Resistance

The Resistance was a military resistance movement that opposed the secretive First Order, a fascist military junta and the successor of the Galactic Empire. The Resistance emerged as a small, unauthorized splinter group from the New Republic Defense Force that believed that the First Order posed a serious threat to peace and democracy, and stood as a check against its ambitions of galactic conquest. However, the Galactic Senate did not believe them and regarded them having a fixation on the past. The Resistance fought the First Order after they launched a preemptive strike on the New Republic and subsequently occupied large swathes of the galaxy. Yet despite their initial stand alone, the freedom fighters of the Resistance inspired rebellion.

The Resistance was founded by General Leia Organa and was modeled to an extent on the Rebel Alliance to combat the rising First Order. Its members shared General Organa's views regarding the threat from unknown space. While still a senator, Princess Organa founded the Resistance after she was sidelined from the Senate following a scandal that revealed her father to be the reviled Darth Vader. General Organa recruited veterans of the Galactic Civil War, like Admiral Gial Ackbar and other New Republic military personnel like New Republic officer Poe Dameron, while many others joined the Resistance as officers, soldiers, pilots, and in other roles.

The Resistance operated and fought inside First Order territory and initially sought to obtain evidence of illegal military activities of the Imperial successor and report this to the Senate during Cold War as tensions increased between the New Republic and First Order, but opposed them in open warfare when they moved in to seize military control of the galaxy in 34 ABY. With the help of the last Jedi, Luke Skywalker, and his apprentice Rey, the Resistance escaped the First Order's siege at Crait and lived to fight another day. When Darth Sidious, publicly known as Emperor Palpatine, revealed himself to be resurrected and bolstered by the Sith Eternal's armada of planet-destroying warships, the Final Order, the Resistance invaded the ancient Sith redoubt at the Battle of Exegol. Together with a fleet assembled to reinforce them, the Resistance defeated the Sith Eternal's forces at Exegol. Meanwhile, Rey sacrificed herself to destroy the Sith Lord, though she was resurrected by Ben Solo, who gave his life force to save hers. The victory of the Resistance sparked an uprising against the First Order, whose military rule crumbled under a series of attacks.

Text and facts from the “Resistance” article on Wookieepedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0. Modified for this site.