It’s not an easy perspective to take, but we can appreciate a corrupt Imperial officer’s attitude toward Vader much more after watching Andor. Although we may not empathize with it, we may already understand this viewpoint based on A New Hope. Yet, the recent Disney+ show dives deeper into this mindset.
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An Imperial Officer’s Perspective
As posted on this Reddit board, an imperial officer’s daily life is rather dull. Most of the day is probably “spent overseeing various imperial projects” and making sure “the troops are keeping locals in line.” An officer also typically has co-workers who are “back-stabbing, weaselly opportunists.” This person is mainly a cog in a gigantic wheel of corruption.
Andor makes me understand this guy's attitude towards Vader
byu/Economy_Claim_5547 inandor
Since imperial officers are usually distanced from the high command and heightened action conveyed in Star Wars movies, they would be distrustful of abnormalities. When Vader enters the room, an officer would most likely be suspicious and not believe in anything Force-related. If this person knew of Vader, it’s probably as “the Emperor’s goon” without political power to help keep the galaxy under control.
Just within this context, you may start to understand why Admiral Motti responded negatively to Vader in A New Hope. “A staunch believer” in the Death Star, Motti thought it was “invulnerable” and didn’t appreciate Vader questioning its power.
We can re-watch the scene here, with Motti first rebuking his fellow officer, Cassio Tagge, about the Rebels being a threat. Then, Grand Moff Tarkin and Vader came into the meeting room, and Tagge brought up the issue of losing the Death Star plans and the threat to the station. That’s when Motti intervened and spoke about “any attack by the Rebels” being a “useless gesture” and how the Death Star was now “the ultimate power in the universe.”
This prompted Vader to caution Motti not to be “too proud of this technological terror” in comparison to the power of the Force. This remake adds another layer to why Motti, or any officer, would be distrustful and dismissive of Vader. The Forcer is nothing but “sorcerer’s ways” to them, a discarded “ancient religion” that has no place in the bureaucratic halls of the Empire.
Let’s not forget either, as the Reddit explanation and Motti note, that the stolen plans are still missing even after Vader’s efforts to retrieve them. Hence, Vader is part of a lost universe and an incompetent reminder of it.
How ‘Andor’ Helps Us Understand This Viewpoint
With this situation in mind, Andor has added much clarity to why Motti and other officers would be skeptical of Vader and the Force. Revealing the bureaucracy behind the Empire is a chief reason.
In a recent article, we included how Andor has exposed the Empire as one of the reasons for the show’s success. The “all-encompassing machinery” of the Empire includes the backroom officer meetings and political drama that characters like Deedra Meera showcased.
In this collection of scenes, we see Deedra in corporate attire, suitcase in hand, and then in a board meeting that amplifies the stiff nature of the one above from A New Hope. Meera rattles off verbatim the ISB’s purpose of furthering “security objectives,” through intelligence gathering and “useful analysis.” Vader’s Force does not fit well into this dynamic.
The idea of pressing an outdated religion onto these bureaucrats wouldn’t sit well either. The Empire seeks by-the-book officers who lack emotion and are not distracted by what all in the meeting room would consider nonsense. This is the structure that has been built since the overthrow of the Republic.
By the time of Motti, this system was well in place. Andor reminds viewers that “an empire doesn’t need dark magic to be evil.” In fact, Admiral Motti and others like him have completely dispensed with it. With this larger context, it makes sense that he and others would reject Vader.
Going back to Season One, this bureaucratic element has been central to the series. Andor illustrates “the smaller cogs in the machine” and had the effect of making “the mundane parts of the Empire feel a lot scarier” than “bigger shows of strength.” In that sense, the Imperial bureaucracy attempts to drain the humanity out of its officers.
A character who runs close to a Motti is Major Partagaz, who runs the ISB board and manages the Supervisors, their attendants, and sometimes members of the Imperial Navy and Army. He is perhaps a sharper version of the cronies on the Death Star, but embodies “a high-ranking Imperial officer who is the very personification of a galactic-level bureaucrat.”
Like Motti, Partagaz makes a crucial mistake that undermines his standing. The two play too closely by Imperial standards, to their detriment.
‘Andor’ and Officer Attitudes
The officer’s attitude that Motti and Partagaz express is part of the larger bureaucratic Empire. They voice the accustomed views of the corporate officers who know not of the Force, except that it’s a relic of the past. Although this view is mistaken, it can be appreciated.