Chapter 19: The Convert

A lot of the talk that came when "Andor" was released was about the political elements of "Star Wars" and how good it could be when it actually worked. Personally, I loved what that show brought to the current slate, but I was also okay with the other shows doing what they do best. For this, it's the character development through the adventure aspect that always got me hooked. However, this episode takes a bit of a left turn and focuses on the political landscape. And it was a very nice detour, although it felt like it was a bit misplaced in everything going on.

A majority of this episode is spent with Omid Abtahi's Dr. Pershing, a character who has been featured in previous episodes but never got much more than a scene in. However, with this episode, the show tries to juggle around some of the incomplete storylines from previous seasons, and for the episode that it was in, it worked very well. This hour was directed by Lee Isaac Chung, one of the great modern filmmakers, and his abilities are put to good use, although clearly limited by the medium that he's working in. But he manages to deliver a visually interesting episode that really captures the visual landscape of Coruscant and the rebranding that it's going through on the heels of the Empire's fall. It's also interesting to see where Dr. Pershing fits into it all, and it's clear that the work he did in previous seasons is the stepping stones that they're putting into place so that we'll get to where the sequel films went in later eras. All of that is very interesting, but it does feel like they're doing a bit of cleanup after everything that went down and the unnatural nature that went through those films in terms of connectivity and plot threads that were created out of nothing, and damage control is not necessarily what is needed from this show. However, the philosophical discussions and commentary that were to be found in this episode were very well-executed and hopefully, we'll return to Coruscant at some point so this episode isn't alone.

"Chapter 19: The Convert" is a fascinating hour of "Star Wars," although it does feel like it was dropped into the middle of something else. However, it definitely works for what it is and it's a great return to a beloved planet and a fascinating deep-dive into the psyche of a so-far pretty uninteresting character.

I know that this episode has gotten a lot of heat. It does not really fit into the Mandalorian show, as we have seen it so far. This show started out as a mostly-episodic series more akin to the original Lucas-esque roots of a serial sci-fi/space opera show. Through Grogu, it built continuity within itself, which then branched into BoBF.

But here, I think, is the most important episode for cementing Mandalorian into a broader Disney-led universe. I think it is clear now that Disney is not just running a set of series/movies that are episodic. Rather, there is an aim to unify them all together. This episode is the key to doing so.

Here, we see the dystopia of Disney's post-Endor Star Wars universe. The New Republic has won. The Empire is largely defeated, but we still have to deal with all of those former imperials. I won't get into details, but this is very 1984-ish.

But, if you think about the Disney universe, it has to be. We have to have some mechanism for how the New Republic decays from its victory at Endor to Episode 7 where the First Order has risen and the Republic is in decay. This is really the first glimpse into how/why that would occur.

In broad strokes, I think it works. I am a little unsettled by it, though. One of the nice things about the old Extended Universe (now 'Legends') was that it built the history of the New Republic in a way that did not allow it (mostly) to sacrifice its ideals, at least until decades after Endor. It was as much a happy ending as you could have whilst also exploring some political realities.

I think the differences between these two storylines are partially forced by the Sequel Trilogy's recapitulation of the Empire and episode 7 largely repeating episode 4. This is unfortunate, because its poor, unimaginative, and nonsensical storyline now requires the canon content between episode 6 and 7 to explain how we got from point A to point B. Essentially, a bad storyline now requires us to learn how it comes to be, which is not very satisfying for a fan.

The other thing, is that I think the two post-Endor storylines (Disney vs EU) are products of their time. The EU was mostly written in the 90s, after the end of the Cold War. It was a more optimistic time period than we are in now. The books thus had a feeling of improvement and progress, at least until the Yuzhann Vong. Here in the Disney universe, we are seeing creative outlets contend with our current world, which is beset by extremity, distrust, and looming fears of conflict, climate change, etc. Not to mention a recent pandemic.

It feels grittier, colder, and less fun. Although I am interested in these qualities when it comes to a show like Andor (showing why the empire is bad), I am less enthused about it in the New Republic era, even though I think these episodes are doing it very well from a writing/acting/technical perspective.

Star Wars was, for a long time, supposed to be a story of hope, of good vs evil, of underdogs winning, etc. It is also a story of redemption. Seeing those concepts backslide just doesn't feel right to me, even as I enjoy this show for its quality.

I get it, Coruscant is a beautiful place and is part of the Star Wars heart. Although most of this episode was aimed away from Mando and focused more on some side characters with another subplot. These short shows don't have time for subplots, unless it's a short 20 minutes at the most but not an entire episode.

We had Mando at the beginning with the soundtrack department overusing Mando's two tone chime everytime he came on screen. Yes it was overused and i know it's his signature theme but do they have to use it every time we see him? The dog fight at the beginning looked weak, entertaining but it looked like something just to keep us watching.

I don't know if the rest of the episode meant something, maybe it plays a bigger part but i'm sick of sticking up for this series if it just continues to be silly like this. Please make sense, build up to something, give us the meaning. At the minute i'm confused, to the point i actually didn't care for the final scene and i know i should.

I'm amazed this episode has so many people being negative. For my money, the Coruscant plotline - while technically a detour which takes up most of the episode's runtime - is some of the best worldbuilding, best acting and best writing to come out of any of the Disney+ Star Wars shows. It feels like Jon Favreau popped over to the Andor editing room, watched an episode, thought "hey this is good stuff, I should try that" and inserted a story of complex motivations, flawed institutions and heartbreaking intrigue. In terms of cinematography, tone and scale, it feels far closer to Andor than The Mandalorian, but what can I say? It's a welcome change from previously stilted, awkwardly structured and relatively emotionless episodes. Whatever new approach Chapter 19 was presenting, I think I prefer it.

I really enjoyed this episode once I'd recovered from the whiplash of the change in pace. The opening was so quick out of the gates and so fun to watch that the second part of the episode struggled as a result. I loved the world building and return to Coruscant and the setting the seeds for stories going forwards, characters motivations are still a bit of a mystery at the moment and I'm looking forward to seeing this continue to develop, especially with Bo Katan who is being written so well over the last couple of episodes. This series is defying all expectations so far and I'm excited to see what is next especially as this feels like the end of arc 1.