Luthen and Love - thoughts re eps 1-3 of Andor season 2
Luthen Rael described here by Tony Gilroy in a clip from Rolling Stone magazine (25 April ‘25)
So here’s a crucial difference between Luthen and Cassian. Luthen has sacrificed love; Cassian opens himself up to love.
Despite being torn from his home and his roots Cassian grew up loved by Maarva and Clem, found a sibling-like closeness with Brasso and Bix and eventually (after years of on-again, off-again) romantic love with Bix too. Despite his “fear of being loved”, which stems from his fear of letting people down/leaving them behind as he did with his sister, he has “so much love to give” (Diego Luna, WGA interview)
Luthen believes in causing pain if he deems it necessary to bring about long-term change… this is the accelerationist mindset. To keep his vision pure and utilitarian, he deems it necessary to give up love and this clip shows he probably hates his operatives having romantic involvement that might be distracting or cloud their judgement. I wonder if this is anything to do with why Vel and Cinta appear to have separated in eps 1-3 of S2. Did Luthen deliberately drive them apart?
Cassian’s rekindled (in the gap between the seasons) relationship with Bix is probably something Luthen has tolerated up to now as it hasn’t noticeably interfered with his training and missions or his commitment to the rebellion. But as of Ep 3 Cassian has gone seriously off-piste, ignoring all protocol and the need for secrecy by flying a stolen TIE home to Mina Rau and causing highly visible mayhem in an attempt to save his loved ones.
We’re now going to jump a year, but I would dearly love to see a clash between these two and their very different philosophies on the Rebellion.
For Luthen, it’s about giving up love because love is dangerous for clear thinking in a revolution. For Cassian, it’s about experiencing love, committing to the revolution in the way that he is now able to commit in love. This is why I think Cassian will never become like Luthen… and that’s crucial for the two most important choices he makes in Rogue One: sparing Galen Erso and committing his trust to Jyn, dedicating himself to the cause through her for one final time for the sake of “someone else’s future”.
I think there’s trouble - danger, even - ahead for both of them. Luthen, for not taking more care of the people he should be caring about. Cassian, for his habit of going back for people even when it’s very unwise. And for worrying about those close to him all the time…
… even though that’s just love and there’s nothing you can do about that.
