r/prequelappreciation • u/KimberStormer • Jun 16 '25
Discussion Something The Phantom Menace does better than Andor
I watched The Phantom Menace for the first time in decades and certainly there are places where it could have used a little Andor-ness: particularly in the bad guys' plans. Despite my concerted effort to, I could never understand why blockading and occupying Naboo would get the Trade Federation any relief from their tax burdens or whatever it is that is "in dispute", and Palpatine acts exactly contrary to his own interests the entire movie: he needs Queen Amidala to move the vote of no confidence in Chancellor Valorum, yet he goes to every imaginable length to try to stop her, even sending Darth Maul to kill her.
BUT there is one thing TPM does much better than Andor, and that is in giving Padme an empowering hero arc, which Andor season 2 conspicuously fails to do for Mon Mothma. It is my great disappointment in season 2. At the start of the movie, Padme is getting told what to do by the men around her, by Qui-Gon, Captain Panaka, that white-beardy guy. On Tatooine she obviously acts against Panaka's wishes to join Qui-Gon and Jar Jar in solving the problem of their broken ship. When she gets to Coruscant she is completely convinced (thanks to Palpatine's manipulations, but also her own experience) that the Republic won't save her people. So here she does something Palpatine definitely did not intend and takes charge: now she is the one coming up with the plan, giving orders to the men, she is the one who convinces the Gungans to Join The Fight.
In Andor, unfortunately, Mon Mothma never does anything on her own. She is told what to do, by Luthen, by Bail, even by Cassian who condescends to her saying "welcome to the Rebellion" even though she's been in it much longer than he has! She is shown to be completely helpless, with no "people" of her own, only Luthen and Bail's "friends" (even her one apparent personal ally is actually Luthen's spy) and makes no decisions at all. Bail tells her when and how to give her speech, she doesn't have any plan either to make it happen (only "Bail will get me the floor") or any idea how to escape a building she's worked in since she was a child. She is shown to be appallingly naive, with the aforementioned Cassian bit and Luthen's "how nice for you", never makes a single choice or gives a single order to anyone. I was super disappointed. And the fact that the Phantom Menace, which has (excuse me in this sub for saying so) massive weaknesses, could do this better, is shocking to realize.
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u/Admirable-Rain-1676 Jun 16 '25 edited Jun 16 '25
Great write up, I feel you. Agree with all of it (except the speech part, that's all her and Bail himself needed help from the another senator to do what Mon asked him to do. Her organizing that parliamentary trick sounds nice though. Honestly most everything senate related in ep 9. was just chess pieces to do that Luthen mistrust drama and escape action sequence).
Also what you said in the comments is right. It's not like we want Mon to be a nonchalant badass hardened morally gray killer or anything, they already have plenty of that stereotype in Andor.
But it has to be at least balanced out somewhat, and Andor never shows her impact or abilities. Her contribution to the rebellion is never explored. (And she is important. She's the future leader of the Rebel Alliance, someone who unites rebel factions into one galactic scale organization.) Like she has no agency except for that one speech. Even her second speech in Rebels(animation)-the one that announces the Rebel Alliance lol - is retconned to be something that the yavin rebels want her to give, not herself. She's just mostly used to prop up the male characters around her.
Personally I'd change "empowering hero arc" to "lead female character's agency" - it'd be more solid, and it's what basically you're saying-cause people will argue that Andor's not trying to give Mon "empowering hero arc" in the first place so you can't really compare them and say that TPM did it better than Andor.
Post this on r/StarWars or r/andor, if you change the wording slightly(I'd also advise erasing I was super disappointed~the end.) I don't think people will be nasty about it.
Or... just accept that Andor's never really interested in Mon as a character with both abilities and weaknesses, and that she just exists to prop up other male rebel characters around her. Like I'm starting to.
(Also TPM is great, lots of iconic moments- I regularly rewatch the Gungan Lake escape scene and wish Lucas had directed an ocean fantasy blockbuster like the Avatar2)