Star Wars used to be my special interest but these days I have a hard time keeping up with it. But when I do, I have Thoughts. Why not cast them into the abyss of the internet?
Basically im pretending you guys are the circle of boys i would sit with at middle school youth group and yap with about Star Wars for hours. Feel free to respond as such (with friendly, respectful conversation) as I dump my thoughts on the new, the old, and dig up some of the joy I found in what was my first fandom. Oh yeah, Iâll repost cool art too!!
On principle Iâm never going to say âDisney ruined Star Warsâ because there has been so much good creative work thatâs come out of Disney Star Wars! Not to mention the fact that most people who say that are tiresome bigoted folk who are actually saying that itâs too âwokeâ instead of giving valid criticism.
But I will on occasion say they are making bad Star Wars and itâs Disneyâs fault.
Well folks, I finally did it. I FINISHED ANDOR. Iâm a real Star Wars fan again!
Now I am allowed to talk about one of the main contributors as to why I didnât finish this show about four months earlier: Cinta & Vel.
Oh yeah Andor spoilers ahead obviously!
As a queer Star Wars fan, as well as someone with a general awareness of how minorities tend to be treated in media, lack of good representation for underrepresented groups (LGBTQ+, BIPOC, disabled people, etc) is one of the reasons Iâve struggled sticking with Star Wars. Because, well, these days I seek out media with actual explicit representation. Not that itâs impossible for me to watch media that doesnât meet those standards but I will enjoy it less and I will have a harder time getting into it. I donât need to see myself in every piece of media I consume but I do want that to be for a better reason than âwe canât show this in Chinaâ. Also, as a creator myself, I want to learn how to write my own stories with better representation, so thatâs the kind of media I prefer to consume.
Then came Andor, which did everything I wanted from a Star Wars show.
The cast is diverse and shows so many different perspectives from an era of the Star Wars timeline that feels increasingly relevant now. Each of their struggles are relatable and treated as equal. Look, smarter people than me have written outstanding video essays on the merits of this show so I wonât gush much longer but I felt Andor returned to the spirit of the meaning behind the OT and added to it by giving more in-depth stories about people who arenât the -big heroes who all get happy endings-.
That being said, Of Course that means this is the show that delivers the most on diversityâeven a canon wlw coupleâbecause there is no happy ending for most of these characters. I want to be absolutely clear that, from the perspective of narrative craft, I do not think that the writing decisions made around Cinta and Vel were inherently bad. They were effective and their point was made. I Get It. I will probably appreciate them better upon rewatch.
But STILL.
There has never been a canon queer couple with two fleshed out, relevant characters in a major Star Wars project. And perhaps it was naive to get my hopes up about that, especially in a show like this, but that wouldnât have made it any less disappointing to realize that one of them was going to die the most useless, unnecessary death in the show. And yeah, I KNOW the clumsiness of that death is the Point, ok? But to give it to a queer person of color fucking sucks!! And I donât see anyone talking about that!!
Cinta and Vel have their first and only on-screen kiss like 10 minutes before Cintaâs death. Their only memorable moment of romantic intimacy in the show. It was clear they were Something in season one, but Something is easy to write off. Especially when they didnât get a lot of moments together to show their relationship or even who they were as individuals characters. And may I say Cinta in particular received less attention than Vel, even before her death. We know basically nothing about her, while Vel, and Iâm gonna point out that sheâs the white character, has an actual character arc. There are two brown characters (that I can think of) in live action Star Wars media who have speaking roles. Both are death by 0BBY.
Look, even if you donât see issue with how these characters were written, the way they were handled specifically in the context of the current media climate still sends a message. I donât think that message was intentional on the writersâ parts but I do think it shouldnât be ignored. So far in mainstream Star Wars, we seem to only be allowed queerness if it is a) easy to cut out for the benefit of homophobic markets and/or b) not part of a happy ending.
Iâm so tired of living on scraps when it comes to proper representation in Star Wars. Iâll keep doing it but I also reserve the right to COMPLAIN. Andor is amazing but I havenât seen any criticism on Cinta and Velâs story when I really think there ought to be more conversation about it. Maybe Iâm making a fuss but I need to at least point it out.
Iâm happy to discuss further if anyone else has thoughts, just keep it respectful! Didnât mean to make this post for pride month but uh. Yeah happy pride month guys :â)
I love Darth Maul. I love seeing him win - heâs had a bad time of it! He deserves to kill a few guys about it, and he looks fantastic doing it. However, I also love seeing this guy eat shit
