Rebel Alliance


The Rebel Alliance, also known simply as the Rebellion, is an organization that appears in the fictional world of the Star Wars franchise. The Alliance is portrayed as a stateless coalition of rebel dissidents and defectors who oppose the Galactic Empire and its authoritarian rule. Its stated goal is to restore the governance of the previous Galactic Republic, which had been dissolved after its leader Palpatine seized absolute power and declared himself emperor. It is the main protagonistic faction of the original Star Wars trilogy.
In the Star Wars universe, the rebel insurgency conducts covert operations on Imperial garrison worlds, utilizing a stateless strategy in conjunction with wolfpack-guerrilla warfare against the Imperial fleet throughout the galaxy. Capital ships are portrayed as having no place in the Rebellion, as they are described as logistically expensive to build, maintain, and to keep fully crewed. The Rebellion is portrayed as far too limited in both manpower and resources to justify putting so much of both into a giant target. The Galactic Empire, on the other hand, is portrayed as capable of always fielding greater numbers and greater firepower. Being able to hit high-valued targets and get out is therefore depicted as being much more important to the Rebellion. While the Empire labels all dissenters and rebels as extremists and terrorists in Imperial propaganda, the Alliance is depicted and portrayed in various Star Wars media as a group of resilient freedom fighters, based on tolerance, self-empowerment, and hope for a better future using insurgency weapons and tactics.
The Rebel Alliance was first featured as the main protagonistic faction in the films A New Hope, The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi. The faction's origins were alluded to in Revenge of the Sith, and their early activities are featured in the Disney XD television series Rebels, the anthology film Rogue One, and the Disney+ series ''Andor.''

Depiction

Origins

Note: All dates in this article are in the BBY/ABY format. This is a fictional in-universe dating system centred on the Battle of Yavin in Episode IV: A New Hope in which the first Death Star is destroyed. BBY is Before the Battle of Yavin; ABY is After the Battle of Yavin.

Founding members

  • Senator Mon Mothma – Co-founder; current commander-in-chief
  • Senator Bail Organa – Co-founder; early constituting member and head of the Alliance Council
  • * Died during Episode IV: A New Hope, when the Death Star destroys Alderaan
  • Senator Padmé Amidala – Co-founder; early constituting member. She died a few days after founding the Alliance.
  • * Died during Episode III: Revenge of the Sith while giving birth to twins Luke and Leia; the latter was adopted by Organa.

    Early insurgency

Significant dates in the uprising are:
  • 19 BBY - the Delegation of 2000 Senators which demanded Chancellor Palpatine to lay down his emergency powers; the Clone Wars end, the Jedi are purged, and Palatine is declared Emperor ad infinitum. Most of these Senators disappear from public service.
  • 5 BBY - the heist of the Imperial payroll vault on Aldhani. Proto-rebels including Cassian Andor steal 80 million credits to fund further anti-Imperial actions. The response was an over-reaction of imperialism and authoritarianism meant as deterrence, suppressing political discourse, dismantling grassroots democratic movements, and criminalizing dissent, failed; instead, every violent crackdown was met with radicalization, every assassination with retaliation, and Tarkin Doctrine only exponentially escalated insurrection.
  • 2 BBY - Anti-Imperialism reaches its pinnacle. Mon Mothma's Senate speech condemning the Ghorman Massacre incident as genocide perpetrated by Emperor Palpatine; avoids numerous assassination attempts; the formal Declaration of Rebellion.
    Delegation of 2000 (19 BBY)
The earliest possible origins of the Alliance to Restore the Republic are told during the events of Revenge of the Sith. In deleted scene 2 called "A Stirring in the Senate", a group of six Senators including Padmé Amidala, Mon Mothma and Bail Organa meet in the latter's office to discuss ways to counter the already unjustified extraordinary powers of Supreme Chancellor Palpatine "subverting the Constitution" as the Clone Wars were waning, with Mothma stating their goal was "preserving democracy within the Republic". Amidala was initially skeptical of Palpatine's evil intentions because he had supported her during the Trade Federation's occupation of Naboo, but Organa and Mon Mothma announced the formation of an anti-Palpatine 'organization'; the six Senators agreed to a pact of silence. In deleted scene 3 titled "Seeds of Rebellion", it is explained that the Delegation of 2000 disgruntled Senators will present a petition to the Chancellor. Amidala was more willing to oppose Palpatine now, but wanted to involve the Jedi, at least Anakin Skywalker. However, aside from one Senator agreeing, the others doubted whether the Jedi Council would be loyal to the Republic or the Chancellor, and opted to wait. Amidala died in premature childbirth not long after her last-ditch attempt to prevent Anakin's fall. In The Imperial Handbook, Grand Moff Tarkin related that most members of the Delegation of 2000 were arrested; Mothma and Organa retained their Senatorship by remaining outwardly obedient to Palpatine, while secretly leading the unification of disparate bands of insurgents into what they termed the Rebel Alliance.
First major battles, rebel fleet (5 BBY)
The Disney series Rebels depicts the development of the rebellion against the Galactic Empire beginning five years before A New Hope and fourteen years after the fall of the Galactic Republic and the Jedi Order in Revenge of the Sith. The show focuses on a motley group of rebels that banded together aboard a freighter starship called Ghost. They called themselves the Spectres and were led by Hera Syndulla. By the end of the first season, it is revealed that there were various clandestine cell systems that were resisting the Empire, such as Jun Sato's Phoenix Squadron. Senator Bail Organa of Alderaan and former Jedi Ahsoka Tano both play a pivotal role in coordinating these splinter cells into a legitimate threat capable of challenging Imperial rule. Funded primarily by the Royal House of Alderaan, the alliance began to allocate resources towards a united front against Imperial rule. The Spectres and Phoenix Squadron were later integrated into the Massassi Group based on Yavin 4, which by Rogue One and A New Hope was commanded by General Jan Dodonna. One last important rebel cell that later became part of the Rebel Alliance was the Mon Calamari Exodus Fleet, commanded by Admiral Raddus and Admiral Ackbar, formed out of civilian spacecraft during the Imperial occupation of Mon Cala in 18 BBY.
Ghorman Massacre Condemnation and the Declaration of Rebellion (2 BBY)
The third season of Rebels, in "Secret Cargo", Alliance co-founder Senator Mon Mothma, escaped assassination for condemning the Ghorman Massacre and speaking out against the Emperor. In the second season of Andor, Mon Mothma famously denounces the Ghorman Massacre in a powerful speech where she names Emperor Palpatine as responsible for the attack. She declares the event a "brutal attack" and a "massacre," highlighting the Empire's systemic oppressive rule and the loss of truth. This event is a key turning point for her, leading her to resign from the Senate and join the Rebellion. Cassian Andor, Phoenix Cell and Yellow Squadron smuggled Mothma off Coruscant and escorted her to Yavin IV. Enroute at Dantooine, she called out to the various rebel cells and insurgency factions to unite into a unified coalition:
Many rebel ships arrive at a rendezvous point above Dantooine to unite and form the "Alliance to Restore the Republic".

Government

Senior civil government and military high command

  • Gial Ackbar – Admiral and Commander of the Alliance fleet at the Battle of Endor.
  • Cassian Andor – Pilot and Intelligence Officer.
  • * Killed in action during Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, in the Battle of Scarif.
  • Crix Madine – General of the Alliance Special Forces.
  • Ahsoka Tano – Former Jedi Padawan; covert operations spymaster and first 'Fulcrum' agent.
  • Breha Organa – Adoptive mother of Leia Organa; ruling monarch of Alderaan; manager of the Rebel Alliance's funds, as revealed in the 2017 novel, Leia: Princess of Alderaan. Played a pivotal role in securing Alderaan's support for the Rebel Alliance as its primary galactic advocate.
  • * Killed during Episode IV: A New Hope, when the Death Star destroys Alderaan.
  • Wedge Antilles – Commander of Rogue Squadron; Marshal of the Alliance Starfighter Corps; the only combatant to have survived two separate attack runs on the Death Stars.
  • Raymus Antilles – Captain of the famous Alderaanian cruiser Tantive IV. Escort to members of the Royal House of Alderaan.
  • * Killed in action during Episode IV: A New Hope by Darth Vader.
  • Lando Calrissian – General and former Cloud City administrator.
  • Carlist Rieekan – General and Commander of the Alliance's Echo Base on Hoth.
  • Jan Dodonna – General and Commander of the Alliance's Base One on Yavin 4.
  • * Killed in action at the Mako-Ta Space Docks by sacrificing himself to prevent the Executor from destroying the remaining elements of the Alliance.
  • Hera Syndulla – General and pilot of the Ghost.
  • Luke Skywalker – Commander and Jedi Knight; former Commander of Rogue Squadron and former Grand Master of the New Jedi Order.
  • Leia Organa – Representative of the planet Alderaan in the Imperial Senate and Senior diplomat of the Alliance; General of the Resistance.
  • Han Solo – General and former smuggler pilot of the Millennium Falcon.