Hera Syndulla

"There isn't a pilot in the Imperial fleet that can outrun me."

- Hera

Hera Syndulla is one of the deuteragonists of the television series, Star Wars Rebels. She is the daughter of the rebellion leader, Cham Syndulla, the pilot and captain of the Ghost crew, which she is the mother figure of.

By season 4, Hera was the lover of the late Kanan Jarrus and the mother of their son, Jacen Syndulla. After Kanan's sacrifice, Hera refused to lose anyone else.

At the time of Rogue One, Hera became a general in the Alliance to Restore the Republic.

Background
Hera is the daughter of the Clone War hero and revolutionist, General Cham Syndulla. When she was young, her mother was killed during the earlier days of the Galactic Empire, and she did have a younger brother who died when he was very young. She grew up in the Ten Provinces at Ryloth, where she had a strained relationship with her father when he fought for their homeworld. During her childhood, Hera grew up on tales of how the purrgil, large space-dwelling creatures, had inspired people to develop the hyperdrive. As she grew older however, Syndulla came to regard the purrgil as a menace because they endangered hyperspace travel by crashing into ships. While working as a pilot, she lost more than one friend to collisions with purrgil. As a girl, Hera found an old C1 droid, C1-10P, from the wreck of a Y-wing during the final days of the Clone Wars.

Following the formation of the Galactic Empire, Hera decide to leave Ryloth to fight for others, acquiring the Ghost, a modified VCX-100 light freighter.

Personality
Among the members of the Ghost Crew, Hera Syndulla is considered the mother figure of the bunch. Bringing together six rebels, her fellow crewmembers treat Hera with the utmost respect and authority. She is the only one who can keep Chopper in line and reprimand Zeb whenever his actions are questionable. Like all the other members of the Ghost, she was sympathetic toward those who fell victim to the Empire and helped bring about inspiration to her followers. Whenever she was infuriated with Zeb or Chopper, she would occasionally call Zeb by his full name, Garazeb Orrelios and Chopper, his real name C1-10P. When she first meets Ezra Bridger, she was mildly impressed with the boy's resourcefulness and how his personality reminds her of Kanan when he was younger. She was the first to warmly welcome him on the Ghost when he got into conflict with Kanan, Zeb and Sabine. After learning he was an orphan and had no parents, she felt sympathy for him.

Hera is an outspoken young woman who is not afraid to call people out on their actions, such as pressing Kanan on to train Ezra and later, reprimanding Ezra when he disobeyed her orders. Like Ezra, Hera tries to see the best in everyone and attempt to bring it out. According to Kanan, some of Hera's traits were picked up on by Ezra. Hera is also an ace pilot, being able to outmaneuver even Darth Vader, despite him being one of the better pilots. Because of her talented skills, Hera stayed on the Ghost most of their missions because she could fly away faster. When she does go on missions, Hera proves to be capable of looking after herself on the battle, being an excellent fighter and markswoman. Apart from her idealistic nature, Hera was the first Rebel to see that Senator Gall Trayvis was a traitor and a spy for the Empire.

As the series goes on, Hera becomes more involved and loyal to the Rebellion, acting less flirtatious with Kanan and more in command of the Ghost crew, but still remaining the fiesty, motherly figure of the bunch. She becomes invested in the rebellion so much, that she does not even consider what life she wanted to live once it was over, letting her personal needs not get in the way of things. However, after their losses on Atallon, Hera realizes that she could not let the Rebellion control her life. At the end, she wanted to continue her life with Kananand decided that is what she wanted when the war was over. Even being a mother to her toddler son, Jacen, Hera still participated in the battle of Scarif in Rogue One.

After losing Kanan, Hera feared lthat she would lose someone else she cared for, as she protested to Ezra not to surrender to Thrawn, insisting there was another way.

Appearance
At the time of Star Wars Rebels, Hera was twenty four years old in season 1 and 2 (possibly twenty-five in season 2), 26 in season 3 and 28 in season 4. and was a beautiful Twi'lek woman who stood 1.76 meters, had apple green skin, emerald green eyes and red lips. Hera's eyes would sometimes look blue-green in the light.

Her Lekku had a pattern that was a lighter shade of green and hung from her headgear. Hera wore a pair of goggles, but she only wore them whenever she was out in the open air or for protection when it best suited her.

Instead of having a Ryloth accent, Hera instead had a human accent and would only ship into her accent whenever she was stressed out with her father or angered. Most of the time, Hera wore a white, orange and brown flight suit and boots. She went through with a minor redesign in season 3, where she was given a patch to signify her role as the Phoenix Leader in the Phoenix Squadron.

Season 1
During one of the routine ops that day, Hera piloted the Ghost when Kanan asked for a pickup after they stole the shipment of crates. When Kanan left the boy under the charge of Sabine and Zeb to inform Hera of the situation, the Twi'lek questioned Kanan why they encountered complications on the mission and the former Jedi revealed they had picked up a boy named Ezra Bridger, who they ran into while they were stealing the crates. When Hera heard that Ezra was just a kid, she was impressed with him and ordered for more information from Kanan, who told Hera that Ezra had made a strong Jump onto the ramp of the Ghost while carrying a large crate of blasters. Hearing this, Hera suspected that Ezra was Force-sensitive like Kanan, who disagreed with his lover. She was further impressed with Ezra when she heard he had escaped the prison Zeb put Ezra in. Annoyed, Kanan left the cockpit while he and Sabine fired the guns at their attackers. Hera was able to jump and make the escape into lightspeed.

She formally met Ezra when he was brought into the cockpit by Zeb and overheard him shouting that he wanted to return home to Lothal. She and Kanan went to Cikatro Vizago with the shipment of guns they stole. He gives them half of the money and gives Hera and Kanan information they yearned so long for: where the Wookiees are being taken. Returning, they find Ezra has broken into Kanan's room and has his lightsaber out before returning it and taking the Sith Holocron with him as Kanan tells Hera they will wait and see if Ezra really is Force-sensitive.

On the mission to free the Wookiees, she and Ezra stayed on the ship, however, they realized it was a trap. Hera sent Ezra to warn they're teammates, whom she was able to convince after making him realize that Kanan risked his life to save Ezra from the TIE fighter. After the crew returns, Hera manages to escape while unknowingly leaving Ezra behind until  Zeb informs them of Ezra's capture. Realizing it is their fault, Hera decides to go back until Sabine and Zeb protest. However, Kanan and Chopper side with Hera and they return to Kallus' Star Destroyer and rescue Ezra. The boy thanks Hera for coming back for him and tells her of his doubts that they would come back. Deciding Ezra deserves to go home, she prepares to set a course for Lothal, believing his parents must be worried sick about him. However, he reveals that he doesn't have any, causing Hera to realize that Ezra is an orphan. Instead, Ezra choses to join them for one last mission by revealing to Hera, Kanan and Sabine (who are all present) that the Wookiees are being taken to the space mines of Kessel. Impressed, Hera sets a course for the planet. During the rescue mission, Hera saves her teammates after Kanan reveals himself to be a Jedi in front of Kallus Before they leave, Kanan retrieve Ezra and Kitwarr as Hera escapes through hyperspace from Imperial forces.

Returning to Lothal, Hera and Kanan saw Ezra off when he returned the holocron to Kanan. After the boy left, Hera saw that Ezra had indeed opened the Holocron and passed the test. Subsequently, Ezra joins the Ghost crew as Kanan's padawan. (''Star Wars Rebels: Spark of Rebellion). ''