Our favorite Star Wars characters
Photo Credit: Lucasfilm
Hera Syndulla
Appearances: Star Wars: Rebels; tie-in novel “New Dawn.”
Defining moment: Using the Empire’s own Star Destroyers to stop Darth Vader from pursuing the Ghost.
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I’ve written elsewhere about how Star Wars: Rebels was my re-entry point to Star Wars fandom, and how my attention was caught by a certain Twi’lek pilot. But how does a guy who saw the entire original trilogy first run settle on Hera as a favorite character?
Hera for me represents the very best of what the Rebellion is about. She’s skilled, she’s sympathetic and empathetic, and she wants what’s best not only for herself, not only for her crew, not only for Ryloth (much to her father’s chagrin), but for the galaxy.
But she does care for her world and crew, earning the fan moniker “Space Mom” with the way she takes care of them all. She can take her freighter and out fly top Imperial pilots, but she can turn around and have words of encouragement for Sabine, or remind Ezra why they should have hope, or make sure Kanan…she makes sure Kanan is the best he can be.
She’s an early member of the Rebellion, and instrumental in founding the Rebel Alliance. She was as good with a blaster as with a control throttle, while providing the voice of reason when situations became tense.
Ok, so she did blow up an entire Imperial ship for sabotaging her droid, and seemed to take great satisfaction in kneeing Lando Calrissian in a very sensitive area, but we all have our little moments, right?
That’s all in-universe however. As a fan I got to see that Star Wars could give us a Twi’lek woman who didn’t rely on a sexualized appearance or depiction. She was a character who could be maternal and hard as nails. The type of character I want to show my granddaughters as they learn about Star Wars.
Though, I wish someone would explain to me why her call-sign is “Specter 2” when she’s the Captain of the Ghost AND the leader of the cell. She’ll always be the lead Specter to me.