Bonus:

STAR WARS: EPISODE III - REVENGE OF THE SITH 2005, dir. George Lucas

I know a place where no one's lost I know a place where no one cries Crying at all is not allowed Not in my castle on a cloud

The End of the Jedi & Republic vs The End of the Empire Revenge of the Sith by Matthew Stover | Aftermath: Empire's End by Chuck Wendig

These institutions were both dead from the beginning due to self-inflicted wounds of corruption and ignorance. Destruction will continue in a vicious cycle if its mistakes are not obliterated from its foundations. The end of the Jedi and Republic warns of this. It became the Empire, then the New Republic, which failed as it only reinstated what the previous Republic was without uprooting its flawed systems. The Empire transformed into the First Order, but both were already doomed being led by power-hungry figures who end up trying to kill each other and force the world into an order utterly unnatural. Fascism is unsustainable and will always devolve into consuming itself in pursuit of selfish individualistic power.

There's also an interesting contrast between both of these passages. When speaking about the Jedi and the Republic, the supposed Light-Side, there's this tone of hopelessness and utter despair. Their corruption consumed them and you can't stop it or save it. Anakin will always be the dragon that burns thousands of years of legacy to the ground. But when speaking about the Empire's end, there's an underlying tone of hope even as the story closes on it's successor rebuilding in the shadows. Because even when the galaxy continues to rebuild kingdoms of oppression, hope and resistance will always coexist against it simultaneously. The Empire is doomed, and The First Order too, because it dared to rebuild while those willing to fight for justice still exist.

Was the galaxy saved or doomed the moment Anakin stepped onto the scene. Both? Neither? It’s about how hope and perseverance exist even as institutions continually seek power.

Tales of the Underworld is almost hereeee

luke hull, the production designer of andor, says it is a very visually light show, and he’s not wrong, but it is deeply interesting to me how the brightest and lightest part of andor is the empire.  in most other star warses, the empire is depicted as, well, dark; it’s vader’s looming shadow, the grimly lit death star. the empire is a creature of malice and hatred, a Bad force led by the shadowy darkness of palpatine - the empire reflects its morals and character. this is an effective way of queuing in to an audience primed by a lifetime of light versus dark good versus bad metaphors the situation at hand; in anh the tantive is visually very white, vader brings a darkness (literally) in with him. the light in star wars is the rebellion - leia’s pure white dress, mon’s r1 and rotj garb, luke’s white outfit. they are the hope, and so they are the lightest points of the movie. the rebel hq is white, blindingly so - look, you get my point.  in andor, however, this is flipped. luthen’s fondor is often shadowy and greyish, mon gives her speech disavowing the empire a primarily grey colourscape, the radio tower to luthen on ferrix is dark, the backroom of the gallery is dark, but the empire is a blindingly sterile white again and again and again. narkina-5, the isb building, dedra’s flat. it’s a very deliberate brightness, one that contrasts with the more naturalistic lighting at play in rebel-led scenes and places; the imperial need for control is so desperate because it is so unnatural. the empire has to continually signal its presence, has to continually signal what it claims to offer; Light, Order, Reason. it’s an inescapable brightness, a pervasive presence. you can retreat into the shadows but not the light.  and at the same time, that pretence is so deeply hollow! there’s a clinical aspect to the light of the empire, a constant oppressive artifice to it; it smothers mon in the embassy, isb uniforms and stormtrooper armour has to be perfectly smooth and pressed, in contrast to the aforementioned rebels. dedra’s torture of bix strips the bright and clinical facade away, revealing the empire not as a medical organisation, treating the illnesses of the galaxy, but as a cruel creature, fed by and greedy for the desire for power and control and harm that those that make it up embody. dedra and the false light of the empire are symbionts; in the light she must be composed (as the empire demands of its subjects), it is only in the dark that she can be vulnerable. the light is more intuitive than the dark, but that is the exact framing that andor’s empire relies upon. it is easier to comply than to resist, but that light is false and cold and will burn you in time.

do you think the birth families of the jedi mourned when they heard the news about order 66. do you think they worried and that they weeped when the clone wars began and they heard that their children were going off to fight in it. do you think they looked at their calendars and kept track of how old their children had become every birthday. do you think they knew that their child was only 10 when they were murdered during order 66. do you think any jedi went out to find their birth parents after losing the only family they really knew. do you think any families sheltered other escaping jedi, knowing what likely happened to their own. do you think the families cried. do you think they mourned. do you think, even though they hadn't seen their children in years... they still weeped?

ROGUE ONE: A STAR WARS STORY 2016 | dir. Gareth Edwards

And we must ask ourselves. is Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith the greatest and most important movie of all time. well it’s definitely possible