Star Wars: Three unsung heroes of the Rebel Alliance

Josh Fitzgibbons

Photo Credit: Del Rey

From a Certain Point of View, a book celebrating 40 years of Star Wars, gives voice to the forgotten characters of A New Hope.

Star Wars under the radar heroes.

It’s a sad truth that many individuals who are important in shaping the world are forgotten or unceremoniously relegated to the footnotes in history textbooks. It’s why no one remembers people like Otto Frederick Rohwedder, the dude who basically invented sliced bread.

Unfortunately, the reality is no different in a galaxy far, far away. This sad truth is why Chewbacca (of all people!) was denied a shiny new medal. It’s why heroes like Gold Leader, Wes Janson, and Jan Dodonna are glossed over in the collective memory of the Rebel Alliance’s plight against the Evil Galactic Empire in favor of more flashy, interesting, and, dare I say, attractive people like Luke Skywalker, Han Solo, and Princess Leia Organa.

Some of the most important and influential Star Wars characters are only visible to the investigative eye or aren’t even seen on screen at all. However, that sad reality is no more! Thanks to From a Certain Point of View, a book containing 40 short stories from 40 different perspectives throughout A New Hope, the once forgotten heroes of Star Wars get their due and take their rightful place in the history books!

Here are three unsung heroes of the Rebel Alliance:

Photo Credit: Lucasfilm

Imperial Bureaucracy

At the beginning of A New Hope, we witnessed Darth Vader’s Star Destroyer capture Princess Leia’s Tantive IV over Tatooine in an effort to recapture the Death Star plans that could, if in the wrong hands, have devastating effects.

During the battle, a rogue escape pod carrying R2-D2, C-3PO, and the plans the Empire was desperately chasing launched from the captured Rebel ship.

“Hold your fire. There are no life forms. It must have short-circuited.”

Those lines have always stuck with me. You’re the Evil Galactic Empire. You’re frantically trying to recapture plans to your battle station. You’ve captured an alleged Rebel ship. WHY WOULDN’T YOU JUST SHOOT DOWN EVERY ESCAPE POD THAT LAUNCHES FROM YOUR ENEMY’S SHIP?!

The only solution I could ever come up with was that this Evil Empire was somehow environmentally conscious. Blaster bolts and laser cannons must contribute to greenhouse gases and thus lead to global warming, right? The Empire must not be so bad after all if they’re trying to preserve the galaxy for future generations.

Never have I been so happy and relieved to have one of my Star Wars theories disproved! The real reason why Gunnery Captain Bolvan ordered Lieutenant Hija to “hold his fire” has finally been revealed.

It turns out the Empire had actually implemented a plan to help identify officers for promotion. Because of Rebel propaganda claiming Imperials couldn’t hit the broadside of a Bantha, the Empire instituted a policy that tied officers’ promotions to their kill ratios.

In other words, firing one laser that resulted in one kill would give an officer a kill ratio of 1; firing one laser that resulted in zero kills would result in a kill ratio of 0. Firing at an unoccupied escape pod would actually decrease an officer’s ratio and knock him lower on the list of candidates in line for a raise.

This new policy, thought up and passed by Imperial Navy bureaucrats, was why Bolvan, reluctant to hurt his kill ratio, ordered Hija to hold his fire. It was in that moment that Imperial Bureaucracy became an unsung and unknowing hero of the Rebel Alliance’s cause to overthrow the Empire and restore freedom to the galaxy.

Photo Credit: Lucasfilm

Jot, the Jawa

When R2-D2 and C-3PO crash-landed on Tatooine, they stubbornly went their separate ways. It wasn’t long, however, before they were reunited on a Jawa Sandcrawler full of junkyard scraps, rusty parts, and other droids waiting to be sold to the inhabitants of Tatooine’s desolate landscape.

Jawas are mysterious, robe-laden mechanics who scrounge the desert for potential valuables. They also meticulously prepare their droid inventory for the day they meet potential sellers. Each droid had to surpass several stages of prep before being considered by the Sandcrawler’s final prep team.

Jot, a young, wide-eyed Jawa who had happened to find a holoprojector during his time on the salvage line, worked on the final prep team. His job consisted of wiping droid’s memories before they were finally cleaned, shined, and put in a queue for sale the next time the Sandcrawler stopped at some moisture farmer’s homestead.

Jot was different from other Jawas. He wasn’t content with a simple life of scavenging and ripping off residents of Tatooine. He often looked to the stars and dreamed of living on a starship. Before Jot erased a droid’s memory he viewed it via his holoprojector and lived vicariously through the adventures various droids had experienced. After viewing the memory, Jot completed his job and promptly erased it.

As he always did, Jot viewed the newest pickup’s memory before wiping it. While peering into the experiences of a certain blue astromech droid, Jot saw countless battles, dozens of far-away planets, swords made of light. Most importantly, he saw a princess begging for help.

Something about the princess’ message and R2-D2’s experiences resonated with Jot. He somehow decided that if he wiped this droid’s memory, it would have immense negative impacts on the galaxy. Something about the droid’s experiences just seemed too important to erase. Because of this revelation, Jot decided to secretly leave R2-D2’s memory intact.

Because of Jot’s wide-eyed lust for adventure, the message R2-D2 was carrying from Princess Leia, and thus the hope that sustained the entire Rebellion, remained intact.

Photo Credit: Lucasfilm

R5-D4

R5-D4 was a red astromech droid who spent years on a Jawa Sandcrawler, longing to be purchased and put to use by just about anyone on Tatooine. He knew he wasn’t perfect – various dings, deep scratches, and an unflattering faded paint job plagued the little droid’s quest to find a home. But he was persistent, and he knew – or rather hoped – that one day, someone, anyone, would give him a home.

“Well come on Red, let’s go.”

Immense joy! R5 could hardly believe it. He’d been chosen out of a long lineup of droids. Not to mention he was competing against a slightly battle damaged, yet still more attractive, blue astromech named R2-D2.

Those words that brought R5 so much joy were simultaneously a crushing blow to R2-D2, who was on a secret Rebel mission. Owen Lars had chosen to purchase the red astromech, not the blue one, as a counterpart to the fluent-in-over-six-million-languages protocol droid, C-3PO. R2 panicked, knowing that if he was separated from 3PO – or worse, left to rust on a Sandcrawler – he would never achieve his mission. Fortunately for the galaxy, we all know that just before the cash exchanged hands and the deal was finalized, R5-D4 malfunctioned – Luke believed the problem to be a bad motivator.

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It wasn’t a bad motivator at all, but rather R5-D4 somewhat reluctantly doing his part to help the Rebellion. Turns out, while on the Jawa Sandcrawler, R5 and R2 had interacted. R2 had somewhat evilly tried to sabotage R5 in order to ensure he would be the only healthy, and thus desired, astromech in the Jawas’ lineup.

To R2’s dismay, R5 had woken up during the procedure and managed to defend himself. R2-D2 then told R5-D4 his story – that a princess was relying on him to deliver information that could save the galaxy from sure destruction at the hands of the Empire – and why it was imperative that he be the one to escape the Jawas if the chance arose.

R5 did not make any promises to R2-D2. But as he rolled towards the Lars homestead, he realized that the galaxy was bigger than he was and that if what R2-D2 had said (or chirped and beeped) was true, he had to help him. It was then that R5-D4 made a choice: he forced himself to visibly malfunction so that the moisture farmer would have to take R2-D2 instead, thus freeing the blue astromech from the Jawas and allowing him to continue on his mission.

I won’t spoil R5’s ultimate fate here, (it’s different from his fate in the now Legends story, Skippy the Jedi Droid) but it’s worth checking out in From a Certain Point of View’s surprisingly emotional story, “The Red One.”

Thank you for your sacrifice R5-D4. You are not forgotten.

Next: Our review of From a Certain Point of View

If you’re late to the party, you can order the novel From A Certain Point of View here.

Josh Fitzgibbons

Star Wars enthusiast (but you knew that), teacher, New York Yankees fan, motorcyclist - in whichever order you want