“Andor” season 2 starts with bang — the theft of an experimental new TIE fighter model, a ripped-from-the-headlines exposé about the Empire’s despicable treatment of undocumented agricultural workers, and perhaps the single most evil brainstorming session you’ll ever watch. That last scene — a top-secret meeting led by Orson Krennic (Ben Mendelsohn — concerns the planet Ghorman, which the Empire intends to strip-mine to the point of global collapse in order to extract a resource necessary for the Death Star’s superlaser reactor.
Advertisement
Worked into the margins of Krennic’s genocidal scheme is a line that can only be read as an intentional reference to Emperor Sheev Palpatine (Ian McDiarmid). Specifically, ot’s one of his most infamous meme lines from the disappointing “Star Wars” prequel trilogy. While describing the Empire’s “Energy Initiative,” a cover story for the Death Star project, Krennic emphasizes Palpatine’s special interest in the program. “I met with the emperor yesterday,” Krennic says. “He suggested I remind you that the Energy Initiative remains a centerpiece of his agenda. Access to stable, unlimited power will transform the galactic economy and solidify imperial authority.”
That’s right, power. Unlimited power. It’s one of Palpatine’s most famous lines, screamed at the top of his lungs in “Revenge of the Sith” as he blasts Mace Windu (Samuel L. Jackson) with Force lightning. It’s right up there with “I am the Senate” — spoken just moments before in the same scene — in terms of iconic status. Hearing it uttered by Krennic at a board meeting is kind of hilarious, but it’s also deeply haunting. The reference reveals something that “Star Wars” doesn’t show very often, and that’s just how much the overarching Imperial policy is influenced by Palpatine’s twisted Sith beliefs.
Advertisement
Palpatine’s presence can be felt in Andor season 2
Though Palpatine hasn’t shown up in “Andor” (at least not yet), his influence on the machinery of the Empire is palpable. Krennic’s “unlimited power” reference makes it seem like the language came straight from the emperor himself and serves a reminder that not only is the Death Star project important to him, but the idea of achieving limitless, weaponizable power is a core tenet of his very existence.
Advertisement
In the old Expanded Universe, now known as non-canon Star Wars Legends, Sith superweapons akin to the Death Star littered the years of the Old Republic. Some of those stories have even made their way into the modern canon in various ways. In other words, the Death Star isn’t just a big gun. It’s a symbol of the kind of might that Sith doctrine revolves around, an ideology where strength is the single most important attribute.
It’s easy to write-off Palpatine’s personal influence on the day-to-day workings of the Empire. It’s a massive, galactic apparatus with far too many cogs for one little frog man to keep track of. But this one-off, almost joke line from Krennic hides the truth of Palpatine’s influence. The deification of cruelty, the modes of violence, the hoarding of power — these larger institutional aims are also Palpatine’s personal religious convictions. Hearing him be so directly connected to the Death Star project underscores the cosmic evil already apparent in the Empire’s genocidal plans.
Advertisement
