{"id":24,"date":"2022-10-22T01:17:31","date_gmt":"2022-10-22T00:17:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/joshtest04.wordpress.com\/2022\/10\/22\/andor-think-to-myself-what-a-wonderful-world-andor-episode-7\/"},"modified":"2025-05-05T20:24:04","modified_gmt":"2025-05-05T19:24:04","slug":"andor-think-to-myself-what-a-wonderful-world-andor-episode-7","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fevered.earth\/index.php\/2022\/10\/22\/andor-think-to-myself-what-a-wonderful-world-andor-episode-7\/","title":{"rendered":"Andor think to myself, what a wonderful world\u2026 (Andor Episode 7)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Last time<\/a> we considered whether Andor<\/em> could save the world.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

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It does seem like the whole room was built just for this.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

At the risk of eating my words in three weeks time, this felt like the odd one out in the season so far. Not, as I saw predicted, a self-contained story but a grouping of some excellent scenes that didn\u2019t quite fit into any of the preceding episodes. It\u2019s enough, I think, to say that the scene with Fiona Shaw was the absolute highlight, a heartbreakingly tragic farce where Andor\u2019s actions in the previous six episodes have alienated her from him in a way he cannot explain. I had full expections that the show was going to go with the trite old ritual of \u201cOh, I\u2019m secretly ill\/infirm\/otherwise unable to come with you by virtue of being old\u201d and what happened instead was really good. Special mention as well to the Imperial bureaucracy scenes, a stunning mash-up of the original trilogy\u2019s Imperial Officer scenes with a modern-day KPMG internal presentation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The whole building bears a passing resemblance to the ancient club Luthen keeps handling.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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With that out of the way, we can get down to the one absolutely critical question this episode raises (and a minor corollary to it). That is: when are we going to see Senator Binks?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jar Jar Binks was so ferociously maligned on the release of the Phantom Menace that his role in the subsequent prequels was trimmed down considerably, but Lucas did retain for him a critical role. Binks is the Senator who\u200a\u2014\u200ain a repeat of the events of Phantom Menace where Padme played this role\u200a\u2014\u200aproposes that the Senate grants the Chancellor emergency powers, that he then uses to create the Grand Army and ultimately elevate himself to the position of Emperor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Small cog, big machine.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Since Mon Mothma\u2019s original intrusion into this series the Coruscant content has only been creeping up. We\u2019ve seen the Senate, the speeders, the endless political hokum. Not noted enough is how much this content, which is of a high quality with much of the rest of Andor<\/em>, draws almost exclusively from the prequels. Indeed, the spectre of the Emperor which hangs over many of the Coruscant-set scenes can only be understood as the conniving, sophisticated Chancellor Palpatine rather than the seething space wizard from Return of the Jedi<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Andor<\/em> does diverge\u200a\u2014\u200aas noticed in droll fashion by twitter commentators\u200a\u2014\u200afrom the stage-like dialogue style of the George Lucas films, instead going for a somewhat naturalistic style, though far from the hyperactive modern blockbuster sensibility the sequel films ended up with. It would be hard to imagine Anakin and Padme\u2019s romantic exchanges intercut with scenes on Ferrix. Jar Jar however, despite having his own dialogue controversy, does not speak in particularly romantic terms. Indeed, given what would be his now long departure from his home world of Naboo for the life of the senator, a broadening of his speak would make sense\u200a\u2014\u200aone fewer \u2018meesa\u2019 here and there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Below-level Coruscant looks a lot like Heathrow airport, the quintessential British dystopia.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

If you\u2019re wondering how the character of an aging politician who has done little in their political career other than inadvertently vote for terrible things might be portrayed, might I suggest the array of colourful characters in the British Parliament.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But perhaps that would be too cynical for poor Jar Jar, who retains a childlike innocence through his appearances that parallels him with Anakin, the other \u2018stray\u2019 adopted by Qui-gon Gin during the course of The Phantom Menace<\/em>. Both Anakin and Jar Jar have a wide-eyed approach to politics that allows them to be manipulated by Palpatine, and while we know that Anakin is enmeshed into the Imperial apparatus long into the future, it would be very neat to see a comfortable Senator Binks do the grunt work of the new Emperor in the Senate\u200a\u2014\u200aperhaps engaging in some light menacing of Mon Mothma. Alleline, the US-aligned up-and-comer who takes over MI6 in Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy<\/em> isn\u2019t a villain\u200a\u2014\u200ajust someone too unaware to know when he\u2019s being played. That\u2019s how I\u2019d fit Jar Jar in here.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Mon Mothma\u2019s husband is a fascinating character. I hope he ends up doing a Mishima coup or somthing.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Anyhow, idle thoughts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The corollary is (of course) are we going to see Sheev himself? But I think the answer to that one is \u201cprobably, yes\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The best scene in the episode by some distance.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Up next:<\/p>\n\n\n\n