When I say hype, I mean in the broader fan base, not among people here.
When I say the wedding, I mean that the moment she lets her daughter marry the sketchy guy’s son is the last relevant choice she makes where she shows real agency. The rest of it is just watching the wedding for multiple episodes. The tone is unclear and it seems like you’re supposed to be disturbed by the wedding but nothing about it is really disturbing, other than Mon not liking it. Ooh a cultural tradition! Marriage!!! Scary!! Ahhh!!! Her daughter isn’t even unhappy. She likes the guy she’s marrying and she likes her own culture, so the only conflict is Mon’s petty feelings about it, which has nothing to do with anything else in the show at that point. Luthen and crew kill off her friend for her, and that detail could have happened without the wedding.
The set and costume design is neat and it’s understandable to want to see a different side of the setting, but it’s just a dancing meme in the end.
Do you think Perrin is giving good advice when he says that, despite the world’s troubles, the key to life is seeking out the pleasure of a nice dinner party? It’s emblematic of Perrin’s life, and the life Lieda is embracing. Contrast that with Mon’s life, and maybe you’ll see why the wedding matters.
Are you saying that that’s supposed to be a life lesson for the audience, or stakes for the plot?
I’m saying that there is a lot more to Andor than just the plot, yes. The plot itself is subservient to the issues and values Gilroy wanted to explore.
Is it explored, though? That’s what I’m saying, any way you slice it nothing happens. Perrin’s wife leaves their loveless marriage to be a rebel, which she was doing anyway. Lieda gets to be a normal rich person, which was going to happen anyway. There aren’t any negative consequences for them that go beyond that. Do you really need that many episodes to dunk on epicureanism, by showing a neutral cultural event?
I think you keep trapping the discussion into didactism/messaging/progression, but being about something isn’t disguised lecture, and storytelling isn’t just efficient communication.
There’s nothing here about epicureanism substantially; the Mothma wealth functions the same as Cassian’s sister, and ~tradition is only the means to the emotional grounding of the situation… not about conservatism substantially, but a mother losing her daughter to a pragmatic calculation she made. These aren’t messaging dunks, they are themes inside of a larger Story about like you’ve yourself said, the characters!
All of this was always going to happen, sure, but the Story™ is just that Mon hadn’t confronted any of that reality prior to the arc. She’s constantly on the fence throughout the show thinking she can be both Nancy Pelosi and Dr. Abdullah from A Most Wanted Man. Can she maintain her family and liberal principles in the imperial status-quo, while also being a revolutionary? We all know before she does the answer to that. It’s the season 2 premiere, but it’s frankly the payoff to her whole arc from the start of the show.
So yes it’s all explored! It’s exploring a concept because it’s 3 whole episodes of acting and production and writing! Character dynamics are on display, dialogue exchanges are being had. Micro-investments in the characters are made when you spend time with them in new situations. You’re supposed to be having fun with it. If you’re not getting stuff out of it - obviously it’s subjective - but there are entire genres outside of Star Wars where the point is itself, not justifying itself or contributing to a plot progression, or even the Moral of the Story™. People love Mad Men!
She did confront the reality when she made the choice to trade her daughter getting married in exchange for the financial fixing. That’s the payoff of an existing arc in season 1. Watching the wedding itself is redundant. Like I said I enjoyed the costumes and set design, but the writing and execution is just too indulgent. The time spent on it could be spent on some of the events that get skipped over in the year to year jumps. You could make the case that Mon herself is an interesting character, but the others are all supporting characters to her and not really enough on their own.
The real hard break is when her friend is killed off by Luthen’s people, then again when she’s rescued by Cassian and has to deal with being shot at and seeing people shot.
And it does come across as a disguised lecture. The two major POV characters we have (Mon and her cousin) both disapprove of it, with the only caveat being that Mon is a little bit too heavy handed with trying to talk her daughter out of it. The rich person dialogue is very one note, ooh, look how rich and comfortable these people are. The ritual is supposed to be creepy and ominous, and the part where the groom cuts Leida’s braid is given a hard cut like she got killed by a horror movie slasher.