Episode 15 of Star Wars: The Bad Batch season 2 surprised us with another cameo appearance from a recurring Star Wars character as we saw the return of Saw Gerrera, who has always been one of the most impactful characters of the Rebellion as he was never someone who bowed down to an authoritative figure. Of course, not many people are familiar with this character. So, who is Saw Gerrera, and why does he always appear in Star Wars?
Saw Gerrera is a rebel and revolutionary from the planet called Onderon. He was initially a rebel to the monarch of Onderon and the Separatists during the Clone Wars. However, when the Empire rose to power, he was one of the first to rebel against the Empire and constantly participated in terrorist attacks.
We know that not all of the rebels in Star Wars are good people, and Saw is the very personification of the extreme side of the insurgents against the Empire, as he was willing to do whatever was needed to be done to try to cripple the Empire. That was why he always appeared in different Star Wars stories during the Imperial era.
The storyline of The Bad Batch season 2 steadily shifted to the mission of Clone Force 99 to infiltrate an Imperial compound so that they could get more intel regarding the whereabouts of Crosshair and the other clones that the Empire had detained. As such, their mission was supposed to go smoothly until a familiar face appeared to mess things up by causing a scene that alerted the Empire. We are talking about Saw Gerrera, who the Bad Batch tried to convince against blowing up the Imperial compound. So, who exactly is Saw Gerrera?
Saw Gerrera is an Onderonian human male born on the jungle planet of Onderon, which didn’t side with the Republic or the Separatists during the Clone Wars. He was first introduced as a young man during Star Wars: Clone Wars when he rebelled against the new monarch of Onderon because the planet’s new leader sided with Count Dooku as his puppet. In that regard, the Republic sent the Jedi to aid Saw’s rebellion against their planet’s leader, hoping he and his people would side with the Republic.
However, the death of Saw’s sister, Steela, changed Saw into a more violent and ruthless rebel that continued to fight the Separatists. Meanwhile, when the Republic became the Empire after the end of the Clone Wars, Saw was immediately branded as an insurgent because he was against the new regime, as he saw the Empire as a fascist government that only wanted to control the different systems throughout the galaxy.
In that regard, Saw Gerrera became one of the first rebels and insurgents to fight against the Empire, as we even saw him in season 1 of The Bad Batch. Clone Force 99 was sent to kill Gerrera and his insurgents, only for Hunter to disobey his orders. In that regard, Gerrera captured the Bad Batch before freeing them and giving Hunter a choice to pick a side. Of course, the Bad Batch didn’t choose to join Gerrera, which led to different opinions during episode 15 of season 2.
In his attempt to cripple the Empire, Saw continued to raid their bases using extreme measures that forced Mon Mothma and Bail Organa to cut ties with him as they saw his methods as unnecessarily extreme. Nevertheless, Saw continued to fight the Empire and was even an important character during the events of Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, wherein he was the leader of the rebels who tried to free the Wookiees of Kashyyk.
Of course, Saw’s ideals were good because he pursued freedom for the people of the galaxy. However, the problem was that he was a revolutionary willing to take innocent lives to prove a point. That meant that he was one of the more ruthless rebels in the galaxy, as he was ready to do whatever was needed to topple the Empire, regardless of whether or not his methods worked. And Saw also had a lot of followers that shared his ideals, as his group became known as the Partisans.
In the events of Andor, Saw returned in an episode involving him and the mysterious leader named Luthen Rael. While they initially had a confrontation that nearly turned violent, they eventually realized that they had the same philosophies, including their willingness to sacrifice lives to achieve what they thought was the greater good.
Saw’s final chronological appearance was during the events of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, wherein he was revealed to be the mentor of Jyn Erso. The two reunited in Jedha City because he carried a message from Galen Erso regarding the weakness of the newly completed Death Star. While the reunion wasn’t great at first because a fight happened between the Partisans and the crew of the Rogue One, Saw gave Jyn her father’s final message before allowing her and the crew of Rogue One to escape.
The Death Star arrived just on top of Jedha City, firing a small blast strong enough to destroy the entire city, with Saw still in it. Saw was killed in the blast as his last word was “Steela,” his deceased sister’s name.
Why Does Saw Guerrera Always Appear in Star Wars Projects?
As you can see, Saw Guerrera has had multiple appearances in many different Star Wars shows and movies. In fact, he has appeared in almost all of the Star Wars storylines that took place during the reign of the Empire and before the Battle of Yavin. So, why does Saw Gerrera always appear in Star Wars?
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Well, Saw was almost always in the mix because he was one of the most active rebels fighting the Empire. Unlike other rebels that rebelled in secret and were more likely to gather intel than fight the Empire in an outright battle, Saw preferred to use guerrilla warfare by using smaller raids and attacks on Imperial bases, ships, and compounds in the hopes that he would cripple the Empire with his tactics.
However, as we’ve seen in the different battles that Saw took part in, his methods never really worked because the Empire always found ways to recover from the damage he committed. In a way, Saw was merely a small-time terrorist in the eyes of the Empire as he committed acts of insurgency that may have been damaging to the Empire but not enough to warrant the attention of the higher-ups of the Imperial ladder as they could simply replace the officers and soldiers that Saw Gerrera killed.
Saw’s consistency as a recurring character in Star Wars also allows fans to see the other side of the rebels. He was a man that was willing to sacrifice lives for what he perceived to be the greater good. As such, we could call him the “bad side” of the Rebellion even though he only wanted freedom from the Empire. And the fact that he consistently appears in different shows and movies during the Imperial era is one of the ways that Star Wars uses to make us understand that terrorism and violent insurgency aren’t always the best ways to rebel.
