User:Nivlacanator/Saw

"I'm not a terrorist. I'm a patriot. And resistance is not terrorism."

- Saw Gerrera

Saw Gerrera was a human male resistance fighter who, as a leading member of the Onderon rebels, fought against the Confederacy of Independent Systems on Onderon during the Clone Wars. He and his sister, Steela Gerrera, were instrumental in the rebel liberation of their homeworld during the Battle of Onderon. He later became a key member in the fight against the Galactic Empire and the formation of the Alliance to Restore the Republic. His tactics against the Empire led him to be seen as an extremist, one whose notoriety was recognized by the Empire and, many years later, the New Republic.

In the early resistance against the Separatist Alliance on Onderon, Gerrera and his fellow soldiers were outnumbered and out-fought by the Separatist Droid Army. They requested help from the Jedi High Council, which led the Grand Army of the Republic in its fight against the Separatists, but the Jedi Order chose not to become actively involved in the fighting on Onderon. Instead, they sent a team of advisors&mdash;Generals Anakin Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi, Commander Ahsoka Tano, and Clone Captain CT-7567 ("Rex")&mdash;to train the Onderonian fighters. The Jedi and Captain Rex taught them proper techniques and strategies for taking on the battle droid army, and, through their efforts, the rebels began to turn the tide. Gerrera came to resent that the rebels chose Steela as their leader, and he was soon captured in an ill-concocted solo effort to rescue the deposed king Ramsis Dendup from the Separatists. They were both rescued by the rebels, who eventually mounted a final battle against the Separatists. Through their efforts, the rebels liberated their world and returned Dendup to the throne. The fight, however, came at a personal cost: Steela was killed during the final battle, and Gerrera was left to mourn his sister&mdash;feeling responsible for her death.

At the end of the Clone Wars, the Republic was transformed into the Galactic Empire. Gerrera fought against the Imperial Military and led a resistance group known as the Partisans from the desert moon Jedha. His resistance cell, a continuation of the fighters from the Clone Wars, was one of the first in the group of cells that formed the Rebel Alliance. He was later involved in the Rebel mission to steal the plans to the Imperial superweapon known as the Death Star, by which time his more-extreme tactics had come to stand in stark contrast with those of Alliance leaders Bail Organa and Mon Mothma. During the time of the New Republic, Senator Ransolm Casterfo suggested that Gerrera and his Partisans, though part of the Rebel Alliance, engaged in terrorist tactics.

Early life and career
Saw Gerrera was a human male who was born on the jungle planet Onderon during the last years of the Galactic Republic. Growing up on Onderon with his sister Steela Gerrera, Saw learned to greatly respect Onderon's monarch, longtime King Ramsis Dendup. In 22 BBY, thousands of star systems seceded from the Republic and formed their own galactic government, the Confederacy of Independent Systems. Soon, the Republic and Confederacy broke into all-out war&mdash;a Clone War&mdash;and King Dendup sided with the Republic and its newly-acquired Grand Army of clone troopers.

In the year 20 BBY as the Clone War sustained itself on battlefronts across the galaxy, at the behest of the Confederate Head of State Count Dooku of Serenno, the Separatist Droid Army invaded Saw's homeworld and subjected its citizens to Confederate law. And to make matters worse for Saw, King Dendup was ousted from his throne and replaced with King Sanjay Rash, a "puppet leader" who answered directly to Count Dooku. King Rash enacted a Royal Proclamation that declared any who tried to usurp him from his throne would be declared a terrorist. Deeply troubled for Onderon's future, Saw and Steela began to gather resources and other like-minded individuals in the hopes of forming a resistance to fight against Rash and his battle droid forces.

Helping hand from the Jedi
Some time later, Saw had become the defacto leader of the Onderon rebels, and the rebels took up residence in an abandoned outpost within a group of ancient ruins in the wilderness, a distance from Onderon's capital city of Iziz. Around this time, Lux Bonteri, the son of the late Mina Bonteri, the former senator of Onderon in the Republic's Galactic Senate joined Saw and his resistance. Having obtained enough armor, blasters, and various other small arms to supply their forces, Saw, Steela, and Bonteri plotted to take back Iziz for Onderon; the rebel leaders, however, after a number of small skirmishes with battle droid forces, came to the realization that they were both under-equipped and had neither the training nor skills to wage open war against the Confederacy. Therefore, Saw and Bonteri reached out to the Republic, requesting aid. As a result, the esteemed Jedi High Council on the Republic's capital world, Coruscant, heard Saw and Bonteri's story via HoloNet transmission. Diminutive Grand Master Yoda promised that the Jedi would find a way to aid them.

A short time later, the rebels were alerted to an intrusion in jungle Sector S-11 and Steela led a squad to investigate. Shortly, Steela, mounted on a dalgo steed, returned with Yoda's promise: Jedi Knight Anakin Skywalker, his Togruta Padawan learner, Ahsoka Tano, Jedi Master Obi-Wan Kenobi, and 501st Legion clone trooper CT-7567, nicknamed "Rex." Saw, mounted on his reptavian ruping, welcomed the two Jedi Generals, the Jedi Commander, and Clone Captain to his world. Skywalker informed Saw that they couldn't fight the Battle of Onderon for them&mdash;Onderon, after all, was legitimately aligned with the Confederacy, no matter how illegitimate Saw viewed the situation&mdash;but he would train Saw's resistance to fight well on their own.

Rex explained that as a clone trooper, he would assist Skywalker, and after relocating a half-kilometer to a clearing in the jungle where a captured Separatist Armored Assault Tank was left dormant, Tano and Rex instructed the rebels on how to disable the tank: drop a pair of Electro Magnetic Pulse grenades&mdash;"droid poppers"&mdash;into both the cockpits for the pilot and gunner of the tank. Saw and Bonteri teamed for the exercise, but sharing in their tense rivalry, incidentally sabotaged one another by refusing to cooperate. Disgusted, Saw ridiculed Bonteri for being a "terrible soldier;" which disappointed the Jedi advisors. As the day wore on, Saw grew increasingly frustrated, so he berated Steela for regularly attending to Bonteri, the two of whom shared a mutual attraction. The confrontation coming almost to blows, Steela diffused the two men, explaining that there would be both a time for the direct fight that Saw desired, and the political speeches that Bonteri excelled at.

Behind the scenes
The character of Saw Gerrera was voiced in Star Wars: The Clone Wars by Andrew Kishino and played by Forest Whitaker in Rogue One. He was originally conceived by George Lucas for the unproduced Star Wars: Underworld.