The Real Reason THAT Scene in Andor is So Off-Putting and Why It Doesn’t Work
Unearned shock value does not a good story make.
If you follow Star Wars, you’ll have heard about THAT scene in Andor Season 2, in which (spoilers) an Imperial officer attempts to rape a character named Bix.
It was shocking to lots of fans, and for the past week they’ve been arguing whether the scene should’ve been scrapped.
Opinions fall roughly into two camps:
CAMP 1: Star Wars is mostly a lighthearted space fantasy that’s typically aimed at a family audience, therefore sexual assault doesn’t belong
CAMP 2: Star Wars has always explored dark themes, and Andor is aimed at adults, therefore sexual assault shouldn’t be out-of-bounds.
Both of these arguments miss the real reason the scene is so off-putting in modern Star Wars (aside, of course, from the inherent unpleasantness of sexual assault).
Modern Star Wars tried to pretend sex doesn’t exist until now.
As crotchety reviewer, Mr. Plinkett, notes in his review of The Force Awakens, modern Star Wars is missing the sex appeal that undergirded the original trilogy and some of the prequels.
The sexual tension between Han Solo and Princess Leia is palpable throughout the whole series. Han spends most of the first film with his shirt almost all the way unbuttoned. Leia plays off his romantic rivalry with Luke (until they realize they’re related…whoops). And, of course, there’s Padme’s dominatrix outfit in Attack of the Clones…
Yes, darker sexual themes are also explored, such as Jabba’s Twi’lek dancer who gets fed to the rancor and the “slave Leia” costume. But these feel more natural in the narrative because it’s not the first time we’re encountering sex in the story — and cruelty isn’t the only framing by which we’re allowed to encounter it.
You need the light side of sex if you’re going to explore its dark side in Star Wars.
[NOTE: I wrote this before Episodes 4–6 released, but the criticism still stands, given the order in which this story was told.]
Andor, and the rest of modern Star Wars, is completely devoid of any sex, save for a cringey scene in The Acolyte.
It’s completely sterilized in terms of romantic tension. There’s no love, no overt attraction — nothing to make us feel these characters have any biological impulses. It’s more like everyone’s a congenial office colleague who’s just taken the workplace harassment training and couldn’t get horny anyway because they’re on too many antidepressants.
That’s why a primal, aggressive sexual assault scene feels so gratuitous, exploitative, and shocking.
Modern Star Wars goes out of its way to stop us from enjoying sex as a positive force in the universe, but then it allows us to be entertained by its worst incarnation. In this show, Bix and Andor clearly have some lingering attraction to each other, but all we get to see of it is some longing looks and a forehead bump. Meanwhile, her brutal assault gets an explicit, drawn-out scene all to itself.
No.
Sorry, Star Wars. You didn’t earn the right to use sex in that way.
Don’t play with sexual assault in your story unless you work hard to earn it.
Even if you think sexual assault has a narrative place in a darker, more serious Star Wars, it doesn’t negate the necessity of good storytelling to get there.
That’s true no matter what story you’re telling.
Sexual assault is powerful and meaningful because it happens all the time in real life, so if you’re going to introduce it into your whimsical space fantasy, it has to be done very skillfully.
Unfortunately, that’s not what happened here, and THAT’s why everyone feels wrong about it.