Tales of the Empire: Where are the Imperial bureaucrats?

Is it only Andor that will show us the grimy, lived-in universe of Star Wars that made the original film so distinct?

To me, Tales of the Empire should show how the Empire is made up of, in George Lucas’s own words, “Nixonian gangster” bureacrats and technocrats. I want to see Imperial officers backstabbing eachother, corrupt cronyistic systems of political and economic power, drab brutalist architecture, and the unspeakable military might of a totalitarian machine. Quieter stories from the inside, with a vibrant ensemble of new and existing background characters. That is what would reflect the title of this show if it was made to appeal to an intelligent, thoughtful audience of Star Wars fans.

I will admit that I do look forward to watching this miniseries as a casual fan of the Star Wars animated series. But despite being titled like Old EU Star Wars (ex. The logo being a direct lift from Darkhorse, call-back to the old bantam “Tales from” books), this show just feels like more of the same - legacy characters running around with lightsabers moving an arc from point A era, to point B era.

I am not somebody who is burned out on the original trilogy era as that is baseline Star Wars to me, but the execution and quality under Disney has been inconsistent at best (it’s the “what” and “why” that are the problem, not the “when”). The animated universe of which The Clone Wars served as the catalyst feels like Taco Bell: same ingredients in different combinations. I may enjoy this show to some extent, but I can’t help but feel this embodies the argument some will make that most mainline SW content feels churned out with less respect for an audience with refined tastes. Maybe it is Disney’s own denial that their target demographic has aged into adulthood (while they’ve failed to create a meaningful connection to the IP with younger audiencds), that leads them to produce content that is “for babies”.