70
Celebrating the workhorse
of the Rebel fleet
Rogue One: A Star Wars Story
Writers: Chris Weitz and Tony Gilroy
Director: Gareth Edwards
As the Battle of Scarif raged in the skies above and the beach below, there is a moment that brought a certain group of Star Wars fans to their collective feet. I am part of this group, so I will try to remain as impartial and emotionally detached as possible. (I’m going to fail.) Gold Squadron, led by that salty Rebel veteran Jon “Dutch” Vander, raced across the battle and used their ion torpedoes to disable the Imperial Star Destroyer Persecutor after a member of the Blue Squadron disabled some of their deflector shields. This led to Admiral Raddus’s great decision to ram the Persecutor into the Star Destroyer Intimidator. A move that led to the Rebels being able to beam the Death Star plans off the planet. Gold Squadron was made up of Y-wings. And BTL Y-wings starfighters are the best starfighters in the galaxy.
Ok. Ok. That’s, just, you know, my opinion, man, but the Y-wings getting their day—as well as the debate over which starfighters are the best—is definitely a reason to love Star Wars. It is what fans have been doing since they first saw Star Wars. In playgrounds, at work, at parties, and, later, podcasts, the fun—and often silly—debates over these little details in the saga are a large part of what keeps bringing us back.
Y-wings have been a part of Star Wars from A New Hope. Dutch Vander was there with his Gold Squadron and, in fact, took the first shot at destroying the Death Star. He and his wingmen Dex Tiree and Davish “Pops” Krail were destroyed. There were eight Y-wings that flew into that battle and only one, piloted by Evaan Verlaine, survived. The Death Star, as history recorded, was blown up by that blonde-haired farm boy Luke Skywalker. And that Skywalker kid was flying an X-wing.
Oh, those precious X-wings. Everybody loves the X-wings!!! Blah blah blah. I get it. The X-wing is the lead singer of the Rebel forces. Sleek and near perfect in design. The ship is the poster child of vehicles. It’s what a space fighter should look like. Yet hiding in the shadow of those classic X-wings are the true workhorses of the Rebel fleet, the Y-wings.
They are bombers, vital to the cause because of their abilities to soften the Imperial defenses. Yet they are slower and bulkier, and their design is a tad clunky. Hell, they are named after the letter Y and we all know the letter X just looks sexier than the letter Y. Later on, we are introduced to those cute little A-wings, zipping around the fight like yappy little dogs, and those exotic B-Wings, heavy bombers themselves but their unique design turned heads like a fancy dress on a fashion show runway. Rogue One introduces us to the troop transports called the U-wing. Late to the party, they still brought a sleek design and threatened to overshadow those sad sack Y-wings.
Yet in the middle of battle, their moment arrived. Soaring across the screen in all their Y’ness glory, Dutch Vander and his team, for once, got to finish what an X-wing started. Their ion torpedoes slammed into the bridge of the Imperial Star Destroyer. As they flew away, a smile crept across my face. It wasn’t just me smiling in that movie theater in 2016. It was me, a young fan in Christmas of 1983, smiling as I opened up my first ever Kenner Star Wars space fighter toy—the Y-wing. Star Wars is as much your memories then as it is the moments right now. Godspeed, you Y-wings.