When our first major look at Andor season two dropped yesterday—as well as the official confirmation of just how the sophomore outing will jump across four years of Cassian’s adventures, right up to the events of Rogue One—one adventure in particular stood out to eagle-eyed viewers. Cassian in a slick suit, a white port city filled with hustle and bustle… and that same city besieged by chaos, bodies everywhere and Stormtroopers on the march.
Andor‘s no stranger to a riot, but given the timing of season two, and its desire to tell chapters of Cassian’s life across the four years between the end of season one in 5BBY and the start of Rogue One and A New Hope in 0BBY, one particular incident immediately came to mind, the Ghorman Massacre. It’s an event that’s been talked about in hushed tones in both contemporary continuity and the in much harsher form of it in the old Expanded Universe. But in both, the event is united by one singular outcome in its aftermath: the Alliance to Restore the Republic’s formation as we know it doesn’t happen without what the Empire does on Ghorman.
So what did they do? That depends on the canon.
The Prelude to the Ghorman Massacre
© LucasfilmWhile the planet Ghorman and details of the Empire’s cruelty there had existed in some form or another in the old EU since the planet was first mentioned in supplementary material for the West End Star Wars roleplaying game (it would make its first actual appearance in the 1993 flight simulator game X-Wing), its importance in the formal history of organized resistance to the Empire comes much later. While the aftermath of the Ghorman Massacre was introduced first in contemporary continuity during the events of Star Wars Rebels‘ third season, the prelude to the crisis is first briefly noted on-screen in Andor‘s own first season.
A small world in the Colonies—a sector of the galaxy dense with vital trade routes between the core worlds and the Inner Rim—Ghorman was one of many worlds subject to oppression during the rise of the Empire. Its representative in the former Galactic Senate, Fang Zar, had been one of the members of Padmé Amidala’s Delegation of the 2000, created to pressure then-Chancellor Palpatine to relinquish the emergency powers he had been delegated with the outbreak of the Clone War.
Whether Zar’s involvement in the Delegation, or Ghorman’s position along the Rimma trade route—a vital “super-hyperroute” that connected smaller hyperspace routes into a larger chain that stretched from the galactic core all the way into the Outer Rim—played a part in the Imperial regime’s particular interest in locking down the planet is unknown, but by 5BBY broad anti-Imperial sentiment on Ghorman had coalesced into a growing resistance front. The world itself became subject to intense debate in the Imperial Senate—where Mon Mothma led attempts to push back on Imperial overreach on Ghorman—culminating in a move that same year to enact direct Imperial control over shipping lanes surrounding the world. Cutting the world off from interplanetary trade heavily impacted Ghorman food supplies, and brought even firmer external pressure and control from Imperial command.
The Massacre and the Aftermath
© LucasfilmBy 2BBY, anger around Imperial control on Ghorman flourished into a broad protest movement. Although peaceful, Imperial reaction to the protests immediately devolved into violent persecution. The Imperial army brutally slaughtered thousands of Ghormans as part of the Empire’s infamous Tarkin Doctrine, hoping that overwhelming displays of Imperial power would scare the Ghormans into ceasing any form of resistance.
Although the Ghorman massacre effectively ended the present outburst of protest on the planet, its ramifications across the galaxy were far more explosive than the Empire could’ve anticipated. Furious upon hearing word of the attack, Mon Mothma publicly decried the Imperial campaign on the planet and directly labeled Palpatine a tyrant in a speech to the Senate. Now declared a traitor to the Empire in turn, Mothma was forced into hiding—where, at the request of one of her allies, still-current Senator Bail Organa, the rebel cell known as Phoenix Squadron was tasked with escorting Mothma to a secure location.
After a brief skirmish with Imperial forces attempting to capture Mothma in the Archeon Nebula, the former senator was safely escorted to the planet Dantooine, where she broadcast a speech resigning from the Imperial Senate and calling for various resistance fronts and cells across the galaxy to united into a singular rebellion: the Alliance to Restore the Republic was formally declared, and with it, the Galactic Civil War had arguably begun in earnest.
The Ghorman Massacre in the Expanded Universe
© LucasfilmThe Ghorman Massacre still occurred in the old Star Wars Expanded Universe, but its details and chronology differ greatly from the version that occurs in modern Star Wars canon. Rather than taking place in 2BBY, the Ghorman Massacre in the EU, as detailed loosely detailed across a plethora of EU materials, was established as taking place very early on in the history of the Galactic Empire, in approximately 18BBY.
Although details about the prelude to the massacre were left vague in the EU, the events of the tragedy itself were more broadly known. During a series of protests on the planet against new taxation from the Empire, then-Captain of the Imperial Navy Wilhuff Tarkin brought a warship to the world to oversee the Imperial response to the dissent. Tarkin’s ship was blocked from landing at a major port on the planet by a sea of peaceful protestors, who swarmed the primary landing pad. Acting on what was later implied to be direct permission from Palpatine himself, Tarkin landed the ship anyway, instantly killing untold numbers of protestors and horrifically wounding hundreds more in the process.
The Ghorman Massacre would be one of the first public acts of Imperial terror that would be widely known—horrified reactions from former members of the Delegation of the 2,000 that remained in the Imperial Senate would eventually lay the grounds for open rebellion decades later, while the anniversary of the incident itself would be used as an example of the Empire’s widespread tyranny for years to come, until the destruction of Alderaan became an even more infamous example of the Imperial regime’s willingness to slaughter its civilians for daring to defy it.
What the Ghorman Massacre Means for Andor Season 2
© LucasfilmStar Wars canon’s chronological shift to directly make events on Ghorman a crucial part of the formal formation of the Rebellion itself suddenly make it much more vital to Andor, especially now that we know season two will split itself into stories that advance a year in time between 5BBY and 0BBY. After the world’s brief mentions in season one, seeing the events unfold on-screen—and Mon Mothma’s reaction to them—would allow the show to better tie the version of Mothma we’ve seen in the series thus far with the version we saw make the formal declaration of the Alliance in Star Wars Rebels‘ third season, and then Rogue One and Return of the Jedi.
It’s also just kind of a natural evolution of the kind of ways Andor depicted the Empire’s fascist rule. Ghorman becomes an interesting parallel to the events we saw unfold on Ferrix in the climax of the first season. Similar events, leading to a similar protest, that similarly turned violent and was likewise similarly brutally put down. Presumably we’ll find out of the events around Maarva Andor’s funeral became as widely known throughout the galaxy as Ghorman would eventually, but even if they didn’t, how season two potentially handles Ghorman in comparison to what we saw on Ferrix would only serve to remind Andor‘s audience, and the series’ major players, of just how vindictively far the Empire is willing to go to try and nip resistance in the bud… and how those actions will only inspire its opponents to resist it even harder.
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