They took down everything. The ISB is gutted and so is Naval Intelligence (Yularen was on the Death Star) Tarkin is dead, the Senate had to be dissolved because the energy project got out. The Empire has no choice but to rule by decree and it just lost its prime tool for that, a tool it spent 20 years on and burned at least 2 entire worlds for. Over a million soldiers, twice that of the entire population of Gohrman! And for nothing! The Imperial Political Administration is dead! After that it’s amazing the Empire doesn’t immediately spiral apart (though I suppose it does, since the Rebels are way more widespread now). The sudden uprisings in ROTJ suddenly make sense!
And they spent so much time hunting him et al that Yavin was built under their noses. I mean they have a Mon Calamari Cruiser in Rogue One! That’s like the Houthis rocking up with an Invincible-class Aircraft Carrier!
I remember people pointing out how the “Fulcrum” group from rebels was doing far more that the “Axis” group in Andor, but Luthen played the long game. And it’s clear the people who leave with Cassian are the last surviving members of Luthen’s spy network. They don’t like the Mothma Libs and they’re not mad enough for the Rhydo huffing Anarchists.
That said, the Rebel Alliance does expend 80% of its combat strength on it.
Anyway it makes its surrounding movies and series much better.
Honestly watching rogue 1 as a finale felt off. Like the plotline fits cleanly of course, but its just such a noticeable drop in quality
At least until the final third. Despite zombie Leia that scene of the ordinary rebels passing on the plans as Vader tears through them hits much harder now you know the rebellion grew via the same desperate sacrifice. It’s like poetry, it rhymes.
If they just reshot the same scenes with the same actors now they’re more in the roles you’d probably fix much of the film.
One big issue andor has, is that no way in hell can you reconcile rogue one cassian and andor cassian. Rouge one cassian would have not disobeyed the alliance leaders, what “terrible things” did andor cassian do for the rebellion? Not that much. Rouge one is also the erso’s story not cassians. On the beach rogue one cassian wasn’t thinking about bix nor luthen.
I’m okay with a season 3 that retcons rogue one. It’s really mid
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When ANH came out, aside from the Death Star being destroyed and, presumably, this being a rallying cry for the Rebellion, it wasn’t assumed much damage was done to the Empire. Of course the Death Star’s destruction couldn’t be understated but it seemed that beyond that, the Empire was mostly still intact.
What’s quiet interesting about Andor and Rogue One, though, is they’ve painted a picture of the Empire eating itself in such a destructive manner, to get the Death Star up and running, that they effectively purged a ridiculous amount of their high command. This may even be why it took years for them to reengage with the Rebels in earnest at Hoth and why it was Vader directly leading the campaign rather than a different officer.
It seems the final episodes of Andor take place a week prior to Rogue One/ANH at best. Hell, let’s assume the entire thing takes two weeks.
In that time:
Axis is lost, compromising critical imperial leads regarding the Rebellion, how it operates, who is a part of it, where it’s connections lead, where the moles are, everything.
Half the ISB board on Coruscant is effectively purged. Among them, Partagaz, who was really the only one stopping them all from nakedly eating each other, and Meero, who is possibly the Empire’s best agent in regards to actually understanding the Rebel insurgent efforts. Honestly, for the war effort, this is possibly a bigger issue than even the Death Star being destroyed, given that the new hires, desperate to keep their positions rather than do their job, will likely be even less effective.
Krennic, the Edho research facility, Scariff, and Jedha are all effectively destroyed. Given that Jedha in particular was being mined for Kyber, this may have delayed construction of the DS2 due to them blowing up their mine to cover their tracks. Likewise, Edho contained most of the scientists actually working on the DS so that was a significant brain drain.
The Death Star itself is destroyed, which along with meaning the station itself is gone, also led to the death of much of the imperial high command, including Tarkin and numerous high level generals, admirals, and Moffs.
In retrospect, it’s actually no surprise it took years for the empire to “strike back” given their military bureaucracy had been destroyed due to their own arrogance.
ISB being purged was bad, but there was still naval intelligence, so not completely without intelligence services.
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