One of these days soon I’m gonna write an essay about why people need to stop trivializing Bail Organa and his importance to the saga.
Word. First of all, motherfucker was one of Palpatine’s proteges. I mean why why wouldn’t he be? He was so damn good at his job and respecte by virtually all his peers. In the TCW episode “Pursuit of Peace”, Padme begs him to speak in the Senate because they will listen to “the great Bail Organa”. And then one of the opposition Senators who is dead set in his ways says that he is willing to listen and reconsider only if Senator Organa is speaking.
As the Clone Wars drag on and Palpatine gets a stronger and stronger grip on his power, Bail realizes that maybe he was wrong when he supported the Chancellor and when he was intent on defending the Republic at all costs. So, unlike almost all other politicians, Bail doesn’t desperately cling to and try to rationalize his previous ideology to save face. He starts to take action to let Palpatine know that what he’s doing isn’t democracy. It isn’t what the Republic is about.
Then it all goes to hell. And the senator from Alderaan realizes that he can’t say these things to Palpatine. Not anymore. Now, because democracy is now a farce in the Galatic now-Empire, Bail could easily use his Silver Tongue and his previous reputation with Palpatine to climb the ranks of this new government. He could be an extremely powerful man.
But he’s not interested in power. He’s interested in doing what’s right.
So instead, he slinks into the shadows. He supports the Emperor just enough to keep himself safe and free from suspicion. And slowly but surely, he starts doing things he would previously have condemned. Illegal things. And eventually, though he holds out as long as he can, he concedes that there is but one way to restore the Republic.
War.
So now he’s not only performing his Senatorial Duties and struggling to stay under the radar, to not accidentally say or do the wrong thing that will get him disappeared, he’s ruling a planet (though he does leave most of this to Breha and a regent) and running an entire army. Ships. Ground craft. Troops. Spy Networks. Communications. Bribes. Wooing fellow leaders to his side. He wasn’t trained for this, and it takes its toll on his health and his sanity. But he does it, because he knows he must.
The dude’s a badass. He knows what soldiers think of men like him: weak-willed cowards oblivious to their surroundings. Not Bail Prestor Organa. He knows how to wield a blaster. He’s not afraid of getting dirty and getting hurt. He was under siege for weeks during the Clone Wars. When his fellow Senator Onaconda Farr was murdered, he wasn’t content to let that sleazy detective do a shit job of the investigation. Instead, he and Padme took their blasters and went, alone, to a shady shipyard to investigate a lead that (unsurprisingly) ended up being a trap. He almost died that night. And when he saw the smoke rising from the Jedi Temple, he didn’t just shrug and send one of his men to check on it, or wait for a clone to tell him their was a revolution the morning after. He jumped in a speeder and went to see WTF was going on himself.
It was here that he saw a boy no older than 12 gunned down by those who were meant to protect him.
Now, when he saw this, and he wasn’t killed by the clones
(because plot holes), he had two choices. Either he could go “Well, I’m sure there was a very good reason for that” and go home to his luxury aprtment like he was told. Or, he could fly to where he knew his friends Obi-Wan and Yoda were surrounded by clones, and pick them up, effectively saving their lives.A few hours later: Anakin Skywalker, supposedly now dead, had turned to the dark side, and slaughtered dozens-hundreds of innocents, most of them children before turning on the man who loved him like a brother and raised him like a son. Bail’s good friend and political ally, Padme, is giving birth to that man’s children. When Padme dies, Bail looks at the tiny newborn girl, who has the blood of a monster running through her veins, who will be taken and crafted into a monster herself should she ever be found by the most powerful man in the galaxy, whose very existence poses a threat to anyone she is near, and says “I’ll take her.”
So it was that a “common” Viceroy/Senator, with zero Force-sensitivity, who by all rights should be only concerned with his own petty feuds, became one of the 3-6 people in the universe in on the most important secret in known history.
And he loved that girl. He brought her home, and raised her as if she sprung from his own seed. And given his royal status, that must have raised at least a little ire. She was even given the title of Princess and made the heir to the throne, and he would have none of people questioning the legitimacy of this arrangement. There must have been more than a little talk of Bail’s infidelity. “She’s his bastard with that whore from Naboo” they say. Bail hears this, says “fuck’em” and forces Alderaan to accept his daughter as their Crown Princess.
She gives him more than a few heart attacks and grey hairs. This is due both to the fear that her identity will be discovered, and her own penchant for getting into trouble. Countless times, Bail is in the same room as two men who could peer into his thoughts, discover his secrets, and then capture, torture, and kill him and his loved ones. Uh, that takes balls. It kills him to let Leia join the Rebellion, but she is so persistent that he knows this is her destiny and her purpose, and he can’t take that away from her.
Can you imagine if he hadn’t volunteered to take in Leia? Where would she have gone? She could have never known of her past. She could have never met Luke or Han or joined the Rebellion at all. She could have been raised by terrible people who turned her to the Dark Side. Instead, because of one man’s decision, she had a loving family, a life of luxury and opportunity, and a way to channel her inherited anger into fighting for good. And she would never have been on that ship in orbit around Tatooine to send a couple of droids down to the surface.
Because of his courage, perseverance, and leadership; because of his ability to make his enemies think he’s playing right into their hands when in reality he sees right through them; because he was an honourable man who always did the right thing; the Empire is defeated, the galaxy freed, the Jedi reborn. Because of him, the entire original trilogy happens.
In summary, Bail Organa is a character who takes out a squadron of stormtroopers by himself; reassures a Sith Lord that really, everything’s fine Your Excellency, Glory to the Empire; coordinates the Rebel Alliance’s raid on that Imperial supply depot; takes his daughter to target practice; trims his immaculately badass goatee, then sits back with a nice glass of fine old brandy and a leather-bound book, all before lunchtime.