Andor’s Luthen Rael shows us the Rebellion isn’t what we expected

WARNING: This article contains minor spoilers from Andor.

Throughout many of the previous Star Wars movies and shows, the Rebellion is often depicted as the ideal beacon of hope and prosperity willing to protect everyone. Unsurpingslu these values seem to align with the Jedi and Force Users that often have supported the Rebellion. But the Jedi often seem to arrive on the scene long after others have started the fight, and seem to remain blissfully unaware of the darker undertones that people such as Luthen Rael have embraced.

How far is too far for the Rebellion?

Funnily enough, this is not the first time this moral dilemma. During the Clone Wars, Anakin was a large proponent of the arming of Separatist resistance fighters such as Saw Guerra and his sister. While Saw would grow into one of the most extreme resistance fighters against the empire his beginning lies with training from Captain Rex and Ahsoka Tano. Before this mission could have been approved the Jedi Council discussed both the legality and morality of the mission and ended up giving the mission a go, but not before a series of concerns were raised. Given the fairly disastrous results for the empire, it would seem the arming of the Rebellion was a quite fortunate unintended consequence.

So arming the resistance members was as far as the Jedi Council was willing to go, but for the Rebellion that was usual. But even they seemed to have their limits, like not attacking civilians and trying to liberate people. Even a few targeted assassinations seemed to be permissible (like the one we saw in Rogue One ) but Luthen has gone way beyond that.

So what has Luthen Rael done?

The main difference between Luthen and other leaders such as Mon Mothma is that Luthen is willing to sacrifice and kill everyone, not just Imperials. In episode 10 we see Luthen manipulating his plant inside the Imperial Security Bureau who has a wife and kids. That man is Lonni Jung, and seems to have been working his way up for years. Even though leaving Lonni in the ISB is dangerous for him and his family Luthen is willing to use him as a “hero” aka a sacrificial lamb for the Rebellion. Luthen is also willing to sacrifice an entire rebel cell to not compromise his network of rebels.

Unfortunately, this is the kind of leadership that the Rebellion needs to survive this early and dangerous early times. Luthen may not be the man the Galaxy wanted, but it is the man the Galaxy needs.

Andor is now streaming exclusively on Disney+.  Be sure to check out all of our coverage of the series, including episode recaps, reviews, and more.