The real genius of the show lies not in its allegory, but in its accuracy. For all the Empire’s sleek corridors and ominous surveillance towers, what Andor reveals is a much plainer truth: authoritarian regimes run on labor. Fear isn’t ambient; it has to be staffed and actively turned on. And someone, somewhere, always has to push the button. […]

This is what makes Andor perhaps the most honest fictional depiction of authoritarian power in recent memory: it refuses myth. Instead, it gives us logistics.

Resistance must coordinate without centralized control, distribute risk without guaranteed outcomes, share intelligence without shared ideology, fund operations without traceability, and act decisively without consensus. What’s depicted here is not dysfunction, but coalitional insurgency. […] The impossibility of perfect consensus doesn’t preclude collective action.