I agree. (Off-Topic)

by cheapLEY , Monday, October 10, 2022, 21:27 (785 days ago) @ Kermit

Do politics dictate how the characters in Cassian's personal orbit feel about him and vice versa?

I mean, yes, absolutely. Politics is the driving factor for Luthen even forming a relationship with him in the first place. Politics decided he was of lower class and is probably the only reason he knows Bix at all. To acknowledge that doesn't take away his agency in actually taking the step to form those connections. Him killing those two cops is politics--they were in a position of authority in that society and thought they could bully him. That's politics! Andor, the show, is absolutely interested in that dynamic. Not to the exclusion of good characters and telling a good story, but you can see that exploration of society everywhere in the show.

I find that a very sad and narrow way to view the human condition--a view that denies individual agency (along with much else that makes us human).

I think that's silly, honestly. Our human condition, even on an individual level, is massively determined by the politics of our society and it's structure. That doesn't erase our own agency in determining our lives and shaping who we are, but it's an inescapable fact of life, and to pretend like our agency isn't at least somewhat determined by our place in that society is naive.

I think you're making it something much more insidious than it actually is when I say something is "political." You're looking at that word through too much of a modern twitter lens or something, I think.

Andor seems undeniably interested in the politics of Star Wars (even outside the obvious of Mon Mothma being a major character). Star Wars has always been about the little guy taking on the big empire, but this is the first time it feels like it's really examining what the politics (both large and small, general and capital P) mean for the average person in the galaxy. We've seen countless Stormtroopers killed on screen, but this is the first time we've seen two random cops killed for being dickheads (while also managing to make one of them at least very slightly sympathetic). We've gone from Greedo retroactively shooting first so that Han isn't the bad guy or something to Andor murdering cops in the back alley. Then we get the supervisor of those cops understanding exactly what happened and trying to get it covered up just so the Empire doesn't come in full force and really take over the sector.

Yes, like all good stories, this one is about characters and their relationships, but Andor is absolutely interested in exploring how characters live within and are shaped by the politics and society of that galaxy. That it can do both successfully is a testament to how good the show is.