User:Grand Moff Tranner/Sandbox

Welcome to my sandbox. Here I'll be working on articles in an effort to get them to FA or GA status. Feel free to leave any comments on the relevant talk page. See my resume for articles that have reached either FA or GA status.

Projects done: Kendal Ozzel, Osvald Teshik, Titus Klev, Argyus, Chiraneau, Ozzik Sturn

=Lorth Needa=

Lorth Needa was a fleet officer in the Republic Navy during the Clone Wars and the Imperial Navy during the Galactic Civil War. He served as the commander of the Republic Carrack-class cruiser Integrity in Home Fleet Strike Group Five of the Coruscant Home Fleet during the Battle of Coruscant. During the Imperial era, Needa was promoted to captain of the Imperial II-class Star Destroyer Avenger by Fleet Admiral Kendal Ozzel and assigned to Darth Vader's Death Squadron.

In the aftermath of the Battle of Hoth, Needa and the Avenger were charged with capturing Han Solo's YT-1300 light freighter Millennium Falcon and her crew. The Falcon outran the pursuing Star Destroyers and hid within the Hoth asteroid field, but the Avenger plunged into the asteroid field, intent on completing its assignment. While searching, the warship sustained damage, but when the Falcon emerged, the Avenger was right behind the freighter. Before Needa could detain the freighter, Solo charged the Avenger and landed on a blind spot on the destroyer's conning tower. Having failed his mission, Needa went to the Star Dreadnought Executor to personally apologize to Vader. The Dark Lord of the Sith accepted his apology after making sure that the captain would never fail again. Two Imperial Navy troopers then dragged Needa's lifeless body away.

Republic Navy service
Needa was a veteran command officer, having served in Strike Group Five of the Coruscant Home Fleet during the Clone Wars. During the Battle of Coruscant, Lieutenant Commander Needa served as commanding officer of the Carrack-class cruiser Integrity. He trapped the Invisible Hand as it was trying to escape, and demanded the surrender of General Grievous. During this encounter he did not believe the general's statements that Supreme Chancellor Palpatine was aboard the Providence-class carrier/destroyer, and told him via hologram that he had ten minutes to prove his claim. Needa informed the cyborg general that if he could not, the ships of Strike Group Five would open fire on the Invisible Hand. Grievous did not surrender, but the Supreme Chancellor was rescued by the Jedi Anakin Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi, who forced Grievous to flee to Utapau.

A few days later, Palpatine declared himself Emperor and reformed the Republic into the first Galactic Empire. The Jedi Order was declared an enemy of the state, and its members&mdash;many of whom had been executed by the clone troopers of the Grand Army of the Republic when Order 66 was issued&mdash;were to be hunted down in what would become known as the Great Jedi Purge. The Republic Navy was reorganized into the Imperial Navy as part of Imperialization. Two weeks into Palpatine's New Order, the Emperor and his Sith apprentice Darth Vader spoke before a gathering of naval officers and announced that they were all required to serve the Navy in the unstable times, and any who dissented were purged from the military.

Captain of the Avenger
Needa would continue to serve in the navy, eventually rising to the rank of captain. Fleet Admiral Kendal Ozzel, commander of the Star Dreadnought Executor and Death Squadron, placed Needa in command of the Imperial II-class Star Destroyer Avenger, a position previously held by Captain Ferdas. Needa gained a reputation for efficiency in quelling uprisings in the Outer Rim Territories, and Admiral Ozzel assigned Avenger to the "point" position in Death Squadron. Needa became one of Ozzel's closest advisors. Ozzel would often send Needa and the Avenger off on missions independent from the rest of the Death Squadron to check on certain leads regarding the Rebels' hidden fortress. Darth Vader and Emperor Palpatine distrusted Needa along with Ozzel and his advisors, and Vader would execute any of them for the simplest of mistakes.

Battle of Hoth and aftermath
"Get a shuttle ready. I shall assume full responsibility for losing them, and apologize to Lord Vader."

- Needa, after failing to capture the Millennium Falcon

Before the Battle of Hoth could even commence, Ozzel died at Vader's hand for his mistake in bringing Death Squadron out of hyperspace to close to Hoth, allowing the Rebels to raise their shield and evacuate Echo Base. While the battle raged on between Blizzard Force and the Rebels on the planet below, the fleet of Star Destroyers were charged with preventing the GR-75 medium transports and other Rebel craft from escaping. Seventeen of the thirty GR-75 transports were destroyed by the Imperial fleet, but destroyers such as Captain Xamuel Lennox's Tyrant were disabled by the Rebels' planetary ion cannon. As the Imperials claimed victory, an infamous YT-1300 light freighter called the Millennium Falcon, piloted by smuggler Han Solo and his Wookiee co-pilot Chewbacca, escaped from Echo Base's main hangar with Princess Leia Organa of Alderaan aboard. Needa and the Avenger were charged with the pursuit and capture of the Falcon and its crew.

The Avenger pursued the Falcon from Hoth. However, Han Solo's light freighter outmaneuvered the Star Destroyer and caused it to nearly collide with another pursuing destroyer. After chasing the Falcon into the Hoth asteroid field, the Avenger lost track of the freighter when it sought shelter in a cave on one of the asteroids. Nonetheless, the destroyed ventured into the asteroid field at Vader's command. The Avenger sufferred damage while it searched for the elusive Falcon, and the gunners stationed onboard were forced on destroying incoming asteroids rather than be on the lookout for the YT-1300 freighter. Needa informed Darth Vader that the Millennium Falcon had not appeared on their sensors for hours. He asked the Dark Lord of the Sith to consider the damage the Imperial fleet had sustained, but Vader was set on capturing the freighter.

Death
"Apology accepted, Captain Needa."

- Darth Vader, after killing Needa

The Millennium Falcon eventually reappeared after discovering that the "cave" it had hidden in was in fact the mouth of a giant space slug. While the Avenger pursued the Falcon out of the asteroid field, the YT-1300 vanished from the Avenger's sensors when Solo cut the ship's power and landed on a blind spot on the conning tower of the Avenger. Seconds later, Vader demanded an update on the pursuit.

Needa ordered his ship to rendezvous with the Executor so he could personally apologize for losing Vader's prey, believing that it was the honorable thing to do. He ordered a TIE/sh shuttle to be prepared for his departure. He took the shuttle to the Executor. On its bridge, Needa apologized to the Sith Lord, but Vader telekinetically throttled him to death as he had done so to Kendal Ozzel earlier. Vader then formally - some would say cynically - accepted the man's apology. Needa's body was dragged from the bridge by two Imperial Navy troopers.

Legacy
"Hey, it was your cousin who was martyred by Darth Vader after he let Han Solo escape Hoth. After all, your cousin had Rebel sympathies that he only confided in you, which is why he let Solo escape. Your having been punished with this duty proves the Empire suspected him, but could prove nothing."

- Pedetsen to Virar Needa

As a consequence of his failure, members of the Needa family were purged from the Imperial military on Darth Vader's orders. His first cousin once removed, Virar, had been attending the Imperial Academy during the Battle of Hoth, and as he was not ambitious, he had been allowed to live. Many family members, from Virar's grandparents to cousins, however, were all killed. Virar became the commander of one of Coruscant's orbital mirrors, OSETS 2711. His subordinates, including Cadet Pedetsen, believed that Lorth had failed in capturing the Millennium Falcon because he had sympathies to the Rebel Alliance. Pedetsen stated that Virar had been placed on OSETS 2711 because the Empire could not prove Lorth's alleged Rebel loyalties. Virar was even willing to believe this.

Personality and traits
Lorth Needa was an efficient commander, and could be ruthless at times. He had been overconfident in his pursuit of the Millennium Falcon from Hoth, and this factored into his execution by Vader. Needa was an able leader, but both Vader and the Emperor were suspicious of him.

Behind the scenes
Lorth Needa first appeared in 1980's The Empire Strikes Back, directed by Irvin Kershner. Known only as "Captain Needa" in the film, he was portrayed by actor Michael Culver. In the movie, after Vader executed Needa and the Imperial Navy troopers carried his body away, Culver visibly locked his legs in such a way as to help those portraying the Navy troopers to stand him up easier. Needa was not given a first name until 1996's X-wing: Wedge's Gamble, when his first cousin once removed, Virar, revealed his first name to be Lorth.

In Star Wars 40: The Empire Strikes Back: Battleground Hoth, Al Williamson and Carlos Garzon used reference photography of Needa's death for Admiral Ozzel's execution.

Appearances

 * Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith novel
 * Star Wars: Rebellion
 * Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back
 * Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back novel
 * Star Wars 42: The Empire Strikes Back: To Be a Jedi
 * LEGO Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy
 * LEGO Star Wars: The Complete Saga
 * Payback: The Tale of Dengar
 * X-wing: Wedge's Gamble
 * X-wing: Wedge's Gamble

Early naval service
Tenn Graneet had served during the Clone Wars in the Grand Army of the Republic.

Career in the Imperial Navy
Graneet's favorite nephew, Hora, was serving onboard the Imperial II-class Star Destroyer Battle Lance when its experimental hypermatter reactor disintegrated, destroying the warship in hyperspace. Tenn felt personally responsible for his nephew's death, as Hora had enlisted in the Imperial Navy out of admiration for his uncle.

Death Star gunner
As the Death Star neared completion, Graneet was transferred to the battlestation's superlaser gunnery crew, stationed in the Superlaser Fire Control room in Theta Sector. Graneet was initially thrilled with the new assignment, but as he familiarized himself with the new superweapon, he began to question whether any person was capable of wielding such power wisely. He rationalized his concerns with the mistaken belief that the Empire would not actually fire the weapon at full power on an inhabited planet, instead firing on uninhabited moons, planets, and other celestial bodies. During the final months of construction, Graneet and his crew trained on a simulator of the main firing control chamber, familiarizing themselves with the firing sequence and working to shorten the firing sequence as much as possible.

As the ranking non-commissioned officer on the superlaser's gunnery crew, it fell to Graneet to actually complete the ignition sequence by pulling the firing lever. The first time he actually fired the weapon was against the Lucrehulk-class battleship Fortressa, used by the Rebel Alliance as a carrier for 250 T-65 X-wing starfighters during an early attempt to destroy the superweapon. Even though the weapon was only at four percent power, it was more than enough to completely destroy the Rebel capital ship. TIE fighters from Alpha Squad (under the command of Lieutenant Villian Dance) and nine other fighter squadrons destroyed the remaining X-wings.

Graneet later fired the superlaser on the prison planet of Despayre. The destruction of Despayre took three shots to complete over the course of several hours. The first shot killed every living thing on the planet and cooked the surface of the planet. The second caused further tectonic stress to the planet, and the third shot finally blew the planet apart. Later, Graneet was ordered to fire on the inhabited planet of Alderaan - killing nearly two billion sentients in the process. Following the destruction of Despayre and Alderaan, Graneet had a severe conscience attack. Knowing that he had sent billions to their deaths, he soon came to see himself as the largest mass murderer in galactic history, and knew that if somehow the Rebel Alliance were to win the war he would be tried and executed for his crimes. As news that it was Graneet who fired on Despayre and Alderaan spread throughout the Death Star's population, many of the people who Graneet encountered began reacting differently to him.

Graneet was ordered to fire the superlaser at the Rebel base on Yavin 4 as the Battle of Yavin progressed on the surface of the Death Star between the Rebels' X-wing and Y-wing starfighters and the Imperial Black Squadron of TIE Fighters, led by Darth Vader in his TIE Advanced x1 fighter. When he received the order, Graneet froze, wishing desperately for something to save him from his dreadful duty. He informed his gunnery crew and the overbridge to "stand by," repeated his order a few seconds later. His wish was granted when the Rebel pilot Luke Skywalker fired a pair of proton torpedoes into the station's unprotected thermal exhaust port. When the torpedoes reached the station's hypermatter reactor core and exploded, the detonation produced enough energy to destroy the Death Star. Graneet, along with everyone onboard the battlestation, died in the resulting explosion.

Legacy
Graneet's hesitation in firing the superlaser at Yavin 4 allowed the Rebellion leadership to survive. The Alliance would ultimately triumph over the Empire in the Battle of Endor that saw the deaths of Emperor Palpatine and Darth Vader, and they would later go on to form the New Republic.

Behind the scenes
Graneet first appeared in Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, where he was simply an unnamed Imperial gunner manning the Death Star's superlaser. He was the person who repeatedly said "stand by" just prior to the station's destruction. He later appeared in 2007 Death Star novel, written by Michael Reaves and Steve Perry. In the novel, he was identified as Master Chief Gunnery Officer Tenn Graneet. Contrary to the seemingly heartless man who killed billions with the touch of a button and the pull of a lever, Death Star portrayed him as a more morally-conflicted individual who hated his actions but found himself forced to carry them out. He also appeared, albeit unnamed, in the video game X-wing (1993) and the non-canon comic Tag & Bink Are Dead 2 (2001). Graneet was given an entry in 2008's The Complete Star Wars Encyclopedia.

Appearances

 * Star Wars: X-wing
 * Death Star
 * Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope
 * Tag & Bink Are Dead 2

Notes and references
=Jerjerrod=

"Great men never hurried; great men caused others to hurry."

- Jerjerrod

Jerjerrod was a Human male Moff who, by 1 ABY, oversaw the Quanta sector during the time of the Galactic Empire. His sector operations were based in a family estate in Val Denn, the capital city of Tinnel IV. In 3 ABY, he was present aboard the Star Dreadnought Executor during the occupation of Bespin and greeted Darth Vader when he returned to the warship. A year later, Jerjerrod had been assigned to oversee the construction of the second Death Star above Endor.

Whereas the first Death Star had taken around nineteen years to complete, the construction of the much-larger second Death Star had moved into its final stage by 4 ABY after approximately two to four years. However, the construction crews had fallen behind; Vader ventured to the battlestation to inform Jerjerrod to rectify this. Vader announced that Emperor Palpatine would be arriving to personally oversee the last stage of the Death Star's construction. Jerjerrod informed Vader that his men would double their efforts, as he was afraid of reporting his failure directly to the Emperor. The Moff was on hand when Palpatine arrived, and he was also present in the Emperor's throne room for some time with the Emperor and his advisors.

The Rebel Alliance had learned of the second Death Star's construction and the Emperor's presence onboard it, and they launched an attack based on false information released by the Emperor himself. When the Alliance Fleet arrived, they discovered the planetary shield protecting the Death Star was still activated and the Imperial Navy was there to prevent them from escaping. Palpatine had ordered Admiral Firmus Piett not to directly engage the Rebel capital ships, a move that confused personnel on both sides. The Emperor ordered Jerjerrod to fire the Death Star's operational superlaser at the Alliance Fleet, and many capital ships were obliterated. When the Alliance gained the upper hand in the conflict, Palpatine commmanded the Moff to fire on the forest moon. Before he could complete his final order, he perished when the Death Star was destroyed.

Moff of the Quanta sector
Jerjerrod, a Human male, started his Imperial career as a desk general in Logistics and Supply and eventually rose through the ranks. By 1 ABY, he had become a Moff, commanding his home sector, the Quanta sector, from a family estate in Val Denn on Tinnel IV. His estate included a vault of artwork, several of which were stolen by the master thief "Tombat," whose real name was Tanda Marelle.

Jerjerrod was present onboard the Star Dreadnought Executor during the occupation of Bespin. After Darth Vader's duel with his son and Rebel hero Luke Skywalker, Jerjerrod greeted the Dark Lord of the Sith when his shuttle landed in the Super Star Destroyer's hangar bay.

The second Death Star
Jerjerrod came to be tasked with managing the construction of the second Death Star above Endor in the Moddell sector. Emperor Palpatine, not wanting this new Death Star to be commanded by a triumvirate of ambitious men like Grand Moff Wilhuff Tarkin, Admiral Conan Antonio Motti, and High General Cassio Tagge aboard the first, decided to appoint someone weak and less ambitious to be the single commander of the Death Star. The Emperor decided to make Jerjerrod his puppet.

To hide the existence of the new battlestation and create a plausible reason for Jerjerrod's reassignment, Imperial records were doctored to indicate that he had been promoted to Director of Imperial Energy Systems, a branch of the Imperial Ministry of Energy. IES was a manufacturer of large-scale power generators that, officially, were used to provide a source of power for refuges. Unofficially, these generators were built for use onboard the second Death Star. While serving aboard the Death Star, Jerjerrod was addressed simply as "Commander." Jerjerrod worked with Colonel Dyer to plan the defense of the shield generator bunker on Endor.

Construction setbacks
Over time, the crews responsible for the construction of the second Death Star had become lax in their work, despite the fact that they had moved into the final stage of assembly after approximately three to four years. This was a fraction of the first Death Star's construction time; the first corporeal incarnation of Raith Sienar's plans for an Expeditionary Battle Planetoid had taken around nineteen years to complete. Regardless, Palpatine had become displeased with the slow progress, and in 4 ABY he sent his apprentice, Darth Vader, to inform Jerjerrod to speed up the construction. Because his crews were behind schedule, Jerjerrod had no time to inspect the new computer core and contingent of stormtroopers that had arrived with in. Unbeknownst to him, the assassin droid IG-88A had uploaded his consciousness into a duplicate computer core and planned to use the second Death Star as part of his Droid Revolution. Jerjerrod had originally cursed Supervisor Gurdun for not accompanying the core to the battlestation&mdash;in fact, he had accompanied it until the IG-88 unit killed him&mdash;but found it better than the supervisor had not been there to complicate the already delicate matter of bringing the Death Star's construction back on schedule. As the stormtrooper droids unloaded the core, Jerjerrod noted that they moved with near-mechanical precision, and he silently wished that all his men would be like them. When one of the stormtrooper droids was damaged by a falling cargo crane, the droid's self-destruct took out an entire construction crew, much to the bemoaning of Jerjerrod at yet another setback.

Lord Vader arrived in the Endor system via the Imperial II-class Star Destroyer Avenger and took a shuttle to the incomplete Death Star. Jerjerrod was informed of the Dark Lord's arrival by Lieutenant Endicott's men, and flanked by Imperial officers, Jerjerrod waited patiently at the bottom of the shuttle's ramp. The commander greeted Vader, calling his arrival an "unexpected pleasure," but the Dark Lord of the Sith cut him off. Vader informed him that the Emperor was displeased with the lack of progress in the battlestation's construction. Jerjerrod replied that he did not have enough personnel to complete what he believed to be an impossible effort. Vader countered by revealing that the Emperor would be arriving shortly to personally oversee the final stage of construction. Faced with this revelation, Jerjerrod announced that his men would increase their work twofold. He found conversations with the Sith Lord to be particularly motivating, but he had no intention of finding out if the Emperor was more forgiving than Vader was.

When the Emperor arrived in the Endor system aboard the Executor and took a shuttle to the Death Star, Vader and Jerjerrod were among the dozens of Imperials present in the hangar to greet him. Vader informed his master that the Death Star would be completed upon schedule, and as they processed away from the shuttle, Jerjerrod was one of the men to fall in line behind the two Sith Lords. He was later present in the Emperor's throne room alongside the two Sith Lords and Imperial Ruling Council members Janus Greejatus and Sim Aloo. With the knowledge of a Rebel fleet gathering near Sullust, the Emperor ordered the bulk of the Imperial fleet to move to the far side of the Endor moon in preparation for the Alliance assault. Palpatine believed that this trap would be an end to the Rebellion.

Battle of Endor and death
The Rebel leadership, faced with the intelligence of a second Death Star and the Emperor's presence aboard it, decided to launch a two-phased attack. An strike team led by General Han Solo was to destroy the shield generator bunker on Endor, allowing the fleet to emerge from hyperspace and launch their starfighters, which would destroy the Death Star's reactor. But Palpatine had anticipated their every move, having stationed his finest legion of stormtroopers on Endor and gathering the Imperial armada on the far side of Endor. When the Rebel fleet did emerge from hyperspace, they were caught between the Imperial Navy and a shielded&mdash;and operational&mdash;Death Star. As Palpatine explained to a captive Luke Skywalker in the throne room, he had allowed the Bothan spies to deliver the plans to the Alliance, but he had left out one important detail. Opening a channel to Jerjerrod in the overbridge, the Emperor ordered him to fire at will.

Though the superlaser was under the control of IG-88A, the Imperials still maintained some control over the prime weapon. Jerjerrod relayed the Emperor's orders to the Death Star's gunnery crews, but he did so with mixed feelings. He believed that this battle would bring an end to the Rebellion, and he enjoyed the war. But he balanced that feeling of regret with the love for total annihilation. . The gunners initiated the firing sequence, and the planet-destroying weapon shot out at the Mon Calamari Star Cruiser Liberty, obliterating the cruiser and stunning the Rebel fleet. Realizing that his fleet could not counter an operational Death Star, Rebel Admiral Ackbar called for a retreat. General Lando Calrissian persuaded the Mon Calamari admiral to take the fight to the Star Destroyers on the outskirts of the battlefield, knowing the Empire would not risk destroying their own warships. Despite this tactic, many more Rebel ships were destroyed throughout the battle, including the medical frigate Redemption.

As the battle progressed, the Emperor gave Jerjerrod one final order: Should the shield generator be destroyed, he was to fire the superlaser on Endor. Jerjerrod acknowledged the order, but he began to express his concern for the troops present on the moon. Palpatine did not share his concern and repeated the order with more force behind the words. Jerjerrod acknowledged the order once more, but without offering any opposition this time. General Solo and his squad succeeded in destroying the bunker and the shield generator, and this allowed General Calrissian in the Millennium Falcon to lead several Rebel starfighters into the superstructure of the battlestation while Rebel capital ships began firing on the Death Star's hull. This bombardment killed, wounded, or scared off half of Jerjerrod's crew in the overbridge. The remaining crew was disorganized, but the Moff did not make any effort to bring order to the chaos. He simply sat and dwelt on his current situation, wondering how the Empire could possibly be on the brink of defeat. He couldn't believe this was happening to him&mdash;he had been patient, clever, strict, loyal. His pride at commanding the second Death Star was no consolation. His hatred for the Rebellion had grown so much over the past hours; he had seen it once as small child or a baby animal&mdash;something he could easily bully without fear of it fighting back. But this child, this baby, had matured and learned to fight back.



Jerjerrod realized that the only act that could possibly satisfy him in such a despairing time was to enact his last orders from the Emperor: destroy Endor. As an aide informed him that the Rebel fleet was closing and the Rebel fighters were eluding their defenses within the Death Star, the Moff gave him orders that made little sense, as he was now focused solely on destroying Endor. He ordered the Death Star to be brought into firing range of the moon; the aide initiated the rotation sequence before handing him the trigger and fleeing. Smiling, and with sixty seconds left until firing, Jerjerrod sat calmly as he gazed out of the viewscreen. The Rebel fighters had already taken out the main reactor, and the station was rapidly being destroyed from the inside out as a result. When the countdown reached thirty seconds, the Death Star exploded. Moff Jerjerrod perished along with it.

Personality and traits
Jerjerrod was noted as being tall, thin, and arrogant. He believed that great men such as himself never hurried; it was his job to cause other beings to hurry. But upon learning that the slow in the second Death Star's assembly had displeased the Emperor, and that he would be arriving to oversee the final stage of construction, the Moff reasoned that, on certain occasions, even great men hurried. He did not know how he and his men could possibly complete the Death Star's construction on schedule, but he did not make excuses for their lack in progress&mdash;he had no intention of learning how Vader or the Emperor would respond to any excuses. Jerjerrod was a self-described ambitious man. When ordered to destroy the Rebel fleet one ship at a time during the Battle of Endor, Jerjerrod became melancholy. He had no wish to see the war end; ongoing war was one of his favorite things. But he also loved the total annihilation of his enemy, and this gave him all the motivation he needed to order the gunners to fire the superlaser.

He was a competent administrator and, having been a desk general, was experienced with administrative details, but he possessed very little military experience. He lacked creativity and motivation. He did not possess the audacity or vision to act on his ambition. Indeed, the Emperor saw him as only slightly ambitious, like any other Imperial officer. It was for these reasons that Palpatine assigned him as the overseer of the Death Star's construction. The Emperor had no qualms about his selection; Jerjerrod could get the Death Star finished in short time, but he would not be like his predecessor Tarkin and attempt to use the superweapon for his own personal gain.

Portrayal
Moff Jerjerrod first appeared in 1983's Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi, in which he was portrayed by Michael Pennington. Unlike Tarkin, his equal aboard the first Death Star, Jerjerrod is a minor character who appears only briefly. His name is never heard onscreen, called only "Commander" in the film. In Return of the Jedi, Jerjerrod and all other Imperial officers wear the wrong rank badge due to a props "blooper" during production.

Archival footage of Jerjerrod greeting Vader upon his arrival on the Death Star from Return of the Jedi was used for the Special Edition release of The Empire Strikes Back, though the scene itself is from a different angle. As a result, Jerjerrod is seen greeting Vader as he lands on the Executor following his duel on Bespin.

Deleted scenes and script changes
A deleted scene from Return of the Jedi has Jerjerrod and two Royal Guards attempting to prevent Darth Vader from seeing the Emperor, whereupon Vader strangles Jerjerrod using the Force, but does not kill him.

According to Star Wars: The Annotated Screenplays, Jerjerrod was originally a Grand Moff in earlier drafts of Return of the Jedi, and he played a more prominent role as Palpatine's "secret agent," operating behind Vader's back. Jerjerrod is described as a tall, confident technocrat who is Vader's rival. He's tasked with overseeing the transformation of the Green Moon of Had Abbadon into a paradise for the citizens of the overpopulated Imperial capital. While onboard Jerjerrod's shuttle, Vader informs him that he has sensed a Rebel presence on the moon, but Jerjerrod sees it as an insult to his work and refuses to believe it. Afterwards, Princess Leia and two Rebel pilots, flying a stolen Imperial transport, nearly collided with Jerjerrod's shuttle. Later into the movie, Vader and Jerjerrod descend to the Emperor's throne room overlooking a lake of lava, and they both kneel before the Emperor. The Emperor reprimands his apprentice for not capturing Luke&mdash;partly by Force-choking him&mdash;and asks him to leave. Once Vader departs, the Emperor confers with Jerjerrod, telling him to watch his apprentice closely. He also reveals two facts: that Luke will be replacing Vader, and that the Rebels are launching an attack on the Death Star. Following Luke's surrender, General Maximilian Veers is ordered to take him to the Executor, but the shuttle captain informs the general that Luke is to be delivered to the Emperor on Had Abbadon. After Veers refuses to do such, the shuttle captain contacts Jerjerrod. But Luke is delivered to Vader, and a furious Jerjerrod storms in and demands to know why Luke was not delivered to the Emperor. Vader grabs the Grand Moff by the throat and kills him.

In the revised rough draft, Wedge Antilles is flying a captured TIE Fighter, but he panics, forcing Leia to go help him. After an Imperial flight controller asks for their clearance code. Jerjerrod's shuttle moves in, and Leia believes that they were going to board. But her captured transport is given clearance. Vader and Jerjerrod converse after this. Vader complains that the Emperor has not been in contact with him; Jerjerrod attempts to avoid an argument, but Vader demands an explanation for his return to the capital. The Grand Moff informs Vader that the Emperor is not pleased with his apprentice's failure in capturing Luke Skywalker and has therefore reassigned him to oversee the construction of the two new Death Stars. Jerjerrod explains to a furious Vader that the Emperor believes Vader still has feelings for his son and that only he (the Emperor) would be able to turn young Skywalker to the dark side. Jerjerrod reveals that the Emperor is aware of the impending Rebel attack, and that Luke, who is on Tatooine at the time, will soon be in the hands of the Empire. Onboard the Executor, Vader asks Admiral Firmus Piett where the Grand Moff is; he replies that Jerjerrod is inside the private communications chamber, but all surveillance equipment has been disabled and his coded transmission is undecipherable. Jerjerrod converses with the Emperor's holographic form, and Palpatine orders him to deliver Luke before him without Vader finding out about it. The Grand Moff notes that the Rebel attack should be ample to distract the Dark Lord from finding his son, allowing the Emperor to turn young Skywalker to the dark side. After Luke is delivered to the Emperor and Vader discovers this, he kills Jerjerrod.

Appearances

 * Star Wars: Rebellion
 * Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back
 * Therefore I Am: The Tale of IG-88
 * Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi
 * Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi novel
 * Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi Photo Comic
 * Star Wars: Return of the Jedi 1: In the Hands of Jabba the Hutt
 * Star Wars: Return of the Jedi 2: The Emperor Commands
 * The Rise and Fall of Darth Vader
 * The Rise and Fall of Darth Vader

Non-canon appearances

 * The Return of Tag & Bink: Special Edition
 * LEGO Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy
 * LEGO Star Wars: The Complete Saga

Notes and references
=Nahdonnis Praji=

Nahdonnis Praji was a decorated Human male Imperial commander and later general. Born on Coruscant into House Praji as the son of Griff Praji, young Nahdonnis was interested in military history and, during the Clone Wars, studied the tactics of Jedi Generals and starfighter aces. Following the end of the war and the formation of the Galactic Empire in 19 BBY, he enlisted in the Imperial Naval Academy on Carida, where he graduated with honors.

Around 1 BBY, Nahdonnis and his unit were assigned to the Star Destroyer Vengeance, and they participated in a failed attack on a Rebel outpost on Datar. The Sith Lord Darth Vader took command of the warship following the disaster, and following an assault on a Rebel base on Level 88 of Nar Shaddaa's Corellian Sector, Nahdonnis's impressive kill count earned him Vader's attention and a spot on the Dark Lord's staff. Vader and Praji transferred to the Star Destroyer Devastator in time for the attack on the Tantive IV above Tatooine. Praji and 501st Legion commander Daine Jir failed to retrieve the stolen Death Star plans onboard the CR90 corvette, so Vader ordered Praji to personally see to it that the plans were recovered on Tatooine. He ultimately failed in this task, but Vader was not willing to execute such a loyal and competent man. After the formation of Death Squadron, Vader transferred his staff from the Devastator to the Star Dreadnought Executor, but General Maximilian Veers prevented Praji from coming along. Vader had been too wrapped up in finding his son, Luke Skywalker, to overrule Veers.

Following the death of Emperor Palpatine at the Battle of Endor in 4 ABY and the fall of Coruscant to the New Republic in 6 ABY, Praji went from warlord to warlord, eventually becoming a general. He allied with the faction he believed would do the best job of preserving the New Order&mdash;deciding his loyalty was not to whoever claimed to be the next emperor&mdash;but when the "reborn" Palpatine emerged in a series of clone bodies to reunite his Empire, Praji joined his forces. He oversaw the Shadow Hand Fleet's recapture of his family's ancient homeworld of Kaikielius, and partook in his family's old vendetta with House Vahali by destroying their skyhook headquarters and placing the world under martial law. Praji soon realized that the new theocracy was not the despotic Empire he had wished to serve, so he retired, but not before seeing to it that Kaikielius was placed under his command as governor-general. His daughter Tyla would go on to serve as a commissar in the Second Galactic Civil War.

Biography
Nahdonnis Praji, a Human male, was born on Coruscant into House Praji, a bloodline whose earliest known member was Tyler Sapius Praji, governor of Kaikielius and one of the Core Founders of the Galactic Republic. His father, Griff, was the eldest brother of the wealthy banker and political activist Tannon Praji, First Minister of the Coruscant Ministry of Ingress. From his childhood, Nahdonnis was interested in military history. During the Clone Wars that pitted the clone troopers of the Grand Army of the Republic against the battle droids of the Separatist Droid Army, young Prahji became an "armchair admiral," studying the tactics of Jedi Generals and starfighter aces alike.

A quick ascendant of the Imperial hierarchy, Praji was promoted to serve as Darth Vader's aide aboard the Devastator. After failing to recover the plans to the first Death Star from the Tantive IV, Praji "personally" led a detachment of stormtroopers to Tatooine in search of the escape pod used by R2-D2 and C-3PO. In reality, he sent his subordinate, Captain Kosh, to lead the detachment. Upon the failure of that mission, Praji took full responsibility for the loss, and stood dignified to apologize to Darth Vader. Impressed by Praji's businesslike professionalism, Vader spared the commander's life, as the Dark Lord of the Sith had come to respect Praji.

Praji's family donated a genetic template for the Imperial stormtrooper development program.

Personality and traits
Nahdonnis Praji held a dismissive attitude toward foot soldiers, resulted from his training as an Imperial officer and his views of the clone troopers as "meat droids." He was an old-fashion officer, and he administered discipline with strict professionalism.

Praji chose to wear the prominent sideburns that were popular among the Imperial officer class at the time, including first Death Star personnel like General Cassio Tagge, Admiral Conan Antonio Motti, Chief Moradmin Bast, and Lieutenant Pol Treidum.

Portrayal
Commander Nahdonnis Praji first appeared in 1977's A New Hope, in which he was portrayed by actor George Roubicek. The one sequence in which he appeared was shot over three days in July 1976 at the virtual end of principal photography, on the Tantive IV main corridor set erected on Stage 9 at Elstree Studios, just north of London, England.

In May 2007, during Celebration IV, Roubicek took part in a round-table discussion chaired by Scott Chernoff, in which he reminisced about his role as Praji. His fellow participants, all of whom portrayed Imperial characters, were actors Kenneth Colley (Admiral Firmus Piett), David Prowse (Darth Vader), Barrie Holland (Lieutenant Renz), Richard Le Parmentier (Admiral Conan Antonio Motti), and Julian Glover (General Maximilian Veers). The conversation was later published in Star Wars Insider 89. From the interview:

At the conclusion of the discussion, all the participating actors were asked: If any of you had an opportunity to write your own lines for your characters, what would you say? Roubicek responded thus:

Development of Praji's biography
When the character of Tannon Praji was created by Zack Bossan through the StarWars.com feature What's the Story?, Bossan intended him to be the uncle of Nahdonnis Praji. Nathan O'Keefe's Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Praji, released on StarWars.com in February of 2009, established Nahdonnis as the son of Tannon's brother Griff. The article went on to provide more details on Nahdonnis, as well as establish the history of House Praji and some of its prominent members.

Appearances

 * Death Star
 * Star Wars radio drama
 * Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope
 * Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope junior novel
 * The Rise and Fall of Darth Vader

Non-canon appearances

 * Tag & Bink Are Dead