Mon Mothma's Senate Speech
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Mon Mothma's Senate Speech is a part of the Andor: Season Two episode Welcome to the Rebellion, written by Dan Gilroy and given by Genevieve O'Reilly.[1] In the aftermath of the Ghorman Massacre, Imperial Senator Mon Mothma gives a speech in the Imperial Senate denouncing the Senate's loss of objective reality, and accuses Emperor Palpatine of committing genocide.[2] The speech was written in 2022-23, performed by O'Reilly in May 2023, and the episode was released on May 6, 2025.[3]
Parallels have been drawn between the speech and 2025 events, including the Gaza War and second presidency of Donald Trump, with particular emphasis on the speech's use of the word "genocide".[4][5][6][7][8] Dan Gilroy won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series for writing the episode.
Background
Dan Gilroy drew inspiration from historic speeches made by Abraham Lincoln, John F. Kennedy, Winston Churchill, Martin Luther King Jr., and Mahatma Gandhi.[9] He subsequently compared the speech to "accusing Hitler of genocide in the Reichstag".[9]
Andor creator Tony Gilroy, in response to a question if the speech were about current events, said "The really sorry truth about the about this question — and we get it a lot — is that peace and prosperity and calm are the rarities. Those are rarities throughout the last 6,000 years of recorded history. You could drop this show at any point in the last 6,000 years, and it would make sense to some people about what’s happening to them."[10]
The speech
Fellow Senators, friends, colleagues, allies, adversaries. I stand before you this morning with a heavy heart. I’ve spent my life in this chamber. I came here as a child. And as I look around now, I realize I have almost no memories that pre-date my arrival and few bonds of affection that cleave so tightly. Through these many years, I believe I have served my constituents honorably and upheld our code of conduct. This chamber is a cauldron of opinions and we’ve certainly all had our patience and tempers tested in pursuit of our ideals. Disagree as we might, I am hopeful that those of you who know me will vouch for my credibility in the days to come. I stand this morning with a difficult message. I believe we are in crisis. The distance between what is said and what is known to be true has become an abyss. Of all the things at risk, the loss of an objective reality is perhaps the most dangerous. The death of truth is the ultimate victory of evil. When truth leaves us, when we let it slip away, when it is ripped from our hands, we become vulnerable to the appetite of whatever monster screams the loudest. This Chamber’s hold on the truth was finally lost on the Ghorman Plaza. What took place yesterday… what happened yesterday on Ghorman was unprovoked genocide! Yes! Genocide! And that truth has been exiled from this chamber! And the monster screaming the loudest? The monster we’ve helped create? The monster who will come for us all soon enough is Emperor Palpatine!
Cultural influence
Use and quotation
- On May 6, 2025, in a Vanity Fair interview with Genevieve O'Reilly, David Canfield wrote the speech had "undeniable, powerful real-world resonance."[11]
- On May 7, 2025, Roxana Hadadi in Variety wrote that "As in our world, Mon’s use of the term “genocide” draws outrage, but Andor has so often positioned the Chandrilan leader as the Rebellion’s most reasonable voice that we can accept what she says here as the truth."[12]
- On May 7, 2025, Walter Marsh in The Guardian wrote that "by calling a genocide a genocide, Andor just made its most political point yet", adding that "From its post-truth themes to the contentious debate over the definition of “genocide”, the speech’s parallels to current events – from Trump’s America to Gaza – have been noted by many viewers."[3]
- On May 7, 2025, Phil Owen in TV Guide wrote, "It's pretty tough to listen to that speech and not see some uncanny parallels to our own real-life "monster screaming the loudest": Donald Trump, who has shown little to no regard for actual reality in his second term as president of the United States."[7]
- On May 8, 2025, Paolo Armelli in Wired Italy wrote that "many have stressed how the senator's speech and above all the use of the term "genocide" could become a clear reference to the very serious situation in Palestine, where Israel is implementing an increasingly clear plan for the total elimination of the local population."[13]
- On May 16, 2025, The Standard wrote "Star Wars said the G-word. Mass murder with a stated goal of taking their land and resources," referring to the word "genocide" used in the speech.[14]
- On May 21, 2025, Kyle Chayka wrote in The New Yorker, "It’s rare to hear the word “genocide” uttered unequivocally on television, let alone on the streaming service Disney+. So it was a bit of a shock to encounter the term in a late episode of the second season of “Andor,” a “Star Wars”-spinoff miniseries that has become something like the “Game of Thrones” of George Lucas’s space-opera expanded universe: grittier, grungier, and more political than its predecessors."[15]
- On June 14, 2025, National Catholic Reporter wrote that "Mothma's speech highlights precisely how the epidemic of fake news has led us to the brink of oppression; not just the galaxy, but America."[16]
- On July 17, 2025, the speech was cited in a BuzzFeed article titled "Every Scene In “Andor” Season 2 That Made Me Say, “Wait, Is This Play About Us?” Because The Parallels Are Too Real", writing that "the passionate speech can clearly draw parallels to the genocide currently happening in Palestine, and the importance of calling a genocide a genocide."[17]
- On August 19, 2025, the Los Angeles Times writer Matt Brennan wrote that the speech was "the year’s most powerful monologue"[9]
- On September 22, 2025, Columbia Journalism Review cited the speech an article on freedom of speech focusing on Federal Communications Commission Chair Brendan Carr's threats against Jimmy Kimmel, noting "at least some right-wing (or right-leaning) voices in the mainstream media firmament compared Carr’s threats to the behavior of a Mob boss; so, too, on his podcast, did the Republican US senator Ted Cruz (stepping—unexpectedly and, surely, for a limited run—into the Mothma role)."[18]
- Cato Institute published a piece by Patrick G. Eddington titled "The Monster Screaming the Loudest", writing "right now, the monster screaming the loudest is Trump, and entirely too many federal cops are acting like Imperial stormtroopers, carrying out his unconstitutional orders without question."[19]
- On November 12, 2025 in a Harvard Political Review piece titled "Is Andor a Parable for Our Politics?", Aidan Zagel cited the speech's excerpt "the death of truth is the ultimate victory of evil. When truth leaves us, when we let it slip away, when it is ripped from our hands, we become vulnerable to the appetite of whatever monster screams the loudest," writing that "[Mon Mothma's] words cut to the heart of authoritarianism because authoritarianism sets in as a silent erosion of truth, justice, and free will."[20]
- Quotes from the speech, including "The death of truth is the ultimate victory of evil," were featured on signs at No Kings protests in the United States in 2025.[21][22]
- The speech was cited in "“I Have Friends Everywhere”: Andor’s Revolutionary Commitments" an essay published in the Winter 2025 edition of Film Quarterly[23]