(no subject)
Feb. 17th, 2023 07:44 amTo no one's surprise I really dug Andor, the show that is theoretically about Cassian Andor from Rogue One but in practice about systems and abuses of imperialism, colonialism and the carceral state and the various shapes taken by resistance to those systems!
Not that it's not about Cassian, in that he's often either the focus of events or the conceptual pivot point that sets other things into motion -- and also he is in a lot of ways going through quite a traditional refusal of the call/acceptance of the call kind of journey -- but this really is much less I think a show about individuals as individuals and much more about the glimpses we get of individuals as part of very specific systems, contexts, groups, cultures, in a way that I thought was really interesting to see.
I was a little bit spoiled for it going in but fairly minimally, and all of the plot points I knew about or thought I knew about ended up playing out in ways that were a step or two sideways from what I expected. "Surprise! here's a twist you can't predict!" is for sure not the thing that I most value in storytelling, and that's not the thing the writing of Andor is generally doing either -- just as often the broad narrative beats are exactly what one would predict (or, occasionally, symbolism so aggressively on-point that I didn't actually call it and then ended up staring at it with my mouth open like the moment when the setup for someone else's pun pays off and slams into me like a train) -- but frequently a storyline that seems to be building in one way gets abruptly derailed by anticlimax, in a way that couldn't possibly have been predicted but feels inevitable within context.
( spoilers )
Anyway, the other thing I like is the show's commitment to showing various forms of resistance and the pros & cons & messiness thereof -- there are long-running cells like Saw Gerrera's, there's flash operations and ideological infighting and Le Carre-esque , and then there are popular movements that arise naturally from ordinary people within their own contexts fighting their own particular and personal battles, and these things all happen individually but also the ripples and runoffs of those things play into each other like. Hmm. Not just streams running into the same river but a complex tidal system? My metaphor may be running away with me here but either way it's a kind of storytelling I like.
In other news within a few weeks of starting to watch this show I was required to make a character for an RPG and I said "hey is anyone else planning on making a manifesto kid because I kind of want to make an annoying manifesto kid --" and then everyone laughed at me. I did love Nemik and this was very predictable of me.
I also loved getting to grab![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
genarti by the elbow and hiss in delight "IT'S THE PRIDE LESBIAN! THE LESBIAN FROM PRIDE! SHE'S HERE!" perfect typecasting no notes
Not that it's not about Cassian, in that he's often either the focus of events or the conceptual pivot point that sets other things into motion -- and also he is in a lot of ways going through quite a traditional refusal of the call/acceptance of the call kind of journey -- but this really is much less I think a show about individuals as individuals and much more about the glimpses we get of individuals as part of very specific systems, contexts, groups, cultures, in a way that I thought was really interesting to see.
I was a little bit spoiled for it going in but fairly minimally, and all of the plot points I knew about or thought I knew about ended up playing out in ways that were a step or two sideways from what I expected. "Surprise! here's a twist you can't predict!" is for sure not the thing that I most value in storytelling, and that's not the thing the writing of Andor is generally doing either -- just as often the broad narrative beats are exactly what one would predict (or, occasionally, symbolism so aggressively on-point that I didn't actually call it and then ended up staring at it with my mouth open like the moment when the setup for someone else's pun pays off and slams into me like a train) -- but frequently a storyline that seems to be building in one way gets abruptly derailed by anticlimax, in a way that couldn't possibly have been predicted but feels inevitable within context.
( spoilers ) Anyway, the other thing I like is the show's commitment to showing various forms of resistance and the pros & cons & messiness thereof -- there are long-running cells like Saw Gerrera's, there's flash operations and ideological infighting and Le Carre-esque , and then there are popular movements that arise naturally from ordinary people within their own contexts fighting their own particular and personal battles, and these things all happen individually but also the ripples and runoffs of those things play into each other like. Hmm. Not just streams running into the same river but a complex tidal system? My metaphor may be running away with me here but either way it's a kind of storytelling I like.
In other news within a few weeks of starting to watch this show I was required to make a character for an RPG and I said "hey is anyone else planning on making a manifesto kid because I kind of want to make an annoying manifesto kid --" and then everyone laughed at me. I did love Nemik and this was very predictable of me.
I also loved getting to grab
genarti by the elbow and hiss in delight "IT'S THE PRIDE LESBIAN! THE LESBIAN FROM PRIDE! SHE'S HERE!" perfect typecasting no notes
