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.
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