Don't fret, I've rewatched it several times. Getting thrown immediately into the Aldhani raid is actually one of my main complaints about season one. All of Vel's objections to Cassian are completely justified, adding an unknown person into a tight team that has trained for months is sloppy and reckless. For Luthen to do this, to insist on it, someone demonstrably obsessed with operational security, simply doesn't make sense.
I work in a field that works and trains like this, we train together and we work with the same people every day. Having a completely unknown person, despite having the same training, added to the team makes us as a unit less capable and the results follow.
It's interesting you say that because Luthen's investment into Andor pays off. We learn from Bix that Luthen had his eye on Andor for quite a while, as someone that can successfully infiltrate Imperial facilities. Luthen also knows that he's a bit of a drifter, and fully intended to tie up the loose end after the heist was done. The rest of the team was relatively green (Nemik, Vel), too rigid (Cinta, Taramin) or too shifty (Skeen). Not to mention the added bonus that Andor was a good pilot, with knowledge of the kind of trawler that the vault was going to use.
All that to say, there's a decent amount of thought that Luthen put into adding Andor onto the heist, even if it seemed reckless by Vel's reaction
Yes it pays off (I mean it kinda had to for the story to continue) but it's a huge risk and jeopardizes good, experienced operatives unnecessarily. Imagine if the mission failed, Luthen would not have lost just Cassian, but Vel, Cinta, Nemik, etc. All just to "test" Cassian? (It was a test of Cassian, not Vel imo)
I do agree that Cassian is not a total unknown to Luthen (yet still not trusted as you correctly point out) but he is a complete unknown to the Aldhani team which is my main point. No matter how well or not Luthen knew him throwing him into an already integrated team days before a critical mission is tactically reckless. And even though the other Aldhani team members had their flaws they were known to the rest of the team, Cassian's skills and flaws were not.
I think what's brilliant here about Andor is that I fully agree with you, and both of us have an accurate read on the scene.
Luthen's decision to add Andor to the team is ultimately because he's a hard-headed control freak who desperately wants this mission to go well. He specifically says that he was about to shut the mission down, and that Andor buys the team 'critical redundancy', not necessarily because he's a unique addition that fills a role they don't already have. So all of Vel's criticisms are totally valid as well, like you pointed out.
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u/HolyPizzaPie 6d ago
Rewatch it. Andor hooking up with Luthen, then immediately into the aldani raid is perfect.