Mon Mothama returns to Star Wars as Andor’s less-than-perfect hero

polygon.com:

As we see in this week’s Andor, Mon Mothma is far from the height of her powers. Though seen only briefly in the Star Wars films, the Republic leader’s legacy looms large: She’s one of the few to stand against Supreme Chancellor Palpatine during the final days of the Republic; she secretly helped found the Rebel Alliance; and eventually she became the leader and face of the organization. But in Andor she is only partway on that journey. Here Mon Mothma is just a senator, surreptitiously working to fight against the very fascist regime she’s trapped within.

“I feel like when we meet her in Andor she’s been fighting this fight for a long time. And I feel like she’s been getting nowhere,” Genevieve O’Reilly, who played Mon Mothma in Revenge of the Sith, Rogue One, and Star Wars Rebels and resumes the role in Andor. “It is a wall of power and oppression in front of her that she is tired of fighting.”

In that way, she’s comparable to Andor’s titular hero. Both she and Cassian Andor (Diego Luna) hope for better lives for themselves, their loved ones, and the civilizations around them, only to be stopped by the Empire’s forces at every turn. Mon Mothma was burned trying to make change from within the Empire (her days in the Star Wars prequels), and Cassian, as he reveals in this episode, as a soldier on Mimban.

But though their goals may have some overlap, Cassian’s experiences have turned him resolute against any authority figure. And though he doesn’t know he’s working alongside the likes of Mon Mothma as of episode 4, O’Reilly thinks she knows exactly how he would react: “If Cassian Andor was to meet Mon Mothma at the very beginning, she would absolutely be the establishment he would be pushing up against.”

Still, she