In the original Star Wars the rebels attack the Death Star with 30 some-odd fighters, a mixture of X- and Y-Wings. Most of them get whacked, but after the Death Star blows up there’s a shot of four ships flying back to the rebel base – 2 X-Wings, 1 Y-Wing, and the Millenium Falcon.
Now one of the X-Wings is piloted by Luke. And the other is piloted by Wedge Antilles. He had to bail on the trench run because his engine was damaged, but we know he survived because he’s in the rebel base afterward (and the next two movies). And Han Solo is flying the Falcon, natch.
Like you said they started with 30 fighters…we see 3 Y-wings and 6 X-Wings get taken out. I always assumed the rest of the X-Wings and Y-Wings were flying cover or assaulting other parts of the Death Star (Vader: Several fighters have broken off from the main group). Before Vader and his wingmen get to their ships, we see a half squadron of TIEs harrassing the Rebels. Since only a few of them get shot down by Red Squadron, the rest must be off fighting those other Y-Wings and X-Wings (or, you know, on break) Besides, if you have 30 fighters and you send them all straight towards a small thermal exhaust port…well, the enemy is gonna start looking at blueprints pretty quick. Breaking into two or three flights will leave them guessing as to your actual target. Also, the original 1976 novelization says “Several X-Wings and Y-Wings and one battered frieghter” flew away from the assault.
So to answer your question, I don’t know who was in that Y-Wing, but it must have been one hell of a pilot to survive when everyone else got vaped.
Which they clearly did. One of Grand Moff Tarkin’s lackeys warns him that they’ve spotted a vulnerability and suggests that he might evacuate. Tarkin shrugs him off.
There are three trench runs. The first is using only Y-Wings, which seems to suggest that the rebels thought they were better suited for that purpose. Also supporting this is the reaction of the pilot of Red One when he hears that the first run failed. He has an air of desperation about him when he takes his X-Wings into the trench, which suggests that things are already badly off plan.
My friends and I theorized that there was a separate cover group made up of all the pilots with the white and blue helmets that you see taking off from the hangar on Yavin but then never see again. They were holding off the bulk of the TIE fighters while the Red and Gold groups were going after the exhaust port.
I’ve wondered about it, too… But there are plenty of explanations.
A Gold Wing version of Red Five – a rookie. Except he loses his wingmates and stays alive by running, or skirting the edge of the battle taking potshots as best he can because he doesn’t know what the heck is going on. When he hears that the torpedo run was successful, he hustles towards the friendlies and gets the heck outta there.
But I prefer: 2. A mega stud pilot with 1,500 TIE fighter kills. They may have wasted all the other Y-wings, but they didn’t get him. He’s the true hero of Star Wars, having kept Luke alive by keeping every other fighter launched from the Death Star occupied. If only the Rebellion had TWO of him, the pair would have flown off to the Death Star by themselves, telling everybody else to stay home. “We’ll be back in about twenty minutes. Have the beer ready.”
Or 3: He fought hard and got lucky where the other pilots didn’t, like the lone survivor of an entire wing that went up against a Japanese carrier in WWII… I can’t remember his name… Gonna have to do some googling now I think…
FWIW, a couple series of books idenitfy him. I want to say his name was Tycho Celchu, but I could be off by a few consonants. Anyway, they create a whole backstory for him. Former Imperial pilot, still distrusted, goes undercover a lot.
No idea who George Lucas originally had in mind, if any one.
Tycho was a character introduced in the Rogue Squadron books. His backstory said he defected to the Rebels side, but not until the battle of Hoth, so if he did infact fly in the Battle of Yavin, he fought on the wrong side. He did go up against the 2nd Death Star though. In the 1st book of that series (Rogue Squadron- inventive, I know) It says Wedge was the only one to fly against both Death Stars, unless you count the Falcon as a person. There was a handout with the 1st version of the X-Wing PC game that named the Y- Wing pilot Keyan Farlander, but that source is considered non-cannonical.
also, my hat is off to silenus. You beat me to that titbit on Gay.
Megastud fighter pilot, after trench run: “Mind if I use your radio? If word gets out that I’m missing, five hundred girls will kill themselves. I wouldn’t want them on my conscience, not when they ought to be on my face! Huh! (on radio) Hi, Flashheart here. Yeah, cancel the state funeral, tell the Princess to stop blubbing. Flash is not dead. I simply ran out of juice! Yeah, and before all the girls start saying “Oh, what’s the point of living anymore?”, I’m talking about petrol! Woof, woof!”
