. both ostracized from their groups as well exactly i think that's what makes and and stone scars are just such a good job in this role but like he's not a good guy you know he's not a good guy and he owns that he's not a good guy to the bitter end and i don't think you know dydra knows good or you know right or wrong she just has her mission you know they both have their mission They are men of their missions.

And watching that in parallel, how they meet their demise almost together at the same moment because of each other was a really nice symmetry that I found in this final arc. Yeah. And other characters, I guess, have parallels. Cassian and Cyril are both young men who are kind of radicalized into very different movements and different sides. And Joanne and I meant to mention this when you just made so many great points. I glossed right over this. Your point about Cyril being sent to a planet of Taylor's is genius. It's a kind of like small character observation that made me feel really bad for him because, like Edie said, he was a delicate boy.

And he probably would have been, if he would have had a father figure around so he didn't spend the rest of his life chasing father figures, he'd probably be working in a clothing store and be way happier than trying to prove himself as a warrior or an adventurer because he never really was suited for that kind of life. Yeah, or any kind of affection. Like he was looking for attention and infection and belonging and he found it in the empire. but then he also found it on with the gore and so it's just it's this really interesting situation and something that mali reuben and i when we cover this on house of art for like hours at a time and we talk about how much we love cyril karn and how much we love dedra as like characters then we always like asterisk fascism bad just to reiterate oh yeah we're not supporting fascism i know you're not saying that but i'm just sort of like every time i want to like talk about how much i love cyril karn as a character because i think he's one of the best characters in in all of fiction. I'm so compelled by his story. I'm so compelled by his ending. But I just want to say, but to be clear, I don't support the empire. Just want to make that very clear. I do. One of the true shames and another spinoff comic I would like to see is Edie opening up his private box. We never really did find out what was inside of it and I'm disappointed.

Another one, just back to talk about Deidder really quick, she says she was raised in an imperial kinder block. Yeah. And she's easily in her 40s, which I, I'm not sure how that math works out. The best I can think is everything that was Republic is re-naked. It's just cultural erasure. Yeah, it is just purely cultural. Cultural erasure. It's just pure cultural erasure.

The first thing that any, any fascist regime does when it takes over a new culture is they rename anything. They kill the language. They kill any cultural artifacts, temples, whatever. That's why in arc three of this show, the moment that really had me break down was when the gore started singing in their national tongue, right? That is the truest act of defiance that any culture can have, you know. And from Casablanca. Exactly.

Yeah, that's just cultural erasure. And that's showing her true devotion to the empire by calling it that. And even then, how the show pulls from things like the Highland clearances and all the many, many other terrible references that, you know, in history to this kind of thing. Go ahead, John. The individual language that feeds into the Gorman Massacre storyline is so brilliant. I also loved in season one the Aldani story when you have the Imperial officers talking about how they slowly over time by giving comfort and ease and breaks on the road allowed this cultural celebration of the eye to atrophy, that they just sort of wore away at this cultural celebration on Aldani. Not by telling them they couldn't, but by offering them, isn't it easier to stop and have a beer here?

Yeah, would you really want to make that big hike up there? It's just the same. Don't worry about it. And just sort of, you know, gut the heart out of this massively important cultural celebration so that they can take over the land, turn those people into their workers. It's just this absolutely merciless erasure that Heather mentioned that I think is so important. Well, and a lot of what is in this show, you can tell Gilroy's making a comment about us. When Mon Mothma spent her speech talking about the disparity between truth, and I don't care who you vote for or whatever, every person doesn't seem like has an agreed-up on truth. Like, we don't have the nightly news anymore.

And the way that he's able to do those things, do them in such a general way that I think either side on the aisle can relate to characters in a human way is just a testament to great writing. But again, tying it back to history. So we have the receipts in the records like, hey, you know, they mentioned the parade that the emperor threw for himself, the emperor threw for himself. And Hitler threw a parade for himself when his birthday. There's all these like military parade analogies just in one line that K-2s are out there that I love. But where do you guys, Heather, especially you here? So where do you think this show got it so right and so many other Star Wars shows? Even the middling ones like the Acolyte got it wrong.

Oh, God. Where to begin? Pick your show. Pick your show you're going to pick them. Maybe start there. I can't say why other than, like, I would be so curious to be in the room between like the studio and Tony Gilroy and see how he, because clearly they trusted him and let him do what it is he wanted to do that he's very, very good at. And he did it excellently and it shows. And I don't want to blame everything on like studio oversight or people stepping in. or, you know, whatever. Obviously, there's many, many things that go into the making of these things. But, you know, it really makes me wonder how invested the studios were in the show versus some of the other shows. This is a character who dies in a movie, so we might not really care about him or the storyline or whatever.

It's a very controlled environment. That's not really touching on a bunch of other points in canon that Disney is interested in playing in. I don't know if that's why they're like, yeah, yeah, you go. over there and we won't bother you. Whereas, you know, some of these other shows have a lot of toys, right, that are in them. Yeah, that are building up toward a movie. I think that's when they start to really put their, maybe put their thumb on the scale. When you have more toys on the table, more people are invested and want to control those toys. And then you get just too many hands in the pot. And that's what I think is really special about and or is this show was

Tony Gilroy's vision and it shows from episode to episode to episode. My understanding, given things that Tony Gilroy said and things that I've heard about is that, you know, he has this long history with Kathy Kennedy and her husband, Frank Marshall, worked with them in the past. And so he had this sort of green light that like no one else that Lucasfilm has because Kathy Kennedy has his long history with him, trust him. And so he's sort of not in a sneaky way and not in you know, a way that is wholly unheard of in Hollywood, but he had an end run around the usual

stopgaps that they have at Lucas Film. And I don't say this to Casasperians on, you know, the other process that's there, but I have heard from people who have tried to get sort of similarly

revolutionary-minded or slightly controversial or whatever ideas of the ground at Lucasfilm and they haven't made any progress because it's not in line with what you know the the story group or what other people want to have happening there and for something like the acolyte a show that I think was such a mixed bag that I really wanted to support and really do like I think it has a couple incredible episodes um but some incredible characters too absolutely but like Leslie headlin wanted to

make a show with a Sith main character that was her pitch and they're like okay okay, well, what if it's twins? And we're actually with the light side or for most, you know what I mean? Like, they just sort of smoothed it over and changed it to ways. So, like, you see when the darkness of her original vision comes through the Acolyte, I think the Acolyte is a really good show. And then when we're sort of stuck in this middle point of not really a story she wanted to tell and not quite the story that Lucasfilm wants anyway, that's when that show really faltered for all of us, I think.

And the solution was to throw as much. money out of it as possible. And then cancel it. I mean... That was a bummer. You know? It was like Parks and Rec season one for me. Like it had its high points.

It just needed a little bit more time to breathe. Well, we don't have much time left, but I'm curious about this before I get into talking about Asoka and comparing it to Andor. Joe, you're working at Lucasfilm. You got the green light on any era or any side characters of Star Wars you want. Let's even say you could be part of the Philoniverse leading up to. What area of this franchise do you think is the most... rich for exploration that you'd be interested in seeing.

Well, I don't need to suck up to Heather, who's my new best friend who I just met. But she mentioned one of my favorite comics characters earlier. So I don't know why we don't have a doctor. No, you're stealing mine. Okay, I'll let you do that. Okay. My apologies. I think Heather at our last live show, I asked you the same question.

That's who you said, right? Yeah. Okay. Heather, do your Afra pitch and then I will come back to me and I will say something. I want to do Dr. Afra. Done. No. Yeah. First of all, I would play in any of the eras.

I would just do a good show. Like, that's kind of how I feel. You know, whether it's Dr. Afro leading up to her appearance in the comics, right? Building up to building the street cred that Darth Vader hires her. Or, you know, telling a story in between. I think it would be really cool to tell the stories of her working for Darth Vader. Would you adapt the comic that you already worked on? Possibly adapt or, you know, fill in those gaps.

Cool. Could be really, really cool because she's very much on her own throughout that because, you know, no one can know what she's up to. I'm up for, I mean, look, some of those, like, Clone Wars episodes that didn't get made that were, like, Dark Disciples, one of the best Star Wars novels I've ever read. Adapt that. Put it into an animated form or live action. Like, I think that would be great. For me, I always go back to, like, why the Clone Wars worked for me so well, it, like, made the prequels better. And I think a lot of what they're working on now has the potential to do the same for the sequel trilogy. So, like, Claudia Gray wrote that amazing. book called Bloodline about Leia and Politic, adapt it, or give us, like, recast the original trilogy characters and just, like, give us those stories that make that trilogy make sense. Isn't that one more gift that Tony Gilroy gave us by just putting Benjamin Brat in the role

of Bail Argonah? He's like, it's not hard. It's not hard. It's not the actor. It's not the actor that didn't make that hard. I kind of like them better, to be honest with you. Yeah, honestly, me too. But I'm just sort of like, I love Rogue One for a million reasons that Tarkin stuff always really bothers me in Rogue One. So the more we can step away from CGI goop and Reese Beecher and just feeling like we're stuck in trying to chase the fumes of the original trilogy and branch out with like cool new characters. Like Dr. Afford is not that new, but new to people who don't read the comics or go into the future. I mean, that's another thing I would love to see is like let's just keep going and like don't worry about the Skywalker so much. Like the Skywalkers are interesting to me, but like let's just look.

Star Wars Out Walls is so much fun. You can completely detach from everything that we know and still explore this world. And I think... Oh, I was just going to say, I think I also would just like really love while we still can, while Cameron Monaghan is like of this age, I would love to get a live action Calcestis

and something. Sure. Yeah, me too. And I think that'll happen. I think so too. But I think the Jedi, you know, Jedi Fallen Order Jedi Survivor, like those stories and those games are some of the best Star Wars stories we've gotten in the last, you know, several years. And there's a lot more to come to, Eclipse.

There's so many things I'm excited for out there. Guys, this sucks. I have to cut it short, but thank you both so much for joining me. You can find everybody's social links below. And now I want to talk about I think Asoka Season 2 could learn from Andor, but I don't think they will. Thanks, guys. Now, I am going to do a full Asoka versus Andor video at some point,

because I think each of these shows can tell us a lot about how creators approach Star Wars. But basically, I think Asoka is more about characters, and Andor is about people. I mean, guys, I have seen, like, all Star Wars, everything that Assoca Tano has ever been in, and even I struggled to understand what exactly she wanted and why in this series. She was searching for Thron, even though she never encountered him in Rebels, and barely had any interaction with Sabine. But the show expected us to not only have seen all the Rebels, but to catch up with everything that had happened after the show ended.

Whereas, I think a show about Asoka probably should have focused on her relationship with Anakin, her past, her past, or maybe connecting with Luke in the present day. Now, we did get snippets of that trauma and relationship with Anakin in the world between worlds, but it was never really clear why she was there, or what kind of trauma she was dealing with or what she wanted, other than the story motivation of trying to find Thron. Now, Faloni is great at creating cool-looking characters, people like that fart and armor that looked really cool,

but ultimately serve no purpose. But Faloni also likes to literalize and re-skin everything. I mean, Ezra is basically a re-skin of Luke Skywalker. At no point in Assoca did I ever feel like these were people with relatable motivations, except for Sabine. Sabine has a great story. She wants to save her friend. But then, instead of that being the focus of the series,

they had to rope her into being a Jedi. And that's another thing. Andor also proved that you can make great Star Wars without lightsabers. I think Star Wars is cooler when there are fewer lightsabers and fewer force users. Jedi are inherently kind of boring. They're overpowered, they're stoic and wise. And this is why some of the best novels are actually about the Padawans, or morally gray Jedi, like Elzar Man.

Now look, I'm not trying to dog Asoka. it's an enjoyable show. I liked covering it. I like space whales and zombie stormtroopers and especially Grand Admiral Thrawn. But I was never actually invested in these characters like they were real people. The series was the equivalent of that meme where Leonardo DiCaprio points at the screen, whereas Andor gave me a story that I didn't know I needed. Rather than feeding off the original trilogy, it enhanced it. Now we know the depth of the Empire's evil. So, Luke's one in a million shot avenged Cassian, it avenged the Gore, and countless others who gave their lives for the rebellion. So I hope that Disney Star Wars takes a lesson from this. Put people first and the saga second. But guys, that's just

my thoughts. What do you think? Let me know in the comments below or at me on Twitter, Blue Sky, or threads. And if it's your first time here, please subscribe and smash that bell for alerts. For Screen Crush, I'm Ryan Erie.