Andor: What Makes Us Join The Fight? (II)

In a recent blog post, I introduced a key theme in Andor: What causes a person to shift from being a bystander to a broad social conflict to joining it as an active participant? In a second installment on that theme, I introduce the explanation provided by Dr. Drea, psychologist and pop-culture expert

Andor: The Genesis Of The Rebel Alliance

Andor tells the story of the early days of resistance against the Galactic Empire. As the Empire tightens its grip, word spreads of individuals and small groups slipping through its fingers to fight back. the vast majority of Galactic citizens, however, go on with their lives, either undisturbed to see the Imperial flag reign across the galaxy, or simply not looking up.

More specifically, Andor is the story of people shifting from being uninvolved to being involved, compliant to resistant, passive to active, civilians to fighters. It offers perspectives on a core conflict question I raised in a recent blog post: what makes us join the fight? The study of conflict and conflict resolution draws upon many disciplines to explain these phenomena, and this question, in particular, deserves a multidisciplinary answer.

Answers from Star Wars and Philosophy

In a previous blog post, I introduced a philosophical perspective sharing Rogue One and The Philosophy of Hope, written by Matthew William Brake on the Pop Culture and Philosophy project’s blog. He related to this through the perspective of philosopher John Caputo’s notion of “the call:” an intrinsic insistence on doing something that makes a difference, to do something that is essentially important even when we could (and sometimes, rationally should) avoid doing it. Such as fighting a Death Star, or walking into an Imperial base.

Psychology, Star Wars, and Joining The Fight

In this post, I’ll highlight a psychological perspective offering insights into that same question. To do so, I’ll point you toward a recent article written on Fandom.com by Dr. Drea Letamendi. Dr. Drea is a clinical psychologist and mental health specialist, and also an expert commentator on the intersections between pop-culture and psychology. She was co-host of the Star Wars podcast  Lattes with Leia and currently hosts The Arkham Sessions, a podcast dedicated to the psychology of Batman and related stories.

In this wonderful piece of Star Wars psychology, Dr. Drea doesn’t set out to directly answer the “What makes us join the fight?” question. Her article is far more ambitious in scope, providing a comprehensive psychological analysis of the entire season and particularly, of Cassian Andor. However, reading the article through the “what makes us join the fight?” lens reveals a number of fascinating answers.

I couldn’t do the article justice if I tried, and this is one of those cases where a summary would be a poor substitute for the original. So, I’ll provide a few passages from the article and urge you to read the full version on Fandom.

From Andor Andor to Rogue One Andor: Transformation

But first, to set up Dr. Drea’s insights, I’ll remind us that while just about every incident we’re familiar with from Andor’s backstory could have caused him to join the fight at a much earlier stage, none of them did. In fact, Andor was remarkably resistant to this possibility. Case-in-point: in the drama and excitement of viewing the warehouse scene in which master web-weaver Luthen Rael gives Andor his best recruitment pitch, it is easy to overlook one simple fact: it didn’t work. Cassian continued to be in the game for himself, unabashedly mercenary and unimpressed by the zealously or ideology of his teammates in the Aldhani heist. If anything, the way that heist ended, with the nice kid getting shot and the uber-zealous team member offering him to split the money and bail on the others, only reinforced his conviction that any other path but individualistic self-preservation was lunacy. When should one join the fight, Andor? Never.

However, as we know, Andor transformed. Transformed so much, in fact, that he eventually forgot he had ever held out against joining the fight and adopted the narrative he shared with Jyn Erso (another born-again fight-holdout): “I’ve been in this fight since I was six years old!” How did this transformation come about?

All Of That Is Now Up To Us

Dr. Drea explains that the first and key transformative shift came about during Andor’s spell in prison. Or, more specifically, the moment he abandoned any hopes along the lines of “I’ve just gotta tough it out for six years, and then go retrieve my box full of credits and live like a king”. The recognition that there was only one way out, one that led through resistance and escape, converged with Andor’s survivor personality; the result was a drive for self-determination at all costs:

“At the mouth of the prison, looking out onto the vastness of the ocean, Andor basks in the exhilaration of true freedom. Breaking out was a coup for the thousands of prisoners destined to die there, but it is also a breakthrough in Andor’s ideology. He knows to attack the Empire from within its own tyrannical system, he knows to leverage the tools of the enemy to defeat the enemy. But he realizes the labor prison is a microcosm of life under the Empire’s rule. A single individual cannot simply “get out;” they will only be returned to another trapped circumstance. A true revolution comes in the form of collective liberation. Significant change can be made when the masses realize the power of their numbers. By destroying the prison’s security, disarming the guards, and commandeering the control room, the inmates reclaim ownership of their bodies, minds, and spirits. This instrumental violence, when aimed at the structure, practices, and people who perpetuate oppression, is an undeniable feature of social justice. Andor has worked with others before, but the unity felt among his fellow prisoners sparks a passion within him. Not everyone makes it out of the prison alive, but they all conclude that death during an act of rebellion is preferable to a life made complacent under tyranny.”

Would Andor, all dried off from his swim and newly reunited with his credits, have stayed in the fight? Particularly, would he had done so if he could have found an easy way out? Say, if Maarva were still alive and willing to leave Ferrix with him as he had earlier begged her to? Dr. Drea says that even though he didn’t yet know it, a commitment to this fight had become a feature of Andor’s survivor personality:

 “Returning to his home a fugitive, Andor can no longer look away from the brutality and cruelty of the Empire. He has, as Maarva will posthumously attest in her speech, woken up. His reckoning has set in: Reclaiming your freedom is nothing less than a radical act when you exist in a system that sees you as less than human.

Healing from the trauma of oppression caused by poverty, racism, and class exploitation is in of itself a psychological and political movement. The problem isn’t inside of us. Healing requires outward forms of reconciliation, such as shared testimony and actions that hold systems responsible. Radical healing, a psychopolitical framework for BIPOC people, moves away from the “deficit-based” perspective of mental health interventions. Radical healing fosters a sense of agency to challenge and change oppressive conditions. Though it blurs our concept of heroism, we can understand how amputating resources (the Aldhani heist), destroying mechanisms of oppression (the prison break), and fighting in an uprising (Rix Road) are perilous but also reparative aspects of Andor’s traumatic healing.”

You’ve Taken Your First Steps Into A Larger Universe

On his own path to healing, Andor now recognizes that others are on their own healing journey as well; still others have varied causes for joining the fight. Whatever their specific cause, many in the galaxy are awakening, like Andor, to the realities of the system oppressing them. This brings them to action, and it brings them together:

“Critical consciousness involves moving from ideological commitment to action, usually undertaken with others, to reduce or slow the spread of oppression. Research shows that engaging in social action and activism can increase psychological well-being by enhancing a sense of empowerment, giving purpose, and offering a more salient identity.”

 And indeed, Dr. Drea explains, taking the fight to the Empire requires more than one motivation, one skillset, and one strategy. It takes more than individual trauma or lofty ideology:

“Fighting the Empire takes much more than one lucky shot. The cast of characters around Andor tells us that resistance must take many forms, and span subterfuge, sabotage, infiltration, boycott, protest, divestment, and, as even the idealist Nemik suggests, even more extreme strategies of disruption such as instrumental violence. When activism not only has true connections to our values, to our strengths, to our cultural authenticity, but actually leads to reducing real power inequalities, there is potential for these actions to reduce our suffering. We call this work transformational psychopolitical validity (TPV), when our involvement in systemic change can help promote our personal, relational, and collective wellness.”

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Have I said, go Dr. Drea’s complete article on Fandom.com? I think so. So, go do that, and then ask yourself, once again: What makes us join the fight?

And then, you might ask yourself, what would make you join the fight?