Rogue One: Saw Gerrera is the third one-shot comic celebrating the film’s 10-year anniversary, and it’s probably the best one so far. Saw Gerrera has appeared in so many Star Wars stories now, including a film, a live action series, two animated series and multiple novels, that you’d be forgiven for thinking we already know everything there is to know about the man.
Luckily, writer Marc Bernadin manages to plumb new depths and reveal some fascinating information about who Saw Gerrera really is and how he thinks. The story is framed around an espionage mission accompanied by an inner monologue as he makes his way through an Imperial facility, followed up by a debrief with another well-known rebel figure.
The story goes to great lengths to point out once again that there is nothing that Saw Gerrera will not do in the name of hurting the Empire. This is something we know well, but the sacrifices he makes in this story are still enough to surprise me. However, it’s the inner monologue and subtler moments that teach us something new about Saw, giving us a glimpse into the man’s regrets and secret wishes. We know Saw as a man with a one-track mind and an uncompromising vision, but this story hints that there is a sadness to the man beneath the rage and determination we see on the surface (a sadness not just related to his dead sister, at least).
This means that Rogue One: Saw Gerrera gives us a vital look at a character we already know so well, and is absolutely worth your time. If you’re a fan of Saw Gerrera, this is well worth a read.
Spoilers ahead…
MARC BERNARDIN (W) • GABRIEL GUZMAN (A) • Cover by DAVID MARQUEZ
My favorite part of the entire comic was the revelation that Saw doesn’t want “this life” of rebellion. He believes this life chose him, that he has no choice but to wage war against the Empire. This puts an interesting shade on his motivations as we know them. Until now, we thought he just hated the Empire and everything it stands for so much that he was willing to do anything and sacrifice anyone to bring them down.
In fact, he sees himself as a reluctant hero, which frames him in a slightly different light. He doesn’t believe he’s being selfish in causing so much collateral damage in his fight against the Empire; he thinks he’s doing his duty and giving up his own happiness in pursuit of it, not unlike Luthen Rael in Andor. We’ve always known that Saw believes no other rebel leaders are willing to do the dark things that must be done to beat the Empire, but this admission frames his actions in a more layered and interesting light.
The moment when he looks forlornly at the newborn babies in their cribs is fascinating. I initially interpreted it as him taking a moment to mourn the life he never had; that he wanted desperately to have children of his own and raise a family (this would also explain why he later considered Jyn Erso to be the daughter he never had).
However, considering that Bail Organa reveals that in temporarily cutting the hospital’s power, people on life support died in addition to those in surgery, you have to wonder if Saw was actually lamenting the consequences of what would come next. He probably knew that many of those babies in those cribs might have been using technology to keep them healthy and stable. How many of them perished as a result of his actions?
Bail Organa yells at Saw at the end of the comic not only for once again causing collateral damage, but perhaps because he believes Saw doesn’t think about the consequences of his actions before he acts. Those moments during the mission are there to show us that Saw is always aware of the consequences, and views them as a necessary loss in the face of the greater good, no matter how grave; a pure utilitarian.
Of course, the story keeps the fate of those babies vague enough that you can believe they went unharmed if you want to. Instead, it focuses on the reveal that Saw sacrificed his remaining six best friends right at the beginning of the mission, dressing them up as stormtroopers and getting killed so that he could sneak in disguised as a dead body. His friends will be cremated, robbing them of a traditional Onderonian burial, like his sister was given.
That loss weighs heavy on him, and he won’t stomach the thought of politicians like Bail giving him a hard time over it. He knows exactly what the price was to ensure this mission was a success, and it hurts him deeply. But he believes he is merely doing his duty, perhaps even cursed to fight this fight knowing that he will either be alone or dead at the end of it.
The comic ends with him meeting Jyn, Galen and Lyra Erso on Coruscant to safely extract them from the Empire, helping us to place this story at a specific point in the timeline (tying it in with the Rogue One: Catalyst novel, which covers this extraction in more detail). You can see here that meeting Jyn allows him a moment to become the father figure he wishes himself to be, as he softly reassures Jyn that everything will be fine as long as she is brave.
It’s a nice moment to end the comic on, even if it is tinged with sadness as we know how Saw will go on to destroy his relationship with her. Despite this introspection revealing that the innocent lives Saw takes weigh heavily on him, we know that his priorities are still out of whack; he will always remain a flawed character because of it.
The fact that this comic is able to tell us new things about Saw Gerrera while reinforcing this existing lore is extremely impressive.
Rating: 8/10
Josh is a huge Star Wars fan, who has spent far too much time wondering if any Star Wars character could defeat Thanos with all the Infinity Stones.