Is Syril Karn a "Bad Guy" - Episode 85

What's the deal with Syril Karn? Is he a "bad guy?" Is he actually evil?? And we know about anti-heroes, but is there such a thing as anti-villains???
In the words of everyone's favorite stuttering back-stabber, "Good guys, bad guys, made up words."
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[@plyboard9]

LOVE this discussion. Agree with so much of whats been said. And Syril is a fantastic character. One thing I see differenty though is Syril’s motivations. I see him as an idealist. He works for a two-bit security company that is mediocre and cutting corners. But he wants it to be awesome. He’s the guy at a crappy summer job that takes it wayyy too seriously. He genuinely believes all the slogans and posters about order and discipline. He keeps his uniform spic-and-span and does his own tailoring because he believes in order and excellence. In that sense - he’s fighting for something beyond himself, which is noble and makes him likeable. I think his spirit is about to break thinking his ideals are hopelessly wasted in tedium until he meets Daedra, who he sees as just like him. She gives a shit. She is advancing and caring about it all. So in that sense I don’t think it’s all just personal advancement. Perhaps personal glory and honor in line with the ideals he upholds. Interestingly, the hero if the show, Andor, is not an idealist but more cynical or realistic. An interesting contrast to the proto-typical Luke Skywalker hero. Those are some added thoughts. Great episode!!!

[@johnbutler9282]

Great discussion, but I think it was a missed opportunity to not bring up Syril's possessiveness of Dedra. He waits for her outside of her place of work, attempts to set up multiple meetings with her through his new desk job, and literally follows her across the galaxy without her knowledge. I think Syril's quest started as a desire to bring Andor to justice, but became a quest to gain favor with Dedra. He is positioned in the story as a socially inadequate stalker.

[@luketaylor5664]

I’m in the uncomfortable position of defending his harassment and stalking of her, but I’ll give it a go! He only really stalks/harasses her once outside the isb headquarters (which is still not cool) but he doesn’t follow her across the galaxy. Mosk contacts Syril that Cassian will likely be at his mother’s funeral on Ferrix, and he goes to capture Cassian. He is surprised to see Dedra there, and then chooses to save her after she gets in trouble. I agree he is infatuated with Dedra and may very well become obsessed in season 2, but he is not as of season 1. He is primarily motivated by his desire to capture Cassian, not win favor with Dedra.

[@johnbutler9282]

@@luketaylor5664 Good catch on how Syril ended up on Ferrix, I misremembered the order of events there. Star Wars is a franchise that has always been inspired by and taken from other big cultural touchstones, and to me Syril feels like a Star Wars-y version of Travis Bickle from Taxi Driver. Travis is technically doing the right thing when he saves Jodie Foster's character at the end of that movie, but it is being done for the wrong reasons. I feel like Syril's hunt for Cassian is similar. While I don't think Syril is as depraved as a person as Travis is, I do think narratively they fill a similar archetype.

[@mattlewis7764]

@@johnbutler9282don’t let Luke bully you onto his side!