Forget Darth Plagueis the wise, the true tragedy of Star Wars is that the politics of George Lucas’ Skywalker saga have never been more relevant. However much some fans may object, Star Wars has always been political; George Lucas was originally inspired by the Vietnam War (and yes, he saw the U.S. as the Empire).
All that means Tony Gilroy totally understood the ᴀssignment when he and his writers crafted Andor, the best Star Wars TV show to date. Andor is Star Wars with the politics dialed up to 11, an intensely personal story of the battle against fascism. It’s a timeless tale that, as Andor‘s creators have noted, has become disturbingly timely.
Gilroy drew inspiration from real-world history, and he was only following in Lucas’ footsteps. Speaking at Cannes in 2005, Lucas explained that he “patterned [the prequels] after historical transformations from freedom to fascism… I began researching how democracies can turn into dictatorships with full consent of the electorate.“
With Andor, the politics are self-evident – partly because the story is new and fresh, and season 2 released at a time when it seemed so visibly relevant. We’re more familiar with the prequels, which means we can so easily miss the warnings Lucas gives in them.
Nobody Noticed The Real Fall Of The Republic
There’s an iconic scene in Revenge of the Sith where Natalie Portman’s Padmé Amidala looks out at a mᴀss of senators cheering for Palpatine. “So this is how liberty dies,” she observes, “with thunderous applause.” It’s a powerful moment, an unforgettable line… but it’s also completely wrong.
The Republic didn’t fall in Revenge of the Sith. In reality, it had fallen long ago; as vested interests gained power, senators ceased to care for the good of their consтιтuents, and people motivated only by self-interest took charge of the government. The Republic fell the moment a Sith Lord became Chancellor in The Phantom Menace.
You’ll sometimes see Star Wars fans claim The Phantom Menace is largely irrelevant to the main story; there are even Star Wars viewing orders that cut the film out. When they suggest this, they’re missing the whole point of Lucas’ tale. The Phantom Menace is the fall of the Republic, the end of 25,000 years of history.
And nobody noticed.
Twenty-six years ago, George Lucas gave a warning to the world. Democracies are in grave danger when self-interest dominates, when politicians cease to care for their consтιтuents, and when corporations gain too much power. Then, all it takes is the right (or, rather, the wrong) person to seize the opportunity.
How Palpatine Uses Crisis To Gain Power
The Phantom Menace‘s opening crawl sets the scene, confirming this is a time of political and economic instability. That’s what it really means when it says “the taxation of trade routes to outlying star systems is in dispute.” Though the prequels never spell it out, the price of such instability is always paid by everyday citizens.
This is the backdrop for Palpatine’s rise to power. Like every authoritarian, he either uses or creates moments of crisis as a pretext to gain ever more power. He hides his ambition at first, pretending his bid for the chancellorship is reluctant, later claiming he doesn’t want emergency powers and is keen to dispose of them.
Revenge of the Sith is when Palpatine shows his true face to the galaxy. The charm of Sheev Palpatine always concealed the evil of Darth Sidious, but now the mask is stripped away. But it is too late; there are no ways left to fight against him.
Palpatine Pretends He’s Defending The Consтιтution
Palpatine is very careful to present himself as the defender of the Republic and its consтιтution, not the one who will destroy it. His chambers contain statues honoring the Four Sages of Dwartii, philosophers who shaped the Republic and its consтιтution. When Palpatine stands before the Senate, he claims everything he is doing is for the Republic.
“I will not let this Republic, which has stood for a thousand years, be split in two,” Palpatine insists in Attack of the Clones. That sentence is quietly justifying a major change in the Republic’s consтιтution, a shift from a peaceful government to a militarized power, setting up a new relationship between the state and its people.
This is how every authoritarian operates. They embrace the consтιтution, feigning patriotism, careful not to present themselves as something new. They betray the consтιтution even as they cling to it; they appeal to the fear of change, even greater in a time of crisis, to justify their grasp for power that is really the greatest change of all.
By the time of Revenge of the Sith, the Senate has about as much power as a trophy on a shelf. The Senate would continue to exist for another two decades, but only because Palpatine couldn’t care less about it anymore; by now, he had grasped all the powers the consтιтution could give him, and then some. The Senate had become meaningless.
Why The Jedi Order Fell
And then we come to the Jedi. The guardians of the Republic, the Jedi had traditionally stood as a separate body, unconstrained by politics. That had changed over the 200 years before the prequels, with the Jedi now bound to the Senate and – particularly – to the Chancellor. The Jedi became invested in politics, and it was their undoing.
Jedi are bad at politics. Their focus on balance and the Force means they don’t really understand the pᴀssions that drive politics; the Jedi who try to chart political waters find themselves lost in them. It’s telling that the former Jedi who has become Palpatine’s apprentice, Dooku, is also the one who embraces political power the most openly; he calls himself a count.
The Clone Wars became the ultimate Jedi trap. War is about domination, which is completely foreign to the light side of the Force; by fighting at all, the Jedi lost their balance. In Star Wars: The Clone Wars, a rogue Jedi named Barriss Offee launched a terrorist attack on the Jedi Temple and ultimately justified it with a stirring speech:
“My attack on the Temple was an attack on what the Jedi have become. An army fighting for the dark side, fallen from the light that we once held so dear.”
Clone Wars co-creator Dave Filoni, George Lucas’ protégé, has confirmed the disturbing truth; however terrible her methods may have been, Barriss Offee was right about the Jedi. Worse still, the Jedi – who had bound themselves so closely to the Republic – had no idea they were just a useful tool. They would inevitably be discarded.
Again, this is how authoritarians gain power. They cling to faith as closely as they do to the consтιтution (perhaps often moreso). They encourage faiths to compromise their principles in pursuit of political power, until their adherents have forgotten everything they are supposed to stand for. And then, inevitably, the faith is cast aside – a tool no longer needed.
This Is How Democracies Die
“All democracies turn into dictatorships,” Lucas told Time Magazine in an interview published in 2002. “But not by coup. The people give their democracy to a dictator, whether it’s Julius Caesar or Napoleon or Adolf Hitler. Ultimately, the general population goes along with the idea…What kinds of things push people and insтιтutions into this direction?“
We tend to view the prequel trilogy as the story of Anakin Skywalker’s fall to the dark side, and that is true; but these movies are also more than that. Anakin’s fall is deliberately paralleled with the fall of the Republic itself, as a good system goes bad and rots. In telling this story, Lucas deliberately drew on the lessons of history.
Tony Gilroy’s Andor has been celebrated as the Star Wars story with a sharp political edge. But the politics have always been there, and the prequels in particular are Lucas’ warning about how democracies die. If Andor is as timely as commentators think, then it’s time to recognize how important a statement the prequels make as well.
As the Spanish philosopher George Santayana observed, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” Lucas simply presented the lessons of yesterday in a different form, as a modern fairytale, a parable perhaps; the only question is whether we will learn from it.
Star Wars
- Created by
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George Lucas
- First Film
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Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope
- Cast
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Mark Hamill, James Earl Jones, David Prowse, Carrie Fisher, Harrison Ford, Daisy Ridley, Adam Driver, Ian McDiarmid, Ewan McGregor, Rosario Dawson, Lars Mikkelsen, Rupert Friend, Moses Ingram, Frank Oz, Pedro Pascal
- TV Show(s)
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The Mandalorian, Andor, Obi-Wan Kenobi, The Book of Boba Fett, Ahsoka, The Acolyte, Star Wars: Skeleton Crew, Lando, Star Wars: The Clone Wars, Star Wars Rebels, Star Wars: The Bad Batch, Star Wars: Resistance, Star Wars: Young Jedi Adventures, Star Wars: Visions
- Movie(s)
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Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace, Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones, Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith, Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope, Star Wars: Episode V – The Empire Strikes Back, Star Wars: Episode VI – Return of the Jedi, Star Wars: Episode VII – The Force Awakens, Star Wars: Episode VIII – The Last Jedi, Star Wars: Episode IX- The Rise of Skywalker, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, Solo: A Star Wars Story, Star Wars: The Clone Wars, Star Wars: Dawn of the Jedi, Star Wars: New Jedi Order
- Character(s)
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Luke Skywalker, Han Solo, Rey Skywalker, Emperor Palpatine / Darth Sidious, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Ahsoka Tano, Grand Admiral Thrawn, Grand Inquisitor, Reva (The Third Sister), The Fifth Brother, The Seventh Sister, The Eighth Brother, Yoda, Din Djarin, Grogu, Anakin Skywalker/Darth Vader, Leia Organa, Ben Solo/Kylo Ren
