Star Wars Rebellion history: How the Rebel Alliance has been depicted

From the moment the words “Rebel spaceship, sortie from secret base, first victory against the evil Galactic Empire” appear in the opening crawl Star Wars, fans’ minds raced as they imagined the circumstances surrounding that victory. of 2016 Rogue one: Star wars The story presents an canonical narrative of those events, and the intervening years are filled with different interpretations and stories of how the Rebel Alliance came together and banded together to achieve their initial victory. I’m here.

Now, with the release, Andor On Disney Plus, the series promises to follow the development of rogue one Protagonist Cassian Andor dramatized Kroll’s words, from his days as a budding rebel to his death on the sands of Scarif, to explain how the Rebel Alliance came to be. It is worth reviewing some of the efforts ofhow Andor It is in a unique position to stitch several of these different stories together into a cohesive whole.

Origin of Rebellion in Radio

One of the first attempts to dramatize the opening crawl and provide details about the early Rebel Alliance was done via vintage format. In 1981, NPR released a radio drama based on Star Wars. new hope Produced with the blessing of George Lucas. It featured the sound and music of the film, with Mark Hamill and Anthony Daniels reprising their film roles. Biggs Meets the Darklighter) and added scenes that didn’t appear in the film, especially the second and second scenes. Episode 3 “Origin” “Black Knight, White Princess and Pawn”.

In “Points of Origin,” Leia and her father (then called Prester Organa instead of Bail) entertain the infamous Imperial Lord Tionne in Alderaan. Leia learns of the existence of the Death Star and plans acquired by Rebel agents after an attack on an Imperial fleet. When she leaks this knowledge, Tion attempts to arrest her, but is eventually shot. to bring blockade runner Tantive IV to the rebels on the planet Toprawa to restore the plan.

In “Black Knight, White Princess, and Pawns”, Leia receives a Rebel transmission from Toprawa, but is detected by Darth Vader. Pursued by Vader’s Star Destroyer, she ended up with Obi-Wan Kenobi and attempted to recruit him to the cause of the Rebellion.Obviously, the last act is rogue one The retcons keep away from most of its story, but the radio drama still captures the origins of the Rebel Alliance in a very different form in a delightfully early manner.

Explore more Rebel history with books and video games

1991 saw a resurgence of sorts after a relatively quiet period following the release of Star Wars. Return of the Jedi It started not in the form of a new film, but through a new novel. Specifically, the Thrawn trilogy written by Timothy Zahn ( heir to the empire, dark force risingWhen last command Named after its central antagonist, the enchanting Grand Admiral Thrawn). The success of these novels will lead to a burgeoning “extended universe” of semi-canonical his stories told in multiple media, from books to comics to video games, over the next two decades.

The Thrawn trilogy is set five years after the series ended. Return of the Jedi, briefly teases the origins of the Rebellion through the introduction of a new character, Corellian Garmbel Iblis. Zahn states that early in the rebellion, Bel Iblis was one of his leaders of three different rebel factions, his other two being Leia’s father (now Bail Organa) and Mon Mothma. (Rebel Alliance political leader). Return of the Jedi). In the story, Bel Iblis is credited with rallying his three groups and forming an early alliance through the Corellian Treaty, though the more aggressive Bel Iblis often butted heads with the pacifist Mothma and Organa. (unlike his Gerrera’s later relationship with the Rebels). After the destruction of Alderaan and the loss of Organa’s mediation power, Bel Iblis and the forces loyal to him left the Rebels and waged their own war against the Empire (“The Present Day” of the Thrawn Trilogy). before returning to the days of .

AC Crispin’s Han Solo trilogy is another book series from the late Expanded Universe era, revisiting the events surrounding the capture of the Death Star program. In the final novel of the trilogy, Dawn of the Rebel, Han’s then-love interest, Bria Salen, is revealed to have become a rebel commando.She participates in the attack on Toprawa, which ends with Rebel agents sending a plan to Leia aboard the Tantive IV, just like in the radio drama. rogue oneall of Toprawa’s rebels, including Bria, are killed in the process of announcing the plan.

groundbreaking video game dark forces offers another spin on the acquisition of the Death Star blueprints, and their retrieval is a former Imperial mercenary hired by Mon Mothma to steal Rebel plans from an Imperial facility (and Credit to future Jedi Knight Kyle Katarn. Danuta. later video games, power unleashed, offers one of the most significant and frowned upon views of the formation of the Rebel Alliance to date, in which the game’s protagonist, Darth Vader’s secret apprentice Starkiller, lays the seeds of what became the Rebel Alliance in the 19th century. to be responsible for planting Vader’s own direction, who wanted to use the alliance against the Emperor for his own ends.

A deleted scene in Revenge of the Sith

Image: Lucasfilm/Disney

Originally, Genevieve O’Reilly’s rebel leader, Mon Mothma ( Revenge of the Sith before appearing on the reprise rogue one,animation traitorand future Andor) He had a much bigger role in the final prequel film (which also led to him doing more to Padmé Amidala in the film, aside from dying in Frett and “Broken Heart”). ). The role lives on, largely in the form of a deleted scene in “Seeds of Rebellion” ( Revenge of the Sith Disney Plus extras) and Revenge of the Sith A novelization (which is based on an early draft of the film’s script).

In “Seeds of Rebellion”, Mon Mothma attends a meeting of Senators, including Padmé and Bail Organa, and the Senate bloc opposes Chancellor Palpatine’s continued manipulation of the Constitution for his own ends. discussing the formation of That scene represents a larger subplot that Lucas originally woven into the film, and plays several roles in the novelization. That includes the Loyalist Commission, a larger group of senators dedicated to preserving the Republic and limiting Palpatine’s power. His one of their signature campaigns is the creation of his 2,000 Petitions, a document signed by 2,000 senators asking Palpatine to relinquish emergency powers assumed at the start of the Clone Wars. Many senators, such as Bail Organa and Mon Mothma, supported or joined the Rebel Alliance.

The normality of these events remains questionable, and because they exist in a strange kind of out-of-the-way place, they are part of the official film, but they are not. Considering the gender Andoras the series develops Mothma into the leader of the alliance we see, it’s entirely possible that the series can refer to them directly. rogue one.

Expansion of the Rebellion story on TV and in the recent Star Wars films

Image: Lucasfilm

Since Disney’s acquisition of Lucasfilm in 2012 and the relaunch of the Star Wars canon, there have been many elements of early Rebel Alliance introduced in various storylines. Andorset in the same timeline as those stories, and piecing them all together from before the characters joined the Rebellion to when they played a key role in that crawl-teased “First Victory.” It features a journey in a unique position to be able to piece together.

animated clone war When bad batch For example, the series, to varying degrees, saw Guerrera’s Partisans, one of many different rebel factions that functioned between the prequels and the original trilogy. Solo: A Star Wars Story It introduces Enfiz Nest and her group of pirates/rebels as a way of teasing Han’s future involvement with the more formally organized Rebel Alliance of the original trilogy. obi wan kenobi The recently introduced “The Path” is a type of Rebel Alliance Primordial/Underground Railroad that provides a safe passage for Jedi and Force-sensitive survivors of the Emperor’s Jedi Purge. traitoranother anime series previously set new hope, It depicts the adventures of one tiny rebel in the world of Lothal. It also introduces the concept of “Fulcrum”, the coded identity of a secret agent working to inform and coordinate various rebel groups (an identity once used by Cassian Andor). Greater Alliance.

What it means for Andor

A story set in the same “Between the Trilogy” era Andor is not uncommon. But given the key role Cassian Andor plays in the climax, rogue one, Andor It’s the first of these series to star characters who are there at the moment Rebel Alliance becomes what we know to be the original trilogy. Andor The series says it will take characters to events rogue oneeffectively paralleling his character development and Rebel Alliance development.

In addition to the attention to Cassian, Andor Characters like Mon Mothma and Saw Gerrera (whose role Forest Whitaker reprise) provide further opportunities for the series to define the Rebel Alliance. Mon Mothma brings continuity between the early days of scattered rebellions that slowly evolve from a group of senators loyal to the Republic. Revenge of the Sith The original trilogy’s formalized Alliance.On the other hand, Guerrera’s partisans see the lines the Alliance does not cross in its fight against the Empire, and are able to define what it is by pointing out what it does not. I can do it.

To be clear, I have very few expectations Andor It tries to unite all the different rebel factions hanging in this era. It’s first and foremost about telling an entertaining story, not serving as his cinematic Wookieepedia entry. But that documenting the development of Cassian Andor’s relationship with Rebellion alongside a prominent leader can provide a framework within which fans can connect the dots and see how other disparate factions fit together. I hope Andor Growing from a scattered group with its own agenda doing its best to strike a small blow against the Empire, the Rebel Alliance forces act to achieve collective victory over their evil Galactic Empire. Fanning the flame of hope across the galaxy.