Wedge Antilles/Legends

"I am Wedge Antilles. I survived the Battle of Yavin. I survived the Battle of Hoth. Hell... Just a couple of weeks ago I blew up the Death Star during the Battle of Endor. The reason I'm still breathing when a lot of other good Rebel pilots aren't? Maybe it's because I'm better. Or maybe I'm just lucky."

- Wedge Antilles

Wedge Antilles was a legendary Corellian X-wing pilot, intelligence operative, and general who fought for the Rebel Alliance and New Republic from the earliest days of the Galactic Civil War through the Yuuzhan Vong War and beyond.

While Luke Skywalker was the last hope for the Jedi and Han Solo a natural leader, Wedge went down in galactic history as a man of the people, a "working class hero".

Antilles served in Starfighter Command for three decades, repeatedly defying terrifying odds, and was among the very few to survive the battles of Yavin, Hoth, and Endor. He was also the only pilot to have faced both Death Stars and survived.

Early life


Wedge's early life was split between attending school on Corellia and working aboard the Gus Treta space station with his older sister Syal, where his parents, Jagged and Zena, operated a starship-refueling depot. Syal ran away from home when Wedge was 7, and they did not meet again until following the Battle of Endor. Wedge spent half of every year of his youth at a farm school on Corellia and spent the other half on the orbital station, learning how to pilot and service starships.

When Wedge was 17, the pirate Loka Hask pulled away from the station while the fuel lines were still attached to his craft, Buzzzer. The resulting fireball would have killed all aboard had the Antilles not sacrificed themselves to save the station. Wedge was devastated and set out in a dilapidated Z-95 Headhunter borrowed from Corellian smuggler Booster Terrik to seek vengeance. Numb with shock and determination, Wedge tracked the pirates to the Jumus system and coldly obliterated Buzzzer, though Hask escaped.

Early Galactic Civil War
"Look at the size of that thing!"

- Wedge Antilles, in reference to the first Death Star

Insurance money allowed Wedge to buy a freighter, and he spent several years running supplies for Terrik to the nascent Rebellion. He only joined its starfighter division during an open call for pilots. On one early mission Antilles discovered an Imperial testing base where the Empire was testing some enhancements to TIE fighters. Antilles's discovery led to the Rebels dispatching a lone Y-wing to destroy the prototype fighters.

He was later one of four pilots (along with Biggs Darklighter, Jek Porkins and Cesi Eirriss) who assisted Captain Nera Dantels in bringing badly needed R2 units to Yavin 4. Upon returning to Yavin 4, he joined in the attack on the first Death Star, flying an X-wing in the unit designated Red Squadron as Red Two, alongside Biggs and Luke Skywalker. It was during the pilots' approach to the station that Antilles uttered the immortal words, "Look at the size of that thing!". Wedge acquitted himself well in the battle, scoring six kills on Imperial starfighters. Following Skywalker into the trench, he was forced to pull away when a TIE fighter's laser fire shredded his fighter's stabilizer. He was one of the few pilots to survive the attack on the mammoth battle station. By the time of the Battle of Endor, Wedge had been promoted to the position of Red Leader.



Afterwards, he founded Rogue Squadron along with Luke Skywalker, an outfit instrumental in the years following the Battle of Yavin. Within a few weeks, Wedge, Wes Janson, and Tycho Celchu were leading a mission to Kwenn Space Station. He protected the base on Yavin 4 from numerous Imperial raids and eventually assisted in the evacuation. He was transferred to Gobindi for several weeks before participating in Rogue Squadron missions on Ralltiir and Tatooine. Wedge also found himself flying with Red Squadron and Commander Narra on numerous occasions, and also saw action at Jabiim, Kalist VI, Per Lupelo and an attack on Thila (during which the Wookiee Chewbacca was an unwilling passenger). By the year's end, he was instrumental in the campaign against Moff Kohl Seerdon During this campaign, at the Battle of Kile II, he was captured by the Empire and shipped to the spice world of Kessel for processing, but he was rescued by his wingmates in Rogue Squadron before the prison Hover Train could deliver him to the main facility there.

Wedge flew a modified T-47 airspeeder with Rogue Squadron during the Battle of Hoth, destroying an AT-AT. Later in the battle, he flew his X-wing as a transport escort during the Rebel retreat. As part of Rogue Squadron, Antilles was instrumental in several key Rebellion victories between Hoth and Endor, including the First Battle of Bakura, Second Battle of Geonosis (Galactic Civil War), the Mission at Destrillion and the Battle of Dubrillion, where he disabled a superlaser targeting the orbiting Rebel fleet. Antilles also helped infiltrate the Fondor shipyards in a TIE Hunter to destroy a partially completed Super Star Destroyer during the part of the Battle of Fondor (Galactic Civil War). He soon became leader of Rogue Squadron after Luke Skywalker left to continue his Jedi training and participated in the Battle of Gall, and the rescue of Princess Leia Organa from Coruscant. On both those occasions, Wedge and the Rogues ran interference to the Millennium Falcon to escape, despite being vastly outnumbered.

During this time, Wedge, Luke, and Wes Janson began to tell new recruits to Rogue Squadron a fictional tale set during the evacuation of Hoth; one that involved Wedge and Wes being shot down and Janson dying on the planet. When the story was concluded, Wes would step out, alive, and startle the new recruit quite handily.

Following Prince Xizor's death, Wedge and Rogue Squadron destroyed the Super Star Destroyer Vengeance in the Airam Sector, and Wedge stole the shuttle Tydirium from the Prefsbelt IV Naval Academy.

Wedge flew at the Battle of Endor, leading one of the four main starfighter divisions of the Alliance fleet. Once the shield around the second Death Star was disabled, he flew into the station's superstructure and was jointly credited (along with Lando Calrissian) for the station's destruction. This made Wedge the only pilot to survive both Death Star runs- an achievement clearly pointing to his prowess in a starfighter.



Defender of the New Republic
Almost immediately after the Battle of Endor, Wedge was on salvage duty when an Imperial messenger droid arrived in system. Wedge nearly lost several fingers in an attempt to stop the droid's self-destruct, but was saved by Luke Skywalker. Wedge would later fly at Bakura fighting the Ssi-Ruuk. He was again one of the few to survive the Imperial betrayal during the Battle of Bakura.

In the years following the Battle of Endor, Wedge, along with Tycho Celchu, Wes Janson and Derek "Hobbie" Klivian would be the core nucleus around which Rogue Squadron was formed. Immediately following the Battle of Endor, they would participate in the conflict at Bakura against the Ssi-Ruuk, and defend against the invasion by the Nagai and the Tofs. During the next year, Wedge and the Rogues would participate in many important missions for the New Republic, although the most important (that of capturing Imperial Grand Vizier Sate Pestage), ended in failure.

It was shortly after this failure that Wedge temporarily broke up the Rogues and participated in many different PR events for the New Republic. It soon became apparent that in order to solidify the New Republic as a major force in the galaxy, the Empire would need to be driven off Coruscant. To that end, Wedge reformed Rogue Squadron in 6.5 ABY, bringing in many new recruits that would go on to become as famous as he himself had been during the height of the Rebellion: Former CorSec officer&mdash;and later Jedi Knight&mdash;Corran Horn, the Gand Findsman Ooryl Qrygg, and Gavin Darklighter, who would himself become leader of the Rogues during the Yuuzhan Vong War.

In the initial missions of the reformed Rogue Squadron, Wedge would lead the Rogues as they destroyed an Imperial Lancer-class frigate, defended themselves against a stormtrooper attack on Talasea, and level the Imperial base on Vladet. The unit's mechanic, Zraii, ran out of space on the fuselage of his X-wing to display his starfighter kills, displaying them instead in units of 48 or even 144 kills per symbol. Wedge chose Tycho Celchu as his executive officer, despite General Horton Salm's protests that Tycho was a traitor.

In the following missions, Wedge lead the Rogues in ill-fated attempt to take the planet Borleias, an important staging area for an assault on Coruscant. While the Rogues were forced to flee from the stronger than anticipated defenses, Wedge and the Rogues returned shortly after with a new attack plan formulated by Corran Horn and successfully took Borleias. In the fighting, Horn was left behind at Borleias, and Wedge planned an immediate return to rescue him as soon as the fighters were refueled. However, he was pleasantly surprised to learn that Horn was still alive and had actually beat the Rogues back to base thanks to a surprise rescue by Tycho Celchu and Mirax Terrik.

Conqueror of Coruscant
Thanks to the capture of Borleias, the stage was now set for the Alliance's assault on Coruscant. First, Wedge led the Alliance effort to free members of Black Sun from Kessel and insert them into Coruscant to harass the Empire under Ysanne Isard. Wedge and the other Rogues were inserted covertly into Coruscant to pinpoint targets of opportunity and gauge the level of resistance. Under the guise of Colonel Antar Roat, Wedge and Pash Cracken surveyed the capital for some period, at which point he was instructed to try and find a way to bring the planetary shields down for an invasion. Wedge, unbeknownst to almost everyone, had secretly placed Tycho Celchu on Coruscant as a back-up in case things went awry. When the spy in Rogue Squadron- Erisi Dlarit, and Black Sun member Zekka Thyne betrayed an attempt to slice in code to lower the shields, Tycho was able to rescue the Wedge and the other Rogues, along with members of the Alien Combine from certain death or capture. However, Wedge suffered some cracked ribs in the fighting. Wedge then led a crew to take over a construction droid to act as a diversion while the Rogues used an orbital mirror to start a monstrous thunderstorm, which brought down the shields.

Wedge was then widely proclaimed as the "Conqueror of Coruscant," and was a key speaker at the funeral of Corran Horn, believed dead under suspicious causes. It was on Coruscant that Wedge first became acquainted with his future wife, Iella Wessiri. However, on his first attempt to take her out to dinner, Wedge was surprised to find her husband, Diric Wessiri, had returned unexpectedly. Wedge enjoyed getting to know Diric, although Iella was forced to shoot him later, a source of much pain for both of them. In the following weeks, Wedge helped neutralize the station at Yag'Dhul, escort a bacta convoy, study the Krytos virus, and lead a diplomatic mission to Ryloth all the while trying to prove Tycho Celchu's innocence during his trial for murder and treason. Wedge did testify in the case, but felt his testimony did more harm than good. As the trial came to a head, Wedge successfully destroyed an airspeeder carrying a bomb that was targeting a bacta center after a harrowing chase through the crowded metropolis of Coruscant.

Immediately afterward, the Super Star Destroyer Lusankya blasted its way out of Coruscant to Thyferra, where Ysanne Isard immediately took control. Wedge and the rest of the Rogues, including a newly escaped Corran Horn, resigned their commissions to fight what became known as the Bacta War. A positive side effect of the reappearance of Isard and the escape of Horn was that Tycho Celchu was acquitted, to Wedge's great delight. As Isard fled in Lusankya, the real spy in Rogue Squadron, Erisi Dlarit, fled to join her mistress.

The Bacta War and beyond


Antilles, operating from the Yag-prime station at Yag'Dhul, led Rogue Squadron in a stunning campaign that resulted in the capture of an Imperial Star Destroyer and a Super Star Destroyer, the downfall of the Bacta Cartel, and the apparent end of Ysanne Isard- all while operating largely independent from the New Republic or any other government. He was aided by Elscol Loro, Iella Wessiri, Booster Terrik, Talon Karrde, and Tal'dira's squadron of Chir'daki fighters. Upon the successful resolution to the Bacta War, Wedge and the Rogues were informed that their resignations had been 'misplaced,' and they were allowed to rejoin the New Republic.

Wedge also went on to found Wraith Squadron after the Bacta War in 7 ABY, leading them during the New Republic campaign against Warlord Zsinj. During this campaign, Wedge would endure the strain of trying to manage the washed-out, rejected pilots of the Wraiths, the effects of Zsinj's Project Minefield and Project Funeral, the apparent duplicity of Lara Notsil, crewing aboard a dilapidated YT-1300 freighter named the Millennium Falsehood, and Wes Janson's horrible jokes and pranks. Wedge also proved himself not only a competent commander, but an understanding one as well, even bending regulations to provide a much-needed morale boost on the cruiser Mon Remonda.

He would return to Rogue Squadron shortly after Zsinj's defeat and lead them during the Thrawn campaign. At the start of Thrawn's attacks, Wedge accompanied Han Solo as a backup man during Han's attempts to get smugglers to ally themselves with the New Republic. After Thrawn attacked Bpfassh, Wedge was part of the New Republic delegation sent to assess the damage. When the Noghri commandos attacked the party trying to seize Princess Leia, Wedge helped fend off the attackers.

Wedge was kept busy throughout Thrawn's reign of terror, serving primarily from an X-wing cockpit in battles such as the Battle of Sluis Van and the Battle for the Katana fleet. He also served as a back-up man for Han Solo when meeting with fringe groups to request their support. Also, Wedge and the Rogues would provide an escort for Leia Organa Solo and the Millennium Falcon on a number of occasions. Wedge was present at the final Battle of Bilbringi, which saw the ultimate defeat of Thrawn. Thanks to some help provided by one of Talon Karrde's captains, Aves, Wedge and the Rogues were able to penetrate the Bilbringi shipyard and successfully attack a Golan II orbital defense platform. Shortly after the conclusion of that conflict, he accepted the rank of general, and commanded the Star Destroyer Emancipator during the First Battle of Mon Calamari. After his acceptance of the rank of general, he came up with the Antilles Four-Step Instant Speech.



After the fall of Coruscant, Antilles was ordered to reconfigure Rogue Squadron into a multi-fighter unit. Antilles felt this would destroy the cohesion of the unit, but his commanders felt that the prestige coming from using the Rogue Squadron name would be worth it. Antilles established a force using V-wing airspeeders, B-wings, and E-wings, with over 100 starfighters in total devoted to Rogue Squadron. For that reason, he chose to base it on Lusankya. During this time it fought in the First Battle of Mon Calamari and Second Battle of Phaeda, although the Lusankya (under Antilles' command) did not join the squadron in battle until the latter conflict. Later, he gave up fleet command (though he kept his rank) to return to his activities as a pilot and occasional covert agent. After the reborn Emperor's attack in 10 ABY, Wedge played an important role in rebuilding Coruscant and salvaging orbital debris.

In 11 ABY, Wedge also led the mission to the Maw cluster to rescue the Wookiee prisoners held there. He ran into more than he could handle when Admiral Daala in an Imperial star Destroyer and Tol Sivron in the prototype Death Star returned to the Maw after Wedge had captured it. He had a brief romance with Qwi Xux (one of the principal designers of the first Death Star) which developed after he was assigned as her bodyguard, but they later parted on good terms. Wedge and the majority of his forces escaped and both threats were ended with the aid of Han Solo and Kyp Durron. The next year Wedge was placed in charge of the mission to destroy the Hutt superweapon Darksaber. From the frigate Yavaris, Wedge led a full scale attack on the weapon before it was destroyed by an asteroid collision.



He took on a diplomat's role in 13 ABY, when he, Tycho, Wes and Hobbie were assigned as the New Republic's official envoy to the planet Adumar. Even with a corrupt Intelligence leader and a hundred starfighters to contend with, Wedge managed to win Adumar over to the New Republic side through his own methods, which resulted in the unification of Adumar. Wedge also later fought in the Battle of Adumar, which ended the Imperial threat to Adumar and affected the desertion of Imperial Admiral Teren Rogriss. Wedge met Iella Wessiri again on Adumar, and eventually proposed to her. She accepted, and they were married after the Adumar incident was over.

Wedge commanded a New Republic fleet in the Battle of Almania in 17 ABY. It was Wedge who deduced that the opposing Star Destroyers were controlled by droids. Wedge exploited that weakness to win the battle. Then under Garm Bel Iblis's command, he and Corran Horn investigated the "Vengeance" organization on Bothawui during the Caamas Document crisis in 19 ABY. He also flew at the head of Rogue Squadron during the Battle of Yaga Minor which marked an end to the Galactic Civil War.

Wedge eventually retired after the end of the Galactic Civil War. He and Iella had two daughters, Syal and Myri.

Yuuzhan Vong War
"Antilles, you are obviously deranged. You should have been put out to pasture years ago." "I was, Pwoe. I should have been left there. And if the Advisory Council had conducted its part of the war with the Yuuzhan Vong in any competent fashion, I could have been left there."

- Councilor Pwoe and General Wedge Antilles



When the extent of the Yuuzhan Vong threat became clear to the New Republic, Antilles was asked to reenter active duty. Holding his old rank of General, Antilles was placed in command of one of the three fleets defending Coruscant. During this time Wedge and Iella allowed Han and Leia to take Syal and Myri to Maw with Luke's and Mara's son, Ben Skywalker, and the other Jedi children. Following the fall of Coruscant, Antilles and his fleet fled to the Pyria system where they retook the planet Borleias from Yuuzhan Vong control.

After taking the planet, Antilles established the Blackmoon as his base of operations, collecting scattered fleet elements that had retreated from Coruscant. While preparing to receive the Yuuzhan Vong counterattack, members of the Advisory Council arrived in-system. Led by Senator Pwoe, the Council members ordered Antilles to prepare a delaying action at Borleias to provide enough time for their escape. Realizing that a static defense of the system would not hold long against a full Yuuzhan Vong assault force, Antilles managed to wrangle more ships and even the vaunted Lusankya out of the remaining New Republic space forces. With these new resources, Wedge put into motion his plan for the defense of Borleias, using the Starlancer feint to draw a large contingent of Vong forces to attack.

During the preparations, Antilles also oversaw the formation of the Insiders, a resistance group inside the New Republic which intended to place agents on Vong worlds and set up resistance groups against both the Yuuzhan Vong and the perceived-incompetent New Republic government.



In the heat of the battle that followed, Antilles managed to single-handedly escape in an abandoned X-wing, destroy at least entire squadron of coralskippers, and return to the fleet without even the aid of an astromech droid, a great achievement for the aging ace pilot. Even though his own fleet was nearly wiped out, the New Republic counted the Battle of Borleias a victory, as it took months for the Yuuzhan Vong to retake the planet, thus giving time for the other survivors of the attack on Coruscant to regroup.

Antilles continued leading elements of the Galactic Alliance Defense Force throughout the war, and partook in the Liberation of Coruscant, where he flew an X-wing in an attempt to prevent a modified coralskipper infected with Alpha Red from infecting Zonama Sekot.

Second Corellian Crisis
"You're looking for the wrong man."

- Wedge



Wedge retired after the end of the Vong war, and did not participate in the Swarm War. When tensions escalated between the Galactic Alliance and his homeworld of Corellia, Wedge initially resolved to remain retired and not to choose between his allegiance to the Alliance and his allegiance to his homeworld. However, after Galactic Alliance Intelligence operatives came to his home and moved him to a holding cell on Coruscant, his decision became much easier. After escaping, he took up the position of General in the Corellian Defense Force, eventually becoming a coordinator between the Minister of War of the Corellian system and the Five World Prime Minister Aidel Saxan. Wedge was responsible for planning the assault on the planet Tralus in a way which would not kill a large number of Corellian civilians. Along with Han Solo, he commanded Corellian forces at the Battle of Tralus, where he fought against his own daughter, Syal Antilles. Wedge also openly disagreed with and condemned some of the more dangerous actions Thrackan Sal-Solo planned.

He later appointed Han Solo to the rank of admiral and commanded the Corellian forces that broke the Blockade of Corellia.

Personality
"Blackmoon Eleven, what did you think you were doing going after an entire squadron?" "My job." "That's 'My job, sir.'" "My job, sir." "Son, if you develop piloting skills in proportion to your nerve, someday they'll call you the greatest pilot of all time.... Blackmoon Eleven, are you still there?"

- Gavin Darklighter and (unbeknownst to Gavin) Wedge Antilles

Wedge Antilles was a passionate, fun-loving, committed man who would rather fly starfighters than anything else. For many years, Wedge had no life except for the Rebel Alliance, and distanced himself emotionally from most relationships, going so far as to insulate himself from many of his pilots so that he would not be hurt by their inevitable deaths. Wedge carried the burden of command and of lost friends for all his life; in some way, he had survivor's guilt. However, he did have a circle of close friends, and Wedge enjoyed being around them as well as being known for looking out for the bests interests of those around him.

He was, however, a Corellian fighter pilot, and as such had no respect for odds and was, as Mirax Terrik Horn put it, "so egotistical you (Wedge) think you can keep your ego under control", his single saving grace being that most of the time he did--and when he indulged his ego as a pilot, it tended to be his enemies, not he or his friends, who suffered for it. According to his future wife, Iella Wessiri, Wedge was quite different in the cockpit, capable of amazing and unpredictable actions that kept him alive through many engagements.

Romances
For much of his life, Wedge did not consider relationships with others, as he was busy serving the Alliance, and later the New Republic, although he did fall in love with a girl named Mala early in his life. Following the Battle of Endor, he briefly romanced Reina Faleur. His first serious, long-term romance was with Iella Wessiri, whom he met while undercover on Coruscant, primarily after the death of her husband. Wedge continued to see her through the campaign against Zsinj, but apparently the two grew more distant.

Later, when he was assigned to free the prisoners at the Maw Installation, Wedge met and was assigned to guard Omwati scientist Qwi Xux. Wedge first started off as a bodyguard for Qwi, but that eventually grew into a mutual attraction. Wedge liked to write poems about Qwi, especially her hair. However, both Qwi and Wedge realized that their relationship was going nowhere and mutually broke up.

During his harrowing diplomatic mission to Adumar, Wedge came back in contact with Iella Wessiri. He finally realized that she had been avoiding him and decided not to leave her until she forced him to or he wanted to leave. Shortly afterwards, he proposed to her and she accepted. The two were married after the Adumar incident.

Portrayal
"We'll put that in your biography. General Antilles was so good he couldn't fail when he tried to."

- Tycho Celchu



Denis Lawson portrayed Wedge throughout all three films, except in one scene in A New Hope. During the pre-battle briefing on Yavin 4, Luke briefly chats with a character seated next to him who scoffs at the idea of successfully hitting such a small target as the Death Star exhaust port. In the shooting script and novelization of the film, this character is identified as Wedge. However, given his skeptical attitude and the fact that he was not played by Denis Lawson in this scene, many assume that he was one of the other anonymous Rebel pilots. Fans sometimes refer to this character as "Fake Wedge".

The fact that Lawson did not play Wedge in that particular scene sparked some discussion between fans who wanted to know who did. The speculation eventually revolved around two actors: Jack Klaff (who played John D) and Colin Higgins. It was thought by the majority of those concerned that Klaff was "Fake Wedge". However, Pablo Hidalgo recently confirmed that Colin Higgins was the actor in question on his weblog.

Wedge was voiced by Don Scardino in The Empire Strikes Back radio dramatization and by Jon Matthews in the Return of the Jedi radio dramatization. Lawson returned to the role of Wedge to voice him in Star Wars: Rogue Squadron II: Rogue Leader.

Denis Lawson's name was misspelled as Dennis Lawson in the credits of Episodes IV and V. It was correctly spelled in VI.

Denis Lawson is the uncle of Ewan McGregor, who played Obi-Wan Kenobi in the prequel films.

Continuity
Fans of the Star Wars series explain his popularity by describing him as a survivor: he is the one minor character to survive all three movies without the blessings of 'fate' (i.e. luck, destiny, or the Force) that allow the major protagonists to survive constant peril and certain death. He is also the only known pilot to have survived each Death Star attack (Keyan Farlander, the Y-wing pilot seen in A New Hope, was not in the Death Star II attack).

There is even a term for such characters used outside of Star Wars: a Wedge-type character is a minor character having little to no backstory, who nevertheless survives many deadly cataclysms. The opposite of a Wedge-type character is a redshirt, whose sole purpose is to die soon after being introduced.

Appearances

 * Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope
 * Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back
 * Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi