Star Wars Without the Jedi

I finished the Songs of Penelope trilogy this week, and now I’m reading another Artemis Fowl book–though I realized that I skipped The Artemis Fowl Files and will need to go back for that. I also started playing God of War, and spent a lot of time throwing and catching that axe, because it’s fun as heck.

My laptop doesn’t know if it needs to update or not this week.

Catholic Charities of Central Texas is one of the groups taking help for victims of the floods.

Star Wars Without the Jedi

I have long been skeptical of the assertions that I’ve seen more and more lately, especially in the wake of the Sequel Trilogy: “Star Wars needs to move beyond the Jedi”, usually coupled with the insistence that they’re boring, or that all storytelling avenues with them have been exhausted. These statements, because it always struck me as an admission of disinterest in the core elements of the story. Star Wars is about the mystical, Good vs. Evil elements of an outwardly science-fiction setting. That’s the point. If you’re interested in regular people trying to get by in a hostile universe, there are plenty of other science fiction stories out there for you.

Andor was a weird example for me, though. When it first came up on Hulu, in its first season, as a way to promote it (and try to get me to go back to Disney+, which I didn’t), I didn’t get into it because it didn’t feel like a Star Wars story. It was more like a spy thriller that happened to be set in the same universe. I went back to it, though, when the full season was later put back on Hulu, and I also watched the second season while it was up.

There are no Jedi, and no Sith in this show. The Emperor is referenced a lot, surely, but he makes no appearances, nor does Darth Vader, and the Jedi are all gone by this point. And yet I still found the story, on the whole, to be pretty brilliant. And one thing was pointed out to me, and I had it in mind throughout the second season: this is a galaxy without Jedi.

And it sucks.

[The galaxy, not the show. Again, the show is great.]

Andor is set in the reign of the Empire, in the five years before A New Hope. The Empire reigns, and the Jedi, those reliable guardians of justice and righteousness, have all but been eliminated. That means that the  Empire can do whatever it wants without any opposition. It’s not to say that bad things didn’t happen under the Republic: they absolutely did, and some of it was with the Jedi Order’s complicity. On this scale, though? Widespread corruption, genocide, slavery–it’s now all baked into the institutions of the government? That’s new. We had no evidence from the films that things could ever conceivably be that bad in the Republic. It’s the normal state of things for the Empire, though, and plenty of the characters don’t question.

[Also, mandatory response to, “The Jedi allowed slavery in the Republic!!!!” hysteria: no, they didn’t. We do see slavery in the galaxy, but on planets explicitly outside of the Republic’s control. And while yes, an argument could be made that the Jedi should have done something about it, I don’t think these same people would feel the same about, say, their own government invading a foreign country to fix their problems by force of arms.]

The Jedi weren’t perfect, but they were necessary to the balance of things in the galaxy. When they’re gone–and I should highlight that they’re not gone because they left, they’re gone because they were genocided–the status quo takes a rapid descent for the worse. Not only is the galaxy gripped by a tyrannical fascist regime, the former Republic has lost so much of its morality that it seems as if most people, at least in the Core Worlds, are just going with it. Mon Mothma’s speech points out that despite all of them knowing that a genocide is taking place on Ghorman, the members of the Senate are all acting as if it’s the poor widdle Empire that’s the suffering party here.

A huge part of that is fear: fear that you cannot do the right thing, or else you’ll be arrested, or worse. After her speech, the Empire tries to have Senator Mothma murdered, and is only prevented by our title character getting her out in time. If she didn’t survive, no one would have any real questions about who is responsible, and there wouldn’t be any sort of inquiry. Can you imagine this happening under the Jedi, though? A government which blatantly has its politicians assassinated for speaking the wrong things?

The moral center of the galaxy is gone, and we see its effects everywhere, in every character. Luthen even has a speech (which is great, go watch it) in which he explains that he gave up his decency to be able to do what he thinks he has to so the Rebellion can survive. Because the universe they live in now is lawless–even the law itself is the will of those who hold power, not a written set of rules that people agree on. Cassian’s sentenced to slave labor for being in the wrong place at the wrong time, after all.

And I laugh at the idea that the Empire kept order in the galaxy–it clearly didn’t. Crime thrives in the Empire, as long as it pays respect to the Emperor and his minions. 

Andor tells a story without the Jedi: and that’s kind of the point! The Jedi aren’t there, and the show (and to an extent, Rogue One) display that this is why they’re needed! It is a story without the Jedi to tell the audience why Star Wars needs the Jedi–because otherwise, the Dark Side runs the galaxy, and the result is a fascist regime.

Star Wars needs the Jedi.

Or its galaxy does, at least.

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