Andor Star Hopes Mon Mothma's ‘Death of Truth' Speech Resonates During Today's Times
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This week on Disney+'s Andor, Season 2's ninth episode revolved around Senator Mon Mothma (played by franchise vet Genevieve O'Reilly) doing her best to open the Imperial Senate's eyes to the catastrophes unfolding on Ghorman.
As chronicled in Episode 8, a calculated massacre of hundreds of locals has taken place, to distract from — and ultimately justify — the Empire's aggressive and eventually calamitous extraction of valuable calcite from Ghorman. What started out as a civil protest was purposely steered into becoming a firefight, but more accurately an ambush the Ghor congregated in the plaza had no chance of surviving.
'Fellow senators, friends, colleagues, allies, adversaries… I stand this morning with a difficult message. I believe we are in crisis,' Mon Mothma pronounced, after colleague Bail Organa (Benjamin Bratt) used a point of order to finagle her some speaking time.
'The distance between what is said and what is known to be true has become an abyss,' the Chandrilan senator declared. 'Of all the things at risk, the loss of an objective reality is perhaps the most dangerous. The death of truth the ultimate victory of evil. When truth leaves us, when we let it slip away, when it is ripped from our hands, we become vulnerable to the appetite of whatever monster screams the loudest.'
Bringing the very recent, aforementioned events to the fore, 'This Chamber's hold on the truth was finally lost on the Ghorman Plaza,' Mon Mothma said. 'What took place yesterday… what happened yesterday on Ghorman…. was unprovoked genocide. Yes! Genocide! And that truth has been exiled from this Chamber! And the monster screaming the loudest, the monster we helped create, the monster who will come for us all, soon enough… is Emperor Palpatine!'
The loss of an objective reality? A chasm between what is true and what is claimed to be true? A monster we helped create?
TVLine asked O'Reilly if she expects Mon Mothma's speech to 'hit home' for those in the real world, during these contentious times.
'I hope so,' the Irish-born Aussie answered. 'I hope people can resonate with not just the speech but in relation to what comes before it, within the structure of the piece.
'I feel like [this speech] happens at a moment where everyone is being pushed to a tipping point,' she continued — and for Mon Mothma specifically, 'that is the moment that she has to cross the rubicon. In every revolution, there's a tipping point; for Mon Mothma, that's hers.'
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