The banality of General Grievous

"Violence and lesbians kissing?
Oh no! My fragile worldview!"

-basement trolls

I'm sorry, is Star Wars great now or is each new streaming series terrible because lesbian spec witches or whatever the incels were on about awhile back? I ask because I just finished watching the new, and evidently final, season of Andor and it was great. Like, really, really great. Also, there were women and queers and latino men in it, so it was also super woke, and has got to be absolutely short circuiting the aforementioned internet trolls. Oh, and did I mention that it's 100% about resisting a totalitarian government? Which, I mean, obviously because it's Star Wars, and George Lucas basically invented fighting space fascists. 

But it sure does hit differently when cops in masks are hauling people away on Instagram. Anyway, it's always been allegory, it's just that this show has been more explicit about it. From the occupied planet full of faux-french resistance fighters to Mon Mothma all but turning to the camera to call out MAGA on their bullshit, the veil has gone from thin to transparent and I am here for it. 

The people of planet Ghorman are like a two more barrettes
away bursting into "Do You Hear The People Sing?"

Absolutely not. 

In fact, the only criticism I have for it is all previous Star Wars stuff. That is, it's a little hard to reconcile Anakin Skywalker whining about sand, or that Temu ALF guy croning in Jabba's palace with the banality of evil of this series' Imperials. That is, in the real world, one person's monster is another person's champion of the people. In Star Wars, the Emperor is a yellow-eyed sorcerer who shoots lightning from his fingertips while shrieking about unlimited power. 

That anyone has to be convinced that Palpatine is evil feels a little awkward, although we live in a world where the press secretary tells us to our faces that a Qatari jumbo jet is not a bribe and someone has to be buying that one, right? 

"The unlimited power the Emperor was referring to is his unlimited power to
make the galaxy great again. Bantha milk and hyper-fuel prices are way down.

-Ka Roline L'Vitt, Imperial Press Secretary

Did you even stop to consider what this
means for people who edit Wookiepedia?

I suppose this isn't really the fault of this show though. I mean, is it the job of the writers to tell a good story or is it to tell a story that fits within the overall narrative of the Star Wars canon? Huh? Both? Well, I mean, you're not wrong. But you may have also read that the writers retconned the story of how Andor and K-2SO met. No? Well, there was a story of their first encounter in a comic book tie-in for Rogue One a few years ago, and Andor season 2 offers a different, contradictory first meeting. And I guess the question is, who cares?

Canon: it's whatever the marketing
department needs it to be.

I'm not saying anyone is wrong to care. Disney has definitely presented the comics and novels as being canon, and in fact generally treats them as such, except in cases where they need to modify established elements to serve a story they care more about (i.e. a very expense streaming TV show). I suppose if canon doesn't matter, or at least isn't the primary concern, then maybe tone shouldn't either? And look, I'm not telling you to go watch Andor. Watch it, don't, it's not going to change your life, I just thought it was neat. 

What I do want to do is consider the question of how weird is it that that asthmatic cyborg lizard General Grievous inhabits the same fictional universe as a complex villain like Denise Gough's Imperial stooge Dedra Meera? 

The answer, of course, is incredibly weird. 
Like, bananas foster weird. That's bananas on fire.