Star Wars fans are expecting a lot from Andor — but breaking ground on addressing “adult” themes in a galaxy far, far away is not one of those things. It’s already happened.
This morning, I saw an article pop up from SyFy that I absolutely could not ignore. It basically made the point that Andor will be the first time in Star Wars that things will get … as explicit as they ever will in Star Wars, I guess? I gawked at this for several minutes before the anger rose inside of me. It is a factually incorrect title!
I mean my favorite non-binary Jedi, Kantam Sy, did not do the Loth-Cat Scratch Fever with their queer lover in a YA book for this kind of slander!
A friend of mine has a saying that the only time romance topics pop up in Star Wars is when a very important baby needs to be born. But if you know where to look, this hasn’t been true for quite some time.
Adults in these stories doing a “beast of two bare dewbacks” are not new in a galaxy far, far away. In fact, this has been ongoing in the books and the comics for years now. I think that’s why this hit me in such a raw way. I get that only the smallest part of the fandom is reading these works, but it feels invalidating as a fan of these works when it’s a prominent theme in them.
This year alone has two books with raunchy rancor scenes being Midnight Horizon with Kantam and their lover and the other being The Fallen Star where Ghirra Starros rides on Marchion Ro’s path engine to remain his ally. Orla and Sskeer were confirmed romantic partners in The High Republic comics because Keeve has a very visceral reaction to finding out that her Jedi master at some point did adult deeds with another adult.
There has never been a fully explicit scene to my knowledge up to this point (I have not read every Star Wars book and comic). There’s definitely plenty of fanfiction out there if you want the play-by-play of explicit lightsaber duels between the sheets. But there are plenty of scenes where it’s a fade-to-black scenario.
Lost Stars is one example. Ciena and Thane reunite after a long time apart. The childhood friends now adults shed their clothes and the scene fades away. The next scene opens with them in lying in bed together naked. HMMM! I WONDER WHAT HAPPENED THERE, I ask sarcastically.
Dark Disciple is another example. Asajj Ventress and Quinlan Vos are not subtle at all as they fall for each other. They absolutely tauntaun tango and the book is not trying to hide it. Honestly, since Dark Disciple is cut episodes of Clone Wars, a book is probably the better format for this content. There’s no way those steamy scenes would have made it into an animated series!
Even Kanan Jarrus in A New Dawn left a barmaid because he was pretty sure he knocked her up. This stuff has been happening for some time.
Entertainment sites making a big deal about the Andor series shows a brothel definitely have not seen Clone Wars. pic.twitter.com/2Fzn7COWTC
— Geeky Waffle Network (@Geeky_Waffle) September 20, 2022
The comics haven’t shied away from this either. One example is Doctor Aphra waking up in bed next to her on and off again lover, Magna Tolvan. Chelli is in her underwear but Magna is topless next to her. Insert all the big eye emojis here questioning what could have possibly happened! Another is Poe Dameron’s parents, Shara Bey and Kes Dameron.
After the Battle of Endor, they decide to celebrate intimately. The following comic panels have Shara waking up the next morning, sheets pulled up to cover her. And then later on down the comic book line, they have pictures of baby Poe. Now, I’m no expert in galactic baby-making but I have to assume that Poe must have come from Kes’ cockpit after his mother’s wild ride.
To go back to the original Syfy article, there really was a simple solution to make it factually correct. If the headline had stated that Andor was the “…first on-screen Star Wars project,” then there is no problem here. But even then, that’s not technically correct. Even in Revenge of the Sith, Anakin wakes up in bed next to his wife. They haven’t seen each other in some time. She’s pregnant and they want to celebrate. It’s not hard to consider what two newlyweds who have been apart for some time might do in their spare time.
Also, we know they have poked the porg, wolloped the wampa, bonked the bantha. BECAUSE PADME IS PREGNANT IN THE MOVIE. She has two babies at the end of it! How did they get there? I have to assume they had… wait for it… SEX. It’s not like Anakin looked at Padme with his sultry Hayden Christensen eyes and BAM, she got babies in her womb like space Virgin Mary!
We all know that only Shmi Skywalker can have babies without sex because the Force, apparently, is a real banger of a thing.
All in all, I guess this is just a rant of how frustrating it can be to be a Star Wars fan and witness articles like what SyFy put up. It’s invalidating the fans of the books and comics. It feels like a move to get clicks, which again, I totally understand that process and why it happens. But when the correction was as simple as saying the “…first on-screen Star Wars project” to make it factually correct, it’s a bit maddening.