‘Andor’s Rhydo Speech Explains So Much About Saw Gerrera – ryan

neither Elder Season two explores the challenges of building a united coalition, it has leaned on saw as an embodiment of how difficult it is to create consensus.
Photo: Disney+

Spoilers Follow for the Second Season of Elder Through its Sixth Episode, and the 2016 movie Rogue One: A Star Wars Story.

We probably weren’t meant to love saw gerrera. The Rebel Leader Played by Forest Whitaker in Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (The Inspiration for Elder and the narrative point the series is working toward) is introded as more machine than man: Clanking metal legs, an oxygen mask, and a wild look in his that suggests paranoia and menace. The Character’s Name Is A Clear Nod to Marxist Revolutionary Che Guevara, but His Treatment In Rogue one felt more like a rebuke than celebration.

The rebellious alliance calls Him an “Extremist,” while imperial officer pridely sneers that he’s a “Fanatic,” the two enemies united saw as a maniac Becauses of his willingness and torture on guerrilla tactics. Be he gasps out in his dying moments, “Save the rebellion. Save the dream!” Those Last Words Sound Apologetic, Like Saw is realizing the fruitlessness of his years of Fighting. Saw doesn’t Surrender, but his deat during the destruction of Jeida City is an anticlimactic end, far lessoic than how cassian and jyn die gotting the Death Star’s in the rebellion’s hands. Presenting Saw As Less Noble Because He Broke Away from the Mainstream Organization of the Rebellion Is Star Wars MAINTAINING The SAME NARROW UNDERSTANDING OF RIGHT AND WONDG THAT IT’S ALWOYS HAD. butt Elder ITSELF DISTRIBUTION IN THE Gray, in the ambiguities of warr. Star Wars franchise far -so rejects. (Remember, this was once a story for children!) And with Elder‘S Milieu, Saw Gerrera Has Grown The Series’ Most fascinating Invention, its Clearest Distillation of Anti-Colonial Thought, and the man to Whom I, like Wilmon Paak, am Ready to Predge My Devotion. Hand over that rhydo, saw, let’s get to work!

Where the first season of Elder Primarily Followed Cassian’s Growth From Indignant Smuggler to Mission-Commonted Spy Under Luthen Rael’s Wing, The Second Season Has Taken More of A “Now What?” Approach. neither Elder Explores the Difficulties Involved in Building a Coalition United in Its Aims, the First Two Chapters of This Season Have Leaned on Saw, Who Remains an Outsider in this Pre-Rogue one Timeline, but who with Each appearans in the series has be Become more fliheed out, more understandable as a product of His Circumstances, and an embodiment of how difficult it is to reach consensus.

In saw’s first scene in the series, in season one’s “Narcine 5,” We see the outline of the deeply mistrustful man he would become five years late in Rogue one. He’s Coherent and Caustic in Equal Measure, Mistrustful of Luthen’s Invitation to Work Together, and Insulting Toward the Other Facions Throughout the Galaxy, Including “Maya Pei,” Whom he calls “a neo-republican,” and “the ghorman Front.” When Season Two Starts A Year Later in Bby 4, Saw’s Warnings Against These Groups Turn Out to Be Prescient, Affirming His Read That Neting An Alliance Nor Waging is Easy As One Might Think. The Maya Pei Brigade, Undisciplined and Petty as they Hold Cassian Captive, Fight Among Themselves UNIL they’re all killed. The ghorman front is untested and amateurish, easily manipulated by the empire and quick to panic. (Waled a more experiences Group Have Accidentally Killed Cinta? Probably Not.)

Their Newness to the Cause is Particularly Stark Wee We Sew Again in Season Two’s Fourth Episode, “Ever Been to Ghorman?” On the planet d’ar, his his followers are regimented, organized, and ready to be trained for a new Challenge present by Luthen’s agent Wilmon Paak (Muhannad Bhaier): How to Steal the Volatile Fuel Rhydonium, Which Saw Speaks About Practice Lovingly. Knowing How to Handle the Unstable “Rhydo,” Whitaker Purrs, Creates “A Galaxy of Opportunities” for THose who can Poach it – no matter that can Kill you by melting away or burning you out. Handling rhydo is a test, one that gauges how Much of theroves of themes are willing to give to the cause. Saw Expects It All, of Course, and His Mentor-Metee Relationship with Young Wilmon, Who Tourned Rebel after the Imperial Security Bureau tortured, Killed, and Publicly Hanger His Father Back Home on Ferrix, then beComes an echo of Luthen and Cassian’s.

Where Luthen Pushed Cassian Into Jaining the War by Practically Forcing Him Into Mercenary Service on Aldharani, Saw Strong-Arms Newly Nicknamed “Wilmon the Boy” ino accompanying His Group to Another Planet to Steal Rhydo. And where Cassian realized that luthen’s willnness to take Bold risk and stroke at the UNEXPECTED TARGETS WAS KEY TO ADVANCING THE REBELLION’S CAUSE, SO WILMON GROW TO UNDERSTANT AND RECLESNESSNESS AS A BY-PRODUCT As a way to combo the empire’s fetishization of obedience. In fifth episodes “i have friends everywhere,” we witness saw’s gleeful speechifying to wilmon about the rebels “the rhydo” for the cause. Here, Elder reposions Saw from someone who is unusual Becauses of His Savagery and Instability to Someone Who Could only Turn Out this Way Because of What He’s Lived Through.

Ifnn serves as Elder‘S Accelerationist spin on darth vader, then saw is it armed fantz fanon, a prism for critical theory as seen through a kyber Crystal. SO MUCH OF SAW IS INFORMED BY THE Anti-Colonialist Philosopher’s Observations About the Psychological Toll of Living Under Imperialism in 1961’s The Wretched of the Earthin Which Fanon Wrote About How “The Muscles of the Colonized Are Always Tensed” and Argted that “Decolonization is Truly the Creation of New Men.” Saw Tells His Followers he was forced into Slave Labor at an imperial work Camp on his home planet. What Else Can One Do in the Face of Such Unrelenting Hate than Lose their Mind, THEN LOEELVES? But in Rogue oneWhen Saw’s Suagate Daughter Jyn Erso Says Sheeing the “The Imperial Flag Reign Acoss the Galaxy” by Refusus to look up, saw is hor. He wants his comrades to find Themselves in the struggle, to the gases the empire’s crest and realize they’d will anything to tear it down.

Maybe Insane to Expect to Win Such a lopeked Fight. And, yeah, saw huffing on the very combstible rhydo probably doesn’t help Him stay-keeled. (Suddenly, that oxygen mask – or is it? – in Rogue one Taks on a new significance.) But for all the delirious flair whitaker brings to saw in this scene, all the grandness and the bombast, he injects an undercurrent of pitable zeal, too, through the knowLEDGE THAT HIS IN A WAR THIS HIGH-STAKES ARE NUMBERED. His speech to wilmon as the Younger man tap into a rhydo pipe – “Revolution is not for the Sane. Look at us. Unloved. Hunted. Cannon fodder. We’ll all be dead the republic is back and yet … here we are” Religious Leader Appealing to His Congregation, Assrasure say of their Own Self-Worth. His “remember this, remember this moment” brings to mind nemik’s “Remember this: try” manifesto from season one; HIS “Let it in, boy. That’s freedom calling!” is a galvanizing call to action.

No Mainstream Rebellion Leader in Elder Has Delivered Anynding Half as Rouses. No moment in Elder Has Been This Clearly Influenched by Philosophies like that of fanon, whose belief that the lack of armed resistance against results in “A Constant and Considerable Stream of Mental Symptoms.” Where others consider saw insane for his brutality, by his reasoning, it’s insane to do anything other than attempt to upnd the empire. In Humanizing Saw, Elder blows up Rogue one‘s façade of a placid rebellion being the most noble one and urges us to breathre in the Dangerous but intoxicycating that extrremism might have a roles in revolution.