The Controversy Andor Season 2 Didn't Need

In this post I'm going to be talking about sexual violence, specifically its place in pop culture. If you are not comfortable reading about that topic, read no further. Also, there will be spoilers.

Disney's hit TV show Andor is "Star Wars for grown-ups." So says Stellan Skarsgård, one of the lead actors, and so says the media. Perhaps this is why Tony Gilroy, the show's creator, writer, and producer, felt it was appropriate to include a subplot about the attempted rape of Bix Caleen in the second season. Among the many strange features of life in 2025, the existence of such a scene in a Star Wars spinoff, let alone a Disney product, is certainly on the list. Not in the top 10 by any stretch, but it's on the list, probably somewhere next to the fact that this show exists at all. Andor does, after all, have a remarkable left-wing bent for a show made by one of the most prominent avatars of American capitalism.

Andor is a great work of subversive fiction, possibly one of the best of the modern era. Overall I think it treats its female characters pretty well, which makes this scene even more of a misstep. Hollywood has been far too comfortable with sexual violence against women for far too long. Perhaps this is a result of the infestation of sexual predators, like Harvey Weinstein, revealed by the #MeToo movement. Perhaps it's just a symptom of rape culture in general. Regardless, I believe the introduction of this abhorrent act to the Star Wars universe is a step in the wrong direction. It is a sign that we have become more comfortable with such depictions in our media, which I would argue is a sign we have become more comfortable with such behavior in real life.

Tony Gilroy justified the inclusion of the scene as necessary to accurately portray the brutality of life under an oppressive regime like the Galactic Empire. There's no denying that this stuff happens in real life. It happens all too often. Art imitates life, and so on. It is true that this sort of behavior has been part of the oppressor's tool kit for all of human history. This sort of behavior is going on right now. That doesn't mean it belongs in our entertainment.

And the thing is, oppressors don't commit such acts only against women. They will do the same to men and even children. They do plenty of other nasty things as well. The Nazis, after whom the Galactic Empire is modeled, conducted brutal medical experiments on children and pregnant women. Monarchies in the ancient world carried out punishments so barbarous that a movie probably couldn't depict them without being considered torture porn. Andor goes further than any other Star Wars property in showing us how evil the Empire really is, but were it to accurately depict the atrocities of a dictatorship in full, the show would be too ghastly for most people to stomach. Some amount of discretion must be used in deciding what to show and what not to show. I contend that the attempted rape of Bix did not need to be shown.

Gilroy also indicated the scene was included for character development, saying, "I was really trying to make a path for Bix that would ultimately lead to clarity — but a difficult path to get back to clarity." But Bix had already suffered a lot at the hands of the Empire in the first season. They killed her boyfriend and tortured her with the death screams of children from a species called Dizonites, whose agonized wailing induces extreme emotional distress in humans. By the time Cassian rescues her she's nearly catatonic and already deeply traumatized. There was no need for an additional trauma in the second season to spark her revolutionary zeal.

The character development justification also doesn't hold up very well considering this scene is almost the end of Bix's character arc. She struggles with addiction for a little while, gets revenge on her interrogator, Dr. Gorst, aka the galaxy's worst DJ, then plays housewife for a few scenes and disappears. This is framed as her decision to choose the rebellion over a relationship with Cassian, but when she does finally reappear, it is in the final scene of the show, where she is shown holding a baby. In essence, she has been reduced to the stereotypical role of a woman staying home to care for a child while the man goes off to fight the war.

To illustrate evil via sexual violence, especially against women, is an editorial choice that is reflective of the culture from whence the story originates. As someone who loves action movies, I can tell you that violence against women, especially sexual violence, is used as a throwaway plot device far too often. It's an ongoing source of irritation and disappointment for me. It's so prevalent in our culture that there's even a name for the phenomenon. Meanwhile, depictions of men as victims of sexual violence are much more rare and not handled the same way. They are mostly seen in prison movies and they are very often framed as a source of humor.

I'm not saying no movie or show should ever deal with this topic. I'm saying that there are certain things that only show up in the grimmest of stories because they are considered so abhorrent. I'm saying rape should be one of those things. It should be so taboo that seeing it on screen would be shocking and rare. Instead it is so common that it's got its own genre. Now it's even in Star Wars. And it didn't have to be.