Editor's Note: The following contains spoilers for Season 1 of Andor.
In the 11th episode of Andor, directed by Benjamin Caron, Luthen Rael (Stellan Skarsgård) pays Saw Gerrera (Forest Whitaker) a visit. Saw’s in a mood of restlessness, and he wants to join rebel leader Anto Kreegyr in his attack on the Spellhaus Imperial power station. But Luthen has other ideas. Ideas that have been crafted with careful consideration and patience, with objectivity and clarity. Saw operates alone, and he has the luxury of being moody and unpredictable. But Luthen is at the heart of many networks of Rebellion and in order to see those networks expand, he must make sacrifices. Anto Kreegyr is one of those sacrifices, one that certainly wasn’t for nothing because in the finale of Andor, the Empire’s slaughter of Kreegyr and his men make them feel “invincible” and “untouchable,” just as Luthen predicted. The Empire’s “arrogance is remarkable” and it is certainly one of their greatest weaknesses because such conceit grants the Rebellion with “a clear field to play.”
The Rebels Will Make A Fool Out Of The Empire
In finale of Andor titled “Rix Road," we witness a brief scene at the Imperial Security Bureau on Coruscant. The ISB officials are particularly pleased with themselves because Kreegyr and his men fell right into their trap. And in the Empire’s ruthless spirit of leaving no prisoners, ISB agent Major Partagaz (Anton Lesser) triumphantly declares that “today was about wiping the taste of Aldhani from the Emperor’s mouth.” So by mercilessly taking care of Kreegyr, the ISB are suddenly so proud of themselves because they believe they’ve appeased their Emperor by thinking that they are one step ahead of the Rebellion. How foolish. And how fantastic it is that the rebels can capitalize on the Empire’s disillusioned love of power. The ISB may feel invincible now, but soon their fear will come in to replace their pride, because 30 men, plus Kreegyr, were only one tiny part of a much wider and actively growing revolution.
"Oppression Breeds Rebellion."
Throughout the entire Andor series, the most prominent example of when the Empire’s weapons of oppression and force failed them was the Narkina 5 prison break. The Empire incarcerated the Narkina 5’s inmates through means of brutality and fear, and such a hellish environment saw the inmates dally between sanity and insanity. But the inmates pulled together, as rebellions do, and they fought their way out of Imperial confines. Their escape relates to Karis Nemik’s (Alex Lawther) manifesto, which states that “tyranny requires constant effort. It breaks. It leaks.” And the inmates of Narkina 5 slipped through those tyrannical leaks.
So among the many pockets of Rebellion, there are three rebels in particular: Luthen Rael, Karis Nemik and Princess Leia (Carrie Fisher), who understand the Empire’s greatest weakness... Luthen says that “we need the fear, we need them to overreact.” Nemik says, “Authority is brittle, oppression is the mask of fear.” And standing before a stiff, foul smelling Governor Tarkin (Peter Cushing), Princess Leia says, “The more you tighten your grip Tarkin, the more star systems will slip through your fingers.”
Fear. That is the Empire’s greatest weakness. Fear of that growing reckoning that they can’t deny is coming. Fear of losing their ultimate power. For the moment, though, the Empire basks in that power, in their satisfaction of killing thirty men and Kreegyr. But in that bask, do they only prove Luthen to be right? Kreegyr’s sacrifice has given the Rebellion a chance to “play the long game.”