Inconsequential Hot Take Alert

After finishing the first season of Andor on Disney+, Corrie and I decided to watch Rogue One again, this time in an attempt to view it through the prism of it being an Andor story. I know that Tony Gilroy, the creator and showrunner of the Andor show on Disney+, was tasked with writing on Rogue One, and I know that he wasn't the sole writer. I also know he was never the biggest fan of Star Wars.

After watching Andor and then Rogue One quickly in succession, one can tell what's Tony Gilroy's material and what isn't, and it's why it feels like it starts as an Andor episode and then transitions into a Star Wars movie.

The first season of Andor, essentially "The Education of Cassian Andor," is a template for how a two-bit criminal ends up willing to kill and die for a cause, and it's very good. Believable and tense and nary a Jedi or Sith lord in sight.

As for the "Hot Take" in the title: Rogue One is the best Star Wars movie. Maybe it should be: "Rogue One is my new favorite Star Wars movie."

Let me lay our my points in bullet-fashion:

• With the knowledge gained from the 12 episodes of Andor, I care deeply about how the revolution is unfolding, and now we see Captain Andor? Cool!
• There is a saucy droid and a tough sidekick, BUT it's the same person/thing!
• As a corollary, there is no very annoying character.
• Jyn Erso's story is both heartbreaking and condensed, as we get her on the run at age 5-ish and her holding her dad as he dies a la Luke/Vader in just over an hour.
• Galen Erso is about as bad-ass a mole as the Rebellion has, and Cassian nearly assassinates him anyway.
• Forest Whitaker has a tough decade-and-a-half in the time between rescuing Jyn and being sought out by her (as he's half-robot by the end). Then he dies in spectacular fashion. 
• Instead of a bonafide magic dude (Jedi) we get all-around badass Donnie Yen as a blind force-sensitive kung-fu master, and his machine-gun toting sidekick.
• Darth Vader's here! So is video-game-looking Peter Cushing! And there's still room for an ambitious bureaucratic bad guy in Ben Mendelsohn.
• The third-act space-fight feels just like the one in Star Wars (the 1977 OG), only in this one the action set piece shifts to an analog attack, as the Rebels ram a disabled Star Destroyer into another one.
• Only a third (give or take) of the rebel squadron gets away with the data that Andor and Jyn retrieve.
• And then everyone else dies! All the characters we just began to care about are blown the hell up!

I've spent too much time writing about this franchise. There was the time I wrote about prepping for going to see The Force Awakens back in December of 2015. There was another time where I went back and rewatched the original trilogy right after Lucas sold the property to Disney, and even looked at my old toys. One time I even droned on at length about the Holiday special. Another time I wrote about Solo, and another I mentioned The Madndalorian just because I wanted to share the comparison pic of Mando and Boba Fett.

I may like The Mandalorian best as a product. Later on I'll write again (and waste more of my and the reader's time) about my theory about the different universes within the Star Wars universe at large. To preview, here are the names I've ascribed to them:

• The Ewan McGregor-verse (676 minutes long so far)
• The Solo-verse (136)
• The Luke-iverse (389)
• The Andor-verse (718)
• The Mando-verse (1026) (this includes the Boba Fett show, which probably should have remained a movie)
• The Rey-verse (438)

Too much wasted time...

Oh, and even as I wanted to include the two television Ewok movies, they didn't fit into my poster collection scheme that is meant to go with the post. Also, they're not cannon. Shouldn't I include them anyway?

See how much energy I've wasted on this so far?