Wedge Antilles
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Wedge Antilles is a fictional character in the Star Wars universe. He is a starfighter pilot who fought for the Rebel Alliance and who later served the New Republic.
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Background
Wedge is a pilot who joined the Rebellion at age 17 after the deaths of his parents. He flew against the Death Star at the Battle of Yavin, where he uttered the immortal words, "Look at the size of that thing!" Shortly afterwards he founded Rogue Squadron together with Luke Skywalker, and eventually became Commander after Luke. He led an assault group in the Battle of Endor against the second Death Star. Six years later, at age 27, he grudgingly accepted promotion to the rank of general.
Film role
Wedge Antilles appears in the films A New Hope, The Empire Strikes Back, and Return of the Jedi, played by Denis Lawson. The character also appears in most of the books set after these events. Fans of the Star Wars series explain his popularity by describing him as a survivor: he is the one minor character to survive all three movies without the blessings of 'fate' (i.e. luck and destiny) that allow the major protagonists to survive constant peril and certain death. He is also the only known pilot to have survived each Death Star attack. However the anonymous Y-wing pilot from the Battle of Yavin may have been in the second Death Star attack, but there is no way to know. Rumour has it that that Y-Wing pilot was Keyan Farlander or Horton Salm, although according to the Star Wars: Rebellion video game, it is Narra. If it was Salm then he would have participated in both Death Star attacks. In the novel Wraith Squadron, Lieutenant Wes Janson denies the rumor by telling a young pilot that Wedge was the only (non-blessed) survivor of both battles.
During the A New Hope pre-battle briefing Luke briefly chats with a character seated next to him who scoffs at the idea of successfully hitting such a small target (the Death Star exhaust port). In the shooting script and novelization of the film, this character is identified as Wedge, but his attitude is uncharacteristically skeptical and was not actually played by Lawson. For this reason, some fans choose to identify this fellow as Derek "Hobbie" Klivian, Rogue Squadron's resident skeptic.
During the resolution of Revenge of the Sith, Senator Bail Organa gives C-3P0 and R2-D2 to a "Captain Antilles," the captain of Organa's ship, the Tantive IV. This character, however, was not related to Wedge Antilles, according to the X-Wing series of novels; Wedge is Corellian and Captain Antilles is from Alderaan.
Expanded universe role
After Endor, Wedge re-founded Rogue Squadron as its sole commander, with an eye towards forming an elite, highly flexible fighter group. Rogues have traditionally been called upon to do the impossible, but too many pilots had gone in without the necessary training; most of those pilots hadn't come out. Wedge's new Rogue Squadron, though deprived of Commander Skywalker's talents, was all he could have asked for and more: it included such distinguished pilots as Tycho Celchu, Corran Horn, Gavin Darklighter, Pash Cracken and, later, Klivian and Janson, and was instrumental in: the liberation of Coruscant; the breaking of Ysanne Isard's death grip on the bacta world Thyferra; the capture of the Super Star Destroyer-cum-prison Lusankya; the freeing (eventually) of her prisoners; the defeat of Warlord Zsinj; and many other feats.
Wedge's personal life, unfortunately, has been somewhat rocky. His parents were killed by rogue pirates who tried to depart from their fueling station before all the fuel mechanisms were quite disengaged. Without support from Corellian Security, Wedge turned to connections on the other side of the law: his father's friend Booster Terrik, a smuggler, and his daughter Mirax helped him hunt the scoundrels down, and he borrowed a starfighter from a family friend and killed them. After that he turned unsuccessfully to smuggling before joining the Rebellion. For a long time the Terriks were his only friends outside the Rebellion military. The conquest of Coruscant, however, brought him into contact with Iella Wessiri, former CorSec partner of Corran Horn. He was all set to ask her out when her husband Diric showed up, just released from Imperial captivity. Unfortunately, Diric turned out to be an Imperial spy from Lusankya, and Iella was forced to kill him in self-defense. At this time the unworldly scientist Qwi Xux, primary designer of the Death Star, appeared in Wedge's life, and the two were involved romantically for several years, until Kyp Durron's Force-mindwipe changed her life for better or for worse. Barely hours after the break-up, Wedge found himself en-route to Adumar as a pilot/diplomat for the New Republic; there he met Iella Wessiri again, and after a few false starts, the two became officially engaged. At the time of the New Jedi Order series, Wedge has retired from Rogue Squadron, and he and Iella have two daughters.
Wedge was pulled into the Yuuzhan Vong war, coming out of retirement. He later forms a secret Rebel Alliance inside the former New Republic, known as the "Insiders". Wedge was designated Insider One, and participated in the battle of Borleias. After the Yuuzhan Vong fell, Wedge went back into retirement.
Trivia
Lawson played Wedge in all three films. Coincidentally, he is the uncle of Ewan McGregor, the actor who played the young Obi-Wan Kenobi in the Star Wars prequels The Phantom Menace, Attack of the Clones, and Revenge of the Sith.
Many games in the Final Fantasy series feature a pair of minor characters named after Wedge and fellow rebel Biggs Darklighter.