MovieChat Forums > Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back (1980) Discussion > How big is the Rebellion?

How big is the Rebellion?

posted 7 years ago by KingCobra686
5 replies | jump to latest

In the Star Wars universe, the Empire must consist of trillions of beings. Just think how many beings must live on Coruscant alone. To control all these systems and planets, the Empire must have a significant employed population to rule them.

But how big is the Rebellion? I've never seen anything in the movies that says how big the Rebellion actually is. The Rebel fleet never seems that terribly large, compared to how big the Empire must be. I assume that there must be a lot of support offscreen, but we never see much of that either.

[–] Volley2020 7 years ago

It's tiny. In A New Hope, all that is left of the Rebellion is what we see on the planet Yavin. There is no fleet of ships. Grand Moff Tarkin makes this very clear when he says the Death Star will crush the Rebellion with one swift stroke.

Between ANH and ESB, the Rebellion gains major support, including that of the Mon Calamari, who convert their cruise ships into battlecruisers and other forms of capital ships. The Rebellion has a fleet now and their main base is on ice planet Hoth.

By Return of the Jedi, the Rebellion has at least 40 capital ships that make their way to Endor, if you pause the video after the Falcon leaves the Death Star II, you can see the Rebel fleet above the Endor moon. They sent everything they had there.

Rogue One kind of changes this narrative, indicating the Rebellion has a fleet before A New Hope, which is odd as they only started getting capital ships after the Death Star was destroyed, due to monumentous support from that event, Alderaan being destroyed, and the Imperial Senate being disbanded.

[–] KingCobra686 7 years ago

Between ANH and ESB, the Rebellion gains major support, including that of the Mon Calamari

Rogue One kind of changes this narrative

Well they changed that too. The Mon Calamari were part of the fleet in RO.

It just seems strange to me that the Rebellion would be so tiny. Even 40 capital ships is a very very small amount to what the Empire must have. The Rebellion was successful in the end because they were able to take out both Death Stars and the Emperor and Vader, but what were they really hoping to realistically achieve with that few ships?

[–] Jeorj Euler 7 years ago

Why do we want to know? Is it just out of curiosity?

[–] KingCobra686 7 years ago

The numbers have never felt like they added up to me. If the fleet that we saw from the Rebellion was everything they had, it would realistically be way too small to make any dent in the empire. To me it seems equivalent to a hillbilly with a shotgun and his cousin with a buckknife trying to take out the entire US government and military.

[–] Jeorj Euler 7 years ago

To me it seems equivalent to a hillbilly with a shotgun and his cousin with a buckknife trying to take out the entire US government and military.

I don't think the Rebels intended to take out the entire Empire all on their own with their regular resources. They held certain objectives in paramount, like stealing secrets, destroying the Death Stars or assassinating key Imperial leaders. Stuff they could use to garner support by bringing hope. They mostly spent their time in hiding or pretending to not be part of the Rebellion. The fact that Rebels' numbers and firepower is concealed from the audience kind of reinforces this concept. We really never get to know how many powerful regimes are aiding and abetting the Rebels, only that four species were involved in the Battle of Endor which saw the end of the Emperor, the Sith, the second Death Star, a Super Star Destroyer and numerous admirals. The mere word of a victory like that can cause everybody else to rise up or turn against the Empire, possibly enough outnumber the Imperial regular military, while Imperial-aligned special detachments and paramilitaries stand by and watch.