In 1977, at nine years old, I fell in love with Star Wars. My mom and I stood in line for a long time to see The Empire Strikes Back, only to be told it was sold out. (Mom and I also waited in long lines to see Star Trek movies.) Mom even had a Star Wars board game, which is sadly long gone.

I have seen all the movies and many of the series with varying degrees of happiness. A lot of it was fun to watch even if it didn’t always have the best writing and certain plot choices were…questionable, to say the least.

Yes, I love arthouse, highbrow films, but sometimes I want a fun adventure, light sabers, and hyperspace. As a kid I watched the original Star Trek, of course, but also Space: 1999, Buck Rogers in the 25th-Century, Lost in Space, Battlestar Galactica, V, classic Doctor Who, and The Martian Chronicles.

These days I watch less television. I’ve kept up with Red Dwarf, Doctor Who, and the Star Trek films. And, like I said, several of the Star Wars series. But a tremendous amount of sci-fi tv, I completely miss. Some of it seems too gritty for my mood these days, and, really, I don’t have time. Can’t watch everything!

All this to say, I have watched both seasons of Andor and, good starlight, I love the writing. Not a single light saber makes an appearance. Nor do chosen ones and Skywalkers. But those speeches! Maybe they’d hit differently if we lived in different times, but these are the speeches we need.

When they first announced this series, I shook my head. Surely we didn’t need the backstory of Cassian Andor. But oh how I love a story I didn’t know I needed.

Nothing is perfect, obviously, and you can quibble with this or that if you wish. Nonetheless, it’s the kind of show which makes me want to write, and I can’t actually say that about most shows I watch no matter how much I enjoy them.

So, I’m sad it’s over, but I’m glad it exists. Watch it if you like stories of rebellion.

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“I stand this morning with a difficult message. I believe we are in crisis. The distance between what is said and what is known to be true has become an abyss. Of all the things at risk, the loss of an objective reality is perhaps the most dangerous. The death of Truth is the ultimate victory of evil. When truth leaves us, when we let it slip away, when it is ripped from our hands, we become vulnerable to the appetite of whatever monster screams the loudest. …And the monster screaming the loudest, the monster we’ve helped create, the monster who will come for us all soon enough…” ~Mon Mothma

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“But we were sleeping. I’ve been sleeping. And I’ve been turning away from the truth I wanted not to face. There is a wound that won’t heal at the center of the galaxy. There is a darkness reaching like rust into everything around us. We let it grow, and now it’s here. It’s here and it’s not visiting anymore. It wants to stay.” ~Maarva

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“what have you sacrificed?”

Luthen:

“…..Calm. Kindness. Kinship. Love. I’ve given up all chance at inner peace. I’ve made my mind a sunless space. I share my dreams with ghosts. I wake up every day to an equation I wrote 15 years ago from which there’s only one conclusion, I’m damned for what I do. My anger, my ego, my unwillingness to yield, my eagerness to fight, they’ve set me on a path from which there is no escape. I yearned to be a savior against injustice without contemplating the cost and by the time I looked down there was no longer any ground beneath my feet. What is my sacrifice? I’m condemned to use the tools of my enemy to defeat them. I burn my decency for someone else’s future. I burn my life to make a sunrise that I know I’ll never see. And the ego that started this fight will never have a mirror or an audience or the light of gratitude. So what do I sacrifice? Everything!”

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“There will be times when the struggle seems impossible. I know this already. Alone, unsure, dwarfed by the scale of the enemy.

Remember this, Freedom is a pure idea. It occurs spontaneously and without instruction. Random acts of insurrection are occurring constantly throughout the galaxy. There are whole armies, battalions that have no idea that they’ve already enlisted in the cause.

Remember that the frontier of the Rebellion is everywhere. And even the smallest act of insurrection pushes our lines forward.

And remember this: the Imperial need for control is so desperate because it is so unnatural. Tyranny requires constant effort. It breaks, it leaks. Authority is brittle. Oppression is the mask of fear.

Remember that. And know this, the day will come when all these skirmishes and battles, these moments of defiance will have flooded the banks of the Empires’s authority and then there will be one too many. One single thing will break the siege.

Remember this: Try.” ~Nemik’s manifesto

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Did you watch any of these sci-fi shows? Have a fav? Let me know!

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