A comment on a Luthen video on YouTube hits hard and I can't say I really disagree with it.
"Thinking about it, Luthen is the perfect adversary for Sidious, two masterminds, both cunning, both manipulative, both hiding for years under the noses of their enemies and both willing to sacrifice anyone to get what they want, the only thing that seperates them: a desire for control and a desire for freedom."
I think Luthen demonstrates the limits of that approach in the end. Mon says she learned misdirection from Palpatine, but Luthen admits to using the tools of his enemy to defeat them. The trouble is, like Lorde said, you can’t destroy the master’s house with the tools he used to build it. You’ll just make another Empire.
Luthen was focused on his game against Palpatine, but the revolution was bigger than that. It was Nemik’s manifesto, Mon’s speech, the TIE tech. His methods isolated himself, willingly, even as the rebellion advanced beyond the point where isolated bombings and assasinations were the biggest wins they could get.
The thing that gets me is that Saw Gurrera was paranoid and violent, but he had his eyes on the prize much more than Luthen did. He reminded Wilmon, while high as balls, that they were working to get the Republic back. He valued the loyalty and trust that a free society needs. Luthen killed any ally at the drop of a hat, Tay, Lonni, nearly Cassian. Saw smuggled Galen Erso off Coruscant, then saved Jyn after Krennic found them.
If Luthen had been Galen’s friend, he would’ve killed him as soon as Galen asked for help because he realized he was making a weapon. Then there wouldn’t have been a man on the inside, the Death Star would’ve been finished anyway (Galen was convinced to his last day he’d already made all the necessary breakthroughs by the time he escaped and he was already redundant when Krennic captured him), but this time, if someone blew up something near the reactor, it’d have safeties and go into shut-down instead of being a giant Pinto and taking out the whole thing.
By the end, I think Luthen was a deficit to the rebellion, not an asset, and I think he understood that in a way, as he embraced his isolation and obsession with finding Palpatine’s secret and letting the alliance take over the fight. Cassian was right, Luthen had good and bad, and he protected the infant rebellion, but he would’ve destroyed it if he tried to be the man to grow it into adulthood. I don’t think people uncomplicatedly celebrating him as the necessary hard man who did hard things are wrestling with how the rebel’s biggest victories were in defiance of Luthen’s methods and ideals. Never mind Erso, Luthen wouldn’t have come back to give Luke cover during the last trench run. He probably would’ve given Red and Gold squads fake attack plans and just used the assault to cover his escape.
