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It really is depressing how drastically this franchise devolved.

This video is a better sequel to your own video than the sequel trilogy was to the originals

It always surprised me how Disney hasn't capitalized on the fact that force users are constantly born across the galaxy. Even if the Jedi order was destroyed, these force users would still exist. While they wouldn't necessarily be trained to be Jedi, they could pop up here and there showing different aptitudes with the force that they trained on their own.

I think Andor was arguably a greater risk than The Mandalorian.  The Mandalorian had iconic Boba-Fett esque armor (I know multiple people who sat down to watch season 1 thinking it was in fact about Boba Fett), it had Baby Yoda who was instantly Iconic and  monetizeable, and most of its content was pretty safe, fun, kid friendly (if a bit scary at times) and delightful.

Andor on the other hand was way riskier.  To make a Starwars series without any Jedi, The Force, or Lightsabers, very few wacky droids or crazy aliens.  One with a lot of political dialogue and interpersonal drama.  It’s the least kid-friendly starwars IP.  That’s a huge risk on their part.

Part of what made Thrawn such an awesome threat in Legends was the reversal of the Rebels vs Empire idea. The heroes were defending a galactic government that was spread to thin, while the far smarter Thrawn was essentially an insurgent faction that was outmaneuvering, using hit and run tactics, and trying to overthrow them. And it wasn’t with the ultimate goal of conquest, but of uniting the galaxy under a powerful leader to face a far bigger threat. And he DID have a Sith under his thumb. It was totally brilliant. This story would have been the perfect Sequel Trilogy, and throwing that idea away was the opening decision that doomed disney star wars. Soooooo sad. And so stupid

A really good illustration of George RR Martin's "Don't just do what's popular" was the introduction of Ahsoka in the Clone Wars movie. The fan rage was real I remember. "ANAKIN WOULD NEVER TRAIN AN APPRENTICE. ESPECIALLY NOT A LITTLE GIRL." "SHES SO ANNOYING I HOPE SHE DIES. SHE PROBABLY DOES BECAUSE WE NEVER SEE HER IN EPISODE 3". And then how many of those same fans sat in stunned silence as she turned her back to the temple and left Anakin and the order behind. She was a new, bold, and widely unpopular addition to the franchise, and with proper character development and giving her a real arc, she became a favorite. It also helped that she didn't suffer from Mary Sue-ism that most modern "Force is Female" protagonists suffer. She made mistakes, she was reckless, she had to ask for help, and receive help she didn't ask for. It was great. I miss good writing

As a child, in the eighties and nineties, Star Wars was such a massive inspiration for me. It filled me with excitement and wonder of what was possible with an overactive imagination. But ever since Episode 7, the franchise just makes me feel jaded and cynical.

If you like the current slate of Star Wars projects, that's fine. I'm happy for you, really I am. It just doesn't work for me anymore. I know at the end of the day, it's not real, it's just fiction, but to that ten-year-old me who ran from my real life problems by burying my head into those early stories, it meant a lot more to me than "just fiction".

The foundation for the franchises future was already there. That was the original trilogy. The problem is Disney deconstructed it instead of building on it.

I honestly never considered that the Luke v. Kylo fight was supposed to be filled with tension. During my one-and-only viewing of TLJ, Luke's different haircut, lack of grey hair, and possession of the exact same lightsaber we saw destroyed on-screen a few minutes earlier immediately tipped me off that he was some kind of illusion, and for me the whole fight just came off as Luke smugly and invincibly toying with Kylo (which he was).

I think Andor was just like a backdrop for a lot of really interesting meaningful writing. It’s not just a good Star Wars show, it’s a good show. The strength of it is in the points the writers are clearly insistent on making in the show, it absolutely has to be a rebel vs empire show. It resonates a lot with audiences of young people paying attention to the world and realizing how oppressive the systems we live under are. Sci-fi is always a great way to explore that. The interesting thing I think should’ve been focused on more in advertising is that it doesn’t center around light vs dark or jedis and sith it centers around downtrodden people who’ve suffered under a regime

On the note of characters having plot armor; I'm in the middle of watching the clone wars show for the first time, and my stepdad asked me pretty much just that, how can anything happen if all the major players have plot armor? For one thing, the clone wars would regularly introduce new characters to the mix that were important and had genuinely uncertain fates, but every time r2d2 'died', I knew he was fine. What concerned me was seeing Anakins immediate reaction! They used his inevitable fall to the dark side brilliantly, every time a major character near him was in 'mortal peril', he'd quickly start spiraling and resorting to darth vaderesque tactics to make sure things work out, and he's usually rewarded for it! And the general story of more planets being brought to the republic alliance, even though we know the republic will inevitably reform into the empire; The secret tragedy playing out through the first 5 seasons is really gripping not in-spite of the known future of the characters, but BECAUSE we know! A really clever workaround!

Thinking back, I don't think I saw a single Andor commercial. I've seen commercials for every other modern Star Wars show and movie but not Andor. I only heard about it long after its release

Salvaging Star Wars to the public eye will be very difficult, case in point with andor. Andor was an incredible show but only hardcore Star Wars fans watched it because of the franchises tarnished reputation

I feel like Andor should be the blueprint for Disney on how to save SW. Not like they should make gritty SW or anything but stories that feel tangible with genuine scale & creators who care deeply about these characters.

I’m going to note something I felt when you asked the question: “What do Star Wars fans want?”  You described Star Wars fans wanting old ideas and characters they already love, and truthfully, my mind did go to those places.  But I also remember when Episode 7 was announced, I was excited to see what new things Star Wars would do.  I was excited by the idea of new concepts and ideas and stories to fall in love with.  When I got the Original trilogy again, I said, “Okay fine, you can have one, but now we need something fresh and original, where are you using our knowledge of the originals to push us to?”  Then we got the Last Jedi.  It was… it had new ideas.  But overall executed incredibly sloppily.  Then RoS came out, and I found myself craving old Star Wars stuff instead of new, fresh ideas and characters.  These movies tended to rehash the original trilogy, and they failed.  Why would I trust Star Wars to do new fresh ideas when they can’t seem to manage old ideas?  I don’t want old ideas I’ve seen before.  But at least those ideas had a vision that can be followed, and thus a framework that I can put ANY trust in.  And I don’t even have that trust in that anymore.  

In short: Why trust Star Wars anymore?

Andor isn't really about a guy fighting a big evil Empire.   That's just the backdrop.  The context of Star Wars in general, really.   Andor is about how a rebellion begins and how it operates.  Andor himself just drags the camera with him as we watch that story.  And it tells the story of how a rebellion begins and operates better than the cartoon with a similar premise.

It really pains me that Disney didn't adopt Lucas' idea for a sequel trilogy instead. The idea of the New Republic struggling to survive not in the face of another big bad empire like you said, but rather in the face of utter chaos and disorder. It would have given us the breath of fresh air that Andor gave us with its grittiness and realism, but it also would have set a clear vision of the future, with fan favourites such as Maul and Luke to excite the fans (Lucas had plans for Maul to survive past ep.6), and taking the franchise in a bold new direction.

2:00 After “Part 1 What Disney has done right” I was really hoping you would just have a couple of seconds of silence and then “Part 2”

I think what this universe needed was 3 things. A vision of the future, a bold journey into the unknown, and to remember not what we love about star wars, but why we fell in love in the first place. Not every project needed to be great, or innovative. There is plenty room for content that plays it safe. The important part is a healthy balance. The problem is that star wars burned their goodwill