Varada Sethu and Faye Marsay as Cinta and Vel in Star Wars spin-off Andor. (Disney+)
Disney+ Star Wars spin-off Andor has aired its most heart-wrenching twist for queer viewers, and it’s safe to say some facets of the fandom are more than a little upset.
Warning: spoilers ahead for Andor season two episode six.
Just as Andor’s Cinta Kaz (Doctor Who’s Varada Sethu) and Vel Sartha (Adolescence’s Faye Marsay) were contemplating putting their lives as Rebels behind them to move forward with their relationship, Disney decided to deploy an age-old trope: bury your gays.
This week’s episode saw Cinta and Vel fully deciding to rekindle their romance and move forward together as a couple, with Cinta pulling Vel in for a kiss – one of the the first same-sex kisses in the Star Wars franchise.
Yet, after rebel spymaster Luthen (Stellan Skarsgård) decided the pair should be sent to assist the Ghorman rebels with the fuel heist, tragedy struck.
Though the heist was successful, the mission saw Cinta being accidentally shot with a laser and killed by one of the Ghorman fighters.
Crushingly, Vel had to immediately carry on with the mission without a moment to mourn, despite her heartbreak.
Fans are particularly upset considering the direction of travel Cinta and Vel seemed to be heading. After season one, in which Cinta would doggedly put her rebellion status first over her relationship with Vel, season two saw her start to soften (to a degree – in the previous episode, she did kill businessman Tay Kolma [Ben Miles], but you get the point).
Speaking to Variety, actress Varadu Sethu described the jaw-dropping killing as “shocking”.
“There’s a few [fans] that are commenting on my Instagram page, but I’ve just had an influx of DMs of people saying ‘Oh my God, I can’t believe they’ve done this to you. I’m so sorry.’ It’s lovely to see that people cared about Cinta in the way that I care about her. It’s been really heartwarming,” she explained.
“The thing that Vel and Cinta were nervous about was going about starting a relationship after this. So for it to fall apart within a mission that was meant to be so straightforward is shocking.”
During her time on set filming her final scenes, Sethu said there was “a real sense of mourning”.
“It was weird; I felt like I was dying. Everyone was very gentle with me,” she explained.
She also shared her thoughts on what could have happened between the intergalactic lovers should Cinta have been spared.
“I think they would have left and gone into hiding somewhere if they could. Well, I think that’s what they would try. That would be the dream. But I actually suspect that they probably would end up staying in the rebellion, because that’s what Cinta believes in still,” she said.
Online, the reaction to Cinta’s death has been a mixture of heartbreak and rage, with some upset that Andor opted to kill off one of the show’s leading queer women.
The film and TV trope “Bury Your Gays” stems from the notion that LGBTQ+ characters are expendable and often killed off disproportionately compared to their non-LGBTQ+ counterparts.
For years, data has suggested that queer female characters are particularly susceptible to facing a grizzly end.
Queer publication Autostraddle has traced the death of every out lesbian or bisexual female character on TV since 1976, and discovered that almost 250 have been brutally axed.
Between 2015 and 2017, 62 lesbian and bisexual female characters were killed off, the most in any two year period that came before it.
#andor spoilers
— ruby* (@etherealocke) April 30, 2025
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“she was a warrior. she was everything that you have daydreamed about. she was a blooded, fearless warrior whose loss will be mourned in ways that you will never understand. she was a miracle”
i’ll never forget cinta kaz 💔 pic.twitter.com/Sw9fJzXNLY
vel and cinta you will always be my most beloved star wars couple #andor pic.twitter.com/GhW9TT2RJ0
— stardust (@cvrmillv) April 30, 2025
“Seeing a lot of people tell lesbians how to feel abt Cinta’s death and respectfully I need them to shut tf up,” wrote one fan. “We are allowed to be upset that they used a harmful trope. You don’t get to decide that for us. And believe it or not, we can still love the show and appreciate the overall masterful storytelling and still criticize it for using this trope at the same time.”
“So you give me space lesbians, have them separated and hurting, reunite them, have them make up and then F**KING KILL ONE OF THEM,” a second wrote. “Justice for my girl Cinta. Sapphics never experience happiness (or a storyline that doesn’t end in pain) in media do they?”
A third groaned: “Yeah no I’m still p*ssed abt Star Wars killing off Cinta in the most bury your queers way imaginable. I tried to cool off but it’s so f**king frustrating.”
Andor is streaming on Disney+.
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