Editor’s Note: The following contains spoilers from Episode 1-10 of Andor. From the kids taken away to grow to be troopers to the planets exterminated by the Death Star and the Starkiller Base, Star Wars has at all times made it fairly clear how terrifying it’s to reside below the Empire’s rule. However, the complete extent of the Empire’s cruelty in direction of its folks was at all times left to the followers’ imaginations. There had been many gaps to be crammed between the tales of Stormtroopers like Finn (John Boyega) and the grandiose massacres of planetary proportions. Little by little, nevertheless, the franchise has been closing these gaps with new films and TV exhibits. Most lately, in Andor, followers acquired have a look at simply how terrible the Empire’s jail system is. However, the Narkina-5 story arc that spans from Episode 8 to 10 of the present doesn’t simply paint a transparent image of what it’s wish to be incarcerated as a typical felony within the Empire. The subplot additionally gives us a peek of the terrors to which the whole galaxy is subjected to and the way this ruthlessness finally results in revolt.
We are first launched to Narkina-5 in Episode 8 of Andor. While pretending to be a vacationer within the beachy planet of Niamos, Cassian Andor (Diego Luna) is mistaken for a typical felony and arrested by imperial guards. Sentenced to 6 years in jail for allegedly talking out in opposition to the empire throughout his trial, Cassian is taken to the jail moon of Narkina-5, the place the inmates are compelled to work constructing components for some mysterious challenge (the Death Star, possibly?). But regardless of the compelled labor, the electrified flooring, and the fixed vigilance, being locked up in Narkina 5 isn’t as horrible as one may think.
Both science-fiction and the true world are full of prisons a lot, way more horrifying than Narkina-5. The prisoners of the Empire have entry to comfy beds, a continuing provide of water, and all they will eat meals. Sure, the meals would possibly style like nothing in any respect, however at the very least you gained’t starve. Hey, in case your workforce manages to beat all of the others within the race for who builds these mysterious components quicker, you would possibly even get a little bit of taste in your subsequent meal. The dropping workforce, then again, will get punished with electrocution. Nevertheless, the boys at Narkina 5 appear resigned to their destiny, counting down the remaining days of their sentences and ready patiently for the second through which they may see the solar once more.
Narkina-5 Represents the Galaxy’s Complacency and Oppression
It’s once they discover out that the daylight could also be ceaselessly out of their attain that issues begin to go awry. First, the prisoners have their sentences arbitrarily prolonged on account of a change of coverage and laws within the aftermath of the Aldhani heist. Still, they continue to be obedient and docile aside from some remoted complaints. But this quiet acceptance of the established order modifications when the prisoners discover out that they’re by no means getting out of Narkina-5. Or, slightly, that they could get out, however solely to be locked up someplace else.
In Episode 9, Ulaf (Christopher Fairbank), the oldest prisoner in Narkina-5, succumbs to an enormous stroke. A health care provider is known as to assist him when he feels sick, but it surely’s to no avail. This, nevertheless, provides Kino (Andy Serkis) and Cassian the chance to speak with somebody that is aware of what’s occurring across the huge jail. Doctor Rhasiv (Adrian Rawlins) reveals to them {that a} prisoner that was speculated to be launched was really simply transferred to a distinct flooring. This was a mistake, for the boys on the second flooring acknowledged their fellow inmate from the fifth. To hold their error a secret, the guards fried the whole flooring. One hundred males had been electrocuted to dying. Upon listening to this story, Kino and Cassian deduce that nobody in Narkina-5 is definitely getting out: they’re simply being despatched to completely different prisons. From then on, it is only a matter of time for the information to interrupt, awakening a rebellious sentiment within the coronary heart of each single prisoner in Narkina-5.
What occurs to the boys in Narkina-5 is paralleled by a decline within the high quality of lifetime of the folks on the surface. Just like being a prisoner in Narkina-5, residing “free” below the Empire doesn’t need to be that dangerous. Oppression would possibly make your meals style bland and void your lifetime of colour, however, so long as you retain your head down, obey, and work laborious, you may go about your each day enterprise as if nothing severe is occurring. However, after the raid on the Aldhani garrison, the Empire’s fixed presence turned more durable and more durable to disregard. Draconian legal guidelines are handed in a single day, imperial guards grow to be almost omnipresent, and persons are arrested for the littlest of issues by no means to see the solar once more. It turns into apparent to each citizen of the Empire that, even when they nonetheless have their so-called freedom, they’re nothing however prisoners of the regime, utterly at its mercy.
The Prison Escape Represents a Desire to Take Freedom For Yourself
Slowly, however absolutely, the folks of the Empire understand that they’re trapped beneath the emperor’s proverbial boot, and nobody is coming to assist them. They should, then, assist themselves by rebelling in opposition to an influence that appears to be getting increasingly overbearing, but in addition increasingly terrified of those that reside below it. Since they have already got so little and the little they have might be taken away from them within the blink of an eye fixed, the folks of the Empire understand that, in reality, they’ve nothing left to lose – that’s, nothing however their chains.
Likewise, the boys in Narkina-5 understand that they’re utterly reduce out from the remainder of the galaxy. No one is aware of the place they’re or what is occurring to them. Thus, the one folks that may do one thing about their state of affairs are themselves. The Empire has already taken their lives within the figurative sense, and it may simply as simply kill them for actual. They are, for all intents and functions, already lifeless. Thus, they don’t have anything to lose of their battle to return again to life. There is just one manner out of Narkina-5, identical to there is just one manner out of the Empire’s rule, and that’s by combating these in energy and working in direction of the exit door. In the tip, to paraphrase Cassian Andor, it’s finest to die attempting to take them down then to offer the Empire what it needs: your freedom and your life.
In this state of affairs, Kino’s tragic ending stands in for everybody that’s left behind within the combat for a life freed from oppression. His heartbroken “I can’t swim” represents these that can by no means handle to reside their rebelliousness to the fullest out of worry of braving the unsure waters forward, however who gained’t let it cease them from lending a serving to hand to these in want. The indisputable fact that Kino will most actually die whether or not he jumps into Narkina-5’s waters or is recaptured by the guards is a bleak reminder that not everybody will make it to the tip. Many, like Cassian himself, will die combating for a greater galaxy, whether or not their combat takes place inside or outdoors of prisons.