Admiral Ackbar

Fleet Admiral Gial Ackbar is a fictional character from the Star Wars franchise. A member of the amphibious Mon Calamari species, Ackbar was the foremost military commander of the Rebel Alliance and led the attack against the second Death Star in Return of the Jedi (1983), the final entry in the original Star Wars trilogy. Although his time in the film was brief, Ackbar became a prominent character in other Star Wars media, including novels, comic books, video games, and television shows, and later made appearances in the sequel trilogy films Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015) and Star Wars: The Last Jedi (2017), and the television series The Clone Wars.

With his distinctive salmon-colored skin, webbed hands, high-domed head, and large fish-like eyes, Ackbar was realized in Return of the Jedi through the use of either a half-body puppet or full-body costume, depending on the camera angle required. In all three films he was portrayed by puppeteer Timothy D. Rose, who originally played other characters, but requested to also play Ackbar after seeing his sculpt on a display stand. Ackbar was voiced by Erik Bauersfeld, who made up the voice on the spot after looking at a photograph of Ackbar. Bauersfeld voiced the character in Return of the Jedi and The Force Awakens, but died before the filming of The Last Jedi, in which he was replaced by Tom Kane, who had voiced Ackbar in other works of Star Wars media.

Ackbar was originally planned to be more conventionally humanoid, but after Star Wars creator George Lucas decided to make him an alien, he allowed Return of the Jedi director Richard Marquand to pick from various designs. Marquand picked a sketch by concept artist Nilo Rodis-Jamero, over the objections of other members of the film crew who thought the character looked too silly or ugly. Ackbar made his first appearance not in the film, but in a Star Wars newspaper comic strip that ran a few months before Return of the Jedi was released. Lucas was not entirely pleased with the final result of the character in the film and felt it was a compromise. Ackbar's first name, Gial, was not established until April 2012.

Ackbar had just 14 lines of dialogue in Return of the Jedi, and his total screen time across all three film appearances totaled only three minutes and 30 seconds. Nevertheless, he is considered a fan favorite among Star Wars characters, and was ranked No. 16 in a 1998 list of the "Top 20 Star Wars Characters" in the magazine Star Wars Insider. His line "It's a trap!" from Return of the Jedi became one of the most famous, quoted and beloved lines from the original Star Wars trilogy, as well as a popular Internet meme.

Character biography

Backstory

Admiral Ackbar was best known for his appearance in the film Return of the Jedi, the final entry in the original Star Wars trilogy. However, before the May 1983 debut of that film, the character made his first chronological appearance in the Star Wars newspaper comic strip by Archie Goodwin and Al Williamson. Published by the Los Angeles Times Syndicate, the strip ran in newspapers across the United States from November 1982 to January 1983. In the comic, Ackbar was portrayed as the leader of the Mon Calamari, an alien species of fish-like, amphibious humanoids with salmon-colored skin, webbed hands, high-domed heads, and large fish-like eyes, and who can breathe both on land and underwater. They are allies of the Rebel Alliance in their conflict with the Galactic Empire. In the comic, which is set before the events of the film The Empire Strikes Back (1980), Ackbar and his crew are stranded on the planet Daluuj after an Imperial attack, and they are rescued by Han Solo, Luke Skywalker, and Princess Leia Organa in the Millennium Falcon. Ackbar demonstrates his tactical abilities by agitating water monsters in a ploy to raise the sunken Falcon from a mud swamp.

Ackbar's backstory was not explained in Return of the Jedi, but has been established in Star Wars books and other media since the film was released. He is from the planet Mon Cala, a world almost entirely covered by water, where his species built giant floating cities. Ackbar is the leader of his home town, Coral Depths City, when forces from the Galactic Empire invade and nearly destroy the planet. Despite the Mon Calamari's attempts to make peace, the Imperial forces destroy several of their cities, steal their technology, and enslave its population. Ackbar is one of the first to be enslaved, and becomes an interpreter and personal servant to Grand Moff Tarkin, a secondary antagonist from the first Star Wars film. During this time, Ackbar learns much about both the Empire and military tactics in general, as well as about the Rebel Alliance and the Death Star, a moon-sized superweapon Tarkin is developing at the time. Ackbar takes detailed notes about what he observed with the hopes of eventually escaping back to his people and using the information against the Empire.

Ackbar is freed from captivity during a failed attempt by Rebel forces to capture Tarkin. He joins the Rebel Alliance, where the knowledge he obtained during his captivity made him indispensable. Ackbar returns to the Mon Calamari people and, after leading them through numerous conflicts, convinces them to formally support the Rebel cause, bringing with them the massive Mon Calamari cruisers that drastically improves the strength of the Rebel fleet. Starting with the rank of Commander, Ackbar helps design the B-wing, a powerful line of starfighters. This success prompts Rebel leader Mon Mothma to promote him to Admiral, news he reacts to heavily due to the weight of the responsibility. Following events in the film Star Wars, including the destruction of the Death Star, Admiral Akbar helps the other Rebel leaders establish new bases of operation and manage a Rebel mobile task force in starships spread across the galaxy. He rises up the ranks until Mothma promotes him to commander of the entire Rebel fleet and head of military operations, as well as one of her top advisers.

Return of the Jedi

Admiral Ackbar was the first character not resemblant of a human shown in a leadership position in the Star Wars films. In Return of the Jedi, when Rebel spies discover plans for a partially constructed second Death Star, Ackbar and Mon Mothma plan a surprise assault on the battle station as it orbits the forest moon of Endor. The attack, known as the Battle of Endor, involves General Han Solo leading a strike team on the moon's surface to destroy the Death Star's energy shield generator, while Ackbar and General Lando Calrissian lead a battle against the station itself. Ackbar personally leads the assault from his flagship, the Mon Calamari cruiser Home One. The attack does not go as planned, however, because Emperor Palpatine was expecting the assault and had in fact allowed the Death Star plans to fall into Rebel hands. On Palpatine's order, Imperial forces launch a massive counterattack against the Rebel fleet with TIE starfighters and Star Destroyer capital ships, which leads Ackbar to realize that the fleet is heading into a trap. He initially calls for a tactical retreat, but Calrissian convinces him to move forward with the attack and give Solo's team more time to destroy the energy shield. The Rebel forces suffer heavy casualties, but ultimately succeed in destroying the second Death Star and defeating the Empire.

The Clone Wars

Ackbar appeared in the first three episodes of the fourth season of the animated series Star Wars: The Clone Wars, which is set roughly 20 years before the events of the first Star Wars film. In the show, Ackbar is a chief adviser of the Mon Cala king, Yos Kolina, and captain of the Mon Calamari royal guard, where he hones the abilities that later serve him as an Admiral. The fragile peace between Mon Cala's two primary species, the Calamari and the Quarren, is disrupted after King Kolina is assassinated by Riff Tamson, an agent for the Confederacy of Independent Systems, also known as the Separatists, one of the primary antagonists of the series. Attempting to spark a civil war on the planet, the Separatists use Quarren insurgents to obstruct Mon Cala Prince Lee-Char's succession to the throne, and Ackbar attempts to protect Lee-Char and rally the Mon Calamari people as a battle for the planet begins. The battle is lost, despite the assistance of the Jedi Ahsoka Tano, Anakin Skywalker, and Kit Fisto. Ackbar is captured, leaving Ahsoka and Lee-Char to fend for themselves. However, after learning that Tamson plans to install himself as the new king, the Quarren betrays the Separatists at Lee-Char's public execution ceremony. Afterwards, Ackbar is freed and helps lead a counterassault to retake the planet. Tamson is killed by Lee-Char, who is crowned the new king.

Dave Filoni, supervising director on The Clone Wars, said he had planned on featuring Ackbar in the series since the second season due to the character's relevance to the original trilogy, and because he was old enough in those films to have been alive when The Clone Wars was set. Keith Kellogg, animation supervisor for the series, said of the character: "To see him as his younger self commanding an army in the field was really fun, and to be able to see him mentor Lee-Char was great."