Luthen Rael is a Self-Serving Coward
When I watched Luthen Rael’s big speech at the end of Episode 10 of Andor, my immediate takeaway was this is the moment when the character revealed himself to be a deluded egotist. I would’ve laughed in his face after that load of self-serving nonsense, but I was surprised to find the Rest of the Internet absolutely adored it and suddenly I’m taking crazy pills here. I realize I may be a lone voice crying out in the wilderness here, but I’ll try to explain my feelings below.
~~~Spoilers from here on out~~~
So Luthen’s big speech takes place in the same episode as Andor’s prison break, as well as Mon Mothma’s meeting with the shady banker wishing to make a devil’s bargain with her. In the run-up to his reveal to the ISB mole, Luthen lies about his involvement in the Aldhani Heist and like any good mob boss, he subtly lets his asset know that he can harm his family should he wish to do so.
After the mole’s tension-filled elevator ride, the doors open and Luthen is revealed in all his flair for the dramatic. It’s a power move to intimidate a young & impressionable ISB asset and it works. They have a brief conversation, and the mole asks the pivotal question: What have you sacrificed?
What follows is a powerful performance by Skarsgård reciting an evocative monologue that’s also one of the most self-serving, empty, and ultimately meaningless string of words a character has vomited out on this show. Anyone who has ever pulled a trigger or seen a comrade fall in battle; anyone who has actually sacrificed anything in their life would’ve at first been taken aback by the delusional rant, then laughed at him before possibly killing him right there on the spot.
Yet apparently, if you say something poetic with a lot of conviction, people will believe you. In the aftermath of the episode, there were articles and videos talking about what this man has sacrificed, and yet I’m still sitting here asking the same question as the mole: What has he actually sacrificed? Just because he says he has doesn’t make it so.
This is a series that doesn’t shy away from showing its characters making sacrifices, so when someone tells you that they’ve sacrificed without any evidence to back it up, there should be a little warning light flashing somewhere.
There is literally nothing tangible in his speech about sacrifice. It’s all metaphor and egoistic tripe. The team on Aldhani spent months isolated in a remote location, constantly fearful of discovery as well as anxiety over accomplishing the mission. They’re thrown a wildcard by Mr. Sacrifice a few days before the operation and told to deal with it, further throwing more chances for error and failure into the mix. Half the team dies during the operation, but this man shares his dreams with ghosts. Okay. Sure.
He says that he’s “condemned” to use the tools of his enemy to defeat them, yet mere minutes earlier, we saw men condemned to literal death in a slave labor camp rise-up and use the actual tools of their enemy to defeat them, at great cost to their own lives. Many don’t make it out. Those that do escape have no idea if they’ll be successful. They don’t know what future awaits them on the distant shore. For all we know, Andor and Melshi are the only ones who made it, but Luthen burns his life to make a sunrise he’ll never see. Sure thing.
We see Bix, his contact on Ferrix whom he abandoned for fear that he might be put in actual peril, continuously tortured by the Imperials for information she doesn’t have. She’s subjected to the screams of dying children from a race that the Empire eradicated because they opposed the building of a fuel depot on their world. These screams have the effect of causing extreme emotional distress that drives humans insane and she’s subjected to it multiple times to the point that she’s nearly disassociated from the reality around her. But Luthen has given up all chance at inner peace. His mind is now a sunless space. Oh dear, dear. The poor thing.
Mon Mothma is an Imperial Senator and a person with a high profile in the Empire, under constant surveillance not only due to her position, but also her opposition to many of the Emperor’s edicts. Even with this level of scrutiny brought to bear against her, she’s been able to fund rebel activities throughout the galaxy right under the Empire’s nose.
When the raid on Aldhani results in tighter monetary restrictions, she finds out that Imperial auditors will soon discover that there’s 400,000 credits missing that she can’t account for. In desperation, she reaches out to a shady banker from her world who offers to help out, in exchange for an arranged marriage between his son and her daughter, a custom she finds odious. Plus, she would be allying her family with a man who’s merely seeking legitimacy and increased influence in the Imperial government, and who could presumably sell her out if he caught wind of her true actions. But she’s truly desperate and has nowhere else to turn, so she swallows her pride and goes through with the deal, throwing her husband under the bus in the process. But Luthen laments that he will never see the light of gratitude.
It’s that last bit that’s the most telling. In a show–in the same episode–where we see what all of the other characters have sacrificed along the way, we curiously only have the word of someone whom we’ve never seen sacrifice anything except the lives of others to protect himself. Look at that line in full:
The ego that started this fight will never have a mirror or an audience or the light of gratitude.
This is at the end of his monologue, and I think it’s the most revealing line of all, seeing how it comes after a litany of self-serving “sacrifices” that are largely metaphorical and entirely intangible. Combined with his penchant for the theatrical and his need to kill off anyone who may be able compromise him, a picture of his character comes into better focus. He sees himself as the King; the indispensable keystone of the entire rebellion. Everyone else is expendable except him. They are tools for him to manipulate and maneuver to execute his grand scheme. If he were to fall, so would the nascent rebellion. This is the narcissist. This is the ego. This is Luthen Rael.
Like most elites, especially ones who enjoy a level of affluence that those they exploit will never attain, he sees the inconveniences that he endures as actual sacrifices. I’m sure he believes every word he says, and I’m certain he believes he’s actually sacrificed something, but these are empty words spoken by a delusional egomaniac. At least Saw Guerrera wears his eccentricities and faults on his sleeve. Luthen is far more dangerous, because he can mask his under a face of stoic conviction.
At the end of his speech, he reveals himself in a way he may not have intended:
No, the ego that started this fight will never have a mirror, or an audience, or the light of gratitude. So what do I sacrifice? Everything.
Luthen Rael has sacrificed nothing except the lives of others and his chance to face a defeated Emperor, throw back his hood and yell, It was me all along! to the worshipful adoration of the galaxy.
You mean the man that litrally says i would burn myself to ash to make others see a new sunrise?
He’d definitely let others burn. He sees himself as indispensable and every one else as expendable
It’s a bit ironic since the show is about the character who’s literally turned to ash so others have a chance to win the war