Commentary: ‘Andor’ Underscores What True Fascism Looks Like
by Frank Martin
It shouldn’t come as a surprise that Star Wars is all about dictatorship. Right from the beginning, the story focused on a cruel Empire that ruled the galaxy with an iron fist. But it’s one thing to set up the universe this way, it’s something else entirely to see what it looks like in practice. Throughout its history and many installments, various Star Wars stories focused on different areas of the Empire’s reign. Nothing, though, compares to Andor in showing just how a true fascist government operates.
The series takes place close to the Empire’s end. By this time, it is at the height of its power and is firmly entrenched across the galaxy. Working with Luthen Rael (Stellan Skarsgård), Cassian Andor (Diego Luna) seeks to undermine the Empire’s aspirations. Its goal: to expand its reach and power throughout the many planets it already controls and those where it has less influence. One such place is the planet Ghorman, where both the rebels and the Empire work behind the scenes to manipulate the political landscape in their own favor.
Since Ghorman isn’t completely under the Empire’s thumb, it’s an interesting case study to see how the mechanisms of fascism work within the Empire and how it relates to the real world. Fascism doesn’t take over completely and totally overnight. Even after nearly 20 years in power, the Empire is still working to secure total dominance of the galaxy. In this respect, we can see a clear distinction between the Empire and a local government resisting its control. In the real world, this can be analogous to federal power versus state autonomy. These are two separate governments that act in contrast to one another. Just because one has become fascist in nature doesn’t mean that the other has to follow suit. Only once the local government of Ghorman aligns with the Empire from top to bottom would it be a total fascist operation, similarly to what the states would do the same to their federal counterpart.
Andor is now streaming on Disney+.
