Thread by @Catrinity

Okay, so some more thoughts about #Andor, I’ll try and keep this spoiler-free.
First of all, I was excited for this show from the beginning, because Cassian Andor is a spy and I love spy stories. But I did not expect this show to be this great and relevant. 1/

For me, Star Wars is best when it dares to be more than just a cool action story with lots of lightsaber duels and space fights. And when it moves away from too much “protagonist energy.” This is why episode 8 is my favorite SW movie. 2/

(No discussion about TLJ here, this is about Andor.) So what I mean by “protagonist energy” is the idea that a single person can overthrow the Empire. Or create it, for that matter. It is a cool story, but it only works in fiction. I’ll get back to this in a moment. 3/

A lot was already said about how #Andor accurately depicts the Empire as a fascist autocracy in an almost painful way. And how on point the people standing up against it are about the way fascism works – in SW and in the real world. 4/

Just one of the many great quotes about the way the Empire thinks: "They don’t care enough to learn. They don’t have to. You mean nothing to them.” Applies to basically everything wrong with the world right now. 5/

The Empire in #Andor is not a hooded figure with a red lightsaber. It’s a machine. A bureaucracy. A system so big and oppressing and overwhelming it cannot seem to fail. Until it does. Not because of a single hero, but because of people. 6/

Which brings me back to the “protagonist energy” thing: There is a great interview with Diego Luna where he speaks about how Cassian in the show is not very charismatic, because they did not want to tell the story of one charismatic leader, but about how revolutions work. 7/

(I won’t link the interview here, because the title is already a spoiler for the show, but it is on Vulture.) 8/

He says in that interview that revolutions are not made by leaders, but by numbers. And it feels like the first time this is acknowledged in the galaxy far, far away. #Andor shows us a broad variety of people who rebel in different ways and with a lot of different cost. 9/

And I love that. I love that #Andor shows Cassian as a guy who is capable and smart and a keen observer but is also lost and scared and selfish and in over his head. He is not a hero. And not because he must grow into one, but because the story does not need him to be. 10/

Of course, there are moments when Cassian steps up and convinces people to do the right thing or when he does stuff others fail to do. But there are also a lot of moments when he screws up or doesn’t care or does things he should not do. 11/

What I love about the show is that Andor is the narative glue that somehow connects all the other characters, but he's not the driving force in the story. And all of these other characters are so rich and complex and fighting their own battles and having their own rebellions. 12/

I love how #Andor basically says that not every rebellion is the same, that things like class and money and culture and gender still matter and determine how much you can achieve and what it will cost you. And that leads to different approaches towards the same goal. 13/

It also leads to very different prices people pay. They may all be up against the Empire, but whether they lose their money or their freedom or their love or their hope or their health or their life is determined by who they are and what they do. They are not equal. 14/

The Rebellion in Star Wars (or later the Resistance for that matter) was never shown in that way. There where some conflicting groups in Rebels or in Rogue One, but not in that broad variety. And I find it very important. 15/

In the end, #Andor shows us that there a million reasons and ways to stand up against fascism and oppression and that it will be messy and hard and terrible, but it is also inevitable. And I cannot think of a story that could be more important than that. 16/

There are many more aspects of the show I would love to praise but that would be spoilery, so I will stop now. I hope this all made sense. 17/17

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