There’s a running commentary going with Andor that its overall quality is ascribable to how un-Star Wars it is. I’ve got a longer post matriculating in my circuits about why I disagree with this, but here’s a quickie— Andor’s ground-level, why do people join rebellions? political approach has been in the series since the very, very beginning.
In Star Wars, there’s a deleted scene1 where Biggs Darklighter returns home from the Imperial Academy to say goodbye to his friends. While talking to Luke, he reveals that he’s defecting to the Rebellion, and asks Luke to join him. You can view it here or on Disney+ in A New Hope’s Extra features.
Here’s the reason Biggs gives for why he’s joining the Rebellion:
What good’s all your uncle’s work if the Empire takes it over? You know, they’ve already started to nationalize commerce in the central systems. It won’t be long before your uncle’s just a tenant, slaving for the greater glory of the Empire.
Resist the urge to congratulate Palpatine for his based socialism! What Biggs is railing against is the Empire forcing its own priorities on a galactic scale on the individual worlds and peoples therein. Nobody within the Empire is entitled to the fruits of their labor save the Emperor alone. As we see in Andor and other Star Wars media, the Empire’s colonialist vision refashions worlds to its own uses, instead of the needs of its people— Aldhani is an airstrip, Lothal as a factory world, Kenari a stripmine. Whole peoples will be executed for resistance, whole ecologies dismantled for a few resources. When Biggs frets about Uncle Owen becoming a “tenant”, he’s understanding that the Empire has no investment in the delicate balance of live on Tatooine, the needs of its people; they have quotas to meet, resources to collect, and an acceptable amount of suffering to achieve them.
All that to say, I like that in the original Star Wars, while our heroes are being pulled to and fro by fate and the urgings of the Campbellian monomyth, there’s other folks who are looking around and saying “I’ll put my life on the line for the farmsteads back home”. Its not quite Brasso chaining a corpo dropship to an anchor for dare showing their face in a union town… but I think the spirit is there!
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Its a lovely little scene for a bunch of reasons— the way Mark Hamill squeaks out “I’m quiet I’m quiet listen to how quiet I can be!” is one of his actual best line reads in the whole film— but it was understandably cut for time and pacing. Also because his other friends, Fixer and Camie call Luke “Wormy” and that’s probably not the vibe you want for your hero. Fixer and Camie (and their hangout, Tosche Station!!) eventually showed up again in The Book of Boba Fett, so maybe this scene is canon again? It’s canon in my little mechanical heart, anyway.