Luthen is supposed to be problematic. We know it. The Rebellion knows it. And Luthen knows it. Blowing up assets is how you conduct a guerilla war. Any Imperial asset is a valid target. Any Imperial official is a valid target. They don't need to be actively committing atrocities. I doubt the French Resistance passed on the opportunity to damage the Nazi occupiers because they were just passing through town.
Terrorists end up becoming heroes and noble freedom fighters if their side wins because that’s how history works, whoever wins gets to write it.
There are other ways to fight. The Cold War was won with relatively little bloodshed (that's why it was cold, and yes it was replaced with another vicious government but still there was a genuine attempt at reform before that)
Vietnam and Korea would like a word.
On the other hand, everything going on with the ISB in Andor shows that he was right to be wary of "lies and deceptions".
I don’t think you can fight fascism through peace because they don’t value it or even want it, they want to kill everyone they don’t like and take their resources. The only way to combat that is to fight them by whatever means necessary. A peaceful world with the Nazis wasn’t possible and that’s why the Allies had to stop them, even creating the atomic bomb as part of the plan to do so. War is not pretty or good guys vs bad guys, the showrunners for Andor know that and that’s why it’s so powerful. It took something that essentially a fairy tale and had it reflect actual history and human nature.
Guerrilla combat is necessary when you're in an occupied territory so I wouldn't argue against occupied France fighting or occupied Nanjing for example. All the rest was a country formally declaring war against another country (i.e. Britain declaring war on Germany etc.) which falls outside Luthen's style of fighting (he's not in a formal military etc.)
Yet he’s instrumental to them winning the war. If not for him both Mon Mothma would be dead and the Rebels wouldn’t know about the Death Star. In Rogue One, they only go forward with the mission because the spy that Cassian meets in the beginning is confirming what Cleya is telling them. Also the entire galaxy is being occupied some planets just accept it.
They needed more than one source, they can’t risk exposing themselves on the word of one spy. We’ve been shown that the Empire spreads misinformation in an attempt to manipulate the rebellion, that’s what got the Gorman resistance wiped out. It’s the same reason they don’t initially even listen to the information when they get it. But Tivik confirms it for them causing them to take it seriously.
I get what you're saying actually. If Prigozhin had followed through on raiding the Kremlin a few years back, a horrific incident where someone I know from Ukraine was threatened probably wouldn't have happened.
Probably not. The Empire was aware of what he did, he could never be taken to Yavin without the Empire following them. He was a dead man walking no matter what happened, it may have even saved his family’s life because they at least can claim they never knew of his actions. But the galaxy was saved in the end and Lonnie’s death did enable that.
What defines how something is saved? A return to democracy? Less warfare and atrocities? Tatooine was in an open gang war despite it literally being Luke's homeplanet as seen in Boba Fett. Lando's daughter was kidnapped and he never found out what happened to her and the Republic did zip about it until years later so... yeah.
