This Is Why Mon Mothma's Daughter Is Important

Star Wars

Nov 7

Leida Mothma, Mon Mothma's daughter — Source: Steamgameguides

One of the achievements of the series Andor is that it cleverly brings together several seemingly independent plotlines into a common thread. One of them is the work and life of Mon Mothma. In Season 1, she was still an official member of the Imperial Senate, an organization that would be in place for five more years despite being practically obsolete and pointless at this point in time. She was also a wife and a mother.

Born in 48 BBY, she married fellow Chandrilan Perrin Fertha at only 15. Around 18 BBY, their daughter Leida was born. Thirteen years later, the relationship between Mon and Perrin was estranged at best. He had no interest in the work and agendas of his wife, nor did he seem to know that she was secretly setting up a galaxy-wide rebellion against the Empire. The connection between Mon Mothma and her daughter was troubled as well. Like most teenagers, Leida was more or less constantly annoyed by her parents. She seemed to get along better with her father, while she frequently accused her mother of prioritizing her job over her family.

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Mon Mothma in Star Wars Rebels — Image Source: Disney+

So far, Leida's impact on the events of Andor has been small, but that will likely change in the second season. In the Star Wars Rebels episode “Secret Cargo,” which takes place in 2 BBY, Mon Mothma made a speech that was broadcast throughout the galaxy, where she officially resigned from the Senate, publicly called out the sinister tactics of Emperor Palpatine, and established the Rebel Alliance. This move would undoubtedly put a target on the backs of both Perrin and Leida, and the Empire would not hesitate to kill or at least kidnap and torture them to extract information bout Mothma's plan. And while she might not care what happened to her husband, she surely would not want any harm to her daughter. So she had to have all this in mind when she gave her speech to the various rebel cells.

This means that Season 2 of Andor will likely have to deal with what happened to Leida as the stakes for her mother get higher and higher. Of course, she could simply disappear off-screen, either sent to some secret location or leaving her parents voluntarily at some point between 5 and 2 BBY, never to be seen again. But this would be just lazy storytelling, something that Tony Gilroy is not known for.

Considering Mothma's connection to Bail Organa and Leida being roughly the same age as Leia, it is possible that the two girls became friends and that Leida joined the Rebel Alliance as well when she recognized that her mother's life wasn't as boring as she initially thought. The fact that Leida did not appear in Rogue One, nor the original trilogy does not mean that she was not part of the Rebellion.

Mon Mothma being a mother is not something that was created for Andor. In 1993, the sourcebook for Dark Horse's comic series Dark Empire first revealed that the Rebel leader had a daughter named Lieda (not Leida!). Before Andor, she was only ever mentioned in a comic that was considered non-canon even before the Expanded Universe became Legends. The 2005 graphic novel Star Wars Visionaries included a story called “Entrenched” where a young corporal named Jobin recorded a holographic message to his mother, Mon Mothma, asking her to send greetings to his sister Lieda before he was killed by Darth Vader. While it is doubtful that Jobin will be brought back into canon, it is safe to assume that Leida's fate will have an impact on the formation of the Rebel Alliance.