Saga Public Knowledge of the Rebellion's Heroes

Hello all! Mods, I apologize in advance if a topic like this has been previously discussed--I did numerous word and phrase searches trying to locate any potential threads and came up dry. I'm fairly new to the board, and have been a SW fan on a long hiatus, so bear with me a little in my ignorance. If there IS a dedicated thread for this query already, feel free to merge it or do whatever mod magic you need to.

Would the Empire have disclosed the identities of key Rebel figures to the general populace, or kept this information strictly classified? In other words, just based on the feel of the OT films, do you think that your average Joe Q. Citizen would have ever heard about Luke Skywalker, Han Solo, etc. on their local affiliate HoloNet news? I'm assuming the media would be tightly controlled by the state.

[One Rebel I couldn't see publicly mentioned by the Empire would be Princess Leia. Given that the Senate, shortly before being disbanded, was fed a cover story about the destruction of the Tantive IV, if they later openly announced her as a traitor and "terrorist," they'd all realize they'd been lied to. So I would think that after the capture of her consular ship, Leia would have been considered dead and gone, never to be officially spoken of again.]

For someone like Luke Skywalker, I'm on the fence. Perhaps the Empire would be wary of stirring up romantic nostalgia for the presumed-dead and highly admired Anakin Skywalker, "The Hero With No Fear," and not release his identity to the galaxy at large. (Not that anyone would necessarily assume a familial relation between the two, but just the sharing of a name and equally crazy war accomplishments would evoke a sense of correlation.)

What do y'all think? Would most people hear about these Rebels during the thick of the Galactic Civil War, or not until after the events of ROTJ, when the Alliance would likely begin wresting control of the media back from the Empire?

 

Hi ThreadSketch, welcome to the boards!

Good topic - and no, there isn't an existing thread for it already, but I appreciate you checking first anyway. Off to a good start.

I would imagine that confirmed Rebels (General Dodonna, Mon Mothma, Admiral Ackbar) would be publicly exposed as such, with hefty rewards placed for information regarding their whereabouts. Good point about Leia, though.
The Luke Skywalker issue is even stickier - I'm not entirely sure what the 'public' story of the fate of Clone Wars hero Anakin Skywalker was (there's probably a vague EU explanation).

While the Empire would have had control of virtually all the mainstream media, I couldn't see them taking things to a 1984-level of misinformation by pretending that known Rebels or their exploits didn't exist - they'd have simply used the media to portray them as, well, terrorists.

 

I'm very interested in how "muggles" would perceive heroic exploits.
There needs to be a short story about this.

I think it would take a while for legend/historical importance to really build up but no doubt Galactic civilians would want to know who killed the Emperor.

 

Since the Senate was disbanded, it might not matter so much to the average Imperial soldier or official.

"Leia being recognized and hunted" does crop up a bit in the EU at least, although it's usually a case of higher-ups that identify her (or deduce her identity) and call in Vader.

The Rebel Force series portrays the Rebellion as going to some effort to keep the name of the Man Who Destroyed the Death Star a secret (so the Empire doesn't get assassins targeting him)- but it eventually getting out.

 

Post-SW/ANH, with a full-blown state of civil war declared, and the former 'sinister agent' Darth Vader put in charge of the Imperial Fleet, I don't think the Empire cared too much about public perception, either.

 

Makes sense. Though, wasn't Vader portrayed as in charge of the Imperial Fleet in the Dark Times period just after RoTS?

There might have been some propaganda efforts though (the X-Wing novels at least suggest that the Empire portrayed the Endor battle as a Rebel Death Star being destroyed by the Empire (but at the cost of the Emperor and Vader's lives).

And there were references to them claiming it was the Rebels who shot Alderaan with the first Death Star- boarding it and taking control of the weapon.

 

Thanks for the welcome and responses! It's a bit late for me right now, but I'll try to reply tomorrow; didn't want anyone to think I just started a topic and intended to run off and abandon it.

 

Sorry for the delay...

No idea, but I'd venture the galaxy at large would think Anakin perished during Order 66 along with the majority of the other Jedi. (Pertaining to his public image in general, the ROTS novelization did a terrific job of detailing that at the beginning of the book.)

And I agree, the Empire certainly wouldn't sweep the Rebellion under the rug; I just wonder how many of its major members would have been publicly discussed, in an "Empire Most Wanted" context. The leaders would have definitely been covered.

I concur. I'd love to read about or inspire someone to write fanfic (profic, pipe dream) in the vein of the old Voren Na'al journalistic/observer stories. Or maybe exploring some of the crazy holothriller mayhem riffed off the heroes' exploits a la Matt Stover's Mindor. Or following the events of the films through the eyes of military holoimagers, one on each side of the war. Not quite "muggle" level, but equally interesting to me.

Well, no, I'd imagine the Empire in general, from high command down to the rank and file troops, would be informed on who their enemies are. I was thinking more along the lines of your average Joe or family knowing about second-tier Rebels like Luke, Han, Lando, etc. through the media. Obviously, yes, any news announced on them would be surely be spun to demonize them and exaggerate or outright twist their actions in the worst possible light, if they bother to mention them.

As I said, Luke falls into this weird category for the Empire, being a Force-user/potential Jedi who has the particular eye of both the Emperor and Vader, above and beyond the goal of crushing the Rebellion. Your ordinary "Rebel scum" like, say, Han Solo, they probably wouldn't care too much about reporting, but I have no idea if disclosing Luke to the general public would be of any help or hindrance to their hunt for him. (I know there was the whole Shadows of the Empire bounty hunter/Black Sun debacle with him, but it's bounty hunters' jobs to be all up in your business...)

And...since someone else might do it, I may as well get it over with:

 

Han, with his smuggler past, might be seen as "scum". I'm sure the Empire would be eager to talk about him. The Empire would love to make it appear that the Rebels are all scum who want to spread Jabba's influence throughout the galaxy.

 

Hmm, good point, in both a funny and serious sense. Thanks for that.

 

They probably released heavily modified knowledge. Propaganda that would help the Empire rather than hinder it. Something like Luke is a traitor and theif, etc., etc. Although, they would probably not say he is a Jedi, even though they spread anti-Jedi lies.

 

There was an interesting communique from an Imperial Agent to the Emperor, on the subject of Luke, in West End Games's The Star Wars Sourcebook.

Part of it:

This Rebel has shown exceptional piloting and starfighting abilities, and all indications are that it was his shot that destroyed the Death Star. He has also been seen wielding a lightsaber.

Lord Vader insists that Skywalker is strong with the Force. As we do not know what the Force is, our agents have no way to test this. Requests to Lord Vader to describe the Force have been refused. (I must once again respectfully request that you tell Lord Vader to stop killing my agents. The Empire has put a lot of time and money into their training. If he doesn't want to talk to them, can't the man just say no like anybody else?)

 

*disturbed LOL*

Thanks for digging that up.

 

I think central figures of the rebellion were well known (Ackbar, Mothma, etc.). But, I also believe Luke Skywalker was becoming a household name (hushed in secret of course). The only proof I have of this is the knowledge Vader and the Emperor had of his name, who destroyed the Death Star, etc. I could see a news article that talked of his heroics and one of them saying:

Luke Skywalker *

*no relation to Jedi Anakin Skywalker of the Clone Wars

According to Lucas, Skywalker was a common name.

I think Han Solo was also talked about which made his profile higher in the galaxy (making him more of a target for Bounty Hunters and harder for him to be able to go back and pay off Jabba).