The rebels were the original good guys of the Star Wars franchise who saved the galaxy from the evil Empire, but there are still things about the Rebellion that make no sense. Some flaws with the Rebel Alliance were always apparent from the start of the original trilogy, while other problems arose through subsequent sequels and prequels. The Star Wars movies and TV shows fleshed out the history of the Rebellion while telling new stories of their fight against tyranny, but this also created questions that haven’t always been answered.
These issues may take some viewers out of the experience when revisiting the original Star Wars movies. The problems with the Rebellion also set up similar problems for the Resistance in the Star Wars sequel trilogy, which drew heavily from the rebels fighting against the Empire. Some plot holes can be explained or justified as crucial parts of a story, but there are still 10 things about the Rebellion that make no sense in Star Wars.
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10
How Are The Rebellion So Well Organized?
Cassian Andor In Rogue One: A Star Wars Story
Cassian Andor and the rebel base on Yavin 4.
The Rebel Alliance was fairly well-organized once the various factions came together, but this is confusing because of how they are presented across the Star Wars franchise. They were scattered after A New Hope, were defeated in The Empire Strikes Back, and were engaging the Empire across the galaxy in Return of the Jedi. Rogue One: A Star Wars Story showed how divided the Rebel Council was even before the start of the Galactic Civil War, with several members abandoning the cause. With so much internal chaos combined with the Empire’s relentless hunt, it’s hard to believe the rebels could remain so well-organized.
9
How Did The Rebels Suddenly Build Such A Massive Fleet After ANH?
The Rebellion Regroups In The Empire Strikes Back
C-3PO, R2-D2, Luke Skywalker, and Leia Organa looking into space in The Empire Strikes Back.
After the collapse of the Rebel Council, the devastation of the Battle of Scarif, and the losses at the Battle of Yavin, the Rebellion’s resources were dwindling at the end of A New Hope. However, The Empire Strikes Back showed that they had amassed an impressive fleet on Hoth, and Mon Mothma implied they had additional forces across the galaxy beyond what was seen at the Battle of Endor. It’s never directly explained how the Rebellion compensated for these losses or developed an armada to match the Imperial fleet in battle. Many worlds would join the Rebellion after the Death Star’s destruction, but just as many would be terrified.
8
Why Did The Rebels Not Check The Falcon For Trackers?
The Millennium Falcon
Millennium Falcon from Star Wars
Princess Leia Organa may have been a great rebel leader, but she showed poor judgment regarding the Death Star plans. She knew the Empire let them escape to track them, yet she still went straight to the rebel base instead of meeting with another ship. The rebels then failed to check the Millennium Falcon for trackers, which would have confirmed Leia’s suspicions and allowed them to remove it immediately. It seems reasonable that the Rebellion would be more cautious after keeping their base a secret for so long.
The novelization of Star Wars: The Force Awakens by Alan Dean Foster hinted that this same tracker allowed the First Order to find the Falcon 34 years later.
7
Why Would Every Rebel Faction Rally Behind Restoring The Republic?
Saw Gerrera Questioned Mon Mothma’s Goals In Andor
Saw Gerrera and Star Wars Rebel Alliance in Andor
The Rebellion’s full title was the Alliance to Restore the Republic, but this approach had a glaring issue. The Empire came to power because the Old Republic was so corrupt, and half the galaxy hated the Republic during the Clone Wars. Saw Gerrera observed this problem in Andor season 1, calling out neo-Republicans like Maya Pei and former Separatists like Anto Kreegyr for trying to bring back the systems that caused the war in the first place. Perhaps the galaxy was willing to rally behind anything that opposed the Empire, but Mon Mothma could have gained more support by proposing a new government altogether.
In the Star Wars Legends continuity, the New Republic was eventually replaced by the Galactic Federation of Free Alliances (a reference to “Galaxy Far, Far Away”).
6
How Did The Rebels Not Learn About The Death Star Sooner?
Cassian Andor Learned About The Death Star First In Rogue One
Andor’s Death Star and Cassian Andor.
The Rebellion did not learn about the Death Star until shortly before it was unleashed on the galaxy, but they should have uncovered its existence long before that. All it took was one Imperial pilot to defect and a rebel informant to tell Cassian Andor what the Empire was building for the Rebellion to take action. This was Galen Erso’s attempt to sabotage the project and save the Alliance, but it was unclear why he waited until the station was near completion. Not to mention that hiding the construction of a weapon the size of a moon would be nearly impossible to keep secret.
5
The Rebels Should Have Had A Better Strategy For The Death Star Plans
Princess Leia Gives The Death Star Plans To R2-D2 In A New Hope
Leia giving R2D2 the Death Star Plans in Star Wars
Even before Leia led the Empire straight to the rebel base, she brought them to Tatooine as well. Rather than having another ship take the plans while she served as a distraction or waiting until she had escaped to find Obi-Wan Kenobi, she combined her two missions and comprised both. Leia was captured 10 minutes after the Battle of Scarif, and she had to send the plans down to the planet with R2-D2, nearly exposing Obi-Wan in the process. After all the trouble the rebels went to acquiring the Death Star plans, they should have planned a proper escape.
4
The Battle of Scarif Was Not The Rebels’ “First Victory”
A New Hope Opening Crawl
Star Wars A New Hope Opening Crawl
The opening crawl of A New Hope claimed that the rebels stealing the Death Star plans was “their first victory against the evil Galactic Empire.”, but the other movies and TV shows contradict this statement. Star Wars Rebels saw the rebels score numerous victories against the Empire, even if they were small or temporary ones. The number of rebel factions in Rogue One and the Empire’s concern in A New Hope leads to the natural conclusion that the rebels must have had enough significant victories to be a problem. The “first victory” could have meant the first victory of the official Galactic Civil War, but either way, it is confusing.
3
The Rebels Should Have Evacuated Yavin 4 Immediately After The Death Star Battle
Award Ceremony On Yavin 4 In A New Hope
The award ceremony at the end of A New Hope is one of the greatest movie endings of all time, but this doesn’t change that the rebels were wasting precious time. Luke Skywalker had just destroyed the Empire’s ultimate weapon, and the rebels lost multiple squadrons, meaning they should have evacuated immediately. The rebels started evacuating Echo Base on Hoth when they suspected the Empire knew where they were, yet they took time for a celebration in A New Hope. The Empire could have sent its fleet straight to Yavin 4 to take revenge, much as the First Order did in Star Wars: The Last Jedi.
2
Why Did The Rebel Ships Fly Toward The Star Destroyers While Fleeing Hoth?
A Rebel Transport Flees Hoth In The Empire Strikes Back
A Rebel Alliance transport flees Hoth in The Empire Strikes Back.
Despite the urgency of the rebel evacuation on Hoth, it seems odd that they flew directly toward the Star Destroyers in orbit. They may have had an ion canon that could short out a ship’s systems, but the rebel transports could have exited the planet where the Empire had no Star Destroyers. The best explanation is that the Imperials were blocking the only safe hyperspace route out of the system, but Luke and at least one rebel transport seemed to have an easier time escaping. It may have been safer for the rebels to fly away from the Star Destroyers while taking the time to plot an alternate hyperspace jump.
1
Mon Mothma Was A Bad Leader
Mon Mothma In Return Of The Jedi
Star Wars Rebels steal second Death Star plans how bothans
Mon Mothma was a woman of uncompromising moral conviction and was instrumental in forming the Rebel Alliance, but she often failed as a military leader. She refused to exert authority over members of the Rebel Council, causing them to go behind her back or refuse to listen. Her unwillingness to act also led to Admiral Raddus taking the initiative and drawing the Alliance into the Battle of Scarif. Mon Mothma carried these problems into her role as Chancellor of the New Republic, relinquishing too much executive authority and letting career politicians like Senator Hamato Xiono walk all over her.
However, it is understandable why Mon Mothma limited herself in this way. She formed the Rebel Alliance as a last resort and knew she risked becoming like Palpatine by relying too much on his methods. Rather than grabbing power for herself, she trusted the Rebellion and the New Republic with the freedom they had fought for. Unfortunately, this made her unequipped from a military standpoint, and her policies allowed the New Republic to ignore the threat of the Imperial Remnant and the First Order. Mon Mothma’s contributions to the galaxy were undeniable, but she is still one of many things that make no sense about the Rebellion in Star Wars.
10 You offer abundant examples though this piece that shows they’re not that organised, they have groups and factions that disagree, their battles are improvised and frantic. We get snippets of organised pieces in the films. It’s clear that strong individual leaders command loyalty and respect to hold their pieces of the rebellion together. Those pieces are “scattered throughout the galaxy” rather than working as a single organisation.
9 They didn’t, their fleet came to them already built. Many worlds and leaders joined after the destruction of the deathstar which brought them a fleet. You’re right that many worlds were terrified however that’s not important to this point since they don’t subtract from the number of ships the rebellion gained. Worth noting that despite all these gains, the rebel fleet was still a fraction of the imperial fleet.
8 You’ve answered your own question, if the tracker was still operating years later it was well hidden in the guts of the ship. Leia said the ship was being tracked, checking for it may not have been enough if it was discrete.
7 We don’t know that they did, we do know the new republic was subject to power struggles and disputes so it would be accurate to say they didn’t rally behind it, groups simply sought to define it.
6 It was built using slave labour of prisoners in a remote location. The empire had no trouble keeping even the scientists there as prisoners and using force on everyone. Given the number of people involved in this work, it does raise an eyebrow. But then only a tiny fraction of those people would be in a position to leak information, a small fraction of them would want to and a small fraction of those would be able to get the information to the rebellion. What fraction of that small number would the empire be able to stop, capture or kill?
5 This all happened in a panic, as you cite, the rebellion is not that organised. The ship Leia was captured on with the plan was the backup strategy afterall. Should they have had a better plan? Totally. Could they? I’m not sure how. Hard to switch ships with a stardestroyer chasing you.
4 This is just a semantic question of what counts as a victory. Add the word “major” or “meaningful” into the sentence if it helps.
3 They did evacuate, they also knew they had some time. The galaxy didn’t know the deathstar was blown up immediately. Given the arrogance displayed by Tarkin I wonder if anyone knew where he’d gone. If anyone did know, the reason Yavin 4 was their base is because it’s very remote, they likely knew how long they had especially given it would take time for the shocked empire to react once they realised the deathstar was out of contact.
2 Vader ordered the fleet deployed so that nothing got out of the system specifically to prevent this from happening.
1 Idealistic politician not upto the real world implication of the role? Not a plot hole, a feature not a bug.
Simple answer:
The stories never had an over arching plot.
Lucas And then disney made stuff up to suit each movie as it was made.