When Andor actually takes place, based on the Star Wars timeline

AndorThe limited series of live-action episodes that aired on Disney Plus Wednesday night is called “The Gritty Adult Spy Drama”. It’s a dark, gritty, adult spy drama. This 24-episode series, which spans two seasons, follows Cassian Andor (Diego Luna), a Rebel operative first shown in 2016’s feature film. Star Wars Story: Rogue One. Through the viewpoints of both its title character and that of Senator Mon Mothma (Genevieve O’Reilly), AndorThe story will be told about how the Rebel Alliance was formed from isolated resistance cells against the Empire. Rogue OneOriginal Star Wars.

During this period just before the outbreak of the Galactic Civil War — which Obi-Wan Kenobi dubs “The Dark Times” — the Star Wars galaxy is a true dystopia, an authoritarian nightmare whose citizens are either ignorant of its atrocities or hopelessly outmatched against them. This fascinating era has been the subject of some of the current canon’s most interesting ephemera. But for those who would prefer not to spend weeks untangling the intricacies of the first Galactic Empire, here’s a brief guided tour to set the stage for the franchise’s next grand opus.

Scarred and malformed

Lucasfilm

The Galactic Republic is officially renamed the Galactic Empire by 19 BBY, just before the Battle of Yavin. A New HopeTotalitarian regimes do not emerge overnight, even though they were established at the end of the Clone Wars. It took nearly four years for the Republic to become the Empire, but its roots run much deeper.

The prequel trilogy film is a preview of the movie. It’s also explored more in detail in the Clone WarsIn animated films, the Supreme Chancellor Sheev Papatine spent many years orchestrating conflict to destabilize Republic and give him power. Although few people are aware that Palpatine is the puppeteering leader of Separatists Count Dooku through his alter ego Darth Sidious and controls the Clone Wars, very few realize this. The Senate indulges him in power grabs for galactic security or personal profit. With the Republic’s entire clone army at his command (along with the Separatists’ entire droid army, through back channels), it’s unlikely that the Senate could have wrested power from Palpatine even if they’d wanted to. Only the Jedi Order has a chance to dethrone him, as most Jedi Order members are executed in the last days of war by their clone soldiers.

Palpatine, who declares himself to be emperor, christens Galactic Empire 1 (as shown inRevenge of the Sith(), his fascist power structure that he was strengthening during the war, quickly get into full gear. Within days, the Empire phases out the Republic’s currency, requiring that citizens register for the new “chain code” identification system in order to exchange Republic credits for Imperial legal tender. Planets that the Republic Army fortified during wartime are still occupied. Any local government who protests their continued existence is sometimes brutally removed. The Imperial Navy demolishes the Cloning Facility and utilizes remaining clone troopers in training new soldiers. They do this by exploiting poverty and encouraging jingoism as well as xenophobic paranoia.

Image: Lucasfilm/Disney

The animated series’ first season explores these early changes. Bad Batch. While not officially adopting human supremacy as a platform, the Imperial government and military edges out nearly all “aliens” and justifies the enslavement of various sapient species, such as the Wookiees, by officially reclassifying them as “non-sentient.” The military exercises eminent domain at will across the galaxy and rescinds environmental protections on “legacy worlds,” displacing or exterminating residents and wildlife in the name of industrial and military expansion. The most egregious overreaches of authority occur far from the galaxy’s wealthy core systems, and public perception is skewed in the Empire’s favor by the manipulations of their propaganda machine. Their exploits and those of their enemies are described in the amazing in-universe guidebook Star Wars Propaganda. A History of Persuasive Art In the GalaxyPablo Hidalgo.

The Galactic Senate still exists, but primarily in name. Elections are held and two thousand seats are still filled, but their resolutions against Palpatine’s fascist agenda hold no real sway. Regional governors, appointed by the Emperor, have real power over star-systems. Given that the Senate has already gained a reputation of being aloof and ineffectual, it likely takes some time for the public — the human public, at least — to even notice that their government has meaningfully changed. It is impossible to deflate the military power that was inflated during the Clone Wars. The mandate of protecting the Empire from crime and sedition gave it this status. It is the birth of an unbreakable new normal that lasts more than twenty years. Novels Catalyst: A Rogue One NovelAnd TarkinBoth of these documents, by James Luceno offer a comprehensive picture of Imperial military expansion.

It’s against this backdrop that we get Cassian Andor, who says he has been fighting the empire since he was 6 years old. The Rebellion he’s played a part in building still looks a lot different than what we’ve seen in the hidden-away bases of Empire Strikes BackOder The Last Jedi. The Rebels are yet to win any major victories, or unify under one flag. Their greatest weapon at this stage is their anonymity.

Sparks are what light up the flames

AndorAt 5 BBY the series begins. It tracks the founding of the Alliance to Restore the Republic. Although bits and pieces have been presented in various media outlets over the years, the main story is the beginning of the Rebel Alliance. However, the rebellion’s first flames predate the establishment of the Empire.

Subplots deleted Revenge of the Sith, Senators Padmé Amidala, Mon Mothma, and Bail Organa establish the Delegation of 2,000, a political caucus that challenges Palpatine to relinquish his wartime powers once the Separatists are defeated. These scenes could be easily incorporated back into the film. Andor as flashbacks, particularly given that Genevieve O’Reilly portrays Mon Mothma there as well.) It is obvious that open political opposition becomes impractical once Palpatine takes power. Organa, Mon Mothma, and other resistance cells appear across the galaxy, shifting to more covert strategies.

Partisans were the first insurgent group to rise against the Empire following the fall of the Republic. They are a terrorist traveling band that Saw Gerrera (Forest Whitaker) led. Partisans can be brutal and violent. They will permit collateral damage to cause shocking consequences and use child soldiers, such as JynErso (whose service years are detailed in the Rogue One prequel novel Rebel RisingClaudia Gray. Mon Mothma and Bail Organa withdraw their support from the Partisans, but continue to secretly aid a number of other cells whose tamer tactics don’t draw as much bad press. Though they’re not seen much in the films, Mon Mothma and Organa are the key architects of the Rebellion, connecting isolated pockets of resistance into one formidable whole.

Lucasfilm

Image: Disney XD

You can also see the animation series that shows the origins of the Rebel Alliance. RebelsThe timeline of overlapping with is. Andor. RebelsThe Spectres are hardy heroes that consolidate their force into an organized Rebellion. We follow them as they do so. A New HopeThe film features various familiar faces from both the original trilogy and new characters. Rogue One. It also reveals that the secret nerve center between Rebel cells — an agent known to most only as Fulcrum — is in fact the defrocked Jedi Knight Ahsoka Tano, the breakout character of The Clone WarsWho, since then, has made an appearance in MandalorianSoon, she will be a star of her own television series. Ahsoka isn’t the only Jedi to survive the Purge (in fact, the Star Wars expanded canon is littered with them), but those who remain are forced into hiding by Darth Vader and the Inquisitorius, a small group of Force-adept warriors trained to hunt errant Jedi and indoctrinate Force-sensitive children. The following article covers the Jedi and Inquisitor activity in this time period. RebelsThe TV Miniseries Obi-Wan KenobiThe videogame Jedi: Fallen OrderThe Novel AhsokaE.K. Johnston and The 2017 Volume of Darth Vader comics.

Ahsoka Rebels’ Kanan Jarrus and Ezra Bridger, and Fallen Order’s Cal Kestis and Cere Junda all eventually come out of hiding to fight the Empire (to say nothing of Obi-Wan Kenobi and Luke Skywalker), the Jedi who made the earliest and most violent contribution to the nascent Rebellion is Ferren Barr, who within a year of the Empire’s birth secretly orchestrates a war between the Imperial Navy and the planet Mon Cala. Mon Cala’s refusal to pay protection money to the Empire, combined with their apparent assassination of an Imperial envoy (actually killed by Barr), leads the Empire to pulverize the planet. This story can be found in the Darth Vader comics arc “The Burning Seas” by writer Charles Soule and artists Giuseppe Camuncoli, Daniele Orlandini, and David Curiel.) As a pre-Death Star illustration of what happens to dissent, the Empire takes Mon Cala as an example and makes it a brutal example. As seen in, the Rebel Alliance flotilla’s heart is eventually formed by the Mon Calamari refugees led by Gial Ackbar. Rebels, The Empire Strikes backAnd The Return of the Jedi. Meanwhile, the Empire begins waging military campaigns against its own subjects as a matter of course, sometimes under the pretense of expelling “alien invaders,” such as the invasion of Mimban in Solo: A Star Wars Story.

The year 2005 BBY marks the end of Andor’s first season, Imperial oppression is simply a fact of life, and resistance is viewed as a dangerous idea. It’s an environment more akin to 1984More than just Flash Gordon, a departure from both the epic warfare of the core films and the “Wild West” atmosphere of Mandalorian. Andor This is a chance to gain a deeper understanding of Star Wars’ dystopia. Its most interesting and pertinent facet and make it more accessible for mass audiences.

It’s easy to dismiss Star Wars as kids’ stuff, because, frankly, so much of it is. Although George Lucas, the creator of Star Wars, may be criticized for his movie universe that draws both conceptual and visual inspirations from World War II, and Vietnam War, it is best known for its near-infinite potential to merchandize. He is responsible for his vision’s corporatization just as Disney was, having purchased them in 2012. Even his own prequel film trilogy, which depicts in broad strokes the collapse of a republican (small “r”) government into a dictatorship, is packed with transparently toyetic characters and concepts. Still, beneath the fun but facile “good versus evil” drama of the original and sequel film trilogies and the complicated but lifeless intrigue of the prequels lives a complex political ecosystem with a rich history, explored across hundreds of novels, comics, video games, and television series.

This series, which consists of 24 episodes, is about insurgency and espionage under an established totalitarian government. It could make for a great addition to our canon. Star Wars tells the story of good against evil. However, as many cartoons, comics and novels have shown, righteous battles can be messy.

Three episodes from the first season of AndorDisney Plus is streaming these shows now. Each Wednesday new episodes will be added.