Process
Status Items Highlights Done See section below Claims None Questions None Output None
Highlights
Time 0:28:10
Andor As A People’s History
- Andor reframes Star Wars as a people’s history by showing slow, patient infrastructure-building instead of heroic lone saviors.
- The 12-episode arc lets Tony Gilroy depict material logistics, class struggle, and everyday grunt-level consequences rather than mythic jedi moments. Transcript: Frank Capello Today, we are finally discussing Andor, the TV series, season one, just season one. We’re not going into season two today. The series was created by Tony Gilroy based on characters created by George Lucas and also Tony Gilroy, the Rogue One film, and those characters. This TV series stars Diego Luna, Stellan Skarsgård, Denise Goff, Kyle Soller, Genevieve O’Reilly, Adria Ahorna, Elizabeth Dulao, and many others. There is no box office because this is a TV show, but it definitely cost a lot of money. We know that. And they didn’t get to finish it the way that they wanted because of how much it cost, but was extremely popular, Emmy award winning, etc. The story follows Cassian Andor, a low level yet highly talented thief who only looks out for himself, who is then thrust into the center of galactic politics when he finds himself aligned With the rebels secretly organizing to overthrow the authoritarian empire. All right. Rivka Rivera Some context. This show was first, the first season was released in 2022. There’s global wealth inequality officially reaching the largest gap in the entire last century. Leftist leaders are elected in Chile, Colombia and Brazil.
Time 0:53:15
Culture Is The Seedbed Of Resistance
- Chris Myers argues that contemporary culture is commodified and decontextualized (memes, audio snippets, TikTok) rather than producing shared maps of meaning.
- Because culture now is manufactured for us, we lack the rituals, practices, and shared symbols needed to form durable resistance movements.
- Myers points to Ferrix in Andor as an example of a community with whisper networks, gongs, and double-meaning songs that encode resistance.
- He invokes Cedric Robinson: what sounds like noise to the colonizer can carry organized messages among the oppressed.
- The core claim: culture must come first — without a living culture, widespread organized resistance against empire won’t emerge organically. Transcript: Chris Myers You know, it’s no longer a song. You know, it’s like the snippet of the song that is used for the reels or the TikToks is an audio. It’s a decontextualized thing. We’re not, we’re even past music now. So our culture is kind of completely run through the meat grinder of what Adorno or Horkheimer would call the culture industry. It’s not a real culture. We’re not making maps of meaning. They’re being made for us. So if we want to have something like a Ferox resistance, we need to, you know, and it’s funny, it’s actually kind of amazing. I’m pointing at a Star Wars show for a lesson, but I think we need to be like the people on Farrick’s, you know what I mean? We need to have these like whisper networks. We need to have, you know, the gongs and the traditions. We need to have all of these things among ourselves, because that’s the stuff that we utilize to, like, for instance, in slavery, right? My ancestors were singing songs, talking about weight in the water. And Whitey didn’t know no different. He thought they would just sing little songs to pass the time. Those were instructions for running away. But it served a double meaning. Just like an Adani when they’re doing a little funeral procession or they’re banging the gongs, it looks like noise. Cedric R. Robinson, who wrote black marxism would say record the noise right to the colonizer to the to the imperialist it sounds like nothing but that’s actually what you can utilize and repurpose To put the messages of resistance into but if you don’t have a culture you can’t do that and it’s not going to just happen you know people aren’t just going to get together all alienated And individuated and decide that they’re going to link up and fight the most powerful empire in the universe.
Time 1:14:51
Culture Imagines The Revolutionary Horizon
- Rivka argues culture’s role is to imagine and define the revolutionary horizon so movements know what they are actually fighting for.
- She contrasts hardened characters who cosplay a horizon with movements that lack a clear positive vision, leaving viewers unsure what the future being fought for would look like.
- That vagueness lets movements avoid the hard work of building concrete alternatives and tactics to achieve them.
- Rivka notes it’s tricky because capitalism has already defined what ‘feels good’ (e.g., iPhones), so imagining what replaces those signifiers is challenging but necessary.
- Defining the horizon would strengthen storytelling (like Andor) and give movements clearer goals to organize toward. Transcript: Rivka Rivera When we had done Children of Men together, we talked a lot about a communist horizon or just the horizon, the revolutionary horizon point. And I think one of the things that keeps missing when you have a character like Luthien and they’re talking so much about how hardened they’ve gotten and they’ve just kind of they’re Just sort of walking ghosts for this dream but that dream isn’t even defined in the context of and or it’s assumed and you were talking about culture and I think one of the biggest one of Those important roles for culture workers and for us talking about culture is redefining and using imagination to define like what is it that we would want? Like what does that stuff look like? And maybe that’s where it gets muddied where, you know, it’s not of wanting everyone to feel good and take care of each other. It’s like the desire to sort of have these movements cosplay the horizon when you and therefore not have to do the things you need to actually get the horizon and just like defining those Things would even help the arc of this show so much more strongly so you can be you could watch and place Luthan as like a okay but I see what they’re fighting for like I’m trying to think Through the show and I’m like I’m not really sure I know they’re fighting for what they’re fighting against but I still have no fucking idea what they’re fighting for like what do they Want the world to look like what the fuck are the is there gonna be different color scheme like are we like what is it and I think that’s a that’s a failure of so there’s so few films or shows That do that or tackle that because I think it’s really tricky to do that without. I don’t know why it’s tricky because we have given so many ideas of what capitalism tells us should feel good.
Time 1:39:49
Empire Dismantles Culture To Suppress Resistance
- Chris Myers connects the Empire’s resource extraction on planets like Aldani to classic imperial tactics of targeting “underdeveloped” areas to extract value.
- He argues the Empire purposely undermines local culture (e.g., Aldani’s festival) because erasing traditions weakens the people’s will to resist.
- The Empire stages comforts and vices at festival sites to weed out participants and normalize abandoning traditions.
- That cultural erosion is presented as a deliberate, slick strategy to make assimilation feel voluntary.
- Frank Capello emphasizes the show’s intentionality: even with limited screen time, Andor shows the Empire actively dismantling culture to make control easier. Transcript: Chris Myers That’s exactly what happens with the imperial court, it goes to quote, unquote, underdeveloped countries, nations, to do resource extraction, to install free markets, to do either, You know, you know, neo colonialism, or imperialismism or whatever it is to maintain that kind of dominance. But what that also means is that then we’re dealing with class struggle, right? And I think that’s also kind of an important aspect of like Aldani is like, you know, there’s this kind of class of people that comes in and like plants a flag and kind of like sees the people Who live there is just like in the way. I think it’s really important on Aldani that there’s the, we don’t know too much about them, but we know that they have this festival that’s really, really important to them. And again, when I was talking about with like Amalcar Cabral, like, you know, you have to take away a people’s culture if you want to take away their, their will to fight. And you get the, you get the, the idea that the empire is very conscious of that and is going to do it in a very slick way to make them think that it’s something that they are doing themselves. I mean, you know, the reason the other reason why I think that it’s that the people on on that planet are reminiscent of American indigenous people is because they mentioned that in getting To the festival, they they set up all these little stations with like comforts, but alcohol or whatever to kind of weed them out. Right. So they understand the importance that if they maintain their traditions, they’re a problem. But if we can get them to give up on their traditions, we can get them to give up on resistance.
Time 1:46:19
Spontaneity Versus Organized Revolution
- Nemec’s manifesto in Andor echoes Trotskyite ideas about spontaneity: freedom as a pure idea that occurs without instruction.
- Chris Myers contrasts this with a Marxist-Leninist critique: spontaneous uprisings are risky because movements need consistent, full-time organizers.
- Organized revolution requires people who can guide movements through both upturns of revolt and downturns of repression.
- Spontaneity is inevitable and not rejected outright, but it should not be encouraged as the primary strategy for revolution.
- The tension highlights why characters like Cassian and organizers like Luthen represent different approaches to building durable resistance. Transcript: Frank Capello And Chris, you were saying the theory is kind of junky. I’d love to hear you a little bit more on that because I mean, it’s, look, it’s not like incredibly fleshed out, but it is very lofty. You know, it is very, it sounds beautiful. Chris Myers Well, I don’t know. I haven’t heard as a space Trotsky. I like that it fits. The reason why I have an issue with it is, you know, this line, freedom is a pure idea. It occurs spontaneously and without instruction. Random acts of insurrection are occurring constantly. So that is a Trotskyite approach to what revolution is. You know, the masses kind of spontaneously awaken and, you know, we need to kind of encourage that. Whereas the more Bolshevik kind of, well, they would claim they’re Bolshevik, the more, you know, I don’t want to say Stalinist, but the, the, the non-Trotsky Marxist-Leninist would Say spontaneity actually is a, is a big problem in liability for the movement because you need a group of kind of consistent, full-time revolutionaries who are able to learn the lessons Of the movement and guide it through not just the upturns where people want to lash out and spontaneously erupt, but also the downturns where there’s repression and defeat.
Time 1:52:39
Mon Mothma Is Quietly Planting Radical Seeds
- Mon Mothma is portrayed this season as publicly moderate and distracted with money troubles, but privately far more radical and strategically active.
- She uses a performance of being an “annoying liberal” so others underestimate her while she funds and seeds real resistance work.
- In season one she isn’t “boots on the ground” yet, but she is laying groundwork that will expand in season two.
- Chris and Frank highlight that revolutions often need class traitors — people with resources and networks — which positions Mon as a crucial organizer even before overt action.
- The show emphasizes self-awareness and political theater: Mon’s reformist persona conceals deliberate, strategic organizing. Transcript: Frank Capello I’m like kind of like in bed with Luthan, and I’ve been funding some of his stuff, and like that’s kind of like put me on the back foot on my ledger but she’s not as active she gets a lot more To do in the second season that’s really you kind of like see her arc the one thing I really did like from this season is though there’s the one scene I forget who she’s talking to me oh she’s Talking to her friend take home when she’s like trying to figure out her money stuff and she’s like look I know that everyone thinks that I’m this annoying fucking liberal who doesn’t Who’s just like all I’m over. I’m just like over here talking about like, you know, human rights and like we all got to treat each other better. But what actually no one knows is that underneath I am way fucking more radical and I’m actually doing some shit, doing some real shit. So I’m like being annoying over here so that they’ll look at me for being annoying but you know it’s just all an act so like that i i appreciated like the the the self-awareness more that Mon had on this watch um and i was like oh she’s not just like she’s not just like an institutional liberal who was like you know we can we can fix this through reform she’s like i know that The reform in the Senate is all just fucking theater at this point. So she is actually she’s not boots on the ground yet. But she is like she’s she’s planting those seeds. Chris Myers Yeah. I mean, I will say like I’ve mentioned it briefly, like, you know, you do need class traders. I mean, a lot of I don’t want to say most, but I’m pretty sure it’s most revolutions, you know, started with class traders in because
Time 1:58:26
Leadership Must Come From Inside The Oppressed Group
- Frank links Cassian’s charge to the classic critique of external organizers who incite movements but fail to build internal leadership.
- The power of Cassian’s line is that he tells an insider: you’re already the living embodiment of this prison system, so you must lead the others.
- That makes resistance durable because it trains and legitimizes leaders who are trusted by their peers, not outsiders.
- Frank emphasizes this is why Andor’s role matters: he can’t be a temporary outsider leader — the movement needs someone who has lived the conditions.
- The scene reframes radicalization as building internal capacity, not just inspiring anger from the outside. Transcript: Frank Capello No, that’s such a good point. That’s such a good point. I had that written down specifically about that moment at the end where Cassian says, like, you’re the one who has to, you’re the one who has to tell everyone what to do because you are The guy who does this every day. It made me think of, I forget, this is a criticism. Chris, maybe you can, maybe you know who this is. Like the critique of some trade unionist movements of like you know external organizers and this is probably more true for like the early 20th century but like external organizers Who would come into a union who in really good like ginning up uh you know like ginning up like some some class consciousness getting people riled up maybe getting a union off the ground But then not equipping, like not equipping the people who were already there with the tools and the education to like, then be the trade unionist leaders that like the organization Required moving forward. You know, do you know what I’m talking about? Um, but, but just to like how, how, how, how vital it is, even though like Andor has been with these guys and is a prisoner, how vital it is that he’s like, look, you are the one, you are the One that is like, that is, uh, uh, like the living, breathing embodiment of this prison system.
Time 2:01:21
Prison Shows How Everyday Behavior Is Trained
- Chris Myers argues the prison scenes make visible how capitalist regimes train bodies and behaviors that are usually invisible in daily life.
- He links schooling and early childhood to learning how to sit, speak, and perform appropriate workplace comportment.
- The prison amplifies those rhythms: hands up, look forward—showing how perception and conduct are policed.
- This aesthetic and bodily training is part of an ideological apparatus that normalizes obedience.
- The point ties Cassian’s situation to broader lessons about how control operates culturally, not just physically. Transcript: Chris Myers I think that’s, like, really kind of critical. I mean, he’s literally running on the beach, but also just, like, you know, you run eventually, it’ll catch up with you and you’ll find yourself in prison. But of course, the prison too is a kind of, yeah, we can do a Foucauldian, you know, everything is a prison type metaphor here, but we just see it more clearly when we’re actually in a prison. And also in the book that I’m, again, teasing out, teaching the actuality of revolution, he references the perceptual ecological regime of capitalism. But that’s happening on an aesthetic level too. When you go to school, you don’t just learn information that is really meant for you to be able to be a good worker at one point. But you also learn behavior. You learn how to speak, when to speak, how to sit in a chair. These are all the things you learn. That’s very important. Your office job, whether it’s a shitty one or a well-paying one, you learn that shit when you were three years old, when you’re four years old. You learn how to sit versus all the ways you could sit in a chair and all the way. You learn that. So that’s part of this, again, this ideological state apparatus. Now, again, I think that this is true of all society, both in Star Wars and in the real world. The prison just helps us see it more clearly. We see that there are rhythms of the body that have to be trained, on program, hands up, looking forward. Okay. But we’re kind of always in moments where we’re on program. There’s all kinds of moments in social life where if we