#but rn andor is the only one i'm actively doing it for

[muppetjackrackham]

also psa that i will do my absolute best to try and tag spoilers for andor with the tag #andor spoilers but i am also human and i might forget from time to time so if you’re following me and don’t want spoilers for andor just. be advised

[canichangemyblogname]

OKAY. So I have not yet finished the first 3 episodes of Andor and I know there are so many amazing gifs and discussions I'm missing rn because I still have the tags blocked to avoid spoilers.

Below the cut, I am going to share one of my favorite things (so far) about the show at only 2 episodes in. Warning for Andor spoilers.

I am enjoying how these two episodes have so far portrayed the role that white people and the every-day person play in upholding oppressive and authoritarian regimes.

And I bet you think that I am going to start to talk about Syril Karn, and the role his ambition, dedication, and commitment to order and rules and a strict sense of right and wrong play in the upholding of an authoritarian regime. But I'm not. Because Deputy Inspector Karn is the quintessential, even archetypal, authoritarian sycophant that white people think of when they think of who plays a role in the conservation of injustice and tyranny. When you ask a white person to think of a fascist or of someone who upholds an unjust, tyrannical system, they may often imagine a man in uniform. They imagine an officer, someone with more status, or someone with rank. *Those* are the people who actively uphold unjust systems.

They don't, however, imagine the mechanic down the street. He never crosses their mind as someone who is capable of, willing to, or even a participant in the maintenance of authoritarianism or inequity or injustice or the surveillance state.

Syril Karn is predictable to white people-- to everyone. We know what he is going to do. And I found myself exhausted by his persistence, but generally uninvested in the question of whether or not his character will make the morally right choices. Because I know he won't. He's making the morally correct choices according to the system he exists within, but the morally wrong choices according to the reality we live in. He's a "good guy" according to the ruling power base and the Preox-Morlana corporate authority, but we the viewer know he is the main antagonist and is making choices we should be morally opposed to. And we know he isn't going to make decisions we morally approve of. Why? Because he is the quintessential authoritarian lackey.

But Timm Karlo? He's just your average guy, right? And every time he appeared on screen, I felt like I was was mentally debating with and berating a brick wall about making a morally correct decision. And, so far, he repeatedly hasn't (unsurprisingly). He has repeatedly chosen the "morally correct" course of action *according to* the ruling power base and the Preox-Morlana corporate authority, but the morally incorrect course of action according to the reality we live in and the context from which we viewers are consuming this show.

I think I know where his character is going. I knew that he wasn't going to let up. I knew he was going to continue to stick his nose where it didn't belong. I didn't have hope that he would actually make the correct decisions. That's why I felt like I was berating a brick wall. Because I knew nothing I said or did would get through to him because 1.) he's a fictional character inside a TV show, and 2.) he's your average white guy who feels spurned.

When he first decided to follow Bix Caleen, I literally cringed in the same way someone might when they're watching a gory horror movie. Honestly? I was getting second hand embarrassment. My coworker asked what was wrong after my very visceral reaction (I may have watched half an episode during my lunch, don't judge), and my response was, "I'm watching a white man stick his nose in brown people's business." I commented that he was going to get himself and all of them in trouble because he couldn't mind his own and he couldn't be trusted not to run to the cops, either. And I was right. Because he essentially turns Cassian in. He is the anonymous tip that is going to lead the authorities to Cassian, Bix, the buyer, and even him. In doing the "morally" correct thing according to the system he exists in, he was going to endanger everyone he loves and himself. Why? Jealousy? Because he felt threatened by Cassian? Because he was suspicious and insecure? It's going to cost him everything, namely Bix.

Timm plays an integral role in the surveillance state and the control that the government maintains over the populace. "If you see something, say something" doesn't work if no one's saying anything. But at the same time, if everyone's afraid and suspicious of their neighbor, what community do you have to organize against injustice? Your neighbor is a part of the surveillance state and they think you are too. Whether it's insecurity or a strict sense of right and wrong, there will be people driven to uphold the status quo. Timm is the spy next door.

There are countless stories of real people who lived under authoritarian regimes talking about the danger and importance of dinner parties. One glass too many and you might let something slip. There are stories of people who kept secrets from their spouses for years. There are stories of people who had a friendly chat with a neighbor and the police showed up the next morning. There are stories of someone muttering under their breath in a public space and the person sitting next to them at the train station or the coffee shop either demands their papers or turns them in.

When white people think of who upholds and plays a part in an oppressive system, they think of officers who pull the triggers or force prisoners to dig graves. They don't think of a woman who knits socks for her son on the front, or a neighbor or lover or confidant who tips off the authorities maybe out of insecurity or maybe out of a misplaced hope of protecting their own, or the towns people who ignore prison camps or labor camps. They don't consider the "small" actions or the inaction or the normalization of surveillance.

And that is why it's so important we see Timm Karlos on screen portrayed in the way he is as an insecure and maybe petty man who can't be bothered to mind his own or play it cool or trust his significant other. It's important that he's not portrayed as a completely morally upright or completely morally corrupt person, but as a very average man who will make questionable decisions and, like the average white person, has a stake in the preservation of the status quo.