A skittish but loyal astromech, BB-8 accompanied Poe Dameron on many missions for the Resistance, helping keep his X-wing in working order. When Poe’s mission to Jakku ended with his capture by the First Order, BB-8 fled into the desert with a vital clue to the location of Jedi Master Luke Skywalker. He rejoined Poe and the service of the Resistance in time for the attack on Starkiller Base, then helped Rey locate Skywalker’s planet of exile.

Princess Leia Organa was one of the Rebel Alliance’s greatest leaders, fearless on the battlefield and dedicated to ending the tyranny of the Empire. Daughter of Padmé Amidala and Anakin Skywalker, sister of Luke Skywalker, and with a soft spot for scoundrels, Leia ranks among the galaxy’s great heroes. But life under the New Republic has not been easy for Leia. Sidelined by a new generation of political leaders, she struck out on her own to oppose the First Order as founder of the Resistance. These setbacks in her political career have been accompanied by more personal losses.

FN-2187 was trained since birth to serve the First Order as a stormtrooper, but a skirmish on Jakku awakened his conscience and drove him down a different path, one that proved both heroic and dangerous. He helped Poe Dameron escape the First Order – picking up the nickname Finn in doing so – and then sought his own freedom alongside Rey and BB-8. Finn helped the Resistance destroy Starkiller Base, but had to decide his true loyalties: Would he continue to fight alongside the Resistance’s soldiers, or seek to reunite with Rey and flee the galactic conflict? At first Finn tried to flee the war, but a mission alongside Rose Tico convinced him that he had to commit himself to the Resistance’s cause.

Poe Dameron’s personal T-70 X-wing, Black One delivered the critical blows against Starkiller Base, returning to D’Qar with a bad case of carbon-scoring and frayed fire-control linkages. With the Resistance in grave danger, Poe and BB-8 flew with an experimental thrust accelerator pod designed to give Black One even greater combat speed. The X-wing played a key role in the attack on a First Order Dreadnought, but was destroyed by Kylo Ren’s attack run against the Raddus.

An unconventional Resistance officer, Amilyn Holdo was one of Leia Organa’s oldest friends. She assumed command of the Resistance fleet after Leia was injured. As the peril to the Resistance grew, Holdo’s insistence on secrecy and her brusque manner led her into conflict with Poe Dameron. She sacrificed her life to save the Resistance transports during the desperate flight to Crait.

A small, secretive private military force, the Resistance was founded by rebel hero Leia Organa to monitor the actions of the First Order. Most New Republic power brokers tolerate the Resistance while regarding Organa and her fighters as dead-enders with an unfortunate fixation on the past. Organa’s cash-strapped movement relies on credits, ships and equipment quietly funneled to it from the few senators who share her concerns. Resistance starfighters destroyed Starkiller Base, but the First Order’s retaliatory attack on D’Qar reduced its forces to a handful of brave freedom fighters.