The Shocking Truth Behind the Controversial Figure Labeled a ‘Space Nazi’ Revealed

I went to Manchester Comic Con for the usual reasons: a celebrity Q&A, and the faint, irrational hope that maybe — just maybe — someone would recognize me as a Serious Writer and not just a girl in a leopard print dress asking complicated questions about fascism in the middle of a fan panel.

You know, the usual fan stuff.

(Spoiler: I got both a quote and a compliment. I consider that a win in a town where the wind is so strong, everybody’s cosplay wigs kept flying off to Liverpool.)

Somewhere between a suspiciously cheerful admissions gal and a literal animatronic velociraptor entering a side door and interrupting the Andor panel, I met Abby and Luke, two cosplayers with all the gentle enthusiasm of people who still believe in magic.

Abby looked like a forest warrior princess who had wandered into a Renaissance fair, while Luke looked every inch her monk escort. I asked them why they dress up.

“Because our friends do,” they said, as if I’d asked why they breathe. “It would be strange not to dress up when they all do,” Abby affirmed.

It wasn’t about spectacle or politics or canon accuracy. It was about participation. Ritual. Showing up in character because you want to belong, not to be seen.

I thought to myself, ‘Is this a sheep mentality? Is this a bizarre live-action, irony-filled example of how authoritarian regimes are created? Going with the flow?’

Or is this entirely innocent?

It got me thinking about villains. How they exploit this kind of thinking. How they create this kind of thinking and distribute it worldwide.

And that — oddly, wonderfully — brought me to the question I asked two Andor actors on the main stage: Denise Gough, who plays Dedra Meero, and Kyle Soller, who plays Syril Karn, the poster child for all of us who went to hide in our bedrooms during unpleasant house calls.