Warning! This post contains SPOILERS for Star Wars: Jedi Knights #6
Thanks toAndorseason 2, I’m getting some serious déjà vu withStar Wars’newest series. Marvel’s new and canonicalJedi Knightsseries features various Jedi team-ups before the events ofThe Phantom Menace. However, there are some pretty clear echoes between the series' newest issue and the first episodes ofAndorseason 2.
Andoris one ofStar Wars’very best television shows, set during the Dark Times just beforeRogue OneandA New Hope. Starring Diego Luna’s Cassian Andor, both seasons showcase the dark cost of rebellion.However,Star Wars’newJedi Knights #6revisits a key world fromAndorseason 2, and even echoes one of its darkest story moments.
Andor Season 2 Debuted The Farming Planet Mina-Rau
The first three episodes ofAndorseason 2 largely take place on Mina-Rau, an agricultural world created for the series that was partly named after the daughter of writer Tom Bissell. Featuring colossal harvesting machines, Mina-Rau is split up into various working zones as its workers produce grain for the entire Empire.
Primarily, the planet is largely made up of hills and massive fields.Operating as undocumented workers, Cassian Andor’s loved ones and friends from Ferrix were shown inAndorseason 2 struggling to evade an imminent Imperial inspection of this newStar Warsplanet.
Despite receiving aid from their fellow workers, Bix Caleen, Wilmon Paak, and Brasso were unfortunately discovered by Imperial forces while Cassian was out on a mission for Luthen Rael, stealinga prototype TIE Avenger from Sienar Fleet Systems.
Andor Season 2 Featured A Major Death On Mina-Rau
Unfortunately, tensions came to a head inAndorseason 2, episode 3. Cassian did finally arrive in the stolen TIE Avenger in this episode, having been held up onYavin 4 (the future secret base of the Rebel Alliance). However, his friends were already clashing with Imperial forces on the farming world.
Cassian Andor eliminated several of the Imperial stormtroopers in the area from above in the TIE.However, Cassian was still too late to save Brasso, who was shot in the back trying to evade the troopers on his speeder bike.
First introduced inAndorseason 1, Brasso was one of Cassian’s best friends and a key instigator in theRix Road Riot that served asAndorseason 1’s finale. Tragically, the episode ended with Cassian fleeing Mina-Rau with Bix and Wilmon, having no time to properly mourn their friend at the end ofAndorseason 2’s first three-episode block.
Star Wars Has Brought Mina-Rau Back (For Another Dark Story)
Andorseason 2 premiered earlier this year in April.Now, Marvel’s newJedi Knights #6by Marc Guggenheim and Madibek Musbekov features a return to Mina-Rau just a few months later, albeit several years before the tragic events leading up to Brasso’s death.
InJedi Knights #6, Qui-Gon Jinn is joined by Jedi Masters Mace Windu and Aayla Secura, investigating the death of a fellow Jedi Master on Mina-Rau. Deducing that he was murdered, the investigation into the death sees Mace Windu and Secura being hit with tranquilizer darts,leaving Qui-Gon to face the mysterious assassin Corlis Rath on their own.
Mirroring Cassian, who used the planet’s colossal harvesting equipment to take out the Imperials,Qui-Gon and Rath’s duel takes them to the top of one of these large machines as Jinn finally realizes why this man, whom he’s seemingly never met, wants him dead…right before he’s run through by Rath’s poisoned blades.
This surprising defeat fulfills an earlier vision held by Jinn’s apprentice Obi-Wan Kenobi that his master would be killed.Now, Marvel Comics has teased that an antidote will be required to save Qui-Gon Jinn in future issues, who’s currently dying from the poison at this issue’s end.
Naturally, we know that Jinn will ultimately survive this brutal defeat. After all, his ultimate demise comes later in the establishedStar Warscanon,where he is similarly stabbed by Darth Maul on Naboo, run through by the Sith apprentice’s double-bladed lightsaber as seen inThe Phantom Menace.
That said, one should still be able to appreciate the fact that such a majorStar Warscharacter is currently dying on Mina-Rau, only a few months afterStar Warsfans just witnessed an absolutely tragic death on the very same planet that’s only recently been introduced.
It hasn’t even been a full year, and one ofStar Wars’newest planets has been significantly defined by death and tragic violence, despite its appearance as a simple farming world. At any rate, it’s still pretty cool to see how subsequentStar Warsprojects are already incorporating new elements fromAndorseason 2 into the canon.
Star Wars: Jedi Knights #6is now on sale from Marvel Comics. All episodes ofAndorseason 2 are now streaming on Disney+.
