Andor is a Star Wars story where the Emperor does not matter

few stormtroopers AndorThey’re not absent — sometimes they patrol the streets of Felix and appear frequently enough to suggest they could always appear — but they’re never in focus. No. It’s a strange thing for a story so heavily centered around the Empire that’s part of the very fabric of Star Wars. Can you think of a Star Wars story without the helmeted troopers?

Andor It is an existence that opposes this.The main depiction of the empire is to give the empire a face, not an image that means something before it becomes an aspect of the brand identity, rather than a nondescript soldier in armor or a weapon of war. face is definitely No emperor, emperor. Sheev Palpatine, ironically, wasn’t all that important to the empire he founded. His power to rule the galaxy does not come from being a Sith mastermind. It comes from desk workers and corporate hard workers in boardrooms and financial incentives driven by every urge humans have to inspire each other instead of building community and solidarity.

This is what makes the Imperial Security Council one of the most compelling. AndorThrough bureaucratic councils, people compete for power and position under Major Partagaz (Anton Lesser). Under his authority, a variety of strategies for handling the nascent rebellion arose, and the ISB’s small bright workers tried to improve their position by making him happy by any means necessary. will do.

In this framework, even the appearance of the emperor would completely spoil the story. Andor I’m talking about imperial. As a referenced but not shown figure, there is no way for the viewer or character to know if a particular instruction is valid. For real Emperor’s will, or if one character’s superior officer actually Conversation with Palpatine. This is the point. it doesn’t matter. Oppression drips down.

Anyone willing to get their hands dirty is also given the tools to magnify its oppression in hopes of avoiding its suffering.By far the most devastating weapon Andor is neither a space station nor a gun, but a public order review order issued by the ISB. Passed after the successful rebel raid on Aldani in “The Eye,” the new law establishes harsher penalties for conduct classified as “acts against the Empire,” and these The definition of an act is largely up to the person performing the act. law.

This is how in “Narcina 5” Andor is arrested and sent to a labor prison with a six-year prison sentence just because he was in the wrong place at the wrong time. It motivates her ISB officer, her Dedra Meero, to circumvent Imperial code in order to track down the few friends of her Andor who remain in Ferrix. It indirectly emboldens his Syril Karn, a serial boot tricker, to feel that his ambitions are worthwhile, and continuously imposes his luck with Meero, giving him a sense of order and propriety. impose on everyone around.

Photo: Lucasfilm Co., Ltd.

This is a major shift in depictions of empires that previously focused primarily on the scale and mechanics of warfare. But power like the Empire-bent in the original trilogy comes at a price. Andor Emphasize emphatically: The empire stretches thinly. It’s not everywhere at once. And it employs the fascist’s greatest weapon. It’s about getting formerly free people to police themselves.

Cyril Khan demonstrates this.Khan Ruins AndorA vicious character who doesn’t even profess his admiration for the emperor.he just loves rule, and sees empire as the Platonic ideal of an orderly society.he is also the source of AndorI’m back at my mom’s house and eating my breakfast cereal constantly. On the shelf in the bedroom is a small Stormtrooper figurine. They wear masks he can’t, but he’s sure he can fight their war in his own grumpy little way. and stopping them is as brave as a Stormtrooper fighting for the empire.

With a man like Khan, the emperor need not show up to keep order in a small fascist kingdom. He has soldiers everywhere.