#chandrila

[mrkestis]

✨Chandrilan fashion appreciation post✨

[copalcetic]

Every time I see someone describe Leida Mothma as "pro-Imperial," I blink.

Because here's what we know about Leida: she resents and rebels against her mother. And from Leida's perspective? Her mother is the Empire personified.

We, the viewers, know that Mon is opposed to the Empire. We know she's on the eve of launching an open rebellion. But Leida doesn't know that. Mon's path to power has been forged by working within the system, by making ripples but never so many waves as to get tossed out of office. Mon is a part of the Empire, and her commitment to working long hours in her Imperial office is part of what keeps her away from her family.

Leida doesn't rebel against her mom by signing up for Junior Imperial Academy; she rebels by embracing Chandrilan traditions. They're conservative traditions, regressive traditions, painfully gender normative traditions--but they're not Imperial traditions. They're a reminder of what Chandrila was like before the Empire (an Empire that famously favors galaxy-wide homogeneity and disdains local customs) came to power.

Embracing them isn't expressing a pro-Imperial position. If anything, it's a repudiation of the Empire--just in a very different direction than Mon would prefer Leida take. And that to me is part of the tragedy between them: they don't disagree about nearly as much as they think they do.

[pagliaccis-clown]

possibly a hot take but i think Mon Mothma in Rebels is a REALLY good example at just how big the divide between the Core and Outer Rim and how out of touch people from the Core are when it comes to the struggles of people in the Outer Rim.

in Mon's speech in Secret Cargo she mentions wanting, as part of toppling the Empire, to restore the Republic. which makes sense to her; she's from the Core, the Republic only ever served her. She only ever reaped the benefits of the Outer Rim's exploitation. But her message reaches Lothal, whose experience with the Republic vastly contrasts her own. Prior and during TCW Lothal was suffering severely. they had a livestock plague and severe drought that devastated their only source of income, and they had reached out to the Republic multiple times for aid. and the Republic didn't help them. they couldn't spare the resources to help a small, backwater planet on the edge of the wild space. and this culminates in one final plea, which the newly formed Empire finally answers. to the people of Lothal, restoring the Republic doesn't mean anything positive. to Mon, restoring the Republic means going back to a system that she can flourish under; to the Outer Rim, it means going back to a time where the people there are deemed less important than the issues of the Core and Inner Rim.

in In the Name of the Rebellion: Part 1, Ezra brings up following through with a promise they made to help Lothal. Mon replies that Chandrila is also suffering under Empire - except we can see the huge discrepancy in how the Empire engages with the two planets. in Andor, we see Chandrila; we see that they are still allowed to engage in traditional cultural practices (like weddings), and that the nature and history of their planet is allowed to continue on despite the Empire. there are no garrisons. Mon is not oppressed for being Chandrilan. her planet is not seen for what can be exploited from it, her people not on the edge of destruction if they so much as step out of line. contrast this to Lothal: the Empire engages in wide-scale environmental destruction, forcing mass displacement and causing a serious refugee crisis. the Empire bans any artistic expression that shows any kind of nostalgia for a pre-Imperial era, effectively suppressing pre-Imperial Lothali culture. there is no regard for the people of the planet beyond what they can provide the Empire; in fact, the occupying forces explicitly oppress the native population. things might not be pleasant on Chandrila, but the worry on Lothal is that the planet might not survive any longer.

Mon Mothma is a rebel who stands against the Empire. she gives aid and support to the rebellion and she is hugely instrumental to their success.

but she is also from the Core, and her experience with the Republic, and later Empire, vastly differs from that of someone from the Outer Rim.

[darth-memes]

Look, I know the situation was awful for the characters. But this made me happy in a way I cannot properly express.

This is Montserrat:

Anyway, time to yap about it under the cut.

It's one of the most important religious sites in Catalonia where I live. It's about one hour away from Barcelona and it is absolutely beautiful.

The building you see there? It's an abbey that has there for over a thousand years. It has survived invasions, fascist dictatorships and many other things and it is still at the center of catalan culture. It has one of the biggest libraries of the country and the oldest boy choir in Europe.

I have an uncle who is a high-ranking monk there so, we have known for years that Lucasfilms was doing something there but until recently we didn't know it was Andor. And I couldn't be happier with the result. I'm not a religious person, but I'm very close with my culture and Montserrat is part of it. Again, it is not that what was in the episode was a terrible situation, but still there were a couple of details that I loved.

The first was the wedding hike. Many people do a pilgrimage to Montserrat, you can get there walking (though if you go I recommend taking the train) and even if it was in a different context I loved seeing this element included in the episode. Also, the part were Mon Mothma says: "Gaze through the ancestral lands, some children sing, the elder waves her hand and we are all purified." Yeah, that sounds exactly like Montserrat. Again, terrible situation for the characters, but it's there! They filmed some scenes in Montserrat and incorporated elements that feel like it!

The other one was the statue that was unveiled in the wedding. Though there is certain tones of colonialism to the gesture, if you know ANYTHING about catalan culture and it's history, you know how to this day, Spain and France have done their best to erase or assimilate it. The language, the culture... The day this episode came out was Sant Jordi, which is one of the most important festivities in Catalonia, one which Spain has been trying to assimilate as "El día del Libro", but traditionally, it has been a catalan festivity.

Montserrat has also been affected because of that during it's long history. And what do they return? They return is a statue!

Guess what's inside Montserrat?

This is La Mare de Déu de Montserrat (Our Lady of Montserrat) or La Moreneta. And, alongside Sant Jordi (Saint George in English) is the patronness saint of Catalonia. It has been in the abbey since it's founding, and although it has never been stolen like the statue in Andor, it has been hidden several times to protect against invaders. It's one of the most important symbols to our people.

So yeah, even though the situation of the characters in Andor it's shitty and not good, I can't believe that it took Montserrat to become Chandrila to see one of the pieces of my culture represented in a big production.

It's kind of bittersweet, because again, it's a terrible situation for Mon Mothma and Leida, but the bits and pieces that relate to Montserrat i found them beautiful and even more respectful than Spanish and French media usually depict (catalans are usually depicted as cold and greedy people who only think of money, when we are not erased all together from the narrative).

If you want to know more, this user has several posts about it:

Search: montserrat | useless-catalanfacts

Search results for montserrat

Thanks!

[imaginative-joy]

Happy May the Fourth!

Listen, I know this could never happen in canon because they’re way too recognizable and wanted across the galaxy, but imagine Cal and Merrin wearing fancy disguises to infiltrate a fancy party and get some vital Rebellion information whilst looking all fancy 👀 And it was just fun to draw them in fancy outfits!

(I’m also imagining that some dude tries to flirt with Merrin. Cal stands back because he knows she’s got this handled. Greez passes out upon seeing the carnage. They have to flee the scene immediately. Cal has heart eyes the whole time.)

[audrey-molinatti-art]

i love when people commission me to draw Andor characters .it's almost a collaboration with @chandrilamistress since we had so many similar ideas for this . yes i am a mon/luthen shipper but i'll ship mon with everybody ( kleya is a close one )

[raointean]

So, I was thinking about the Chandrilan wedding ceremony and I had something of a disturbing thought. Part of the ceremony involves a knife given to the groom by the father of the bride. But the words... the words give us SO MUCH INSIGHT into Chandrilan culture and history. (Sorry for the bad quality. I got the pictures from a low quality YouTube clip)

Stekan Sculdun: I will not return this knife.

Perrin Fertha: Do with it as you wish.

Perrin is handing over a tool that can be used for violence and control, symbolically handing his daughter out of his protection and into whatever kind of life Stekan is offering her. And, more importantly here, giving Stekan permission to treat Leida however he wants without interference.

Of course, this is an ancient ceremony (hundreds or possibly thousands of years old) so the actual feeling behind the words will have shifted, but they can still speak volumes about how Chandrilan society USED to work. Clearly, if a girl is being given from one man to another, it was a patriarchal society with some degree of the idea that women are property. I don't think that that is still the case, or else Mon wouldn't have been elected to represent the whole planet in intergalactic politics, but there's clearly some holdover traditions. The USA actually has a similar situation, where a woman can now live entirely independent of men, but it's still custom for a woman to take her husband's name upon marriage (which I've heard is much more rarely the case in Europe) and for her father to symbolically give her away to her new husband.

Another thing that caught my attention was the possibilities of how this ceremony might... go awry.

The ceremony involves the groom using the knife given to him by the father-in-law to cut the bride's braid. It involves a knife coming VERY close to her neck. How many times in the past do you think a boy was forced into one of these marriages and used this moment to cut his bride's throat and escape the wedding? It seems like this was a common ceremony at one point in history, so it must have happened at least a handful of times.

Do you think Perrin was thinking of those times as he handed the knife over?

[sallymiff]

Mon Mothma Dance Loop Fan Animation!

Animated (a happier) Mon Mothma dancing to Niamos Remix in Andor S2's wedding scene!

🎥 Full loop with “NIAMOS! (Chandrilan Club Mix)” music: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PMMlbRCHQEc