A More Civilized Age: A Star Wars Podcast - Why We’re Postponing Our Andor Coverage

Episode Date: April 29, 2025

A More Civilized Age will not be covering Andor Season 2 as planned, due the the ongoing boycott of Disney Plus by the BDS Movement. This is a surprise to us, as it is likely to you and some explanation is required. Last year, the BDS movement targeted Disney Plus for boycott on the grounds that it has cast Israeli actors in its films who have been cultural ambassadors for Israel and do not support the Palestinian cause for liberation or justice. Additionally, Marvel films have made use of characters who have a history in the comics of being connected to positive depictions of Israel and its intelligence service, the Mossad. We were not aware of this boycott when it was declared, and we were not aware of it when we covered Skeleton Crew earlier this year. We are aware of it now, however, and in becoming aware of it, we had to make an affirmative choice that our ignorance had permitted us to avoid. We were not agreed as to what that choice should be. However, what was clear was that if we went ahead with covering Andor Season 2 while this boycott was in place, we would be arriving at an unacceptable outcome. It was either demand members be willing to compromise their own values and do work they did not feel they could perform in good conscience, or it was to go ahead with a partial panel until we were again able to cover something that was not covered by a BDS boycott. This has been a challenging moment for us. We are all firmly committed to the cause of Palestinian liberation and the end of the ongoing genocide perpetrated by Israel under the pretext of waging a war in response to the October 7, 2023 attacks. However, we have differences of opinion and standards of personal and professional obligations when it comes to how we respond to the Boycott, Divest, and Sanction movement and all its calls for action. Those differences were intensified by the compressed time-frame in which we had to have this discussion. We include these details because it is important to acknowledge that on this point there is real disagreement among us which prevents us from making a more straightforward statement. Similar disagreements will certainly arise in the future, and our views will also continue to evolve and change. However, it’s also important to note that we can disagree pretty strongly and continue to work together to make AMCA as good as it can be, a show that every member can participate and take pride in. But we do have news on what we'll be covering next. Beginning in May, we'll be kicking off our coverage of Knights of the Old Republic II. We'll have more info on how we'll be covering that game, what mods (if any) we end up using, and more soon. We thank you so much for your patience. This has been as much of a surprise for us as it is for you, but we're going to focus on making the best possible show we can as we continue to move through the Star Wars catalog. Support the show by going to Patreon.com/civilized! Show Notes Guide To BDS Boycott & Pressure Corporate Priority Targeting Decolonize Palestine, a collection of resources for organizers and anyone who wants to learn more about Palestine Hosted by Rob Zacny (@RobZacny) Featuring Alicia Acampora (@ali_west), Austin Walker (@austin_walker), and Natalie Watson (@nataliewatson) Produced by Austin Walker Music by Jack de Quidt (@notquitereal) Cover art by Xeecee (@xeeceevevo)

Let us return once more to a more civilized age, a Star Wars podcast. I'm Rob Zackney, joined by Ali Akampura, Austin Walker, and Natalie Watson. Up top, we have some business to square away before we, like, we're here recording a Q&A episode here in a few minutes. Before we do that, we have to deal with some other important business before we can get to the rest. rest of that. So a more civilized age will not be covering Andor Season 2 as planned due to the ongoing boycott of Disney Plus by the BDS Movement. This is a surprise to us, as it is likely to you and some explanation is required. Last year, the BDS Movement targeted Disney Plus for boycott on the grounds that it has cast Israeli actors in its films who have been

cultural ambassadors for Israel and who do not support the Palestinian cause for liberation or justice. Additionally, Marvel films have made use of characters who have a history in the comics of being connected to positive depictions of Israel and its intelligence service, the Mossad. We were not aware of this boycott when it was declared, and we were not aware of it when we covered skeleton crew earlier this year. We are aware of it now, however, and in becoming aware of it, we had to make an affirmative choice that our ignorance had permitted us to avoid. We were not agreed as to what that choice should be. However, what was clear is that if we went ahead, with covering and or season two while this boycott was in place, we would be arriving at an unacceptable outcome. It was either demand members be willing to compromise their own values and do work they did not feel they could perform a good conscience, or it was to go ahead with a partial

panel until we were again able to cover something that was not covered by a BDS boycott. This has been a challenging moment for us. We are all firmly committed to the cause of Palestinian liberation and the end of the ongoing genocide perpetrated by Israel under the pretext of waging war in response to the October 7th, 2023 attacks. However, we have differences of opinion and standards of personal and professional obligations when it comes to how we respond to the boycott divest and sanction movement and all its cause for action. These differences were intensified by the compressed time frame in which we have had to have this conversation. We include these details because it is important to acknowledge that on this point there is real disagreement among us,

which prevents us from making a more straightforward statement. Similar disagreements will certainly arise in the future. future, and our views will also continue to evolve and change. However, it's also important to note that we can disagree pretty strongly and continue to work together to make AMCAA as good as it can be and a show that every member can participate and take pride in. Now, you're probably wondering, well, then what are you going to do? And I will say that we're going to do what we always do when we find ourselves in a difficult moment

we're going to play Cotor Cotor 2. We're not playing Cotor 1 again. Can you imagine We have to go back. We got a good Dup's Polo for an alternate Yeah, you didn't get to actually. I didn't even play it. You played half of it. You played some of it.

I played some of it. So yeah, we're going back so that we can save Dup's Polo. We'll be like Ezra Bridger in the world between worlds pulling Tups Polo from his charisma build and telling him to

put some shit I need to help him no but he did a charisma build he just has to run around throwing those grenades Ezra if you intervene at this moment the ramifications for the galaxy could be huge

that would actually if Ezra had wound up meeting Revin that would have fucking rocked Fuck it. I don't care. It's good now. It wasn't bad to begin with, but it could be better. It could be better. Let's The Little Republic 2. I think we're going to do like an episode zero in the feed later this month. I think also probably we may end up missing a week somewhere in here as we hard pivot. A sheave voice. Pivot.

Rob, did you realize that you use the word pivot in our pivot planning document? And like, and every time I opened it, I heard she saying, baby it. Yeah. Anyway, we're going to have to do some planning on how to cover Cotor 2. And, yeah, so we'll be back soon with, I think, in episode 0, we talk about the characters we made and talk through, like, are we using mods, et cetera? Importantly, if you're going to play through with this, you know, with us, you should not try to just make your Cotor 1 character again.

And in line with our BDS statement that Rob just read, I personally advise that you get a used copy of this game unless you already bought it. Obsidian is owned by Microsoft. But there's a lot of used copies of this game available. There are lots of ways to get this on the secondhand market. I suspect many of you bought it in a scene sale. Most of you already haven't. You never played it.

And you never played it. The time is now, you know. So yeah, there you go. All right. Can't wait. Watch this space. Watch this space. Watch this, watch this.

We should do a different podcast. Rejected taglines of Star Wars. Yeah, exactly. Honestly, honestly. Well, honestly, given the Disney Plus thing and various things that I would really like to not be on Disney Plus, a more civilized age might just turn into, colon, watch this space. And it's like, that's just got space in it. Yeah, I guess it may be interesting a thing to just say here is because of the limits of, I know we're supposed to have this conversation on the Q&A, but now I've just, stumbled into it. I just want to say, if you feel like we, you are like, we, you need to read the

X-Wing books. Tell us that now. Maybe we should do another poll, actually, that's like, because we did that poll before that included the Thrawn books, which we've read. Yeah, we need a freshy poll. We need a freshy poll. It's freshy poll time. In our internal deliberations, X-Wing did better than I thought it was going to do. Actually, you didn't think it would do as well as it did? You really sold it to me. You specifically targeted my interests with how you pitched it. So I think we should wrap around to that again.

I think that that's high on my list of next things we do. If Disney doesn't get itself off the BDS list, and then if they continue to not put out a Clone Wars Blu-ray for season seven, a thing that's driving me up the wall that they've abandoned physical media for their cartoons, but not for their live action. Well, especially because I can just, I can just. tell you is someone who watched all of Rebels on Blu-ray. It's night and day, folks.

I bet. It's not, like, it's not, like, a little better. Like, the sheer number of moments where, like, this looks fucking phenomenal. Yeah. Yeah. Bitrates, baby. Yeah. I guess for clarity, for why I say that is, like, again, we don't have to get down the whole rabbit hole here, but now we're all talking, which I, you know, sometimes it happens.

The BDS boycott, it has a really specific aim. It is Disney Plus. It is not everything Disney. It's not everything Star Wars. It is Disney Plus. They make very strategic, targeted calls generally, especially at their priority list level. And so, for instance, if they put out a Clone War 7 Blu-ray, that would not be under the boycott.

That's not one of the immediate targets of the boycott, unless it broadens out to be and also don't buy any Blu-Rays or DVDs. It's about making clear action that shows the sort of collective leverage that's at hand to put pressure on. And it's important for them to do that in tiers where they're like, look, we've targeted this. Now look, if, you know, this continues, we're going to target a different thing. So, yeah. So please continue to take that seriously in the way that you want to and enjoy our Cotour 2 coverage.

I'll be honest. I know that my pitch on X-Wing was a little bit like we have Cyril Carn at home. It was. And knowing those books, I got to be honest. we really don't. We really don't. But like Kirkland lore is no Cyril Karn, but nevertheless. Someone else today was like, I can't wait for y'all to read the Raid Squadron books one day, unprompted.

The Raid Squadron books, so the thing is you got to get through the Michael Stackpole X-Wing books to get to the Raid Squadron books. Now, like, Austin has also ingested more than a fair lifetime's worth of Stackpole because Stackpole was the guy who is. advance the battle tech universe with like major novels about big stuff in that in that lore um but like Aaron Alston's like Raith squadron books that came after are actually like very different really good right yeah I mean those I've not read I think at all whereas I've read the first one two X-wing books I think um so one day we'll get to those and probably not that far in the future though Cote or two I'll also say we may be a little more structured we're going to be more structured. We may be a little more lenient on how much we're covering per episode

and a lot more like we all know what we're going to cover week to week or two week to two week because unlike Cotor 1, Allie and I will not be protecting a core twist with our lives. I haven't played this. I know nothing about this game. I know some character names and I've aton. Okay, yeah, okay. Yeah, and I'm, I, um, not like Atta. Well, actually, it's an O instead of an instead of, or it's an O instead of an I. Yeah. Yeah.

If Atten was, if, if Atten, okay, well, I'm going to say his last name. If Atten Rand was in. No. Yeah, I don't know. We do this. Oh, we're gonna. We're gonna. We're gonna.

And then we're gonna read the Revin book that pisses me off every time. I think about it. I didn't realize there was a reading assignment at the end of this. There's not or there's not. If we were gonna do the old republic if we were like, okay, this is our

we're gonna do all of these games we might have to stop to read the bad books. We should read the bad book though. There's some fun stuff in the books but they're not. Yeah, but the fact Allie's so mad is intriguing to me now. I'm like, because

in the history of the show it's not that many things that induce like that level of disgust. And so now it's like This is like when we were streaming at remap And I was like do not play this fucking golf course And Austin was like so we're playing this golf course And so this is like Alie you made the same mistake I did

Which is you're trying to warn us And you're trying to be like to have a good time Do not fucking do this Well I will if I If I need to I will shepherd you one day But I really hope we do not Was it the book Was it the book called Revin?

Is that the one you're I don't believe so. Okay. That makes sense. Yeah. There's also one that takes place that's like another old Republic book that's about this guy who I'm posting now whose name is Scourge. And I think I maybe liked that one more. I guess I don't actually remember.

But, uh, man, I am right on the line between like, is that sauce, is that, is that, is that sauceless? Or is that sauce? I don't know. Is that sauce? Yeah. Who could say? Maybe one day we'll get there. We have to get through Cotaur two first.

So that's what's up next. Watch this space. Watch this space. Is that going to be our new sign off? I hate it. Look, if that boycott widens, it's like, and you know, we watch this space and you know what else is in space? Babylon 5.

Babylon 5 is in space. Someone's doing a great Babylon 5 podcast somewhere, right? RIP to them, because here comes a more civilized age. watch this space. Those guys have funny hair. So which are the good ones? The Vourlons are the shadows? I can't tell they both seem kind of bad.

What the hell you're talking about, man? Uh-huh. You're ready. If you could see the CG in this show, let me tell you. Woo! All right. Much to consider, much to discuss. But now we have to go record a Q&A podcast.

So we're going to break and we're going to do that over on. the patron feed. Patreon.com slash civilized. Watch the space. I like it. I'm into it. I like it. I love that we're four years into doing this podcast and we're like, do we have a new outro?

Watch the space. Watch the space. I feel like Apollo 13 wasn't the richest text. They could have been tariff on it. Oh, we should. cover Apollo 13 I was obsessed with that movie in high school. I had like a middle

school crush on Gary Sinise. What? That rules. That fucking rules actually. I've never seen it. Oh, wow. We should watch. We should watch the space. Watch the space. Maybe we should watch.

Maybe we can do a soft launch. I don't know. All right. We're going to be able to be. We're going to be. I'm going to be able to be. Oh. You know, I'm going to be.

I'm going to be a lot of You know what I'm going to be. Thank you.