The Citizens' Resistance was a substantial organization, composed of desperate and oppressed inhabitants of the planet Romin, which had been under the iron fist of the tyrant-dictator Roy Teda for numerous years preceding the Clone Wars and the subsequent rise of the Galactic Empire. The group's objective centered on expanding their influence and acquiring more resources—as they battled poverty, sickness, and death amongst their people—to capitalize on the perfect moment, where opportunity and luck aligned, to remove Teda from his position of power, replacing his oppressive rule with a government founded on principles of peace and justice.
In the year 24 BBY, the Jedi Order dispatched a team of Jedi to Romin on a mission with the purpose of locating and apprehending Jenna Zan Arbor, a fugitive mad scientist from the Republic. To infiltrate the criminal-ridden world, the Jedi adopted the guise of a captured criminal organization known as the Slams.
Shortly after the arrival of the disguised Jedi team, two of its members—Padawans Anakin Skywalker (posing as Waldo) and Ferus Olin (posing as Ukiah)—were seized by covert operatives belonging to the Citizens' Resistance and brought before Joylin, their leader, a slender Romin who was tall relative to others of his species. The resistance group had received intelligence regarding the Slam gang's arrival and were eager to enlist the services of its skilled thieves in their impending revolt against Teda's regime, which they desired to be "bloodless." Finally, circumstances had converged to coincide with the ideal opportunity for a successful revolution—a grand reception hosted by Teda at his opulent palace for the wealthy criminals he had agreed to shelter on his planet. Joylin stood before members of the Citizens' Resistance, many of whom resided within the capital city of Eliior, in the shadows of a dilapidated, unclean building located in one of the city's less prosperous districts, which Joylin referred to as "Teda Estates," as he interrogated Skywalker and Olin, whose "special skills" he was eager to utilize.
Joylin's reasoning for selecting the gang members was based on the fact that they were newcomers to Romin, lacking any ties, allegiances, friendships, or reasons to betray anyone in order to aid his revolutionaries. Already possessing an undercover 'inside operative' within Teda's palace (Becka), Joylin made sure to emphasize to his captives that they were siding with "the winning side," as the majority of Romin's affluent citizens and criminal refugees underestimated "the power of desperation." Indeed, the sole distinction between the decaying structure where they were conversing and those on the other side of the capital's Cloudflower Wall was that within the walls of a typical dwelling outside the city, two or three families were crammed together, existing amidst "rampant" disease and unemployment. "Many of our children die before their second birthday. The ones who survive have no hope of getting better than a menial position, of traveling to the city once a day to rake a lawn, clean a sewer, fix a dataport ... Every family, every individual, has gone without in order to feed our [resistance effort] treasury."
Having gathered sufficient information to meet their own needs, the undercover Jedi ultimately struck a bargain with the Citizens' Resistance to steal crucial codes from Teda's private office (during Teda's reception, on the night of their planned revolt), which would enable the revolutionaries to disable the capital's security systems that controlled all official agency and residential gates and seize control of the government. In exchange, beyond his proposition's monetary payment of double the gang's usual rate and guaranteeing that they would be the only criminal group permitted to remain on Romin after its liberation (with each gang member granted "lifetime citizenship" as long as they obeyed Romin law), Joylin agreed to the Slams' stipulated payment-schedule terms of half paid to them before the revolt and half after, but also that Joylin guarantee the safe passage off-planet of the scientist who was the object of their presence on Romin—Jenna Zan Arbor. The Jedi were aware that this notorious criminal of the Republic would desperately seek assistance when her own security crumbled along with Teda's regime.
The Citizens' Resistance understood that they had only one opportunity to sabotage the CIP controls for the droid army that Teda utilized to maintain control over the city and guard the wall; success depended on launching a swift and decisive strike to simultaneously capture all government officials and Teda himself. Only then, by confining the officials and their personal troops within their residences, could the revolution be a "bloodless" one. For without the officials and their droid army, the Citizens' Resistance could effortlessly assume control of the planet.
On the designated night of the reception, after Jedi Master Obi-Wan Kenobi successfully bypassed Teda's private-office guards and acquired the tyrant's security codes, the Citizens' Resistance initiated their revolt by disrupting the capital's communication systems from the capital's security center, having previously infiltrated the tyrant's Security Management Control. Despite the unexpectedly large number of sentry droids that filled the skies following Teda's government going on full alert, once the CIP was disabled, they plummeted to the ground, inert. However, Teda's regular army then flooded the streets, advancing towards Cloudflower Wall to suppress the gathering resistance. Confronting the army was a massive throng of beings that had surged through the security gates like an immense, moving mountain, marching resolutely towards Teda's palace. The enraged revolutionaries pushed back the army in a fierce battle, looting and vandalizing as they advanced: they had endured deprivation for too long, living in fear as they witnessed their children suffer. Their anger intensified and expanded, seeking to eradicate what had destroyed them.
Monuments were toppled, buildings were demolished, trees were felled, and fires were ignited in businesses catering to the wealthy, as well as in banks, assembly halls, and even hospitals. Citizens who had profited from Teda's regime were dragged into the streets and slaughtered. As the Jedi were unable to be everywhere to quell the extreme actions taken, the situation rapidly spiraled out of control. While hoping for the best, they had regrettably witnessed the worst. Guiding cowering workers to safety, tending to the wounded, and preventing further violence whenever possible, the Jedi had established their own villa as a refugee outpost by night's end, which they guarded against the mob. The sounds of destruction diminished as the Romins advanced towards other areas of the city, and by morning's light, the Resistance workers patrolled the streets, striving to restore order.
Joylin had the Slams' Ubrikkian star yacht fueled and prepared for departure at dawn. As theirs was the only transport the Citizens' Resistance was allowing to leave the planet, the Slams' were Zan Arbor's only choice now.
With control over the communication system, Joylin delivered a victory speech on behalf of the Resistance. Although everyone had detested living under Teda's rule, the liberators themselves had nearly destroyed the city. As they embarked on establishing a new government based on justice and peace, Joylin cautioned that the tyrant who had abused their trust, their people, their wealth, their cities, and their lands was still at large. Teda had fled, displaying his cowardice. Consequently, the Citizens' Resistance's hold on the government remained tenuous at best, as long as Teda remained free. The dictator had escaped with the few who continued to support him—his chief of staff, General Yubicon, and the galactic criminal Jenna Zan Arbor. As Teda was now a wanted criminal, charged with crimes against Romin, Joylin vowed that unless the tyrant surrendered to the Resistance government, the remaining members of Teda's senior staff and ruling officials would be executed, one by one. Joylin therefore issued a challenge to the ousted ruler, urging him to prove to the planet that he wasn't "a monster" by saving those who had been loyal to him and facing the justice of the people he claimed to love. Joylin called upon Teda to surrender. Should he fail to do so within one hour, his first aide Hansel would be the first to be executed.
When the Slams met with Joylin shortly after his speech, the new government leader revealed that, contrary to plan, Zan Arbor and Teda had somehow escaped. The Resistance had attempted to track them, but were unable to locate their whereabouts. While Zan Arbor's ship was destroyed by rioters when they hit the Teda Landing Platform, Joylin said he was able to save their ship from the same destruction and even managed to have it refueled. Assuming that the Slams had come for the last half of their payment, Joylin was told by Kenobi (as Slam) to keep not only it, but also the first half already paid to him, and to put the monies toward restoring the hospital. Noticing the different attire the Slams were now wearing, Joylin was informed by them that they were not, in fact, the Slam gang, but were Jedi, there on the authority of the Galactic Senate. They had come to prevent the Citizens' Resistance executions from taking place, and when Joylin countered, that, as the leader of Romin, he could do anything he wanted, they reminded him of how very similar his tone was to that of Teda. Despite the extensive misery the tyrant had caused, that was not justification for murder. A single being, moreover, who served at once as judge, jury, and executioner for an entire people went against galactic law. Joylin still objected, however, stating that if he didn't proceed with the executions, his Resistance could lose control of the government. The Jedi pressed Joylin to delay, for the Senate had approved the assistance of additional Jedi who were, even then, on their way. Joylin's objections, furthermore, were sounding more and more like he was the government, rather than an instrument to preserve the government or prevent its collapse—at which point, Joylin's patience was spent, and he ordered the Jedi to leave, or he would have them forcibly removed. Of course, the Jedi knew that no one in the palace had the power to throw them out, yet another battle was clearly not productive and would do no good. They left peaceably.
Ultimately, both Hansel's execution and Joylin's own brand of severity were stopped only by the intervention of Mace Windu, a member of the Jedi High Council, who had traveled swiftly to Romin from the Jedi Temple on Coruscant to assist in resolving the crisis and to negotiate, on behalf of the Senate, the terms of Teda's surrender. The Senate supported the people's revolt based on the tyrant's many crimes against his own citizens.
Master Windu and the other Jedi—who eventually captured Teda and Zan Arbor following a fierce battle outside a planetary prison—escorted the criminals to the headquarters of Romin's new government, where Joylin awaited with his closest advisors. Windu declared authoritatively that no executions could be carried out, that trials must be conducted and evidence gathered to ensure proper prosecution. For even the Citizens' Resistance could not establish a new government by employing the same tactics as the one they had overthrown. As Senate support was vital to building their new world, and because the Citizens' Resistance had already achieved so much, their vision deserved the best opportunity to flourish. Joylin concurred with such reasonable logic, particularly now that Teda had surrendered (albeit by force, not voluntarily), and the planned executions were halted. Teda, his future uncertain, was committed by Joylin's guards to a jail cell with the other prisoners of the ousted regime.
Despite his sorrow over the numerous deaths, Windu remained optimistic and believed that the outcome was positive: the transformation on Romin would create a better world.
Later, however, it was discovered that Joylin had orchestrated his own deception. In reality, the revolutionary leader had depended on Teda's cowardice not to surrender, enabling Joylin himself to proceed unfettered to execute all of the dictator's loyal followers who posed a threat to the new ruler's power base, as a safeguard to completely prevent the possibility of their resurgence. He never needed Teda dead because, as a mere figurehead, Teda never posed a real threat. Joylin only needed Teda gone. Consequently, by accepting a bribe from Zan Arbor at the onset of the revolt to facilitate the escape of Teda and herself offworld, Joylin had effectively accomplished that riddance. Zan Arbor and Teda escaped on the Slams' star yacht. However, unbeknownst to the criminals, the Jedi were now tracking their progress towards the galaxy's Outer Rim Territories, thanks to a tracking device placed on their ship by Anakin Skywalker before they were able to take flight.