Bandit LOAF
Long Live the Confederation!
Well, as I said, I don't want to argue too much about this - I know it's a weaselish cop-out on my part, but I think that if you like Rogue One and Andor that much, this just means that the core Star Wars products were never really your favourite, and by extension, Star Wars in general was never a favourite franchise precisely because of its fantasy aspects and lack of realism (and I'm pretty sure we've had conversations to this effect in the distant past, Alex). There is, at the end of the day, a reason why Andor's viewership numbers are so low in spite of its very high review scores. I genuinely believe that most Star Wars fans just don't care about Andor, because it doesn't scratch that Star Wars itch - sure, they enjoyed it if they bothered to watch it, but most didn't bother to watch it, and most of those that did watch it just don't see it as very important. I will insist - without bothering to back this claim up with evidence - that to the overwhelming majority of the Star Wars audience, Star Wars is about the Force, light sabres, Jedi, and the Skywalkers.
You're right about it not being in the same spirit as the original Star Wars but insisting that it is "fanfic" is committing exactly the same sin in the other direction. It's a licensed tie-in which is inherently not the same as the original work but is also absolutely not the same thing as fan fiction.
And it's an odd idea that you can only appreciate Star Wars if you like every part of the original movie and nothing ever that isn't that. Why wouldn't someone be able to like two different things? Does loving Star Wars necessarily mean I like every single aspect of the original movie and no other things that aren't that? It's the old 'I love hamburgers' / 'HEY THIS ASSHOLE SAYS HE HATES HOT DOGS' scenario.
And why would it matter what the majority of Star Wars fans think? Even if we could measure that to any degree of satisfaction (we can't!), why would it be an idea that's of any value? 'I don't know if I liked that show… I'd better wait for the ratings!' is such a silly idea. (And even beyond being one of the basic fallacies in argument, have you met Star Wars fans specifically? I wouldn't trust one of them to make a sandwich, much less interpret media for me as a class.
)The reason I love tie-in media is because it's a different take on something I love and I go in knowing that. It's endlessly fascinating to me to see Andor interpret some parts of Star Wars through the lens of a different creator with different interests and a different message in a different time in a different format. Someone trying to do Star Wars again isn't especially interesting (waves at Rebel Moon) but seeing someone take that cultural touchstone and try to say something else with it is interesting (whether it's a gritty war story about the realities behind the fantasy world… or if it's that same fantasy world presented as a comedy variety show.)
Even without Andor, Star Wars' sequels and follow ups have always been appealing because of how they expand and twist the original story. Heck, you even mentioned Star Wars should be about "Skywalkers" which certainly wasn't what George Lucas was thinking in 1977; Vader wasn't Luke's father and Leia wasn't his sister… those were ideas that came from looking at that initial work and coming up with something else to say about it. But no one thinks it's some offense that the later story wasn't identical to the first one! (Least of all George who was already reworking dialogue in the movie between prints being duplicated for theaters on the first one...)
