Bail Organa

A member of the Alderaanian royal family, Bail Organa held his planet's seat in the Galactic Senate in the Republic's closing years and was known as an honest politician committed to justice. In the Clone Wars he was a prominent Loyalist, but it worried him to see ever more military authority concentrated in the Chancellor's hands. Organa headed humanitarian missions, assisted refugees and searched for a peaceful way out of the war. In the Senate he relied above all on Padmé Amidala and Mon Mothma, and among the Jedi he was closest to Yoda and Obi-Wan Kenobi.

Organa saw the Republic's fall firsthand. On hearing that the Jedi had supposedly revolted, he went to the burning Temple, but had to withdraw after seeing clones shoot down a young Padawan. He was in the Senate when the Empire was proclaimed, and he took the surviving Yoda and Kenobi aboard his ship. Padmé died giving birth to twins, and Bail, who was with her at that hour, took the girl into his care: together with his wife Breha he adopted Leia, bringing her up as a princess of Alderaan.

Under the Empire Organa lived a double life: openly he kept his Senate seat, while in secret he and Mon Mothma backed scattered resistance cells. He personally asked Ahsoka Tano to come back to the fight, and she too became his comrade. After the massacre on Ghorman he gave up his turn to speak in the Senate to Mon Mothma so that she could accuse the Emperor in public, and later he joined the Alliance leadership on Yavin 4. Bail's life ended together with Alderaan, destroyed by the battle station.