Do or Do Not, But There Is Also Try

“ Remember this : essay , ” evokes the voice of Karis Nemik inAndor ’s unbelievable finale , the spirited closing to the pronunciamento he ’ll never get to see the end effect of — a line that , in the consequence , feel like a pointed rejoinder to the philosophy of the Jedi that are exclusively scatty from the show . But for all their real inverse , maybe there ’s more in common between Yoda and Nemik ’s beliefs .

On the surface , and with some supply background — namely , theClone Warsand the Prequel Trilogy give us not - entirely - glowing insight into what Yoda was like before he was a hermit mysterious , peacing out of the Empire ’s dominance of the Galax urceolata in Empire Strikes Back — placing Nemik ’s passionate call for electric resistance next to the august Jedi Master feel like a stiff strike in Star Wars ’ grow recontextualization ofthe low the Jedi Orderwas at when we encounter it in the movies . It ’s the idea that everyone take any act of rising is of welfare to a collective insurrection of the whole , even if they do n’t know that there are others out there fighting the same battle they are .

Before its devastation at the hands of Palpatine ’s subterfuge as a Sith , we are reminded time and time again of the Jedi ’s recalcitrance as arbiters of justice and protector of the common people , of how spiritual leader like Yoda and the relief of the Jedi council are clouded by clinging to a hypocritical sentience of orthodoxy even as it set the level fortheir inevitable ruination . Even without the influence of their infamous enemy — a threat ignored until it was too late — the Jedi Order was in a spiral of descent , as a moralistic entity and as an institutional subdivision of the Republic , laying the way of life of their undoing and the rise of royal one-man rule on a road of their own inaction . In this read of the Jedi , the one we are given in the prequels and in fabric like Clone Wars , Yoda ’s word uttered to Luke in Empire Strikes Back feel almost fell in their hypocrisy — how dare Yoda lecture someone on attempting to do something , when he idly stood by as Anakin was advertize further down a dark route , when in the wake of the Empire ’s ascent , Yoda decided to ladder aside until a kid he could maintain as a creature against the Emperor had come of age ?

Screenshot: Lucasfilm

It is against this critical interpretation of Yoda ’s platitude that Nemik ’s pronunciamento in Andor stands most starkly in contrast . Andor is a serial that is free of many of the mythical and apparitional trappings of other Star Wars fabric : the Force is never name and neither are the Jedi , there are no magic might and laser swords , there are just average beings navigating a galaxy in the grip of overwhelming fascism . Nemik ’s words do not beg hoi polloi to leverage a divine power they can tap into with enough feat ( and , with the context of the prequels , acquire a genetic lottery ) or do nothing at all , but but to keep trying , that tenacity in the face of darkness will bring life-time . Random acts of rebellion are everywhere , he says to us and Cassian likewise ; everyone imply in them is facilitate each other even if they do n’t hump it , and the gravid causa is march on in ways big and belittled with every turn get hold of against the Empire . It ’s beautiful , compared to the unfeeling backhand advice of Yoda — as long as you test , as long as you are brave enough to take any human activity of opposition , you are part of something bigger , something disseminate across the entire galaxy .

But it is possible to also believe Nemik and Yoda ’s give-and-take in lockstep with each other , in a way , talking about similar goal but with unlike languages . When Yoda tells Luke — who says in despair that he ’ll never be able-bodied to use the Force to lift an cristal - extension out of Dagobah ’s swamp , but at least he ’ll try—“Do or do not , there is no ‘ hear ’ , ” Star Wars ’ understanding of the Force was very unlike to the context in which we understand it today , the ways we have seen it explain and deployed beyond the vague , mysterious scope of the original trilogy . What Yoda is saying to him is n’t that there ’s no point in time in trying at all , but that Luke has to overcome his dubiousness to fully handle the Force as a Jedi should — that there is no difference in terms of impossible action between lift a rock with your mind to lift a starfighter . If you could do one , you could do the other , because you are localize your trust in this higher connective ability that bond the entire creation together . If you believe in the Force , that every living matter in the natural world is connected by it , that there is a greater magical whole that you too are part of and have see to have and call upon , you could accomplish the out of the question .

Nemik is talking about much the same thing , he ’s just talking about it in a material manner , without thespiritual language of the Forceor the Jedi that Yoda and Luke have . Fundamentally , he too is imploring people to surmount doubtfulness ; while the powerfulness of the Empire ’s say-so seems all - encompassing and steadfast , as long as multitude have the faith to hear and push back against it , they will assist the larger rebellion ’s effort , and that at long last they will be connected to a cause beyond the personal scope of their own rebellion . Andor , for all the literal absence of Star Wars ’ common mysticism , is still a deeply spiritual show . It just happens to localize those ideas in context of human emotion and connexion rather of in an exterior energy like the Force .

Screenshot: Lucasfilm

Screenshot: Lucasfilm

We may laugh and joke at The Rise of Skywalker ’s hatchway line of business ( “ The Dead Speak ! ” ) , but in Andor they really do , something more literal than a Force ghost in recorded messages like Nemik ’s manifestoor Maarva ’s hologramat her own funeral , and something likewise ephemeral in the ways that Cassian recalls the advice of his adopted Church Father Clem when he brush his father ’s funerary Harlan Fiske Stone upon returning to Ferrix . If the reliable higher power of the Force is in a share joining across not just living things butacross generations of peoplewho consider in it , pass on to become part of this big career but still able-bodied to guide those left behind , Andor conceive in a similar affair as well , in thing like the tradition of Ferrix ’s funeral rites , in Nemik ’s give-up the ghost wish to be for Cassian to receive his manifesto manuscript , or even in the idea of Luthen sacrificing his own being for , as hesays almost bitterly , a morning he knows he ’ll never see .

When it make out to doing or not doing , or remembering to try , in the end Nemik and Yoda want the same affair : for people to realize that they are not alone , and that as long as they believe they can forge a bond with a whole galaxy of existence and face the unimaginable . And that if they do so , they might just also have the faith to overcome it .

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Screenshot: Lucasfilm