The Sci-fi Show That Got Humans Right

Added: 2026-05-20

[00:00:00]Have you noticed that in the show Star Wars Andor, whenever there is an important scene, the camera almost never stays on the main character. Instead, it moves, shifting between faces, perspectives, and reactions. It cuts to people that you think are barely relevant to the story, roles you normally forget the moment the plot moves on. But in Andor, despite the show having so many different characters, things feel different. There are so many speaking parts, so many significant >> 400 speaking parts in two seasons.

[00:00:31]I mean, it doesn't get bigger than that.

[00:00:32]>> No, I'm stupid. [laughter] Whether it's Mon Mothma's driver, Kleya Partagaz, Vel Sartha's heartbreaking look during Maarva's funeral, the Gorst receptionist with a total of three conversations, or the greedy security guard that dies in the hand of Cassian, you just can't get these smaller roles out of your head. And in this video, I'm going to dive into why this sci-fi series made ordinary people so real that even Star Wars began to feel grounded in reality. It's just love.

[00:01:08]Nothing you can do about that.

[00:01:11]However, I promise you it's not as simple as just giving characters more screen time or zooming in on their reactions. It's deeper than that. It's about something so often missing in today's world of blockbuster and big franchise storytelling, a sense of understanding that in turn makes you as the audience able to see yourself inside the frame of this story. I hope things work out for you.

[00:01:37]Rebellions are built on hope.

[00:01:40]And if we truly want to tackle this subject, I need to take you on a little bit of a journey, beginning with the showrunner of the series, Tony Gilroy, and how he thinks about writing characters. Someone asked me the other day on a thing, "What's your favorite scene in the whole show?" And I shocked people. I said, "Well, the scene that means the most to me is the scene with Syril and the inspector cuz it's the one place where the show is rolling with people are watching the show where I feel comfortable all of the sudden. I knew you were leaving this morning and I wanted to make sure you had all the available information before your departure. You've been very busy. And that scene is sort of it popped up. It became one of these landmark scenes like, "Oh, he's changed his uniform and oh my god, what a what a little what a little [ __ ] he is." And like Have you modified your uniform?

[00:02:21]Perhaps slightly.

[00:02:23]Pockets, piping, and and some light tailoring.

[00:02:27]I'm really working small. I mean, periodically I'll pull out and say, "What's the big picture and where am I going?" But really it's it's a it's a microscope almost all the time to get there.

[00:02:39]The main theme of Andor is to flesh out the rebellion and the empire. And while the Star Wars movies obviously touch on it, the idea of revolution has mostly just been a given. The empire is evil and the rebels are there to bring justice back to the galaxy. The rebellion will continue to gain a support in the Imperial Senate.

[00:02:59]>> Senate will no longer be of any concern to us.

[00:03:03]But in reality, it's so much more complex than that. Something Tony Gilroy, for instance, highlights when talking about the first scene between Syril Karn and his supervisor. I don't mean just the talking. I mean, stop.

[00:03:19]This conversation is so clever because of two reasons. First, it showcases the everyday nature of their job. The tired annoyed boss versus the overly ambitious employee who wants to take the world by storm. We recognize these tropes because we have seen them in real life. You look stricken, Deputy Inspector. Are you absorbing my meaning here?

[00:03:42]Trying, sir. His manager is just this amazing another British actor who just is like could not be more exhausted with this uh you know, ferret of an employee.

[00:03:54]The second reason is that it subtly prepares us for what's coming next by mirroring what we'll see more of later.

[00:04:00]The same corporate mindset that runs all the way through the Empire. A system where people care more about their careers than solving problems. Tough case.

[00:04:11]Bad timing.

[00:04:13]This scene actually reminds me much of HBO's classic crime drama The Wire that dives deep into these questions of the wrong versus right, career versus justice and so on. I highly recommend you to watch it if you haven't already.

[00:04:26]If you were going to do me, I'd already be done.

[00:04:29]But there ain't nothing you fear more than a bad headline, is there? The point, if we move back to Andor, is that wherever the story takes us, it gives us these quote-unquote normal conversations that on the surface could be seen as boring. Yet, when you start to think about it, they tell us so much about the environment they're in. You think I'm messing around? I hope so.

[00:04:50]I'm going to have to ask you a favor and not mention this happened.

[00:04:54]From the very start, Cassian is the person we follow, the guy that has most of these, so to speak, boring conversations. But even if he is the main character of the series, and it literally has his name, he's really more of a vessel for the larger story.

[00:05:09]Through him, we meet a lot of people.

[00:05:11]Many of them might seem unimportant at first, but they pretty much always serve a purpose. Take a character like Luthen Rael. To most people watching, he is a nobody. He has so few appearances, but even then, you can see a full storyline.

[00:05:24]He starts off wanting his money back from Cassian. Then he turns that frustration into betrayal, collaborating with the Empire, wanting him to get captured in the season 1 finale. And in the end, he dies by Wilmon's bomb.

[00:05:37]>> [screaming] >> A death that wouldn't have happened if he hadn't left his community behind for the greed of the reward connected to capturing Cassian. I intend your arresting me.

[00:05:50]Hey, what do you think you're doing?

[00:05:54]This is extremely understated symbolic writing that illustrates the toxic web of the Empire, how it slowly destroys everything it touches. Sure, you could argue that only nerds like me notice these things, but the important part is that it subconsciously adds to the overall experience. When every character is carefully crafted like this, they're no longer in the background or on the side, rather just a natural part of the story.

[00:06:19]I'm sorry about your mother.

[00:06:21]And if we stay with the season 1 finale, especially Marva's speech, it might be the best example in Andor of how everything comes together. So many meaningful characters all sharing the same moment, and it all works because of how Tony Gilroy connects every person to something larger. A writing trick that might not be as obvious as it first seems.

[00:06:44]It's a story about revolution, and it's a story about people, normal people, being thrust into the revolution. We don't have any, you know, we don't have any Jedi, we don't have any lightsabers, we don't have any of that stuff. It's we don't have royal family. This is, you know, as we say, it's um it's a show that takes place in the kitchen, not in the dining room. What's going on? They took him back in last night.

[00:07:02]>> Where? The hotel.

[00:07:03]He never came home.

[00:07:05]One rule that Andor almost always seems to follow is that no matter where the story goes, the perspective is never from above. What I mean is that the focus always stays with the people on the ground. From the prison floor to the rebel hideout to the streets of Ferrix, even inside the Imperial Security Bureau and to some extent the Senate, we're not at the very top of power. And when we are in those corridors, the focus is still on the everyday people working there. I should say thank you.

[00:07:33]You don't have to.

[00:07:35]We're discussing legislation. Speeches.

[00:07:38]What does he mean? What is public order?

[00:07:41]It's an awfully big box, isn't it? When we arrive somewhere new, often with Cassian, the camera doesn't just drop us into action. It moves through the space, showing what life looks like there. The everyday work on Gormon, the culture of Aldhani, the different prisoner teams on Narkina 5. The story always puts the community first. And because of that, it feels like we're discovering these places alongside characters like Vel, Syril, Melshi, or Lieutenant Gorn to name a few. The Dhani's let us build our new facility in peace.

[00:08:11]I don't see them having a choice. The Eye, Karn. You're in for a treat. It seems as if the more you give and the more you do in creating these communities, the more that that can resonate on all layers of the filmmaking.

[00:08:25]It it's it's the perfect convergence of [ __ ] that's really, really fun to do and really exciting to do, and the payoff is huge.

[00:08:35]Is that the best you got?

[00:08:37]Just listening to Tony Gilroy talk about these small details that together create a culture and a community of people, it really helps you understand why the story feels so alive. And the planet of Gormon in season 2 might be the best example of that, with an incredible set, a totally made-up language, and a group of people written with inspiration from our own history. And the language is legit. I mean, it's it we wanted to have a language that would come out of the French mouth well, but not be French.

[00:09:11]Their own sense of pride will be one of the things that helps destroy them. And um so we wanted a unified kind of co- community. So we said, "Ah, let's get all these French actors."

[00:09:26]They all learn the language. Uh Nick Kroll and I wrote the national anthem.

[00:09:30]And um we invented the whole economy and the Gorelek pods and Then there are more individual perspectives with characters that move through these communities. And I want to highlight one of these people that embodies Andor's very efficient writing and a perfect example of how someone becomes relatable, and that's Velman Parrk.

[00:09:56]You got to wreck it in the back.

[00:09:58]You know, I have to dig a little.

[00:10:00]Thanks. In a similar manner to so many others, Velman's appearance is such a slow burn. He seems literally insignificant until the season 1 finale where he subtly carries much more weight. And just like Nemik who I mentioned earlier and siding with the Empire, Velman moves in the opposite direction. After his father is captured and killed, something changes in him.

[00:10:21]This is what pushes him towards the rebellion, that the Empire took his family, his town, and as a result, his life. The shot of him listening to Maarva's speech is one of my favorite in the whole show. It's amazing how much emotion it carries from a character who barely has more than a handful of lines in that first season. It's a character moment that I will remember probably forever. I've been sleeping.

[00:10:46]I've been turning away [music] from the truth I wanted not to face.

[00:10:50]In season 2, he steps into a bigger role, but it's still surprising how much depth the show gives him with so little time in the spotlight. We see the moments that change him, how he finds love, how he gets injured, how he reacts, how he grows, and it's framed in a way that feels familiar, like this could be any of us. And that's partly because of how Tony Gilroy and his team have created these different environments. You're here.

[00:11:15]You're not with Luthen, you're here.

[00:11:16]You're right here, and you're ready to fight.

[00:11:21]However, I would argue that what makes his journey so powerful, and it also holds the key to why we remember so many of these smaller characters in the series, it's all about that one assuming in shot in season 1. It's about those moments of realization. Let me explain what I mean. Cassian, I'm sorry.

[00:11:44]Your mother's dead.

[00:11:51]Whether a character has good intentions or not, whether they're a minor role or a major one, with a few exceptions like Orson Krennic or this monster of a man, most people in the series reach some kind of turning point, a breaking point, a moment that shifts who they are. And if you begin to think about it, you'll probably see it, too. To name a few examples, we have Vel who loses Cinta.

[00:12:16]She was a miracle.

[00:12:18]There is Major Leopold Haas in his final scene. Who do you think it is?

[00:12:23]Sergeant Linus drinking on the ground after the brawl on Ferrix, Brasso at Maarva's funeral, the Force feeler that meets Cassian, Karis Rylands when he kills Syril. I could keep going, but you get the idea. The conspiracy we feared is real.

[00:12:39]It's here today. And the reason I bring this up is because in the context of these ordinary lives and everyday communities we mostly see on screen, those moments when something finally snaps stand out like a lone star in the sky. They become just as much of a revelation for us watching as they are for the characters experiencing them.

[00:13:01]Who are you?

[00:13:05]It's a really refreshing way of writing TV, especially when so many blockbuster fantasy and superhero projects are packed with constant action, quick jokes, and characters doing things just for the sake of doing it. My friend is dead.

[00:13:22]Heads up.

[00:13:23]In Andor, there is a so much more grounded approach, respecting the audience to pick up on the small things that then lead into something better.

[00:13:32]But at the same time, not everything has a clear answer. It's one of those things that I love about the series. How it also shows that the moments of change can come too late. Take Syril Karn and that scene before he dies. He begins to understand what he has done, and you can see the horror in it, but it doesn't change the fact that he's still guilty and that he won't have time to change anything. And that leads into perhaps one of the most subtle and interesting realizations in the entire show, Mon Mothma's driver, Cloris.

[00:14:02]I'm requesting a new driver. Don't. They might send someone smart.

[00:14:08]I have to acknowledge that there's an entire video on YouTube diving into this character and this specific moment, but I want to briefly touch on it in the context of this video. So, Cloris is portrayed as this nobody character. We barely hear him talk. He's always in the background, yet we know for a fact that he's spying on Mon Mothma and working for the {quote} wrong side. He's probably not evil, just an ordinary man doing his job without the awareness or maybe the courage to question the world around him. However, during the powerful speech that this center gives, the camera keeps zooming in on his reaction, and there is something special there.

[00:14:45]You can actually see it on his face, something shifting, like he's starting to wonder if the person he's been watching all this time might actually be right.

[00:14:54]The day of truth is the ultimate victory of evil.

[00:15:03]It's Cloris' moment of realization, and without it, I probably wouldn't remember him nearly as well as I do now. And if you connect it back to what I said in the beginning of this video, the way Andor always captures the reactions of ordinary people, the ones actually experiencing these big moments, it makes the whole scene feel so much more dynamic, so much more full of soul. And even if Kleya might not join the rebellion, even if he would have lived, his moment of realization, just like everyone else's, makes me keep coming back to this one specific line from Vel during the Aldhani storyline. Everyone has their own rebellion.

[00:15:43]It's so simple, yet at the same time so complex and brilliant, perfectly capturing in a single sentence what the entire show is about. So, to bring everything full circle and really drive home the point of this video, let's look at the final few minutes of Andor and pick up on everything we talked about.

[00:16:00]At this point, it almost feels like a textbook example.

[00:16:05]We start with Cassian watering his plants like it's just another day, the same grounded, quote-unquote, boring setup we have seen throughout every single episode. Then we cut to boots hitting the ground. You can feel the presence of Yavin, of the rebellion.

[00:16:18]Cassian starts moving towards his mission, becoming the vessel for the scene. What he sees, we see. What he experiences, we feel. It was sort of relaxed. I mean, all he's doing is walking to a ship, and Mon and Vel are having coffee, and Wilmon's having breakfast. Knowing to not try too hard was important. It's an ending with no grand slam moment. It doesn't try to be special, just showcasing the everyday life of the people that have been involved in this story, how far they have come, both in the good and the bad.

[00:16:49]And remind people that behind this rebellion, there's real people, you know?

[00:16:54]And I think he it reminds us how how lucky we are if we are capable of having that in our lives.

[00:17:01]If you enjoyed this type of Andor video, you will love this one. Thank you for watching, and bye-bye.