The Axe Forgets

The writers of Andor continue their winning streak of delving deeper into dynamics at play amongst the band of rebels.

While shows like the Mando or BoBF would have filled this episode with some kind of wacky side quest distraction, Andor takes the time to build suspense and flesh out characters for the mid season climax to come.

Episode 5 may not be the flashiest or most intense episode yet but its interesting enough to keep the momentum. With the reveal Star Wars universe has cereal with blue milk, Andor is shaping up into a series that will be fondly remembered by fans of Star Wars and breakfast alike.

I had initially gone in to this short summary feeling a decent 7, but having watched the episode following this one, it's at least an 8, meaning I "liked it".

It is a pretty important episode. I had thought this and Ep.4 perhaps could have just been a single episode leading up to the next one, but I'm not so sure now. The conversations and set-up in this episode earned all of the screen time. Don't skip this one!

I do really appreciate seeing the different perspectives of it just the Empire, but the rebels as well. Not all of the rebels are against the empire for the same reasons, and not everyone in the empire is a total sleaze-bag.

It's also really well acted and paced. Every episode has ended much sooner than I expected, so I must be really in to it.

Good episode. Not one of the best in this series, but important nonetheless.

This is a really intriguing show.

I love the slow pace, it gives weight to the story.

It's not a rush. It's not full of messy CGI and galactic level threats. The multiple streams of storylines work together well and will intersect well further along the storyline.

The tension from a single tie fighter was so well done. Each character feels unique and not shoehorned into the story.

The cinematography is beautiful. The score is fantastic - NB has done extremely well. It feels and sounds almost analogue. The music is crafted to the story unlike Holt's Kenobi score which was a total disgrace and utterly dreadful.

Really enjoying this show so far.

I already know so many people are gonna call this episode a filler and a waste of time or an unnecessary one, but this is what I love about this show, it takes its sweet time to establish characters and build up to the main event.

They are doing a great job of characterizing at least half of the group and establishing their characters as more than just a "guy/gal number #4 wanting revenge", they all have their backstories and you can feel they are actual characters.

This show is more about showing the details of the plan and the process of the planning than the plan itself. It might be boring to some who just want to see blaster shootings and lightsaber fights, but I think it's a great change of pace from the usual Disney Star Wars stuff.

It is especially refreshing after watching so many MCU and SW Disney Plus shows only having 6 episodes where half of the time nothing of importance happens and then they rush everything in the last episode.

The way they approach the planning rather than just jumping to action without build-up reminds me of Better Call Saul and how they also cared about building up and showing the details and practices of the planning which is one of the reasons that the show was a masterpiece. Of course, this show isn't comparable to masterpieces like Better Call Saul or Breaking Bad, but the slow-burn approach to storytelling is similar to that.

Like I said, this episode might not seem necessary to some, but it gives us a more great characterization of the group and is slowly making us care about them and the dynamics of the group changes rapidly as we go on. It's been only 2 episodes and these characters feel more real than any new character we saw (or even the old ones we knew) in Obi-Wan Kenobi and The Book of Boba Fett.

The cinematography and the visuals of this show continue to impress and everything feels professional and high production and the direction is great too.

All in all, I really enjoyed this episode and I don't care if it's a slow burn or it doesn't have explosions every 5 minutes, because I actually enjoy these characters and this way of storytelling because the characters actually feel real, whereas give me 2 hours of action and lightsaber fighting in Kenobi and I'd be bored out of my mind because I don't care about any character or the writing.

The Catalyst book then Rogue One have been my favourite Starwars stories. This show taps into that same sense of character driven insight that is behind the larger events of the universe. It's so refreshing to have something with a more depth to it than boba or mando (I love those too just in a different way). Can't wait to see where it all leads.

This episode while still a slow burn really builds the anticipation for the coming events. The characters are all solid and well directed. All decent actors too.

The visual of the Tie Fighter swooping down was awesome too. Really get a feeling of the power the contain.