Andor - S02 Season Pass Sampler - Timeline Drops, Holocron Lore, and Rebellion Insights

[00:00:12] Hey everybody, this is David from The Lorehounds. And if you are new to The Lorehounds or you're new to our coverage for Star Wars Andor Season 2, we've prepared this little extra episode that has some clips from some of our bonus material that we're covering, that we're preparing for and or Season 2.

[00:00:42] And we wanted to share some of this material because we think it's helpful for you to understand the context of the show or some of the deeper aspects of the show, but also as just a way to let you know what kinds of material are going to be available for our regular subscribers whether that's a monthly or annual subscription to The Lorehounds or if you're a Season Pass holder.

[00:01:09] Season Passes are things that we put together that allow for people to participate and support the podcast without having to do a regular recurring subscription, be that annual or monthly. And we try to, you know, give a whole bunch of extra interesting stuff. And again, if you're a regular subscriber, you get all these things as well.

[00:01:35] But with Season Passes, it's just nice if you're just here for a particular podcast and you just want to dip in and dip out. Cool. You want to support the podcasters. You want to support all of our co-hosts. That's really great as well. And we just try to make a lot of cool extra bonus stuff available that is full of good content. And so I wanted to give you guys some clips of some of the material that we have going on for and or Season 2.

[00:02:04] First up, you're going to hear a cool thing that Alicia is doing every week. And that is a kind of report on what's happening this year in the galaxy, right? So Star Wars is a big galaxy and there's multiple things and multiple shows all happening at the same time. And Alicia, being somebody who's very versed in the lore and the timeline of Star Wars, is putting together these little briefings.

[00:02:33] So, hey, what's happening with Rebels or Clone Wars? Or, you know, where are these other characters? Where are they in the galaxy? And she sort of packages them together as like a fun sort of radio report from the edge of the galaxy. Very, very cool. Adds a little bit of flavor and fun. She also has another podcast called the Star Wars Canon Timeline Podcast, where she is doing sort of an encyclopedia of a Star Wars timeline. So you can check that out. Check the links in the show notes for a link to that podcast.

[00:03:01] Then, after that, I have clipped out a part of one of our Holocron lore segments. This time it's John and Alicia talking about the Rakatan invaders. We hear that a couple of times. We hear Luthan mention that in season one. We hear it again with the Shandy Merle here in season two. Who are the Rakatans? What is their whole deal?

[00:03:30] We have about 40. John and Alicia talk for about 40 minutes about this whole period in the timeline. Who the Rakatans were, how it relates to the Celestials. So that's a really big conversation. I've clipped out around five minutes. That's just focused directly on the Rakatans. And then the last thing you're going to hear in this is myself and Matt Cavanaugh, who is a retired lieutenant colonel from the U.S. Army.

[00:03:58] He used to teach military strategy at West Point. He's an author. He's written and been involved in several books. He's got a couple of cool books. One that is about Star Wars and how Star Wars explains military strategy. And they also did one on Game of Thrones. I first heard him on one of Anthony's Electric Bukaloo podcasts. And I was like, wow, this guy's great. So we had him on and we talked about Rogue One.

[00:04:26] And then I did a short with him. So this was about 30 minutes of him and I talking about hyperfactionalism in rebellious movements. We started out that podcast. I play a quote from Monty Python about the from Life of Brian, which is a very funny and appropriate clip.

[00:04:44] And he and I talked for about half an hour about leadership, about hyperfactionalism, about James Posnawaniak's article in The New York Times about brick and the brick and the struggle. And of course, we have Marva, who has been turned into a funerary brick as well. And we talk about leadership and how do you overcome factionalism. And yeah, so that's a whole longer conversation.

[00:05:10] He and I are hopefully going to be talking, maybe doing some more of these shorts throughout the season. And then he and I are going to do a whole holocron full bonus episode towards the end of the season, looking back at what we've seen so far, especially from the military and strategy angles of it. Another thing we have is I did a video analysis of the TIE Avenger. So subscribers already have that.

[00:05:38] I'm going to release a publicly available one on YouTube that just uses still images. The one for subscribers actually has. I've clipped that episode so we can look at it a little bit more. And John even posted that on TikTok for me. So I've never been on TikTok before. That's the first time, but kind of a fun little thing.

[00:05:58] So I'll be looking for opportunities on the next coming episodes where there's, you know, beautiful cinematography or interesting story elements or what have you. And then I'll put those together and make those sort of these video analysis as bonus materials. Okay. If you have any interest in that, thank you so much. Thank you so much.

[00:06:28] Thank you so much. Thank you so much. Thank you so much. Thank you so much. Thank you so much. Thank you so much. Thank you so much.

[00:06:59] Thank you so much for working on. Thank you so much for watching. that promotes nuanced and fun conversation, as well as just appreciating or even criticizing when it's necessary, the shows that we watch. So join us there. Thanks again if you are already a subscriber. You should have heard all this material, but if you're listening, thank you. And if it's not for you, that's fine.

[00:07:28] We just wanted to make sure that you had information available to make a decision if that's something you want. But otherwise, we're really looking forward to the rest of the season. I'm recording this on the 29th, so happy Andor Day 2. I don't know. Somebody should make a 12 Nights of Andor song or four Nights of Andor song or something like that to match the release cycle. Anyway, first up, you're going to hear Alicia's radio report from –

[00:07:55] this was from the first block, the first three episodes. Then the conversation with John and Alicia on – there were Cat and Invaders. And then my conversation with Matt Cavanaugh about hyperfactionalism in rebellious movements. Thanks very much, and may the Force be with us all. Hosnian Prime. Do you copy? This is NRSS scout Alicia Brenner reporting in. I hope this transmission is reaching you.

[00:08:25] It can be difficult to get a clear signal out here in Wild Space. I am happy to report that the research mission has been fruitful. I have found a trove of historical treasures from a group calling themselves Rebel Squadron Radio, who operated during the height of the reign of the Empire. I will bring back whatever artifacts we can recover for documentation, analysis, and eventual inclusion in the Rebellion Memorial Museum. But I thought I would send ahead some audio files I found on an old computer here.

[00:08:52] Some dispatches earmarked for a Rebel operative named Cassian Andor. They appear to be annual news updates transmitted on a private Rebel radio network between the years of 4 and 1 BBY, as we would date them today. Years 30 to 34 of the great re-synchronization to use the dating system of the time. As this group appears to have been stationed on Jeddah, I'm afraid it seems there were no more broadcasts after 1 BBY.

[00:09:17] But we have an unnamed preservationist to thank for saving these transmissions for posterity in this previously undocumented corner of the galaxy. I have cleaned up the first broadcast and am including it here. I will send along the second transmission in about a week. The team will continue our research and recovery activities here in the meantime. The original transmission, broadcast in 4 BBY, looking back on the events of 5 BBY, follows.

[00:09:45] This is Rebel Squadron Radio's first annual news bulletin. As the new year blooms, let us celebrate the major events and first wins of our growing movement over the past year. Year 30 of the Great Resynchronization was an eventful one. A heist organized by the operative known as Axis on the empire-occupied rural planet of Aldani during their annual celestial event known as the Eye, has caught the attention of would-be rebels across the galaxy, inspiring a number of copycat local uprisings.

[00:10:15] The empire has responded by cracking down on all planets and citizens under its control, implementing actions like the Public Order Resentencing Directive and the Imperial Emergency Act. Take heart, rebels. As the empire shows its true colors, more freedom fighters will join our cause. See, for example, this past year's prisoner uprising in the Imperial Prison Complex on Narkina 5. Unfortunately, increased activity comes with the risk of more of our own lives lost.

[00:10:44] While we celebrate, we also pause to reflect on the sacrifices of important allies like Anto Krieger and the 50 lives under his command who were caught in an Imperial trap. At the same time, cries for justice ring out more loudly than ever across the galaxy. We tip our hats to the local revolt staged on the industrial planet of Feryx during the funeral procession of prominent local rebel leader Marva Andor.

[00:11:10] We're also receiving reports of an increase in counter-imperial activities on the planet of Lothal, where a light freighter ship known as the Ghost, crewed by a team calling themselves the Spectres, managed to crash and recycle a TIE fighter, reportedly with the help of a bounty hunter named Bosk, and a local con artist going by the obvious alias Jabba the Hutt. The Spectres have been the source of a hotbed of activity on the feline-friendly planet of Lothal,

[00:11:36] where they are also attached to a raid on an Imperial supply convoy and an Imperial troop transfer, as well as an attack on an Imperial airfield. At one point, the Spectres were even spotted with the droids of rebel-friendly Senator Bail Organa in an operation to disrupt the production of dangerous Imperial weaponry. Take these stories with you, our wins and our losses, as we forge new chapters in our fight against the Empire over the coming year.

[00:12:04] Year 31 of the resynchronization is the year we make ourselves heard everywhere. Welcome to the Rebellion. Fight the Empire! The Rakatins were real assholes. They would, like, strip planets of their resources, very Empire. Yeah. Terraform worlds to fit their own needs.

[00:12:31] So actually, they are said to have played a role in the fact that Kashyyyk, where the Wookiees come from, is so overgrown. Hmm. That's really interesting. It's such a unique environment. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, so I'm wondering if they'll carry that link over as well. Or, well, we'll get to it, but there's another group introduced by Canon. They were, yeah, they would enslave populations and kill their workforces. They were, they would eat other sentient species,

[00:12:58] and they were even cannibals, where they would eat members of their own species. They were, basically, they started out like any other people, I suppose, with their, you know, with their foibles, but not, like, completely, quote-unquote, evil. But then this other group that's only in Legends has not been confirmed in Canon, the Kwa. They're like these sort of lizard people. They were going around, they were from Dathomir, by the way, originally, which is where the Nightsisters are from.

[00:13:28] Yeah. But they were going around, and they were teaching people how to use their technology, so that more planets could be connected across the galaxy. And they had something called, like, Infinity Gate technology, which is kind of like a Wheel of Time gateway, you know, basically. You know, it wouldn't be a podcast with you this last month if you didn't mention the Wheel of Time once. I mean, challenge accepted year-round. At least one comparison. I think that was my second, this episode.

[00:13:58] But, yeah, so the Kwa, they came to the Rakatans, and they're like, oh, we're going to teach you how our technology, so you can be connected with the world. And the Rakatans were like, ooh, we like this technology. What if we took it for ourselves? And the Kwa were like, oh, wait, these are actually terrible people who are just not at all interested in our teachings about balance. And they basically figured out, like, oh, we can do things faster and dirtier if we only draw from the dark side of the Force.

[00:14:28] So that's what they started doing. They just started, like, focusing on the dark side of the Force. And they built this Starforge station, which would build starships, but also other, like, bots and things like that. But the Starforge was feeding off of this dark side energy that the Rakatans were constantly using until the Starforge itself became semi-sentient and was, like, manipulating and playing with the Rakatans who were there. This is a messy era.

[00:14:58] It's a messy era, yeah. And this is why we need that movie. Yeah, I could definitely see this. I think this would be better as a series, right? Like, all the, like, political intrigue and whatnot. Well, they could establish it in the movie. But, yeah, there's a lot of room to dig into this. But I guess we would see maybe the end of it where, like, the Jedi conquer them. But, yeah, so basically they were spreading out all across the galaxy. They went to the Kwa, by the way, I said were from Dathomir.

[00:15:25] So they went in brutally subjugated Dathomir because Dathomir is also a dark side planet that's, you know, strong in the Force. So obviously that would have been super interesting to them. And also they were like, F you Kwa for not giving us your Infinity Gate technology. You think you're better than us? Oh my god. So the Nightsisters, who again are from Dathomir, said they think that, according to their legend,

[00:15:51] because the Rakatans came and dominated the Kwa, they devolved into an animal state and became these lizards called the Kwe. Hmm. So they became less sentient. So the Kwa devolved into the Kwe lizards, yeah, according to Nightsisters' stories. Wow. Well, that's a pretty intense conquering to literally take away your sentience. Yeah. Yeah. The Rakatans were bad news. Yeah.

[00:16:20] I know that the writers have said that they reached back to Leon Trotsky as an inspiration for some of that. Right. Gilroy sounds like he's just a voracious reader and he's devoted all this time and attention to reading all these different weird esoteric parts of history. I actually, I'm listening to that and I'm getting actually someone else. I'm getting Captain Russell Volkman. So here's some of that voiceover. There will be times it seems impossible.

[00:16:50] The rebellion, but the rebellion is everywhere. The smallest act of insurrection pushes our lines forward. Tyranny requires constant effort. And I want to introduce your listeners to Captain Russell Volkman. Okay. So in the Second World War, he was stationed as a captain on the Philippines. And before the Japanese surrounded the American garrison there, he asked for permission to

[00:17:19] escape, did so, basically hid in the jungles for six months with a wound, and then eventually emerged and organized a Filipino insurrection that by the end of the war, he led 22,000 insurgents against the Japanese empire. After the book, or pardon me, after the war, he wrote a book called We Remained. And actually Eisenhower, after the war, had him write the first doctrine, which later became

[00:17:46] our first version of a counterinsurgency field manual. Okay. And I don't want to dig too deeply into that book, but I do want to point out that one of the insights that he uncovers in We Remained is, to me, as he put it in quotes, the time and space factor was the key.

[00:18:08] That the Japanese Imperial Army had local superiority, but that would change over time as the Japanese were forced to defend this huge, widespread, greater East Asia co-prosperity sphere. A lot of people don't know this, but at the beginning of the Second World War, when the Japanese invaded most of the Pacific, it was the largest area that any invading force had ever tried to hold. It sort of makes sense, right?

[00:18:37] Because we were always thinking about Alexander and the Romans and whatnot, but if you think of the Pacific Ocean. The Pacific Ocean, exactly. Bingo, bingo, bingo. And it's the same thing in the galaxy, right? And that's the same insight that Nemec is having, that it seems horrible where you are. It seems impossible where you are, but you can never forget that it's happening everywhere. And they can't possibly defend everywhere.

[00:19:07] And so when you push in on the balloon over here, that will create an opportunity over there. And eventually someone is going to pop the balloon. And I see those same things in this second season. I want to bring this back around too with the hyperfactionalization in rebellious movements in what you were saying a little bit before, finding common ground. How do you overcome that? How do you find common ground?

[00:19:35] You need individuals who have vision and leadership qualities. And we see that with Cassian in this very first episode when he's talking to the young tech and he's saying, you're coming home to yourself. Let that be your shield. And it's so profound. He has in that one, just that human touch, looking at her, having them look at each other

[00:19:59] in the eyes and speaking to her like another human being, he's inspired her. And so we see this wherever Cassian goes, now that he's sort of shed his survival, solo, I'm by myself instinct. He is this natural leader. And that's what Luthen, who's a treasure hunter, has been searching for, is for this one person who is a natural born leader, who can see the values and he can look into the eyes of other

[00:20:26] people and they can feel inspired and they can put aside whatever concerns or values or philosophies and come together. He tries to do that with Maya Pei, but he's handcuffed. He's sort of operationally constrained because he can't talk about his chain of command, right? Because then that breaks apart the cells. So if somebody gets caught to trace them back, that kind of stuff. But it's really, I think it comes down to leadership. That's how we get over hyperfactionalism is by individuals exercising leadership.

[00:20:56] Yeah. And you see that moment of connection. I'm a brick. You're a brick. Yeah. We're bricks together. And I have to sort of back out. Strategy has been described as many things. One of the things that it's been described as is a bridge from where we are, how we're going to get to where we want to go.

[00:21:19] And part of the way that you do that is you agree on what the value of the object is. And in this case, these two have agreed that this is worth becoming a brick. This is worth being expendable. And I want to be a brick for that, to build that bridge. And like, absolutely. I mean, I, you know, we ended the last season with that imagery and we've carried it forward into this new season.

[00:21:49] And I, I think there's nothing more meaningful that you can sort of take away from those moments than that, you know?

[00:22:27] I was listening to Paramore the other day and it really made me think about the amygdala and the limbic system. You just made those words up, didn't you? What? Paramore? We're the Nevermind the Music Podcast, where one musician and one psychologist talk songwriting and the mind, one song at a time. We'll hear everything from Green Day and OutKast to Stevie Wonder and Dua Lipa. And we mostly try to stay on topic. Except for when we don't want to. Nevermind the Music, wherever you get your podcasts.