Tag: Cassian Andor

Andor S2 Thoughts, Part 3

Hello friends! Bear with me for just a bit longer as I continue to spill out my thoughts concerning Andor S2 with the fourth Arc. If you missed it and are curious, here’s Part 1 (Arcs 1 & 2) and Part 2 (Arc 3). As usual, there are big SPOILERS!!!

Arc 4: Make It Stop; Who Else Knows?; Jedha, Kyber, Erso

Arc 4 is a bit of a denouement after the climax of the Ghorman massacre: there’s some action and anxiety as we see Dedra confront Luthen, Luthen’s attempted suicide, and Kleya’s one-woman tour-de-force in infiltrating the hospital and finishing off Luthen. Clearly it broke her heart, but it’s what needed to be done. During this episode, we get flashbacks and find out how these two met: Luthen had once been a Sargeant in an Imperial regiment, and during an attack he has a kind of breakdown at the violence and cruelty he witnesses. He escapes to the ship, not wanting to be a part of it anymore, muttering “Make it stop!” It’s here he finds a young Kleya hiding in the ship, and together they escape the carnage. It’s apparent that Kleya’s family has been killed, probably her entire community in some Imperial crackdown and has nowhere else to go. We see that it’s Kleya, really, who has been the driving force behind their partnership, who seeks revenge. Luthen teaches her that they’re in it for the long haul, that she must hide and bank the flames of her rage and use it later when the time is right, that they’ll lose again and again before they win.

The confrontation we’ve been waiting for, and it delivered. “The Rebellion’s not here anymore. It’s flown away.”

Kleya sends out a distress call on a coded signal, and Cassian defies orders again to go save her. Meanwhile, Dedra has been arrested and confronted by Krennic, who fears that the classified Death Star information has been leaked through her (I forgot to mention poor Lonni, who told Luthen about Jedha, Kyber, Erso and the superweapon, only to be killed by him, a very Luthen thing to do). Luthen told Kleya, and now she’s the only one who knows about this superweapon.

Cassian, Melshi and K2 land on Coruscant, but Dedra’s replacement, Heert, is on the way to nab her. Luckily K2 comes along with his very own hallway scene, using Heert as a human shield and plowing through the Imperials to get them out.

Krennic questions Dedra. The finger-thing was a little weird, lol. Anyone else think Krennic was a bit kooky in this series?

Kleya does not expect a warm welcome from the Alliance on Yavin, and she’s right: no one believes her story about the superweapon or doesn’t want to believe. Mon is the only one who knew Luthen and Kleya and what they did to bring this Rebellion together, and the Alliance’s brusque dismissal is infuriating. But guess what? Tivik, Saw’s man on the Ring of Kafrene, keeps contacting them, claiming he has important information about Jedha, and he’ll only talk to Cassian. Cassian’s mission to Kafrene is finally green-lighted, and he’ll be on his way to Rogue One territory very soon.

Partagaz, the Imperial I hated to love.

I want to talk about Leo Partagaz for a moment here. Partagaz has failed to procure the arrest of Kleya, and so must pay the price, as all Imperials must do who fail their masters. When we first meet him in Season 1, he terrified me, but over the course of the series, he grew on me. I know I wasn’t supposed to like him. But damned if I didn’t. I think it’s because Partagaz wasn’t the greedy, arrogant, ladder-climbing Imperial we usually see, throwing cruelty around like it’s rice at a wedding. He had a job to do and ran a tight ship, but the ship was doomed to fail in the end. Watching him listen to Nemik’s manifesto as he waited for his arrest made me sad. His sense of failure was palpable, but I also wonder if he was getting an inkling of maybe being on the wrong side of history. I might be reaching. But his suicide made me sad, thinking about how this man dedicated his life to all the wrong things. If only he worked FOR the Rebellion instead of against it, what an asset he’d be! But I digress.

The quieter moments of this last episode are wonderful. Vel takes Kleya in after finding her wandering around in the rain, lost and unsure where she belongs anymore. “We have friends everywhere,” she says. Vel and Cassian toasting the people they’ve lost: Luthen, Cinta, the Aldhani crew, Ghorman, Ferrix, etc. The people whose blood paved the way for Rebellion. The scene with Bail and Cassian: “If I’m going to die fighting the Empire, I want to go down swinging,” Bail says, and my heart breaks knowing that he’ll be dead within days on Alderaan. “May the Force be with you,” he tells Cassian, as this is a man who had known the Jedi and had worked closely with them. He knows the Force is real, that it’s working even now.

The walk of fate.

The montage of Cassian walking toward his U-Wing (and his destiny) is great, showing us the state and fate of several characters along the way: Kleya wakes up to a sunrise Luthen knew he’d never see; Wilmon has breakfast with Deena, his love from Ghorman; Vel and Mon eat breakfast with the troops and everyday members of the Rebellion; Dedra is in the white and orange uniform of a prisoner, mirroring Cassian’s time on Narkina 5; Saw is on Jedha, looking out at the Imperial ship looming over Jedha; Cassian glances at the Force-healer and gives her a nod as she watches him walk toward the destiny she knows is waiting for him. Just chills.

And the last scene on Mina-Rau: finally we see B2 having fun with his droid friend and it’s a big sense of relief that this sweet little guy is okay, but it’s Bix with Cassian’s child in her arms that is the final image of the series. Sure, it’s a bit soapy, but I loved it. Knowing that she’ll never see Cassian again, I’m glad she’ll have a part of him with her, that he’ll go on in that way. And it’s a scene of hope (that word we love in Star Wars), hope for the next generation that this Rebellion is giving them. I don’t know if we’ll ever see Cassian’s child in any future projects, but I’m not against it. And if we don’t, if he or she just lives a good, peaceful life on Mina-Rau, that makes me happy, too. Because that’s what their father was fighting for and gave his life for.

Andor ends with life rather than death.

So, what’s my final assessment of Andor? Well, this fan is very happy (and emotionally moved), incredibly impressed, and hopeful (there’s that word again! lol) that we get more Star Wars like this. Don’t get me wrong, I love the Jedi and Sith and lightsabers and Force stuff as much as the next person; it satisfies the child in me, that sense of wonder that we never truly shed, and can’t wait for more. But this show satisfies the adult Star Wars fan that I am, the one that’s been on this journey with this galaxy and these characters for over forty years. It makes sense to me that Star Wars evolves, and we as fans must evolve with it. I love all the flavors of Star Wars: sometimes I want bubble-gum, and sometimes I want caviar. Shows like The Acolyte is the bubble-gum (which I chew with relish); Andor is the caviar, perhaps an acquired taste at first, but truly exceptional in the end. This is Emmy-award-level stuff, and I hope it gets all the accolades it deserves.

I probably forgot to mention a lot of stuff, but this has gone on long enough, lol. What are your thoughts on Andor? Do you want to see more Star Wars like it? Or do you think it will be a one-of-a-kind kind of show? Let me know in the comments and we’ll talk about it!

Andor S2 Thougts, Part 2

Hello friends! Today I’m continuing my thoughts on Andor Season Two. I was going to do Arcs 3 and 4 together, but realized my Arc 3 post is pretty long, so I’ll do 4 next time.

(If you missed Part 1, here it is.)

Beware: SPOILERS!!!

Arc 3: Messenger; Who Are You?; Welcome to the Rebellion

Arc 3 focuses on Ghorman specifically, with the leadup to the massacre we know is coming, the massacre itself, and its aftermath. The interesting thing about the “Ghorman Massacre” is that it was originally in the Expanded Universe (Legends) and took place earlier during the reign of the Empire. In this earlier incident, Wilhuff Tarkin landed his cruiser on a group of Ghorman protesters who were blocking landing pads in protest to some sort of unfair taxation. In Andor, this incident is referenced by Thela, the bellhop Cassian talks to in the second arc. A memorial was built to those who died (including Thela’s father), and a promise was made that no Imperial building would cast a shadow over it. Fast forward to the present day, and of course the Imperials are building a tower near the memorial, which infuriates the Ghormans. They believe it’s a weapons depot, but it’s all just smoke and mirrors to get the Ghormans to misbehave so the Empire can crush them, so they can get their precious mineral.

The tinderbox that is Ghorman.

Cassian returns to Ghorman, not to help the Ghorman Front, but to kill Dedra Meero, who is there supervising the leadup to the clash. He goes with Wilmon, who brought Cassian this message and who has been working with the GF for some time now (and has a new girlfriend, that smooth operator, lol). Dedra, of course, was on Ferrix in Season 1 and oversaw Bix’s torture, as well as leading the troops against the people of Ferrix during Maarva’s funeral, hoping to draw Cassian out in her quest for Axis. Their trip to Ghorman is not sanctioned by the Alliance, in which Cassian and Bix are firmly a part of now, and they live on Yavin since distancing themselves from Luthen. So their trip is for personal revenge, rather than as a strategic mission for the Rebellion. Draven is NOT happy, lol.

I have to mention that before Cassian leaves, Bix brings him to a Force healer that is on the base for a blaster burn that has not healed well. Cassian is skeptical, and thinks the healer is a charlatan. And maybe she is at this point, but I think we’re led to believe she’s Force-sensitive and has a true gift. When she sees Cassian, something sparks in her and she makes a beeline for him. Bix convinces him to give the healer a chance, and she puts her hands on him to try to heal the burn. But she sees something else, something about him that marks him as special, that he’s been “gathering” experiences and has a destiny. It frankly scares Cassian, and he rushes away, but the healer tells Bix that he’s a “messenger.” The audience knows that this is probably in reference to Cassian’s role in Rogue One, where he helps Jyn send the Death Star plans to the Rebellion. It’s a great scene that reminds us that the Force is still here, that this is still Star Wars, and that no matter what we do, there’s still a little mystery at work as well.

Mystical healing.

Anyway, Cassian can’t get a bead on Dedra as the Ghorman protest mounts, a protest that the Empire has encouraged by opening the plaza. Partagaz tells Dedra that their original plan is a go since all other avenues of getting the mineral has failed, with the line, “Bad luck Ghorman.” Bad luck, indeed. They bring in newbie soldiers to keep back the crowds, and these poor souls are actually there to be sacrificed by the Empire to light the spark that will begin the destruction. An Imperial sniper lets a shot go, shooting one of their own, causing chaos, and giving the Empire an excuse to open fire on the Ghor (who had stopped their shouting and began singing, which makes it all the more heartbreaking).

Syril, meanwhile, is increasingly bewildered and alarmed by what is happening and goes to Dedra for answers. Their encounter is shockingly violent, as he chokes her in his fury, learning about the mineral and their plan to sacrifice Ghorman, and the fact that he was deliberately kept out of the know and used for their own purposes. Syril’s world is crumbling: Dedra has lied to him, the Empire has set up the Ghor to fall, and he feels betrayed, to say the least. He wanders out into the increasingly violent crowd in a stupor, watching the horror unfold. Cassian is just trying to get away at this point, but the Imperials have closed off the exits, trapping everyone. Syril is in the middle of realizing he might be on the wrong side when he catches sight of Cassian: his mortal enemy, the one who ruined his life on Ferrix, and the one who must pay for his humiliation.

Syril stunned.

He attacks Cassian with rage, and their fight is brutal. Syril gets the advantage at last and is about to shoot Cassian when Cassian looks at him in bewilderment and asks him, “Who ARE you?” While Syril has been obsessing for years about Cassian, dreaming of the day he’ll get his revenge, Cassian has no idea who Syril is and is wondering why this random man is trying to kill him. It’s sobering for Syril, who hesitates just long enough for the leader of the Ghorman Front, Carro Rylanz, to shoot him in the head. Poor Syril.

The Imperials unleash the K2 droids, which are terrifying, and all is lost on Ghorman. Cassian and Wilmon manage to escape, but Wilmon wants to stay behind with his girlfriend, and Cassian brings a mangled K2 droid with him as he flies away. Dedra, in the wake of the massacre, has some sort of breakdown or fit, perhaps trying to come to terms with what she’s unleashed, but she ultimately gets control of herself–barely. Brutally suppressing whatever humanity she’s got inside herself, I guess.

This is easily the most harrowing, stunning episode of the whole season. And I haven’t even gotten to the last episode of the arc, in which Mon Mothma makes her amazing speech to the Senate, damning the Ghorman massacre and calling out the lies of the Empire and the evil nature of Palpatine, calling him a “monster” who will “come for us all.” There are so many great speeches in this show: Luthen’s “sunrise” speech, Maarva’s funeral speech, Saw’s rhydo speech, even Vel gets a “you don’t get to cry” speech that is moving. But this one is a hum-dinger that is a turning point for the Rebellion, as Mon flees the Senate and intends to join the Rebellion on Yavin. But the logistics of just how she gets out of the Senate and to Yavin is the problem. Sure, we see in Rebels that Gold Squadron brings her to the Ghost crew, who then will get her to Dantooine on route to Yavin. But how does she actually get out of the building, with the Empire standing by to immediately arrest her after her treasonous speech?

Mon making the speech of her life (or death, from a certain point of view).

Again, Cassian is there, the main link in a chain that leads right up to the end of Rogue One. Luthen says as much to him, that he’s always where he needs to be just when Luthen needs him to be there. (Hmm, it’s as if an unseen Force is guiding his every move…). Anyway, Bail has arranged a ship and crew to get Mon out, but Luthen tells her it’s been compromised. Who knows how he knows this, but at this point Mon is fed up with Luthen, as she’s just found out her trusted aide Erskine has been working for him without her knowledge. Luthen tells her to look for his agent and his words, I have friends everywhere. Cassian kills a few people, including Mon’s ISB-planted driver, to get her out; her shock and horror transitions her from the relative safety of the Senate to the life-or-death environment of the Rebellion.

The arc ends with Cassian back on Yavin and telling Bix that he’s done with the Rebellion. He wants to go away with her and just live their lives. The next morning he finds a message from her. She’s gone away so he will stay in the fight. She firmly believes that Cassian has a big part to play in the coming war and won’t have him abandon it for her. She wants the Rebels to win. After all they’ve been through, all they’ve sacrificed, he has to see it through. With the leaving of Bix, comes the arrival of K2S0, who has been reprogrammed to serve the Alliance.

Whew! Stay tuned for Arc 4….

Andor S2 Thoughts, Part One

Hello friends! I’ve been meaning to post my thoughts about Andor Season 2 for a while now, but I’ve been delayed by a combination of general busyness and simply being overwhelmed with its greatness, lol. I’m going to split it into two parts, the first covering Arcs 1 & 2, and Part 2 covering Arcs 3 & 4.

I don’t even know where to begin, so I’ll just begin with: I loved it. I feel it’s a masterpiece in Star Wars storytelling (both seasons, but I’ll focus on the second season here). Like Season 1, it’s unlike any Star Wars we’ve seen before: gritty, yes, and focused on the ordinary people that struggle with oppression rather than on larger-than-life figures like Jedi and Sith. And yet, it’s still quintessentially Star Wars: it’s still a story of good versus evil, though there are definitely gray areas on both sides; life for most ordinary people is messy and doesn’t fit into neat black and white boxes. It’s still about the human heart, family, love and the connections we make with other people. It’s still about doing the right thing, even when it seems the odds are against you. It’s about that Star Wars hope we always talk about. And the Force is still there; it’s a subtle undercurrent that is only mentioned a couple of times, but it’s still the spiritual underpinning of this galaxy.

In lieu of only getting two seasons, the four-arc, twelve-episode format worked well. The writers relied on the audience to fill in any gaps; in other words, they didn’t insult our intelligence, lol. So even though I would have liked some more information or storylines, I didn’t necessarily need them. The writing was tight and stream-lined, no exposition, just boom, a year later per arc. And it worked, at least for me.

I’m assuming if you’re reading this, you’ve watched the show, so I won’t summarize each episode; I’ll just touch on the big aspects of each arc and what I thought and felt about them. If you haven’t watched it, just be aware–SPOILERS!!! And please, for the love of the Force, watch it if you can.

Arc 1: One Year Later; Sagrona Teema; Harvest

Cassian on what turns out to be Yavin.

The first arc deals with Cassian stealing a new TIE model from the Imperials and getting side-tracked by a bunch of newbie rebels with no leader among them. They fight among themselves, showing us how far the Rebellion needs to go to unite and work together. Some people were annoyed with this storyline, and I understand why; these people are morons, lol. But they’re also people who need strong leadership, and this is what the Rebellion needs most at this point.

The Imperials, meanwhile, have discovered a kind of mineral on the planet Ghorman that they want for the Death Star, and make plans to get it no matter what. Orsin Krennic has a secret meeting, to which Partagaz and Dedra are invited. The point of the meeting is to find a way to get the mineral from Ghorman, destroying the planet if need be, but making it look like it was the Ghormans’ fault. Krennic pegs Dedra to make it so; she doesn’t want the assignment, as she wants to keep pursuing Axis, but Partagaz tells her the assignment is a “gift.” When Dedra gets back to Coruscant, it’s shown that she and Syril are a couple, though a very weird one, lol. They finally have dinner with Syril’s mother, and Dedra’s handling of the overbearing Eadie is priceless.

Arc 1 also shows us Bix, Brasso, Wilmon and B2 on Mina-Rau, a grain-producing planet, and they work there basically as undocumented immigrants. The people they work for like and appreciate them and try to protect them, but of course, the Empire comes calling. Not only is Bix dealing with her PTSD from her torture by Dr. Gorst, but there’s a slimy Imperial who attempts to sexually assault her. This is where we know we’re not in our usual Star Wars territory; some people took issue with this storyline, saying it was too much for Star Wars. Again, this is Star Wars for adults. If we’re going to watch Andor, we need to put our big-people pants on. Oppression absolutely includes this type of manipulation and attack, and to sugarcoat it now would do the show an injustice, I think. Brasso’s death gutted me, as it was so random and meaningless, but that was the point, too.

Mon letting go.

On the other end, Mon Mothma is preparing for her daughter’s wedding. It’s a lavish affair, a traditional Chandrilan wedding. Here poor Mon has to deal with her unbearable brat of a daughter, Luthen watching her under the guise of bringing a priceless gift for the couple from Sculden, and her friend Tay, who has been hiding her money for the Rebellion in nonprofits. Tay is not happy, having had some losses with his investments (and his wife left him, no less); and he lets Mon know he basically wants money to compensate for those losses or else he’ll spill the beans. To whom, I’m not really sure, but Luthen sees him as a threat and “takes care of it.” Mon pretends to not know what he means, but of course she does. Tay’s betrayal and Luthen’s promise to unalive him, as well as the emotional toll of her daughter’s hurtful words (and presumably some guilt in arranging the wedding in exchange for Sculden’s monetary help) takes its toll, and Mon has a drunken, dancing breakdown to the catchy tune of Niamos. Seriously, it’s a song that makes even me want to get up and dance, though it’s heartbreaking to see Mon accept the price of rebellion with a public unravelling. Even Perrin looks askance at her. Oh, and seeing Tay fly away with Cinta at the helm is truly chilling. That woman is scary, lol.

Arc 2: Ever Been To Ghorman?; I Have Friends Everywhere; What A Festive Evening

Arc 2 brings us a year down the road. After Cassian saves Bix and Wilmon (leaving our beloved B2 behind, though it can’t be helped), Cassian and Bix are living together in a safe house on Coruscant. I love seeing these two as a couple. During the first season we learn that they had been together when they were younger but broke up at some point, and Bix was with Tim, but I was hoping that she and Cassian be together again at some point. They just fit each other. But Bix is still struggling and has an addiction to some drug that helps her sleep. Luthen sends Cassian to Ghorman to see about the Ghorman Front that has formed there in the guise of a fashion designer named Varian Skye, but Cassian feels they’re not ready to take on the Empire and wants nothing to do with it.

Cassian talks with Thela on Ghorman.

Luthen sends Vel and Cinta instead. The two hadn’t seen each other since that quick glance at the wedding, and it’s clear that Cinta has changed. She refers to some “accident” that took her out of the game for a bit, and while recuperating, realized she missed Vel. They both told Luthen they wouldn’t take the assignment without the other. Their reunion was sweet but ended in tragedy with Cinta’s death during their mission to help the Ghorman Front, another senseless death, as it was a result of one of the Ghor disobeying their orders. I’m wondering if Cinta’s “accident” was her deliberately crashing the ship she and Tay were in at the end of the first arc and she got injured while killing Tay. We’ll never know, I guess, but it’s a leap that makes sense.

Syril, meanwhile, has been on Ghorman as an Imperial inventory manager, but was really put there to infiltrate the Ghorman Front. Syril has no idea what he’s really doing, though, as Dedra has not told him about the mineral and the Empire’s ultimate plans to destroy Ghorman. He thinks he’s just there to identify possible “outside agitators.” But he’s really there to get the Ghormans to act up so the Empire can then punish them.

Wilmon, we find, is with Saw Gererra, presumably sent to him by Luthen. He’s supposed to teach them how to calibrate some mechanical thing to steal rhydonium from the Imperials, a kind of fuel. Saw kills the guy Wilmon has taught, because Saw thinks he was an Imperial spy, trying to find out where they’ll strike next. Who knows if this is true, but Saw is paranoid and crazy at this point. So Wilmon has to accompany him to the target to get the fuel. Saw is able to breathe the poisonous stuff and is addicted to it; he calls it his “sister,” which is creepy considering he lost his sister Steela during the Clone Wars and has never been the same since. He convinces Wilmon to breathe the stuff, too, and I thought that was the end of Wilmon; he’d either die or be a permanent part of Saw’s nutty crew. But surprisingly, this didn’t happen; he shows up in the next arc alive and well.

Kleya discovers that their listening device on a piece of Sculden’s art collection will be discovered if it’s not removed. She enlists the help of Lonni during a party to remove it, and it adds an unbearable level of anxiety while Mon and Krennic trade barbs. We also see Bail Organa at the party for the first time, and that the role is being played by Benjamin Bratt rather than Jimmy Smits. It’s a bit disappointing that Smits’ schedule prevented him from reprising the role, but on the other hand, Bratt did an excellent job of Being Bail, particularly in later episodes.

The classic “blow something up and don’t look back while you walk away” scene.

After talking to Bix and becoming concerned about her health and well-being (in Luthen’s particular, selfish kind of way, lol), he sets up Cassian and Bix to get revenge on Dr. Gorst, who has come to Coruscant to enlarge the part his torture methods will be used in the Empire. Bix satisfyingly hooks him up to his own awful device, and then Cassian blows him up as they walk away. Good riddance, Nazi doctor! A fine way to end the arc.

Stay tuned for my thoughts on Arcs 3 and 4….

My Entertainment Weekend Update

Hello friends, and happy weekend!

(Spoilery stuff ahead!)

This week’s episode of Andor was, as usual, fabulous. The situation in the prison becomes particularly tense, as it becomes clear Cassian is trying to find a way to escape. At the same time, something weird and mysterious happened on Level 2, and we eventually find out that the entire work crew was killed by their murderous electric floors. We only find out towards the end of the show that it was because the Imperials put a prisoner who was supposed to be done with their sentence back into the workforce on a different level. Clearly, no one’s getting out of there alive. Didn’t they realize that the prisoners would figure this out and become outraged? The answer is yes, they did, and no, they don’t care. Kino finally realizes he won’t win at the Empire’s game, and so finally answers Cassian’s question about guards. He will help Cassian with the escape, but I have a feeling he won’t survive it.

The Empire in this show is at its scariest, and we don’t need any Sith to prove that. Bix is tortured by Dedra with sounds. The sound of tortured and dying children, which of course is quite appalling. Dr. Gorst is the freaky sadist who administers the “procedure” and is quite proud of it. I suppose torturers have to be a bit deranged.

Speaking of deranged, Syril Karn seems to have lost whatever marbles he may have had in the first place, stalking Dedra and claiming they’re kindred spirits with red-rimmed, delusional eyes. I have no idea where his story arc is going, but I’m curious to find out. His mother is a peculiar kind of awful, and I kind of feel sorry for him.

And speaking of awful, Perrin continues to be a complete jerk while his wife strives to convince the Senate that they’re still relevant. It falls on deaf ears, of course. The Senate is a sickly thing at this point, corrupt and apathetic. Mon is realizing she will get nowhere in that direction. And she’s also realizing she may have to compromise some of her ideals by dealing with a wealthy thug for a loan to hide a large sum of money missing from her “charity.” I feel like Mon is being pushed into a corner and she’ll have some pretty difficult decisions to make. What is she willing to sacrifice for the Rebellion? Vel turns out to be her cousin, and I have a dreadful feeling she’ll be one of the casualties that will push Mon further toward the Rebel leader she’ll become. And Leida? I honestly don’t know what’s up with that girl. One day she’s a spoiled rich brat; other times, especially at Mon’s parties, she’s a nervous wreck. Is she spying on her mother? Time will tell what role she’ll have to play in the story. Honestly I don’t care what happens to Perrin, as long as he’s either unhappy or dead, lol. I really don’t like that guy.

I can’t wait for next week’s episode, which will undoubtedly be the prison break. And then there will only be two more episodes, which will probably take place on Farrix. I have a feeling Marva will not survive, and this will further push Cassian toward the Rebel leader he will become. This show is truly compelling Star Wars.

Other than watching Andor, I did a rewatch of The Rings of Power this past week, knowing the reveals of the Stranger and Sauron, and those scenes became particularly interesting. Halbrand is, of course, “Hot Sauron,” and the clues are there. I still think I love the Elrond/Durin storyline best, though, believe it or not. They just have this great chemistry. And even though Durin’s father seems like a jerk here, the truth is, he’s right. Once he’s gone and Durin starts to mine the mithril or whatever else he’s delving for, they unleash the Balrog. He wants to help Elrond (and his people, as well as himself and Disa personally), but he’ll end up dooming his own people.

Naturally, I have many questions at the end of Season One: What will Miriel do? (and do I detect a possible romance between her and Elendil? Or am I reading too much into it?) What will Sauron do next? Where is Isildur? (and whatever happened to his brother Anarion?) Is the Stranger really Gandalf? What’s in Rhun? I’ll have to wait a few long years for the answers to those questions.

Other than that, I’m waiting impatiently for the next High Republic novel, Convergence, out on Nov. 22nd, and reading The Obelisk Gate in the meantime.

I also downloaded onto my Kindle Walking in this World, by Julia Cameron, of The Artist’s Way fame. I’ve always liked her and her methods for helping people find their creativity. I just wanted a bit of inspiration as I try to get back into writing. I’m doing her “morning pages,” three pages of longhand writing, mostly stream-of-consciousness. She also prescribes “Artist Dates,” which is simply taking your inner artist out for some fun, which for me means a visit to the used bookstore, browsing an antique store or curiosity shop, going to a movie at the theater, etc. Just something that stimulates and/or delights your senses or the artist in you. She also recommends solitary walking, which I already love to do. I haven’t been doing enough of it lately, though. I think all of these things will be particularly therapeutic for me right now, as I deal with my mother’s recent death.

That’s it this week. What’s been entertaining you? Let me know in the comments and we’ll talk about it!