New Star Wars Rebels Clip Answers A Big Rogue One Question

Star Wars Rebels has returned to the airwaves for its fourth and final season, and it's clear that the action is getting very close to the events of Rogue One and A New Hope in the grand Star Wars timeline. As such, we're probably going to see Rebels touch on some big movie issues and even feature big movie characters. A new clip for the upcoming episode called "In the Name of the Rebellion" has hit the web, and it answers the lingering Rogue One question about how Saw Gerrera and Mon Mothma were driven so far apart. Take a look:

In Rogue One, Saw Gerrera and his militants had already split from the larger Rebel Alliance that had Mon Mothma as leader. It was clear enough that the two groups worked in very different ways, and Mon Mothma obviously didn't approve of how Saw handled things with his cell of rebels. This clip from Star Wars Rebels shows the breaking point for both of them. Saw couldn't count himself as part of an alliance that valued diplomacy with an increasingly obsolete Imperial Senate over military action, and Mon Mothma couldn't work with a man who targeted civilians and sank to the level of the Empire. Given what we know about the Death Star... well, Saw had a point about diplomacy not working anymore, even if he was overly violent in his methods.

There's a certain degree of tragedy in the fact that the two might have reconciled to a working relationship if Saw had survived the events of Rogue One and into the original trilogy. Star Wars fans will know well that one of the first moves the Empire made after the completion of the Death Star was to dissolve the Senate, as fear of the Death Star would keep the local systems in line without the need for any senators.

The Alliance could no longer count on politicians fighting for their cause with the Empire; large-scale military action was necessary. Saw's expertise as a military man could have come in handy if Mon Mothma and Co. were able to temper his most violent impulses. Saw might have been open to compromise if he saw the rest of the Alliance was finally willing to take the fight to the Empire. Unfortunately, Saw and his band of rebels died in Rogue One, and we'll never know if he could have worked with Mon Mothma following the emergence of the Death Star.

Still, it should be fascinating to see the conflict between them explored further in Star Wars Rebels, especially as the rift between the two sides seemed much larger in Rogue One. Something devastating may happen in "In the Name of the Rebellion" courtesy of Saw Gerrera. We can only hope that Ezra won't get his hands too dirty, despite what looks like a willingness to bend Mon Mothma's rules.

We'll have to wait and see. The next episode of Star Wars Rebels will air on Monday, October 23 on Disney XD. For more Star Wars action ahead of The Last Jedi in December, you can check out the Forces of Destiny shorts. The latest episode of Rebels may have revealed why no Mandalorian forces were present in the original trilogy, and the odds are pretty good that we're in for even more answers to lingering questions.

Laura Hurley
Senior Content Producer

Laura turned a lifelong love of television into a valid reason to write and think about TV on a daily basis. She's not a doctor, lawyer, or detective, but watches a lot of them in primetime. CinemaBlend's resident expert and interviewer for One Chicago, the galaxy far, far away, and a variety of other primetime television. Will not time travel and can cite multiple TV shows to explain why. She does, however, want to believe that she can sneak references to The X-Files into daily conversation (and author bios).