Summary

• Hyperspace technology advancements in starfighters gave the Rebel Alliance a tactical edge over the Empire in the Galactic Civil War.
• Grand iral Thrawn recognized the threat posed by the Rebels and attempted to counter it with innovative projects.
• The Rebel Alliance's focus on guerrilla warfare with hyperdrive-equipped starfighters confounded Imperial leaders, leading to their downfall.

I think I've finally realized why Palpatine's Empire was always destined to lose the Galactic Civil War in Star Wars - and it's nothing to do with the Force at all. On the face of it, Star Wars is a tale of light versus dark, good versus evil; a binary in which two cosmic spirtual forces wage unending war against one another. And yet, there's so much more to it all than that.

The first battle of the Galactic Civil War was won when a moon-sized battle station was destroyed. Even the Battle of Endor would have been a rebel victory even without the redemption of Darth Vader, because Palpatine would have been killed when the Second Death Star was destroyed. Yes, there's a spiritual dimension to it all, but this is a war - and it's won with weapons. Surprisingly, for all the Empire possessed countless superweapons, the Rebel Alliance had the advantage.

Hyperspace Technology Changed In The Century Before TPM

I began to realize this watching The Acolyte, a Star Wars Disney+ TV show that's set roughly a century before Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace. This was a time when hyperspace technology was a lot less advanced, and many ships left their hyperspace engines in orbit around a planet while they flew in to land. The idea amused me, because I wondered just how many of these were orbiting the galactic capital of Coruscant at any one time. There surely had to be spaceports dedicated to keeping these hyperspace drives in place, preventing them drifting.

By the time of the Star Wars prequel trilogy, hyperspace technology has advanced a little more. Hyperspace drives are still cumbersome, but now there are Jedi designs for starfighters that have them - more advanced versions that develop organically from The Acolyte designs. Now, Jedi starfighters dock with hyperspace rings in space, and use them to travel across the Star Wars galaxy. It's not until the original trilogy era that we really start to see common starfighters using hyperdrives... but even that doesn't quite work out as you'd have expected.

The Empire Didn't Pursue Smaller-Sized Hyperdrive Technology

It's always seemed a little odd to me that Imperial starfighters didn't have their own hyperdrives. Instead, the Empire tended to ferry vast fleets of TIE Fighters around on capital ships, or to operate them from planetary bases. I watching The Mandalorian season 3, and quickly deducing the Empire was on Mandalore just because TIE Fighters suddenly appeared behind Din Djarin's ship after he left his homeworld - and they had to have come from somewhere.

The Acolyte and the prequels explain this, though. This was likely the traditional approach when it came to starfighters, because - until as recently as the Clone Wars - hyperdrives were too cumbersome to attach to such small ships. Even during the Clone Wars, only the Jedi appear to have starfighters that could dock with hyperdrive rings; that technology was likely expensive, and even the Empire only had so many credits to work with. After all, the Empire had Death Stars to build. Why reinvent starfighter combat at the same time?

The Empire had Death Stars to build. Why reinvent starfighter combat at the same time?

The Rebel Alliance Was A Whole New Type Of Military

The leaders of the Rebel Alliance took a different approach. They saw the potential of one-man starfighters, and they deliberately focused on acquiring ships with hyperdrive capability. These would have been incredibly expensive, especially for a rebellion struggling to acquire funds, but they were a worthwhile tactical investment. What's more, to ensure they weren't wasted, they also spent credits ensuring their starfighters had shields. The Empire could afford to lose TIE Fighters, but every X-wing destroyed was prohibitively expensive for the rebellion.

But think about how this changes warfare. Imperial leaders were used to being able to focus on capital ships, but now the nimble starfighters were the true threats. What's more, when the rebels were backed into a corner, their squadrons could scatter into hyperspace before meeting together at a distant pre-arranged rendezvous point. Even if the Empire managed to track one of these X-wings, it would be useless, because they'd be dropping out of hyperspace somewhere before jumping on to their true destination.

The Empire doubled down on size and scale. Imperial Star Destroyers became the symbol of the Empire's might, and every design seems to have gotten larger, with Darth Vader's Executor serving as a particularly impressive example. The Rebel Alliance, however, took the opposite approach. A focus on small ships meant they could fight as a guerrilla force, waging war in a very different way.

Grand iral Thrawn Was The Only One To Spot The Problem

Only one Imperial leader actually recognized the potential threat the Rebel Alliance posed; Grand iral Thrawn. As seen in Star Wars Rebels, Thrawn sponsored two projects that would have crippled the rebellion, had they not ultimately been shut down. The first was the Empire's Interdictor cruiser, a variant of the ISD that contained a gravity well generator to prevent nearby ships jumping into hyperspace. This would have ended the rebellion's hit-and-run tactics. Thrawn's second project was the TIE-Defender, an attempt to create a new generation of TIEs that matched the X-wing in having both a hyperdrive engine and shields.

The problem, though, was that Thrawn found himself competing with the Death Star for resources. He lost out, and neither project's potential was ever realized; TIE-D production was shut down, and only a few Interdictors were ever created. Thrawn was lost before the Galactic Civil War truly began, stranded in a distant galaxy by the end of Star Wars Rebels, and his successors never used the Interdictor effectively. Even Darth Vader failed to appreciate the Interdictor; had he used one at Hoth, none of the rebels would ever have escaped.

The Rebellion Fought A New Kind Of Warfare, Unlike Anything The Empire Had Seen Before

The Galactic Civil War was unlike any conflict the Empire had ever fought before. Imperial leaders were used to tactics that focused on capital ships, with starfighters simply serving to provide cover and additional firepower, but the Rebel Alliance made hyperdrive-equipped starfighters their focus. The Imperial military simply didn't know how to handle the guerrilla tactics that were enabled by this new technology.

In Charles Soule, Ramon Rosanas, and Rachelle Rosenberg's Star Wars #7, Palpatine notes that only two of his tacticians could have defeated the Rebel Alliance; Tarkin and Thrawn. He's right about Thrawn, who was already adapting before the Galactic Civil War even began, but even Tarkin shows no signs of being ahead of the curve in the same way. The truth is that the Rebel Alliance was waging war in a way the Empire simply couldn't understand, let alone deal with, giving the heroes a massive advantage even in the face of overwhelming firepower. And so the fate of the entire Star Wars galaxy was decided in such a surprising way.