Andor's Lesbians Deserved Better, But Not From Its Showrunners

Spoilers for Star Wars Andor ahead. has long avoided depicting queer relationships on screen in any meaningful way, often limiting them to short, plot-irrelevant snippets of screen time to be easily removed for specific markets. But as it has in so many other ways – delving into genre, exploring explicitly political themes, and actually being good – broke the mold. Vel and Cinta𝓰 have been romantically entangled since the show’s first season, but kept apart by their necessarily separate roles in facilitating the rebellion.

Dead Lesbian Syndrome Strikes Again?

Cinta Kaz spotting something troubling off in the distance on the grassy planet Aldhani in Star Wars: Andor.

Last week’s trio of episodes have been a little con♈troversia♔l in how it’s treated the couple. After reuniting to help the inexperienced members of the Ghorman resistance stage a heist, the pair affirm their love and care for each other and share a long kiss.

It was obvious in the first season that♔ the𝔉y were together, or as together as two rebels fully focused on rebellion against an evil empire can be, but this was the culmination of their arc and their long separation.

And then Cinta dies.

After the pair explicitly order members of the Ghorman resistance not to bring weapons, one young guerrilla gets into a fight with a local, the blaster he threat🍰ens the man with goes off, and Cinta is instantly killed by the stray bolt.

It would be very easy for us to throw our hands up and say, of course the gays were buried after finally getting a bit of joy. Of course they don’t get to be happy together forever, because queer characters are always more likely to die🍸. The has evolved over time, but the version of it most tempting to cite here is Dead Lesb🌳ian Syndrome, where, well, the lesbians can’t be happy together because one of them dies. Of course Star Wars’ most prominent queer relationship ends in disaster – why wouldn’t it?

Andor's poster in red and blue, with Chapter 2 superimposed on top.

Andor Shouldn't Have Been Released In Chapters

Who has time to watch all this Andor in a week?

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In Andor, Nobody Is Safe

Vel Sartha in a formal dress looking worriedly at the camera in Star Wars: Andor.

It’s easy, maybe even tempting, to look at Vel and Cinta through this lens, but it would also be incredibly reductive to do so. Andor is a show where nobody is safe and anybody can die, regardless of who they love, their commitment to the cause, and the things they’ve been through. Characters are killed off constantly, and every death has weight because of the things left unresolved, and 𓂃Cinta’s shouldn’t be any different just because she’s queer.

Cinta’s death is a bitter one, especially in the context of her being one of Star Wars’ few explicitly queer characters, not to mention being in one of the best and most beloved television shows the franchise has ever produced. But it’s not one played off for shock𝓀 value. Cinta dies because of a series of decisions made by other people, a cascꦐade of consequences out of her control. She doesn’t die a hero’s death, because rebels don’t always get to go out in a blaze of glory.

Andor is about the cruelty of war, the violence of resistance, and the people who fight back, knowing that very often they will be reduced to cannon fodder. Cinta and Vel are not special just because they are que🐟er – they are fully fleshed-out characters, real outside of their relationship to each other, and they face the same danger as all of their comrades. Cinta’s death is a reminder that nobody is safe, and that making stupid decisions gets people killed.

Cinta and Vel aren’t victims of lazy writing, but of the world they live in. Over and over, Andor’s second season reminds us that there is little room for love or distraction when there’s a bigger goal at play, but that love will pers𒊎ist nonetheless. This isn’t a case of burying your gays, but of queer characters being treated the same as straight ones. Que꧃erness isn’t narrative kevlar, and it nor should it be.