Do you ever think about how the week or so that passes between the rebels getting the plans off Scarif to Leia, to Leia finally getting back to Yavin was probably the darkest week in the Rebellion’s lifespan? They’ve lost a good chunk of their fleet and their command and now just, radio silence. One whole week, maybe more, of radio silence. Everyone wondering whether it was worth it – everyone probably fighting like wild animals over whether or not they should have shown themselves so plainly. They probably hemorrhage a good deal of support in that one week because suddenly things just look. Impossible. And everyone arguing over what use having the death star plans would have been in the first place because how is anyone ever going to get close enough to get a good shot at it. And then Alderaan blows up and you know, it must have really really felt like the end to them! There’s no way they can fight their way out of this one, no clever little wormholes they can wriggle out of. This is the end.
The fact that the Rebellion survives past that week and past Yavin is a miracle and sixty percent of that miracle is Luke Skywalker who literally appears out of nowhere with Leia in tow and turns everything they’ve known on its head and like suddenly they’re actually back in action? They’ve killed fucking Tarkin . There’s nothing they can’t do.
(The other forty percent is that they’re literally rats in a corner with nowhere else to go, except make their peace with probably dying and being willing to fight viciously to the death because that’s better than going gently into the eternal night.)