Obviously, this is like the US Revolutionary War where a top notch empire is being challenged. In fact, the rebels are practically fighting with sticks and stones. Anyway, were they expecting outside help, like the colonists awaiting the French?
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How could the rebels possibly win?
- Thread starter R2-D2
- Start date
Darth Cognus
The Huntress™
There was no reasonable expectation of help, they resisted because they were right as a matter of principle against an illicit regime - from their point of view. Luke Skywalker certainly wasn't a development they'd been banking on, that was a play held close to the chests of Kenobi and Yoda. My EU knowledge on the matter is spotty but I don't believe it would change much.
However it's worth noting that the rebellion, while dwarfed by the Empire of course, was backed by a handful of major galactic senators, could bank on the favor of quite a few worlds and had a reasonable spacefaring fleet. Still a shot in the dark when their ace in the hole was an obscure non-guaranteed fault in the Death Star's design to deal a decisive hit, but you now have a cause and a method and that's enough to take bold risks. And I know the EU adds more aces up their sleeve despite always leaving them outmatched. Guerilla warfare has always been the bane of objectively superior armies and I suppose they could hope to deal a decisive blow when the Empire had this naughty habit of putting all their eggs in onebasket floating death ball.
I would assume the newness of the Empire, despite its effectiveness embedding itself in the galaxy had a part in how the rebellion could collect mass too - the whole deal came and went well within the span of a lifetime, plenty for people to remember things being different and chafe at the idea of space nazis threatening to blow up anything that doesn't swear fealty. You may well call the Empire the galactic tantrum of an oversized, rotted out Republic that had its dictator phase.
Returning to your comparison at least the British Empire had centuries to build legitimacy, it just didn't project well over the pond to a strange new land. I expect you'd find more value comparing the Galactic Empire not to the British Empire, but to the conquests of Napoleon. A "flash empire" in the span of a generation; permanent consequences but not so permanent as one great state. Not perfect, I recognize. But you know what the most canonically apt comparison is from another thread now...
However it's worth noting that the rebellion, while dwarfed by the Empire of course, was backed by a handful of major galactic senators, could bank on the favor of quite a few worlds and had a reasonable spacefaring fleet. Still a shot in the dark when their ace in the hole was an obscure non-guaranteed fault in the Death Star's design to deal a decisive hit, but you now have a cause and a method and that's enough to take bold risks. And I know the EU adds more aces up their sleeve despite always leaving them outmatched. Guerilla warfare has always been the bane of objectively superior armies and I suppose they could hope to deal a decisive blow when the Empire had this naughty habit of putting all their eggs in one
I would assume the newness of the Empire, despite its effectiveness embedding itself in the galaxy had a part in how the rebellion could collect mass too - the whole deal came and went well within the span of a lifetime, plenty for people to remember things being different and chafe at the idea of space nazis threatening to blow up anything that doesn't swear fealty. You may well call the Empire the galactic tantrum of an oversized, rotted out Republic that had its dictator phase.
Returning to your comparison at least the British Empire had centuries to build legitimacy, it just didn't project well over the pond to a strange new land. I expect you'd find more value comparing the Galactic Empire not to the British Empire, but to the conquests of Napoleon. A "flash empire" in the span of a generation; permanent consequences but not so permanent as one great state. Not perfect, I recognize. But you know what the most canonically apt comparison is from another thread now...