Summer Reading in Space!

Welcome back Kyber Squadron! Pride month is upon us, and people are seeing through the corporate branding this year. Andor has ended, but there is still plenty of Star Wars to look forward to this month, so let’s dive in and reflect where we’ve been and where we’re going!

Last month started with a retrospective of Revenge of the Sith to celebrate its 20th anniversary. From there, I got chat with Kyle Craft of the Colorado Cantina Crew around what play lines are in Star Wars Unlimited to help new players with building decks that can hold their own on paper. Andor reviews then came though, and I took a note from my Acolyte reviews to hold off on releasing them until the show had wrapped up to give more people time to digest the series. Arcs one and two are up on the podcast feed, with the final two arcs coming this month. I also am going to have another episode focusing on some of the accessories in Star Wars Unlimited that the community has been making to add a personal touch to playing the game. Very excited to share these episodes with you, and to hear from more guests about the show! I enjoyed looking back on Revenge of the Sith because it reminded me of how much I had changed as a person in those 20 years and yet how little the world has changed since. Revenge of the Sith was the last Star Wars I saw in theaters with my father before he passed. For him, the prequels spoke to President Bush’s power grab, and now as an adult I see the willingness of the world to embrace Trump with thunderous applause for the tragedy that it has always been. For new Star Wars Unlimited players, I hope the play lines conversation helps in your deck building as I really want to see the card game grow! The next set releases in July, so now is a great time to jump in.

Pride Month has always been full of companies pretending to be allies in an effort to remove money from people’s wallets. After the donations that multiple companies gave to Trump however, it seems this Pride month will be much more of a reckoning as community continues to hold companies accountable. Normally, Pride Month includes a call to action for people to support queer artists, small businesses, and creators. This year, Pride presents a great way to make this support mean something. As the United States and other countries continue to target and stigmatize queer people, we should be using this month to remind folks that the rights that are “so controversial” as far as these governments and people are concerned is simply the right to exist and live their life as they see fit. The LGBTQ+ community has been fighting back for months against these baseless attacks, and Pride gives people an excuse to fight back. If you know queer people in your life, you already know that every day is Pride, but if you don’t have queer people in your life (even though you most definitely do), take this month of increased visibility as the chance to learn more about the community and let this Pride be the beginning of your journey, not the end. One thing I hope people take into consideration now that Andor is over is that the commercialization of Pride hides a very simple, yet powerful fact: Pride was a riot, not a cute parade sponsored by Target with the blessing of your local police force. Pride has more in common with the riot on Ferrix than with the Macy’s Day Parade. Similarly, any time that people have historically faced down an authoritarian government, it is always the most marginalized that have to fight first. Immigrants, queer people, people with disabilities, and others similarly situated are always the first on the chopping block. Pride is the first real opportunity to push back, and to remember that if we don’t dream of a better future for the most marginalized among us, we run the risk of simply replicating the oppression we are fighting against now.

Now that Andor has finished, this is the phase of fandom for viewers in the franchise where people turn over older shows and films to uncover greater nuance. Whether it’s how Andor enhances Rogue One, A New Hope, or Rebels, there are new ways to interpret older shows and films. For those of us that also read Star Wars, the end of Andor just opens up our schedule to continue reading High Republic and Trials of the Jedi, the finale of the current High Republic storytelling, comes out this month. The comics are also wrapping up in High Republic, with new stories in the prequel era and post-Battle of Endor also starting. How are you engaging with Star Wars now that Andor has finished? Are you revisiting your favorite shows, or are you exploring new stories in a different medium? Feel free to let me know on Bluesky, and I hope to highlight your comments in a future newsletter!