Following an ominous Imperial prologue last week, our first glimpse of Ghorman centers on the main plaza of its capital city, representing a microcosm of the planet’s cultural identity. Surrounded by stylish cafes, hotels, and shopfronts, it’s the first port of call for offworld visitors, most of whom are here for Ghorman’s luxury textile industry. But as we learn in the opening scenes of episode four, this plaza is also a key location for public protest.
Sixteen years ago, Imperial officer Tarkin slaughtered 500 unarmed civilians here, commemorated by a monument that has since become a touchstone for anti-Imperial sentiment. As the Empire tightens its grip on Ghorman trade, the locals grow increasingly unsettled by their planet’s abrupt demotion from fashion industry hotspot to galactic pariah. Unfortunately they’re ill-equipped to tackle the reality of their situation. Ghorman is now the target of a concerted propaganda campaign, popularizing the idea that Ghor people are arrogant snobs. The Empire’s end goal is to destabilize Ghorman’s economy and destroy its reputation, to the extent that outsiders will no longer care if the planet gets wiped out.
Orchestrated during a secret meeting with Death Star mastermind Orson Krennic, this wave of anti-Ghorman propaganda is one part of a three-pronged attack. Harsh sanctions have already sabotaged the planet’s main export, a fabric named Ghorman Twill. More insidiously, the Imperial Security Bureau (ISB) is attacking Ghorman’s burgeoning rebel movement from within.
Ostensibly here to run a field office for the Bureau of Standards, civil servant Syril Karn becomes the unlikely protagonist of a Cold War-style espionage storyline, planting himself as a double agent among the Ghorman Front rebels. To do so, he must appear to go native—a process that begins with a subtle makeover, transforming him from Imperial loyalist to Ghorman sympathizer.
Starting with Syril walking to work across the town plaza, much of Ghorman’s worldbuilding comes through in the show’s design choices and linguistic background. The Ghor language, for example, makes its first appearance with a group of protesters chanting anti-Imperial slogans. And when Syril arrives at the office, we see that it’s a local building with similar architecture to the plaza outside, decorated in a warmer color palette than his minimalist grey workplace on Coruscant. This clearly isn’t a place where Imperial installations are the norm. It’s a planet with a rich and long-established cultural identity—and although that identity is crucial to the success of Ghorman’s textile industry, it’s now been weaponized against the local population.
Back on Coruscant, Syril’s everyday wardrobe was indistinguishable from a uniform, wearing the same monochrome high-collared suits both at work and at home. He’s a living embodiment of Imperial precision, but on Ghorman this begins to change. Aware that he’s being scouted by Ghorman rebels, he pairs his typical office outfit with a brown Ghor overcoat, signalling that he’s assimilating with local trends. Catering to a notably fashion-conscious audience, he molds himself into a plausible candidate for defection.
When he finally snags an invite to a political meeting, he dons an outfit that blends in with the Ghorman crowd, visibly rejecting Imperial aesthetics during his off-hours. This wardrobe choice actually earns a compliment during his first contact with the Ghorman Front leader Carro Rylanz, who approaches him for information about the Empire’s plans. It’s a risky move, but Syril’s reaction seals the deal, reassuring Rylanz that he’s sympathetic to the cause. Not only is Syril dressing like a local and attending a meeting held entirely in the Ghor language, but he makes an overt effort to fit in, echoing Rylanz’s traditional gesture of farewell.
Are the Ghorman rebels being naive in their easy acceptance of Syril’s ruse? Well, yes. But as Cassian points out later on, they don’t have much experience with subterfuge. Syril looks and sounds like the kind of person they’re looking for, so after a quick background check, they optimistically welcome him at face value.
Ghorman’s bilingual culture is a satisfyingly smart piece of worldbuilding here, underlining the planet’s complicated relationship with the Galactic Core. In the Star Wars universe, Basic (ie. English) is the galactic lingua franca—a pragmatic storytelling choice with intriguing political subtext.
Along with being the language of diplomacy and trade, Basic belongs to the Empire’s human-centric hierarchy, established in the Original Trilogy where every Imperial officer is a white man with an English or American accent. You’ll notice a similar dynamic among the rebel factions in Andor. Mon Mothma, a founding leader of the Rebel Alliance (and later the New Republic), is a human from the Core planet Chandrila. She comes from an aristocratic background where everyone speaks Basic with an English accent, only using a handful of traditional Chandrilan phrases in ceremonial settings. Meanwhile Saw Gerrera’s Partisans are a multilingual group including more non-human fighters and Outer Rim connections than the future Rebel Alliance—and they’re seen as an extremist fringe group. Cassian Andor’s accent also has its own politicized backstory. Born on the remote forest planet Kenari, he only learned Basic after he was adopted (arguably kidnapped) by an offworld couple, forcibly separating him from his original language, family, and culture.
Contrasting with Chandrila or Kenari, Ghorman appears to be fully bilingual. The Ghor use their native language in private, but speak fluent Basic due to the planet’s reliance on offworld trade. As tensions mount between the locals and the Imperial interlopers, Ghor also becomes the language of rebellion. These three episodes include more subtitles than any other installment in the franchise, usually translating scenes where Ghorman citizens debate their plans for political resistance.
Created by dialect coach Marina Tyndall and performed by French actors, the Ghor language sounds distinctly French. Like all of Andor’s allusions to real-world cultures, this choice is far from coincidental.
Fighting an occupation from the famously Nazi-inspired Galactic Empire, the Ghorman Front invites comparisons with the French Resistance during World War II—a direct source of inspiration for the look of characters like Enza Rylanz. The asymmetrical Ghorman hats are basically berets, and the planet’s fashion industry reflects France’s reputation for producing luxury goods.
Ghorman’s architectural reference points likewise tell a story, drawing from cities with rich histories of their own: Turin (a key location for Italy’s anti-fascist movement) and Mecca (an iconic place of pilgrimage). When Cassian encounters Enza in a beautiful Ghorman cafe, the gleaming decor and high ceilings feel entirely appropriate for the tone of their meeting, echoing a scene from a 20th century spy movie. In the same way that Aldhani and Ferrix introduced their own distinctive styles last season, these details all add up to a very specific personality for Ghorman culture—a personality that differs visibly from the Empire’s aesthetic.
“Don’t become too much of an individual,” Syril Karn’s mother tells him in episode four, dismayed by his baffling decision to take a job in the provinces. Wise advice for an Imperial loyalist, albeit rather on-the-nose. Like any fascist state, the Empire is obsessed with conformity. And in more ways than one, Ghorman has failed to conform.
As Syril’s mother blithely parrots the Ministry of Enlightenment’s anti-Ghorman talking points (“They were always too good for the rest of us!”), we can easily recognize the real-life parallels, shifting public opinion to blame victims of bigotry and genocide for their own oppression. In a deeper philosophical sense, the Ghorman storyline also makes some very obvious points about fascist values.
This whole situation came about because Orson Krennic wants to extract an obscure mineral from Ghorman’s planetary core, and he’s willing to wipe out an entire civilization in the process. It’s quite literally a conflict between life and death. While Ghorman society revolves around creation, the Empire’s primary goal is to destroy, bulldozing its way through yet another culture in its quest to build the ultimate killing machine.