‘Andor’ Is A Litmus Test For Cynicism

There is a scene early on in Andor which sees the titular Cassian Andor essentially being lectured by a young rebel named Karis Nemik on the speed of fascism and the importance of political theory in combating it. Nemik laments, “So much going wrong, so much to say, and all of it happening so quickly. The pace of oppression outstrips our ability to understand it. And that is the real trick of the Imperial thought machine. It’s easier to hide behind forty atrocities than a single incident.”

Andor is hesitant to listen, and Nemik is even lambasted by a fellow rebel named Skeen for believing that “the only thing keeping us from liberty is a few more ideas.” Andor insists on stopping the lecture because he “knows what he’s about.” Nemik calls Andor his, “ideal reader,” and compares his newly-written manifesto for rebellion to a map of space. Claiming that they both point towards a specific destination, and that the only thing one needs to know how to do is read it.

This was the moment I knew Andor was really doing something special.

Thinking about Star Wars in any fashion, outside of a very basic qualitative way, has largely been a moot point. Sure, when George Lucas was creating the story of an Empire being undone by a group of Rebels, he may have been inspired by the United States’ unjust presence in Vietnam at the time, but within the actual text there’s rarely any interrogation of the Empire as an actual fascist regime. Sure, the prequels tried to be political but ultimately the goals of Palpatine ended up being nothing more than wanting to seize power. We didn’t learn anything about his style of governance or how he affects change within the text of those films. Darth Vader and his unsubtly named Stormtroopers may be “evil” but that’s all they really are. There’s no real thought put into how the Empire subjugates the people under it other than they just... do. There’s no insight into the political realities of the Rebel Alliance being not only a radical anti-fascist movement, but also an overtly religious one, in their adoption of the Jedi faith as a guiding set of beliefs. Although, that may be a bit more believable seeing as there is certifiable proof of concepts like The Force and a battle between literal light and darkness in their world... 

Anyways, the Rebels exist because they need to for the story to take place. There’s no need for any understanding of what Princess Leia thinks in an ideological sense other than... “We have to beat the bad guys,” and distressingly maybe, “when this is all over I can’t wait to recreate the same form of government that got taken over by fascists last time.”

But we usually ignore that.

In fact, it’s quite common for any of the political inspiration or implication of these characters to be erased entirely from the popular understanding of Star Wars as a franchise. It isn’t unusual for children to go trick-or-treating dressed as a Stormtrooper, or for some guy to enjoy playing as Darth Vader in a video game. Firstly, none of this is actually real, and secondly the machine of Star Wars is first and foremost meant to sell toys. Which is why the Empire is so popular in a purely aesthetic sense. They look really cool. They have the armor, and the big ships, and the red laser swords, and lightning that can shoot from your fingertips. The fact that these characters are literally Nazis from space is often and easily relegated away. In fact, within the realm of stories being told about the Star Wars universe, tales of an Imperial soldier or pilot or officer or space wizard defecting to “the good side” are quite common. That way, audiences can have their cake, and authors get to write stories about characters who are “conflicted.” Although I’m not so sure writing a story about a “conflicted” Nazi who joins the American army and ends up being instrumental in a plan to kill Hitler would exactly go over as well.

And again, that’s because you’re not really supposed to care that much about a franchise made to sell cereal and pajamas to children. Which is why I’ve been so fascinated by the latest release from the Disney Plus Sludge Tube that is Andor.

The headlines surrounding this show mainly focus on the fact that not only is Andor good, it’s... really good. It’s as good as the best prestige television has had to offer this year. It could easily go toe-to-toe with shows like Succession or The Bear. It’s well-crafted, slow-paced, thoughtful, and leagues ahead of anything that Disney has ever made for their streaming service. Most crucially, the show excels in its writing; which is laced with terrific prose and insightful observations not just about the psychologies of characters within the Star Wars universe, but also about the nature of living underneath fascism and the speed at which a machine like that can move, and how anyone could possibly find hope in those spaces. It takes a definite stance on the idea that centrism is complicit in the rise of fascism. The show also spends roughly a third of its runtime dedicated to showing the futility of respectability liberalism in politics at the governmental level when there’s a fascist force that wants to seize control. Andor is a show that centers leftist in-fighting as one of its central conflicts. Showrunner Tony Gilroy is in no uncertain terms saying that fascism can only be met with violence; and not in a way that treats it as a regrettable act, or one that makes our leads any morally worse-off for partaking in it.

There is a character who literally reads the in-universe equivalent of Marxist theory at the camera. Cassian Andor comes from a planet of working-class people whose funeral processions involve baking your ashes into a brick that is used to construct more buildings for labor.

One of said bricks is eventually used to bash the skull of a riot-shield-brandishing cop. Spoilers... maybe.

The metaphors and the parallels being drawn between the world of Star Wars, crushed under the weight of the Galactic Empire, and our own society, on the backslide towards right-wing radicalism in almost all countries, are not subtle. And let me be clear, a lot of the things that Andor is saying are not unique either. There are plenty of pieces of media that not only directly confront the themes being discussed within Andor, but that are also stories which actually take place in the real world, and are in conversation with real events.

Hell, the finale of Andor’s first season is basically just Battle of Algiers but everyone has laser guns instead of... regular guns.

The reason why I’m spending so much time thinking about this show wearing these politics on its sleeve, is because I can’t escape the fact that this show was made by The Walt Disney Corporation.

If you’re reading this, I probably don’t need to explain in any great detail that Disney is not at all invested in the dissemination of leftist politics. In fact, they’re more than willing to act in the interests of conservative capitalists whenever possible. Most days, they’re hardly willing to lean into center-left liberalism. This is the company that, while expressing very surface-level progressive values, isn’t afraid to donate millions of dollars to the campaigns of Republican politicians, or to remove black actors from movie posters in places like China, or to remove any reference to LGBTQ+ representation from the films themselves.

And of course, Disney has a deeply vested interest in the continuation of capitalism as a part of our societal foundation. Their entire worth is built off the back of retaining holds on characters and stories that they can put onto merchandise. Or food packaging. Or clothing. Or literally anything else.

Star Wars itself, and its ownership under Disney is the result of a decade-spanning endeavor to create a media monopoly, along with the acquisitions of Marvel and 20th Century Fox.

Everything that Disney creates, or spends money on, is done so with the express purpose of furthering that endeavor. It is the capitalist ideal.

This is what brings me to question what it means for a corporation like this to own, and have a hand in, creating a piece of art that rebukes these ideas and strives to push its viewers to think critically about the systems of society which are currently in place.

Again, I don’t think that the politics being expressed in Andor are so insanely radical that I believe its existence could cause some kind of massive surge in class consciousness throughout the country. I don’t even think that these are necessarily politics that would be out of place in media that’s made for... adults, frankly. But there is a clearly positive and energetic reaction to the politics of Andor that make it obvious this will be the show’s lasting legacy as, “the Star Wars show for grown-ups.”

Right: Mon Mothma (Genevieve O’Reilly)

You don’t need to look very far to find articles from dozens of publications talking about the politics I laid out earlier on in this piece. Every Wednesday night Twitter was alight with discussions of Mon Mothma’s political dealings at a dinner party (in an episode which was written by the showrunner for the US version of “House of Cards”), or jubilation at finally getting to hear a larger chunk of Karis Nemik’s manifesto for rebellion. The chants lead by Andy Serkis’ Kino Loy during a revolt at an Imperial prison labor camp become the show’s emotional climax and are currently fueling an industrial complex for fan edits in their own rights.

Please excuse the Glup Shitto moments here. I’ll try to keep them to a minimum.

The enjoyment of the show hasn’t been about the fight scenes, or cameos from legacy characters. Because there really aren’t any in Andor. There’s not even a lightsaber in it, let alone a single mention of Jedi or The Force.

Andor is a show that would rather spend its runtime asking, “what does it mean when my daughter becomes a space trad-cath?” Which, regardless of the idea that Star Wars is a franchise meant to sell toys to children, is a decidedly un-Star-Wars question to present.

But even then, again, there’s a hesitance in my discussion of the show’s politics.

How can one extract true meaning from a piece of art when its very existence is tied to capitalist machinery which actively and explicitly furthers the goals of movements and individuals who seek to squelch the spread of leftist ideology from society on a daily basis?

I want to make the distinction that I’m not taking aim at any film made within the studio system, rather specifically a show which is a part of the Star Wars franchise, which is owned by Disney. That distinction is important, because I think one’s take on the politics in Andor has everything to do with how much Disney owning the show affects the amount of cynicism you bring to your analysis.

At the most cynical it’s easy to read Andor as a work which touches at the belief that art featuring the values of leftist, or even progressive movements, which are created by the chief owners of capital in a capitalist society can’t actually affect change. In fact some, like those who ascribe to the perspectives of capitalist realism, believe that those works can potentially harm efforts for change or radicalization by satiating the audience’s desire to consume that kind of anti-capitalist rhetoric. In a sense, the argument could be made that you could live vicariously through Cassian Andor’s gradual radicalization into an anti-fascist freedom fighter and feel that your very consumption of the work is somehow a radical act, which would delay physical or direct action such as a protest or riot.

However, one could also argue the show does actually make a case against that specific point. In the manifesto titled, The Role of Mercenaries in the Galactic Struggle for Freedom, which presumably goes on to inspire the in-universe rebellion, the previously mentioned Karis Nemik writes, “Remember that the frontier of the Rebellion is everywhere. And even the smallest act of insurrection pushes our lines forward.”

Karis Nemik (Alex Lawther), the author of “The Role of Mercenaries in the Galactic Struggle for Freedom”

Personally, I think that’s a charitable read of that line. Andor is a show which was not created within the context of living under a fascist regime. In fact, as a straight white guy my experience of watching the show couldn’t have been farther from it. Nobody was going to arrest me, torture me, or kill me for watching a show on Disney Plus based on one of the biggest media franchises of all time. Clearly the character in the show is referencing things like subtle sabotage of forced labor, private defiance of rules and laws of which the punishment for breaking could be death. Watching a TV show isn’t comparable to most things in that way. Nor do I think that the majority of people who are regularly consuming Star Wars content are going to think all that deeply about it at all.

But, if you continue to read Nemik’s manifesto he does make it clear that these small acts are not the only things necessary to affect change, but they are still important. It’s a reinforcement of the show’s belief that disillusionment to the causes of true freedom, and a lackadaisical approach to participation in them will only result in being crushed under the weight of oppression as well.

Media can be a very powerful tool for spreading ideology amongst the masses. The show understands that alongside direct and physical action in radical movements, there will still be a need for constant ideological connection with the everyday person. That while watching a TV show is very low on the list of effective praxis, it has the ability to plant a seed.

Nemik writes, “Tyranny requires constant effort. It breaks, it leaks. Authority is brittle. Oppression is the mask of fear. And know this, the day will come when all these skirmishes and battles, these moments of defiance will have flooded the banks of the Empire's authority and then there will be one too many. One single thing will break the siege. Remember this. Try.”

This is the last line of the manifesto that we get to hear in the show. The audience is never given access to the entire thing, but this is the most crucial part of it. The show is not making the argument that consuming or making radical art is as effective as physically dismantling the systems of society, but it is saying that the normalization of those ideas through art is still important.

However, that very normalization could also be instrumental in the next point of contention.

The second possible approach to the politics of Andor is likely just as cynical, and it reaches for similar ideas to the ones I’ve just presented, but it leaves less malicious intention at the feet of Disney themselves.

You could come into the show with the belief that Disney would never release a piece of art, or “content,” that advocates for values which the company as a whole might see as a financial risk. Ostensibly meaning that everything they include in their shows or movies is already largely normalized within popular discourse.

Earlier in the piece I mentioned that Disney has presented itself as a progressive media monopoly by beginning to include representation of LGBTQ+ characters in their films and shows. However, it's common knowledge at this point that those characters are carefully only included in scenes which can be cut from international releases to countries that don’t allow for that kind of content, or where the inclusion may hurt Disney’s bottom line. As a result, that representation is usually reserved for supporting characters. However, recently there has been speculation that Disney’s lack of marketing for the recently released Strange World is due in part to it being the company’s first animated film to feature an openly gay protagonist.

When looking at even just those few pieces of evidence, it’s not hard to understand that Disney’s beliefs only extend as far as they think will be profitable. This context can bring a lot of Andor’s more overt parallels to real-world politics under far greater scrutiny than before.

During the climax of the show’s finale, however, a group of funeral-goers-turned-protestors are goaded into violence by the Empire. Although, this isn’t done by the Empire’s usual Stormtroopers. The crowd of civilians is instead provoked and attacked by a squadron of soldiers carrying riot shields (a piece of equipment that has never existed in Star Wars until now), and wearing helmets that allow us to see their faces.

This is without question in reference to the recent protests against police violence in the US. Furthermore it plays at the ever-growing anti-police sentiment in the country, spurred by the disproportionate murder of Black citizens at the hands of said police.

And this doesn’t end in some weak centrist platitude where Andor breaks through the crowd and gives the cops a Pepsi. Rather, it escalates to an improvised explosive being thrown at the Imperial forces, and eventually a massacre of civilians who woke up that morning with the intention of peacefully attending a funeral.

The metaphor of this sequence isn’t subtle. The show doesn’t cut away. It doesn’t treat any of the civilians, even the one who throws the bomb, as morally compromised. The ability to dismiss the political meaning from these characters is stripped away by the decision to make the costumes and props that the Imperials are wearing in that scene look the way that they do.

Now, I think it’s fair to say that the discourse surrounding the anti-police sentiment in the US, and the protests that accompany it, are still extremely controversial discussions to have with most people. Unlike the struggle for civil rights that LGBTQ+ communities still face to this day, Disney would never pretend it's taken a side on the discussion surrounding policing in the US.

Sure, the company donated a paltry few million dollars to social justice causes in wake of the 2020 protests, some commercials were aired on Disney Channel, and they’ve decided to re-theme Splash Mountain, but I don’t see them releasing a film which is explicitly about the lived experiences that Black people in America have with police. And they definitely wouldn’t make a film that calls for the abolition of the police.

At least, not under the banner of Disney proper.

To put a finer point on it, I believe that this scene is hugely important for understanding the political ambitions of Andor. In much the same way that Star Wars as a franchise refuses to truly acknowledge the fascism of its Empire, it's never conflated said fascism with the capitalist economy of its universe either. However, if we acknowledge that the role of police is to protect capital and not people, then it is clear that in a single scene, at the climax of the series, Andor does both.

This leaves us with only a few responses. Firstly, that Andor exists because it is a real piece of sci-fi that deserves discussion and analysis. Science fiction that reflects and comments upon the politics of the day. Or, that Andor is a show featuring and promoting ideology that Disney believes to be true.

Or thirdly, that I am out of my fucking mind.

At the very least, I know the first one is true. The third one probably also. And maybe the conclusions I’m coming to here are purely a reflection of the cynicism that I brought to the show. Although, I hope my diatribes on the hypocritical nature of Disney’s inner and outer politics makes it clear that I don’t trust them by any means.

To be frank, Disney doesn’t really seem to know what to do with Andor, and that’s not a surprise to me. It has some of the lowest viewership any of their Star Wars shows have had. Maybe that’s due to larger audience fatigue for the franchise’s quality that ranges from sub-par to outright terrible. But I also don’t really know how Disney is supposed to make a LEGO set out of the scene where Mon Mothma moralizes over compromising her respectability politics when she realizes that her rebellion might need to use violence.

There’s also always the third approach to the show, where you come at it without a cynical bone in your body. Maybe you believe that Tony Gilroy made the show in secret and snuck it onto Disney Plus when nobody was looking.

Of course, that isn’t possible. Andor is a piece of corporate art, and that is an inescapable fact. They will sell toys. They will sell pajamas. Maybe not food. Or Halloween costumes. But ultimately the project was greenlit because Disney believed it would drive subscribers to a streaming service and create opportunities for merchandise.

Your reaction to Andor’s politics is a litmus test of your cynicism towards this corporate art, and your willingness to engage with it. Does Disney actually give directors and showrunners true creative freedom? Can you read the text as text, or does the fact that at one point the work had to pass through The Rat’s gloved hands preclude any kind of serious political reading? I don’t blame you for your answer to any of those questions.

However, I do think there is a certain loss which can come from concluding there is no way for art that comes out of a machine of pop culture and capitalism like Star Wars to be politically useful.

Everyday people could potentially find the politics of Andor to be invigorating, or enlightening even. Although, much in the same way a healthy diet can't be made up entirely of burgers from McDonald’s, I hope that the media they consume afterwards isn't exclusively produced by Disney.

That’s not to say I would equate the quality of Andor to a McDouble. It’s quite good. I think you should watch it.

I wouldn’t think about it this much if I didn’t.