i've been obsessed for the last few months with a storytelling phrase whose origin I can't recall: understand how it got the way it is.
this is, to some extent, an automatic process of writing. while it is possible to star writing without an intense and intimate knowledge of every moment in that led to the present one, the important pieces to the puzzle fall into place within a few paragraphs. they're not always used or mentioned in the work but they erupt in your mind like a geyser. indeed! you should not craft all the particulars until you're ready to write your story because being too prescriptive can sometime mean you do not open yourself to surprises.
but you must know the broad "how" because it always answers the particular "why"... and what Andor understands is that a story is not a series of wookiepedia articles. it is an event which cannot help but arise..inevitably... out of a specific set of criteria.
(Note: I will not mention major plot specifics of Andor 12 as it pertains to the main characters but my thoughts in this post are invariably wrapped up in sentiments stirred by my viewing this morning.)
let's continue...
My great fear with Andor, coming off shows like The Book of Boba Fett and Obi-Wan, was that it would be chiefly concerned with The Deep Lore™ of the early rebellion. Which is to say that I worried the show would be enamored with moving pieces around on The Lore Board and offering answers to questions that don't matter. perhaps this will arise in season two but to give an example I mean something like "How Did The Rebellion Find The Massassi Temple on Yavin?" or some other such irrelevant question. Star Wars fans (I know because I was an old EU reader throughout college) want those questions answered more than anything. they want to build a perfect model of the universe where they can create timelines and wookiepedia entries. The Galaxy Far, Far Away is a scientific object rather than a moral lesson or political engine.
I have to imagine Lucas, for all this faults as a story teller, would hate this. Because even though something like the prequel trilogy (which answered many irrelevant questions) asked "how did the Republic become the Empire?" this is secondary to the better question "why did Anakin become Darth Vader?"
the answer to one question is often the answer to many questions at the same time! answering why anakin became darth vader explains how the Republic became the empire (in a literal plot sense but arguably in a metaphorical one as well) while answering "how did Cassian join the Rebellion?" also requires you to answer the questions: "why was it necessary? what material realities made it unavoidable?"
obvious! my brain yells to me and yet as I watched Andor move characters around on the dejarik board, criss-crossing them in patterns where the most we often get is a fleeting touch between the pieces, I watched with awe. I thought this show would be enamored with lore and focused on one question: how was Cassian Andor recruited? how do we build the timeline.. how do we map the model...how do we expand his wookiepedia entry?
Cassian is the star of the show but Andor is less worried with the raw mechanics of his recruitment than the circumstances that necessitate it. which is the crux of "how it got the way it is." yes, you can trace the dominos and make your model and the show does this insofar as it is a mechanically clean and meticulously planned series of events but even as i say that Cassian is the star of the show.. this is his story in name only
the question: "how it got the way it is" isn't asked in service of filling out the blank section on Andor's wiki entry. that section is filled as consequence of answering the real "how" which leads us inevitably to the why: how did the rebellion start?
I don't mean "how do we connect this to Rebels" or "How did Mon Mothma gain the clout to draw factions together?" and indeed the show might not even care because the answer to "how" is not found in Mothma or Saw Gererra or Luthen Rael. it is found in the streets of Ferrix. it is found in the manifesto of a dreamer taken too soon by imperial violence. it is found in the grief of a community. it is found in fading faces of the parents taken from us. it is found in a brick smashing against a stormtrooper's helmet. it is found in the bomb crafted secretly and without any grand mastermind's prodding. it is found in a charge against riot shields. it is found amongst the freshly shot bodies sprawled on the dirt.
the king and queen and bishops move side to side but the pawns march forward. and it is in their clash that we find the rebellion. everything else is a consequence of the fact that there is no chess master commanding the pawns. they begin to march without a commander because THEY MUST. and that is the 'how' which leads us to the "why"
Andor understands that the question of how did things get the way they are is not about building a flowchart of Important Named Characters and their machinations. instead, the lesson is that their machinations necessarily arise not as part of some singular Imperial scheme but a weaving of violences where some are vicious and some are frighteningly mundane. most are arbitrary. the empire was been built. Palpatine's presence is hardly even real within the halls of the ISB save a few utterances. the machine ticks and tocks without any ominous cloaked Sith intoning decrees. the pawns march forward and even without their commanders, they're so immersed in the disgustingly warm blanket wrap of fascism that they keep the machine turning automatically.
and these two forces, the roiling sea of rebellion and the cold winds of empire, collide at an event horizon that gives birth to a whirlwind. yes, that whirlwind will be one of Jedi Knights and superweapons and myth but it was not made by those things. and that is what make Andor powerful and what the lesson of "understand how it got the way it is" actually entails.
the action does alter the landscape but it starts because the world has spun such that it CAN'T NOT start. and while we watch our protagonists and villains spin around each other, tumbling to and fro like planets in orbit... the hot fiery sun at the center of things.. the gravity that makes the spinning possible.. the FORCE that guides it all.. will make itself known in the streets with or without magic swords and hallowed knights leading the charge.
