Snippet

Star Wars conversation that feels topical (spoilers for late episode of Andor)

Lonni Jung: My sacrifice — it means nothing to you, does it?

Luthen Rael: I said I think of you constantly and I do. Your investment in the Rebellion is epic. A double life? Every day a performance? The stress of that? We need heroes, Lonni, and here you are.

Lonni Jung: And what do you sacrifice?

[Luthen takes a long pause, considering the unspoken accusation]

Luthen Rael: Calm... Kindness, kinship... Love. I’ve given up all chance at inner peace; I’ve made my mind a sunless space... I share my dreams with ghosts. I wake up every day to an equation I wrote 15 years ago from which there’s only one conclusion: I’m damned for what I do. My anger, my ego, my unwillingness to yield, my... my eagerness to fight — they’ve set me on a path from which there is no escape. I yearned to be a savior against injustice without contemplating the cost, and by the time I looked down... there was no longer any ground beneath my feet. "What is my—" "What is my sacrifice?!" I’m condemned to use the tools of my enemy... to defeat them. I burn my decency for someone else’s future! I burn my life to make a sunrise that I know I’ll never see! And the ego that started this fight will never have a... a mirror, or an audience, or... or the light of gratitude. So what do I sacrifice? Everything!

[Luthen turns to leave]

Luthen Rael: You'll stay with me, Lonni. I need all the heroes I can get.

—"One Way Out"

“I yearned to be a savior against injustice without contemplating the cost.”

Maybe we all did and that’s why we’re here.