Warning! This post contains spoilers for Andor season 2, episodes 1-3, and briefly mentions sexual assault.

The first three episodes of Princess Leia’s most important relationships much more complex. Andor is unlike any other Star Wars movie or show. It digs deeper into the horrifying consequences of oppressive regimes and “traditions,” including how authoritarianism affects vulnerable minorities like women and immigrants to an even more terrifying, evil degree. This has always been implied in Star Wars – Leia’s imprisonment in Return of the Jedi certainly comes to mind – but Andor is taking that one step further.

One of the major storylines of Andor season 2’s first arc is how Mon Mothma’s commitment to the Rebellion has changed her relationship with her family. Her dynamic with her daughter, Leida, is a focal point, as the events taking place on Chandrila revolve around Leida’s arranged marriage to the son of Davo Sculdun, a shady oligarch who has indirectly helped Mon fund the Rebel Alliance. It’s that very same alliance that has cost Mon something fundamentally more precious, though, as it turns out, not entirely irreplaceable.

Mon Mothma's Commitment To The Rebellion Cost Her Leida

Mon Mothma’s commitment to the Rebellion is irable. She’s one of the first pioneers of the Rebel Alliance, a prominent Republic politician taking a stand against the Empire’s galaxy-wide wrongdoing. She’s sacrificed her safety, sanity, and relationships with those closest to her to fight for peace and prosperity, and, in Andor season 2, we see how that’s begun to take a toll.

attempts to rape Bix Caleen, and the second is when Mon Mothma’s daughter, who is no more than a child, is forced into a marriage under the guise of traditional Chandrilan values. Leida might, to an extent, believe that this marriage was her choice, but Mon Mothma tragically played a major part in making it happen.

Mon’s understandable preoccupation with the Rebellion led directly to Leida’s wedding. Mon distanced herself from her daughter to keep her safe, and sent her to Chandrila to be raised in the High Human culture of a Core World, where tradition is paramount and assimilation is expected. Leida doesn’t know better because Mon wasn’t there to teach her. Why should she believe in the possibility of a different life when this is all she’s ever been taught?

As horrible as it is to it, Mon ultimately sacrificed her daughter as a child bride for the good of the Rebellion.

As horrible as it is to it, Mon ultimately sacrificed her daughter as a child bride for the good of the Rebellion. Mon knows this; she even tries to give Leida a way out just before the wedding, and Leida refuses to listen to her mother. Why should she, when her mother’s never truly been there for her? One of the most compelling things about Andor is how it explores the darker side of the Rebellion.

The Rebels are still very clearly the good guys compared to the Empire, but that doesn’t mean their records are completely spotless. Mon Mothma needed funds, and her daughter’s forced marriage was a direct consequence that she, despite experiencing the effects of an arranged marriage herself, allowed to happen. There’s no way to sugar coat that.

Leia Would Become The Daughter Mon Mothma Always Wanted

Mon Mothma sacrificed her relationship with her daughter to aid the fledgling Rebellion. As a result, Mon – subconsciously, perhaps – cultivated a pseudo-mother/daughter relationship with the one and only Leia Organa. Leia is everything Mon could have wished for Leida to be – politically conscious, rebellious, not tied down by traditional ideologies. Much like Leida, Leia is the daughter of a prominent politician and an important Rebel operative. Even their names are eerily similar.

Discover more about Mon Mothma and Leia's relationship in Star Wars: Leia, Princess of Alderaan by Claudia Gray.

Before and after the Empire was defeated, Mon Mothma took Leia under her wing, teaching her everything about her position and power within the Rebellion and the Senate. Leia and Mon’s close connection in Star Wars’ supplementary material has always been understandable – heartwarming, even. However, the added knowledge of Mon’s tragic relationship with Leida has given Mon and Leia’s dynamic a more sinister foundation. To what extent did Mon’s guilt and heartbreak over Leida’s fate in Andor influence her relationship with Leia?