SPECULATION Possible Spoiler: Mission not sanctioned by the Rebellion?

Huh it would be interesting that if it's true, the rebel alliance uses their help after he helps jyn escape her custody and she's able to get through to Jedha but is arrested again and that's when cassian andor rescues her to help them with the plans and maybe saw gereurra helps recruit the others and none of them are rebels except for cassian who could be like rick flag (sort of) and the rest are a sort of...suicide squad---except this clip and this movie as a whole will be much better

 

Maybe K2SO decides to help them get to Jedha because cassian is already there or something like that.

 

May be like a Star Wars version of "The Magnificent Seven "

 

It could explain the title.

 

I wouldn't be surprised if they go "rogue" for a little bit. It's honestly a trope in so many movies anyway.

You know: "McGillicutty, Smithson, hand in your badges, you're off the case and off the force!"
*Cue McGillicutty and Smithson taking on the case as civillians and discovering/taking down Chicago's biggest drug ring.*

My guess is the main mission given by Mothma will lead her to Jedha, but she'll eventually go to Eadu (under direct condemnation by Rebel command) only to work again with the Alliance at Scarif.

 

It could certainly be her impetus for seeking out Saw, who has been known to push the boundaries in the art of rebellion a few times in his day.

 

I could a few aspects of the squad starting Rogue (Cassian, K2-SO) on behalf of the Rebellion to keep Jyn's breakout secret because of who she is; But Mon Motha, And Bail seemed to be involved so I tend to believe at the films penultimate moment everyone in the Rebellion is behind the Raid to acquire the plans.

 

I guess one thing we haven't really considered is: what if we have the timeline way off? Here's just a rough outline of how the story might go if we drop some presuppositions from the editing in the trailers- I'm fully aware this is almost certainly not even close to being accurate, but I think it's worth considering since it demonstrates how our idea of the storyline could be way off:

What if Scarif is the mission Mothma sends the Rogue 1 crew on, along with the support of much of the Rebel Alliance relatively early on in the film? Things go pretty badly for them and Jyn is captured and taken to Jedha while the rest of the R1 crew gets seperated from the Rebels. R1 goes to Jedha (rogue), rescues Jyn (with help from local Saw), and learns from data they recovered on Scarif that the Death Star is headed closer into the core worlds, currently in Orbit over a planet named Eadu.

The R1 crew make it to Eadu, and fight (make 10 men feel like 100, or whatever Cassian says). They do alright in the fight and Krennic is eventually like "screw it, let's just test the laser on the planet" and Tarkin heads off to tattle to Vader. The R1 crew try to escape before the planet is destroyed- maybe losing some men in the process- and have a final confrontation aboard the Death Star (remember those pesky tractor beams?), where they secure the plans, beam them off station, and have a final confrontation with Krennic (who survives the encounter long enough to be killed by Vader for his recklessness at Eadu).

Edit: Going by the soundtrack, the Jedha- Eadu- Scarif timeline seems correct. Of course, that's only if the soundtrack is actually in chronological order, but I might need a tinfoil hat to dig any further with this,

 

The whole time I was reading this thread I couldn't help but hear the A-team theme in my head. Cassias would be Hannibal and K2 would be his B.A. Baracus.

--- Double Post Merged, Dec 10, 2016, Original Post Date: Dec 10, 2016 ---

Dang if I had the gear-software I could make a cool Rogue One/A-team themed trailer.

 

I'm not sure we can really say the mission isn't sanctioned at all by the Rebellion, but I did have a thought on this... so, throughout the movies, there is very little focus put on the body count on the Imperial side. This is probably largely because we see most of this through the lens of the Rebels, but something Lost Stars brought up were numbers for the casualties of the Death Star. Two million people were murdered by the Empire on Alderaan... but Luke and the Rebels effectively murdered a million people on the Death Star, and most of those people were probably Imp grunts just trying to do their jobs.

Considering that Alderaan seems to be home to a largely pacifist culture, is it possible that this entire plan to destroy the Death Star caused something of a schism in High Command? What if Mon Mothma approved the plan (she seems to be more directly involved) and Bail Organa opposed it on the grounds that the casualties would be too high for a weapon that the Empire might never use as anything but a show of potential force? Because, if you think about it, the Empire doesn't really benefit from going around blowing up any planet that disagrees with it. In all likelihood, the Death Star might never have actually been used, outside of an initial demonstration on some planet the Empire could afford to lose. After that (or even without such a demonstration), just the fear of it would have been enough to keep everyone in line. So, perhaps Organa's view is that this isn't a good enough reason to even entertain the thought of murdering a million people, no matter who they work for. Assuming they could find a way to do it in the first place. Mothma disagrees.

But then Galen Erso manages to get a message to the Rebels about a flaw in the Death Star that they could use to destroy it. Mothma decides to sanction the mission, whether Organa likes it or not, to at least steal the plans. Maybe she hoped that they could get them without ISB finding out what they were after, so the plans would simply be a backup in case they needed to destroy it. Except, of course, the Empire finds out what they're after, and that forces their hand. Now they have to destroy it while they still can. Organa still disagrees, but then Alderaan is destroyed, he is killed, and his protest is now a mute point. The Rebellion, on the edge of being hopelessly divided, is suddenly a united front, ready to take on the Empire no matter the cost.

 

That's a really good point. I don't know how in depth this division will go, but I wonder if they'll kind of demonstrate that, if not for the Rebels' stealing the plans, Alderaan would've been spared. After all, the only reason Vader and the 501st go into full on Hunt them Down mode (at least in Legends) is because the plans were stolen. Maybe that's the true tragedy of Rogue One- stealing the plans was a self-fulfilling tragedy.

 

I'd be surprised if it wasn't sanctioned, it came from a high authority in Mon Mothma.

 

Oh, so thats What Captain Cassian Andor meant when he said to Jyn if your doing this I want to help.

 

Spoiler

It's true, the rebellion didn't allow the mission, they just went to the rescue when the rogue one squadron was on Scarif already