Aka Andor Season 3
The next set of rebels we visit is in the movie Rogue One. This takes place around the same year as the last season of Rebels, and immediately after the second season of Andor.
Before the title sequence, we see the start of the main character: Jyn Erso as a child, and when the Empire killed her mother and captured her father to work for them. Her dad, Galen Erso told her to run and sent word to Saw Guerra to help her out.
About 12 years later, Jyn is no longer with Saw, and we see her on an Imperial prison transport that is liberated by rebels. Cassian Andor’s squad, which includes a reprogrammed imperial droid, K-2SO. Season two of Andor shows his origins.
They take her to their base on Yavin 4, and although she uses a fake name when the Empire captures her, the rebels know who she is and what her father is doing.
Galen Erso is building something secret for the Empire, and the rebels want to find out what. They send Jyn and Andor to the planet Jedha to find evidence of where he is. We visited Jedha once before in Jedi Survivor when the Empire was just starting to take over, but now they have fully established themselves and are the leading authority on the planet.
They meet some locals: Chirrut Îmwe and Baze Malbus, a couple who one is “with the force” and the other is his strong backup in case the force won’t connect. They are a pair who are ABSOLUTELY in a relationship although there’s no direct statement in the movie.
After a firefight with the Empire, they’re found and captured by Saw’s crew and taken to him where Jyn finds a message from her father about the Death Star. She listens to it once, and then the Death Star shows up and destroys the city on Jedha.
Jyn, Andor, K2, and the small group that joined them escape and head to the planet the message was created. They find her dad right before a group of rebels fly in and bombard the facility, killing him in the destruction.
They escape back to Yavin 4 to warn everyone about the Death Star, and half the leadership either doesn’t believe it exists, or that they are powerless to stop it so they should give up.
Jyn’s father’s message said he built a fail safe to destroy the Death Star and it’s hidden in the plans. A small faction at the rebel base decided to join up to go steal the plans on the planet Scariff. Calling themselves Rogue One, they snuck on the planet aboard a stolen ship, and got in, creating a massive battle as a distraction, while others later joined in space. They eventually got the plans, but not before most of Rogue One squadron was killed.
The plans were transmitted to a nearby rebel ship, and escaped, while the Death Star itself showed up and blasted the facility, killing everyone there. Everyone dies in the end, and Darth Vader goes to pursue the escaping ship.
Characters
I want to take a moment to talk about some side characters in this movie who have had a role in the larger Star Wars universe.
Director Orson Krennic
He’s shown up briefly in other media. First we’ve seen him in the timeline was in The Bad Batch where a bunch of Imperial leaders meet to discuss various branches of the Empire’s plans. Then in Andor Season 2 he is trying to keep the discussion and idea of the Death Star a secret from anyone outside his private circle. Tarkin took over the Death Star when it was completed, and then he was killed when the Death Star fired on Scariff until Tarkin’s orders. He’s certainly one of the most fashionable Imperials with his cape.
Saw Guerrera
This is a rebel who is seen a lot during the early parts of Star Wars. First shown all the way back in the Clone Wars, he was fighting the Separatists to free his planet, while his people were being trained to fight by Obi-Wan and Anakin. His sister died during this rebellion, which seemed to break him.
We next saw him in Jedi Fallen Order where Cal meets him fighting on Kashyyk to rescue the Wookies.
In Jedi Survivor he is mentioned but not shown, where Cal says he’s been working fighting the Empire doing missions for Saw when his group broke up.
He appears in a few episodes of Rebels where he is shown to become more violent. When the Rebels crew was investigating the empty world of Geonosis, Saw was rescued in the tunnels of the planet where the rest of his team was killed. The sole survivor of the Geonosis massacre was interrogated by Saw and while he tried to explain what they were building, it didn’t translate, and Saw became more desperate to find out.
Another episode had him investigate it further, following Kyber crystal transportation the Empire was doing, he chose to abandon the scientists the Empire kidnapped to find out what they were doing.
In Andor, he is shown to be a rebel outcast, someone who fights the Empire, but whose methods are considered too extreme to be considered a reliable source. Also in season 2 it shows he likes to huff on engine fuel.
He dies in Rogue One by the Death Star. All of his conspiracies and hiding did turn out to be true, but it was almost for nothing if the Rogue Squadron didn’t escape with the knowledge.
The plans were taken however and they escaped to send it off in the next hit film Star Wars: IV A New Hope.
See you all again after that movie.
Kristopher K. Online 