STAR WARS HAS always been political, no matter what the MAGA types who cosplay as Imperial agents and scream about Disney shoving diversity into “their Star Wars” say.
The original trilogy showed a band of anti-imperialist fighters going up against a vicious pan-galactic state — based, according to its creator George Lucas, on the Vietnam War, with the Viet Cong “rebels” going up against the United States “Empire.”
The prequels showed the transformation of the Galactic Republic into the Galactic Empire of the original trilogy. In 2018, during Donald Trump’s first administration, James Cameron interviewed Lucas about Star Wars’ anti-authoritarian messaging, highlighting a line spoken by Senator Padmé Amidala as Emperor Palpatine declares that the Republic is now an Empire: “So this is how liberty dies, with thunderous applause.”
Lucas sold Star Wars to Disney in 2012 and hasn’t been involved in production since then, but Andor, the new series set in the universe, doubles down on its anti-authoritarian roots, focusing on the creation of the revolutionary Rebel Alliance. In the process, it gives us a glimpse into the messiness and conflict that often accompanies building a movement on the left, as activists fight over which political philosophies and strategies work best.
You must log in or register to comment.
Disney can’t lobby in front of politicians anymore?
Nah. I would like to be proven wrong, but Americans have been lobotomised by media from all sources to accept their misery and slave themselves to oligarchs.
To me is that they’ve been conditioned to believe that change requires some hero-type to show up and save the day.
YES AND THE PACK IS THAT MONSTER, BORTHER
ARRRROOOOO!!!
I fell into the category where I just stopped caring about all these Star Wars projects and never watched it. When the 2nd season came out, I realized a lot of friends had said it’s actually really good and decided to give it a shot. I absolutely loved it. I loved the themes and thought this did a way better job portraying just how dire the times were in this universe. I am also a sucker for spy and espionage movies, and this was up there with the best.
I am so glad I ended up giving it a shot, and I’m sad that I think there’s a lot more people like me who won’t end up watching it due to not trusting the content coming out anymore.
I also almost skipped it. Glad I didn’t. I enjoyed season 1 very much so far, haven’t yet started season 2. Andor is great because it’s much different from “normal” Star Wars. It’s simply a great story with good acting and doesn’t have much of the “cringe” or high fantasy stuff from Star Wars and is full of great writing with lots of relatable references to today’s political issues. It’s also much more mature than classical Star Wars which appeals more to kids. It kind of stands on its own as a great sci-fi story of the beginning of a rebellion against an evil and almighty empire. And even if Andor should become worse over time, season 1 at least is very good and can be watched in isolation from the rest. “The Mandalorian” is also decent but I enjoyed Andor even more. I’d say Andor is the best output from Star Wars in existence today, by a big margin. Trailing behind that are “The Mandalorian” and the movie “Rogue One”. If you normally don’t like Star Wars, you can still safely watch Andor and/or these two and just ignore everything else from the franchise. IMHO of course.
It’s great because it hardly resembles Star Wars. There’s no chosen one (OK, season 2 sort of makes Andor into someone chosen by The Force, but it’s vague enough that maybe it’s just saying it’s around him because of what he’s done/become), no lighsabers, barely any of The Force, there’s mass murder of civilians on screen, and I’m pretty sure they even included an anologue for Walt Disney himself as a master of propoganda assisting The Empire, just like the real Walt and Fascists.
It’s good because they have a passionate team, and they seem to have been given almost complete freedom. Disney isn’t breathing down their necks telling them what to or not to include. They just want to tell a story about rebellion in our world, but use the Star Wars backdrop to trick people into watching it and agreeing with it when they maybe wouldn’t initially if it were using imagery from our world.
I pressured a friend of mine into watching Andor; they were reluctant because they knew very little of Star Wars, but they loved it. Andor pulls off the impressive feat of making something that’s enjoyable to Star Wars fans and casuals/non-fans alike
BTW this is why us old lore fans got so pissy when Disney reset everything. While Andor is probably an improvement on its old lore equivalent there are entire books and comics dedicated to this type of shit.
I ended up finally giving it a shot last month, and I recall having seen stuff about season 2.
I finished season 1 in 2 days, and then found out season 2 hadn’t quite come out yet.
Then I did what I always do and waited for all the episodes to come out… I got halfway through season 2 before my last month I’m paying for streaming services ran out.
So now I will indefinitely be halfway through season 2.
I should have started season 2 the day the last episode was released.
You were going to stream it anyway. No VPN or torrent client needed.
Yar harr fiddeldy dee, matey 🏴☠️
On a completely unrelated note, have you ever looked at the communities on https://lemmy.dbzer0.com/ ?
I’ve lost my sea legs, unfortunately. It’s been about a decade since I set sail and at this point I’m paranoid about any online interactions.
I wouldn’t even know where to start with VPNs.
Is this what getting old feels like? Can I go back to limewire?
It’s thankfully far easier and less dangerous than the limewire days of yore, and no VPN required as long as you stream it instead of plundering the booty to your cargo hold ^^
No idea about the VPN stuff but I just don’t have the brain cells to spare for watching a Star Wars TV show. I watched the first 3 movies (Luke blows up the Death Star twice) and the first of the prequel movies (the one with Jar Jar) and gave up on the whole franchise after that. I only recently found out from Wookiepedia the amount of spin-offs and sidehows the thing has spawned. I still love this though (music video compressing the whole prequel series to 6 minutes): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hpvlTVgeivU
HYDRA has many HeaDs.
star wars, (old )trek has always been sorta of have subtle progressive message. other less known scifi(4400) is an interesting take too.
Andor is easily the best Star Wars related live action story since the original trilogy
I actually re-watched the original trilogy after watching Andor and the characters of the trilogy actually feel less relatable now than they did before and the whole thing feels somewhat shallower.
I would say that the original Star Wars movies were always “chewing gum for the brain”, whilst Andor is more of a full meal, even compared with other Star Wars TV Series (I don’t think it’s the extra time that a series has compared to a film that explains the difference).
Speaking as a middle aged person that grew up watching and loving the Original Trilogy, I think Andor is the best Star Wars visual media, period. I think the only thing that might be better in all Star Wars media is Timothy Zahn’s Thrawn books (all of them), but that might be nostalgia talking
This is, of course, my opinion. You might disagree, and that’s okay
And Rouge One is the only Disney Star Wars movie that is genuinely good.
I agree with the other comment, it is the best in general. I’m not as old as the other person, but Star Wars has been a part of my life always. I wouldn’t even say any other video media holds a light to it. Obviously the original trilogy have had more influence, but Andor does a much better job of telling a story of rebellion.
Honestly, the jedi aren’t relatable, and that’s why everything else falls flat. They’re spectacle and almost no substance. Andor is entertaining while telling essentially true stories of rebellion that have actually happened. We can see ourselves in the characters, and it’s so much more impactful because of it. They’re also not afraid to show the horrors of war, while the original series mostly handwaves it away. They show a planet blowing up, but they don’t show people suffering. They show battles, but they don’t show civilians or what happens to their loved ones. They’re just rebelling because they were written to, but they’re never actually given a reason.
I only changed my comment at the last second before posting to mention the live action, because I haven’t read the books and seen all the animated series, so didn’t want a brigade of folks who have telling me “well akshully”
So the left should start blowing things up and stealing weapons?
Where can we pick up some fighters and bombers cheap and can we keep them next to the Mayan pyramids?
Probably should have started about 9 years ago.
I don’t know if you meant to do this, but that’s literally part of the show. The people on this planet waited too long to stand up, but they still have to. Because they waited too long they’re almost all going to die, but they’ll at least die martyrs and get others to stand up before it’s too late for them.
I’m sorry did you say 24 years ago?
At that point, non-violence was an option. Unfortunately, when given both options, Americans chose “neither, we’re fine, and fuck you for being an alarmist.”
Joke’s on Andor.
The US doesn’t have a “left”
The US certainly does have a left. The left just isn’t in power. There are many leftist organizations and individuals outside the halls of power.
Eh, do we have a left in the US? Technically, yes, but it lacks all rigidity and strength.
The left is caught in a cycle of self canabalization at the moment, and anyone that I’ve seen attempting to pick up the flag and carry it forward is torn apart. People are too concerned with being ethically and morally pure so that when we’re all sitting in the gulag, they can say, “Well, at least I never compromised my values.” And I’m not saying those values aren’t important, but to have the opportunity to address those, we have several prerequisites to tackle first.
Progress is messy, and if you’re not on board, you’re holding it back.
People are too concerned with being ethically and morally pure
I’m sick to death of the idea that actually wanting the party to be better and quit sliding to the right for no gain is somehow purity testing from unreasonable people.
The people who paint progressives as throwing tantrums when they don’t get 100% of everything they wanted have had 100% of everything they wanted in every single presidential election since 2008, when they hated the idea of a Black president so much that they formed a PAC to support his opponent.
I saw a post recently that your comment reminds me of. It said something like “leftists are often more concerned about not doing anything wrong than they are about doing something good”. Along those lines, I agree with both your point and the message of the OP — that it is important now more than ever to actually do something. Mass action is more powerful than individual perfection
Said most succinctly, we need to learn to not let perfect be the enemy of good.
If the centrists do not start acting like the left, it will get bad… but I repeat myself
It is going to get bad because the Democrat leadership are all mostly old, out-of-touch, and sell out corporate stooges.
If you still think in May 2025 that your elected officials are your way out of this, you’re absolutely boned
I don’t. I am very much saying that they are not because of how ineffective the opposition party’s leadership are.
–Sent from my iPhone while I wait for others to save us
It’s kind of crazy the variety of opinions people have on Andor and Rogue One
This is beautiful - thank you for sharing!
And it’s beautifully shot.
Is Andor (I keep wanting to write it And/or) a Disney thing? Is Disney not part of the Empire? They must consider the Republic and/or Rebel Alliance to be neutralized if they are willing to sell this product.
Yes, but somehow they’ve been given a lot of freedom. There’s a character that I’m pretty sure is supposed to be Walt Disney himself aiding the Fascists to create propoganda. Tell me this isn’t him:
Capitalists have always repackaged and sold our liberatory art back to us, that isn’t new.
“The Capitalists will sell us the rope with which we will hang them.” Is a quote paraphrased from a saying attributed to Lenin.
The writers are genuine in their messaging, the corpos just don’t care. When someone slips a revolutionary message into the stream of “content,” the appropriate thing to do is to consider it, turn off the TV, and act accordingly.
Older Starwars may have been slightly political … but it had good writing and a clear storyline.
Everything Disney pukes out that is Star Wars related stinks of the extremist batshit crazy hyper left, seasoned with horrific AI level writing themes and a “destroy the past” attitude … because George Lucas still gets every fucking penny made from toys made from the older Star Wars characters.
Older Star Wars was based 1:1 on the Hero’s journey, which is a story template popularized by Joseph Campbell in his book The Hero with a Thousand Faces*.
Having a “hero” figure (Luke) makes all the complicated politics a lot easier to follow, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t there (see Lucas’ own notes), and it doesn’t make other, more challenging, styles bad.
Actually, you could say that season 1 Andor also follows the Hero’s Journey (Cassian returns after being transformed into a revolutionary), which is probs why it’s so much easier to digest.
I actually had some trouble following the story in season 2. It feels much more disjointed, but having now finished it, I do think it’s on the whole very good – just more work from the audience.
It’s like going from reading LotR to Rainbow Six.
Does my critique sound about right to you? Did you like season 1 more than 2?
* really really boring book cogito hazard
deleted by creator
