Heartwarming / Andor

Despite being one of the grimmest portrayals of the galaxy far, far away to date, there's still some warm feelings to be had from Andor:

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Episode 5: The Axe Forgets

• Cassian may be prickly and mistrustful with his fellow rebels, especially compared to a Wide-Eyed Idealist like Nemik, but he gradually starts to warm up to the kid. He seems bored at first when Nemik starts to go on about his manifesto and the unjustness of the Empire, but he still gives Nemik his full attention.

Episode 6: The Eye

• When the rebels finally reach the dam they're going to rob, Cassian compliments Nemik on the accuracy of his model of the dam that they used to plan the op. Becomes a massive Tear Jerker when Nemik dies after being crushed by a pallet of credits, and he wants Cassian of all people to take his manifesto.
• Jayhold Beehaz is abusive towards his wife and son, but when their lives are genuinely threatened, he finally starts complying with the crew. He then later sternly but generously orders the Imperials to cooperate for the sake of their well-being and his family's.
• Some of the Imperials under Gorn's command are genuinely looking out for each other, insisting that the majority be allowed to watch the Eye for the sake of morale. Even the skeleton crew who stay inside the base are shown amicably playing games with each other to pass the time, not unlike students who are being allowed to play games by a teacher on a special occasion during school. Gorn also gets to pretend to be a Benevolent Boss by pretending to reluctantly agree to his subordinate's request, simultaneously buying more cover for the heist in the process.
• In a bittersweet way, Gorn defies Beehaz's threat of execution, insisting that he knows he deserves far worse for serving under Beehaz for years.

Episode 7: Announcement

• In a small moment, when Cassian sneaks back home, he pats Bee like he's a dog. Aww! And his charging dock even looks like a dog bed, too! It's also rather touching that Cassian refers to "the three of us" when talking about leaving Ferrix with Maarva, making it clear that B2 is fully considered part of the family, in stark contrast to the usual treatment of droids in Star Wars.
• Cassian finally has enough money to get his family off Ferrix and looks genuinely happy and excited for probably the first time in the series, but Maarva refuses to go because she wants to stay and fight the Empire however she can. However, she understands Cassian's need for peace and wishes him well.
  Cassian: I won't have peace. I'll be worrying about you all the time.
  Maarva: That's just love.
• Before he leaves Ferrix, Cassian visits Bix and makes a point of using some of his cut from the Aldhani job to pay off the debts he owes to friends and coworkers, showing that he hasn't forgotten what he owes even with everything else going on in his life at the moment.
• Vel makes a point of asking her Rebel contact about Cinta, her strongly implied girlfriend on Aldhani, confirming that they are indeed a couple.

Episode 9: Nobody's Listening!

• When Ulaf suffers a major stroke, Kino immediately abandons his usual Drill Sergeant Nasty attitude and calls for a med-tech, though it's equal parts Tear Jerker as he's visibly distraught when Ulaf ends up needing a Mercy Kill. He truly cares about the people under his watch, trying to shepherd frail short-timers like Ulaf through until their sentences have been served, so when he learns that it's been All for Nothing, he's ready to avenge them.
• Though the moment itself is mostly humorous, Mon Mothma's slight smirk when Perrin teases Vel about her spinster status implies she knows Vel is a lesbian, and has no judgements toward her cousin on the matter.

Episode 10: One Way Out

• When delivering his Rousing Speech to the thousands of other inmates imprisoned at Narkina 5, Kino becomes particularly enraged when revealing that the guards murdered every prisoner on level 2. He likely still has Ulaf's death on his mind, and is disgusted at how the lives of so many men can mean so little to the Imperials. As mentioned before, Kino may be harsh with those under his supervision, but he ultimately cares about their wellbeing.
  • During his speech, Kino reminds the prisoners to help each other during the escape, that everyone work together to ensure everyone gets out. The subsequent escape scenes highlight how the prisoners work as teams to break everybody out.
• The reveal that Kino can't swim means he knew he was never getting out but he still led the uprising to get others to their freedom. He even smiles and laughs a little the second time he says it.
• Tay turns out to have indeed been good enough for Mon to trust, even if he's not given all the details for plausible deniability. He's the one who brings Davo Sculdun to her and promises to try to keep looking when talks are terminated.
• When Davo Sculdun's terms for financing Mon Mothma's rebellion involves an arranged marriage between his son and her daughter Leida, Mothma orders him to leave without hesitation and refuses the deal.

Episode 11: Daughter of Ferrix

• After Maarva's death Brasso shows kindness to B2EMO, offering to give the droid time alone with her body to say goodbye in private. In the evening Brasso invites Bee to his place, but Bee doesn't want to leave yet. Brasso agrees to spend the night in Maarva's house with him.
• Mon mentions that Perrin is "surprisingly open-minded" about the Chandrilan arranged marriage custom. Even though he's a lazy, spiteful hedonist, he seems to still genuinely love his daughter on some level and is implied to not want her to have to suffer a loveless marriage himself.
• While the episode concludes with Cassian and Melshi going their separate ways following their escape from Narkina 5, the two men do share a brief embrace before Melshi departs.

Episode 12: Rix Road

• It's clear the Andors were well-loved and Cassian's surprise return prompts happy reactions from just about every local he encounters. Pegla, who Cassian had a spat with in the first episode, even greets him with a hug. Later on, Pegla helps drag B2EMO out of the chaos of the riot and stays behind on Ferrix to help other people escape.
• Cassian comes across his father's funeral stone and has a Happy Flashback to when Clem and Cassian were restoring technology deemed redundant, with Clem noting that the new product was more expensive, but the old ones were still usable and desired by people - making the flashback also serve as a Call-Back to Nemik's choice of using outdated technology when fighting the Empire. Speaking of Nemik, Cassian listens to his manifesto the night before the funeral - thus making it the final push towards Cassian's radicalization into a devoted member of the Rebellion. Despite Clem and Nemik both being gone, Cassian still carries their words and wishes throughout the episode and beyond.
• Meeting up with Brasso in the tunnels beneath Ferrix, Cassian expresses regret how his last meeting with Maarva ended on seemingly bad terms. To get his spirits up, Brasso then repeats what Maarva told him:
  Brasso: "Tell him, none of this is his fault. It was already burning. He's just the first spark of the fire. Tell him, he knows everything he needs to know and feels everything he needs to feel. And when the day comes, and those two pull together, he will be an unstoppable force for good. Tell him... I love him more than anything he could ever do wrong."
• Maarva's posthumous speech at her funeral procession shows just how valued a member of the Ferrix community she was in life, and the following riot makes it clear that slights against her and her family are slights against the people of Ferrix themselves.
  • To add onto her speech, she expresses in it that if she could do it again, she'd fight the Empire from the very start. Immediately afterwards during the riot, Brasso fulfills those wishes by using Maarva's funeral stone containing her ashes to bludgeon Imperials.
  • Maarva's speech is powerful enough that it seems to move even Luthen, who's finally seeing the fruits of his labor that shows all of his sacrifices and cruel acts he was forced to do are ultimately not in vain, and could even be a reason why he changes his mind about killing Cassian after seeing how he's now committed to the rebels' cause not unlike his late adoptive mother.
• While Maarva's speech is essential in riling up the crowd on Rix Road, what actually sets off the riot is Prefect Tigo knocking over B2EMO. One's heart swells seeing the entire community immediately come to the droid's defense.
• Syril saving Meero and when asked why, simply says that she needed help.
• At Leida's introduction to his son, Davo doesn't seem happy or smug even though he's the one gaining something from the arranged marriage. He at least has the decency not to look victorious given how he knows Mon really feels about it.
• Bix revealing that she dreamed of Cassian showing up to save her.
• Cassian requesting B2EMO look after everyone and the droid saying that Cassian always asks him for that. Cassian replies by saying B2EMO has never failed him before.
• Maarva sent two messages. One to the world and one to Cassian. To the world? "Fuck the empire." To Cassian? "I love you more than anything you could ever do."

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