In the Star Wars canon timeline, there’s a glaring hole right in the middle. We know how the Empire rises, how the Rebellion takes over, and eventually how the First Order rises and falls, but the peak of the New Republic is still a mystery. This is probably a good thing, because it means there wasn’t a huge threat to the galaxy, but it does leave the structure of the New Republic government more or less a mystery.
But a key reveal in Ahsoka Episode 7 shows just how one part of the government works — and, crucially, how Senator Leia Organa fits into it. It may be new to canon, but it’s actually an old Star Wars organization.
In Ahsoka Episode 1, Hera Syndulla tries to present the case for a mission to Seatos to Senator Xiono and the rest of the Defense Council. Senator Xiono, who has his own ties to other Star Wars projects, was seemingly the leader of the Council and made it very clear Hera would not get the green light she wanted.
But in Episode 7, Hera’s court appearance to answer for her acting against the Council’s orders is interrupted by a friendly face: C-3PO, toting a transcript from Senator Leia Organa sanctioning the mission, without knowledge of Xiono holding a vote over the matter in her absence. 3PO specifically says Leia “asks that you address any further concerns to her directly in her role as leader of the Defense Council.”
The 1996 Star Wars Legends novel Before the Storm, the first novel in the Black Fleet Crisis trilogy, was set only a few years after Ahsoka and follows Luke and Leia as they defend the New Republic from an alien threat. While they try to prepare the relatively young government for a possible war, we learn that Senator Behn-kihl-nahm is the leader of the Defense Council.
It looks like the structure of the New Republic government is echoing Star Wars’ past, with a group of senators and subcommittees. It also informs how Leia fits into the greater government. Her absence in the early episodes of Ahsoka was very conspicuous, but it turns out this was purposeful: not only was she meant to be in the room where Hera was initially rejected, but she was meant to lead the meeting.
Hopefully, we’ll get more glimpses of just how the New Republic ticks beyond shots of cubicles and pencil pushers. Eventually, it’ll all fall to yet another evil empire, but for now we can watch good people do good — or at least attempt to before getting caught in red tape.
