That’s a retroactive inference based on Gilroy being everyone’s golden boy after Andor.

It’s not an inference, based on interviews with all the writers who AREN’T Tony Gilroy (and largely through the great journalistic work of Tansy Gardner on the Going Rogue podcast) you can basically pinpoint not only everything Gilroy reshot, but the extent of stuff he rewrote (which was quite a bit more than just the third act.)

Again, I’m not saying it’s a full-blown “all time great” movie, I’m just saying reductively referring to it as “pure fanservice” is unfair to all the work that was done to make it more than that, especially in the space of six weeks.

I don’t care what Gilroy did

you should, is my argument. What he did was very transformative of what he was handed. He couldn’t delete/erase all of the things you’ve listed, nor is my argument that those things are no longer present. It’s that what he couldn’t get rid of, he still tried to transform in a meaningful way to something serving a storytelling purpose with some weight.

I understand the instinct to knee-jerk dismiss the praising of the work as fannish overdoing it, I completely understand. But the guy is not only really good at this exact sort of thing, but he did a really good job ON this movie, especially considering the ingredients list he was handed, as you pointed out. I’m not saying turned the pantry cupboard into a 5-star meal, either.

I just don’t know that it’s a worthwhile endeavor to handwave all those things and call it “pure fanservice” despite the fact a lot of it isn’t fanservice at all. At some point you have to allow for the idea that a Sequel/Prequel to Star Wars is going to have Star Wars shit in it, the presence of it doesn’t induce instantaneous demerits on sight. Or at least it shouldn’t?