Coca_Cola_but_Commie [he/him]

They’ll never invent trains. You just can’t enshittify a train to the necessary level of profitability for these monsters.

I love AOTC, on paper. A hard-boiled detective story; Star-crossed lovers; A political thriller; All set across the epic backdrop of space in an age where a once great government is coming to its end. What’s not to love?

In practice though if ROTS is a screw-up child, and TPM is like a kid who you thought was going to be president but then ended up as a working mid-tier stand-up comic like just enough to make a living but not enough to “make it”, then AOTC is a kid who grew up to be a serial killer.

Also I’m pretty sure the novelization is by R.A. Salvatore. I’ve not read it but I have read some of his other novels and the man’s not a miracle worker like Stover.

I love the version of AOTC that lives in my head, but every seven years or so when I convince myself to do a rewatch I find I just can’t enjoy it. Some really great ideas, but the execution of them is something else. I really think that with the right script doctor, some judicious editing, and maybe a second director who is just in charge of the actors, it could have been something really great. But what we’re left with is tough to love. But I respect you for doing what I can not.

Clearly it’s too late now, but I think the answer is to just jump into watching A New Hope.

Also I can’t believe we learn some of Luthen’s backstory. I just assumed he was someone a bit like Mon Mothma, using his real name and the real identity he had during the time of the Republic as an antiquities dealer as a cover for his rebel activities. Much more interesting to learn that he was an NCO with a penchant for artifacts who got fed up one day and made a choice of where to stand, just like the people he recruits. Interesting that it seems no one, not even Kleya, will ever know Luthen’s real name or who he really was before he rebelled.

Incredible that Tony Gilroy came along and just made the best thing Star Wars has put out since 1980. Why would he do that?

My personal enjoyment of the operatic tragedy that is Revenge of the Sith might edge out Andor, slightly, but loving ROTS is what I imagine it must feel like to have a kid who’s a real screw-up. You love them and you see all the best parts of them, but you can’t deny the mistakes they’ve made. But unlike ROTS I don’t needs to qualify my enjoyment of Andor. It’s not like twenty years from now I’m going to say “oh I like Andor but have you read the novelization? It completely realizes what that show was trying to do,” like I do now with both ROTS and Rogue One.

I think next paycheck I’m going to splurge and buy a lot of the old X-wing novel series if I can find one that’s not too high.

Talked to the guy at work who loves WH40K and he said “You know that show made me switch from rooting for the Rebels to rooting for the Empire. Because you see in Andor they don’t have it that bad.”

And I said “haha yeah” because what can you even say to a statement so baldly wrongheaded.

Incredible. This guy lived out the chud dream of taking his favorite toy to a public place and killing leftists and then got away with it and he couldn’t even spin that up into anything. Meanwhile Hailey Welch made a joke that went viral for a couple weeks and spun that into a massive grift and is now rich/going to prison for fraud/most likely to someday target the wrong person’s money and get got by a hitman.