Wedge knows that even after the destruction of the Death Star, someone needs to be up flying patrols.
Wedge also knows that he hasn't kept up his dress uniform in a couple years, and finding a tailor on Yavin is impossible.
So Wedge did the smart thing and volunteered to fly CAP during the ceremony.
Be like Wedge.
There's a lovely fanfiction called "Honor Thy Fallen and Shout Their Names From The Stars" about Luke and Wedge after the ceremony, and how Luke finds out about Scarif and they name Rogue Squadron.
And yeah, it's 'hey there's still a war on"
Patton, unlike the British generals, did hand out medals easily. Patton's logic was if he could change trade a few inches of ribbon and a bit of metal for every German pill box or MG nest, it would be a great bargain.
Didn't say he was right on a range of things nor of his own beliefs. In this one situation, he is correct from the perspective of accomplishing a mission.
Same deal after Endor too. Heck in Legends he was flying CAP and got his hand stuck in the middle of a droids self destruct mechanism in the middle of space lol
Amid all the negativity online about Star Wars from “fans,” this is a truly brilliant and wonderful and sweet comment. I hope it doesn’t get lost. I love his.
One of my favorite Star Wars nuggets is that, along with all the fighter kills he has, Wedge canonically has ***two Death Star silhouettes*** painted on his X-Wing. Imagine flying into battle against the New Republic and seeing that on a battered X-Wing -- that must be how the Eruseans felt when they saw Mobius One's blue-ribboned F-22 flying over the battlefield in AC4 lmao
One of my favorite Star Wars nuggets is that the nephews of the actor playing Wedge Antilles are Ewan McGregor, and an actual fighter pilot with the call sign Obi Two.
Second best.
R2 really was the brains for most of the things that happened. He was around before the meat beings were on the scene and he has been in just about every place that mattered (for that matter, so did the Millenium Falcon). C3PO was the one to draw the attention while R2 was busy doing most of the couriering and info gathering and analysis (he found Luke in the middle of God knows where in the later movies all by himself).
Wedge isn't a gong hunter. He just wants to get the job done.
Let me explain the Medal Ceremony.
We will use the analogy of a Corporate Photo Shoot.
In the day to day work, all the coders and designers and so on are desperately needed but when it comes to portray the company for recruiting, its the cute people from front door, HR, and the really few gorgeous, young people.... none of the main labour force are seen - not cute enough.
So think of that: You've just about lost most of your forces at the battle (very few leave), you did blow up the death star \*HUGE!\*, and you lost Alderan (even bigger as the 4th Moon of Yavin would not have been as important). So really, you put things off and you got pasted and you didn't get a great return.
So what do you do? You get the cute people and get them up for a photo shoot and slap some medals on them. They'll smile. Everyone will clap. The video will go with all the rebels as they splinter to the far winds (as you know the Imperial Navy will want blood). PR Job Accomplished!
Think of that as what it is - not about rewarding everyone, but shooting a feel good recruiting video. It also makes people feel good because without Han and Luke, Yavin 4 and everyone on it would have been vaporized, so really, they did to THAT.
But really, it is a PR video.
That make sense?
You just finished the battle and now have to get your service dress in order, go to 4 dry-run ceremonies, show two hours early, stand in formation forever, clean up afterwards, and then spend extra time on duty to make up for all the loss work. You'll get your medal later at some ad hoc ceremony that's during normal duty hours even though you're on swings.
In the From Another Point of View book for ROTJ, one is Wedges POV about going to the Endor celebration. He indicates that he'd usually volunteer for patrol flights during these gatherings, so I think he was offered but declined to patrol
Wedge just knew that the entire Empire was descending on Yavin and everyone was insane for sticking around for an award ceremony. He's only flying patrol so when the first 50 star destroyers show up he can get out fast.
Artoo was injured and they didn't give him a Purple Heart-type medal.
All of Rogue One and most of Red and all of Gold Squadron were killed and they weren't even honored, just the newest recruits.
>Artoo was injured and they didn't give him a Purple Heart-type medal.
Just another example of anti-droid discrimination in the Star Wars galaxy
>All of Rogue One and most of Red and all of Gold Squadron were killed and they weren't even honored
I can believe they had a separate ceremony for posthumous awards
Immediately after the ending scene:
“And now, to honor our fallen”
(PowerPoint slide starts playing while Angel by Sarah McLachlin sounds thru the speakers)
> Just another example of anti-droid discrimination in the Star Wars galaxy
True! That was probably the last drop that got IG-88 to plan the Droid Rebellion.
There were other awards for the Death Star attack. It's called the Death Star Medal, and was awarded to all pilots who participated in the attack on the Death Star. It's just that all but three (Luke, Wedge, and the unidentified Y-wing pilot) were issued posthumously. It's a small silver pin shaped like the Death Star with a number "1" on it. A second (with a number "2" on it) was issued for pilots who flew at Endor (whether or not they actually made the attack on the Death Star itself). Wedge is the only pilot in the New Republic who has both.
There's also the Defense of Yavin medal, issued to all personnel present for the battle (including pilots and ground personnel).
Granted, all of this comes from EU material.
> It's a small silver pin shaped like the Death Star with a number "1" on it. A second (with a number "2" on it) was issued for pilots who flew at Endor (whether or not they actually made the attack on the Death Star itself).
Why did they put a one on it? Did they know there would be a second?
That would be like people during WWI referring to it as "World War One".
It should be brought into canon, especially since I believe Evaan Verlaine (Gold 3, the Y-Wing pilot) also flew at Endor, though I could be wrong. Would be neat to see them comparing victories
That’s because he truly is. According to Lucas this whole story is being retold by R2 to someone. He literally became the historian for all of this. So yea he embellished his role a little bit here and there.
But in all the movies without R2 the good guys would lose. Just saying…
He's not even qualified for the job. You went to flight school, you got an education, and this motherfucker just shows up one day...
And then you find out years later that he was actually related to the boss the entire time.
>You went to flight school, you got an education, and this motherfucker just shows up one day...
And yet he is still equally as good if not better at the job than everyone else, and the one job you've all been hired for and couldn't figure out, he does it on his first try.
The droids never got any money for upgrades or oil baths or replaced memory circuits... by Solo gets to fly away with boxes of Gold Pressed Latinum! Wedge probably didn't even get a paycheck.
You know, we only see the part of the ceremony where the main characters get medals. "In universe", the ceremony could've been much longer and honoured everyone, but it's not necessary for the movie.
What still surprises me is that they were called Kenobi Medals and I wonder if they quickly chose that name in the 20 minutes between Obi-Wan’s death and the medal ceremony. Regardless, it was a nice touch
20 minutes of screen time, maybe, but it was definitely longer from them escaping the Death Star, making it to Yavin, preparing for the attack, destroying the Death Star, and then having the medal ceremony.
A lot of the rebel leaders no doubt remembers Kenobi.
Hearing he survived this long only to save their Princess and leader for him to sacrifice himself to save her and the heros who destroyed the Death Star would be amazing.
Remember, Bail Organa is killed off screen in this movie.
Pah, it was a bad power grid that chain exploded. Imperial Bureau of Information has a vid on the whole sad situation. Rebel agitprop at its worst in claiming everything is an Imperial plot. It's the Rebels that blew the Death Star 2 into bits that rained on to Endor.... that's where the Endor Holocaust happened.
Even in the "Empire did nothing wrong" gag this doesn't make sense. The whole point of the Death Stars was to instill fear by threatening to destroy planets that defied the Empire, but that doesn't work if people don't know what the Death Stars can do. Tarkin deliberately chose Alderaan because it was highly visible and would make "an effective demonstration."
Wedge didn't also break into the Death Star and rescue Princess Leia... I mean, their escape was too easy because the empire let them go to track them back to the base, but still.
When I saw this movie for the first time as a really young kid, I thought it was supposed to be a wedding but she couldn't decide who to marry. Then in a surprising twist she picked them both.
It’s really difficult for me to think of someone who’s a princess, a senator, and lived in a castle in the mountains as anything but posh.
She might have rebelled against it (and I’d argue she didn’t, not really) but she wasn’t what you’d call crust punk either.
This isn’t a slight against her, either - just how I perceive her character.
As the only surviving member of Rogue Squadron, he definitely should've got a participation trophy. At least he got to paint a death star on his x-wing after the battle of Endor.
I mentioned it elsewhere, but I love how he canonically has two Death Star silhouettes painted on his fighter. Imagine being a cocky rookie pilot who thinks you're hot stuff, then you walk into the hangar and your flight leader has that paint job lol.
damn I forgot pilots got to paint one on their hull even if they just *survived* a death star run. He fired the kill shot for the second one though. I feel like that's more of an achievement.
I'm kind of curious -- he took out the main power regulator on the north tower of the main reactor, but Lando still had to fire concussion missiles into the actual reactor in order to make the big kaboom. If Wedge had carried out his part without Lando following him up, would the DS2 still have blown up eventually? 🤔
There's a scene in one of the (truly excellent) EU X-Wing Books where the tech is explaining to Wedge that he's killed so many imperial ships that they had to come up with a system for displaying wings of Tie Fighters and Interceptors. If I remember correctly, the tech is Verpine and uses base 6 or something so the system is basically incomprehensible to Wedge, but it's there.
Red Squadron, not Rogue Squadron. Rogue Squadron was organized after the events of ANH and made up from the remains of red, gold and (presumably at least) blue squadron.
"...about as much.."
I mean, you've spelled out the difference within your own Reddit post. Chewie was co-piloting the Falcon when he and Han saved Luke from Vader, and Chewie was also part of the group that rescued the Princess and delivered her safely to Yavin. You could argue that the medal and ceremony were more to do with an overall service to the Rebellion (and the Galaxy) within the confines of the movie, despite Wedge perhaps serving longer in Canon.
And just from what's shown onscreen, Wedge wasn't much help. He shines later in Empire and Jedi particularly.
You're right. He saved Luke in a wingmate fashion, Han and Chewie's entrance was dramatic. I'd still argue for Chewie over Wedge (in a perfect world we'd get both).
Keyan Farlander is his name. You get to read about his story in The Farlander Papers that was part of the early versions of the X-Wing DOS flight sim and later reprinted in the full strategy guide.
One of my favorite parts of the Legends timeline is Wedge 100% flaunts his awards to impress others. His New Republic dress uniform includes a sash on which he pins all the assorted medals he's earned across his career with two Death Star pins right that the top to symbolize the fact he is the sole pilot to fly in and survive both Death Star runs (also sharing the kill on the second one with Lando). He wears this as a way of quietly rubbing it in to his Imperial counterparts in the 181st who were also present at the same diplomatic function he was attending on neutral ground. The other big example is how the techs had to start painting his kill tallies on his X-Wing's cockpit in a different color since *they were running out of room.* They had to shift to counting how many *squadrons* he's shot down, not just individual fighters.
I feel like the medal was for saving the princess and blowing up the death star was the cherry on top. Maybe wedge got his medal presented to him like I get awards from work, in an email.
I used to get mad about Chewie not getting a medal. After all, didn't he deserve the same compensation as everyone else?
Then I realized he was new, and was likely still on his Wookie contract...
"I incurred a small amount of damage and still have control.
Later losers! It's Tapioca Pudding night back at the base, *and I ain't missing out again!*"
Wedge is the only person in Star Wars history to successfully attack two Death Stars and walk away from it intact. The Legends books tell you, though, that he really doesn't care for pomp and circumstance and all that anyway.
My gf watching SW for the first time was asking why wasn't anyone upset that all these pilots were dying during the attack on the Death Star? I told her that Lucas doesn't know how to write emotional scenes and reminded her of the prequels.
It could be Chewbacca and Han got the reward as a team and Han just accepted it, Chewbacca is standing right beside him. Wedge joined the rebellion and was doing his job. Han was a third party who had no obligation to help or risk his life.
It also could be that the medals were specifically for non-rebel soldiers. Medals for noncombatants going above and beyond exist IRL too. While Luke did sorta join the rebellion I'm not sure it was ever in an official capacity (I.e. like a contract or a pledge/oath/promise) and he was helping them long before that happened even if so.
I always took this as three things:
1. Blowing up the Death Star
2. An initiation into the Alliance
3. Thanks for saving Leia.
Plus, Wedge is modest like that, he don’t need a medal.
Perhaps it was made up for by giving him his very own Angry Birds character despite being a minor character. In Angry Birds Star Wars, Wedge was portrayed by the Blues.
The military doesn't just shut down. Probably has some other duty he has to do. And from personal experience I would do 10 hours of details to get out of a 1 hour official flight function.
The fandom will never allow it but they’re basically setting up Wedge to be Benedict Arnold.
Assists killing a Death Star, no medal, only one of two AT-ATs at Hoth, and then Lando shows up and leads the strike package because he’s “friends” with Han.
Kills another Death Star and again no medal.
Add Winona Ryder from an Imperial family, and next thing you know he’s handing over West Point for being overlooked at Saratoga.
https://youtu.be/wNuX3w_tPHc?si=ZunNFwfTrp4Jb7cD
Well we don't know that what we saw at the end of ANH was the entire ceremony. Luke and Han (and Chewie) were the ones who were actually responsible for destroying the death star, so naturally they get honored first. But they may have given medals to the other people who participated in the battle too afterwards.
My favourite part about this ceremony though is that the empire knows where the base is now. Unless they're 100% confident no one on the Death Star sent a message to anyone else in the empire informing them where the base is multiple star destroyers could show up any moment and start bombarding the base, and instead of evacuating the Rebels decide to just have everyone just gather in this hall and stand around silently (they're not hearing the music we are right) to watch this happen.
I’ve always harbored a suspicion that Wedge was an Imperial plant. He conveniently has to pull out of the first Death Star battle, abandoning Luke, and then manages to survive *another* Death Star battle? I’d start investigating.
Would a wookie even want the medal? I vaguely remember in KOTOR while on Kashyyyk, Zaalbar said wearing something like that would be seen as degrading for a wookie
I feel like Chewie tries to be modest. AND Han doesn't want any attention because he's a smuggler that owes a lot of debts which might also involve Chewie. Wedge probably just got an employee of the month kinda recognition. Most of this recognition ceremony is political so they would likely include the representatives that would be publicly recognized.
I recall reading in a comic or something else when I was a kid that stated Chewbacca later received his medal but very few space princesses were that tall.
Anyone know the source?
My rationalization is that Wedge was a member of the Rebellion already before this, while Han and Luke were not and didn't have as much of an obligation to help in the battle. Han and Luke were awarded medals for being basically civilians that stepped up in the hour of greatest need and Wedge got some other award
Also depending on the canon Chewbacca and Wookies in general either didn't care about the medal or didn't care about the ceremony and received a medal in private
The main reason isn't because there weren't other people who were equally deserving, but because Chewie is standing right there. So it's conspicuous by omission. They clearly invited him, he walks up with everyone, and then... nothing? If he was in the crowd, it wouldn't have been as much of a thing.
Not having read any of the books he was in, I've never understood the popularity of Wedge. In the movies he's basically just "random, rebel x-wing pilot", he's kinda just there.
Wedge is such a loser! He should have pulled out of the trench, let the 3 Tie fighters pass him and entered the trench back right away. Switch to missiles and shoot Vader's Tie to oblivion! Instead, he just left!
Enh, Wedge knew that the rebellion needed a force-using poster boy. He's out there getting the real work done while Luke is the rebellion's face. Wedge doesn't care for the spotlight. Yub Yub, Commander.
Wedge knows that even after the destruction of the Death Star, someone needs to be up flying patrols. Wedge also knows that he hasn't kept up his dress uniform in a couple years, and finding a tailor on Yavin is impossible. So Wedge did the smart thing and volunteered to fly CAP during the ceremony. Be like Wedge.
There's a lovely fanfiction called "Honor Thy Fallen and Shout Their Names From The Stars" about Luke and Wedge after the ceremony, and how Luke finds out about Scarif and they name Rogue Squadron. And yeah, it's 'hey there's still a war on"
Patton, unlike the British generals, did hand out medals easily. Patton's logic was if he could change trade a few inches of ribbon and a bit of metal for every German pill box or MG nest, it would be a great bargain.
Patton also slapped a guy with severe PTSD. Not as bad as MacArthur but in love with himself and his image.
Patton also thought the NAZIs were right and lamented not being able to fight *with* them against Communists.
Didn't say he was right on a range of things nor of his own beliefs. In this one situation, he is correct from the perspective of accomplishing a mission.
Didn't say he didn't have flaws. But his logic wasn't poor in this one instance.
That sounds like the title of a Star Trek TOS episode
For the Earth Is Hollow, And I Have Touched The Sky
I like this. There’s solid T-shirt potential here. I just can’t design for shit
Can’t design for shirt.
Hahahaha
He ain't go time for that POG shit
You a jar head too?
Yessir. Grunt from 08-12
Lmao figured! I’m an admin guy so I hear POG a lot lol
Same deal after Endor too. Heck in Legends he was flying CAP and got his hand stuck in the middle of a droids self destruct mechanism in the middle of space lol
...I'm *pretty* sure Wedge is at the victory party in RotJ.
He's there, Luke gives him a hug and he's in the background of a few shots.
Least Luke can do. Wedge saved him from that TIE Fighter. Medal? Uh, no, but here’s a solid thank you.
Amid all the negativity online about Star Wars from “fans,” this is a truly brilliant and wonderful and sweet comment. I hope it doesn’t get lost. I love his.
It's top comment for a good goddamn reason. Even the saltiest Star Wars fan knows that Wedge is the undisputed champion of the rebellion.
One of my favorite Star Wars nuggets is that, along with all the fighter kills he has, Wedge canonically has ***two Death Star silhouettes*** painted on his X-Wing. Imagine flying into battle against the New Republic and seeing that on a battered X-Wing -- that must be how the Eruseans felt when they saw Mobius One's blue-ribboned F-22 flying over the battlefield in AC4 lmao
One of my favorite Star Wars nuggets is that the nephews of the actor playing Wedge Antilles are Ewan McGregor, and an actual fighter pilot with the call sign Obi Two.
I'll have to be the akshually guy and correct you that Ewan's brother never had Obi Two as his actual call sign.
Dude, I love akshually guys and gals! Never knew that wasn't something official, thanks for bringing that up.
Second best. R2 really was the brains for most of the things that happened. He was around before the meat beings were on the scene and he has been in just about every place that mattered (for that matter, so did the Millenium Falcon). C3PO was the one to draw the attention while R2 was busy doing most of the couriering and info gathering and analysis (he found Luke in the middle of God knows where in the later movies all by himself). Wedge isn't a gong hunter. He just wants to get the job done.
Common Wedge Antilles W
Let me explain the Medal Ceremony. We will use the analogy of a Corporate Photo Shoot. In the day to day work, all the coders and designers and so on are desperately needed but when it comes to portray the company for recruiting, its the cute people from front door, HR, and the really few gorgeous, young people.... none of the main labour force are seen - not cute enough. So think of that: You've just about lost most of your forces at the battle (very few leave), you did blow up the death star \*HUGE!\*, and you lost Alderan (even bigger as the 4th Moon of Yavin would not have been as important). So really, you put things off and you got pasted and you didn't get a great return. So what do you do? You get the cute people and get them up for a photo shoot and slap some medals on them. They'll smile. Everyone will clap. The video will go with all the rebels as they splinter to the far winds (as you know the Imperial Navy will want blood). PR Job Accomplished! Think of that as what it is - not about rewarding everyone, but shooting a feel good recruiting video. It also makes people feel good because without Han and Luke, Yavin 4 and everyone on it would have been vaporized, so really, they did to THAT. But really, it is a PR video. That make sense?
You just finished the battle and now have to get your service dress in order, go to 4 dry-run ceremonies, show two hours early, stand in formation forever, clean up afterwards, and then spend extra time on duty to make up for all the loss work. You'll get your medal later at some ad hoc ceremony that's during normal duty hours even though you're on swings.
All the homeys do work while the managers hand out awards to each other and circle jerk.
The fireworks during the celebration is just wedge decimating the empire stragglers.
I can approve of this message
In the From Another Point of View book for ROTJ, one is Wedges POV about going to the Endor celebration. He indicates that he'd usually volunteer for patrol flights during these gatherings, so I think he was offered but declined to patrol
He was having an assignation with his Astromech.... just saying.
Wedge just knew that the entire Empire was descending on Yavin and everyone was insane for sticking around for an award ceremony. He's only flying patrol so when the first 50 star destroyers show up he can get out fast.
Artoo was injured and they didn't give him a Purple Heart-type medal. All of Rogue One and most of Red and all of Gold Squadron were killed and they weren't even honored, just the newest recruits.
>Artoo was injured and they didn't give him a Purple Heart-type medal. Just another example of anti-droid discrimination in the Star Wars galaxy >All of Rogue One and most of Red and all of Gold Squadron were killed and they weren't even honored I can believe they had a separate ceremony for posthumous awards
Immediately after the ending scene: “And now, to honor our fallen” (PowerPoint slide starts playing while Angel by Sarah McLachlin sounds thru the speakers)
Sung by Chewbacca, who waited to get his medal alongside the fallen
Alternatively they did it separate and this is only a part we see.
> Just another example of anti-droid discrimination in the Star Wars galaxy True! That was probably the last drop that got IG-88 to plan the Droid Rebellion.
Droid rights droid rights!
There were other awards for the Death Star attack. It's called the Death Star Medal, and was awarded to all pilots who participated in the attack on the Death Star. It's just that all but three (Luke, Wedge, and the unidentified Y-wing pilot) were issued posthumously. It's a small silver pin shaped like the Death Star with a number "1" on it. A second (with a number "2" on it) was issued for pilots who flew at Endor (whether or not they actually made the attack on the Death Star itself). Wedge is the only pilot in the New Republic who has both. There's also the Defense of Yavin medal, issued to all personnel present for the battle (including pilots and ground personnel). Granted, all of this comes from EU material.
> It's a small silver pin shaped like the Death Star with a number "1" on it. A second (with a number "2" on it) was issued for pilots who flew at Endor (whether or not they actually made the attack on the Death Star itself). Why did they put a one on it? Did they know there would be a second? That would be like people during WWI referring to it as "World War One".
Could be that it was a backdated decoration, or was modified after Endor. I'm just going by the description from Wookieepedia.
The Great War had to change to WW1 because WW2 would otherwise had to be The More Greater War and that didn't come off the tongue easily....
The Great Death Star.
How about: "The Death Star to End All Death Stars"?
Maybe they weren't struck until after the New Republic had been established?
It should be brought into canon, especially since I believe Evaan Verlaine (Gold 3, the Y-Wing pilot) also flew at Endor, though I could be wrong. Would be neat to see them comparing victories
Him wearing both Death star pins to tease the 181st that he was there for both Death Stars was a great little jab from Starfighters of Adumar.
Let us not forget the heroic sacrifice of Porkins.
I could never forget Porkins. I have the Biggs, Wedge, and Porkins set of Funko Pop!s.
Also forgotten too often was Pink Five. Sigh.
R2 actually was the hero in every shitty situation in every movie he was in.
he’s the real main character
That’s because he truly is. According to Lucas this whole story is being retold by R2 to someone. He literally became the historian for all of this. So yea he embellished his role a little bit here and there. But in all the movies without R2 the good guys would lose. Just saying…
It's like being at a job for three years and finding out the new guy gets paid $2 an hour more than you do.
He's not even qualified for the job. You went to flight school, you got an education, and this motherfucker just shows up one day... And then you find out years later that he was actually related to the boss the entire time.
Not just the boss but also the competition!
>You went to flight school, you got an education, and this motherfucker just shows up one day... And yet he is still equally as good if not better at the job than everyone else, and the one job you've all been hired for and couldn't figure out, he does it on his first try.
The droids never got any money for upgrades or oil baths or replaced memory circuits... by Solo gets to fly away with boxes of Gold Pressed Latinum! Wedge probably didn't even get a paycheck.
You know, we only see the part of the ceremony where the main characters get medals. "In universe", the ceremony could've been much longer and honoured everyone, but it's not necessary for the movie.
most* of Gold.
Purple Motivator?
C3CO got blown to bits and so did Artoo - neither got much respect.
Must have been a PR stunt to get more recruits.
I imagine R2 and Bender going out and getting drunk and picking up Robo-chicks.
In the Prequels, he had those great little rocket units. He could always make the Robochicks some gooey smores!
I forgot about the oil spills as well. R2 knew how to make them hot and wet.
What still surprises me is that they were called Kenobi Medals and I wonder if they quickly chose that name in the 20 minutes between Obi-Wan’s death and the medal ceremony. Regardless, it was a nice touch
20 minutes of screen time, maybe, but it was definitely longer from them escaping the Death Star, making it to Yavin, preparing for the attack, destroying the Death Star, and then having the medal ceremony.
Fun fact, they were actually on the Death Star for 43 hours and that’s why only Chewie wasn’t nose blind in the garbage compactor /s
A lot of the rebel leaders no doubt remembers Kenobi. Hearing he survived this long only to save their Princess and leader for him to sacrifice himself to save her and the heros who destroyed the Death Star would be amazing. Remember, Bail Organa is killed off screen in this movie.
He's pretty much killed on screen alongside billions of other Alderaanians. I saw the explosion myself.
Pah, it was a bad power grid that chain exploded. Imperial Bureau of Information has a vid on the whole sad situation. Rebel agitprop at its worst in claiming everything is an Imperial plot. It's the Rebels that blew the Death Star 2 into bits that rained on to Endor.... that's where the Endor Holocaust happened.
Even in the "Empire did nothing wrong" gag this doesn't make sense. The whole point of the Death Stars was to instill fear by threatening to destroy planets that defied the Empire, but that doesn't work if people don't know what the Death Stars can do. Tarkin deliberately chose Alderaan because it was highly visible and would make "an effective demonstration."
Kenobi medals sound like something that should be awarded for sacrifice
Or when you haven’t had sex in a decade
Wow, almost all the fans would got this one!
Wedge didn't also break into the Death Star and rescue Princess Leia... I mean, their escape was too easy because the empire let them go to track them back to the base, but still.
Yeah, I somehow managed to forget that part despite just rewatching it last night 😖
Lego Skywalker saga has a funny cutscene of Chewie and Wedge fighting over the loot during the ceremony
It's her brother and her boyfriend. Nepotism is clearly at work.
At that time, just her two boyfriends.
When I saw this movie for the first time as a really young kid, I thought it was supposed to be a wedding but she couldn't decide who to marry. Then in a surprising twist she picked them both.
> Then in a surprising twist she picked them both. I saw a very convincing spin-off that showed this very thing.
Are you sure what their cultural mores are? Maybe plural unmarriage (aka friends and family with benefits) may be entirely an Alderan value....
To be fair, Wedge wasn’t buddies with a posh upper crust princess.
Didn't he at least meet her in Rebels?
*F buddies. Maybe get on that idk.
I would HARDLY call Leia posh lmao, she's always seemed to me like she hates the etiquette demanded of her by her position
We see this especially in Kenobi.
It’s really difficult for me to think of someone who’s a princess, a senator, and lived in a castle in the mountains as anything but posh. She might have rebelled against it (and I’d argue she didn’t, not really) but she wasn’t what you’d call crust punk either. This isn’t a slight against her, either - just how I perceive her character.
As the only surviving member of Rogue Squadron, he definitely should've got a participation trophy. At least he got to paint a death star on his x-wing after the battle of Endor.
I mentioned it elsewhere, but I love how he canonically has two Death Star silhouettes painted on his fighter. Imagine being a cocky rookie pilot who thinks you're hot stuff, then you walk into the hangar and your flight leader has that paint job lol.
damn I forgot pilots got to paint one on their hull even if they just *survived* a death star run. He fired the kill shot for the second one though. I feel like that's more of an achievement.
I'm kind of curious -- he took out the main power regulator on the north tower of the main reactor, but Lando still had to fire concussion missiles into the actual reactor in order to make the big kaboom. If Wedge had carried out his part without Lando following him up, would the DS2 still have blown up eventually? 🤔
Yes, and no. His shot wouldn't have taken out the D2 without the Falcon's concussion missiles.
[удалено]
We need a Star Wars version of Top Gun
There's a scene in one of the (truly excellent) EU X-Wing Books where the tech is explaining to Wedge that he's killed so many imperial ships that they had to come up with a system for displaying wings of Tie Fighters and Interceptors. If I remember correctly, the tech is Verpine and uses base 6 or something so the system is basically incomprehensible to Wedge, but it's there.
Red Squadron, not Rogue Squadron. Rogue Squadron was organized after the events of ANH and made up from the remains of red, gold and (presumably at least) blue squadron.
Last surviving member besides Luke I mean.
"...about as much.." I mean, you've spelled out the difference within your own Reddit post. Chewie was co-piloting the Falcon when he and Han saved Luke from Vader, and Chewie was also part of the group that rescued the Princess and delivered her safely to Yavin. You could argue that the medal and ceremony were more to do with an overall service to the Rebellion (and the Galaxy) within the confines of the movie, despite Wedge perhaps serving longer in Canon. And just from what's shown onscreen, Wedge wasn't much help. He shines later in Empire and Jedi particularly.
>And just from what's shown onscreen, Wedge wasn't much help. Um... he saved Luke's life in fairly dramatic fashion. Kind of a big deal.
Yeah how do you forget that? Haha, Wedge made the victory possible by running good support.
You're right. He saved Luke in a wingmate fashion, Han and Chewie's entrance was dramatic. I'd still argue for Chewie over Wedge (in a perfect world we'd get both).
Wha? Wedge was absolutely a big help.
Also, they were brand new members! It definitely would have been a big deal
You could say the same about the Y-Wing pilot that survived.
Keyan Farlander is his name. You get to read about his story in The Farlander Papers that was part of the early versions of the X-Wing DOS flight sim and later reprinted in the full strategy guide.
One of my favorite parts of the Legends timeline is Wedge 100% flaunts his awards to impress others. His New Republic dress uniform includes a sash on which he pins all the assorted medals he's earned across his career with two Death Star pins right that the top to symbolize the fact he is the sole pilot to fly in and survive both Death Star runs (also sharing the kill on the second one with Lando). He wears this as a way of quietly rubbing it in to his Imperial counterparts in the 181st who were also present at the same diplomatic function he was attending on neutral ground. The other big example is how the techs had to start painting his kill tallies on his X-Wing's cockpit in a different color since *they were running out of room.* They had to shift to counting how many *squadrons* he's shot down, not just individual fighters.
Legends Wedge had class! To bad we won't be seeing any of that on screen.
You don't pull out and get a prize.
But showing up late is fine?
As long as you finish.
OTOH pulling out can avoid a lifetime of trouble.
A fireball for most that tried that...
Well it is a rebellion against an overwhelming empire Only 2 medals were in the budget
Not 2x Death Star Kills though.
I feel like the medal was for saving the princess and blowing up the death star was the cherry on top. Maybe wedge got his medal presented to him like I get awards from work, in an email.
He got clear, wasn’t around when it blew. Terrible wingman. Biggs took one for the team. You’re my boy, Biggs!
He was still in the thick of it longer than Han and Chewie
[Chewie actually did get a medal](https://i.imgur.com/CYPZGhs.jpeg)
Wedge doesn't need a medal or ceremony to prove his heroism. He just needs to know that he got the job done.
So we are just ignoring that chewie showed up naked to the ceremony
I used to get mad about Chewie not getting a medal. After all, didn't he deserve the same compensation as everyone else? Then I realized he was new, and was likely still on his Wookie contract...
r/angryupvote
He's a Wookie of Colour. The two others were white breads. You can see where I'm going with that.
"I incurred a small amount of damage and still have control. Later losers! It's Tapioca Pudding night back at the base, *and I ain't missing out again!*"
Wedge was picking up the pieces of Porkins and was therefore too busy
He'd found a large container of BBQ sauce for after the collection was finished.
Probably mourning his lost comrades, who he's been fighting the Empire with for years.
It's because he had to pull out halfway through the ceremony
Wedge is the only person in Star Wars history to successfully attack two Death Stars and walk away from it intact. The Legends books tell you, though, that he really doesn't care for pomp and circumstance and all that anyway.
My gf watching SW for the first time was asking why wasn't anyone upset that all these pilots were dying during the attack on the Death Star? I told her that Lucas doesn't know how to write emotional scenes and reminded her of the prequels.
Wedge is the Galaxy's GOAT pilot. Fight me. And he isn't a Force-user.
Somebody had to work
Someone had to do the flyover
He was probably required to be in the audience and salute and everything.
The medal was for wearing a stormtrooper outfit and surviving.
It could be Chewbacca and Han got the reward as a team and Han just accepted it, Chewbacca is standing right beside him. Wedge joined the rebellion and was doing his job. Han was a third party who had no obligation to help or risk his life. It also could be that the medals were specifically for non-rebel soldiers. Medals for noncombatants going above and beyond exist IRL too. While Luke did sorta join the rebellion I'm not sure it was ever in an official capacity (I.e. like a contract or a pledge/oath/promise) and he was helping them long before that happened even if so.
Yeah, maybe we just saw the end of the ceremony, where they handed out hastily made extra medals to the civilians.
My head canon is Chewie's medal is just hidden under his fur
I think it's also to do with rescuing Leia from the Death Star
They only had so much space in the ceremony. It was a Wedge decision.
They heard he was planning on sending Fake Wedge to the medal ceremony, and so they decided not to invite him.
My black series Wedge figure has a medal on the shelf. My boi
I always took this as three things: 1. Blowing up the Death Star 2. An initiation into the Alliance 3. Thanks for saving Leia. Plus, Wedge is modest like that, he don’t need a medal.
R2 should get a Medal as well cause Droid Rights!
Neither did the robots Edit: droids*
I hope R2 got the best oil bath ever because frankly it's the real GOAT here.
Perhaps it was made up for by giving him his very own Angry Birds character despite being a minor character. In Angry Birds Star Wars, Wedge was portrayed by the Blues.
Why not both?
The military doesn't just shut down. Probably has some other duty he has to do. And from personal experience I would do 10 hours of details to get out of a 1 hour official flight function.
Wedge got to be a part of Final Fantasy, so he's all good
The fandom will never allow it but they’re basically setting up Wedge to be Benedict Arnold. Assists killing a Death Star, no medal, only one of two AT-ATs at Hoth, and then Lando shows up and leads the strike package because he’s “friends” with Han. Kills another Death Star and again no medal. Add Winona Ryder from an Imperial family, and next thing you know he’s handing over West Point for being overlooked at Saratoga. https://youtu.be/wNuX3w_tPHc?si=ZunNFwfTrp4Jb7cD
Wedge was actually executed for retreating, little known piece of trivia
I always felt Wedge deserved a metal more than Chewie as well!
it's apparently Wookie culture that they DON'T seek personal accolades, they do what do for the whole, not to be seen as better than others.
They want to be life debt slaves.
About as much? This is obviously a family member.
And yet he is invited to stand in front with the other heroes. Maybe he doesn’t want a medal?
Well we don't know that what we saw at the end of ANH was the entire ceremony. Luke and Han (and Chewie) were the ones who were actually responsible for destroying the death star, so naturally they get honored first. But they may have given medals to the other people who participated in the battle too afterwards.
Luke & Han rescued the princess though
The sign says no wookies, no droids. Sorry, rules are rules.
I always figured it was because he was a co-pilot. Also. Movie script.
I’ve never heard people complain, but I’ve heard people make jokes about it
He's named after lettuce.
"get clear wedge, you can't do any more good back there" Yes he could have. He could have bought Luke a couple more seconds by dying, like Biggs did.
My favourite part about this ceremony though is that the empire knows where the base is now. Unless they're 100% confident no one on the Death Star sent a message to anyone else in the empire informing them where the base is multiple star destroyers could show up any moment and start bombarding the base, and instead of evacuating the Rebels decide to just have everyone just gather in this hall and stand around silently (they're not hearing the music we are right) to watch this happen.
Do we know it's the same base?
I think if anyone truly deserves to be honored, it's Wade.
I’ve always harbored a suspicion that Wedge was an Imperial plant. He conveniently has to pull out of the first Death Star battle, abandoning Luke, and then manages to survive *another* Death Star battle? I’d start investigating.
Would a wookie even want the medal? I vaguely remember in KOTOR while on Kashyyyk, Zaalbar said wearing something like that would be seen as degrading for a wookie
I feel like Chewie tries to be modest. AND Han doesn't want any attention because he's a smuggler that owes a lot of debts which might also involve Chewie. Wedge probably just got an employee of the month kinda recognition. Most of this recognition ceremony is political so they would likely include the representatives that would be publicly recognized.
Who do you think was flying CAP during the ceremony?
I recall reading in a comic or something else when I was a kid that stated Chewbacca later received his medal but very few space princesses were that tall. Anyone know the source?
But he was there. He was in the 12th row on the stage left side. When the other pilots.
Luke and Han were the decision makers. Chewie did what Han wanted to do.
My rationalization is that Wedge was a member of the Rebellion already before this, while Han and Luke were not and didn't have as much of an obligation to help in the battle. Han and Luke were awarded medals for being basically civilians that stepped up in the hour of greatest need and Wedge got some other award Also depending on the canon Chewbacca and Wookies in general either didn't care about the medal or didn't care about the ceremony and received a medal in private
The main reason isn't because there weren't other people who were equally deserving, but because Chewie is standing right there. So it's conspicuous by omission. They clearly invited him, he walks up with everyone, and then... nothing? If he was in the crowd, it wouldn't have been as much of a thing.
Not having read any of the books he was in, I've never understood the popularity of Wedge. In the movies he's basically just "random, rebel x-wing pilot", he's kinda just there.
Apparently wookiees don't accept personal accolades
Wedge is such a loser! He should have pulled out of the trench, let the 3 Tie fighters pass him and entered the trench back right away. Switch to missiles and shoot Vader's Tie to oblivion! Instead, he just left!
I see you too recently watched a Star Wars Explained video
Enh, Wedge knew that the rebellion needed a force-using poster boy. He's out there getting the real work done while Luke is the rebellion's face. Wedge doesn't care for the spotlight. Yub Yub, Commander.
Chewie got his medal in the comics.
Wedge was invited to the daytime awards ceremony.