Okay so this adds absolutely nothing to Rogue One and is completely pointless

andor looking for the lost sister is what gets him into trouble on premor, sucking in syril and the rest

So just write it that Luthen is looking to buy black-market goods/recruit, and the guy either becomes a rebel or is an ISB spy. It doesn't need to be Andor, hell the scene doesn't even need to exist, Dedra could just have been monitoring all the other thefts like she already was in the show.

fortunately, you don't have to watch the show to enjoy the music from it
youtube.com/watch?v=g3lJ1CI6drw

black markets exist for goods in high demand by a large number of customers, that makes it worth the effort to secure the good before even knowing who your customer is

but what's the market for an imperial starpath unit? only someone with unique needs like luthen would buy something like that, no one is going to risk stealing starpath units without certainty of payment

the procurement has to be specifically commissioned, luthen sought out andor specifically, and that's why there was investment in andor's character-building

no one is going to risk stealing starpath units without certainty of payment

But that's exactly what Andor, did. Hell that's what plenty of criminals do. It doesn't need to be Andor specifically. That's the worst part about the show, Andor himself doesn't actually matter to the plot, the entire thing is driven by Luthen/Dedra/Syril. Andor starts of looking for his sister, a plot point that goes no-where, he spends the entire first season specifically not wanting to get involved, then in the finale of season 1 decides to join Luthen, than half way through season 2 he's back to wanting to walk away entirely and it takes Bix abandoning him to make him stay. Andor's entire role in the serious could have been taken over by someone else entirely, or various agents of Luthen, he goes to the bar looking for some illegal information, maybe something about smuggling, the two security agents start asking questions, he kills them, that puts Syril, hell have Syril be a local ISB agent, not a security officer and that cuts out all the bullshit with him in the records office. Andor has no bearing on the entire series.

no one is going to risk stealing starpath units without certainty of payment

It doesn't need to be Andor specifically

I disagree, an Imperial Starpath Unit seems pretty fucking useful, not just for a Rebel group, but also for pirates, smugglers, a Hutt, a bounty hunter, etc. Lots of potential buyers would be willing to pay for it. Thus it makes sense you'd want to steal it.

The Starpath Unit is also what connects Andor with Luthen and the Rebellion, since it draws Luthen's attention to find out who would be so ballsy/capable to steal one. If someone else had stolen it then Andor and Luthen wouldn't meet. Ultimately it serves the narrative role of connecting both characters.

Andor himself doesn't actually matter to the plot

He's pretty instrumental in a lot of early Rebellion shit, the heist which gives them proper funding to start Yavin, smuggling away Mon Mothma, rescuing Luthen's assistant and relaying the Death Star info, etc.
It's a good thing that he's not the ultimate hero that does everything (that would be dumb) but he's a pretty critical link in the chain and one of Luthen's top operatives.

Wow.
I read your whole post and nothing is correct.
Imagine being such a nitwit.

He's pretty instrumental in a lot of early Rebellion shit, the heist which gives them proper funding to start Yavin, smuggling away Mon Mothma, rescuing Luthen's assistant and relaying the Death Star info, etc.

But that's the thing, he's just there. He doesn't come up with the idea to steal the payroll (he also bails on Luthen immediately after and Luthen considers killing him to tie up a loose end), he doesn't come up with the idea to rescue Mon Mothma, he does rescue Kleya, but that's mostly him just reacting. That's my point, at no point in the series does Andor specifically drive the plot, he is always just reacting to what other characters are doing. Which would have been fine if he was just Luthen's agent, but it's not okay for the title character.

and nothing is correct

And yet you have no counterpoint.

Andor's girlfriend was such a pointless shit character

The series is about a rebel spy that is supposed to follow orders, and his backstory.
He's not a leader of the Rebellion and isn't meant to be the one driving the events, he follows orders, sometimes makes his own calls (and this has a huge impact on the Galaxy re: Rescuing Kreya and going for the Death Star plans in R1) but aside from that he mostly does what he is told which is what you'd expect from a military organization.

I don't understand your nitpick. If Andor never obeyed orders and always did what he wanted then they should drop him like a hot potato since he wouldn't be much of a good operative now would he?

He's not a leader of the Rebellion and isn't meant to be the one driving the events,

THIS is my issue. Following Andor around adds nothing to Rogue One and his backstory isn't interesting. It'd be like if we got a series about Lando's origin, but instead followed around Lobot or Willrow Hood. Andor is the least interesting character in the entire series and could be swapped out in any scene he is in. Him being Andor specifically is completely irrelevant to the plot. I mean shit, we could have followed Vel and/or Cinta around and gotten a better story. If Gilroy wanted to make the series about the birth of the Rebellion, fine, make that series, but if you're going to make it about Andor, then Andor needs to be not only the main focus, but also interesting, and he's neither.
Don't get me wrong, I didn't start the series wanting to hate it, I heard how great it was, and I was really looking forward to seeing how all the pieces fell together. I was even interested in the idea of Andor being someone who just wanted to escape but eventually can't look away, but the more the series went on the worse it got. Dedra and Kleya are literally the only characters I ended up liking, and I was already a fan of most of the cast. Hell I was excited to see more of Genevieve O'Reilly as Mon Mothma because she was great in another series I'd just watched, but I ended up hating how Mothma was written. The series itself does nothing to enhance or make Rogue One interesting, and that's what it is meant to do. Nothing in the series makes Andor, or Mon Mothma, or Saw, or even K-2SO more interesting. In fact in K2's case it makes him worse. He's able to tank multiple shots from both Andor and ISB agents point blank, without a scratch, and yet the Stormtroopers are able to shoot holes through him in Rogue One? I'll admit, that is a nitpick, but it took me out of the moment.
The worst part is how Gilroy's clear contempt for the Star Wars franchise bleeds through the whole series.

One of the things that were basically cut from what was going to make it onto the screen this season was the plotline of Mon's husband knowing all along what she's been doing but still keeping it secret and covering for her without her realizing it. He gets regularly interviewed by the ISB but still keeps tight.

Agree
Also true

Ultimately doesn't matter because SW has always been shit for kids and numales.
And Andor s1, although bearable, would have been much better if it was set in literally any other setting including modern world.

THIS is my issue. Following Andor around adds nothing to Rogue One and his backstory isn't interesting

It makes Rogue One better by explaining why Andor believed in the Death Star story straight away (he had the same intel from Luthen, in who he trusted because he knew him personally) while also explaining why some Rebel leaders did not believe in it (they distrusted Luthen, who was ruthless and had a shady reputation, and also they were paranoid about it being a ISB trap).

Andor is the least interesting character in the entire series and could be swapped out in any scene he is in.

I disagree, it's interesting to see the show from the perspective of an operative on the ground and not that of a leader. If you presented this entirely from the perspective of a leader of the rebellion it would have been a different story altogether, the fact that Andor has to follow orders and is sometimes conflicted about it or fed up with it, is interesting. S2 is basically a spy thriller.
Even if spies have more leeway to make decisions in the field compared to a soldier, ultimately the Rebel Alliance is a military organization... some people lead and others are meant to follow.

K2SO

His backstory kinda sucked, but he does take on a whole squad of stormtroopers on R1 vs a few blaster shots in Andor this comparison is bs.

The worst part is how Gilroy's clear contempt for the Star Wars franchise bleeds through the whole series

It pays much more attention to and has more respect for the lore than the rest of the trash Disney put out ever did (Sienar testing facility, Corporate Zones which were also canon, Stormtroopers are threatening elite troops as they were meant to be, Rakatans being mentioned, mentions of planets like Fondor, Mimban, etc.) Someone who has "contempt" for Star Wars wouldn't have bothered.

It also "gets" the aesthetic and the themes of the original, though it gives them a more adult treatment.

What was the point of Leida
What was the point of Davo Skuldun
What was the point of Andor's sister

It pays much more attention to and has more respect for the lore than the rest of the trash Disney put out ever did (Sienar testing facility, Corporate Zones which were also canon, Stormtroopers are threatening elite troops as they were meant to be, Rakatans being mentioned, mentions of planets like Fondor, Mimban, etc.) Someone who has "contempt" for Star Wars wouldn't have bothered.

Gilroy didn't do these things himself. He talked about having a lore squad put things like the Rakata into the plot, and complained about having to fit Andor's story to comply with the plot of a children's cartoon (valid).

What was the point of the listening device in the artifact and the subsequent convenient party where they could remove it?

So? I wish Disney had cared enough to create a lore squad for rest of their garbage instead of giving us Starkiller Base, Hosnian Prime and somehow Palpatine has returned.

The entire season felt like a wikipedia narrated slice of life with almost no meaningful or significant progress until the very end

This is accomplished by adding in an attempted rape scene...

...you obviously don't like Star Wars

opinion ignored, you're just a chud wanker that got offended your kiddie show grew some balls

ah, luthen admits as much, there was a dialogue about andor always being there when he needed him
even if andor doesn't drive the plot, he still needs to do shit, luthen can't do it by himself
and certainly luthen's character is well-developed too

and that's the point of andor, a contrast to typical star wars fare of singular space wizards driving a plot with the force as a convenient deus ex machina, andor is about real people living under oppression and fighting against it

his looking for his sister is what got him entangled with premor and it snowballed from there

it gave opportunities to illustrate the abuses of an oppressive regime, the interrogation and torture scene with dedra and gorst, the attempted rape on mina rau
not everything has to contribute to the plot, it just has to be connected in some way to it, even as an offshoot that serves to develop other characters or build the world more
we certainly saw another side of dedra in that interrogation scene

It's just more winddressing for people who like Star Wars for the windowdressing.

I hated the "speech driven" dialog in Andor so fucking much. We went from "will somebody get this walking carpet out of my way" to endless speeches about freedom and sacrifice. It was like Mon and Luthen were practicing in front of the mirror for weeks in the event that the speeches were needed in the future.

Unexplained money transfers due to her support of the rebellion -> seeking the help of Sculdun to cover it up -> arranged marriage of Leida in return for his help

without mon mothma's money, there would be no rebellion, and that money just didn't appear like a force ghost out of nowhere, mon mothma had to make sacrifices too, joining her family with that of a "thug". That's the point of Leida and Sculdun.

As for Andor's sister, it's why he got entangled in Premor in the first place which ultimately led to the creation of the ISB's Axis file.

Right, everything is improved by making it grimdark. You know what we need? A Power Rangers movie where they are all traumatised by being used as child solidiers, or a Madeline series where she is constantly dealing with abandonment issues, or a Hey Arnold movie where Helga is being abused by her father, or a sequel series to The Amanda Show where Amanda is a fat, coked up burn out.
That's not growing some balls, that's a best forcing edgy bullshit into somewhere it doesn't belong, and at worst, more woke bullshit where women need to be constantly afraid of men in positions of power, because they WILL rape them if given the opportunity.

Fine, then make Luthen the main character. He's more interesting and actually has a backstory that seems worth exploring, not just "he was from some random forest tribe who found a crashed spaceship and then got kidnapped by some radicals, but it's okay because the tribe got wiped out off-screen for some reason, and now he's looking for his sister, until he isn't."

his looking for his sister is what got him entangled with premor

But that's just incidental, that's not integral to the story. The sister plot point is basically irrelevant to his character.

making it grimdark

A setting where a Galactic Empire enslaves entire species like the Wookiees, has prison planets and forced labor, poisons whole worlds in environmental disasters and covers it up, crushes dissent, etc is already grimdark.
All of that is OT canon btw.

You are just complaining Andor is more adult-oriented by showing these things to you instead of telling you about them, which I guess it's a fair criticism if you think Star Wars should only be kid-friendly, but the setting was already grimdark. They didn't change the setting just showed you another side of it.

which ultimately led to the creation of the ISB's Axis file.

Dedra already had the Axis file. She'd been cataloguing thefts for a while by that point. You could easily make it that instead of the security forces they were a local ISB branch and they had flagged that someone kept making coded transmissions from Ferrix and Dedra believes it's part of Axis' network.