Star Wars is a very divisive franchise. It used to just be who hated Jar Jar Binks against those who loved him, but then The Last Jedi divided the fans like Moses parting the Red Sea. Well, it turns out the most recent show, Andor, has actually ruined at least one marriage too.
Podcaster Eleanor Mueller took to Twitter to state Andor ended their marriage. She clarified, “This is an exaggeration, but the conversations about politics that my ex and I had as a result of watching Andor together were so intense that it finally broke us up.” Honestly, I’m not surprised. Some people absolutely refuse to accept Star Wars is an aggressively political franchise. What people often define as politics are just opinions they don’t like. Destroying the evil Imperials? Great. Saying they’re an allegory for Western imperialism? Politics.
If you’re wondering how people could disagree about a TV show so much they break up, you must be lucky enough to have never delved into just how polarizing Star Wars can be. One reply to Mueller asked why Star Wars attracts so many leftists who are obsessed with fascism. She responded, “Star Wars is a fundamentally anti-fascist work, and anti-fascism is a primary cause among leftist ideology.” True. She followed up with, “What is it with blue check clowns recently asking condescending questions with extremely obvious answers?”
Andor is about an insurgency rebelling against a fascist, authoritarian Empire. While many people support freedom in principle, they flinch at the thought of violence winning that freedom. So, while most people would probably agree the rebels in Andor deserve to be rid of the Empire, just how they should do that will be the sticking point. Should they protest peacefully or violently resist? An obvious real-world example of this divide is what’s happening in Palestine right now.
It doesn’t help we have media executives who completely miss the point of the art they work on. Tim Harcourt, executive producer on reality show Squid Game: The Challenge, said to TV Guide, “Star Wars is about swashbuckling rebels overtaking an empire, but people don’t necessarily just focus on that as being about freedom or being about anti-imperialism.” Of course, the executive who turned anti-capitalist show Squid Game into an actual reality show doesn’t think people focus on these core messages, but we really should.
