Andor Orson Krennic

Plus, and I do like this, Krennic is the type of petty, insecure nerd of fascist that his entire story this episode can be summed up as "is an obnoxious party guest, the end."

He's arguably the Big Bad of the season, but they're reinforcing his flaws and eccentricities here because he's still more "the Boss from Office Space But In The Death Star" than a military man.

 

Eh, got to disagree; all three are radically different, but especially Krennic compared to Saw and Luthen.

Saw and Luthen are 100% always "on" with The Cause, and are highly, even fanatically pragmatic and paranoid, and both don't expect to enjoy restoring the Republic at all because they expect to be dead and even think of themselves as unworthy of it; the biggest difference is that Saw is an incredibly emotional, self-proclaimed madman and romantic in a philosophical sense, while Luthen is a ruthlessly logical and emotionally restrained man who has a very dark kind of "enlightenment" approach.

Krennic, in contrast to both, is mercurial and impulsive, and willing and able to fritter away time and energy entertaining himself simply for the joy of it, because he can rely on the massive resources and workforce of the Empire. The result is that he's a little bit more careless, and eccentricities are more obviously pointless.

All three men are dangerous while still being capable of making mistakes... but, as an example, Luthen is at the party and hobnobbing with the rich as part of his job, while Krennic is there just for fun, and Saw's idea of fun is breathing in painful gas fumes he's going to use against the Empire.

 

Have I mentioned how much I love Mendelsohn's performance. Krennic is like the perfect encapsulation of the slimiest Imperials while also actually being highly competent. While I didn't think 6 was a perfect episode his banter with Mon was top tier.

 

And yet I think the most interesting thing about his competence is how sort of over-specialized and eventually overwhelmed it is.

Especially with regards to his military and intelligence responsibilities; they're probably the things he's most proud of, and play the biggest part of the uniform-and-cape-obsesses image he likes to project... but they're also where his largest weaknesses appear by the time Rogue One role around.

Mendelsohn does a great job portraying a guy who clearly has some potential in military affairs - Krennic is energetic, quick to react, a surprisingly excellent shot, more than a little valorous when physically threatened, and skilled enough to have Galen Erso tracked down when he runs away - but he's also exactly as unobservant and not-paranoid as a comfortable middle manager in an office building would be - noticing nothing during the party, losing track of his cargo pilot, not suspecting and being shocked that Tarkin will simply seize control of the Death Star when its finished, and needlessly risking himself as a commander on squad-level combat scenarios rather than coordinating Scarif's response to the Rebel attack.