Rebellions are based on hope. With this statement the Rebel Alliance was unofficially born in Rogue One, the war movie with which Gareth Edwards recounted the suicide mission carried out by a team of ordinary people to take possession of the plans for the first Death Star. Before this adventure atypical for the canons of Star Wars, the ideological contrast between the Galactic Empire and the Rebels was based on the granite dichotomy of good and evil, light and shadow, failing to give a real connotation to the transition towards the heart of the franchise. Although briefly mentioned in this passage of Rogue One, the true essence of the Rebellion is contained in the rebel manifesto of Andora trait apparently passed on the sly.
Yet, the Rebel Manifesto had also appeared in Rogue One, we just weren’t aware of its existence at the time. It happens when a narrative context like that of Star Wars has the opportunity to develop on different media, moving freely in the chronology of events known as the Canon. Andor, as we know, is the prequel series of Rogue One, a status that allows it to be able to tell the birth of elements and characteristics of what for us is now the future of Cassian Andor. A return to the past of one of the most fascinating characters in the saga, which by its nature deviates from the tradition of the heroes of the franchise, revealing itself as a more concrete and realistic character. And this particular human condition of his makes Cassian Andor a perfect bearer of the Rebel Manifesto.
Andor it is the true rebel manifesto, the emotional fulcrum upon which the Rebel Alliance relies
Andor: The Politics of Star Wars
There could be no better time than Andor to introduce this founding element of the Rebellion. If the movies in the cinema, including the two spin offs Rogue One and Onlyhave had central events in the Star Wars chronology as their focus, the TV series have tried to expand this universe by showing hitherto obscure situations, guiding fans through the meshes of the main story line. The Mandalorian and The Book of Boba Fett they took care to focus on the period between The Return of the Jedi and The Force Awakenswhile Obi-Wan Kenobi focused on the Rise of the Empire, showing Kenobi’s years of exile after the fall of the Republic seen in Revenge of the Sith. All these series have in common that they have placed heroic figures at the center of the scene, whether it was one of the most beloved Jedi or Mandalorian culture, thus allowing Andor to present itself as the first product of the franchise based on an ordinary man.
And from this perspective, seeing the change that occurred during the Rise of the Empire was an asset that, in the hands of Tony Gilroy, proved to be perfectly valued. Shifting attention to ordinary citizens, victims of the new imperial order, allows us to perceive Star Wars and its ideas founded on a hitherto unprecedented level, even more so if we have the initial moments of the Rebellion at the center of the story. This because Andor it is a political storyin which the action gives way to a social connotation that best portrays the consequences of this social transition.
Looking back on the events of A new hope, it seems incredible that galactic society had forgotten the existence of the Jedi twenty years after the Imperial Purge, after they defended the Galactic Republic for millennia. Through the cross-media narrative system of Star Wars, which includes novels and comics, an attempt has been made to clarify how the imperial diktat was to completely cancel any reference to the Jedi, but the fulcrum of this devastating operation is quoted perfectly by Andor, at the moment which the young Nemik offers a true pearl of wisdom:
Axes forget, but trees remember.
To paraphrase, every dictatorial regime knows well how history and an aware people are the real danger to its power. The memory erasure seen in the Star Wars cross-media universe is an echo of the real Story, which has always inspired Star Wars. Memory loss, whether historical or technological, is a key element of despotic power, so much so that in Andor these lost awarenesses (such as the navigation device mentioned by Karis Nemik) are considered objects of great power, as their understanding it can turn out to be a weapon.
The Rebel Manifesto of Andor is an immortal ideal
It is no coincidence that the Empire enforces a false peace, based not on equity but on oppression. Where it cannot complete its work of subjugation, it destroys, stripping entire planets of resources. And better fate doesn’t even await the citizens, just think of the ruthless slavery of the inmates of Nakina 5, forced to build components for the future Death Star. An oppressive dynamic that does not only extend to those who are directly under the imperial yoke, but also to interconnected social realities on Coruscant, as happened for the Corporate Zone.
It is therefore not surprising that in Andorwhere the pressure exerted on citizens by Palpatine’s tyranny is exalted, a greater awareness of the political machine of the Empire appears, especially when it is explained how the speed with which the Empire is imposing radical changes is too rapid because the galactic population understands the danger this poses. The events of Andor are the demonstration of how the tacit acceptance of this dynamic leads to a point of no return, which on the one hand allows the Empire to have a firm hand on the galaxy, but at the same time animates a rebellious spirit who, despite knowing they cannot count on equal resources, it is based on an iron will, born of sacrifice and preservation of a better social reality.
A challenge that is represented both by the clash in the political arena, as demonstrated by Mon Mothma, and in the darker dimension of espionage and clandestine struggle that is pursued by Luthen, aware of how there are different ways of making possible the birth of a rebel identity, also accepting the personal cost:
And what do you sacrifice? Calm. Kindness. Affect. Love. I gave up inner peace to make my mind a place full of shadows. I share my dreams with ghosts. I wake up in the morning thinking about the choice I made 15 years ago for which there is only one conclusion: I am damned for what I do. My anger, my ego, my unwillingness to submit and my lust to fight have set me on a path from which there is no escape. I wanted to be a savior against injustice no matter the cost and when I looked down there was no ground beneath my feet. What is my sacrifice? I am doomed to use my enemy’s methods to defeat him. I burn my integrity for someone else’s future, I burn my life to raise a dawn that I know I’ll never see. And the ego that started this battle will never have a mirror, an audience, or a glimmer of gratitude. So you ask me what do I sacrifice? Everything. You’ll stay with me Lonni. I need every hero possible.
These passages of suffering and hope ideally compose the Rebel Manifesto of Andor, an ideological conception that also has a physical form, represented by Nerik’s thoughts, collected in his notebook. A symbol that also becomes a talisman for Cassian Andor.
Cassian Andor is the keeper of the Rebel Manifesto
Although born as an agent moved by personal motivations, Cassian Andor becomes a symbol of the Rebellion on a par with more noble figures. In Rogue One we see him represent the less noble side of the Rebel Alliance, charged with performing actions that are anything but heroic and that only in the last part of the film does he seem to seek his own redemption. Andor has the task of showing how Cassian has become a ruthless operative and totally faithful to the rebel ideal, but we cannot ignore how the events of the first season of the series have already brought him closer to his future self.
In Rogue One, Cassian always has Nerik’s notebook with him, even though at the time of the film’s release we didn’t know what it was. Now that we have witnessed the birth of this object, we can understand how important it is for Cassian to consecrate himself to the Rebellion, even by doing what he considers morally unbecoming, but which is absolutely necessary to defeat the Empire. His motivation is in Nerik’s ideas, it is made even more solid by the boy’s death, which becomes a formative moment for Cassian. Rebellions can be born of hope, but they take shape through sacrifice and renunciation.
