Rogue One Wedge, Porkins, and the Rebel Fleet / Squadrons

Luke Skywalker found Hoth according to the prologue in TESB (or at least it's implied) so Mon didn't send some reserve troops there.

 

He was mentioned by Bail isn't? I thought that he was going to sent him to search Obi-Wan.

 

Different Antilles (the Johnsons of AGFFA). He meant Captain Antilles, captain of the Tantive IV.

Cool. I just want to know why Yavin and the fleet are under-manned in ANH now. The only explanation is that most of them gtfo knowing the Death Star was on the way and just left those who were part of this mission.

 

Tan-Wessel

I didn't see more Rebel fighters in RO than I saw at Yavin IV. The capital ships couldn't be used in the attack on the Death Star because its defenses had been designed against capital ship attack, so only the fighters went to attack it.

 

no , maybe Denis Lawson didn't want to ok the re-use of old footage .

 

We didn't see all rebel pilots. Red Leader was there so maybe Wedge was as well since he is red 2, Biggs is red 3 in Battle of Yavin and both may have been in the battle but was not seen in the finished film(since we didn't see anyone with their designations). That is no problem really. Also Wedge most probably didn't see Death Star up close even if he was on Scarif- I think most of the fleet was already on retreat at the time it appeared and anyways seeing Death Star from a far is not same thing as seeing it's full size close. (In space it may seem like a small ball at the distance since you cannot really tell if it is 10 or 1000 kilometres away)

There was also a Blue Squadron lead by General Merrick that got all but destroyed . Mothma sent all available forces to Scarif but it is certainly possible that some fighters, ships and soldiers were not available- performing missions elsewhere and were unable to leave to Scarif for other reasons. (out of fuel, out of ammo, trapped by the Empire on some battlefield) There is galaxy-wide war going on with many pockets of rebellion and not all rebels may even answer to Mothma's call.

 

There was only Red and Gold Squadron's in ANH, R1 has Red, Gold, Blue and Green Squadron's. Two extra squadrons, with losses they might have to combine them into Red and Gold Squadron's for the Death Star attack.

I believe "Red Two" is referenced but I can't confirm 100%.

 

They lost a *lot* of capital ships at the end of RO. Maybe the bulk of their fleet. I took that to mean they were pretty much down to the fighter squadrons at the start of ANH before they had time to regroup and rearm.

 

At least I remember that red Five appeared but that was not Luke of course but his unlucky predecessor.

 

From my understanding, the entire Rebel fleet at the current time is under Raddus' command. At least it sounds like it, because nearly everytime the fleet is mentioned, its is always Raddus' fleet.

And from looking at the battle of Scariff, most of the larger ships got destroyed, including the rebel flagship. And only a few ships got away, and most of them looked like Tantive IV-style, except for that unlucky one that crashed into Vader's star destroyer when it arrived - ok, I am assuming it is still named the Devastator. .

Whatever fighters survived the battle, it looks like they were all combined into Red squadron.

 

Yeah and Gold. Blue is toast.

 

As for where Wedge is, could be a few places. Recovering from an injury on Yavin, on a mission elsewhere etc. Or possibly he was at Scarif, but in the madness of the battle didn't have a good look at the Death Star. His "look at the size of that thing" still makes sense for me even if he'd seen it before. He's just thinking out loud.

In terms of the fleet, this is something that I was really pleased about in Rogue One. In ANH it always bothered me that the Alliance only had thirty fighters available to them to assault the Death Star. But we see in Rogue One that their losses at Scarif were heavy, with Blue Squadron likely entirely destroyed. What remained of the capital ships scattered and didn't have time to return to Yavin IV without leading the Empire there. Also, due to the fractious nature of the Alliance as seen in RO it's probable that various factions decided not to participate in the assault on Scarif and took their ships home. After the Death Star is destroyed in ANH they get back on the Alliance bandwagon.

 

That was the way I took it. The fleet was in a shambles in the immediate aftermath of this battle, so they sent what they had left to attack the Death Star in ANH. If you think about it, it took three years before they had a real fleet together, and it was commanded by mostly new characters. At least that's what makes the most sense to me.

 

And I think this was intentional "glue" writing.

 

It is possible that Wedge was one of like a handful of troops left behind on Yavin just in case the Imps show up. Mothma says send all available troops yet I doubt that was literal. Or they did send all who are available and Wedge was not cause he was serving his role as base protection. I do really hope he was there. I am kinda sad he is never outright mentioned. I do love this idea that the survivors of Scarif become the Red Squadron.

 

I'll take that over "depends on your point of view" any day. This was by definition retconning, but retconning while paying attention to detail.

 

I think the real world explanation for no Wedge (just like he failed to show up in TFA) is Denis Lawson has grown a bit cynical of Star Wars in the interim and maybe he didn't want archive footage of him being re-used. (No one asked Peter Cushing!)

 

I havent seen the movie yet, but just wanted to comment on Wedge's comment re Death Star.

There is no reason why someone who has seen something, isn't again in awe at something massive. I know I repeatedly say how in awe I am of some things several times over, simply because, well, I am still in awe.

So he could easily see it once and still not be able to fathom how it was constructed when he see it the second time. Remember too, they know they are most likely off to their deaths, so there is a huge intimidatory factor of the DS in ANH.

 

Wedges status? Single and ready to mingle!

 

I was wondering about Wedge myself.

 

I'm fairly sure I saw a pilot with Wedge's helmet design climb into a cockpit when the pilots were scrambled. We know for certain that Biggs and Porkins were recast, but I will have to go frame by frame once the Blu-ray comes out. As to the Squadrons present, I saw Blue, Red and Gold. Someone else mentioned Green.

All four Squadrons were later present for the Battle of Yavin, but were heavily depleted. At Yavin, we see Red Squadron at full strength with 12 craft, but to achieve this, they have scrounged pilots to fill in losses. Gold Squadron has 7 Y-wings left. Blue Squadron only had four or five ships left and a new leader, they are all in freshly minted flight suits and helmets (The non hero extras in the hangar) Green squadron is the unseen second Y-wing attack squadron. The Imperials count the Rebel fighters at 30 ships remember. Red and Gold Squadrons go for the trench run, while Blue and Green carry out the diversionary attack on the Super-laser disk itself. Their attack is not seen in the movie.

 

I'm under the impression that Wedge was not there and that he's a pretty new pilot for the Alliance himself hence why Luke is given charge of him in the battle, even though Luke himself it also new.

Lots of losses in RO, so they had to scrounge for replacements.

 

I don't know if it means anything but the actor who voiced Wedge in ANH, David Ankrum, is credited in the film, under "Additional Voices".

https://www.facebook.com/chrisimpso....422222.16384802763/10154898409387764/?type=3

 

On the Biggs front: If the deleted scene is still semi-canon, Biggs wouldn't have joined the Rebellion until after Scarif.

 

How long did it take Vader to catch up to the Tantive IV?