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echinocereus · 2 years ago

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Andor: An Analysis (aka AAA)

Andor (2022-), a Star Wars show based around Cassian Andor, a rebel who appeared in the movie Rogue One (2016), has taken my mind by storm, leaving me with too many thoughts to keep without documenting. This will be my best attempt at a comprehensive analysis of Andor (7450 words), there will be spoilers, and likely some edits. And a quick disclaimer, no, these are not all original ideas, I am writing this as a combination of both my own brain and the brains of tumblr.

To begin, Andor, in my opinion, is not just a good Star Wars show, but a good show in general. The characters are well written, the pacing is well-executed, and it makes a clear argument. What truly satisfied me about Andor was the fact that it brought politics back to Star Wars. After the sequels (which didn’t happen, okay, they’re not canon, they didn’t happen, I think we as a society should just erase it from our memories), the shows Disney was putting out were decent, but despite the lore being entrenched in politics and political allegories, somehow managed to not really be political. Kenobi follows what happened to Obi-Wan, but doesn’t explore the early growth of the Empire. Boba Fett gave us what could’ve been a cool story of a power vacuum in a criminal underworld, if it was executed properly. It mostly fell flat and was all seemingly surface level thoughts. The Mandalorian was a compelling story about the importance of family, but something of a missed opportunity in The Mandalorian is the exploration of the consequences of a rebellion. Andor says “screw all that, Star Wars is political” and brings in everything the Star Wars canon gives us. According to the creator of Andor, Tony Gilroy, it’s allegedly “not supposed to be political.” Now whether this means that Andor was a fluke or if he said that simply to avoid being under fire from unhappy fans is a mystery (I personally think it’s the latter since… well you’ll see).

Cassian Andor:

To begin, Cassian Andor. The focus of the show and the central character. Even though he is the main character and the show’s namesake, he never makes an attempt to make himself the center of attention. Time after time we see Andor hand off the spotlight of rallying people together (Kino in the prison, Maarva’s speech, Brasso leading the charge against the Empire). His main purpose is being a spy: this is how he is introduced in Rogue One and we see that that aspect of his character is true and constant (@kanansdume on tumblr).

Cassian’s character arc has been of some discourse among some Star Wars fans. Some say that him starting off dismissive of the rebellion like Jyn is in Rogue One undermines his line in which he says he has been fighting for the rebellion since he was 6 years old. However, I disagree. I think Cassian’s character development makes his statement in the movie all the more meaningful. I will come back to this at the end of this section, but first I need to explain what this character journey was.

“I think it’s all useless…It’s better to live. Better to eat, sleep, do what you want. You don’t know me. I fought in Mimban when I was 16.” - Episode 4, Cassian to Luthen. This quote shows Cassian in the beginning of the series, jaded by the Empire that he sees no purpose in fighting. He is self-centered and for good reason: all he’s ever known is struggle, all he is ever trying to do is survive. He is disillusioned by the fact that he feels as though he does not have any effect on the Empire at all. Even when he eventually does agree to work for the Rebel Alliance, he is working as Luthen’s mercenary.

However during that heist, he witnesses the deaths of more than half the team. He still takes the money and leaves with his cut, but he kills Skeen. Skeen who seemingly has a very similar ideology to Cass. Skeen says that his rebellion is himself against the world, that he’s not one who has taste for the actual Rebel Alliance. From what we see in Episode 6, Cassian is the same way, so why does he kill Skeen? I think Cassian got spooked from how much he saw himself in Skeen. He saw the danger that Skeen proposed, realized this and ran from it because he didn’t quite know how to deal with it. But these little moments are so important to his overall development because they help explain the switch and changes in his character.

So he goes back home and meets back up with his family to check back in. To his disappointment, Maarva says that she is not going with Cassian (something that will be further discussed in the Maarva section down below). He doesn’t understand this and voices his concerns but still he walks away without Maarva; he should not be judged for doing so, Maarva certainly doesn’t. He tells Maarva that he’ll be back, which becomes somewhat of a catchphrase. Cassian starts to establish that if there is someone his family and friends can rely on, it is himself. Cassian has been looking for a vacation, a break from a war he never chose to enlist in since he was a child. He finally gets this opportunity and he seizes it, but the tragedy of his story is that the Rebellion is not something he could choose to escape, the reality of his situation of experiences is that he does not have the privilege to step away. He gets caught in a charge that has nothing to do with him, is imprisoned with a ridiculously long sentence, and he is not allowed to protest.

Cassian gets shipped off to Narkina 5, a planet where the Empire has decided to keep some of its prisons. The prison he is sent to is a manufacturing one, later revealed to be building the Death Star (significance of this is discussed below). There the prisoners are forced to be barefoot, for the prison exerts control on its inmates with electrocution through the floor. The guards all have boots on to protect them from this, but they force all inmates to give up all of their shoes. I mention this because it adds to the futility of Cassian’s predicament. The significance to Narkina 5 and the prison arc as a whole will be discussed in greater depth later since there is a lot more to these three episodes (Episodes 7-9). The most important thing for now is that it is in this prison where we see the distinct turnaround of his mentality when it comes to fighting the empire. “I’d rather die trying to take them down, than die giving them what they want.” - Cassian to Kino, Episode 10. Here Cassian finally understands what Maarva was getting at when she refused to leave with him, what Luthen was trying to explain to him, what Nemik died for. This sentence is the thesis of Cassian Andor’s story, something we see even through Rogue One. Ultimately, Cassian dies for something he will never see come into fruition, and we see here how he gets to that point of faith.

At the very end of the series, Cassian once again sets up everyone for success, leaving to deal with his own loose ends. As he is leaving, Bix reminds everyone that Cassian will come back and he reaffirms this. At this point of the story, Cassian is no longer a nuisance, but someone that the people of Ferrix can safely rely on to protect them. That, ultimately, no matter what happens to them, Cassian will find a way. This is Cassian’s M.O. He works in the shadows, he is there for Bix when she needs him, he makes sure everyone is set up to do what they need to do, and he makes sure everyone has enough information and resources to reach their destinations and goals. Cassian is a representation of the truest friend.

Now to connect back to earlier about how this works for his story in Rogue One. Cassian has been fighting against the Empire since he was 6 years old, he just hadn’t realized it yet. That was what this show was for, we see him go through the process of realizing that the rebellion was something he was born into. In Rogue One, Cassian is a zealot, willing to do anything for the rebellion. We now know why. He’s lost so much to this cause, he’s lost so much because of the Empire. Jyn, on the other hand, is nearly apathetic. She doesn’t understand his passion. Just like Cassian didn’t understand the passion of Nemik or Maarva. I think in order for Cassian to understand and connect to Jyn he had to go through the same process of finding his belief as before. His radicalization is so important because politically, he was already radicalized, it was his faith in himself and humanity that he needed to learn.

Brasso:

Brasso is the man in the background, a constant, a pillar of the community and a man the characters can consistently rely on. Brasso is the role-model for Cassian. From the beginning he is to his people what Cassian becomes: a man of reliability. Cassian comes to him in the first episode to use him as a cover story, an alibi. We never see Brasso need to do it, but we know that he would cover for Cassian in an instant. When Cassian is away, it is Brasso (and Bix) we see taking care of Maarva. When the Imperial officers zero-in on Bix, even then Brasso risks himself to urge Bix into action, to run. When Maarva dies, we see Brasso handling her funeral, making sure everything is running smoothly. When all the others don’t know how to comfort Bee, it is Brasso who’s there for the droid, being patient with Maarva’s grieving friend. Brasso is the one to lead the fight against the Imperial soldiers in Episode 12.

There are dynamic characters and static characters, and I would argue that Brasso is a static character. However, that is not necessarily a bad thing—if done right, there is a place for static characters like Brasso. In Brasso we see the good of the world, we see that not everyone is bad, not everyone is corrupt. In Brasso we see strength in the devotion and loyalty towards family and friends, the power that small acts of rebellion can have.

Brasso never does something completely outright aggressive until the time is exactly right, he waits for Maarva’s go to attack, but it’s his small actions that no one really sees that I think have the most meaning. He is the one to tamper with the ship in the first arc, that small bit of tampering sent home the message to the Corporate soldiers— never underestimate the power of community.

Luthen:

A man living two lives, one as a rebel and another as an eccentric shop-keep, Luthen is forced to make the difficult decisions. He is the one forced to call a hit on Cassian (at this point of the story, for all Luthen knew, Cassian could very easily take the vital Rebel information he had to the Empire, jeopardizing the movement). Luthen makes the decision to allow a group of rebels to die in order to protect the insider that he had within the ISB ( basically the Star Wars version of the CIA, further discussion of this provided below in the U.S. Government section). Luthen is such a vital character for the Rebel Alliance, while I just discussed how Cassian plays puppet master and makes things happen, Luthen does just that on a much larger scale.

Luthen doesn’t try to be palatable for the more moderate. When Mothma comes to him upset about Aldhani, he doesn’t flinch. When Lonni comes to Luthen, one of the first things he does is mention his daughter to him. The thing about Luthen is that if we didn’t know for a fact that he was on the good side or see any of his intentions, he could be an antagonist. His ways are not the cleanest, but he knows this. This is what he talks about for his sacrifice: in probably one of the best monologues of the show, Luthen explains how he has sacrificed everything from his potential happiness to his morals for the rebellion. He knows how far he’s gone and what that means for him, but we also know that if it’s not Luthen, then it’ll be someone else making those difficult decisions and living with the guilt. Andor doesn’t have morally gray villains, but it does have morally gray protagonists. Luthen and his operation is a prime example of that. Andor shows that, as aptly put by @captjynandor on tumblr, “when you live in a world where existing incorrectly can get you killed, sometimes you have to make the bad choice to survive.” We see this with Cassian, some of his first scenes showing him killing two Pre-Mor employees in order to survive. We see this most strongly with Luthen’s plan at Aldhani, his motivation to kill Cassian, and how he treats Lonni - objectively seen as immoral, but with a glimpse of the bigger picture, we see that it’s necessary.

For all that makes Luthen great, some argue that one of his greatest flaws is thinking similar to the Empire. Meaning, he tends to look over the smaller people. He only looks for people that have larger personalities, like Mothma or Cassian. The realization of his flaw hit him during Episode 12 when he saw that simply the speech of an old woman brought down the strength of an entire town. He saw that the little people can make so much of the difference and saw the power of community. However, there is a different viewpoint on this scene provided by @kanansdume on tumblr. Luthen knows what he’s doing, he knows that what he does on Aldhani will anger the Empire, he knows that the Empire will cause more people to suffer, and he knows that means more people will be angry. He says this explicitly. What he saw in Maarva and the townspeople was not that she was able to accomplish what he didn’t, but rather showing him that his work and sacrifice had paid off. What truly shook him was that he never expected to be able to see the effects of his actions on people. He doesn’t know that Maarva was directly inspired by the heist on Aldhani, but here he sees that impact. It’s not that he never expected the common people to fight back or that he underestimated them, but rather the opposite. He was fully banking on it. He knew what the common people could accomplish, and for him to be able to see that first hand was likely unexpected. I personally like this interpretation better because it makes more sense for his character and story and the ideas that Andor is trying to present.

Maarva:

Maarva, the best mother Cassian could’ve had, is arguably the strongest woman portrayed in the show. She decides to stay and fight, she is the one that makes the decision that Ferrix needs to fight back, and she decides it when she knows she will not have the strength to see it through. Maarva is old, she says this herself, she can no longer afford the time to run, she’s too tired. At the very end, she’s had enough, and she is the one that rallies the town to fight the Empire. The last thing Maarva told Cassian (through Brasso) was “Tell him none of this was 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.” Maarva knows Cassian on such a deep level, she knows what he’s gone through and what he’s capable of. Maarva knew deep down that Cassian would be important to the rebels, and here we see a reference to what he is in Rogue One. Andor is before he realizes his full potential and before he “wakes up”, as Maarva says. In Rogue One, we see him take advantage of both his knowledge and emotions and is shown to be the zealot we know him to be.

“Tell him I love him more than anything he could ever do wrong.” She gives Cassian unconditional love, showing him what love and safety feel like. Maarva took Cassian from Kenari to save him, then proceeded to show him what a home was.

While similar to Brasso in passion and reliability, Maarva’s characterization happens most through her words whilst Brasso’s was through his actions. Maarva’s speech and her words to Cassian tell us so much about her and her relationships, as well as her importance to the story. She speaks out to the crowd, telling them it’s time to wake up. It’s a metaphor she uses often, she says “The Empire is a disease that thrives in darkness, it is never more alive than we sleep.” Her point is that for the oppressed, they cannot afford the time to relax. In order to win their freedom they need to use every chance they get, because the Empire will never stop. They are the oppressors and as Nemik says, it is unnatural and it requires constant upkeep (more on this later in the Nemik and Skeen section). There will never be a time where the Empire takes a rest because it knows it can’t afford it, so the only way to counteract that is by making them sweat, by stretching the Empire thin.

Bee:

Bee, the lovable droid who means so much to those around him. He has been with Maarva as a companion since the beginning, and his physical deterioration reflects Maarva’s as well. Maarva tells Cassian that she’s gotten tired and she can’t move around much anymore. We see that in Bee as well, he has aged and now constantly needs to recharge. I really like this aspect they show about the droids, because in the world of Star Wars, droids are basically another race. It ties into how they respect and acknowledge the emotions of the droids and treat them with dignity. It is clearly shown that the Empire only really respects humans. Any other species, including droids, are neglected and disrespected. Not even all humans are treated properly; we see the way the Empire treats the indigenous people of Aldhani, commenting on their smell and talking about controlling them. What Andor shows with Bee and how he is treated by those around him is that discrimination is something of the Empire. This is really important to show in Andor because in Rogue One, K-2SO was one of the main side characters who was pushing for the rights of droids. Here, with Bee, we see that Cassian and the Rebellion are always ones to respect other people. (Bee is not the only example of this, Commander Gorn’s treatment of the same Aldhani natives that the Empire disregarded is another good example.)

Bee is the one Cassian relies on, when everyone else relies on Cassian. When he tells Bee, “I’m counting on you,” Bee responds, “You always say that.” What does Cassian say? “And you always come through.” Cassian knows how important having someone who holds the heart of the group is. He saw how quickly Skeen fell awry when Nemik got gravely injured, and for Cassian, Bee is that heart. He is the one that keeps everyone going, the one that grounds everyone. When everyone is looking to Cassian for solutions and for help, Bee is the one he goes to to make sure that everybody he cares about is safe. Bee is the one he trusts.

Nemik and Skeen:

Nemik’s one of the truest believers in the cause. When he said “Tyranny requires constant effort. Authority is brittle. It breaks, it leaks. Oppression is the mask of fear. Remember that.'' (Nemik’s manifesto, Episode 12), he was calling ordinary people to arms. Not ordinary people the way Cassian or of the others in the official Rebel Alliance are ordinary, but ordinary people who are not affiliated with any sort of organization. One of the beautifully shown parts of Andor was the way the small people did their own little things to fight back. From the sign language on Narkina 5, to Brasso tampering with the Pre-Mor ship, to the people of Ferrix making noise to psych out the Pre-Mor authorities, to Wilmon Paak building a pipe bomb to use against the Empire, none of these connected with each other besides fighting the fascism of the Empire. Nemik understands this, because he, like all of these people, have been radicalized from their experiences of just simply trying to survive the oppression (@spicysucculentz on tumblr).

One of my favorite lines from Nemik is one of his last lines where he says in his manifesto, “Remember this. Try.” It juxtaposes one of the more famous lines from the franchise, from when Yoda scolds Luke, “Do or do not. There is no try.” Likely, the reason for this difference is in the supernatural. Yoda and Luke are connected to an external, supernatural entity— the Force. But for people like Nemik, normal people who don’t have access to the Force, they can’t afford the binary, the finality of “Do or do not.” They are simply trying to survive, to get through (@killsandthrills on tumblr). In fact, it is because of the average people that the Rebel Alliance was able to become what it was by the time of the original trilogy. The reason why Luke had the cushion of support was because of the efforts of people like Nemik. Luke needed to be able to succeed, fully, but the only way he was able to have that opportunity to finally win is because the Rebel Alliance was already built up by the people who were just trying to do whatever they could to survive.

Skeen was fascinating to me. I originally wrote him off as a kind of bully: the man who would butt heads with Cassian, the guy who wasn’t fully bought into the Rebellion quite yet. Part of that ended up being true, he wasn’t bought in. But we only truly see this part of him that places himself against the world after Nemik is shown to be near death (with slim chances of surviving). We see a sibling-type dynamic between Nemik and Skeen where they’re friendly and playful. And maybe Nemik was helping Skeen start to believe in the cause near the end, but the thing that ripped it away for him was Nemik’s fatal injury. We see their banter, but when Nemik gets hurt, Skeen starts to panic. He is the one cradling Nemik’s head and the one to convince Cassian to go for the doctor. “This kid— he is the reason why we are here” (Episode 6); Skeen knows that Nemik’s passion and ideas are important for progress, he knows that Nemik is the heart and soul of the group. When he started to believe in the cause, Skeen started to feel hope again after a long period of time. But Nemik’s death brought him back to his childhood of pain and fighting. This happens so clearly in front of us, where he went from panicking to cynical when Nemik’s at the doctor’s. Skeen says, “Yeah, luck. It’s what drives the whole damn galaxy.” He references how he doesn’t choose his life, the life of struggling when others were born into wealth and privilege. This is the moment where he goes back to what I imagine would be a younger, angrier Skeen. Convinced that he can’t do anything to change the world he becomes selfish, saying that the only rebellion he cares about is his against the world. Even as he tries to convince Cassian to take the money for themselves, it sounds like he’s also trying to convince himself of what he’s doing.

Mon Mothma:

Mon Mothma is a perfect example of someone who chose the rebellion. She was not born into it, she was raised privileged in a system that married her off young. Mon Mothma used the tools of the Empire against them, using her power to advocate for those being hurt by the Empire’s laws. She used her family wealth to donate to the rebellion, and she faked evidence of her husband’s gambling problem because she knows they’re listening to her. On top of this, as @kanansdume on tumblr pointed out, neither Perrin (her husband) nor Blevin realize that Mothma could be lying. She has put up this front of being just a general nuisance, of being very worrisome and concerned about her image. “She showed the stone in her hand, but everyone missed the knife at their throat, just as she said they would.”

Aside: The Empire is listening to Mothma but none of the smaller people because they make the mistake of forgetting that the small people can make a community and fight back. They don’t listen in to the conversations of the prisoners because, as Cassian says, they don’t need to. They have such a strong grip on the prisoners that they believed that they didn’t need to worry about them or listen to them. But that’s not the case with Mothma. She is a Senator, to their eyes, she poses the most danger. She has money and influence, and to the Empire that’s all that matters. However, in reality, the smaller people ended up being more dangerous to the Empire’s rule than Mothma did. Yes, she was funding the rebellion for some time, but when that fell through, Luthen made a way to get the money anyway.

Mon Mothma is shown to reject some of the traditional values of her culture. Originally following these values, she married young to a man that she is now constantly butting heads with, stuck in a unsupportive, unhappy marriage Because of this, she has tried to encourage her daughter away from those values, but because she’s a Senator and almost always busy she ends up being a distant mother, and her daughter rebels against her. Instead, she is actively moving towards those same values Mothma tried to pull herself away from (@rebelsofshield on tumblr). It clearly hurts Mothma to see her daughter doing this but she knows trying to further control her would also not work. And while she tries not to encourage it, her financial position and the rebellion have all but forced her hand into making a decision that she was not prepared to make.

Kino and Melshi:

We see Kino’s radicalization happen in the span of a single episode. Kino tries so hard to be an ideal prisoner, he follows the rules, keeps his men in line, and is banking on getting out of there alive. He has built his mind completely around the fact of obeying the Empire. He is so concerned about even talking about breaking out or musing about it because he’s worried that someone is listening in. The use of the line, “How many guards on each floor?” is used to show the process of radicalization. In the beginning of Episode 9, he refuses to respond or even humor Cass. The last lines of the episode are exchanged between Cassian and Kino - “How many guards on each floor?” “Never more than twelve”. Here we see a man angry and broken. He tried so hard to be a good prisoner but with the knowledge that they were never getting out, that when a man’s sentence is up they just send him to the other side of the prison, that is the thing that crushes Kino and makes him turn. He realizes even when playing with the rules of the Empire, there is no winning. When in a game where the other side is an empire, an organization so big as a government, playing by their rules means nothing to them. They will continue to hurt and commit atrocities and do injustice, and it’s only the act of disobedience that brings change. Going on peacefully changes nothing, it just makes you all the more easier for them to ignore. But if you cause a problem? If you are even a bit of nuisance, the slightest bit of a thorn? That is when change will come.

Kino in the end never made it out of the prison, when all was done and everyone was running out, we find out that Kino can’t swim (we know that the prison itself is in the middle of a lake). He goes through everything, he rallies the entire prison, but in the end he can’t swim, he doesn’t make it out of there. It’s the theme of the show, sacrifice for a sunrise they’ll never get to see. This is Kino’s.

Melshi, a man we see from the beginning who is already radicalized. He tries to give Cassian a reality check, which was so jarring especially after the introduction to the system, the game that was the prison. That the floors and tables that did the best would get flavor with their food instead of bland food. It’s portrayed as an upside to the prison, to make us think, “Oh this isn’t so bad, it could be worse,” until Melshi comes in and grounds Cassian. He tells him to never look at the numbers, because that is the way they control their prisoners, by giving them hope of freedom, by showing them the days passing and the number going down. Kino pushes Melshi back and tells him to shut up, because Kino is afraid of what those ideas will bring. As far as we see, Melshi is the only one besides Cassian to make it out alive, and we never know if Melshi was able to tell more people about the injustices of the prison.

Syril and His Mother:

Syril grew up in a system where he’s been so blind-sided, so steeped in propaganda, he genuinely thinks he is the good guy. Syril and his mother are examples of people who have bought into the lies of the Empire. He is one that believes that the Empire has genuinely brought peace, and that he is protecting that peace. He hasn’t known difficulty the way Cassian and any of the other rebels have, because his entire world was entrenched in the Empire and he’s known nothing else. Even when he gets screwed over by the system he is working so hard to protect, he still doesn’t try to think critically about this system.

The way he latches on to Dedra in his mind as the one person who has saved him is telling. He is craving for someone to lead him and becomes near obsessed with her. He starts basically stalking her, and there’s some weird tension between the two of them in several scenes. (I have no idea why or what to say about this, it was an observation and an uncomfortable one. I have an idea for nearly everything else, except for this.)

Something that @captjynandor on tumblr points out is that those of the Empire aren’t morally gray. Typically, villains in these types of stories are morally gray, shown to have some other motive or intention that is better, but we don’t see that in Star Wars with the villains. Syril grew up in an emotionally manipulative household but that isn’t portrayed as an excuse for his actions. He is very clearly shown to be an awful person because he wants that power and control over others and because he enjoys it.

As Ben Lindbergh on The Ringer mentioned, Syril is a zealot who wants to stand out in a uniform for an Empire that stresses conformity. For most of the season, Syril doesn’t seem to be going in any direction--all we know about him is that he’s incredibly passionate about what he does. It makes us wonder: if Syril happened to be born to a different family, maybe one outside the Empire, how likely is it that he would’ve become a rebellion? If he hadn’t been born into a family and indoctrinated into the Empire, would he have been against the Empire? There was a period of a few episodes in the middle of Syril’s arc in which it seemed as though it was possible that he may become radicalized. We see him fall due to corruption (he knows it’s corruption), and we see him relatively unhappy in a job that is the definition of a corporate nightmare. But because he has a one-track mind (like Cassian sometimes tends to have), he doesn’t try to question the system but rather throws himself right back into it and begins to climb once again. Syril is a symbol of blind faith, the product of indoctrination and manipulation of the Empire.

The Significance of Narkina 5:

The purpose of the prison was to bring down the prisoners to be only focused on fighting each other instead of the system, but it doesn’t work. Narkina 5 was built to control its inmates. They had several modes of this, the most obvious one being that prisoners were forced to walk barefoot on a floor that could be triggered to electrocute them at any point in time. However the other ways they tried to control were more subtle and nefarious. First, they made a reward system to benefit the most efficient inmate, in order to pit them against each other. The reward system? The winning table would get flavor. Flavor. Not something necessary, not something they cared about. All it was, was psychological manipulation. Not only this, but they would display each inmate's running total of how many days left in the prison they had. As they later learned, this number was arbitrary, once your number went to zero they would just put you on another side of the building. Seeing this number go down by one each day would give them a false sense of hope, some motivation to keep moving forward.

However, this all failed. It didn’t work. The inmates figured out the prison system, then worked together as a cohesive unit to break out. No one turned on each other, they all knew one vital thing and that was that they were all either going to live together or die together. I think the fact that Andor did this, undermining all the prison tropes where the prisoners have to prove themselves, is wonderful (@horatio-fig on tumblr). There are no gangs, just a sense of brotherhood. And this is where the show disproves Skeen’s assertion. Skeen claimed that the way someone survives in an unwelcoming environment is by “climbing over the other guy to get out.” But with Narkina 5 we see that, no, in times of difficulty, the way to survive is by climbing out with the other guy, so that you both get out (@tiarnanabhfainni on tumblr). The prisoners all support one another, and that is human nature. It is not natural for humanity to fight one another, however it is natural for humans to bond with any group they can.

Quick aside about Narkina 5, the planet itself. When Melshi and Cassian are escaping, they catch sight of an alien aircraft and they make a run for it to steal it. They get caught very easily by said aliens, but instead of them being hostile, they help the pair escape. This is such a good detail because it shows that Narkina 5 wasn’t always a place fit for prisons, it was once someone’s home. We don’t see a lot of aliens in Andor but this is such a beautiful representation of the fact that anyone who is not part of the Empire is against it (because the Empire has screwed over so many people) (@kanansdume on tumblr).

The Significance of the Construction of the Death Star:

As @captainofthetidesbreath on tumblr explains, “Yes, Cassian was forced to make parts for the weapon that would ultimately kill him,” but he also had a direct hand in subsequently destroying the very thing that would’ve wrought destruction, the thing he was forced to build against his will, and the event that turns the tides in favor of the Rebel Alliance. The time that he managed to stall the construction was crucial. In Rogue One, the margin of error they had was like threading a needle. The time that Cassian was able to stall the production of the Death Star, even unknowingly, was likely crucial in providing the time for the Rebellion to get the Death Star plans off of the planet.

The Portrayal of Capitalism:

We see the importance of money from the beginning; in this system, no one can do anything or go anywhere without it. We see people in jobs, having schedules working around those jobs and still making time to fight a rebellion in between the times where they have to make a living. One of the first major objectives for Cassian is to get money. Yes, in previous star wars movies they did mention money, but it never seemed to be much of an issue for the characters. It was never a legitimate barrier they had to cross.

Not only do we see the effect of capitalism, but we also see the institutions. The place that Syril ends up going to for work has all the tell tale signs of a corporation. Hell, even before that, Syril worked for Pre-Mor whom everyone called the “Corpos”. He then goes on to work for the Empire in an environment that is so stereotypically corporate: “Everyone matters”, the cubicles, the monotony of the design, everyone wearing the same outfit, they’re all being constantly supervised, using previous familial connections to gain an upper hand, etc. Even the apartments that Syril and his mother live in have the signs of a capitalistic environment. The whole show is a testament to the consequences of oppression and this is one of the best ways they show that. The oppression of capitalism is about benefiting the big man on top by using the time and labor of the little people below. It is a system built on keeping those born without privilege disadvantaged. And so how do we see them fighting back? Brasso using his job in the shipyard to tamper with the Pre-Mor ship, Salman Paak using his storefront as a cover for Bix to signal Luthen, Bix using her business as a cover for the fact that she’s buying and selling stolen Imperial parts - to name a few. They use the system that screws them over to fight back against the same people stepping on them.

Similarity to the U.S. Government:

Here is the illusion of choice, being told that you are in a democracy while there is a facet of the government that is essentially left unchecked. The Senate in the Star Wars government is really interesting, because it is revealed that the people vote for those in the Senate, and while the Senators are allowed to make noise and advocate for change, we don’t see how they truly have any effect. Who has the most power? The ISB. And is the ISB regulated in any sort of way? Not at all. So what would the ISB equivalent be? The CIA. The CIA, something the people cannot control, known to have actively traffic drugs into black communities in order to control them (similar to the ISB leading along cultures in order to control them) and have recruited Nazis (similar to ISB and the Empire in general in how they treat other cultures and races that they see as “other”, and the genocide of several societies). When all’s said and done, if the government wants something done they go to the CIA (ISB) to do it, since they are technically not controlled by the people.

If you do not let your prisoners vote, those in power now have strong motivation to imprison their enemies. This is a very basic rule in civics, something we see in both the United States as well as The Empire. The Empire is actively sending out people to capture Rebels and anyone who is remotely against the Empire, since they don’t let any news of what happens inside the prisons reach the outside and because they don’t allow their prisoners to vote. The reason why the levels of incarceration is so high in the United States is because slavery is legal in prison— this loophole in the 13th Amendment provided ample motive for the US government to imprison people of color or those who would stand against them. In a similar line of thought, the portrayal of the prison-industrial complex in Andor is brilliant. The prison-industrial complex is the idea of the relationship between a government and the various businesses that benefit from the institute of incarceration. We see that the government directly benefits from having people incarcerated, and not just because they are keeping supposed criminals, but because they are attempting to build something they will profit off of. They have incentive to imprison people for more petty crimes for longer sentences because they need to generate a self-replenishing workforce to build the Death Star. This sounds somewhat familiar because that is similar to what the CIA did with black communities.

As mentioned previously, the 13th Amendment provided the loophole that slavery was legal in prison. Because they still wanted to use slavery, they needed to get people into jail. So they trafficked drugs into black communities, which destroyed them and stunted their ability to grow and heal. But the CIA didn’t stop there because they needed a workforce, so then they went on to criminalize drugs, and imprison anyone who was involved with anything drug related. But even if people make it out of prison, getting a job is near impossible at that point, and so they fall back onto crime in order to survive. And then they go back to prison where slavery is legal. It is a vicious circle meant to cripple a population and profit the government.

Not meant to be political, eh Gilroy?

The Tragedy of Rogue One

Cassian Andor goes through hell and back, orphaned at a young age and taken from his sister and home planet while the rest of his people are killed. His life is nowhere near easy, and time after time he is roped into rebel activity. Eventually working for the rebellion on his own motivation, he goes through a whole character arc; again and again, he watches people die for a cause that they will never see come to fruition. He makes bonds with these people and gets close to them, only to see them die. Despite this, he learns that it’s worth it, is prepared to do the same (“Kill me or take me in”), and he realizes that everyone makes a difference, all of the small and big acts. And in the end, he does die for it. At the end of Rogue One, he dies. All of his friends die.

But the tragedy? He had finally, finally, reached happiness. After years of running and fighting in a war that he had no choice but to participate in, he finally finds love: Jyn Erso. And something we’re shown in the show is that he goes through trial after trial, just barely surviving. He survives the attack on his planet, then the attack on his home, then the prison break, then the manhunt- no matter what, he always survives. He always finds a way to keep going, even when things seem dire. Every single time. Except for one. Except for that last time on the beach, when they knew they were about to be killed by the Death Star, what did he do? He sat on that beach with Jyn Erso, and they held each other, knowing that this is the only time that they would be able to spend with each other as a couple. They sat there on that beach and faced death, together, peacefully, after succeeding. They won and they knew it and they knew they would never get to see it and they knew that they would never truly get to be together and that was okay.

#holy hell #thank you so much for reading #counter arguments welcomed #if i told you i was going to credit you and i accidentally didn't lmk #this show has a choke hold on me #sorry for the long post #andor #cassian andor #star wars #show analysis #aaaaaaa

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