By G.P. Avants

The Rebel Alliance is the star of Rogue One. We had a small sampling of this rag-tag team of heroes in the original Star Wars trilogy. Now we have made privy to who these people are and how mismatched these rebels truly are.

Think about the Empire as obsessed with perfection and order and any cost. That includes the basic freedoms that most humans and non-humans enjoy. When a government has become so powerful that is uses and abuses its own people, a rebellion is born.

So on many ways the Empire created the seed for the Alliance.

What we learn from Rogue One is that anyone can be part of a rag tag team. Jyn Erso was thrust into this world when her father was taken by the Empire. She lived a life of a Rebel so it was no great surprise that she gravitated towards like-minded people. Through her father she became the catalyst that united factions to become a cohesive team. In many ways the downfall of the Empire was to ignore the little people to put all their power into a cold metallic super weapon. What they failed to realize that one person can make a difference and posses a greater power to truly change the course of history.

Rebels are those who have lost families, lost their homes, or their way. They are blind dreamers who keep their faith when other have lost theirs. These rebels can dutifully carry their prisons with them. They are the messed up, broken, and regretful who learn to draw weakness as a point of strength.These unsung heroes turn the enemies power against them by turning failure into victory. A rebel can even be a re-programmed, cantankerous, droid who speaks his mind and shares his heart (and not just because his master told ordered him to).A real hero can be one who hides the key for others to find victory at the right time. Many feel a real Rebel Hero is the pilot, like Luke Skywalker. But the truth is the real heroes are quiet people, like Galen Erso, who plant seeds of hope when people need it most.

Here is a little montage about our small band of rebels who say:

“Save the Rebllion save the dream.”