Opinion
One last question for Squid Game 3
by Luca Fontana
Andor breaks a taboo
9.5.2025
Translation: Elicia Payne
When someone utters the word «genocide» for the first time in the middle of Andor, Star Wars shows how truth is systematically destroyed – and why this tells us more about the world we live in than about a galaxy far, far away.
Warning: this is an opinion piece with spoilers on episodes seven, eight and nine of the second season of Andor.
In my spoiler-free review of the series, I’d already described the Empire as a «cold, bureaucratic extermination machine». I referred to the «rebellion at the heart of the brand». And that Andor doesn’t just feel like an excellent genre contribution, but rather like the most important thing the Star Wars universe has ever produced.
I wasn’t allowed to mention it back then. I could only hint at what Andor really dares to do. Now, with the release of episodes eight and nine listed as two of the ten highest-rated episodes in television history on IMDB – it’s time to talk openly about it.
Before the first shot
The square rumbles. People stand close together, wrapped in the colours of Ghorman – or what’s left of it. Their voices are first murmurs, then shouts, then a chorus. «We are the Ghor!»
The planet’s capital is reminiscent of Paris, somewhere between the Belle Époque and the post-war period. The language, soft and musical, sounds like French – only broken by the fear that this could be its last day. Because what looks like a riot is actually a cry for help. «We’re being slaughtered! Is there no one out there who can help us?» the Ghorman resistance later broadcasts desperately to the galaxy over the free radio.
No one replies. Ghorman’s downfall has been precisely organised – the empire has prepared a cannon to explode at the right moment for the media.
Outside on the square, a man begins to sing – alone, shaking. The Ghorman hymn. His voice doesn’t carry far in the turmoil, but it’s enough. A second person joins in. Then a third. And suddenly the crowd rises like a single great body of sound, resisting the oppression of the fascist system and the silence of the core worlds.
Meanwhile, the correspondents from Coruscant speak of a «serious security risk», of «local enforcement failing» and of the «rebellion against peace» that needs to be shut down. What the reporters from the galaxy watching aren’t saying is that they’re not practising an unprovoked uprising here. A massacre of the population is taking place so that the planet’s resources can then be exploited without resistance.
Genocide.
And nobody cares.
Now I can say what I was only allowed to hint at
Sounds familiar, doesn’t it?
Andor has managed to stage this tipping point with surgical precision, without specifically referring to a single real conflict or a real government. Instead, it’s about mechanisms that we know from history and that we can observe again in many places today: systematic eradication, authoritarian tendencies, populism, information control, propaganda, intimidation. Not only in Russia, the Middle East or America. Everywhere. Even in Europe and Asia.
The death of truth
Here’s the thing, Andor uses science fiction not as an escape, but for confrontation. It’s not about whisking us to a galaxy far, far away. It’s about holding a mirror up to ourselves so that we see things we often prefer to ignore. A world in which information control has become a weapon. In which the truth is distorted, concealed or erased. And in which silence is often the greatest crime.
The most impressive example of this is the speech Senator Mon Mothma gives in the Senate following the Ghorman Massacre perpetrated by the Empire. An accusation against the system – against Palpatine himself.
These are oppressive images that resonate. Images in Andor that remind us how close fiction and reality are.
«Of all the things at risk, the loss of an objective reality is perhaps the most dangerous», she says. «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.»
Ooof.
This isn’t a fairy-tale science fiction adventure any more. This is commentary, contemporary literature and history at the same time. You could tell the story of Andor at any point in the last 6000 years – and it would describe much of what people from any period experienced. That’s how universal it is.
And Andor reveals how deceitful this power deals with reality.
When fiction turns real
The moment when Mon Mothma loudly shouts «genocide» is deliberate. It breaks taboo. For Disney too. The «rebellion at the heart of the brand». One that not only makes the other senators cry out in disgust, but probably also many a Star Wars fan who would prefer their galaxy be apolitical.
Gilroy doesn’t care about that. At this moment, he turns Andor into more than a spin-off, a prestige series or a political thriller with a Star Wars logo. It’s a wake-up call. One that vibrates like the square on Ghorman. One that sings before outraged fans demand silence. And which shows us how good this universe can be – when it finally has the courage to be true.
Star Wars has never been this good before. And perhaps can’t be repeated. But this is what it looks like when entertainment doesn’t just entertain, but also takes responsibility.
Header image: Lucasfilm / Disney+
Luca Fontana
Senior Editor
Luca.Fontana@digitecgalaxus.chI'm an outdoorsy guy and enjoy sports that push me to the limit – now that’s what I call comfort zone! But I'm also about curling up in an armchair with books about ugly intrigue and sinister kingkillers. Being an avid cinema-goer, I’ve been known to rave about film scores for hours on end. I’ve always wanted to say: «I am Groot.»
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