Build the Rebellion with Discipline, Not Rage

Part 2: Redemption Demands a Sacrifice

Last week, we talked about how Luthen Rael’s story isn’t about heroism in the traditional Star Wars sense it’s about choosing a different path when the system breaks you. Luthen found a sliver of redemption by saving Kleya. That choice became his Burning Homestead moment. Luthen refused to keep lying to himself about the role he played in a corrupt empire.

Redemption is found in action, not perfection.

Vader choosing to save Luke on the second Death Star was his moment of redemption, just as Luthen’s was choosing to save Kleya.

But it’s more complicated with Luthen. The hard truth is that Luthen does many questionable things in support of the cause. He’s accepted the fact that he's the one who has to do the dirty work. So it's not a perfect allegory. He's not the idyllic representative of the hero's journey arc. While there was the red line he would not cross when he was part of the empire, he crossed plenty of lines in support of the rebellion. Luthen finds redemption by taking action, by not being passive. When he saw a helpless, terrified girl, he could have just run away and escaped the Empire and left it up to others to challenge the status quo. But no, he laid the foundation of the cause.

I think Luthen knows in a way that he can never fully atone for his past. But he doesn't let that stop him from trying to make a difference.

There’s the famous speech from season one where he indicates that he's willing to sacrifice everything, and in the end, it's exactly what he does.

There is a clear contrast between Luthen and saw Guerrera. It's easy to lump the two together as both extremists who go too far, but there's a really important distinction. Saw Guerrera becomes fully radicalized. His rebellion is defined by his hatred of the Empire, which is justified. But he becomes obsessed with the immediate destruction of the Empire, whatever damage he can do with no thought to a long term Coalition. By the time we get to Rogue One, his disruptive operations targeting the Empire are really small potatoes compared to the ultimate threat, which we know is literally on the horizon - the Death Star. Luthen saw the horrors, but he also understands the importance of patience so he can build a movement. He becomes the cornerstone that the rebellion is built on. I think Luthen proves that discipline is by far the greater virtue than righteous anger, because Saw had plenty of anger, but in the end, he's crushed under a pile of rocks with only the faint hope that Jen Erso and Cassian would “save the rebellion, save the dream.”

Yes, Luthen’s sacrifice was tragic, but it would be made in service of the cause that he believed in all these years. It's beautiful.

He was a nobody. He was some Sergeant fighting on some planet who saw the horrors and wasn't willing to go along with it. And that's what makes him a different kind of hero, but a hero, nonetheless.