Andor is the best time to tell the birth of the Rebel Alliance
If we think back to how we met the Rebel Alliance in the cinema, with A New Hope, for us this organization of fighters was already a consolidated reality, an organized military force with which the viewer quickly empathizes, thanks to a contrast between good and bad granite. White (Leia) or black (Darth Vader), no shades, as was the Original Trilogy in Lucas's ideas. For Star Wars fans at the time, it was therefore easy to idealize the Rebel Alliance as absolutely good, heroic like Luke, Leia and Han Solo. One could argue that it was a naïve vision, but within the narrative mechanism hatched by Lucas this was the very essence of the emotional contrast of Star Wars, but on closer inspection, can there be an absolutely good rebel movement? Obviously not .
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Andor could be the best time to tell about the birth of the Rebel Alliance
The Rebel Alliance it is absolutely not good. Why must the origins of the Rebel Alliance be in Andor? The armed wing of the RebellionThe Rebel Alliance is absolutely not good
The first step in understanding how the Rebel Alliance could not be incapable of making bloody acts comes, of course, from the past of the Star Wars world. The representation given by Lucas in the Prequel Trilogy (The Phantom Menace, Attack of the Clones, Revenge of the Sith) of the Galactic Republic has definitely cracked the idealized aspect that was had in the memory given by the characters of the Original Trilogy, but this humanization of a corrupt socio-political context animated by subterfuges has allowed to create a fertile ground for the birth of the Rebellion at the outbreak of the Clone War. - th_culturapop_d_mh2_1 slot id: th_culturapop_d_mh2 "); }Born as a spin-off of the main course of the saga, the Skywalker Saga, Rogue One is a war movie. A profound detachment from the custom of the narrative of the saga, which even in the most unsettling moments of the previous films has always tried to maintain a touch of delicacy, of irony. Gareth Edwards instead decided to subvert this order, going to tell a story set in the most oppressive and devastating period of the Canon: the Rise of the Empire, the years between The Revenge of the Sith and A New Hope. The galaxy is devastated, the established order was upset with the Fall of the Republic, the end of the Jedi and the construction of a new imperial government, led by Sheev Palpatine. Considering the events recounted in the film and its ending that coincides with the first scenes of A New Hope, Rogue One is the first film, in a chronological sense, where the Rebel Alliance appears. - th_culturapop_d_mh3_1 slot id: th_culturapop_d_mh3 "); } As a first appearance, it is all but the noble company of rebels seen in the Original Trilogy. The first operative we see, Cassian Andor, doesn't hesitate to kill one of his assets to avoid being captured by Imperial spies. His next mission, however, is to find Jyn Erso and use her as bait to track down his father Galen, a scientist enlisted by the Empire, to convert him to the cause, or otherwise kill him. Two missions with approaches definitely far from the moral guide of Leia, Dodonna and Ackbar, yet, on closer inspection, perfectly understandable at a time when, to paraphrase King, 'the galaxy has moved on'. Hard times seem to call for hard actions, and for these we need people ready for all like Cassian Andor, who becomes, in a way, the honest portrait of the true Rebel Alliance. But again, in Rogue One the Rebel Alliance is already formed, and that essential step is missing that allows you to witness the true birth of the rebel army. A gap that could be filled by Andor.
Why must the origins of the Rebel Alliance be in Andor?
Andor is set five years before the events of Rogue One, and five years after Obi-Wan Kenobi. The series starring the old Jedi, in fact, is chronologically the first evident representation of the new order born following the end of the Galactic Republic, revealing the harshness of a new society in which Palpatine's despotism has given birth to monsters such as the Inquisitors. . If desired, Obi-Wan Kenobi can be considered as a fundamental piece to better understand the birth of the Rebel Alliance, or rather the spirit that animated those who gave it life. And if we look at the chronology of the Canon, the period in which Andor is set is the ideal time for the birth of the future rebellion.Since the birth of Star Wars, Lucas had no secret of having wanted to introduce a social political element, to the point that in The Making of The Return of the Jedi, when George Luca is asked how the figure of Palpatine, the director, was born he immediately clarifies how he was never a Jedi, but always a Machiavellian politician:
“He was a politician, not a Jedi. His name was Richard M. Nixon, he subverted the Senate and finally took over, they become the emperor and a true villain. But it continues to present itself as the good "
The clear reference to the wound at the still open era of the Watergate scandal was evident, and one can review this inspiration in the world in which Sheev Palpatine plots his rise to power in the Trilogy Prequel, from simple senator of a peripheral world in The Phantom Menace to emperor in Revenge of the Sith. An imperceptible political vein in the Original Trilogy, but which took more space in the new life of the franchise, especially when it was chosen to tell the transitional period between the Republic and the Empire with Rogue One. And in this the personality of Mon Mothma is essential. Bail Organa, as also seen in Obi-Wan Kenobi, did not have the opportunity to have such relevance as to become a point of reference for the nascent rebel movement, a role that was instead perfectly tailored for Mon Mothma.
Geneviveve O'Reilly, former interpreter of Mon Mothma in Rogue One, finds himself having to give his rebel leader a much deeper connotation. In Andor we will witness the first steps of this desperate resistance, a birth that cannot count on the idealism that animates Leia and Dodonna years later, but that must face a desperate and darker situation, where the procurement of equipment and the search for a hope against the power of Palapatine are an essential dynamic. Reason why an inspirational figure like Mon Mothma is hopefully portrayed in the best way in the series, intertwining his rise as a rebel leader with the formation of the operational arm of the Rebel Alliance, a task that falls to Cassian Andor.
The Armed Arm of the Rebellion
When we met Cassian in Rogue One, he was presented to us as a hardened fighter, profoundly different from the traditional heroes of the rebellion. This ruthless operative and ready to carry out even the most uncomfortable orders, is the son of the events that we will see in the two seasons of Andor, where we will be shown how Cassian has become this rigid man and capable of hateful acts, a transformation born precisely from the hardness of Rise of the Empire. Through Cassian and his odyssey we can, therefore, know what the dark origins of the Rebel Alliance are, revealing apparently secondary details of the Star Wars myth, but which in this perspective become important, to the point that we can also expect to witness at the birth of Fulcrum.In Andor we will witness Cassian's first actions as an operative of the Rebellion, which will lead him to create his own network of informers and spies, who could put him in contact with other well-known characters from the franchise, such as Ahsoka Tano. From the canon novel dedicated to the ex-Jedi we know that in this period, after a flight to the outer rim, Ahsoka returned to operate as a subversive against the Empire, losing part in the future Rebellion. Role we saw them play in the animated series Star Wars: Rebels, where Fulcrum refers to a triumvirate of rebel operatives, composed of Ahsoka, Imperial Agent Kallus and Cassian Andor himself.
While coming used by several rebel agents in that period, the code name Fulcrum was linked to this triumvirate of characters, and Cassian's membership in the Fulcrum is spelled out in the Rogue One visual guide. Considering the contemporaneity between Andor and Star Wars: Rebels, both set five years before the destruction of the first Death Star, if the new live action series of Star Wars really wants to show us the birth of the Rebel Alliance, we cannot fail to see in the creation of Fulcrum one of the essential steps of this key element of the continuity of the saga. Which could lead to an appearance, perhaps in the second season, of the very agent Kallus, who being part of the imperial security could turn out to be the creator of Fulcrum himself.
