Star Wars: Andor - 1.11 - Daughter of Ferrix

ctg

weaver of the unseen
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A fugitive once more, Cassian must make his next move before it is too late.
IMDB score: 8.6 Runtime: 46 minutes (minus the usual)
 
It troubles me that a lot of these episodes are short in content, even though Disney+ is a streaming service. That's why I keep leaving in the bracketed comment. Andor deserves to have proper 50 minutes per episode, but I also feel that a lot of these are cut to keep the tension relatively high and the filler out, even though every once in a while, we get a lot of filled in content like what was happening in the Ferrix or in the Coruscant even though they'd nothing to do with the general content.

I know I use similar style mini chapters to keep the reader in the know, because the modern day long arcs demand it. Otherwise, the reader or the viewer might drop their interest.

Well, that is at least the fear and the reason for why you do very short fillers in the narrative. But overall, because Andor deals with a lot of political intrigue, and it plays the long fuse, explosion tension device so very well, it could do a lot of times with more content. Just like they did in the House of Dragons. Although I do admit that HoD has backing of GRRMs writings and Andor is developed in the situ, but relaxing and giving the episodes room to breath might work very well in favour for the SW content.

Let's see how this situation develops.

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Andor and an inmate in a bad situation. No double the swim was hard because it was also a long one, but then having to do another super man feat and climbing the walls surrounding the prison complex is something that athletics do in the competition. Not everyone can do it. Those inmates were fed with whatever to keep them fit for the work, but they'd worked everyday for God knows how long, and they most certainly weren't upped with water and nutrients when the committed to the escape. Then again, I have to say that the Imperial Pilots are blind for not seeing two geezers in their bright whites against the dark grey cliff walls.

I loved that the pair first order of business was to commit to a grant theft auto, er... spaceship, and they got snatched in the process by the bounty hunters. Where was your smarts, Mr Andor? He most certainly didn't remember that the second mouse gets the cheese!

It didn't ended there, as they showed Narkinians looking like a cross between ogres and frogs had more wisdom than what the pair had accumulated together to get entangled in a smart trap. The surprise was that they were locals, feeling the spoils in negative terms from the Imperial occupation.

So off they flew to Niamos among the rebellious feeling Narkinians. Viva la Revolucion! Ef the Empire!

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Oh man, B2, I feel for you buddy. Losing a loved one is hard, and now you have no one. I'd want Maarva back in your place as well. It's also true that SW droids show more emotion than a lot of other ones, and many of them are complete characters, just like Chopper or R2D2 has shown over the years. B2's EMO designation is good as well. It's almost as if it's a butler, and it just lost its most important master.

It was touching that all the neighbours gathered together to say farewell under the eyes of an Imperial spy in not so local uniform. He stuck out from the crowd like a needle in the eye, while the Daughters of Ferrix took old Maarva away.

The ISB team were getting anxious because they assumed that Andor was going to show up because the old lady had passed away, instead of knowing that they'd captured him for the second or third time, already.

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Bix, the torture victim. She could not walk, barely stand when Keysax dragged her out for another set of questions. The torture after a point is just pure sadism and it drives no point, because the victim is already broken. The value of any intel you'll is diminishing. But the ISB wanted her to confirm that Kreegyr is the buyer.

Unable to give an answer, because she didn't know how to answer, just gave her another session with the Dr Torture.

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Early evening and I cannot say that Mon is holding her first glass, even though she was putting up a straight face while her daughter went through the rituals. The cousin couldn't believe her eyes or believing that the old ways were back, but that most certainly illustrating what Mrs Mothma had to pay get her rebellion. I just wonder who's going to show up in the gangsta wedding, because in one side there's all that political package and on the other side the deal and all the consequences.

The rebellion has its costs, and for Mon pulling essentially a hundred grand that in the Imperial Standards could get you a destroyer, even though we are used to thinking them costing billions. And she was doing that every month to hire Luthien, the spymaster to wage her war behind the curtains. Only problem was that she got burned and found one of her accounts empty at the end of the run that she could not explain. Not for the auditors, so she needed a bank job...

It's all connected and because Luthien is an expensive man, with a great set of goal to set the Imperium of fire, the marriage had to happen and therefore, the rebellion was tied to the borderline criminal and extremist elements, like for example Saw Garrera.

The cost of her problem was four hundred grand, so four star destroyers, even though the physical size of the loot were so much larger than the quoted 800 000 credits. I still believe it was in the realm of billions, and you'd get through money laundering a much better deal than eight hundred grand.

What she needs is Saul Goodman, but I don't think there's any of them freely available in Coruscant. Maybe after the gangsta wedding.

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Look at that beauty. That is at least 180 000 in the Imperial credits, a blaster and all the stuff that was not touched while Andor were out getting the booze. For two months. What a score.

He was broken man when he heard about Maarva's passing, not knowing what to do. Maybe it's time for him to become the spy that the rebellion needs.

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The Buyer at Saw Garrerra's rebel base. Only armed with a hilt that could hide inside it a chyper crystal, making it a consoled lightsabre. In his shop he has many items from both sides of the force, making him a grey, because he can also act in anger. Most plausible position would be for him to be a grey master. A more rare example of the greys than what Kanan became at the end or what Ashoka represents as a grey knight.

Greys being the rarest form of the force users as they have to stand in the balance between the dark and light, while being able to use both sides, Luthien would have to had to keep everything hidden, when Darth Sidious turned Anakin to Vader.

Saw was geared up to go to Spellhaus raid, when Luthien was forced to deliver the news about the Imperial ambush. He wanted to tell Kreegyr that the job was effed, but the Buyer denied it for not wanting to lose one of his big players. To wage a war, you have to get dirty and for a grey it's fine that some of it get muddled.

Saw asked, "How do you know I won't tell him?"

"I don't," Luthien admitted. "I don't know what you'll do. It's far from ideal for either one of us."

Finally figuring it out, Saw gasped, "You're willing to burn him."

"You're the random factor," Luthien admitted.

"It's thirty men," Saw shouted, to which Luthien added, "Plus Kreegyr."

"So, you know his doomed," Saw said. "Which means you're either ISB or you have someone inside that you are protecting."

"Or I'm just a very good listener," Luthien suggested.

You can clearly see that he's playing with both sides and keeping his cover under the spymaster role, without anyone knowing what he really is or what he represents. Mr Garrera is his ace in the sleeve, the original rebellious element that rose through the ranks to be rebel leader from the times of the Clone Wars.

Saw's problem is that he's idealistic rebel and totally paranoid for having lived so long time inside the rebellion. All those years under the stress has not done anything good for him or his psyche. Quite the opposite for wanting Luthien to burn all his sources.

War has its costs. "This one started with thirty men. Plus Kreegyr. For the greater good."

Coming back home Luthien got the message about Andor's situation. "To lose a bid" on the natural spy at that point would be "devastating." Not that he had any idea that the boy had been captured and was on the run, again.

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Fondor vs Imperial Arrestor Cruiser. Note this is not a gravity well generator, but a beefed up capture vessel with a compliment of tie-fighters, and tracker beams. Different method, same idea. The Fondor however is a custom ship, with all the goodies that money can buy, AC included and a minibar. All for the needy person that likes tricks.

The Fondor Ai were able to find a forged ID for the check in the matter of seconds. The Imperium played by the protocol and engaged a tractor beam to keep the vessel in lock. They had no idea what was coming when Luthien transmitted to them that he was "one man show."

Such is the position of the grey master. I loved when he lauched the countermeasures, releasing a lethal cloud of high speed Iron Storm like launchers that most probably were mag cannot tubes. The first grav beam disk were rendered inoperable in seconds.

I loved dealing with the fighter patrol as the best and probably the only space fight in the season. It was needed and delivered just at the right time. Long live Fondor and Luthien! Spectacular and brutal fight!

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9/10
 
The show again surprised me when it didn't indulge in a long, emotional death scene for Maarva.
Last week, she was wheezing. This week, she was gone, destined to be bricked in two days.
I felt more sorry for B2EMO than Andor.
 
This was a slow episode with not a lot happening. But it was saved by the brief space battle. (More of this! Please!!!) Everything else felt that the pieces were being moved into the spaces on the board so that some kind of dramatic ending could be achieved.

*It is worth noting that we have Rebel cause made a real Machiavellian choice. That kind of choice is almost certainly going to happen in any real resistance movement, but it felt surprising in the Star Wars universe.
 
we get a lot of filled in content like what was happening in the Ferrix or in the Coruscant even though they'd nothing to do with the general content.
There was much more like that in the first few episodes that I wondered why it was there. It all became relevant later.
and it plays the long fuse,
Let's see how this situation develops.
I'm sure that in the last episode it will become relevant too.
I felt more sorry for B2EMO than Andor.
That was a strange off on a tangent story about the droids feelings. I'd doubt that will become any more relevant.
This was a slow episode with not a lot happening. But it was saved by the brief space battle. (
It seemed as if they wanted to add a little action into a slow episode. Yes, I liked it, but for the wrong reasons. It didn't develop the story*. It was just a very good space battle.

*Except that the Empire will now be very interested in Axis aka the Buyer aka Luthen.
 
Really liked the continued developing tension in this episode. Only complaint was how easy it was for Cass to get off-planet after the prison escape - no imperial blockade? But I prefer not having to spend a full episode escaping again and just getting on with the story. :)
 

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