What a week for pop culture lesbians! First Scooby-Doo finally established that Velma is canonically queer in the new movie Trick or Treat Scooby-Doo! and now the Star Wars series Andor has revealed that two members of its ragtag band of rebels are, and I quote, “sharing a blanket”: Vel Sartha (Faye Marsay) and Cinta Kaz (Varada Sethu).
Okay, this revelation is very minor and major at the same time. On the minor side, it is just a fleeting reference made by Arvel Skeen (Ebon Moss-Bachrach) as he’s giving Cassian Andor (Diego Luna) the 411 on the crew. We do literally see Cinta leaving a hut that she’s clearly sharing with Vel, who is wrapped in a blanket, as Skeen says that Cinta is sharing a blanket with someone. So, that’s pretty clear, especially for Star Wars.
Still, this is a major development for Star Wars, a franchise that has really, really struggled to bring LGBTQ+ representation to live-action. Surely we all remember the pioneers of queer rep in Star Wars: Commander Larma D’Acy (Amanda Lawrence) and pilot Wrobie Tyce (Vinette Robinson)! Come on, you remember them — they were the lesbian couple shown kissing onscreen for 2.4 seconds during the celebration montage at the end of Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker.
We do love to see it, but representation that can be easily edited out in order to appease international censors isn’t the best representation. You can’t edit out Vel and Cinta. Vel’s arguably the co-lead of this story arc, what with her being the leader and all. Of course you can edit out the one line about Cinta “sharing a blanket” but fingers crossed we’ll get more into Vel and Cinta’s relationship next week.
This hasn’t been a problem in the expanded universe, where there are dozens of queer characters with major roles. If you want more info, you can check out the work of the fan group Pride Squadron. To name a few, there’s Marvel Comics’ Doctor Aphra — space archaeologist, scam artist, and one-time sidekick to Darth Vader — who has many, many complicated relationships with numerous women, including one of Han Solo’s rivals, Sana Starros. There have even been novels and short stories that have confirmed that movie characters like Admiral Holdo and Grand Moff Tarkin are queer (look it up!). There’s a whole rainbow of rep happening just offscreen.
So, Andor’s hint at space lesbians is just a hint, but it could be something major. This storyline ain’t done yet, and it’s incredibly likely that Vel and Cinta are going to get some sort of onscreen confirmation next week.
Of course, uh, it could be confirmation that comes either before, during, or after one or both of them die during this incredibly high stakes heist… which would be playing into a very insidious trope. But on the other hand, like, literally all of these rebels are probably going to die except for Cassian Andor, so… well, we’ll just have to wait and see what happens. I’m just warning everyone to brace themselves for next week’s episode.
On the plus side: Vel Sartha is getting an action figure. Queer rep on screen and in plastic? What a time to be alive.
New episodes of Andor premiere on Wednesdays on Disney+.
