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

There aren’t many Stormtroopers in Andor. They’re not absent — occasionally they patrol the streets of Ferrix, appearing just often enough to suggest that they could always appear — but they’re never in focus. It’s an odd thing about a story so strongly centered on the Empire, the iconography of which is a part of the very fabric of Star Wars. What Star Wars story would be complete without the helmeted trooper.

AndorThis is what exists. Its primary depiction of the Empire is not soldiers in nondescript armor, nor their weapons of war — images that meant something before they became aspects of brand identity — but in giving the Empire a face. The Empire’s face is clearly identifiable. It is notThe Emperor. Sheev Palpatine, ironically, couldn’t matter less to the Empire he founded. He is not a Sith mastermind, but his power to control the galaxy comes from it. You don’t get it from corporate strivers or desk workers. In boardrooms or economic incentives, every impulse human has is to be vile and not build community and solidarity.

The Imperial Security Board is one of the most intriguing things about the country. Andor. Under Major Partagaz (Anton Lesser), people vie for power through bureaucratic meetings. He is a well-mannered, incisive officiant and knows how run a meeting. He oversees the creation of new strategies for dealing with the Rebellion. His good-natured workers at the ISB strive to elevate their status by making him happy.

Lucasfilm Ltd. Photo

In this context, even the Emperor showing his face could completely ruin the story Andor It is instructive about the Imperials. Because the Imperials is a figure referenced, but never seen in action, it is impossible to tell the viewers or characters if that particular mandate is. It is really the Emperor’s will, or if one character’s superior officer ActuallyJust had a chat with Palpatine. This is the point: It doesn’t matter. Oppression trickles downward.

In the hope of alleviating their suffering, everyone is given the chance to help expand the oppression. So far, this is the most destructive weapon available. Andor is not a space station or a gun, it’s the Public Order Resentencing Directive issued by the ISB. Under this new law, passed after the successful Rebel raid on Aldhani in “The Eye,” harsher penalties are enacted against actions classified as “acts against the Empire,” and the definition of those acts is by and large up to the person enforcing the law.

This is how, in “Narkina 5,” Andor is arrested and shipped to a labor prison for a six-year sentence for nothing other than being at the wrong place at the wrong time. It gives ISB officer Dedra Meero the incentive to skirt Imperial code in order to track down Andor’s few remaining friends on Ferrix. Indirectly, it encourages serial bootlicker Syril Karan to believe that his ambition has merit and to press his luck with Meero in order to imitate his sense of order on all those around him.

Lucasfilm Ltd. Photo

This is a stark shift in the Empire’s portrayal, which previously focused largely on the scale and machinery of war. However, the Empire’s may in the Original Trilogy came at a steep price. Andor Emphatically, it is clear: The Empire’s spread thin. It is impossible to be everywhere simultaneously. And so it employs the fascist’s greatest weapon: getting formerly free people to police themselves.

Syril Karn is a good example. Karn still Andor’s sharpest tool, a pernicious character who doesn’t even profess an admiration for the Emperor. He simply loves rulesHe sees the Empire, as the ideal platonic order of a society where rules-breakers will be made pariahs, just like he is for his stubbornness. He’s also the source of Andor’s most damning bit of visual storytelling, back in his mother’s home where he continually eats breakfast cereal: There, on a shelf in his bedroom, are little Stormtrooper figurines. They wear masks he cannot, yet he’s convinced that he can fight their war in his own petulant little way. For him, there are many people in the world who don’t follow the rules. He finds stopping them as as brave as any Stormtrooper fighting against the Empire.

The Emperor doesn’t need to appear to maintain order in his small fascist kingdom with men such as Karn. He’s got soldiers everywhere.