Porko
In “One Year Later” (Andor 2.1), Cassian Andor flies a stolen TIE Fighter prototype to a jungle planet to rendezvous with a fellow rebel named Porko. When Andor gets there, however, he discovers that Porko has been killed by shipwrecked soldiers from a different rebel faction. The name Porko may just be a riff on the name Porkins from A New Hope, tying Porko to another ill-fated rebel pilot; but Porko may also be named after the eponymous protagonist of Porco Rosso, the 1992 animated film directed by Hayao Miyazaki.
Though Andor and Porco Rosso could not be any more different in tone, their protagonists are both maverick pilots who defy fascist regimes and who gradually overcome their own selfishness as they are spurred on by the love of two women. (In Porco Rosso, those two women are Gina, who has been waiting years for Porco to realize she loves him, and Fio, the brilliant young engineer who renovates his seaplane. In Andor, those two women are Cassian’s adoptive mother Maarva Andor, and his on-again off-again girlfriend Bix Caleen.)
In both Andor and Porco Rosso, however, a fascist regime is not the maverick pilot’s only opponent. After a daring takeoff from enemy territory (Milan in Porco Rosso, the Imperial test facility on Sienar in Andor), the protagonist is ambushed when he lands at what was supposed to be his secret hideout. In the film, Porco has to contend both with an unruly pirate gang that bears a grudge against him, and with the vain, conceited flying ace Donald Curtis, who challenges him to a duel. In “One Year Later,” Andor has to avoid getting killed when the marooned rebels split into two warring camps, one of them led by a man named Gerdis (which sounds like Curtis). While Gerdis and the other rebels are supposed to be fighting for a noble cause, in their childish bickering they are no better than Curtis and the pirates, who fight only for themselves.
Porco Rosso was turned into a pig because he abandoned his friends in a battle. In “Sagrona Teema” (Andor 2.2), Andor escapes from the infighting rebels when they are devoured by monsters that look something like wild boars — that is, feral pigs. In both cases, characters are associated with pigs or pig-like animals because they live to satisfy their own appetites. Over time, Porco Rosso and Cassian Andor each learn to live for something other than self-interest; the shipwrecked rebels, however, are torn apart because they cannot work together.
EXPLORE FURTHER…
Characters: Cassian Andor
Shows: Andor
GO DEEPER INTO THE ARCHIVES…
Concepts: animals / appetite / flying / names / pirates / selfishness
Influences: anime / Studio Ghibli
READ MORE ABOUT…
Follow The Jedi Archives on…