Tony Gilroy unquestionably created something singular and exceptional in Andor. Only after watching both seasons in their entirety can the full weight of what Andor truly is be felt: it is the most important project in the overall mythos of the Star Wars universe. And by and large, it stands as one of the most well-received projects in the expansive Star Wars universe; however, there’s nothing a growing sect of Star Wars fans hate more than Star Wars–especially if it’s made by Disney–and that even applies to something otherwise universally recognized as epic as Andor.
Following a set-up in Season 1, the sophomore season of Andor dove deep into the canonically pre-established Ghorman Massacre. During a top secret Imperial retreat at the Maltheen Divide, Ben Mendelssohn‘s Orson Krennic lays bare the Empire’s plan to destabilize Ghorman through any means necessary to allow Emperor Palpatine to establish energy independence. As is Gilroy’s way, some of the time spent on Ghorman also serves to establish the planet’s culture, including the ghorlectipod silk industry that allowed it to become the center of the Galaxy’s fabric and fashion industries. The investment into details about the planet’s history and its people by Gilroy made the massacre by the Empire that much more impactful and in a new interview with Titan Magazine’s Star Wars Insider, Gilroy revealed another such detail that amplifies the evil of the Emperor.
According to Gilroy, after eventually strip mining Ghorman and turning it into a virtual hellscape, Sleepy Sheev Palpatine had his black robes made of Ghorman twill. It’s a small detail, to be sure, but a disgustingly evil one. And it riled up some fans.
After Star Wars Holocron shared the detail on X, fans expressed their problems with the new detail. The gist of the grief seems to stem from the obviously incredibly well-known fact that Palpatine’s robes were made from Zeyd cloth and/or that someone other than George Lucas dared to make an official statement about something in the Star Wars universe.
Concerning himself with Palpatine’s robes is the kind of thinking that allowed Gilroy to make Andor into foundational Star Wars. Even if his statement retcons the fabric from which the Emperor’s new clothes are made, it isn’t as if Lucas himself hasn’t retconned countless things for far less interesting reasons. But, as they say, haters gonna hate…hate…hate…hate.
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