I don’t love Imperial characters in Star Wars, and I typically roll my eyes at their antics, but there is something hilarious about Syril Karn (Kyle Soller) in Disney+’s Star Wars: Andor that has me cackling more often than not. Maybe it is because he thinks he’s someone with a higher authority than he has or maybe it is because, now, he’s back at home with his mother, but there’s just something so sad about him that it has me intrigued. He is a trash boy who is maybe bad at what used to be his job, but in the fifth episode of Andor titled “The Axe Forgets,” we got to see Karn being ridiculed by his mother over and over again. And it’s good.
There are Imperial officers who seem to hate their lot in life, and the more we get to see of Karn, the more he falls into that category. After Karn was fired and returned to his mother’s home, I thought that would be the end of him, but then came this episode where his mother just keeps on getting on him for how he’s sitting, what job he’s going to get, and it’s honestly kind of funny? In a sad way, but then you remember he worked for the Empire, and it becomes funny again.
His mother is trying to get him a job, telling him to sit up straight, and yelling at him for not coming to see her all at the same time, and it feels like every one of us going home for whatever reason, let alone what would happen if we were to return home in shame.
Karn is the kind of character who clearly wanted to be more important to the Empire than he was at his station. Instead of that working to his advantage, it led to his return home in disgrace, and it is a fascinating aspect to explore, especially with someone on the Imperial side of things.
At least mom made you breakfast?
Karn is sitting eating his cereal at breakfast and it does honestly feel weird to see cereal in Star Wars, but hey! They gotta eat, right? His mother gives him his food with blue milk, and it feels so domestic and honest in a way that we rarely explore in this world. Sure, we get moments like this in The Mandalorian between Din Djarin and Grogu, but that still feels different than this.
This was a disappointed mother still caring for her son even if she was angry, and it was honestly my worst-case scenario come to life. I love my mother; I would live with her in a heartbeat if she lived in the same city as me, but going home as a failure is a different thing entirely, and that’s what Karn was doing in her eyes.
And it is a part of the episode that really sticks out, just because if you’ve never been in that position, you probably know someone who has or someone who felt the way that Karn did, and seeing it in a Star Wars property felt new and fresh, and oh no I maybe love this mess of a former Imperial officer? HELP.
(featured image: Lucasfilm)
