Andor Luthen Rael

That does seem to be his view, he actually views the most dangerous version of the Empire one which is allowed to develop slowly where its oppression is more hidden from view and can be sold to the public as "needed", by forcing them to more openly oppress visible large scale groups he thinks rebellion will be much easier to spread.

You could argue even though he's unaware of it the Deathstar in this version of the Empire would have been sold as "the ultimate weapon for peace", Krennic even talks about it that way to Galen in R1.

 

He was from Fandor. Back then, he was known as Lear. He joined the Imperial Army and became a sergeant. Kleya pushed him further after his desertion.

 

Wait…was he at the horrible place Dr. Ghorst had the recording of? Is that why he wants it to stop? We never saw what was happening but we heard the massscre and it was frightening.

 

Really dig this motif. Perfectly characterizes Luthen's own opinion of himself that he'll never live to see the ultimate victory of the Rebellion. o7

 

He was an Imperial soldier in the early days of the Empire (possibly also the late days of the Republic, but the flashback is early Empire). My read on the civilian massacre is that there is a sort of U-curve of Imperial atrocities. The devastation of the Clone Wars created a public eager for order at any cost - so any kind of resistance to Imperial authority is treated severely. That is why the original Tarkin massacre on Ghorman doesn't cause the same chain of events as the massacre on the show does. Once the Empire is well established, they have to keep their brutality limited to remote regions, or carefully covered with plausible alibis. As the Empire''s control becomes more absolute, they start to feel free to be more overt - leading up to the Death Star.

 

But that place was inhabited by an alien species who had a particularly horrific death cry that caused serious mental damage. Don’t think Ghost was referring to humans when he described them.

 

Yes good point. I know Kleya was there but we didn't see anyone else, so I guess there is a chance.

 

The guys in the control room where found huddled together in a crawl space. The soldiers we see don't look like they're experiencing something like that. It's just a horrible atrocity that Luthen can't stomach.

 

I suppose, but you can hear humans screaming during the whole sequence.

 

Oh well, it was a fun epiphany while it lasted.

 

Lonni Jung burned himself as early as Season 1 when he dished out his fickleness to Luthen. He got more to do in Season 2, of course, but he also burned himself further when he admitted that he had had access to Dedra's files for a year.

Regardless, I feel sorry for his family and Lonni himself.