Star Wars Fans Are Uncharacteristically Aligned When It Comes To Andor’s Female Characters – Looper

On the “Star Wars” subreddit, fans came to a surprisingly solid consensus regarding their love of the women who grace the screen on “Andor.” In a post titled, “Andor did representation right,” u/GentleMinty wrote in part, “While empowered, we also got to see the flaws and complexity of all of these characters, which made them feel real and relatable.” Others agreed, with many highlighting the nuance with which characters such as Dedra Meero, Maarva Andor (Fiona Shaw), and other women throughout “Andor” Season 1 were written. User u/NYVines wrote, “Female strength doesn’t have to look like male strength. It has to be well written and portrayed correctly to give it proper attention. It’s hard to think of a weak female character in Andor.”

Others pointed out how lacking even the original “Star Wars” trilogy had been in terms of female representation, with u/antmars drawing attention to how well-developed Mon Mothma was in the new series compared to the version portrayed by Caroline Blakiston in George Lucas’ original cycle of films. “In the [entirety] of the original trilogy, Mon Mothma was the female character with the 2nd most speaking lines. [Losing] only to Leia. The second most. It took 40 years, but look at what she’s become,” they wrote.

Nonetheless, as pointed out by fans such as u/Kid-Atlantic, the gender of these characters was not discarded to make them stronger. “Great representation creates characters that grow beyond their identities, but doesn’t erase them either,” they noted. The appreciation for the female representation in “Andor” is a breath of fresh air in a fandom that is sometimes dominated by its most toxic fans.