Where did the Mon Calamari come from?

Where did the Mon Calamari come from?

My first guess is: The Art Department.

#2 is: The Marketing Department.

and D, of course,

D: The Appetizer menu.

But seriously, when you see the fleet at the end of ESB, it's kind of sad and small and lonely.  The rebels are on the run- they have no home.  But then, in RotJ, they seem to have been bolstered by some fresh meat (appetizer pun not intended, but welcome) having joined up.  It's hard to say who else besides the Mon Calamari have joined the fight since we last saw the rebellion, but it is safe to say that they are recently on board, right?

Would that be a cutting board?  *snigger*

Anyways, I'm not going to be surprised to hear that the tale has been covered in some kind of EU story, but it had me thinking the other day...  It's a rather large plot point and the movie doesn't stop to talk about it at all.

How very non-Prequel like, not to bash us in the face with it and all.

How have you fine gentlemen (not to mention the ladies) interpreted this in the past?  Or, like me, did you not really think about it for the past 29 years?

(notice I already made all of the calamari jokes, so you don't have to!)

Well, as far as I know, the EU states that the Mon Calimari were a race oppressed by the Empire, and that Admiral Ackbar served as a slave under Grand Moff Tarkin himself, which is where he learned a lot of his own military strategies.  I can't recall exactly when or how the Rebellion assimilated the Mon Calamari into the fold, but it was considered a major coup for them, as the Mon Calamari cruisers bolstered their fleet considerably, and Ackbar was apparently the first Admiral the Rebellion ever had.

They've been gathering at Sullust since before ESB, or after it?

Wait!

Are there any aliens in the Rebellion until Jedi?  I was talking to my friend about the role of "humans" in SciFi.  I offered the opinion that in 90% of SciFi, humans are shown to be technologically inferior, but somehow morally superior.  He responded that in his experience, 90% of SciFi showed humans to be technologically superior.  We both used Star Wars as our argument.  He pointed out that humans run the Empire- humans run the rebellion.  Aliens hang out at bars, are co-pilots, or are criminals.  I pointed out that the Empire is run by humans and for humans, but that the Rebellion was "indiscriminate" and "equal work for equal pay."  But then he pointed out that the Rebellion on Yavin is almost all middle aged white human males, and that Hoth is only a little better (if you count the female radio operator and all of the tauntauns).

So... was this a budget limitation?  Or were aliens intentionally left out of the Rebellion till RotJ.

Yeah, it seemed that George always wanted to put more and more different races in the films, but he really wasn't able to manage it until ROTJ, which is when there was that explosion of goofy band puppets, Mon Calimari, and Ewoks.  Obviously that sensibility continued into the prequels where, suddenly two out of three characters are non-human humanoids or non-human non-humanoids.  Not that it's bad, but it certainly does disconnect the universes, although I'm pretty sure it's been retconned away as aliens being subjugated by the Empire.  In fact, the X-Wing novels, I thought, did a good job of dealing with that plot point when those damned asshole bothans attack the New Republic for being racist and point out that aliens were only used in the rebellion towards the end.

Sort of like Hitler promising he wouldn't invade Poland.  Until he did.

It seems they could have put a few masks in the Yain briefing scene (re-use ones from the cantina) if they wanted some alien presence.

xhonzi said:

Wait!

Are there any aliens in the Rebellion until Jedi?  I was talking to my friend about the role of "humans" in SciFi.  I offered the opinion that in 90% of SciFi, humans are shown to be technologically inferior, but somehow morally superior.  He responded that in his experience, 90% of SciFi showed humans to be technologically superior.  We both used Star Wars as our argument.  He pointed out that humans run the Empire- humans run the rebellion.  Aliens hang out at bars, are co-pilots, or are criminals.  I pointed out that the Empire is run by humans and for humans, but that the Rebellion was "indiscriminate" and "equal work for equal pay."  But then he pointed out that the Rebellion on Yavin is almost all middle aged white human males, and that Hoth is only a little better (if you count the female radio operator and all of the tauntauns).

So... was this a budget limitation?  Or were aliens intentionally left out of the Rebellion till RotJ.

I agree with your point on humans in sci-fi.  Look at Enterprise and Stargate SG-1, both about humans taking their first steps into a universe already populated by species that have been in space for millennia.  Both involve the humans being simply better than the rest and being able to do things their predecessors (Vulcans/Ancients) were unable/unwilling to do.  I think that's what makes sci-fi, man being down in tech, but their humanity proving to be better than anything (at least in Roddenberry's POV).

Ah-hah, but he brought up the Original Star Trek...  Where man travels from planet to planet in their fancy spaceship and mostly visit non-space-faring peoples.  He also brought up Babylon 5 where they are middle of the road or slightly higher.

I, of course, fell back on every alien invasion story where they come to Earth.

xhonzi said:

Ah-hah, but he brought up the Original Star Trek...  Where man travels from planet to planet in their fancy spaceship and mostly visit non-space-faring peoples.  He also brought up Babylon 5 where they are middle of the road or slightly higher.

I, of course, fell back on every alien invasion story where they come to Earth.

I was going to bring up the original Star Trek also, but in the sense that its all about the morality.  Kirk went to several planets where it wasn't the tech, but his morality that changed them.  The one that sticks out in my mind is "The Apple" where he introduces both love and murder to a culture, but you have to take the bad with the good because that's the human way!

IMO, most of sci-fi comes down to moral humans > any alien.  Of course, no one goes to a movie and roots for the aliens to win (unless it's Aliens vs Predator, of course. Or District 9).

Yeah, wow, "The Apple," where Kirk takes the Prime Directive and sodomizes it until it begs for mercy.  "But what about the non-interference clause?"  "Aw, fuck that shit.  They don't live the way I want them to, so Starfleet can kiss my bronzed, muscular ass!"

doubleofive said:

 Of course, no one goes to a movie and roots for the aliens to win (unless it's Aliens vs Predator, of course. Or District 9).

We shall see how well that works in Avatar this December. 

Actually, it was part of Smallville that I really liked circa Season 3.  Clark's superpowers might have come from Krypton, but his sense of justice came from Kansas.  When Superman Returns came out, one of the major turn offs to me was that Kal-El sent him to Earth to protect mankind, and also to show them the way to live.  So humans were inferior on all accounts.  Awesome.