Rogue One [Official Info] Mads Mikkelsen (Galen Erso) in Rogue One

Rogue One does I think clearly focus on the Empire's weaknesses not being military but rather as Monk says born of arrogance and immorality. Not only does the infighting between Krennic and Tarkin hold them back from discovering the weakness in the DS as the latter is too keen to kill the former but I think we also clearly get a similar situation to Sauron where the Imperials judge everyone by there own standards, believing they'll be driven by self interest alone and so underestimate them.

Honestly if Edwards did do another anthology project besides the talked about Obi Wan film I wouldn't mind seeing something mostly from the Imperial side showing someone's move towards defection.

 

But like I had said before, one of the things I always liked about ANH was the fantastical nature in how the Empire was introduced as this already omnipresent unbeatable force with practically no origin story as to how it came about. Sure, there's Episodes 1-3 now that explains the origins of Vader and hints at the rise of the Empire. But there's still enough of a gap between Episodes 3 and 4 to maintain that feeling of this formidable foe that has already reached the pinnacle of its evil that needs to be defeated and without it being explained too much on how this villain came to be. And it's that villain archetype that I always liked. Han, Leia, and Luke outwitting the Empire and the Rebellion eventually defeating the it just plays into that in my opinion.

It's not that Galen makes the Empire appear weaker per se. It's just that his existence takes away that aura and that fantastical nature I had described. Because again, prior to RO, watching the Empire operate throughout ANH, you kind of saw them as what I described. But now with the inclusion of RO in the story, and more specifically the inclusion of Galen, you can't not have that in the back of your mind when you see them formulating their plans on how to rule the galaxy.

 

To me the Empire in the OT pushed the idea of the banality of evil, it wasn't like say the Nazi's in Indy but rather this massive establishment force run by a handful of evil/greedy individuals.

I think in that respect things clearly differ rather from LOTR, in that story Sauron is set to roll over everything and kill or brutally enslave everyone and the main challenge ends up being how to characters react to this, most obviously do they turn to the ring? In SW though I think the moral challenge is much more getting involved in the fight in the first place, Han for example doesn't fully commit to this until midway though ROTJ. Theres I think more of a sense that if you keep your head down things might be ok for you which obviously plays into Galen and Jyn's story as well.

 

He swapped the Death Star battery for an iPhone one.

 

I think we might see Galen Erso in the Andor show. maybe he does more to the death star. I lvoe it if all the weakness of the death star is all to him.

 

Andor certainly knew who he was shooting at from high up on the mountain, all the scientists were dressed the same. The only time Galen stood out was when Krennic ordered his Deathtroopers to kill the scientists, even so it would've been a guess for a stranger.

 

Actually, Galen was dressed completely differently to the rest of the scientists on the platform.

 

Here's an image:

 

I watched it again, easy to forget that sequence, lots happening in it. Cassian has Bodhi point out which one is Galen. Though from that distance when looking through a night scope it wouldn't be clear if Bodhi didn't identify him.

 

Sure. But because Galen was wearing a different outfit from the rest, Bodhi was able to easily identify him to Cassian.