Spoilers Star Wars: Andor season 2

[Necropolitan]

Yeah, by the end I had nothing but hatred for Luthen and felt nothing at this death. He turned out to not be the man he seemed to be, which I guess isn't technically surprising, but still is disappointing. Things "worked out" for him it felt largely by dramatic convenience and because his enemies were stupid and not because he was this important mastermind central to the rebellion. The story wants us to believe how important he was, but by the end of season two I was left doubting that.

Luthen's actions made people trust him less, which caused him to do ever worse things out of paranoia/needing to now take even worse actions to cover for his previous ones.

Luthen's assets (that's all anyone was to him at best) either knew or learned he'd have them killed the moment they stopped being useful. Which destroyed their morale, often making them liabilities as a result. He actively crushed their hope as a means of keeping them under his thumb, he was incapable of motivating people in any way other than fear and the Empire would ALWAYS be better when it comes to creating fear.

The Rebellion could never win a war of ruthlessness with the Empire, they NEEDED the rest of the Galaxy to support them. By keeping the moral highground the only weapon the Empire had to fight them with was force and fear of force.

And as the show repeatedly showed that's not sustainable because it makes people realize there's only "ONE WAY OUT!"

 

[chuckdee]

No, he was wrong about that too.

Saw was more of a threat to the Rebellion than he was to the Empire.

Yeah, I disagree on that part- especially given the results of the raid. If he'd planned to go where he told the rebellion he was going, he would have been caught. The rebellion at that point was a sieve.

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

Luthen himself knew what he was doing and that he wouldn't be the one lauded as a hero eventually. He knew he was just a stepping stone for the Rebellion and wouldn't see its fruits, and not just in the sense that he would probably get caught or killed before it succeeds. He could by the nature of his work (but maybe also by his own personal individual shortcomings) never grow into a Rebel Alliance leader like Mon Mothma. But Mon Mothma also couldn't lay that level of groundwork he did with her methods, there were just too many places she couldn't go, too many things she couldn't - or wouldn't - do.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

Luthen's actions made people trust him less, which caused him to do ever worse things out of paranoia/needing to now take even worse actions to cover for his previous ones.

Luthen's assets (that's all anyone was to him at best) either knew or learned he'd have them killed the moment they stopped being useful. Which destroyed their morale, often making them liabilities as a result. He actively crushed their hope as a means of keeping them under his thumb, he was incapable of motivating people in any way other than fear and the Empire would ALWAYS be better when it comes to creating fear.

The Rebellion could never win a war of ruthlessness with the Empire, they NEEDED the rest of the Galaxy to support them. By keeping the moral highground the only weapon the Empire had to fight them with was force and fear of force.

And as the show repeatedly showed that's not sustainable because it makes people realize there's only "ONE WAY OUT!"

I think this is a pretty spectacular and complete misreading of Andor lol, especially if you know anything about Tony Gilroy.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

The one thing that slightly bugs me about the series is that it frames rebellion mostly as cultural identity politics

I don't think it does really.

I think it shows you can use cultural identity politics intersectionally to encourage groups into a more... clarified... understanding of where they stand. But I don't think it frames the overall struggle that way at all. It is inevitable that everyone within a revolution is, technically, going to be a member of various cultural identity groups, but that doesn't have to be their main motivating factor. I mean just look at Luthen himself - we know basically nothing about him identity-wise, apart from he was an Imperial soldier at one point. And Kleya isn't doing what she's doing for identity politics reasons. It might be "personal", but it's not like "I am an X therefore I might fight", "Absolutely screw the Empire for what they did to me!" is not "cultural identity politics", though it may intersect with them if the Empire harmed you because of your cultural or ethnic identity (c.f. Wookies).