In Rogue One, the world was introduced to Diego Luna’s Cassian Andor hiding out in a dingy back alley. His frantic informant told him that the dark rumors of an Imperial “planet-killer” weapon were true. Then, as Stormtroopers closed in, the man began to panic, risking alerting the Imperials around them. Cassian made a brutal but necessary call – blam.
Now, 10 episodes into Andor, a show that opens with the title hero gunning down a security officer who was begging for his life, a highly observant poster on r/StarWars has noted that “Cassian is just kind of a murderer?”:
“He seems to just shoot people in cold blood. He’s always portrayed as a good guy but he literally just murders people. Do you disagree?”
The responses are of the “no **** Sherlock” variety”, pointing out that this is just a description of his character:
Others point to a key quote from Rogue One that defines the character:
Another simply sums it up as:
It’s worth remembering that Cassian Andor is merely the logical endpoint of the way Han Solo is introduced in A New Hope. Realizing the Greedo is about to get the drop on him, Han shoots first and cold-bloodedly blows the Rodian away, proving his mercenary credentials.
Beyond that, much of the thesis of Rogue One and Andor is that you can’t make a Rebel Alliance omelet without breaking a few Imperial eggs. The Empire isn’t going to be defeated by playing nice, with Luthen open about him using their own tools and methods to fight back against them, saying men like Cassian Andor have the perfect personality to get the job done.
So yeah, technically he is a murderer, but a murderer is what the Rebellion needs.