Saw Gerrera makes his return to live-action storytelling in Andor Season 1, Episode 8, attempting to barter with Luthen Rael for Imperial parts. Instead of asking for money, Luthen tries to get Saw to work with other rebel factions, but Saw refuses. Luthen leaves, claiming that if they don’t work together, they will lose against the Empire. Some of these factions are familiar, but most are new.
Saw Gerrera has appeared in Star Wars a lot. First introduced in Star Wars: The Clone Wars as a fighter against the Separatists on his home planet of Onderon, Saw has appeared in books, Star Wars: Rebels, video games, and the film Rogue One.
Saw Gerrera is a rebel extremist, going further than other rebel groups. He tortures prisoners and doesn’t care if civilians get in the way of his attacks. He leads the Partisans against the Empire, and their methods border on terrorism. It’s these methods that mean that the Rebel Alliance cut ties with him and forced him to fight by himself.
Saw dies midway through Rogue One.
In Season 1, Episode 8 of Andor, Luthen and Saw discuss working with other rebels. Saw refuses because they don’t believe in what he does.
Saw believes in anarchy, which is most commonly associated with complete chaos. This fits with Saw targeting everyone, not just the Empire. But anarchy is also a political belief where a society runs itself without a government.
The rebel that Luthen tries to get Saw to work with is called Anto Kreegyr, to whom Saw responds that he’s a Separatist. Anto Kreegyr is a new name in Star Wars, but the Separatists aren’t.
Introduced in Attack of the Clones, the Separatists, or the Confederacy of Independent Systems, are a group of planets that wanted to secede from the Republic. They are the main antagonists in Star Wars: The Clone Wars and Revenge of the Sith.
Fans will best know the Separatists through their armies of battle droids and their two prominent leaders, Count Dooku and General Grievous.
It’s unsurprising that Saw doesn’t want to work with a Separatist, as they were the faction that oppressed Onderon and killed his sister, Steela.
Saw also drops more names. Maya Pei, a Neo-Republican, is a new name and ideology to Star Wars. But it’s probable that Neo-Republicans are fighting to restore the Republic.
While the name of the Neo-Republican ideology is new, fans have already seen prominent figures. The full name of the Rebel Alliance is the Alliance to Restore the Republic. Mon Mothma firmly believes in bringing back the Republic.
When the rebels do eventually come together, they will unite under the banner of Neo-Republicanism.
The Ghorman Front is again a new name, likely the group that opposes the Empire. But the Ghormans play a key role in the formation of the Rebellion. The massacre that happens to their planet is what inspires Mon Mothma to rebel openly.
Tony Gilroy has hinted that this will appear in Andor, but as it doesn’t happen until 2BBY, fans will have to wait until Season 2 of Andor.
The Partisan Alliance is a new faction, and it’s unclear what they stand for. It seems their model of rebellion will be later adopted because the name suggests that they are a group of independent parties that have come together to oppose a common cause.
They aren’t to be confused with Saw Gerrera, who leads a group known as the Partisans but believes in working alone and in anarchism.
Sectorists are likely people who believe in rebelling in the different sectors that are present in Star Wars. Sectors are military, political, or economic boundaries that divide up planets. At the time of the Empire, these sectors were ruled by an Imperial Moff. Andor Season 1, Episode 7 revealed that these sectors were reorganized by Major Partagaz, a high-ranking member of the Imperial Security Bureau.
Human Cultists are likely a faction of Rebels that share the Empire’s xenophobic views of aliens, but this group likely loses power very quickly; as of the time of the Original Trilogy, the Rebel Alliance is made up of a diverse group of species.
Galaxy Partitionists are the final new faction that is mentioned. Their name implies that they oppose centralized control over the galaxy and want to divide it into sections that rule themselves.
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