So, I've always seen the Rebellion as an underground, covert operation that did all its work behind the scenes, away from the prying eyes of the Empire. I also saw it as the Empire trying to hide the fact that the Rebellion was even occurring, merely telling everyone that they were no more than pirates/terroists/scoundrels.

However, through my recent delving into Star Wars literature, the Rebellion is often viewed as a blatant Civil War. So the question I have is which one does it base around? Is the Rebellion hidden from the galaxy or well known? I know that the book says that the war is well known, but I get the feeling that the situation ought to be a bit more delicate.

So, which do you fine people prefer? Known and screeching about freedom, or unknown and passing secret notes to the oppressed?

So, I've always seen the Rebellion as an underground, covert operation that did all its work behind the scenes, away from the prying eyes of the Empire. I also saw it as the Empire trying to hide the fact that the Rebellion was even occurring, merely telling everyone that they were no more than pirates/terroists/scoundrels.

However, through my recent delving into Star Wars literature, the Rebellion is often viewed as a blatant Civil War. So the question I have is which one does it base around? Is the Rebellion hidden from the galaxy or well known? I know that the book says that the war is well known, but I get the feeling that the situation ought to be a bit more delicate.

So, which do you fine people prefer? Known and screeching about freedom, or unknown and passing secret notes to the oppressed?

Luke knows about it in the original movie.

In my opinion, it's all about the time frame. Before the Battle of Yavin, probably the second one; they just didn't have any major prestige or accomplishments. During The Empire Strikes Back, the buildup of serious military alliances and fleets begins. By Endor, it's close to all-out war.

I always thought it'd been made pretty clear that the Rebellion was a known thing, particularly around the time of the movies. After all, Luke knew about it, and he's living in what amounts to a backwater hicktown on a backwater hicktown of a planet.

While the Alliance doesn't go around advertising its bases, they do make it a point to let the populace know that there is somebody out there willing to take a stand against the Emperor's oppressive regime. Their operational methods are more along the lines of "you won't know we're coming to hit you until we're already in your face" (aka the Batman method) than straight-up military assaults (something the Alliance brass knows they can't win due to lack of available resources).

But the war won't be won purely on strength of arms, but also on getting the populace to rise up against the tyrannical regime that's in place. Now the Alliance got lucky in RotJ as the Emperor made himself vulnerable (Mon Mothma even acknowledges this as a once-in-a-lifetime chance to severely cripple the leadership of the Empire), but had Palps played it a bit safer and stayed on Coruscant, then the war likely would have dragged on even longer, even if Vader had been removed from the picture. And they pretty much committed their entire fleet to that operation, leaving nothing in reserve, while the Empire still had plenty more resources to call upon.

Now in the years leading up to ANH, especially in the timeframe that the upcoming SW: Rebels series will be taking place in, then the Alliance is more of a clandestine thing, mostly due to even less resources and a lack of a truly consolidated leadership, with various 'rebel factions' each operating more or less independently of each other.

First victory is announced in the opening crawl of Episode IV and involves spies stealing. Of course Princess Leia's diplomatic status is used to try and hide the info transfer. She goes to the obvious leadership hiding under an ancient temple with a cobbled together collection of star fighters. Luke has heard of the Rebellion so one would presume there has been some kind of guerilla activity. Probably very public to gain attention but likely not huge overt military action.

The crawl in Episode V talks about the Imperial Fleet being spread across the galaxy in a vain effort to engage the Rebels. We find them hiding under a glacier clearly still in the process of setting up shop. Clearly they are running and hiding. At the end of Empire we see a cobbled together collection of ships.

In the beginning of Return we see Mon Mothma talk about the Emperor having made a critical error and the time to strike has arrived. Probably indicating the Rebels have been hesitant, or not launched any, direct force on force actions. Like they've been waiting for the golden BB moment.

Most of what we glean from the films is that spying is the major part of the Alliance's focus. We don't' see any offensives until the end of the last film. Any other information comes from EU and that's all taken with a grain of salt. There is a lot we don't know but like most Rebellions in history the bulk of the effort involves undermining the leadership of the opposition as opposed to a straight up military defeat.

Now the Alliance got lucky in RotJ as the Emperor made himself vulnerable

I like to think of that as a forced error. The heroic actions of PC groups in Age of Rebellion games forced the Emperor in to taking the desperate gamble of using himself and the unfinished second death star as bait to lure the Alliance in to an open battle. A gamble, which, due the further heroic actions by PC groups off screen during RotJ, did not pay off and ended up costing the Emperor his life, and his Empire its future.

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Everyone we see fighting for the Alliance in the movies is wearing a uniform, so they are fairly open about how they operate.

Any revolution against the State will live and die on the support of the people. Without the masses behind them, any insurrection is very unliklely to suceed. So the Rebellion has to generate the popular vote - for the support and to diferenterate themselves from the now tainted Sperratits brand. Otherwise, the Average Joe will just go "What makes you guys different from that Grevious guy?"

The Empire, on the other hand, would be best served downplaying the Rebellion, dismissing them as disorganized, ineffectual and localized, playing up the similarities between Mothma's crowd and the Confederacy. Pretending they dont exist will only serve to make the rumors more powerful, so working the propaganda card is vital.

So my read on it is that it's in both parties interests to be as loud and vocal about their faction as possible.

I think in the Pre-Yavin and just after Yavin most rebel military strikes were hit and run raids. I personally count the first victory in the A New Hope opening text as te first time a rebel fleet stood toe to toe with an Imperial fleet and defeated it in open battle, which works with the EU since almost all of the rebel space victories pre-Yavin I know of were fighter or small task force raids rather than full fleet actions.

Than after Yavin the rebellion began growing and winning more victories, though most battles with the rebels on the attack were still hit and run raids or ambushes.

im not sure if this is considered EU as it is the book for rotj.

but in it our 3rd person omnicient narrator keys in on lando calrisian's thoughts as he is preparing to assault the deathstar deuce with the rebel fleet behind him. he says that the rebellion is doing what a guerilla force shouldn't do, and that is engage their enemy directly. so i assume they are acting like the vietcong in the vietnam war up until that time. maybe like russia cold war with all the spy games and what not but that implies they have some planets and industries and backers at their disposal (maybe, maybe not).

but i guarantee you if they are outfitting fighters with hyperdrives they are trying to make every credit count. for example to get from one side of the galaxy to another in SW takes about a month. sitting in a cockpit for a month sucks. im sure they wouldnt but i am guessing they would hop from system to system until they got to another base. or they have to have their fighters already deployed as they exit hyperspace. or they have their fighters hyper in to do a job and never risk their nebulon b frigates. (it took a while for the mon cal to join the rebellion and bring in their MC80s).

the empire partitions their resources differently as they have the planets, industry, and backers to build massive carriers for their fighters and lots of carriers. however they go a step further and crank out minimally trained fighter pilots by the millions to crew their crackerjack fighters and deploy them en-masse. (if you know your history thats how the north won the civil war, they bled the south dry by continuing to engage the south in pitched battles and losing; but every dead southern soldier was a dead southern soldier the south couldn't replace. for every dead northerner there were 3 more enlisted). so yeah rebellion is guerilla warfare guys that are trying to make sure they sell themselves as dearly as possible and a meatgrinder empire of limitless resources is how i interpret the situation.

The rebellion had several avenues on how it attacked the Empire.

1. Propaganda and Infowars: letting people know the truth of the horrors of the Empire harsh methods. "The more you tighten your grip, Tarkin, the more star systems will slip through your fingers. " Via Holovids, posters, etc.

2. Space Denial: Attacking shipping, shipyards, stations, depots. Forcing the Empire to spread it's resources too far

3. Sabotage and assassination

4. Intelligence

Kind of like the French resistance in a way

The more and more I think about it, I feel 4 years from ANH to RotJ was a little too short. There had to have been a lot more time to convert Mon Cal crusiers into warships...even a chance to build a few from scratch. not to mention making all the needed support ships and fighters, and then training of a commando force. Your trying to create a new separate government spanning the Galaxy and cannot even claim a single planet as a part of it.

When did Dac (Mon Calamari) openly revolt?

When did Dac (Mon Calamari) openly revolt?

Season 4 of Rebels?

Most Legends material says Mon Calamari revolted pre-Yavin and began supporting the rebellion and supplying it with ships secretly than though they didn't openly ally with the Alliance until a few months after Yavin. The Essential Gide to Warfare describes thee main groups of MC80s. The first were pre-Imperial Occupation Exploration craft that also served as the Mon Calamari defense fleet and were later upgraded to MC80 standards, some of these actually were part of the Alliance fleet pre Liberation as they had fed the Imperial invasion. The second group were cruise liners that had been designed from the ground up for quick conversion into warships, and the third were the newly constructed MC80s which were built as warships.

In the new canon the date of the Dac Revolt hasn't been established.

The rebellion had several avenues on how it attacked the Empire.

1. Propaganda and Infowars: letting people know the truth of the horrors of the Empire harsh methods. "The more you tighten your grip, Tarkin, the more star systems will slip through your fingers. " Via Holovids, posters, etc.

2. Space Denial: Attacking shipping, shipyards, stations, depots. Forcing the Empire to spread it's resources too far

3. Sabotage and assassination

4. Intelligence

Kind of like the French resistance in a way

The more and more I think about it, I feel 4 years from ANH to RotJ was a little too short. There had to have been a lot more time to convert Mon Cal crusiers into warships...even a chance to build a few from scratch. not to mention making all the needed support ships and fighters, and then training of a commando force. Your trying to create a new separate government spanning the Galaxy and cannot even claim a single planet as a part of it.

Actually, the French resistance from WW2 is probably a spot-on analogy for how the Alliance generally operates.

At least in some of the EU, it was noted that several worlds had declared for the Alliance but were either remote enough or well-protected enough (like Dac/Mon Cal) that it'd take an awful lot of resources to bring those worlds to heel, resources that Palpatine may have felt would be squandered.

Heck, being the manipulative chessmaster that he was, I wouldn't be surprised if Palps deliberately took steps to ensure that the Alliance would be around for a while, using the Rebels as an excuse for maintaining a totalitarian police state. If nothing else, the Alliance could make a convenient scapegoat. He only decided it was time to get rid of it once the second Death Star was operational, by that point feeling his control on the galaxy was solid enough (especially with a healthy young apprentice like Luke at his side to replace Vader) that having the Alliance as a scapegoat wasn't necessary. With something like the Death Star, bringing any planets that got out of line to heel would be a simple matter; after all, evacuating an entire planet is no easy feat, especially when you've got a powerful military to interdict said planet until your planet-killer weapon shows up. And that's assuming the second model had the same generally-slow hyperdrive that the first Death Star was presumed to have; for all we know the DSMkII could be as fast in hyperspace as your average Star Destroyer.

Actually, the French resistance from WW2 is probably a spot-on analogy for how the Alliance generally operates.

French resistance didn't operate an enormous number of fighter squadrons and battlefleets.

Actually, the French resistance from WW2 is probably a spot-on analogy for how the Alliance generally operates.

French resistance didn't operate an enormous number of fighter squadrons and battlefleets.

Neither did the Rebellion.

Neither did the Rebellion.

In the movies we don't see them do anything else.

Actually, the French resistance from WW2 is probably a spot-on analogy for how the Alliance generally operates.

French resistance didn't operate an enormous number of fighter squadrons and battlefleets.

The resistance didn't but the Free France forces did. Though honestly I think there really isn't any modern resistance or revolution which is really a match for the Alliance. I think the American Revolution American forces or the Southern forces in the US Civil War would be closer than the French resistance. But that's not quite right either IMO. The closest thing I could imagine to something like the Alliance on Earth would involve a rebel movement within a nation consisting of a large cluster of small islands thus putting focus of the rebellion's main force more on ships and airpower with ground warfare secondary, and mostly done by local militias or guerrilla cells. I can't really think of any revolts that fit that off the top of my head though.