Figures of Speech: Andor’s Monologues

“General Kenobi, years ago you served my father in the Clone Wars…”

Ever since Princess Leia Organa delivered a staticky hologram message to a pondering Obi-Wan Kenobi, monologues have remained a vital part of Star Wars storytelling, including Yoda’s meditations on the Force and Sheev Palpatine’s manipulative tale of Darth Plagueis the Wise. Sometimes interrupted, always passionate, these singular speeches help viewers gain a deeper understanding into a character’s worldview and needs, galactic or otherwise.

In Andor, a legion of script writers led by series creator Tony Gilroy wield monologues as an emotional weapon. We’ve chosen eight of our favorites from both seasons of the series; our collection, written by Tony Gilroy, Dan Gilroy, and Beau Willimon, focuses on the instrumental individuals behind the rebel uprising against the Galactic Empire, while giving viewers deeper insight into the developing worldview of Cassian Andor.

"One Way Out" - Kino Loy (Season 1, Episode 10)

Wherever you are right now, get up, stop the work. Get out of your cells, take charge and start climbing! They don't have enough guards and they know it. If we wait until they figure that out, it'll be too late. We will never have a better chance than this and I would rather die trying to take them down than giving them what they want. We know they fried a hundred men on Level Two. We know that they are making up our sentences as we go along. We know that no one outside here knows what's happening. Now we know, that when they say we are being released, we are being transferred to some other prison to go and die and that ends today!

There is one way out! Right now! The building is ours! You need to run, climb, kill! You need to help each other! You see someone who's confused, someone who is lost, you get them moving and you keep them moving until we put this place behind us! There are five thousand of us. If we can fight half as hard as we've been working, we will be home in no time.

One way out! One way out! One way out!

It is incredible watching actor Andy Serkis as Kino Loy deliver this impassioned speech over the prison PA of Narkina 5. Overwhelmed, exhausted, and fueled by adrenaline, the floor manager speaks about the need to rise up against oppression. If his fellow prisoners work together, they can make anything happen, even escape from an impossible Imperial supermax.

The incarcerated men listen intently to the voice over the speaker, the sound that inspires their salvation. The guards listen in fear, their insulated boots no longer enough to protect them from harm. With one speech, Kino Loy becomes the leader the prisoners need. And once free from lock-up, Cassian has become a person who understands the need for togetherness and shining a light on the Empire’s crimes.

"A sunrise I'll never see." - Luthen Rael (Season 1, Episode 10)

Calm. Kindness. Kinship. Love. I've given up all chance at inner peace. I've made my mind a sunless space. I share my dreams with ghosts. I wake up every day to an equation I wrote 15 years ago from which there's only one conclusion: I'm damned for what I do. My anger, my ego, my unwillingness to yield, my eagerness to fight, they've set me on a path from which there is no escape. I yearned to be a savior against injustice without contemplating the cost and by the time I looked down there was no longer any ground beneath my feet. What is my, what is my sacrifice? I'm condemned to use the tools of my enemy to defeat them.

I burn my decency for someone else's future. I burn my life to make a sunrise that I know I'll never see. And the ego that started this fight will never have a mirror or an audience or the light of gratitude. So what do I sacrifice? Everything!

Luthen Rael’s fiery words lend context to the shadowy rebel leader’s inner philosophy. Up to this point, especially when compared with Rebels like Mon Mothma and Saw Gerrera, Luthen’s point-of-view has remained rather masked. But, when pressed by his frightened Imperial informant Lonni Jung, Luthen explodes into an unforgettable speech.

Spoken with vigor, anger, and passion by actor Stellan Skarsgård, the lower levels of Coruscant provide a shrouded stage for one of the most defining treatises on the early days of anti-Imperial Resistance. Luthen believes that you must fight violence with violence, and that you must be willing to lose everything for the greater good. Shortly after, he betrays Anto Kreegyr’s entire rebel cell, a strategic sacrifice to protect the rest of the movement.

We won’t see Luthen receive a shining medal on Yavin or celebrate around a campfire on Endor. His sacrifice is seemingly more anonymous, his diatribe shared with one scared man in the bowels of Coruscant. But it’s Luthen and others like him who made possible Luke Skywalker’s destruction of the first Death Star by helping to put Cassian Andor on the road to Scarif.

"Nemik’s Manifesto" - Karis Nemik (Season 1, Episode 12)

There will be times when the struggle seems impossible. I know this already. Alone. Unsure. Dwarfed by the scale of the enemy…

Remember this: Freedom is a pure idea. It occurs spontaneously and without instruction. Random acts of insurrection are occurring constantly throughout the galaxy. There are whole armies — battalions — that have no idea that they've already enlisted in the cause. Remember that the frontier of the Rebellion is everywhere. And even the smallest act of insurrection pushes our lines forward. And then remember this: The Imperial need for control is so desperate because it is so unnatural. Tyranny requires constant effort. It breaks, it leaks. Authority is brittle. Oppression is the mask of fear. Remember that. And know this: The day will come when all these skirmishes and battles — these moments of defiance will have flooded the banks of the Empire's authority. And then there will be one too many. One single thing will break the siege.

Remember this. Try.

Even after his death, Karis Nemik’s words still bring comfort. A casualty of the secret raid on Aldhani’s Imperial base, Nemik’s earnestness survives through his manifesto, providing the spark Cassian needs as he prepares for the conflict on Ferrix. It is the night before revolution, when these words must become action. Casisan grips the digital read-out inside his family’s haulcraft and listens intently.

As viewers with an intrinsic knowledge of the galaxy’s warfare, we know that it will take years to fully escape Palpatine’s clutches. But Nemik’s words inspire the first tentative steps that will eventually lead to freedom for the galaxy.

"Fight the Empire" - Maarva Andor (Season 1, Episode 12)

My name is Maarva Karasi Andor. I'm honored to stand before you, honored to be a Daughter of Ferrix, and honored to be worthy of the Stone. How strange... Feel as if I can see it.

I was six, I think, the first time I touched a Funerary Stone. Heard our music. Felt our history. Holding my sister's hand as we walked all the way from Fountain Square… Where you stand now, I've been more times than I can remember. I always wanted to be lifted. I was always eager, always waiting to be inspired. I remember every time it happened, every time the dead lifted me with their truth.

And now I'm dead. And I yearn to lift you. Not because I want to shine or even be remembered. It's because I want you to go on. I want Ferrix to continue. In my waning hours, that's what comforts me most. But I fear for you. We've been sleeping. We've had each other and Ferrix. Our work. Our days. We had each other and they left us alone. We kept the trade lanes open and they left us alone. We took their money and ignored them. We kept their engines churning, and the moment they pulled away, we forgot them. Because we had each other. We had Ferrix.

But we were sleeping. I've been sleeping. I've been turning away from a truth I wanted not to face. There is a wound that won't heal at the center of the galaxy. There is a darkness reaching like rust into everything around us. We let it grow, and now it's here. It's here and it's not visiting anymore, it wants to stay. The Empire is a disease that thrives in darkness. It is never more alive than when we sleep. It's easy for the dead to tell you to fight. And maybe it's true, maybe fighting’s useless. Perhaps it's too late.

But I'll tell you this, if I could do it again, I'd wake up early and be fighting these bastards from the start. Fight the Empire!

Maarva Andor’s posthumous speech, delivered (quite bravely, may we add) via B2EMO’s hologram, serves as her own eulogy. Larger than life, looming over the dusty streets of Ferrix, Maarva’s words awaken the entire city.

Her fellow Ferrix citizens look to the sky, ready. And, just like with Kino Loy’s monologue in “One Way Out,” they are reminded to lift each other up. The Ferrix Funerary Stone adds a literal element to the speech: Maarva’s ashes have been turned into a red brick that will line the streets of the planet she loved, just like so many that came before her. The dead literally build up the walls of the living. And Maarva’s “Fight the Empire!” becomes a rallying cry that will start an uprising.

"Cassian’s Speech to Niya" - Cassian Andor (Season 2, Episode 1)

This makes it worth it. This. Right now. Being with you. Being here at the moment you step into the circle. Look at me. You made this decision long ago. The Empire cannot win. You’ll never feel right unless you’re doing what you can to stop them. You’re coming home to yourself. You’ve become more than your fear. Let that protect you.

One year after the events of Season 1, we are reintroduced to Rebel agent Cassian Andor — more confident in both his abilities and the cause. Cassian has matured, evident as he delivers inspiration to those new to the fight, like Sienar technician Niya.

Cassian is well on his way towards his destiny. He is magnetic, self-assured, and slick, an ambassador for a cause that still does not yet have a name.

"Sagrona Teema Solom" - Perrin Fertha (Season 2, Episode 2)

As the father of the Intended Maiden, it is my Chandrilan duty to greet you: Sagrona. To toast your health: Sagrona Teema. And, in our very old, ritualistic, and insanely economic fashion, it is also my duty to share just a single, truthful insight: Sagrona Teema Solom.

Leida. My sweet Leida. Stekan. Pain will find you. Trouble and disagreement will arrive without summons. There’s no choice in this, there’s no effort required; you simply stand still and the galaxy will deliver a daily basket of fresh anxieties to your door, without fail. But my Solom — my Solom Seyna — the Elders know what I’m talking about, right?

My hope — my hope — my hope is that you learn to reach past this constant cloud of sadness. Pleasure. Gaiety. Amusement. These are the hidden things. The music buried beneath all that noise. Joy. Joy! Joy. Joy has no wind at its back. Joy will not announce its arrival. You need to listen for it, and be mindful of how fleeting and delicate it can be.

But search out these treasures. A moment of pleasing sensation, the memory of laughter and good company, the comfort of a fine meal. And for me. For me, right now, it’s this smile that I can’t hide as I see these two young people sharing our greatest tradition… Sagrona!

Married since they were teenagers, Mon Mothma and Perrin Fertha seem to be in opposition in most things, including whatever conflict is currently brewing. But at their daughter, Leida’s, wedding, we see a new side of the Chandrilan consort emerge during his wedding speech.

This is, of course, a perfectly logical moment for Perrin to shine: he is, after all, the father of the bride. The hundreds of guests sit in rapt attention, all preparing to celebrate at his wife’s ancestral home. And through his words, we glimpse what actually drives Perrin — the pursuit of joy. If you are trying to create a better world, what does that “better world” actually entail if not opportunities for happiness? Sagrona!

“We are the Rhydo.” - Saw Gerrera (Season 2, Episode 5)

Remember this. Remember this moment! This perfect night. You think I’m crazy? Yes, I am. Revolution is not for the sane.

Look at us. Unloved. Hunted. Cannon fodder. We’ll all be dead before the Republic is back, and yet, here we are… Where are you, boy? You’re here! You’re not with Luthen, you’re here. You’re right here and you’re ready to fight! We’re the rhydo, kid. We’re the fuel. We’re the thing that explodes when there’s too much friction in the air.

From a fiery young adult to a wizened man resigned to his death, we have been with Saw Gerrera many different stages in his life. In Andor, Saw’s story brings clarity to his psyche and, of course, his descent into madness. These words, spoken to his newest recruit Wilmon Paak, are perhaps the most indicative of who he is as a revolutionary and as a leader.

In later episodes, Saw becomes even more erratic in his thinking, a liability to the cause rather than an asset. But without that explosivity, would the Rebellion have succeeded?

"Mon Mothma’s Senate Speech" - Mon Mothma (Season 2, Episode 9)

Fellow Senators, Friends, Colleagues, Allies, Adversaries. I stand before you this morning with a heavy heart. I’ve spent my life in this chamber. I came here as a child. And as I look around me now, I realize I have almost no memories that pre-date my arrival and few bonds of affection that cleave so tightly. Through these many years, I believe I’ve served my constituents honorably and upheld our Code Of Conduct. This chamber is a cauldron of opinions and we’ve certainly all had our patience and tempers tested in pursuit of our ideals. Disagree as we might, I’m hopeful that those of you who know me will vouch for my credibility in the days to come.

I stand this morning with a difficult message. I believe we are in crisis. The distance between what is said and what is known to be true has become an abyss. Of all the things at risk, the loss of an objective reality is perhaps the most dangerous. The death of truth is the ultimate victory of evil. When truth leaves us, when we let it slip away, when it is ripped from our hands, we become vulnerable to the appetite of whatever monster screams the loudest.

This chamber’s hold on the truth was finally lost on the Ghorman Plaza. What took place yesterday — WHAT HAPPENED YESTERDAY ON GHORMAN WAS UNPROVOKED GENOCIDE! YES! — GENOCIDE! — AND THAT TRUTH HAS BEEN EXILED FROM THIS CHAMBER! AND THE MONSTER SCREAMING THE LOUDEST? THE MONSTER WE’VE HELPED CREATE? THE MONSTER WHO WILL COME FOR US ALL SOON ENOUGH IS EMPEROR PALPATINE!

Since the start of the series, fans have guessed that this speech is where Mon Mothma’s journey will crescendo. A senator since her teenage years — not unlike the path walked by Padmé Amidala — Mon has lived on Coruscant for decades while walking the halls of the Senate. This is her home, and she is about to risk everything, sacrificing the comfort she has left.

Mon Mothma will, of course, give many more speeches that solidify her as a leader of the Rebellion. She will be present to see two Death Stars destroyed and for a New Republic to take shape; she will serve once more in the future as Chancellor of that new democracy. But it is this speech, her final words in the Imperial Senate Chambers, that makes her an enemy of the Empire in no uncertain terms.