The one thing about Maarva's speech that I think is important here is that it is *not* the complement to Luthen's dark-networking. It's what the dark network is missing, what all those groups need and don't have--it's the emotionally convincing version of Nemik's manifesto. It's an ideology that both directs the *tactics* of the Rebellion but also encodes some version of what the Rebellion stands for--the social coherence and integrity of society before the Empire, without the Empire. I think, unless Season 2 shows us otherwise, that this is what Luthen is realizing as he listens to Maarva, that she is doing something that all his money and all his calculating and all of his spycraft can't buy and can't accomplish. Much as Kino's speech to the inmates includes not just instructions about how to get out, but a reminder to help one another. The Empire unified them with its cruelty; he is reminding them of what that entails.
So I think that hits different not just because we are gaining a more resonant understanding of what the Empire looks like in real life, but also perhaps an understanding that we right now don't have a Nemik or a Maarva or a Kino, we don't have a way to take the anger and fear that many of us are experiencing and connecting it to a resonant version of the unity that could grant us.
DM, this is great. I agree in every particular about what makes Andor so realistic - and so powerful. And the observation that Andor is the Star Wars universe as LeCarre is to Ian Fleming encapsulates perfectly the differences between the two visions of government.
One thing I think they really seem to be angling toward this season is what it means to be rebels. Luthen spoke to it in season 1 and we witnessed him and Saw hang another rebel faction out to dry in order to protect the intelligence network Luthen was running. The “let’s call it war” scene. Mon Mothma giving her daughter up to a money launderer’s family because she needs to launder money for the rebellion is another good season one example. The rebels are going to have to compromise the principles they are rebelling to reinstate.
This time around, I’m really expecting the Gorman massacre to be something the rebels goad the empire into doing. The logic being that they need the inherent brutality of the empire to be on open display rather than semi-hidden behind juridical states of exception. It’s going to be hard for some fans, I think, to recognize that the rebels have to be just as ruthless and violent as the empire.
I don’t know exactly what that will say about our present moment in the real world. Probably need to watch and see what feelings are evoked.
How does this comport with the student&cleric alliance that overthrew the Shah of Iran? What would a realistic alternative history of that conflict look like?
The one thing about Maarva's speech that I think is important here is that it is *not* the complement to Luthen's dark-networking. It's what the dark network is missing, what all those groups need and don't have--it's the emotionally convincing version of Nemik's manifesto. It's an ideology that both directs the *tactics* of the Rebellion but also encodes some version of what the Rebellion stands for--the social coherence and integrity of society before the Empire, without the Empire. I think, unless Season 2 shows us otherwise, that this is what Luthen is realizing as he listens to Maarva, that she is doing something that all his money and all his calculating and all of his spycraft can't buy and can't accomplish. Much as Kino's speech to the inmates includes not just instructions about how to get out, but a reminder to help one another. The Empire unified them with its cruelty; he is reminding them of what that entails.
So I think that hits different not just because we are gaining a more resonant understanding of what the Empire looks like in real life, but also perhaps an understanding that we right now don't have a Nemik or a Maarva or a Kino, we don't have a way to take the anger and fear that many of us are experiencing and connecting it to a resonant version of the unity that could grant us.
thats a great observation - I wonder how the second season (and reality) will feature those tensions
DM, this is great. I agree in every particular about what makes Andor so realistic - and so powerful. And the observation that Andor is the Star Wars universe as LeCarre is to Ian Fleming encapsulates perfectly the differences between the two visions of government.
One thing I think they really seem to be angling toward this season is what it means to be rebels. Luthen spoke to it in season 1 and we witnessed him and Saw hang another rebel faction out to dry in order to protect the intelligence network Luthen was running. The “let’s call it war” scene. Mon Mothma giving her daughter up to a money launderer’s family because she needs to launder money for the rebellion is another good season one example. The rebels are going to have to compromise the principles they are rebelling to reinstate.
This time around, I’m really expecting the Gorman massacre to be something the rebels goad the empire into doing. The logic being that they need the inherent brutality of the empire to be on open display rather than semi-hidden behind juridical states of exception. It’s going to be hard for some fans, I think, to recognize that the rebels have to be just as ruthless and violent as the empire.
I don’t know exactly what that will say about our present moment in the real world. Probably need to watch and see what feelings are evoked.
How does this comport with the student&cleric alliance that overthrew the Shah of Iran? What would a realistic alternative history of that conflict look like?