Diego Luna as Cassian Andor from ‘Endor’ | Photo Credit: Disney+
star wars The same will not happen again. New star wars performance, endor, changed it forever. There is no going back to simplistic notions of light and dark, conveniently ignoring the everyday struggles of people living under a techno-fascist empire.
What show runner Tony Gilroy and his writers have accomplished is nothing less than a pop-culture coup and a benchmark for worldbuilding. They took a popular franchise with a deep legacy and lore, and successfully turned it into something that was better than ever.
getting the political tone right
Official Poster of ‘Endor’ | Photo Credit: Disney+
An epic struggle between freedom and dictatorship presents a great political setting. Yet, politics reduced to mere facade for PG-13 CGI spectacle star wars To always be The only exception to this is the shockingly-brutal children’s cartoon series, clone wars and gritty wicked one (2016) which introduced the character Cassian Andor, played by Diego Luna. However, despite better written characters and more realistic depictions of the complexity of war, those two titles never really explored the underlying ideology that led to war and oppression in the galaxy far, far away.
internal management and It’s clear from the very first scene of the first episode that this will be no ordinary safe passage across the galaxy. Set in a Company town on a planet ruled by a corporation, we see Cassian walking the city’s red-light district and getting into trouble with two Company guards, who are using their policing power for some good ol’ bullying. Eager to abuse. This ends with Cassian accidentally killing one of them and then killing the other without hesitation in order to avoid witnesses. Gilroy skillfully sets the tone for what is to come.
Combine Patience and Realism
Shot entirely on real locations and sets, the makers of internal management and have been distracted lately star wars as shows the mandalorian And obi wan kenobi (and movies like Batman) which were shot in The Volume, a massive soundstage composed of large LED video walls that were used to create highly photorealistic set backgrounds
capitalism with mass murder
A screenshot from ‘Andor’ | Photo Credit: Disney+
Muckraker and activist Upton Sinclair describe fascism as “capitalism plus murder”.
The show leaves no stone unturned in building a world where corporate entities rule and control the entire planet to their liking, and workers are treated as nothing more than a pair of gloves to be exploited.
A picture of the dystopian prison complex from ‘Endor’ | Photo Credit: Lucasfilm Ltd.
Meanwhile, the prisoners are slave laborers in multi-level prison factory complexes designed to keep them “on program”, by rewarding greater productivity with tasty food to increase competition between workers, and to make bigger profits. With electrification at scale this is done by penalizing low production. It is a dystopian nightmare straight out of philosopher Michel Foucault’s concept of ‘disciplinary institutions’ and social theorist Jeremy Bentham’s ‘Panopticon’, an institution designed to maintain discipline through the ‘unequal gaze’ – overview Constant fear of, even when there is none.
A view of ‘Andor’, the original land destroyed by strip-mining | Photo Credit: Disney+
Likewise there is the ongoing theme of colonialism; Native tribes and species are treated with contempt, and then dispossessed (or worse) by an oppressive state for resource extraction and infrastructure development, while their cultural artifacts remain among the citizens in the galactic capital. has a high value. these are all motifs disturbingly familiar and clearly referring to the world around us,
It’s also a glimpse into the realistic human (or alien) cost of maintaining a military-industrial complex that spawned giant superweapons like the Death Star and other devices of mass destruction.
live characters
Genevieve O’Reilly as Senator Mon Mothma in ‘Endor’ | Photo Credit: Disney+
whereas star wars has always featured a collection of fascinating characters, very few of these characters come across as genuine, partly because none of them show any signs of mental weariness or trauma from living under a dictatorship. Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia, and Han Solo come across as adventurers rather than actual rebels, who are constantly being hunted and have to fight every single day to survive.
Varada Setu as Cinta Kaz in ‘Andor’ | Photo Credit: Disney+
In addition to getting the big picture of Empire right, I internal management andGilroy and his authors brilliantly portray how politics becomes personal for people living in a fascist state, and how surveillance, or the fear of it, bogs people down.
About all the characters mentioned in his interview with actor Varada Sethu Hindu, feel lived-in, despite the audience only getting a glimpse of their background or past. From fiery rebel Cinta Kaz (Varda) to idealistic Senator Mon Mothma (Geneviève O’Reilly), who is on the verge of collapse after being forced to make a fateful family decision for the Rebellion, scorn the Empire with a murderous rage. does. an incredible emotional depth to each character, something that was missing in most other star wars title.
Stellan Skarsgård as Rebel leader Luthien Rael in ‘Endor’ | Photo Credit: Lucasfilm Ltd.
For the first time, rebelling against a totalitarian state seems like a very serious task. internal management and The exercise drives home the point that being a militant rebel is not an adventure, but a deeply violent and traumatic experience that can force you to destroy your morals and become ruthless in the pursuit of your goals, which is best Example Stellan Skarsgård’s cold-blooded rebel leader and spymaster, Luthien Rall.