For me it raises a series of (maybe?) ludicrous questions: What did Palpy do all day after he achieved the goal of becoming Emperor of most of the galaxy? What was his daily routine? What did he do in his free time, if any? Hobbies other than searching for arcane Sith artifacts? I like the idea of him sometimes having a nostalgic streak, remembering the days when everything was difficult, dangerous and one tiny mistake could have unravelled everything. Personally I think dealing with all the bureaucracy and actually doing the government-stuff would utterly bore and frustrate him...
The fucker was mostly searching for Sith artifacts as a way to increase his power. He does work with the bureaucracy now and then, but most of that action is left to Tarkin and the Moffs, while Vader and other Force-users like Mara Jade, the Shadow Guards, and the Inquisition are the clean-up crew who show up to fix things whenever the regular means of control don't work.
What do you do when you win a game nobody else was playing competently?
The next step. Become a god. First legally, then spiritually.
Just finished Andor, extremely full of itself show. Not really much more to say than what has already been said.
It kind of dents the Rebellion quite a bit, that they needed an Illusive Man-style figure to push things along and make the Rebellion even possible.
The one thing that set the Rebel Alliance apart from many factions in fiction and most factions in Star Wars was that they were the uncorrupted good guys of the saga. The Jedi, the Empire, the Republic, the Confederacy, and the Sith, they all make moral sacrifices to achieve their goals, and they lose themselves in the process, while the Rebels who stay true to their code of morality and idealism are the ones who win at the end of ROTJ. No more Sith, Confederates, Empire, Republic, even the old Jedi are dead and you're left with an idealist who is more of an Alliance man than he is a Jedi. (Luke) Their hands were clean of any corruption or moral wrongdoing, and they answered the people's call for freedom.
But now? Apparently, people were just fine with the Empire before the Rebels poked the bear and made them autistic about order. Sure, they were a bit extreme at the start, with them killing the Jedi and Andor's dad, but they apparently calmed down to the point where worlds like Ferrix police themselves, since by the start of the series, they hadn't seen a corpo cop in years, much less Stormtroopers.
Even worlds that have dissident senators like Alderaan and Chandrila are mostly left alone. The Empire was satisfied to play the role of beat cop, and most folks kept their heads down. And the Rebels had to use morally dirty tactics like stealing money to get the Empire to crack down hard on the fringe worlds, or send agents to help push Ghorman to rise up and take arms, knowing that the Empire would crush them. (Granted, the Empire had that plan too, but it wouldn't have succeeded without assistance from a Rebel cell.) And even when said worlds rebel, the people take the Empire's side, given how many senators denounced the Ghormans, and how the Empire's army of citizen-soldiers mostly remained loyal.
Not to mention killing willing moles who risked it all to spy on the Empire from within. I mean, who in the galaxy would support a rebellion that kills their own allies? Or abandons them like how Antor Kreeger and his Separatists were abandoned? Suddenly, it makes sense why that banker dude wanted Mon Mothma's daughter to marry her son. It also makes Imperials less willing to defect; if the reward for risking your ass for the Rebellion is a blaster bolt to the chest, you might as well remain loyal to the Empire.
I understood dropping Tay because he was becoming a liability, but that defector from the ISB, Luthen should've sent him to Yavin with Dedra's files that he stole. That would prove to the Alliance Council beyond all doubt what the Empire's up to. Instead of a frightened woman, you could give the council an ISB agent with all the data he gleamed from Dedra's account. That would be solid evidence that would be hard to deny.
Also, Luthen should've had a bomb installed in his museum; that way, he can just pack what's necessary, blow up all the evidence, and take the ISB guy and his assistant with him to Yavin on a clean getaway. By the time the ISB realizes the mole downloaded Death Star files from Dedra's account, it'll all be over, and Luthen would be laughing his ass off on the way to Yavin.
And it gets even worse if we add in the Filoni stuff. We know from SW: Rebels that the Empire was one stone short from abandoning the Death Star for Thrawn's TIE Defender program; Tarkin even gave him an audience with the Emperor so that he could argue for the Defender against Krennic and the Death Star. If he wasn't kidnapped and his TIE Defender factory not destroyed, Tarkin and the Empire would've ditched Krennic's oversized flying pillbox for a more stable plan involving prototype starfighters giving the Empire control of the stars and skies.
So even the Empire was willing to go with practical means such as the TIE Defender first, until the Rebels fucked that plan into the dirt by getting rid of its primary facility and its primary advocate. Then they were forced to rely on the substitute, which was the Death Star, after the Rebels proved they were a problem by offing a fucking Grand Admiral. At that point, Tarkin and Krennic insisting on the Death Star suddenly became logical, when a powerful fleet led by one of Palpatine's best officers was no match for some teenage rebels and Space Hentai. And prior to that, the Empire was a sloppy beast that could barely keep track of things, before the raid on Aldhani forced their hand and led to the ISB gaining more power to aid in the crackdown.
And at the end of the day, when Krennic described the Rebel cause as "lawless ineptitude", the other shows and movies, from Ahsoka, the Mandalorian, the Book of Boba Fett, and even the Sequel Trilogy, prove him right. The New Republic that the Alliance establishes is unable to enforce laws outside of the immediate core worlds that accept them willingly, their senate is easily bribed and compromised by First Order agents, and the rest of the galaxy is left a lawless mess, where any group, from Mandalorian warbands, to pirate fleets, and even Imperial remnants can operate with impunity. They're lawless and inept. Director Krennic described the situation perfectly.
