• he/him

cohost's first star wars fanblog, official "Big Name Fan".

 

in my "bad batch s3" era currently



preface

what follows here is a lot of words about an opinion/theory that i have that I would categorize as "strong opinion, loosely held". if you strongly feel otherwise, that's fine! it's a theory/headcanon at this point, and for a number of reasons I'm not sure (and possible don't want to know?) if this is going to be confirmed. Andor, as a show, doesn't seem particularly interested in giving a simple answer to the question of Luthen's past, and I'm ok with that if that's all we get.

The following post contains spoilers for technically just up to Andor episode 10, but it's sort of all about a major character in the series so I would not recommend reading if you are interested in watching Andor.

Now, to begin.


Some Histories

The end of the Clone Wars, approximately fifteen years prior to the events of Andor, was a massive, galactic-affecting conflict fought between the loose Confederacy of Independent Systems (the CIS, or "Separatists") and the forces of the Galactic Republic. The Republic, led by the Galactic Senate, fought against the CIS on a myriad of fronts both in Core Systems and all the way to the Outer Rim.

A metatextual digression: The Separatists had a cause, though admittedly we've had little media that truly elucidates this in detail. The Clone Wars as a show attempted this from time to time, but it wasn't particularly interested in the overall ideology of the Separatists as much as it was in depicting the effect of the war on the Republicans who had to live through it. That said, I think it's clear that we are not to believe that the CIS were mustache-twirling villains as much as they were a disparate group of individuals and star systems that saw cracks in the Republic's facade, and were drawn into a conflict that they had no hope to win by a mustache-twirling villain -- Sheev.

Following the conclusion of the Clone Wars and the creation of the Galactic Empire on the bones of the Galactic Republic (led, of course, by Emperor Sheev Palpatine) Separatist elements did not disappear, but they were broken apart, leaderless. The term itself became diffused, even to the point that pockets of Rebellion that we (the viewers) would recognize as precursors to the Rebel Alliance were referred to by Imperials as "Separatist remnants", or even just Separatists.

Because to the Empire, these are just disgruntled Separatists, without a true ideology to unite them. There is an intentional fascistic blindness to the growing unrest galaxywide that is able to be downplayed by the Empire as being "just some people who haven't realized the war is over". It allows the Empire to ignore these growing rebel cells by framing them as relics of the past, not sparks of a future to come.

But what does that have to do with Luthen?

Luthen's Status

Speaking very plainly, here is what we know about Luthen:

  1. Luthen has ample resources that he uses at his disposal, even outside of the money that he receives from his Rebel sources. He lives comfortably in Coruscant in a double life, has an extremely capable space freighter with stealth elements and weaponry, and mingles easily with Coruscanti high society.
  2. Luthen has a number of contacts that he has spent years, perhaps decades, gaining trust with. These contacts span nearly all ideological flavors of anti-Imperialism, from cult leaders to Separatists to neo-Republicans to spies within the Empire.
  3. Luthen took some sort of ideological vow at the end of the Clone Wars to fight the Empire by any means necessary.

I believe that the combination of these three factors makes it hard for me to believe that he is anything but an (ex-)Separatist, but not a particularly high-ranking one.

1. Luthen's Resources

Luthen has money and he knows how to use it. At this era, I don't think it would make sense for Luthen to be being entirely financed by Rebel backers (think Mon Mothma). I think that someone in his position had to start with a bit of personal wealth. I think this points to a Separatist history -- if he was a Republican noble following the rise of the Empire, he would be subject to the same levels of scrutiny that Mothma is (or Bail Organa, for that matter). But he wasn't.

I think this could point to a lot of leftover independent wealth, but not enough to put him on the same level as Mothma or the people who Mothma invites to her dinner parties. He's high middle class, but not "rich" per se. He owns a business, but he doesn't own a string of businesses.

Now, this doesn't mean anything on its own really, but I think it's notable. Especially when paired with other facts we know about him.

2. Luthen's Contacts

Twice in Andor do characters call out Luthen for the company he keeps -- first, with Cassian frustratedly arguing to Luthen that there is no difference between Separatists and Rebels, then later when Saw Gerrera lambasts Luthen's choices of rebellious allies for all being trapped in the past -- trapped in neo-Republican dreams or being Separatists.

I think this is meant to tell us, the viewers, two main things:

  1. There is very little difference in the material goals of neo-Republicans and Separatists at this point in Galactic history, even if they never would have stood together during the Clone Wars (a conflict that Saw Gerrera knew intimately).
  2. Luthen has easy access to Separatist contacts.

Why would Luthen have easy access to Separatist groups? He's been working with these groups for fifteen years. Would it be that absurd that he knew some of them before those fifteen years?

If Luthen was not a Separatist -- if he was a Republican of some sort (a Navy man, a soldier, even a high-ranking member of a Republican planet), I don't think we'd see so much attention laid on the fact that he has such easy access to Separatist contacts. It just comes up a lot.

To connect this to the earlier note about his resources: I don't think it would make sense for him to have that level of independent wealth coupled with the fact that Separatist contacts either:

  • do not know of his Clone Wars history, or
  • do not care about his Clone Wars history, or
  • know about his Clone Wars history but are fine with it.

I just think it's unlikely that with any of those three options it would make sense for him to have been fighting Separatists during the Clone Wars. A neutral party, maybe. But probably not an anti-Separatist.

3. Fifteen Years Ago

I wake up every day to an equation I wrote fifteen years ago, from which there's only one conclusion: I'm damned for what I do.

Picture this: Luthen Rael, young Separatist noble, pulls his few men back from the frontline as the droid units he trusted to defend him spontaneously deactivate. It's not the first time, but this time it feels different. His men are gunned down while running back toward him, the enemy clone troopers too far away to see but not too far to fire on his own men. It is the end of the Clone Wars and Luthen Rael has seen all of his friends killed by the Republic. In a few days it will become the Galactic Empire, but Luthen has already made his vow. It's going to be a fight against this machine until he dies.

I yearned to be a savior against injustice without contemplating the cost and by the time I looked down, there was no longer any ground beneath my feet

What’s my sacrifice?

I’m condemned to use the tools of my enemy to defeat them

The "tools of my enemy" clearly refer to the politicking and spycraft of the Empire, but why would he say they are the "tools of his enemy" if he came from the Republic? The Republic was doing that shit all through the Clone Wars. I don't think it makes any sense that this man was a Republican noble before this -- this is a mask that he puts on.

I don't think it follows that this is the ideology of a neo-Republican. This is the ideology of someone who was so hurt, so traumatized by the Republic/Empire that all he can devote himself to is its destruction. It is the ideology of someone who has never had any love for the institution of the Republic/Empire.

I wrote in another post that I think that Luthen is a believer, and I think that's related here. I don't think that weapon he has is a lightsaber, but I think Luthen did respect the Jedi. I think that there is the part of him that perhaps always wanted to be a Jedi, but wasn't.

It's not that unusual, the man has a clear understanding that he does want justice. But he doesn't necessarily see beyond that justice. And that's why he is so perfect in this time period of galactic history -- that is what serves him, keeps him going, that drive for vengeance & justice.

A Conclusion, and the Full Theory

Given the above suppositions, my strongly felt but weakly held opinion is that Luthen was a Separatist, and more than that: I would say that Luthen was probably a mid-level merchant/noble in a Separatist-allied star system, and suffered personally at the hands of the Republic but still held respect for the tenets of the Jedi.

This backstory would click a lot of things into place:

  • His hatred for the Republic would clash with his general belief in a benign Force, which I believe would keep him from direct combat with, but not ideological difference from, the Republic.
  • Following the end of the Clone Wars and the betrayal of the Jedi by the Empire, this fragile respect falls apart. Seeing his own people destroyed by the Republic and the rise of the Empire ignites a hatred in him that will never abate.
  • His personal fortune at the end of the Clone Wars would allow him to reinvent himself within the heart of the Empire on Coruscant as an antiquities dealer, trading in war artifacts both from him and comrades of his. Perhaps a natural interest in galactic history that made this job easier.
  • His connections with former Separatists would put him in place to begin networking with these disparate cells, as well as to communicate with new cells as they sprout up. Being the center (the 'axis') of communication between all these cells makes him valuable to a movement that as yet does not exist -- the Rebel Alliance.

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