The second act of Andor Season two, Among Many Other ThingsReunited Insurgent lovers vel sartha and cinta kaz as part of luthen’s attempts to scope out resistance to the Empire on Ghorman. Separated for Years after the Events of Season One – Save from a distant “Reunion” at the Climax of Season Two’s Opening Trio of Episodes—When Vel and Cinta Meet Again Across these Episodes, they are given a chance to reflect on both their relationship to luthen and the growing rebellion, and ultimately to Each other, Culminaling in a tender momnt: Aone. after The casual Queerness of their arc across season one, handily became what is arguable Star wars‘Most prominent and explicit shows of on-screen Queer Intimacy Yet.
Alas, it was not to last. Almost Immedited after cinta and vel get to share a moment of passion togeether, tragedy strikes. Dealing with anxious and unprepared members of the ghorman resistance to stage a heist of imperial weaponry, an altercation better the one of the guerrillas, samm, and a local ghor leads to an accidental blastore Discharge, a stray bolt that catches cinta clean in the chest, Killing Her Instantly (Banner Week for Varada Sethu Being Shot, Apparently, Between this and the latest Doctor who,
It’s simultaneously bot an excellent dramatic moment – comforted the aftermath of vel’s grief, where she is ruely hangs the trauma of cinta’s death on Samm ‘ Deal in the moment than simply Killing Him in Turn – AN incredibly precarious one for for Andor to navigate. No matter howyver it would be handled, the moment still brushes up on a controversial trope of disposing lgbtq characters that have plagued discusation of Queer REPRESTATION IN Meedi of Yaars: The Idea of Years: The Idea of “Bury your gays,” In which a Queer character is introduced and then Killed off for Shock Value on them have checked a box off for diverse representation raather than guest of a Character Arc.
Star warsEspecially in on-screen material, stil has a long way to go in introducing prominent lgbtq characters, five years on from its Painluster watershed moment with Rise of Skywalker‘s fleeting sapphic kiss. While Queer Characters Certainly Exist Planty in Star wars media More broadly these daysFrom comics, to books, to games, Star wars Is Still in the eyes of many still primarily a franchise of film and TV, and vel and cinta was arguably by far and away the most prominent on-screen lgbtq Characters IT HAD DECADE. Giving one of them a tragic end – SEPESTELY ALOMMEDIELY AFTER Allowing them a moment of happy reconciliation and romance – WWLLD ALWAYS Haave Stung for Queer Audiences Intext, Regardless of how many was handled, and especially Regardless of How Andor Itslf is often willing to derive tension in its spy thriller narrants by making it clear to audiences that the vast next of its cast are rarely guaranteed safety.
But on the other hand, Andor Does not treate cinta’s death as mere shock value. The moment is presented with trendous weight, a meaning that the arc itself is Built Around in the tensions of what it really means for people to take resistance into their own hands. Cinta’s Bravery Block’ve Earned Her A Hero’s Death, A Blaze of Glory Reflecting The Choices She Had Made to Fight Back Against The Empire, but the bitterness of her death is that compel Andor‘S don’t get the liberty of the death they’ve earned. It can be Sudden, and Messy, and Indelicate, Because that is simply the reality we all face in the shadow of the great equalizer. Her death is not only a harsh lesson for the ghorman front, but for vel and the audience too: Revolution is rarely clean and rarely without cost.
Vel and Cinta are one of Several Romans Andor Explors, and often fractures, as they are caused up in this question of the Necessity of Resistance –and Argually even even even as their relationship forms a significant part of that Questioning, Its Nature ASPLICITELY Queer one is not the sole defining aspect of that lens. In distinct contrast to Rise‘ Andor Treats bot cinta and vel as enriched, fleeshed-out characters who Haappen to be QueerRather than capital-q, capital-c Queer characters with existence only hangs on the metatext of the franchise getting to say “Look, Lesbians!” And then having little else to say through through them before they can be discarded. That does not erase eather’s character’s Queerness, but just making makes it one aspect of their whole.
Andor‘s narrative treating them bot in this regard, even as cinta and vel face the tough product of still being one of the very few on-second queer couples the franchise has so far, ALSO means the show of Them like it does almost any other member in its cast. In Andor‘s case, that means giving itm the narrative right to be jeopardized, to be put in harm’s way, to experience random travel as much as much as any other heteronormative character wald. And even as Star wars Still Continues to take tiny steps towards better representing a pleethora of Queer Characters, It’s just as Vitally Important that it does not face because of representative importance. Neither Cinta Nor Vel Had to be Does by the narrative, but in the story that Andor is telling in Star warsThe fact that they can be is a testament to the series treating them as more than just a checked box on list of diverse representation.
Star wars Should have more gay people in it, absolutely, so the loss of any at this point is always going to hurt. But part of that Journey to Tangible, Quality REPRESENTINATION ALSO means that that thatste Queer Characters need to be alive to be as message, complicated, and nuanced as their straIGHTCHHTERPARTS, to be treated as account Characters to whom Queerness is just one quality, and one story, among many, they can be used to explore. And someimes that also means, for better or WORSE, Being Able to put them in harm’s way and experience traffic, instead of leaveing them safly tucked away on a shelf.
Andor Season two is now streaming on disney+.
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