Mon Mothma's personality and leadership

[FaxModem1]

I've seen in quite a few fanfictions, debates, etc., that Mon Mothma is too much of an Empire hater and idealist, to the point that she brought the Old Republic back completely, with all its flaws and corruptions. My own readings of the EU are rather limited, so I can't comment, but is this correct?

We can all agree Palpatine was evil as sin, and that the Empire committed mass murder, genocide, etc., including blowing up Alderaan, but is Mon Mothma a good leader of the Rebellion and later the New Republic, or was she someone who, while hating the evils of the Empire, forgot about why it came about in the first place?

[Adam Reynolds]

Right now, there is essentially nothing that indicates one way or another. I haven't read any of the post-ROTJ sources that would really indicate either way.

[urlhttp://io9.com/everything-we-know-about-star-wars-post-return-of-the-j-1729549100]spoilers I have read about the post-ROTJ continuity indicate that [/url] Spoiler

She recreates the Old Republic as you indicate, including the flaw of not enough central leadership. And oddly, despite the fact that the Empire is still in existence, she starts to demilitarize the New Republic, giving the militaries over to member worlds. Because its not as if the Clone Wars were fought because of that or anything. Though she keeps Ackbar's personal fleet active and under federal control.

She also is somewhat selective in which planets she liberates and when, notably ignoring Kashyyk. Han and Chewie do that on their own.

Those spoilers make me somewhat pessimistic about the state of the galaxy at the time of the sequel trilogy. It feels like the heroes didn't do enough to save the galaxy this time.

[Balrog]

Right now, there is essentially nothing that indicates one way or another. I haven't read any of the post-ROTJ sources that would really indicate either way.

[urlhttp://io9.com/everything-we-know-about-star-wars-post-return-of-the-j-1729549100]spoilers I have read about the post-ROTJ continuity indicate that [/url] Spoiler

She recreates the Old Republic as you indicate, including the flaw of not enough central leadership. And oddly, despite the fact that the Empire is still in existence, she starts to demilitarize the New Republic, giving the militaries over to member worlds. Because its not as if the Clone Wars were fought because of that or anything. Though she keeps Ackbar's personal fleet active and under federal control.

She also is somewhat selective in which planets she liberates and when, notably ignoring Kashyyk. Han and Chewie do that on their own.

Those spoilers make me somewhat pessimistic about the state of the galaxy at the time of the sequel trilogy. It feels like the heroes didn't do enough to save the galaxy this time.

That essentially comes entirely from the new Aftermath novel. To expand on what Adamskywalker007 said:
Spoiler

Specifically she's going to introduce a formal vote in the new Senate to rescind the emergency powers of the Chancellor (which were voted in during the Clone Wars and still technically in effect) and demobilize 90% of the current New Republic forces "once it's been determined the Empire is no longer a threat" or words to those effect. Planetary militaries will be allowed to form to protect themselves and the much-reduced NR forces will remain for peacekeeping duties and whatnot.

Mind you, this conversation is taking place months after the Battle of Endor, and the Empire is still very much alive (if not in eminent danger of factionalizing) and not going down without a fight. And one of her assistants brings up the very pertinent point that doing this has the very real danger of just igniting many smaller brushfire wars. It seems quite apparent though that Mon is more interested in swinging the pendulum right back in the opposite direction as far as possible from the highly-centralized authoritarianism of the Empire.

[Adam Reynolds]

Her assistant's concern was the entire plot of Spectre of the Past and Vision of the Future. The New Republic nearly fractured into a civil war with planetary forces all breaking down on faction lines.

Though that would explain why: Spoiler

It appears that for the new movie, Leia is again a leader of a Rebel Alliance style faction. Perhaps they are what was left of the federal military after the majority of the galaxy saw them as irrelevant in the years following Mon Mothma's order.

[Abacus]

It's heavily shown throughout the Thrawn trilogy that Mon Montha keeps the majority of executive power among herself an a small cohort of beings she trusts enough to bear the kind of responsibility of running a galactic government. Leia is one whom she trusts, possibly the most, and saddles her with more and more responsibilities -- basically turning her into a fireman, moving from sector to sector on various missions and putting out brush fires as they pop up. The provisional government that was created in the wake of the victory at Endor is lead by council members from the most influential Alliance member worlds, Mon Montha becoming the Chief of State, or simply Chief. She retained this position from the beginning of the Provisional government to the Sun Crusher incident in 11ABY.

To address your first sentence, I'll let this quote sit for itself:

"Settling scores is no way to govern a galaxy."
―Mon Mothma, to Ackbar and Borsk Fey'lya

[Havok]

I'm sorry, how can you be "too much of an Empire hater"?

Anyway, as there is quite a bit of new canon material constituting the lead up the TFA, is there any new info on Mothma?

[Purple]

I'm sorry, how can you be "too much of an Empire hater"?

By throwing out the good with the bad. Say for example you lived on a planet where the empire enslaved half the populace, instated a reign of terror and made the trains run on time. Just because you want to abolish the slavery and terror don't mean you should strive to also deliberately and on purpose delay the trains.

[Joun_Lord]

I'm sorry, how can you be "too much of an Empire hater"?

Deliberately going out of the way to remove anything Imperial, attacking relatively peaceful and not evil Imperial holdouts, excluding Imperial defectors from the military or politics (I remember in the old EU there was some bit about Mon Mothma barring any former Stormtrooper from I think holding office), treating Imperial citizens as collaborators, and gutting member worlds governments and militarys to root out Imperial sympathizers or perceived ones.

I think most can agree the Empire was bad. However the people of the Empire, the countless trillions of citizens and billions of soldiers, probably weren't. Treating anyone who wasn't a open Rebel like shit would be hating the Empire too much because you started hating individual people rather then the organization that they served maybe through choice, maybe through coercion, maybe because they were born into, or maybe because they didn't see any signs of the Empires evil.

Its like the denazification of Germany post WWII. Going after every single person in Germany who had their hand in the air like they just didn't care was impractical because of the sheer numbers involved. They gutted half the government and it was barely workable despite outside help.

Same with de-empireing the galaxy. The sheer number of Imperial supporters would make creating a functional society impossible by arresting or penalizing everyone who did the Imperial march. The former Empire won't have outside help, what defeated it is replacing it. The New Republic is essentially the Empire with the Emperor, same worlds, same people. They can't do like the Allies did and have outside help getting things working. No outside troops beyond the small number of Alliance soldiers, not outside aid in food, nothing.

The way to get a working de-Empired galaxy is to only go after the worst offenders in fair trials and embrace everyone else.

The question is is Mon Mothma the type to really extend a hand of friendship to the former Imperials? I guess we will find out when more EU shit comes out. Well not we, maybe you if you wish to subject yourself to that probable ice pick to the dick but certainly not me. I'll just read the cliff notes here and on Wikipedia.

[Sidewinder]

The question is is Mon Mothma the type to really extend a hand of friendship to the former Imperials? I guess we will find out when more EU shit comes out. Well not we, maybe you if you wish to subject yourself to that probable ice pick to the dick but certainly not me. I'll just read the cliff notes here and on Wikipedia.

Under normal circumstances, I'd criticize you for laziness and an unwillingness to "open your mind" and conduct research. But, having read some of the 'Star Wars' Expanded Universe's ABSOLUTE WORST, I must say I don't blame you- I don't want to take an ice pick to my dick, either.

[Eternal_Freedom]

Well, in the old EU we do have one good example of Mon Mothma's (and the rest of the New Republic leadership) attitude to neutral former Imperials. Specifically, Prince-Admiral Krennel and the Ciutric Hegemony. Just after Thrawn was defeated, the NR decides to go after him because they need to appear strong despite their losses to Thrawn. So, they decide, and I'm not kidding on this, to go after him to bring him to justice for the murder of Sate Pestage and others in unspecified "purges."

Krennel hadn't been doing anything against other warlords, had a relatively small fleet and was mostly concerned with keeping his worlds secure. On the pretext of these "purges" the NR went int and probably killed many more Imperials than Krennel killed before the conflict (Given the heavy damage suffered by ISD's like Direption and Reckoning and the outright destruction of one Dreadnought cruiser). Hell, it's even brought up in-universe that it's a pretty useless target, but the NR needed a win.

[Joun_Lord]

Under normal circumstances, I'd criticize you for laziness and an unwillingness to "open your mind" and conduct research. But, having read some of the 'Star Wars' Expanded Universe's ABSOLUTE WORST, I must say I don't blame you- I don't want to take an ice pick to my dick, either.

I'd open my mind like Kuato say but after having done so and read shite like Crystal Star, Kevin J Anderson's Kyp Durron's genocide is a-okay bull, the New Jedi Order, Mandalorian Commando, the Joiner Trilogy, and Legacy of the Force (not to be confused with Legacy which was pretty good) I'm going to stay pretty darn close minded henceforth when it comes to Star Wars EU.

I'm going to remain a movie purist. My love of Star Wars is more likely to survive that way.

[Adam Reynolds]

I'm going to remain a movie purist. My love of Star Wars is more likely to survive that way.

I have to agree. Surprisingly, given how much I previously disagreed with you on similar topics, I would have to agree with much of what you have said here.

The problem with the new EU is that it is a house of cards worse than the old. In the old EU, it was easy to read something enjoyable, like Wraith Squadron, and simply ignore what came around it. With the tighter continuity of the new EU, that is harder. Look at some of the weird crap Clone Wars has come up with that others have been forced to follow.

It was almost amusing in the old EU how you had things like Mara Jade arguing that DE Palpatine wasn't really him or that Luke was using the Dark Side when he was engaged in such impressive displays of prowess in the Force. I doubt we will see things like that again.

I sincerely hope that the new movies largely ignored the new EU in much the same fashion as the old was for the PT. Any references should be fleeting at most.

[Knife]

Now that the crappy EU is out, the only thing we know about Mon Mothma is she was a staunch loyalist back in the day, and a soft spoken and some what remorseful leader who laments loses int he war.

[Crazedwraith]

Well, in the old EU we do have one good example of Mon Mothma's (and the rest of the New Republic leadership) attitude to neutral former Imperials. Specifically, Prince-Admiral Krennel and the Ciutric Hegemony. Just after Thrawn was defeated, the NR decides to go after him because they need to appear strong despite their losses to Thrawn. So, they decide, and I'm not kidding on this, to go after him to bring him to justice for the murder of Sate Pestage and others in unspecified "purges."

That's political expediency not based on any biased attitude towards former Imperials. From the same series the X-Wing, we know the Rebel Alliance was generally very accepting of former Imperials and defectors are given basically a fresh start so long as they keep faith with the Alliance. Some Rogues are defectors after all.

This even has some basis in Canon. Biggs Darklighter shows up at a Rebel where at the start of the film its at least implied he went to imperial academy (where Luke wanted to go too)