How Mon Mothma’s Mysterious Homeworld Played Its Role in the Rebel Alliance

You might be forgiven , givenMon Mothma ’s increased importanceto modernStar Wars , for thinking that her homeworld of Chandrila was one of the galaxy far , far away ’s most explored locales , up there with the likes of Coruscant , Hoth , Tatooine , Alderaan , and more for their polar roles across the Skywalker Saga . But even now , after long time of likely study in both the old expanded universe and contemporary canyon alike , Chandrila at great is a mystery : and even its role in the Rebel Alliance has largely been rendered symbolic rather than particularly material .

Andor‘s upcoming second seasonwill score the first metre we ’ve actually natter Chandrila on - screen in currentStar Warscanon , the world ’s grandness to persistence beyond it being more for its theatrical role in the early years of the New Republic rather than the fourth dimension of the Empire . But even in the EU , Chandrila remained , much like its onetime Senator , more of a strawman of underground to the Empire , rather than inevitably a truly full of life player in the Alliance to Restore the Republic . So what do we know about the major planet ’s part in the Galactic Civil War in either very ofStar Warsstory ? The answer is at last not much , which itself order a lot .

Chandrila’s Role inStar WarsCanon

In both renditions of its history , Chandrila is a key player in the foundation of the Republic . One of the major mankind in the galactic core , despite its law of proximity to the centre of what would become galactic civilization , little has been really research about the Earth until the time of the mainlineStar Warsmovies . Even Chandrila ’s role in the Clone War is for the most part allow for untouched — although we did at least learn of late during Alexander Freed ’s novelMask of Fearthat its working capital , Hanna City , was targeted by elongated orbital bombardment during the conflict , largely resisted by worldwide shielding .

This mystery continues throughout the rise of the Empire itself . Although Mon Mothma ’s public story of confrontation to the raw Emperor , and her legacy in Padmé Amidala ’s Delegation of 2,000 would make her a prime player in the Imperial Senate ’s attempts to block overreach of index , it would n’t be until Mothma ’s own departure from office in the wake of the Imperial military’smassacre on Ghorman , and the courtly annunciation of the Alliance to reconstruct the Republic in 2BBY , that Chandrila would become recognise as a likeable universe to the Rebel suit . Even then , its unmediated role in the war remains vague — the earth was simply one among thousand that suffered in the vestige of the Empire , rather than being a particularly focused object . Chandrila was considered an important locale to the Alliance in terms of materiel and good provision caches , its reputation was largely symbolic due to its connection to Mon Mothma — a symbolism that would in part lead the world , alongside Mon Cala , to be on the tilt of intended target for the 2d Death Star after the Rebel fleet ’s wipeout over Endor .

or else , Chandrila ’s grandness in the rebootedStar Warscanon come with a much clear use in the wake of the events ofReturn of the Jedi . With Coruscant drag in worldwide civic state of war in the wake of the Emperor ’s destruction , it would be Chandrila that would become the capital of the reformed Republic , its first senate being call up to quorum in Hanna City , with Mothma as its first Chancellor . In the following twelvemonth , Chandrila would become an important military and legislative hub for the nascent Republic as military movement against the Imperial remnant continued . But an attempted brat onset by brainwash free Imperial prisoners at peace talks between the New Republic and the Empire saw the first attack to bestow an end to the Galactic Civil War crumble , and Chandrila ’s position as the heart of the New Republic in jeopardy .

© Lucasfilm

Although it would stay on the Republic ’s chapiter , even after Coruscant ’s dismissal and the courtly terminal of the warfare with the sign language of Galactic Concordance , the Republic Senate itself would establish a turn out residency across extremity cosmos , relocating every year until the body ’s wipeout on Hosnian Prime in 34ABY .

Chandrila inStar Wars‘ Expanded Universe

Much more is known about Chandrila ’s time during the rise of the Empire in the Expanded Universe ( mostly through the cobwebby volume of content ) , but even then what we did get wind of the planet was ultimately a mirror in prelude to what was going to come in rebooted continuity . In the EU , Chandrila was still a largely symbolical representative of impedance to the Empire , but a far more proactive one : although tensions between itself and other world involved in the former formalisation of the Alliance ( namely Corellia and Alderaan ) once again largely made Mon Mothma a political figurehead of the organisation rather than a particular military force , Chandrila was a fundamental world for Rebel enlisting and supply throughout the Empire ’s principle .

It would take the Rebellion ’s destruction of the first Death Star to really make Chandrila a particularly direct world by Imperial effort , however . After Mon Mothma ’s successor as its representative in the Imperial Senate , Canna Omonda , was run a year after the Battle of Yavin for publically objurgate the Emperor ’s dissipation of the govern body , Chandrila — which had already been subject to retaliatory tariffs on luxury agricultural export by COMPNOR ( the Commission for the Preservation of the New Order)—was issue to blockade by the Imperial Navy .

Although Rebel military force , leading by Rogue Squadron , managed to liberate the larboard city of Nayli from ground violation and provision restrictions , royal forces in the sector station fleet around the nearby worlds of Brentaal IV and Corulag , efficaciously threatening Chandrila with a prominent planetary blockade that efficaciously sustain the planet out of open involvement in the Galactic Civil War . It would n’t be until after the Battle of Endor ( just as would be the caseful in revised persistence , triumph for the Empire would ’ve meant a full planetary encroachment of Chandrila and its eventual demolition by the second Death Star ) and the release of Coruscant itself that the encirclement would be lifted , allow Chandrila ’s provisional government to formally join the nascent New Republic .

© Jethro Morales and Joe Caramagna/Marvel Comics

Chandrilan Society, and a Planet of Politics

The relative lack of exploration of Chandrila — either from its literal want of focus in currentStar Warscanon beyond Mon Mothma herself , or the planet ’s blockade in the EU largely leaving it as a basal factor in that rendition of the Galactic Civil War — has left the world ’s society too only touched on in broad strokes . In many ways , Star Wars ‘ love of single - biome worldbuilding applied to Chandrilan culture in the small ways it was touched upon : because or primary genus Lens on the world was through the macrocosm of Mon Mothma , herself largely only explored as a political leader of the Alliance and eventually the New Republic , what information about Chandrila we see would become filtered through her . Mon Mothma was into politics ? Okay then , Chandrila is now anentireplanetof politics , with a ethnic reputation for robust debate and interest in civics to twin , its multitude delineate by outspoken political candor .

That at least might alter a little when we see the humanity for the first time inAndorseason two . Much of the show ’s prior , but abbreviated exploration of Chandrilan culture — again framed through the view of Mon Mothma ’s personal interaction with it — tinct on a watershed between modernistic cosmopolitan companionship and ancient ethnic traditions , peculiarly those around arranged union . Chandrilan culture , when not expressly about political science , had a similar undertone in the EU : an agrarian earth , Chandrila was hump for its steady nurturing of the global ecology , advocating that its natural world could co - live with the technological advance of interstellar company .

There ’s no doubt what we see of Chandrila inAndorwill persist in to rivet on that scene of the traditional elements Mon Mothma bristle against , moreso than anything else . But beyond being our first prison term to see the world on - screen , it ’ll at least add some much needed texture to a significant position inStar Wars ‘ Galax urceolata .

© Lucasarts

Want more io9 news ? train out when to expect the latestMarvel , Star Wars , andStar Trekreleases , what ’s next for theDC Universe on film and video , and everything you need to lie with about the next ofDoctor Who .

AndorExplainerMon MothmaStar war

Get the best technical school , scientific discipline , and polish news in your inbox day by day .

news show from the futurity , delivered to your present tense .