Editor’s note: The below contains spoilers for Andor Season 2.
This week’s batch of new episodes inAndorSeason 2once again expands the galaxy far, far away by adding new planets, butit also features an unexpected return to a location that has been featured inStar Warsbefore. In Episodes 4, “Ever Been to Ghorman?”, and 5, “I Have Friends Everywhere,” Wilmon Paak (Muhannad Bhaier) is tasked by Luthen Rael (Stellan Skarsgård) with providing some engineering services to Saw Gerrera (Forest Whitaker) and the Partisans. They are always on the move, but, this time, they’re stationed on a familiar planet. It appeared for the first time in the Sequel Trilogy, and nowAndorredefines how important it is by directly linking these two corners of the Star Wars galaxy.
The Resistance Base in ‘The Force Awakens’ Is Located on D’Qar
If the Partisans' base felt familiar inAndor, it’s because we’ve seen it before on the big screen: it’s the Resistance base inStar Wars: Episode VII - The Force Awakens.It’s located on the planet D’Qar, in the Ileenium system, asrevealed by BB-8to Rey (Daisy Ridley) and Finn (John Boyega) aboard the Millennium Falcon, and made up of several small hangars under grass-covered hills, as well as a main bunker that serves as the center of operations. It’s considerably smaller than the iconic Rebel base on Yavin 4, for example, but the Resistance is also much smaller than the Rebellion.
Leia Organa (Carrie Fisher) resigns from the New Republic Senate in the year28 ABY(after the Battle of Yavin, as seen inStar Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope) and forms the Resistance as a private paramilitary group soon after, calling old friends like Admiral Ackbar (Erik Bauersfeld), Caluan Emmatt (Andrew Jack), and Snap Wexley (Greg Grunberg), as seen in the novelBloodlines. The idea was to model the Resistance after the Rebel Alliance as a way of inspiring the galaxy to stand up against the growing threat of the First Order.By then, D’Qar was already known to have been a rebel base, which was one of the reasons Leia chose it to set up the Resistance’s headquarters.
The Resistance base on D’Qar is short-lived, however, as they stay there for only two years. With the destruction of Starkiller Base inThe Force Awakens, the First Order strikes back shortly after as retaliation, catching the Resistance just as it’sevacuating D’Qarin the initial sequence inStar Wars: Episode VIII - The Last Jedi.The base is then permanently destroyed. Not long after, Resistance agent Kaz Xiono (Christopher Sean) leads the Colossus station to the planet, looking for fuel and provisions, as seen in the animated seriesStar Wars: Resistance, but they find only destruction and debris.
Saw Gerrera Isn’t the Only Rebel To Use the D’Qar During the Imperial Era
D’Qar being featured inAndorSeason 2 has already been alreadyteased in trailers, and, although small,its part is very significant in terms of consolidating Star Wars lore. Saw Gerrera and the Partisans are only there briefly while preparing to strike against an Imperial fuel station, and it’s there that Wilmon is groomed to join them after it’s revealed that a mechanic named Pluti (Marc Rissmann) was actually an Imperial informant. It’s not clear how long they remain there, but Saw and his group are famous for being always on the move, having claimed a base on the planet Segra Milo inSeason 1and on Jedha inRogue One: A Star Wars Story.
In the new canon timeline, 3 BBY (before the Battle of Yavin) is actually theearliest appearanceof D’Qar, with not much being known about the planet before that — according to the MarvelPoe Dameroncomics, there was once a big civilization there, but no trace of them remained. After the Partisans leave, the planet continues to be important for the Rebellion, although it never formally establishes a base there.Instead, D’Qar becomes a deep space cache for Rebel pilots and, later, is listed as a safe planet for the Rebellion. Later, during the Galactic Civil War, the Alliance sweeps D’Qar for Imperial activity, as seen in the novelLost Stars.
‘Andor’ Finally Gives Us a Deeper Look at This Lesser-Known Star Wars World
Sagrona teema solom!
The D’Qar base becomes obsolete after the Empire formally surrenders during the Battle of Jakku, in 5 ABY. By then, the Rebel Alliance had already been reorganized into the New Republic, and this marksthe formal endof the Galactic Civil War.For the next 23 years, D’Qar is seemingly abandoned until Leia forms the Resistance. In the meantime, the New Republic promotes a galaxy-wide demilitarization process, and what remains of its fleet is gathered on other planets.
‘Andor’ Season 2 Establishes a Direct Link Between the Rebellion and the Resistance
Saw Gerrera’s strategy of always being on the move is one that the Rebel Alliance itself is also forced to adoptlater on. They can’t stay on Yavin 4 after the Empire has learned about the base’s existence there inA New Hope, and are later forced out of Hoth inStar Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back. This is typical of smaller paramilitary groups, and, in the Rebellion’s case, they were using itmuch earlierthan in the movies, too. Besides the Partisans, for example, the Phoenix rebel cell inStar Wars Rebelshad bases on Lothal and Atollon before joining up with the others on Yavin 4. The Resistance also used this, moving on from their base on D’Qar to Ajan Kloss inStar Wars: Episode IX - The Rise of Skywalker.
More important than depicting this strategy, though,D’Qar’s appearance inAndorprovides some connective tissue between the Rebellion and the Resistance. Given how the Alliance evolves into the New Republic, and the New Republic is subsequently destroyed by the First Order, it has always been rather difficult to see them as a single movement, because, technically, they aren’t, despite sharing the same ideals and symbols. Now,Andorrevisits this idea by taking us to a location famous for its ties to the Resistance, only this time associating it with the Rebellion. Those two institutions were always meant to be seen as the same, only indifferent eras, and, now, it finally makes sense to look at them this way.
Although technically the Rebel Alliance really is reorganized into the New Republic, over time, the New Republic lost sight of the ideals it stood for in the first place. Formally, the Resistance may be a separate entity,but seeing Saw Gerrera and the Partisans on D’Qar bridges the narrative gap between them on-screen, as most of the lore surrounding both comes frombooks and comics. In the end, now it feels like the Rebellion is a sort of “grandmother” institution to the Resistance — D’Qar even looks a little like Yavin 4, after all, doesn’t it?
Season 2 ofAndoris streaming on DIsney+. New episodes air on Tuesdays.
Prequel series to Star Wars' ‘Rogue One’. In an era filled with danger, deception and intrigue, Cassian will embark on the path that is destined to turn him into a Rebel hero.
