#syril fans... doing good?

[olympain]

You didn't seem to mind the promotions.

[pennzance]

Hey, uh, if you didn't get it when you saw this?

This is how Fascism rewards the people who support it.

Dedra Meero is a cunning investigator. She is a brilliant manipulator who understands not only people, but the Public; The social construct representing collective opinion. Were she a Rebel, doubtless she'd be every bit as effective as Luthen at disrupting the Empire and rallying the Public to the Rebel cause.

But she, instead, bought wholeheartedly into the Empire. She's a Believer. Loyal, ruthless, brilliant. Certainly, she is no Thrawn, but she was one of the ISB's sharpest knives. She orchestrated the literal murder and rape of an entire planet because the Empire effectively promised her a cookie.

Syril couldn't handle it. Once he realized what was happening, he violently rejected her, rejected the Empire, and lashed out at Cassian, who he blamed for everything. Were it not for his sudden case of blaster-to-the-head disease, he might have been able to turn it around and do something good.

Partagaz couldn't handle it. Once he understood the scope of what the Empire was up against, he understood that Ghorman would never be an isolated incident. It was just the first of many. Some part of him couldn't live with himself because of it. Namely, the part that picked up the blaster.

But Dedra could. Thought she could. In any other style of governance, her methods toward the end might have been seen as shady but necessary. But Fascism? One of Fascism's chief traits is Paranoia. Anything could become a threat. Anyone. And when you've already discovered someone in your midst was a spy, Paranoia metastasizes into something so ugly, I can't even think of a word for it.

And that's when the people at the Top start giving everyone below them what they were ALWAYS going to reward them with: Death or "On Program".

That's it. Those are the only two options. There is no 'rising to the top' in Fascism. The Top likes being the Top, thank you very much, and they aren't keen on sharing.

The Top doesn't give a shit about the Public. The Public is to be bent to their benefit, and given nothing in return. And the part the Top will absolutely say out loud if you ask them that most fans of Fascism miss is that EVERYONE who is NOT the Top is the Public.

Dedra was never going to rise above her station. She was never going to get what she truly wanted. That cell was reserved for her the minute she signed up. It just took a while for them to put her there.

[mr-meero]

“Syril has shared the story with me.” 2x03

In response to Eedy telling Dedra about Syril’s father running off and leaving them. Leaving a "young, delicate" boy with only his mother’s love and determination. Here is a thought I haven't seen shared or maybe I just haven't scrolled long enough...

THIS RESPONSE TO EEDY MEANS there was a moment, however intimate (on the bed, on the sofa, at the dinner table, over coffee, etc etc), that Syril told Dedra about his trauma growing up with his mother.

Dedra is good at getting information from people and holding on to it, it is what she does, but how do we know she listened to Syril sincerely and not for any other motive? In a way that tells us she appreciates this backstory to Syril?

We know bc she was NERVOUS to meet Eedy bc she knows all that went on. Her hands are fidgeting in the same way they do when we see her stressed

And she tells Eedy straight up that she causes her and Syril (and thus their relationship) ANXIETY

Clearly Syril is more likely to be vulnerable, and open up, than Dedra is. We know this BECAUSE

Eedy requests of Dedra “Tell me about your family” to which she replies…

“I don’t have one”

She then explains how her parents were criminals and she was raised in an Imperial Kinder-block starting at 3 years old

And what do we see? What is in focus? Syril’s reaction

It is unlikely he knew these details before OR

He has heard them and is surprised Dedra is sharing them so openly

u good?

Do you think Syril already knew that about Dedra? Or do you think this is the first he is hearing of it?

With this knowledge, I formally request fan art of Syril sharing the story/treatment of his upbringing with Dedra in any aforementioned settings PLEASEANDTHANKYOU

[sambargestuff]

Bix Deserves Better

I wasn't going to write anything until Season 2 was done but I think the 2nd arc of Season 2 is really where we see the relationship between Cassian and Bix. They've established, I think as much as they're going to, that they are a couple that's in love with each other, so I'm going to write my thoughts down now.

First, I am a rebelcaptain fan and have been since 2016. Even if their relationship isn't romantic, I'm still a fan because it's a relationship between equals. That is so rare in popular media that it was freakish and I loved it. I still do, 9 yrs later. Because it's still freakish.

Andor has been pretty hit or miss with plot and character development, in general. My guess is that it's this bad because Gilroy planned on 5 seasons and cut it down to 2 seasons. I'm assuming that's why Bee is left on Mina-Rau with Brasso's body and never spoken of again, Cassian stopped searching for his sister 1 episode into Season 1 and she's only mentioned in passing once, and Syril saving Dedra on Ferrix was all it took for her to take him in after he stalked her and shit. At times, the series is weird and jumpy and threads are left dangling.

In a 5 season arc, I can imagine that "Cassian's tragic love story" would factor in because, when it comes to women, Gilroy is an uninspired writer. We have ample evidence of that in Andor. So far, only Mon Mothma has largely escaped the bad writing (then again, we know she survives to Endor). It's unlikely Cassian would develop into a true rebel without a fridged partner. (That's not a spoiler for Bix; just a premonition). Of all the women on the show, I think Bix has been the most ill-treated.

When we meet her, at the beginning of Season 1, Bix is healthy and happy. Financially and emotionally, she's strong and independent. She has a lover but it's not certain he's endgame for her. He's just a nice guy that she enjoys spending time with. But ultimately, she's a business owner and she's living her best life in her community. We know all this about her at the start of the story. The other thing we know? She doesn't want Cassian as a romantic partner.

It's cool. He doesn't want her, either. Clearly they were lovers at some point (during their teens apparently, even though she's clearly at least 10 yrs younger than him but "willing suspension of disbelief" and all that) but in S1/E1 their relationship is akin to his relationship with Brasso. She likes him and fences his stolen goods for him but she thinks he's selfish, irresponsible, and needs to grow up. She harbours no romantic feelings for him, as she tells Timm.

(Quick word on Timm: Regardless of Bix's assurances, he believes there is still something between the two of them. We all thought he was an asshole. I guess Timm was right, even if trying to turn Cassian into the Empire was still an asshole thing to do, if for no other reason than it put Bix in their sights. Then again, he paid for that with his life.)

So when and how do Bix and Cassian fall in love? We're not sure because it happens off camera. It either happens in the year between fleeing Ferrix and showing up on Mina-Rau or in the year after fleeing Mina-Rau and ending up on Coruscant. But we do know that before she falls in love with Cassian, she loses everything that supported her; her business and community. She is tortured and develops PTSD. Unlike the Bix we meet at the beginning, now she is weak and dependent on him. And Cassian is over-protective and seeks to isolate her. It's fucking toxic. And it seems to be setting up Bix's eventual death and Cassian's heartache turning him into a cold-hearted killer... for one year or less until he meets Jyn Erso.

Maybe Bix won't be killed to further Cassian's journey. Maybe she'll go deep undercover for 5 yrs and before she leaves, she'll tell Cassian to get his shit worked out and commit to the Rebellion if he wants her back in 5 yrs. Maybe his whole motivation is R1 is to prove his commitment to Bix, to make himself worthy of her. That would definitely alter the way I see R1, although not in a good way.

Bix deserves better than the story she's getting. Rebelcaptain aside, there is a way to write a good love story and, whatever is happening in Andor, this isn't it.

[callmrmorrow]

andor s2 act1 review // spoilers below cut

nothing like a new season of andor to get me back into the star wars fandom. contrary to my posts, i’ve actually always been there! s1 of andor ranks #1 for the best star wars tv season in my opinion — and sits top five in my overall… i think. it’s not so concrete.

anyways.

andor s2a1 balances 4 storylines very well, and hasn’t let me down on the portrayal of each character so far. it’s as follows: cassian and his tie fighter, bix and co on mau, syril and dedra, and the chandrila wedding. if you asked me to rank them, i’d tell you it would be inversely proportional to how much anxiety each arc causes me.

the wedding arc is my favorite, not that the others are particularly bad. it’s good that we see the price everyone pays for rebellion against the empire, even the upper class. even if it isn’t explicitly stated, we know what’s happening to her friend whose name i don’t know. sorry. we got some velcinta crumbs (sorry, crumb) and a look into how cutthroat luthen can be, keeping secrets even from his own subordinates — but i think we all knew he’d do that already. mothma unravels by the act finale with some amazing music that feels both energetic and haunting (and the fact that she got drunk at the wedding just like her own mother did… ouch)! i also love the interactions between luthen and kleya; andor does snarky right. the show’s dialogue continues to be more than meets the eye (or the ear, rather) and the look into chandra’s culture was beautiful. the designers deserve all the kudos.

my second favorite was the karn family dinner, along with dedra’s dealings with krennic about ghorman. we’re already leading to the death star, and just the mentions of the emperor had me squirming in my blankets! it’s all so very corporate, and the two men from the ministry of enlightenment reminded me of the characters from the boys who proposed ryan’s superhero origins. so ridiculous, but so chilling in their ardor. the dinner scene was very silly, as was syril’s passion for his new job (but very in line with his character). dedra’s backstory was odd; i don’t know how old she is but she couldn’t have been 3 and raised in an imperial kinder-block (german term, by the way, which i thought was fascinating given the inspiration for the empire) without being like… a teenager. but she probably was lying? overall, i just thought it was all so lighthearted and domestic — i was laughing every time eedy opened her mouth — and i assume that’s the point. the oppressors and the ignorant have the privilege of domesticity whilst those under their boot can barely catch a breath.

which serves as a good segue into my third favorite arc, which i sense will not be well received by some “anti woke” members of the fandom… the farm planet with a VERY clear immigrant allegory that has to be shoved in your face because PEOPLE WONT GET IT OTHERWISE (sincerely, a fan of The Boys). bix, brasso, bee and wilmor struggle through the aftermath of ferrix and seek out normalcy where they can find it. wil and brasso succeed in integrating into the community on mau, but bix suffers from trauma at the hands of dr gorst and … now at the hands of that fuckass lieutenant. from my recollection, this is the first time star wars has actually covered the notion of sexual assault, and i don’t know how they’ll handle the aftermath after the 1 year gap in the next act, but i have faith. i just wish it hadn’t happened to poor bix. while some might find the farm planet to be boring for the first two episodes, i found the scenes incredibly interesting and important for the overall message. you can’t get a minute; there is no peace. that boredom you feel is pure bliss for the people who actually have to endure. be grateful, and all. appreciate it before all the other characters die — because they will die. the callous nature of brasso’s death is an indicator. many of them will burn for a sunrise they’ll never see.

which leads me to the lowest on the board — not that it means much, because i loved all the arcs — andor and his tie fighter. the arc was kind of about how suffering and miscommunication can make people turn on each other even if they’re meant to be on the same side, or so i think. it represents how easily everything could fall apart — one dead pilot and andor’s stuck in captivity for days. it really crunches the small scale battles here; the division occurs over a span of a hundred feet (imperial system, haha, get it?) as i said in my previous post, andor highlights that rebellions are built on individuals. but i’ll add that they are maintained by community and trust. the failure of that group to stay together was indicative of that. and i think cassian’s been learning well at luthen’s hand — he’s displaying some manipulative tendencies. proud of him. ALSO THEY WERE ON YAVIN IV????? i was geeking out.

predictions for act two…

expanding on the ghorman situation. more krennic, as well as dedra being far away from coruscant. maybe more syril, as he works in fuel purity and the empire’s current problem has to deal with “unlimited power.” HAH!

that money guy totally dies, and mothma goes cold. we’ll see more of her intensely pragmatic side OR we will see doubts about her commitment to the rebellion, but i think it’ll be the former. luthen and kleya continue their operation (i think that ghorman naboo guy will take on a large role?) but i think luthen will die by the season finale. just a hunch. which makes me think some suspicion will fall upon their artifact store.

cass and co are gonna have a hard time as well, i’m expecting bix to be distraught even a year later — SA takes a lot of effort to recover from. bee didn’t make it on the ship, either :( they’ll probably take on a more active place in the rebellion. bix will work mechanics for rebel ships and andor will be sent out on more missions.

i think they’ll also introduce a new plot line but i’m hoping it isn’t cameo-based. no jedi. please let this show end with no jedi, because the normalcy of it is half the appeal and all of the topicality.

thanks for reading <3

[ireallyamabear]

I had a good long walk and think about what I think will happen after episode 7.... of course you have all not seen it either so who knows if this might be right or wrong!! #andorpostinglikeitis2022

1. Dedra getting shot in the head...head explode???

2. Bix jedi awakening storyline

3. Kleya will show up

4. Vel gets a lot of scenes, talks about a man in all of them

4. Cassian will cause wilmons death, I already elaborated. This pushes him into disassociating until the start of r1

5. It gets revealed why the force healer seemed so fucking familiar to. Where do I know her from???

6. Ghorman planet will implode, making a planet explosion before jedda and before Alderaan canon. Fans will be mad about that

7. Melshi

8. You know I get the feeling the Kino comes back thing was just a bad joke

9. Wilmon...maybe he survives the rhydo gave him super powers. I believe

10. Syril is gonna fumble something. Big time. Biggest fumble ever. Biiiiiiig fumble. Fumble boi

Anyway no way to know what happens in eps 8 and 9!

[the17thprinceofbreakfast]

so i just watched rogue one aaaand

okey i first watched all the way back in 2016 and as far as i remember it didn't have much inpact on me other than the fact that the rogue one crew all died

and since i was not (and still consider myself not) a star wars fan with a capital F my main takeaway was that it was a fun enough, well shot blockbuster with chirrut and baze's scenes and overall relationship as the main highlight

now after 9 years and the whole Andor show after i can safely say that Rogue one A Star Wars Story is

still a bit of a mess

a amazingly shot and acted mess but still a mess

is well documented the conturbated production that the movie had and i could feel it right at the start

after watching a show full of patience jumping from there to this felt like a extreme wiplash

the score is this felt very distracting right from the start, i just felt like it and the edditing was trying way too hard to make exitmeant on what should have been something more slow and tanse

the story and the dark overcast sky ware screaming for more tempermeant and patiance

so coming from andor who had patiance and a amazying and conscistant score to these loud horns felt vary distracting (it doeas get better as the movie goes on but god it is not my thing at all)

the edditing expecialy on the beginning is way too quick

from jyn in prison to her, cass and K2 going to jedha i could feel a good 30 minutes missing, hell maybe an hour eaven

i just kept thinking how it could have been an entire ep worth of story in this movies first 15 minutes and i know that movies need to be more fast but it was not that uncomon for blockbusters to have 2h30 and those 30 to 40 minutes are very missed here, the biggining felt very stitched together and the characters suffer a lot from a feeling of rushed introductions

the movie is all plot while the show makes its time to be all about characters, wich therefore makes the plot be way more stronger because of it

now, to be fair, it does get batter the longer it goes, its still feels way too fast for me but the story improves a lot once they get out of jedha

and here is were andor makes the movie way better

the show makes everybody matter more by bringin a new way to see them trough new perspectives

before andor, rogue one was filled with characters but after the show it is a story filled with people

the show made its effort to show that every rebel big or small is a person with a whole life and story on their backs and just because they dont have much time onscren does not mean they are worth any less on ther countributions

before andor bodhi rook was the one a care the least, if i rememberd him at all was just because he was played by riz ahmed, but now i see him as almoust the heart of the movie just because of one simple character

syril kern

he is someone who worshipd and worked for the empire for years without realizing his own blindness or just what ther ''order'' truly was, and once he realized what the empire truly is and what he worshipd and actualy halped achive was, he froze, went into a fit of rage then died

to me, bodhi rook is what syril kern could have been

bodhi is nurvous and deperete to help the rebellion in the name of galen erso, he is scared and anxyous and i have a feeling that is because he might not ever had picture himself in the situation he was in

we know nothing about him but by the way he speaks of galen we can tell that he was deeply moved by him

i have a feeling that he is someone who just now had an idea of what the empire really was, and once he realised who he workd for for who knows how long he snaped and was seeing helping the rebellion as a way of redemption but also to honor the man who trusted him, the man who saw his regret and gave him a chance at redemption, something that is not hard to see not many other people doing expecialy to a nobody like him

i have a feeling that bodhi was someone looking for purpose, and galen gave him that after realising how ashamed he must have felt for working for the empire

and that give me the ideas not only what kinda person bodhi was but also who galen erso was

mads mikkelsen acting is way better thanks to this new perspective, he is kind and feels a imanse sense of shame for the wepon he build, so to have jyn as the co protagonist along with cassian feels perfect because now it feels like a chance to galen to clean his soul trough jyn

wich makes her journey now not only to reignite her purpose against the empire and to become a rabel, but also to save her father's soul

and all of these new perspective that makes the characters batter came from just adding the context of andor into the movie

without syril kern, we dont have him as a axample as to why bodhi is so courageos, wich then we dont have galen and then jyn

and of corse you could say that we could have got these points of views by watching the movie alone, and you could be right

but now that we have andor, we have a new way to look at the characters

before it didn't felt like they were people in a galaxy but just archetypes in a rushed movie

but now i can belive how much that massage affacted jyn, how much galen affacted bodhi, how she and him could bond thanks to the his heart

how much jyn could sympathize with chirrut's faith and baze's lack of

and how much of herself she could see in cassian andor

and oh cassian

seeing him here after spending years with him made me see his arc in the movie in a whole new light

more than a massenger, in here i see him as a angel of redemption

he is and alweys was an helper, a savior, someone who makes others see the world in a new light and inspires them to fight

thats how he became radicalized in the first place, all the way back when he had to convince a inmate to tell how many guards there were in every level

thats why i think the beginning needed to have more interactions but now i can see cassian recognising himself in jyn

how much sympathy he has for her now, him trusting a blaster with her feels more genuine, because he knows how it is to be alone and not to trust anyone

he was were she was, paranoid and angry

and we see that paying off in the final moments at the beach, one final moment between equals, between people who recognize one another

cassian not only helps jyn sand the massage but he also helps her to save her fathers soul

like and angel guiding a lost soul to heaven

andor makes rogue one a story about people, people who lost, who sufferd and find together, eaven for a moment, a group of equals

all thanks to jyn erso, who inspired them to come together

and all thanks to cassian andor, who had the hart to see a rabel in all of them

[milfglupshitto]

13, 17, 18 for star war ehehe. mostly i wanna know about chiss lore/outer rim worldbuilding/post-ot legends coz its not my field of epxertise but honestly go for whatever wars ur stars!!

13. worst blorbofication

okay it’s gonna have to be kallus. star wars fans are famous for gravitating towards the (usually white) villain at the expense of all others since forever so there are plenty of examples, but this one is worse than kylo/syril/whatever because not only does it neglect the main cast but also the stellar side characters? you’re drawing art of the crew + super important relevant side character and it’s not Ahsoka or Rex or the Wrens, it’s kallus? seriously? he doesn’t need all that

17. there should be more of this type of fic/art

since you mentioned it… I love love love watching people pull bits from eu stuff and mesh it with canon to do their own thing; our glorious textual elevation vs filoni’s cowardly lazily shoehorned reference. adore seeing people’s different takes on characters and storylines and the general willingness to push against canon’s choices. join me in treating Star Wars the franchise as a thing that literally willfully forces a story to conform to its conventions for the sake of persisting in the cultural consciousness. or don’t

18. it's absolutely criminal that the fandom has been sleeping on...

meee just kidding my serious answer is women. again this is not a star wars only problem but let’s center and celebrate women characters and their bonds and flaws and complexities. something I’m trying really hard to do in my own work and I love to see people thinking more about (andor s2 has unfortunately provided a lot of fodder for talking about why different characters and roles in the story isn’t an excuse to skimp out on good writing ESPECIALLY FOR WOC!!!!!!!!!)

[stereogeekspodcast]

[Transcript] Season 6, Episode 2. Andor Season 2 Review

In the latest episode of Stereo Geeks, Ron and Mon head back to their favourite universe, Star Wars, to review the second season Andor. While the first season was critically-acclaimed, the Stereo Geeks had many issues with the writing. Does Season 2 redeem the show, or make it worse? Does Cassian Andor finally get his due? And what about the rest of the characters? Listen now to find out in this spoiler-free episode. 

Listen to the episode on Spotify.

Mon: Hello and welcome to a new episode of Stereo Geeks. Today, we return to Star Wars and review Andor season 2. I’m Mon. 

Ron: And I’m Ron. While we won’t spoil any details from the second season, we will discuss spoilers from season one. So if you haven’t watched that yet, check it out and return here. 

Mon: Before we start our episode, we would like to acknowledge that the land we are recording on is the traditional territory of many nations, including the Mississaugas of the Credit, the Anishnabeg, the Chippewa, the Haudenosaunee and the Wendat peoples. It is now home to many diverse First Nations, Inuit and Métis peoples. We also acknowledge that Toronto is covered by Treaty 13 with the Mississaugas of the Credit.

Ron: While we are making this land acknowledgement, we understand that this is not enough and that positive action is required by the people of Canada to make substantive change for the Indigenous nations and communities whose lands we now reside on.

[Music]

Mon: Where did we leave off in Season 1?

Ron: The major plot points were:

Cassian’s adoptive mum Maarva died and left a rallying cry for their home planet, Ferrix, to fight the Empire

Senator Mon Mothma had to make an uncomfortable pact with a thug to ensure she had the funds to feed her foundation 

Said pact was to, essentially, marry off her teenage daughter to the thug’s son

Disgraced Imperial officer Syril Karn saved ISB go-getter Dedra Meero and now she was indebted to him

Brasso, B2 and Wilmon took off to parts unknown with a traumatized Bix

Cassian joined Luthen’s secret rebellion 

Mon: That’s a lot. We kick off Season 2 a year later. Like the first season, this one is also broken up into four chapters. Each chapter has three episodes that are around an hour-long. And there are time jumps between each chapter. 

Mon: This time, however, Disney is releasing each chapter weekly, instead of each episode weekly. 

Ron: In a way, that makes sense. It’s like watching four mini movies. And that’s presumably to help maintain the continuity. 

Ron: But the problem is, are the chapters good enough for you to trudge through nearly three hours of them per week? Unfortunately, this season does a time-jump with every story arc which not only makes it hard to get invested in the stories, but there is also no continuity. Stories are just thrown at the audience. 

Mon: Look, you and I had issues with season 1. And even on the rewatch, we still had problems with it. 

Ron: By problems do you mean that the show is called Andor, and yet, Andor himself is hardly in it?

Mon: Your sarcasm isn’t lost on me. And yes, you and I have really struggled with this issue. We have a hero, a character so beloved, fans manifested a show for him, and he…sits in the backseat doing nothing. A lot. 

Ron: I felt that even more in Season 2. There is so much screen time given to swathes of new characters and Cassian is literally in the background somewhere. But why are we spending time with these characters? Are they aiding the narrative? Because to me, they felt like empty fillers and distractions.

Mon: Cassian doesn’t feel like a protagonist. He’s more like a thread stitching together the stories. He’s like War Horse, tying all these disparate people and places together. But that means we’re not getting to know him. Which was the primary reason for watching the show.

Ron: Not even that. As the season wears on, Cassian feels more like an NPC, a non-playable character. 

Mon: Even the characters who do get long arcs, like Mon Mothma. Why is her arc about her domestic life? Would they have done this if it was for Luther Rael? He gets to be the secret sauce of the Alliance and that’s completely undermined Mothma. 

Ron: Luthen’s storyline belonged to Mon Mothma and I will die mad about it. The whole Mon Mothma storyline has been regressive. In fact, everything to do with the women characters is regressive and reductive. Mothma is defined by her nonsensical family life and her world’s traditions. Bix is a damsel in distress throughout. Dedra literally becomes involved with an incel. And Eedy is the world’s most overbearing mum. 

Mon: This show, especially the second season, feels like it never understood the established characters. I felt this way during the first 12 episodes, and this time around, I feel like I entered the Upside Down, no one makes sense and all we knew about these people is turned on its head. Did no one care about continuity when making this show?

Ron: Yes, the canon has well and truly been forgotten. Are the fanboys going to complain about that—or does it not matter because it’s a woman and a Latino hero being ruined?

Mon: I know right? Mon Mothma is not the boss behind the Rebellion—suddenly it’s some white dude named Luthen. And Cassian, he’s a hypocrite. The show posits that everything he told Jyn in Rogue One was a lie. Why? Why did they write him this way? It’s so unfair. 

Ron: They took everything that made Cassian so exciting and interesting away from him. Even one of his lines of dialogue that so many of us love. Watching this season was an insult. 

Mon: I don’t mean to belabour the point but how did they turn the apparent protagonist of the show into a nothing character? Cassian is not a person, he’s just a piece on a board being moved from one square to the next. 

Ron: How did the creative team watch Rogue One and decide this was the angle they’d take with Andor? Just how?

Mon: As if the character assassinations aren’t bad enough, the precision of season 1 is torpedoed in season 2. Every scene drags on so much longer than it needs to. And we’re stuck in place the entire time. Nothing moves. It was exhausting watching season 2. 

Ron: Season 1 might as well not have happened. Aside from establishing a few characters, none of the plot points from the first season are picked up in this season. In fact, throughout the show, there are so many plots, sub-plots, and characters that appear and then promptly disappear without resolution. It is frankly ridiculous. And with the time jumps this season, the most interesting stories end up happening between episodes, off-screen. 

Ron: What’s really upset me is that I actively don’t want to watch Star Wars right now. I know it’s ridiculous to be angry about this, but the world is on fire and we deserve to have something to escape into. Star Wars has always been that for us. Aside from when we saw The Last Jedi, which seemed to hate every character that wasn’t Kylo Ren, this season is the only time that I’ve felt I need a break from this franchise. Especially coming off the back of The Acolyte’s unceremonious cancellation, I’m wondering how to love Star Wars again. 

Mon: The studio has to believe in engaging an audience that isn’t the loud bigoted kind, right? But that’s not happening, and it’s going to get worse under the new regime. So, really, I…have my doubts whether we’ll ever be able to love Star Wars the same way again.

Ron: I mean, this season needs content warnings for rape and intimate partner violence. That’s lazy writing. And it sign posts that this franchise isn’t for certain demographics. Star Wars has never only belonged to cis white straight men. But boy do they keep getting to own it. 

Mon: For a franchise that was made possible by women in front of and behind the camera, who were then systematically erased from its history, I guess we shouldn’t be surprised that we can now add attempted sexual assault to things that happen to women in Star Wars. 

Ron: Some might say it’s not different than what happened to Leia in Return of the Jedi. Trust me, femme and women viewers didn’t like it back then, either.

Mon: You and I are not strangers to shedding a few tears when watching films and television. But this is the first time in our lives that we’ve wept because something is so atrocious. 

Ron: The greatest problem with Andor Season 2 is that every time the writing team had to make a decision, they made the wrong one. The directing and the editing could only do so much when the core story was too thin, over-bloated, and poorly executed. It might actually be the worst writing I’ve ever seen on TV. 

Mon: We hate ending an episode on such a downer, but wow, Andor, especially season 2, was a disaster, with not a single redeeming quality. Ok the costumes were nice. But that’s literally set dressing. Which is what our favourite Rebel hero turned out to be. This is…upsetting. There’s no hope left for our favourite galaxy. But you know what, if this show can pretend the rest of Star Wars isn’t canon, we can pretend it isn’t canon. 

[andorerso]

A couple things re: this Maarva drama. Because apparently, it bears repeating again.

There have been numerous posts calling out Tony Gilroy for writing this storyline. No one's excusing him, believe me. In fact, I blame him the most obviously, since he's the real person who made the choice to write this. But we're also allowed to criticize Maarva in the context of the show's reality. The fact that she's a woman being written by a man doesn't absolve her if we're looking at it from an in-universe perspective. Every single character is just being written by someone. None of them are real. We can and often do still discuss their actions as if they're real though because we're looking at it from an in-universe perspective, this is not uncommon in any fandom. And in-universe, Maarva still kidnapped Cassian and treated him like shit.

Syril's mom is abusive too, yes. But everyone recognizes that. The difference is that she's written to be an antagonist, and Maarva's written to be a hero. That's why we're talking about her, and not Eedy. Because everyone knows Eedy sucks, but Maarva gets put on a pedestal both by the show and the fans time and time again. (Case in point.) And there's a large gap between emotional abuse and coddling. We didn't want Cassian to be coddled, we wanted him to be loved and supported, and not constantly berated and criticized and belittled and talked to like an object. Are we really the bad guys for wanting a good parent for Cassian? Doesn't he deserve that?

And for the last time, criticizing a female character for the shitty things they did is not misogyny. It's not about "hating women," it's about hating Maarva specifically. For very specific reasons. Like drugging and kidnapping a frightened child and separating him from his sister and his homeworld and everything and everyone he ever knew. If you don't think that's a legit reason to hate someone, regardless of their gender, then there's not much else to talk about here because it tells me everything I need to know. The thing is that being a woman doesn't mean you're a saint, idk if you know this but some women suck! In fiction and in real life too. It's genuinely insulting to imply that we hate her because of misogyny because it couldn't be further from the truth, especially when we provided multiple explanations time and time again of why we actually hate her.

And yes, Clem was absolutely guilty too. I even agree that some people are too forgiving on him. But that doesn't excuse Maarva from responsibility. "Actually Clem and Eedy suck too" is not a legit argument to defend this woman. Great, they all suck. Now what? Does that make Maarva's actions better? No, it doesn't.

[meret118]

Andor 1.6-9 rewatch after seeing the series finale and Rogue One again

Vel meets with Kleya instead of Luthen. Vel is upset about the team members who died on Aldhani, but Kleya is glacial. She focuses on the mission.

Perrin asks Vel when she's getting married. He doesn't know she's queer. Is Chandrila, the same place that supports child marriage, also homophobic?

Run, Tay! Run!

I think Luthen told Cassian to return the crystal so he could kill him if he still wasn't committed to the cause.

https://www.cap-that.com/starwars/andor/107/index.php?image=andor1x07_2296.jpg

Maarva watering plants in the window just like Cassian does in Yavin. One of my favorite things about Andor is that unlike so many shows, they care about the details and consistency just as much as the fans do.

The irony of Maarva telling Cassian she's staying in danger in Ferrix because she's inspired by the Aldhani robbery. I think that's a gun she picks up from the table as he leaves, which I didn't notice before.

Anton Lesser does such a great job of creating a likeable villain in Partagaz.

Syril tells Dedra at the end of the interrogation: "I was very good. I solved a double murder and found the killer in two days. I was overly ambitious yes, but Time was slipping away and the opportunity was real. Service to the empire. You just said it. Can one ever be too aggressive in preserving order? I didn't deserve what happened." They're just alike! Dedra could have given this exact speech, minus a detail or two, after she's arrested.

I was watching them explain to Cassian how the cells and hot floor work in Narkina 5, and thought of that study where they shut people in a room with nothing in it but an electric shock device. Some people were so bored they shocked themselves multiple times. I wonder if they had prisoners who just couldn't help but touch it to see what it would do. They wouldn't do it multiple times though. O.O

Melshi is the one who tells Cassian to ignore the number, that's he's there until they don't want him anymore. Kino gets angry, and tells Melshi to shut up, because he only has 200 something days left. He doesn't want to believe Melshi is right.

Maarva was right about the flood gate. The rebellion did come in that way. ;)

Kleya is the one who decides to shut down the radio connection to Ferrix.

Saw mentions the Ghorman Front the first time Luthen goes to see him. Does he mean the real group we see, or the rumors the empire is putting out? He says he's the only one with clarity of purpose, but is he falling for propaganda too?

Syril thanks Dedra for the promotion, and she denies having anything to do with it. Yet on Ghorman she says he didn't mind the promotions when they're fighting.

Syril to Dedra: "I thought I had ruined my life. I thought I was done. After meeting you and discovering you understood how dangerous Cassian Andor was. Just being in your presence I've realized that life is worth living. I realized that if nothing else there was justice and beauty in the Galaxy, and if I just kept going perhaps my deranged belief that there was something better fated for me in the future was a dream worth clinging to."

He became fixated on her. Her calling him in, and then getting a promotion was the life raft his self image clung too. When he felt rejected in Ghorman by her deceiving him, and realizied he wasn't actually doing important work, he lashed out. What still makes no sense to me is her trying to save him after he attacks her.

The Med Tech killing Uloff and saying he was lucky that he's getting to pass peacefully at least, and the guard already having called for a body bag before that, is what breaks Kino's denial and makes him ask what happened on level two.

Andor 1.1-6: https://meret118.tumblr.com/post/783915237406654464/andor-rewatch-after-seeing-the-finale

Andor 1.10-12: https://www.tumblr.com/meret118/784080378103218176/cassian-to-kino-ld-rather-die-trying-to-take

[sleepymarmot]

Andor season 2, episodes 4-6

Episode 4

The small reprise of the Past/Present Suite's melody during the replay of Cassian taking off is pretty inspired. I've heard Britell should be back for these episodes?

Awesome interiors and cityscapes. Very retro. 70's, maybe?

Why is Syril of all people so woke all of a sudden. Calling out Imperial propaganda??

Noo little Ghorman resistance cell don't overestimate how woke he is… They don't even know he's the boytoy of the fascist boss assigned to steal your planet…

Okay. So if we put the two and two together. Syril must be an agent provocateur planted here by Dedra in order to encourage the resistance and eventually infiltrate their ranks. The question is, how much of that is he aware of? Is he a dumb tool or a co-conspirator?

"They put cameras in" TOOK THEM LONG ENOUGH!

Syril's fully on it, good for him I guess.

Wait, how did Lonni figure out that Dedra's now working on Ghorman? All he was told was "She's been transferred". Nobody said where!

Yay Saw :)

Alright, I liked this one better than 1-3. It was written by a different person; maybe he's better than Gilroy? And Britell is back, according to the credits. The music certainly was more noticeable and original than in the first arc! I hope he stays for the rest of the show. The sets are gorgeous, and the 70s urban spy thriller vibe is winning me over. Let's hope for more Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy over whatever it was last week.

The internet tells me the writer of this arc is the writer of the Narkina 5 arc. This bodes well.

Episode 5

Me for a fraction of a second: "Oh but we've heard this variation of the theme before :/" I shouldn't have doubted!

For a moment, I thought that they'd read the truth about Morlana One, but the data was not detailed enough and gave them the opposite impression. Was it planted as well?

Awesome episode. You've seen "nobody's listening", and here is "everybody's listening"! I immediately had a suspicion about Saw's mechanic asking questions just because of the context of the rest of the episode. And the two final scenes switch to a different theme: the Ghorman Front's leader rejects Cassian while Saw gives Wilmon an initiation rite; both are presented as a distancing from Luthen's schemes that are crumbing under their own weight. See, Gilroy? An episode can be a proper self-contained thematically tight story instead of 1/3 of a movie!

The Ghorman inexperienced intelligentzia is sooo cooked 😭 Even without the context that apparently the next year something called "The Ghorman Massacre" is supposed to happen. We'll see next week I guess.

Both Luthen and Saw are at the top of their "terrifying mentor" game.

Wilmon will probably have to die before the end of the show. I wonder if it will be in the next episode or later arcs. I doubt Bix and Wilmon will die in the same arc, and she'll probably be the last to go, considering how important she is to Cassian. It would be a shame not to see more of newly radicalized Wilmon, though. He seems to be going through a more cleanly executed version of the arc that was supposed to happen to Cassian, who at the end of the first season "lost everything and committed fully to the cause" yet at the beginning of this one is in a long-term relationship with his childhood sweetheart.

Now that I think of it, the episode has three sets of new recruits with their mentors/handlers: Bix with Luthen, Wilmon with Saw… and Syril with Dedra and Partagaz.

Episode 6

This confirms what I assumed during the first arc: Dedra and Luthen's interests are aligned. They both want the inexperienced, unprepared Ghorman Front to make a disastrous move. Dedra wants it as an excuse for retribution, Luthen wants it because the inevitable retribution will fan the flame of the revolution. I wrote down this sentence, clicked play again, and immediately Cassian asked "And if it goes up in flames?", and Luthen replied "It will burn… very brightly." I do love seeing Anders well-written and in live action.

The Cassian/Bix reunion is painful to watch. What in the Hollywood cliches…

Oh, Luthen calling out Cassian and mocking "Kill me or take me in", nice.

So, it's going to be Aldhani #2 feat. Vel/Cinta intercut with the party feat. Mon Mothma and Kleya trying to retrieve her bug. So what are Cassian/Bix and Dedra/Syril's roles in this?

Vel and Cinta stressed like five times that people will need to follow orders. Wow I wonder what's going to happen…..

Alright, who's dying this episode? Cinta? Bix? Both? I've already seen the spoiler that Cinta would get shot, but I assumed it would be non-fatal. But the death flags here…

Why is the CGI in this episode so bad? First the opening flyover in Port Steergard, now the senate and especially the alien speaker.

I am not enjoying this. Had to pause and walk around, and there are still 24 minutes left.

Not Kleya too 😭 Why is everyone blowing everyone's cover this episode 😭 Lonni's too valuable for this!

Fuck I didn't expect Krennic

This is unbearable to watch.

Alright, I had to quickly scroll through the rest of the episode before continuing.

One of the idiots killing Cinta himself via friendly fire was even worse than I expected.

It was a good decision to finish watching this arc before touching this week's Doctor Who episode. Cinta's in the better place now (travelling with the Doctor).

Only when Kleya gave Lonni an order did I realize the moral of the story. Of course the subplot where a man is capable of following the orders of his female superior goes well, and the subplot where a man doesn't bother to do so ends with him killing her and ruining everything.

Whew! It's over.

Lonni's done now, right? Kleya contacted him in public and Krennic noticed, and Luthen immediately used the information that can be traced directly to him.

Luthen hates romantic entanglements between his agents. You can take a man out of the Jedi order, but you can't take the disdain for "attachments" out of a man.

As you can see, unfortunately I did not enjoy this episode as much as the previous two. Part of that was the tension that was written in the exact way I can't stand. But another part of that was just clumsy, cliche plotting and romance. I've already complained about the Cassian/Bix reunion scene, but the Vel/Cinta romance scenes are just as bad. Some of Cinta's lines felt downright OOC; I had a strong "she would not fucking say it" feeling. What's worse is how bland and stereotypical this is, how visible the seams are. Bringing in Cinta as The Expendable Love Interest to make her white girlfriend sad is an insult to her character.

Last week I was "Hey why is everyone cheering for Dedra when she puts down Eedy?", this week is "Hey why is everyone cheering for Bix when she uses his torturer's own tools on him?" Like, this is a moment of her crossing the line. In retrospect, the final scene is Luthen killing not just two birds with one stone, as it seems, — giving Bix an opportunity for hopefully therapeutic revenge and appeasing Cassian by doing so, and shutting down the expansion of Gorst's program. It's also a way to radicalize Bix. She gets her hands truly dirty for the first time, using the tools of the enemy. Two episodes ago she agonized about Cassian killing a random soldier to keep her safe; now she is not above using the worst torture the Empire has come up with. Remember how we all were saying last season that the method of torture itself was a reflection of the Empire's evil? Where's that sentiment now?

On a completely different note… The copy of these three episodes I downloaded was kind of blurry, which I chalked up to a high level of compression, because the files were impressively small. However, in the tag I keep seeing edits made from similarly blurry footage. Did Disney really upload these episodes in low quality that makes the episode seem AI upscaled at times? Or did too many of us just download the same mediocre rip?

[space-blue]

Andor rant (beloved)

Mentally diseased over how good today's episode of Andor was. How is this show so good? How? Luthen's monologue... The prison break... Cassian and Melshi running off together... *Sigh*

It's frustrating to me on some level, because show after show I've been complaining and wishing for "better writing". And the general mediocrity started to make me feel like maybe I was asking for too much? That maybe excellent writing is some dark arcane magic limited to indie films and titans of the industry existing in their own bubble of space, like Denis Villeneuve.

Maybe good writing would never come to Star Wars, and the shadow of it, glimpsed in Rogue One, TCW season 7 or Mandalorian season 1, would be as close as we'd ever get.

And then voila: Andor.

Andor with not only excellent writing for Star Wars, but excellent writing for any show! It's just up there. It has a ton of stuff going on, and it merges tropes like paint in a bucket. Rebellion building, spy action, politics, heist, prison break...

All without sweating, all with clarity of purpose, lean dialogue and memorable characters built on who they are and not what they look like or how dope they act.

Syril and his mom are stand outs because they're fascinating. They act their tits off, they're theatre stars and they act an all too familiar drama on the backdrop of Coruscant. Luthen's monologues are given the time to breath. His character is only shown enough to entice us and give us food for thought.

Characters listen to each other, grow from each other. It's Vel repeating Cinta's words, it's Kino repeating Cassian's...

The show also consistently flips expectations, giving us details before we think we need them. Like that one guy who wants to be made prefect and mentions it's solely an honorary position... Half an episode before someone tells a story involving one such prefect. It immediately enriches our understanding of what type of character he must have been... And then it turns out it was all a made up story? Or was it?

Us not knowing for sure is SO HUMAN. Skeen is human. He's a liar and a me-first dickhead who still sided with the good guys in the grand scheme of things, and we'll never know where the lies end and truth begins.

You rarely see shows so keen to build up a character from the ground up only to shatter them or kill them, even leaving us without a satisfying understanding of what sort of person they were.

I would never have dared to DREAM of getting a show this well written in the SW franchise, and I know it's going to ruin me forever, because every shitty, half baked, poorly written disaster a-la-Boba-Fett will be measured against Andor.

Even if the 101 fans adore such shows for all the pew-pew battles and lightsaber twirling or cameo galore, they'll forever suffer if it's obvious Disney didn't bother hire real writers and directors with vision.

Andor will forever prove they can do it, if they only bother. Every show trying to milk me will be that much more offensive and frustrating.

I love Andor, and I hate Andor. I was putting clown make up on for it when the trailers looked so good... and it just made it worthwhile. It was real. I wasn't a clown for believing in it, and at the same time it'll make me a clown in perpetuity, because there'll be the possibility the next show is on par with Andor, or gods forbid, even better.

[sosleepylars]

I think what makes Andor so great as a show is, that the Writers asked themselves what life under an Empire, that longed to control a galaxy, would look like to ordinary people. What would it do to people that aren’t the main characters in galactic history, with no one to back them up? With no one to bust them out when shit hits the fan? When you aren’t a space wizard, or some crazy skilled pilot, or soon-to-be rebellion leader? I saw people say Andor is too brutal, it wouldn’t be Star Wars anymore. But I think this is wrong. I remember back in the days of the old EU, how I read the Republic Commando books and how shocked I was at first, that people could just die in Star Wars. No big plot around it. No one to save them in the last second. A blaster shot in the wrong moment, and they were just...gone. Those main characters are just people in the end. This feeling is, what Andor gives me, but in visual media. The Galaxy just doesn’t care what happens to those protagonists. They get swallowed whole, chewed up, spit out, and are left in the dirt. But we, as an audience, get the time to process their deaths, their fears, their suffering. And not just with the “good” ones, but with the villains too. They get a face, emotions, heck even family. No faceless canon fodder, our heroes can gun down while throwing one-liners.

When Dedra looks at Bix, with this grin, this arrogant, venomous grin that basically oozes “I got you now, and there is no way out” I know that this is true. There probably is no way out for Bix. Even if she escapes, she won’t shake this off. She will be traumatized, scarred. And the same goes for Syril, Vel, Cassian of course...they are all haunted by what has happened to them, and they all react in their own way to this brutal, life despising system that is the Empire. I think, if I would need to describe Andor in three words, it would be this:

Actions have consequences

This is what the show tells us. And we experience the consequences in all their horror, and all their beauty. 

[horatio-fig]

I studied something called Toxic Beta Masculinity for my Dissertation. I covered toxic fan culture, gatekeeping and incels, inspired by my experiences in the Star Wars Community. I could talk for hours about so much stuff, but I want to talk about Syril Karn.  

I basically studied men like him, so seeing it playing out on my screen every week has been truly wonderful. TV and film only ever show the extreme vilified side of things when actually, it’s much more subtle and nuanced and harder to spot in real life.  

(I’m gonna use some very broad statements here but I can clarify anything if people want. I want to make it very clear I am not defending anyone’s behaviour, this is just purely my take from an academic point of view)

What we’re seeing is something called Toxic Beta or Toxic Geek Masculinity. Masculinity is not bad. When you break down the core values of what makes a ‘successful man’ a lot of them are positive.

They’re things like “be able to provide for your loved ones”, “be physically fit and healthy”, “Protect your loves ones”. This translates to simply, have a partner, have a good job so you have money, have money so you can buy a house, etc. People who can do these things are categorised as Alpha males, those who cannot are Beta.  

(Again, using very broad terms here)  

Due to modern life, ‘Beta males’ are becoming a lot more common. A lot of us can’t afford our own place so we have to move in with our parents. It’s a lot harder to find any sort of job, and finding a good paying one is almost impossible. We’re stuck in bad jobs, living with our parents, making barely enough money to survive.  

Just because you are in that situation, does not mean you are toxic. But it's very easy to fall into that trap.  

Toxic Beta masculinity happens when these men realise that they do not possess the traditional masculine tropes. But instead of accepting that, they choose to vilify and blame those who do have them, or decide it’s someone else's fault. However, they’re not going to try and attack alpha males, because they are higher up than them. So, they instead project hate towards people who they think are below them (women, POC, Queer people) This is why the Star Wars Community has such problems with bigotry and it’s where gatekeeping comes from. (I’ll probably do a more in-depth post about this one day) Sometimes it’s malicious, but a lot of the time it is subconscious and they won’t realise they’re even doing it.

But, we’re not talking about that, we’re talking about Syril.  

Going back to the living with parents and no money thing. Millennials and younger generations will very likely never own property or make investments. After our living expenses, we are left with very little money and very little time to indulge in our hobbies. So, we have the choice to try and save up, or, what mostly happens is, we invest our money and time into something that brings us joy or we deem important.  

However, when we do this, we’re essentially deciding that our passion for something outweighs everything else and naturally we get defensive and over protective over the things we love. This passion can manifest itself in different ways, from a need to become an expert in it, to a need to lash out and be aggressive.  

Syril is this situation now. His life has started to crumble and worst of all he can pinpoint the exact moment when it happened. He can see all the people who are to blame, Cassian for killing his crew, His mother for pushing him too much, Meero for not letting him get any further in the investigation. The fact that all of these people are minorities is subtle, but very important.  

(He has nothing but respect for the older white men of authority he runs into, whether it be his old boss, or his new one, and always does as he’s told. But when it comes to people who are ’lesser’ than him, he feels that entitlement to take what he wants. Yes, he respects Meero as an officer, but not enough to respect her boundaries.)

We see he has figurines in his room, much like a lot of us do. He has become obsessed with justice and fighting for what is right in his own warped way and he has started to become fixated and defensive about it. His beta masculinity is starting to become toxic.

He is not an Incel, he is not a racist bigot or a raging misogynist. Yet. He has the capacity to be all these things, but that doesn't mean it’s set in stone. There are all the pieces for a truly great redemption story, or a truly powerful descent into villainhood. We’ll just have to see how the writers choose to go.  

I hope Star Wars Fans watch Andor and see themselves in Syril, and view his descent as a warning. I am not ‘defending incels’ or playing devil's advocate, but there are a lot of stages before someone gets to that point that I think people need to be more aware of so that you can spot it in yourself, or in someone else and act before it’s too late. You can stop radicalization, but it is very hard to undo it.

Anyway, it’s truly wonderful seeing the thing you studied and nearly went insane over being portrayed on TV and being portrayed in such a brilliant way. People are not binary, there is no black and white, no one is 100% good or bad. Anyone is open to radicalization. Andor has captured this better than any piece of media I have ever seen and I am so grateful for its existence.

[thewistlingbadger]

Agreed and this is a trait I've seen across ALL fandoms. There are fans who will excuse atrocious behavior because they like a character and in their minds, they can only like a character if they're "good". And THEN there are fans who attack other fans for likely characters that are morally bad BECAUSE they're morally bad.

It is very important to remember that the characters we read, see, etc etc are characters. They are not real life people. They may be played by real life people, inspired by real life people, resemble real life people, but they are NOT real life people.

Syril Karn, from everything we've seen of him, is scum of the galaxy. He's an imperial bootlicker, a clear academy reject who was willing to do ANYTHING to scratch his itch of "i have to be important. Long live the empire." Syril Karn had NO OBJECTIONS to the rebels on Ghorman being punished and killed. Syril Karn's objection was that the truth behind his mission had been concealed from him. He felt like he was important enough to work with the empire to bring down a secret group of rebels, so to be left in the dark about Ghorman was a bruising of his ego, a break in the mental image that he was serving the empire and doing something wonderful.

Additionally, I think people forget there's varying degrees of being a bad person. Sure Syril isn't like Krennic or Vader, who are both literal war criminals. Sure Syril is quite tame, normal, and average compared to them. But he's STILL a bad person. Just because he isn't "as bad" doesn't mean he just isn't bad. He's a very shitty person. It's okay to like him as a character, but it's not okay to try to excuse him bc he's your pookie.

The amount of sympathy Syril is getting is shocking to me. It seems like the majority of fans were of the belief that he was gonna flip sides and become a rebel. To me it was very obvious that Syril is an empire loyalist. He's someone who staunchly believes that the empire is good, and that's been a major trait of his character since he was introduced. He thinks the empire is a great thing and he wants to feel like he plays a significant role in the empire. He takes his bullshit jobs way too seriously because he's looking for power and respect. He demands that he be treated more important than he actually is. This is the guy that stalked Dedra because he was in awe at her power and wanted her to listen to him. This is the guy who went against his boss's orders and had his own men killed on a rogue mission just so he could feel like he did something. This is the same guy who dedicated he personally had to solve the Andor case and follow up on it even though he no longer had the authority to. This is the guy who LITERALLY SAID the best day of his life was the day he infiltrated a rebel group and became a permanent mole for the empire. This guy was NEVER going to be turned. He is the prime example of how ordinary people protect a harmful system because they believe it to be right and because that system offers them some benefit. Even though Syril got rejected time and time again he still believed in the empire because the opportunity for success was always available, an ever open door that would allow Syril to actually become someone. Syril dies the death he deserves. He's unceremoniously murdered in an event so chaotic that his death is nothing more than another one to add to the already high death toll. No one witnesses his death, no one calls out his name in a panic, nothing. He does quickly and alone.

Syril was never a hero, he was never a rebel. He was an imperial bootlicker and generally a slime of a human being.