Demo Podcast (Episode 3)

In this episode of Let's Talk About It, Ava Hansen discusses the correlations between Episode 3 of Andor and World War II and Nazi Germany with guests Zachary Warnow and Arianna Sanchin. They discuss historical comparisons, such as George Orwell's "Shooting an Elephant" and the role of the Corpo in watching over the planet. They also compare the townspeople in Andor to German people who resisted the Nazi regime. They talk about the resistance against the Empire and the investigation of Cassian Andor by Sero Khan. Hi, guys. Welcome back to Let's Talk About It. I'm Ava Hansen, your host. Here we have – Zachary Warnow. And Arianna Sanchin. We are going to be talking about Episode 3 of Andor today and the correlations of the episode to World War II and fascism and Nazi Germany. So, Zach, let's start off with what are some historical comparisons you can see in Andor to Nazi Germany or other fascist countries during that time? Well, like, say, like, with Nazi Germany, or say, like, I can cite something that I've read from, like, a article or story I read. I think it was written by George Orwell. It was called, like, Shooting an Elephant, and it described his life. It's not a biography about his life. He served as, like, a police officer, tracked the British Army or the Empire at the time, since imperialism and all that. And he described all this talk about, like, how he came here just, like, to watch over the people and just kind of, like, see if, like, they're going to do anything, if, like, there might be some rebellions and all that. And with Andor, just a generous stay, like, obviously this isn't the episode we're talking about. Like, throughout the whole series, like, of episodes 1 through 3, you see this organization called Corpo, or how it's shortened to be. I don't know the full name. So, basically, they're basically the subsection of the Empire to, like, watch over the planet that episode 3 takes place on, which is Farrix. And, basically, just like George Orwell was doing, he was watching over the locals, making sure they don't do anything stupid or try and start an uprising so they can keep the planet in control and they can keep control over the people so they can still keep that power that they have and hopefully not cause problems for the higher ups. Yeah, definitely. So, since we're talking about Nazi Germany, would you compare the townspeople in Andor in episode 3, helping Cassian, helping protect him, kind of keeping him safe from the Corpos, to German people who didn't support the Nazi regime, saving Jewish families, Jewish kids, you know, trying to keep them from going to concentration camps and keeping them from getting killed? I think so. But, more or less, in this instance, Cassian was on the run. He didn't hide, most likely. And, more or less, in the episode, they kind of tried to intimidate them by just banging metal, anything metal that they could find. Basically, make as much noise as you can and distract them. Honestly, if you watched the episode, you know that didn't work. They still find them, but Cassian, as well as Luthen, since Luthen was the person they made the bargain with, they both escaped. But, comparatively, with the difference between Cassian, Andor, and actual people, say, hiding with Jews, is that Cassian kind of didn't run. He more or less decided, you know what, since they're here, might as well just throw their hands and see where that takes me. Whereas, with people kind of like working with Jews, like helping them get food and all that, they still run the same risk as the townspeople did, though much more so since, not to Germany, you have a Jew, you're basically dead on the spot. So, basically, the difference between that is, the Jews, the German people, the sympathizers were Jewish people. They more or less tried to hide them, as so they don't have to basically work, and that way they don't have to risk as much. They still risk a lot, but the chances of them finding a Jew are way less. Okay. So, would you say in Andor, it's more of the people trying to resist the Empire and trying to make sure that they don't come over and take their whole planet? Because we learn later in the series that Pharax has just kind of been on its own. There hasn't really been a lot of Empire presence there, so would you say that the Corpo showing up kind of ignited that feeling of not wanting the Empire to be controlling of them? Uh, not really. You see, I think further down the line, you see that the Empire is like, hey, you're not doing your job. We're going to take full control, and seeing as how, obviously, when they did go down there, they knew who you was, but they didn't exactly know what you looked like. Though, in a previous episode, they showed a hologram of the latest photo they had, and the only photo they had. But, yeah, basically, they tried to control the situation, take Cassian in for what he did, and then take him in so that no further problems can be caused. But, as you know, they failed, and yeah, the Empire's not happy. Yeah. So, I can't remember if this was episode three or four where the Senator comes into play, and we figure out her kind of role in this. Do you? Yeah, it's episode four, so I don't think we can talk about that. Okay. So, let's talk about Sero Khan. Why do you think he pushed so hard for the investigation and incarceration of Cassian Andor? Well, obviously, before we actually had to talk about it, we had to go back on his background first. Basically, he's kind of like the lieutenant of Corpo, like the second in command. So, basically, previously, we've previously known Cassian, gone to a fight, actually killed two guys, well, actually killed one, he then killed the other just to cover up any witnesses. Obviously, suspicions arose, and now Sero Khan is trying to find out who he is. They find out who he is, but then he's like, we've got to bring this guy to justice. So, obviously, he gets a task force of Corpo officers, they go to Ferris, and they search for him. Now, I think there's a bit of reason, there's a couple reasons for this. Number one, reading another article, The Banality of Evil, it describes it like, there's not really a reason, he's not really a bad guy for doing this. It's more or less, he thinks he is the law, and as such, he has to kind of like still catch people who disobey the law, and since he's kind of a, not necessarily a, how do I say this, a subsector of the Empire, but more or less something that's like, it still keeps the presences there, but more or less more independent than most planets, as you say, and basically, he was just doing what he was doing. Another reason was because he thought, in his mind, like going back to George Orlok, when he had to shoot an elephant that was rumored to have killed a couple people and destroyed a village, what basically happened was, they said, hey hey, there's an elephant, you gotta kill it, it did all this damage, please get rid of it, so the province averted. So he goes, he gets the elephant rifle, and when he gets the elephant rifle, George Orlok, he's like, he responds to the elephant, he's like, he kind of like thinks about it, you know what, I don't think I can do this, it's more like, I don't think I can do this, you know, like, everything's fine, it's okay, maybe it won't just kill me, but then everyone else is just like, back behind us, like just watching the show, and then George Orlok's like, you know what, either way, I'm not gonna like the outcome, so he decides to just shoot the elephant, and just kill it. With Cyril Karn, he was like, hey, either I do this, or the people around me, or you think I'm an idiot, or I might lose my job, or they think I should be, obviously, I lose my job, and they'll replace me for someone, someone better, and someone with more courage and decisiveness, and that's why I think he kind of like, got the idea to like, hey, let's go in the ferret, find Cassian, and bring the justice for what he did to those officers. Definitely, that's pretty awesome. Well, that pretty much wraps up our interview, so thank you so much.