Is Andor the best thing to come out of the Star Wars universe?
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Andor, the latest prequel series in the Star Wars franchise, just wrapped up its second and final season. The Disney+ show takes a deep dive into both the Rebel Alliance's and the Galactic Empire's operations, many of which seem eerily familiar to real life governments and political movements.
Today on Commotion, host Elamin Abdelmahmoud speaks with critics Lyvie Scott and Rad Simonpillai about their thoughts on Andor 's series finale and what it says about our current reality.
We've included some highlights below, edited for length and clarity. For the full discussion, listen and follow Commotion with Elamin Abdelmahmoud on your favourite podcast player.
WATCH | Today's episode on YouTube:
You can listen to the full discussion from today's show on CBC Listen or on our podcast, Commotion with Elamin Abdelmahmoud, available wherever you get your podcasts.
Elamin: A big part of the acclaim that people have given Andor is that has so directly spoken to some of the larger socio-political themes of the moment. We're talking from the plight of migrant farmers, state-sponsored genocide, to the moral toll that revolutions can actually have on their supporters. Lyvie, what was the theme that stood out the most for you?
Lyvie: I think the idea that fascism doesn't protect you, that uplifting this system of oppression doesn't stop you from becoming one of the oppressed. And I think we see this the most with Dedra Meero's character. I think she's played by Denise Gough, and she's one of my favourites. I just love the face that she makes, this kind of smearing face…. But she's been dedicating her whole life to keeping the Imperial machine running, but time and again, she's brutalized and degraded by her superiors. And we see this the most in Season 2, I think, all of these microaggressions that she faces, being a woman in the Empire. And there's this hilarious scene at the end, in the final arc where Krennic places his finger on her on the top of her head — and it's already becoming a meme. But you really think about where she ends up, after years of giving her all and you think about how this sexism is just hitting her from all sides, no matter what she does and it's tragic. It's this compelling reason to push against those systems instead of letting them rule us or supporting them outright, and I really appreciated that exploration this season.
Elamin: I think we're used to [ Star Wars ] being a place where good guys have a lightsaber that looks like this and bad guys have lightsaber that looks like this, but this is not a show that is doing that. This is a show that is actually very interested in those political mechanics. So Rad, one of the most talked about episodes revolves around the Empire's use of the word "genocide," but also around the use of genocide itself to extract minerals from a planet that they need to fuel the Death Star. You wrote a whole piece for The Guardian that was inspired by that episode. What stood out for you about that episode?
Rad: It's the fact that only in a Star Wars storyline like that can we have something that speaks directly to what's happening right now in Gaza, right? Only in a galaxy far, far away could a popular piece of art today say the word "genocide" out loud like that, you know? And of course, people have been watching Andor and seeing the struggle for Palestinians from the beginning, even in that first season with its depiction of occupation forces and illegal settlements and mass incarcerations. I mean, it was all there, not just speaking to the Palestinian struggle, but any number of conflicts throughout history involving colonial forces. It just became so pronounced this season the way the Empire would instigate this conflict on this fictional planet Ghorman, the way the media would then paint Ghormans as terrorists and give these one-sided narratives. And the way the Empire tried … to shut down the broadcast for calling a genocide "a genocide" and try to finally suppress all that stuff. So you saw in reaction to that moment, social media sort of stood still, like, "Did she say that? Did they just do that?" It's so incredible that you have a show like this go that far. But also it's unfortunate that can only happen in a setting like a galaxy far, far away.
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