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.
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
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