This week's episode, "The Axe Forgets," focuses on the rebel cell that has been inserted into on Alhdani by Luthen, as they prepare for a dangerous mission to steal payroll data from the Empire. It is an episode that is deft and rich in a grounded texture with how it approaches its characters, as we get to learn a bit more about why these people have been brought together in a rebellion.
We learn of their anger, their vengeance, their ideology, all of them with valid reasons for fighting the Imperial machine. In a similar way, as cell member Skeen fills Cassian in on the personal politics of his fellow rebels, we learn that some connections go beyond cause. Varada Sethu plays the character of Cinta, who leaves one of the huts in the camp in order to gather things. Skeen describes Vel as tougher than she looks and she walks out of the same hut behind her.
We have, in such a quiet moment, Star Wars' second queer couple in live-action media.
The be-all and end-all of queerness in Andor does not include Vel and Cinta. There is no grand love confession, no explicit intimacy, but a relationship that is painted quietly. It can be seen in glances as they stand with each other side by side, or it can be seen in looks of disgruntlement as the cell makes its way to start their mission. It feels more profound than a character screaming it from the rooftop or a blink-and-you'll-miss-it kiss at a victory celebration because it is a relationship.
It feels like a part of this world, just like the rest of Andor's flawed figures do. It's just like if Vel or Cinta had shared a blanket with other people. The lived-in feeling that Star Wars often loves to evoke, but that is usually a descriptor it saves for props and alien designs, is one of Andor's strengths. It's rarely applied to its characters, especially those that take on mythical status like its grandest heroes and villains. Making a world that is capable of such fantasy as Star Wars and rendering it complicatedly human and real is what Andor does. Everyone, including queer people, is in our world.
It is perhaps telling that Star Wars has been around for as long as it has, and it is this subdued, barely touched and subtle relationship in Andor that still stands as one of its most visible queer relationships. The franchise, for all it successes on the page, can be pushed aside at a moment's notice by the hulkings of TV and movies as not "real" Star Wars in the eyes of many. Life under the Empire is always a risk for any rebel, even if we don't know how long Vel or Cinta have been there. The shared blanket brings vital texture to the world, and Andor is the best person to touch it.
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