A Flawed Masterpiece - A Rogue One Video Essay

I look at Rogue One’s purpose. To convey themes of sacrifice, a war story that is tragic, and in war, you’re not going to remember many names. Many sacrifices go unnoticed. But the glimpses we get of Cassian and Jyn, and Chirrut, they capture the essence of Star Wars to me. How war changes you (Andor), how your past shouldnt define you (Jyn) and to always be hopeful (Chirrut) .

I am one of those X-Wing novels people and Rogue One is also my favourite Star Wars movie!

Coming back here sometime to hear "oh nooooooooo" on appearing Death Star😅

Rogue One will always be my favorite Star Wars media. And for the record, K2SO is my second favorite. Statement: HK-47 (tho not Canon) is still my favorite droid in all of Star Wars media. While not as vulgar as R2-D2, he is just a Smart-ass droid that hates meatbags. Just as much as I do.

Rogue One and Empire are mine followed by New Hope...then the prequels..in fairness 7,8,9 have there moments but fall short on story mostly in my opinion

Rogue one is the greatest of them all just incase you didn't know. Every hero dies for the greater good The only film in my 50 years that ever had me struggling to hold back a tear. Peace

Free 🇵🇸 Palestine! Resist; Rebel, Return! Insha Allah!

At the time, I thought TFA was better, but looking back now, it honestly holds up better than any of the sequel trilogy. In fact, it’s probably the only Disney Star Wars film I’d actually rewatch.

I think it's about time Rogue One is given the credit it deserves and is officially acknowledged as part of the original trilogy instead of considered a standalone movie and renamed Episode 4: Prologue or something and given it's own iconic opening scrolling text and Star Wars fanfare. Hell, I personally would go as far as to renumber the whole series and make it Episode 4 in it's own right. Yeah, you could then argue that the So Low movie should be Episode 4 and Rogue One Episode 5 but the less said about that catastrophe the better! Apart from the ending, which I personally would tweak, there is one major problem with Rogue One for me and that is I think that Felicity Jones would have been better cast as Luke Skywalker's daughter in the sequels because she does have Mark Hamill look about her and we could have had a totally different sequel that would have probably been far better than the travesty that we got! She was perfectly cast as Jin though but I would have rather have seen her in 3 movies instead of that awful Daisy Ridley who couldn't act her way out of a paperbag, but I would have given her some due and cast her as Jin just so I can see her die at the end of Rogue One and never have to see her again!

Gareth's new Sci FI The Creator is amazing. It brought me back to rewatch Rogue One and remember how great it was!

Thanks for your video. Rouge One is the only Star Wars Movie I rewatched more than once.

I absolutely LOVE Rogue One for too many reasons to list. All the same reasons I LOVE the Andor series, whatever the common recipe is why.

The trailer was like: Depression. A Star Wars Disappointment Story

The only SW movie that showed what Disney could have done. Flawed, rough around the edges, but full of noble intentions of telling a good story.

I had NO idea they would all die… I was surprised and very proud that Disney and Star Wars would make an honest Tragedy film.
It was enough for me to watch it again.

rogue one is gonna be a decade old in 2 years

Overall this was an interesting essay. I gave it 300.000 dislikes though because of reasons.

It's the best since Empire imo

this is a rebellion isnt it i rebel genuinely rewrote my brain chemistry

Why the fuck does any show need levity and a sense of fun? Choose a side and stick to it. Fuck if Disney can’t market Rogue One to toddlers. They have other titles that can do just that.

I wish I came across your content earlier and I’m thankful to have found you now. The head cannon chapter helped open my mind and your appreciation for the characters is something I hope to share with my Star Wars family. Thank you!

i come back every year to re watch this x

I'm quick to think my hyperfixation with fictional things or characters is cringe worthy. But you sound so cool talking about this thing you like. I'm happy you linked your work and am definitely going to give it a read

When I first saw this movie to me it was amazing and there is a library that I take out DVDs and three times somebody took out Rogue one and never returned it you get the picture the thing that Disney did was put out so much Star Wars products that is just plain stupid to make more money excuse me just like my favorite band k i s s and that old saying goes from a band to a brand this movie got so much heart because it was Against All Odds add a reminder so much of History when I see this movie I think about uprising you know the Polish against the Germans with no hope of winning that's why I love this movie

Oh and one more thing only one person had a lightsaber and we know who that is

Yes Rogue One deals with reality no happy ending

Jyn's inciting incident takes place when she's a child and her mother is killed in front of her eyes, and her father taken away.
What is unfortunate is the flash forward and her entire journey into a life of crime takes place off screen. No flashbacks to provide exposition and very little go off of from pure dialogue exchanges.

Her pivotal point comes when learning of the whereabouts of her father, him dying, and learning on how to destroy the empire's weapon which she personally watched destroy her home world.

As for her climax and end. If you've watched it then you know what happens and it is very fitting for her. She is a well-written female protagonists especially in comparison to females in fiction over the last 16-18 years.

I honestly have no idea what you're talking about in regards to her. She's not the end all, be all for female protags, but she works. This is even more true considering A new hope is a major focus of this story.

great video!

I'm sorry in advance but I am going to ruin that last scene with Cassian. I like your way of looking at it, but another way to look at it is that Diego Luna the actor is opening his eyes after several seconds of hugging and is wandering is it over? Have we cut? Can we stop hugging now? haha I can never unsee this.

I went into the movie knowing that everyone was going to die, and it was still a gut punch. That's what makes this film great to me.

Plus it was hilarious while being sad.

Does no one else seriously think that the "monastery" that Baze and Chirrut were together in was the Jedi temple? Everyone I mention it to either thinks no, or had never considered it a possibility.

Jyn's growth is fine. Just because it doesn't follow writing 101 graphs for dummies doesn't mean there's anything wrong with it.

Just an honest question are the two dudes gay or what?

No joke, Cassian shooting his informant is one of my favorite moments in Star Wars because it feels so grown up... and by that point in time, I had grown up with Star Wars, and it felt like that was being acknowledged. They maintained that sensibility pretty well with Andor S1... I just hope they continue to treat the audience like grown ups in Andor s2

Baze and Chirrut are brothers. Very young orphans who became friends and learned to survive together through starvation, homelessness, imperial oppression, etc. They are family not by blood but by life.

What I've heard is the final battle ended up being way too long as they had to steal the plans, then fight their way across the beach, then climb a tower... so it makes sense the large cast of characters isn't going to have a lot of reaction shots to their deaths. The audience is the only reaction that truly matters, so you can shorthand quite a bit, linking the deaths of your duos.

Mostly, I think we're wandering much more into war movie territory as one or two characters are narratively important (and whose back stories might get fleshed out) and a bunch of characters who aren't developed too much beyond humanizing touches, as their purpose is mostly to add a bit of dramatic weight to their eventual deaths.

The inherent flaw of Rogue One is it never fully commits to the war movie structure and tries to feel like a regular action movie where these characters would be more important... and the movie struggles when these two style rub up against each other, like when Jen's character arc (such as it is) has to flow into siege and we get back to back to back speeches to try to explain the very different requirements of each role. Is she reluctant hero or inspirational leader?

Agreed on all of this, Still liked Revenge of the Sith, and agreed, Attack of the Clones was trash. Great essay!

Rogue One was no masterpiece. Star Wars and mainly The Empire Strikes back are the only masterpieces. The prequels were bad films and millennial nostalgia goggles don't change how much those films were and are still hated. Rogue One was mediocre at best, and it did a poor job of handling character development. If you disagree, go watch Red Letter Media's breakdown of the film.

I've been a Star Wars fan since I was 7 (including the expanded universe at least since I was 9) and I'd never heard of Kafrene before R1, fwiw :P

I honestly didn't think that epilogue was good cinematography. It's too repetetive. But on the other hand, it did give me an appreciation for just how fscking terrifying Darth Vader is in-universe that I don't think I really had previously

The ticking/clicking in the background makes this unwatchable.

I really don't like how much praise Saw gets when he did what he did to Bhodi

Tarkin and Leia we're not perfect, but I really admired those characters in the first movie. So I liked seeing more of them.

Radical optimism 😭 that’s such a good way to phrase it. “I burn my life to make a sunrise I know I’ll never see.” Also Nemik’s manifesto.

2001 i didnt like watching it.... that says all we need to know about your interlect

WHAT REVENGE OF THE SITH IS A BAD MOVIE?! The best that’s right best Star Wars movie is a bad movie WHAT?! The entirety of what’s good in the movie has nothing to do with the darth Vader moment the rest of the movie is there it’s amazing it’s awesome you can’t just say that whole movie and what’s good is that. It’s one of the weaker moments. Revenge of the Sith is a good movie it’s by far the darkest Star Wars and thats amazing it wraps everything up but it effectively shows how a democracy turns into a dictatorship. I’m not here to shout my praise about phantom menace or even attack of the clones but revenge of the Sith oh ya that’s the best Star Wars movie.

That darth Vader scene is also the one of the best “this is the reason everyone fears him” scenes I’ve ever watched

Just going to leave a comment here and let you all know. Yes I'm going to do an Andor S1 video. But I need to finish my blade runner video first which is taking me longer than it should have, just because life is tiring