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Caution: This article contains spoilers for Andor season 2, episodes 1-3 and discussion of sexual assault. Andor
season 2’s premiere featured a scene of sexual assault that has exposed a dark truth about the Star Wars fandom. I had the privilege of seeing Andor season 2 early, and I was struck immediately by the way Tony Gilroy’s TV show grounded the evil of the Empire. We’re used to seeing the Empire’s evil writ large, with planets destroyed and acts of genocide constantly mentioned (though seldom seen). Andor season 2, though, offers a much more intimate look at life under a fascist regime; it particularly explores that regime’s impact on women.
Personally, I found the end of Andor episode 3 deeply disturbing. There’s a subtle juxtaposition between two scenes; the wedding of a child bride and an attempted sexual assault. Gilroy is a skilled writer, and I have no doubt that this placement was intentional, to point to multiple ways in which women suffer under fascist regimes (the Imperial philosophy was popular on insular human-populated Core Worlds of the Star Wars galaxy, Chandrila included; notice how few aliens attend Leida’s wedding).
It didn’t take me long to guess the sexual assault scene would become controversial. I even spoke to my writers about it, asking Liz Declan to write our first response because I could easily imagine female voices being drowned out by predominantly male YouTubers (besides which, Liz is one of my best writers, and she had a lot to say about it). What I didn’t call, though, was the specific direction the discussion has already taken – and it’s this direction that I want to address.
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Andor’s Bix Scene Is One Of The Darkest & Most Important I’ve Ever Seen In Star Wars
One Bix scene from Andor season 2, episode 3, is the darkest thing I’ve ever seen in Star Wars movies and TV shows, but it is absolutely necessary.
This Is (Technically) Star Wars’ First Rape Scene
The Star Wars galaxy is a brutal one, and there have been hints of sexual assault before; I know the Slave Leia costume was designed to evoke some classic Conan the Barbarian-style imagery, but the meaning (and Jabba’s gross tongue-lick) is quite clear. As Liz notes, the Bix scene seems reminiscent of one drawn from comics published as part of the old Star Wars Expanded Universe (even character names involved are similar, perhaps hinting this is no coincidence). But we’ve never seen a sexual assault on-screen before, and some viewers are understandably disturbed.
What I did not expect, though, was for one prominent YouTuber – who I won’t name here – to make the following argument:
“SA in SW feels unnecessary. You can portray power dynamics and making the audience hate the Empire in other ways without taking it to such a disgusting place.
Vader wouldn’t tolerate that s*** nor does the Empire condone it.
It has no place in Star Wars. Period. Unnecessary.”
I’d anticipated an argument that sexual assault has no place in Star Wars, because George Lucas intended this franchise to be aimed at children. Even then, I’d disagree, because Andor is self-evidently a rather more mature show aimed at adult viewers – although, for the record, I do think Disney may have wanted to include a sensitivity warning on Disney+. What I hadn’t expected, though, is for someone to essentially argue that the Empire is better than this.
No, The Empire Is Not Better Than This
Firstly, I want to tackle that claim head-on: no, the Empire is not better than this. The Empire is a fascist regime, created by a man who sought absolute power and who had no qualms about commanding the murder of children. It is a matter of undeniable historical fact that fascist regimes tend to concentrate power in the hands of men who abuse that power in every way, especially over women, and that women suffer under fascist regimes. If you’ll forgive a real-world parallel, the resurgence of misogyny in the U.S. right now is one of the surest signs that the wheel of time has turned again.
I’ve already seen some people defending Andor season 2’s sexual assault scene by arguing it simply shows the reality of war, where rape is a weapon of power. I’m afraid the truth is worse than that; the Imperial agent in that scene has no idea he’s dealing with a rebel, he simply thinks he’s exercising his power over an attractive undocumented woman who he believes can’t defend herself. Tony Gilroy is deliberately showing the reality of life for women under a fascist regime, where they are subject to the every whim of men of power. And yes, it’s horrific.
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George Lucas was inspired by the Vietnam War when he created Star Wars, but the parallels aren’t exact; the Empire is an amalgamation of every real-world fascist regime in history. Women have suffered under every fascist regime, which means I can say with absolute confidence that the Bix scene is perfectly accurate. No, the Empire is not better than this.
Why Are We Defending The Empire?
There’s another question rumbling under this, though, one that really needs to be called out: Why does anybody think the Empire is better than this? I should note this is why I haven’t sourced the tweet; not because I wanted to avoid the controversy of calling someone out by name, but because I think that tweet is representative of a bigger problem in the Star Wars fandom. There are portions of this fanbase who find the Imperial philosophy and characters a little too attractive, and thus try to whitewash the Empire’s evil.
For the record, I get it. Nobody likes to think their favorite characters are outright evil, and we can even see strands of this running in official Star Wars publications. Legendary Star Wars author Timothy Zahn fell in love with the character of Grand Admiral Thrawn a little too much, penning books in which he portrayed Thrawn as a “sympathetic Imperial” who believed in security and peace but wasn’t corrupt. He never quite got around to exploring the fact that such “sympathetic Imperials” stand behind the corrupt ones, empowering them, and so are no more innocent.
We’ve seen (or, mostly, heard of) countless acts of genocide in Star Wars. Andor season 1 features death camps and scenes of torture. But this sexual assault grounds the evils of the Empire in such a visceral way, putting a face on the suffering of women under fascist regimes. This, I think, is why some parts of the Star Wars fandom are flinching from it – it’s too real, too uncomfortable, shattering any illusions of the “sympathetic Imperial” and confronting them with the reality of life under a fascist regime.
And that, I suspect, is one major reason Tony Gilroy was so right to put the scene in Andor season 2.
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