Mon Mothma was always an important character.  She was the Alliance’s analogue to Emperor Palpatine.  She gave a single speech to the assembled group in the briefing room of Home One to share the gravity of the situation, and to ensure that everyone was aware of the sacrifices that were made to bring them all to that point.  I never really spent much time thinking about it, but I realize that Disney has devoted a lot of energy telling stories that fill in the gaps between the PT and OT as well as between the OT and ST, but aside from The Clone Wars (which was significant), there hasn’t been much to flesh out the events between films within a given trilogy.  With the aforementioned Clone Wars, and with the general apathy towards the PT, it would seem that the time between OT films might be ripe for some story telling.  I’m assuming that someday there will be a series on Disney+ called Many Bothans, and we will learn the exact number that died along with all of their names.

Of course, Mon Mothma has become a much more significant part of the Star Wars lore.  Whereas with ROTJ, we didn’t get much of a background, we now know so much more since the character has been owned by Genevieve O’Reilly.  While she was cast to play Mon Mothma in ROTS, most scenes were dropped, and only a brief non-verbal appearance made the final cut.  Almost in realtime when compared to the Galactic timeline, O’Reilly has appeared as voicing Mothma in Rebels, as well as live action in Rogue One, Andor, and also Ahsoka.  Her “Monster” senate speech will go down as one of the more iconic moments in the saga.

So we have 2 figures of the character in the line.  One is from ROTJ in the POTF2 line.  That one is the epitome of the “salt shaker” design.  Technically it has 4POA, but the waist is pointless, and the shoulders are restricted by the separate shawl as to make them pointless.  So for all intents and purposes, she has one meaningful POA, the neck.  But the redeeming quality of this is that it’s the Caroline Blakiston ROTJ likeness - as much as you can muster a “likeness” in a POTF2 figure.

And the second, and most recent, figure is this one, depicting the Genevieve O’Reilly portrayal from ROTS. Looking at the figures side by side, they are eerily similar in design, but the ROTS version definitely kicks it up a few notches.  The face has a better sculpt, although still questionable whether it looks anything like the actor.  The shoulders are swivel, but are not restricted by the out robe design.  She also has swivel elbows and wrists.  Like the POTF2 figure, this one also has a pointless waist, since the lower outfit is pretty similar all around.  Turning it has almost no effect on the pose or the appearance.  And while this figure has separately sculpted feet instead of the flat-plane bottom to the dress, they are not articulated and are hidden by the hem of the dress, also rendering them pointless. 

Like the POTF2 predecessor, ROTS Mothma comes with a baton, so she can wave it around at other people like a Senator is supposed to do.  But she also comes with an ornate headdress, something she wore during her days serving in the senate, but had since given up on such things when she took her spot in the Alliance.

It’s not a bad figure, and by 2005 standards did a good enough job for what was asked and expected.  It’s unlikely we’d ever really want an update to her ROTS specific outfit, but it was designed to be nearly identical to her ROTJ outfit.  They can probably do a two-fer Mon Mothma figure with swappable heads to knock out updates to both in one shot.  Nevertheless, I’m putting a low priority on this.

However, collectors would probably prefer an all new figure sourced to Andor.  She was an unexpected force in the show, and would be deserving of a figure.  I’ve often mentioned how much I love the show, but didn’t really find too many designs that I was craving to be made into a toy.  There were a couple, but given the limited resources, I was fine passing on this as a source.  However, season 2 provided a few more opportunities.  Andor is one of my favorite television series of all time; Star Wars or not.  And I would love for a selection of characters to make it into the line.  Mon Mothma would be one those for me.

5/10