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.
Is Andor (I keep wanting to write it And/or) a Disney thing? Is Disney not part of the Empire? They must consider the Republic and/or Rebel Alliance to be neutralized if they are willing to sell this product.
Capitalists have always repackaged and sold our liberatory art back to us, that isn’t new.
“The Capitalists will sell us the rope with which we will hang them.” Is a quote paraphrased from a saying attributed to Lenin.
The writers are genuine in their messaging, the corpos just don’t care. When someone slips a revolutionary message into the stream of “content,” the appropriate thing to do is to consider it, turn off the TV, and act accordingly.
Yes, but somehow they’ve been given a lot of freedom. There’s a character that I’m pretty sure is supposed to be Walt Disney himself aiding the Fascists to create propoganda. Tell me this isn’t him: