Enric Pryde

"As I served you in the old wars, I serve you now."

- Enric Pryde, to Sheev Palpatine

Enric Pryde was a human male officer who served with the Galactic Empire and later the First Order before pledging the First Order to the Final Order. As a servant of the Empire, Pryde served its Emperor, Sheev Palpatine, who went on to rule the Final Order. Pryde held the military rank of Allegiant General in the armed forces of the First Order during their war against the Resistance.

During the First Order's rise to power, Pryde worked alongside another military officer, General Armitage Hux, to create legions of First Order stormtroopers. Pryde was a member of First Order High Command. After Supreme Leader Kylo Ren returned to the light side of the Force and abandoned the First Order, Pryde, operating as de facto Supreme Leader pledged himself to Palpatine once more, giving the First Order over to the Sith Lord's Final Order. Pryde's command ship, the Steadfast, served in the Battle of Exegol, and Pryde planned to use it to guide the massive Sith Eternal fleet out of the dangerous Exegol territory. Ultimalty, a military strike from the Resistance on the hull of the Steadfast resulted in the destruction of the ship, with its own turbolasers turned against it. Pryde met his end aboard his own ship when Resistance members Finn and Jannah destroyed the Steadfast.

Early life
Enric Pryde was a human male who was born on the planet Alsakan in 27 BBY. By 6 BBY, Pryde had achieved advanced placement in the Alsakan Academy.

Serving the Empire
During the Imperial Era, Enric Pryde served in the Imperial Navy of the Galactic Empire. He was posted on the Star Destroyer Steadfast from 6 BBY. As a young fleet officer, Pryde personally witnessed Darth Vader in action. After the Steadfast was destroyed at the Battle of Jakku in 5 ABY, Pryde fled into the Unknown Regions as other Imperial officers had done after the Empire's defeat by the New Republic at the battle.

Snoke's reign
In the Unknown Regions, Enric Pryde, now a veteran of the Imperial Military, joined the First Order, a military junta established by former Imperial officers, nobles, technologists, and warlords who had fled the known galaxy into the Unknown Regions after the Empire's defeat at Jakku. Sometime after the rise of Snoke as Supreme Leader of the First Order, Snoke gave Pryde command of a Resurgent-class Star Destroyer, which was named the "Steadfast" by Pryde in honor of his old Star Destroyer he served aboard during the days of the Galactic Empire. Pryde was part of a second wave of leadership in the First Order kept in reserve by Supreme Leader Snoke during the unveiling of Starkiller Base, which Pryde would later come to regard as an error. Pryde eventually came to realize that Supreme Leader Snoke himself was subservient to an unknown force.

Kylo Ren's reign
"They've conjured legions of Star Destroyers. The Sith fleet will increase our resources ten thousandfold! Such range in power will correct the error of Starkiller Base."

- Enric Pryde, to the Supreme Council, regarding the Final Order

After the death of Snoke, his former apprentice Kylo Ren, who had secretly assassinated Snoke himself but instead had implicated Rey as Snoke's murderer, became the new Supreme Leader of the First Order, coercing General Armitage Hux into following him. Pryde was left as one of the most senior officers in the First Order High Command and commanded reserve forces. While rebuilding his command, Kylo Ren discovered the reserve forces under Pryde's leadership and brought Pryde to the fore, eventually making him a member of the Supreme Council he formed and promoted him to Allegiant General. Pryde knew far more about the machinations of Supreme Leader Snoke and the late Emperor Palpatine than his cohorts, which he used towards his advantage to cement his power.

After discovering the returned Emperor Palpatine, his cult, the Sith Eternal and their built up forces on Exegol, and learning that there was a spy within the First Order who had sent a message to the Resistance, Kylo Ren presented the head of Boolio before Pryde and the rest of the Supreme Council and informed them of his findings during a meeting on the Steadfast. General Domaric Quinn expressed skepticism of the cult, dismissing them as soothsayers and conjurers, but Pryde supported the First Order's alliance with the Sith Eternal, noting that the Sith Eternal fleet would increase their resources ten thousandfold before snidely remarking that it would "correct the error" of Starkiller Base while glaring at General Hux.

After discovering that the Resistance was operating on Pasaana, Kylo Ren ordered Allegiant General Pryde to notify their local forces on Pasaana of the Resistance's presence. General Hux later discussed the skirmish on Pasaana with Allegiant General Pryde, noting that the First Order had experienced considerable losses under the command of the Knights of Ren. Hux presented their captured prisoner, Chewbacca, to Pryde, who ordered he be locked up in the detention block. After the Resistance's mission to Kijimi, during which time Hux had helped Poe Dameron and Finn return to Millennium Falcon and escape the Steadfast, Hux reported to Pryde that the Resistance fighters had forced him to help them escape. However, Pryde saw through Hux's lie and, having realized that Hux was the spy, executed him on the spot before having the Supreme Leader informed of Hux's treason. Pryde also told Kylo Ren that the Sith dagger, upon which there was an inscription of the location of one of the Sith wayfinders, now in the Resistance's possession, had been scanned during the captivity of the Wookiee, allowing for Ren to track Rey to Kef Bir, where the Jedi aspirant hoped to uncover a Sith wayfinder that would lead to Darth Sidious.

Joining the Final Order
"They're targeting the navigation tower so the fleet can't deploy!" "Then we won't use that tower. Switch out the source of the navigation signal to this ship. We will guide the fleet out ourselves."

- A First Order officer and Enric Pryde, during the battle at Exegol

Kylo Ren renounced the dark side after his mother, Princess Leia Organa, sacrificed herself to reach out to him during a duel with Rey on Kef Bir, assuming his identity as Ben Solo once more. Sometime later, Emperor Palpatine discussed this turn of events with Allegiant General Pryde over a hologram. Palpatine ordered the Allegiant General to come to him on Exegol, and Pryde pledged himself and the First Order to Palpatine, reminding the Emperor that he had served him during the "old wars", and now would do so again. Palpatine then informed the Allegiant General that he was sending him a Xyston-class Star Destroyer and ordered him to send it to a planet with ties to the Resistance. General Pryde had the Star Destroyer sent to Kijimi, which it subsequently destroyed.

Allegiant General Pryde arrived to Exegol sometime before the battle at Exegol, where the Steadfast acted as the command ship of the Sith fleet. A Resistance attack soon launched, hoping to prevent the Sith Fleet from sowing chaos across the Galaxy. After learning that Resistance was targeting the navigation tower on Exegol, Pryde had the source of the navigation signal needed for the Sith fleet to deploy from Exegol switched to the Steadfast, declaring that they would guide the fleet out themselves. However, Resistance General Finn realized that the signal had been transferred to the Steadfast, and the Resistance's ground team concocted a daring plan to land on the hull of the Steadfast. Pryde had legions of Sith Troopers and Sith jet Troopers move against the Resistance, causing a battle to break out on the ship's hull.

Pryde expressed bafflement when an allied fleet arrived to reinforce the Resistance, wanting to know where such a vast amount of ships had come from, given that the Resistance had no navy. He was shocked to learn thatvthe ships were not a navy at all, but the people of the Galaxy, rising up and coming together to turn back the darkness that threatened them.

When Finn and Jannah were successful in shutting down the transmitter, the Resistance prepared ro depart the ship, having beaten back a multitude of Sith Troopers. However, Pryde merely gave the order to reset the Steadfasts systems, which Finn caught on to. He and Jannah chose to stay on the ship whole the rest of the ground team escaped.

Holding back onslaughts of Sith Troopers, Finn and Jannah successfully destroyed the Steadfast by turning its turbolasers against the ship itself, corresponding with the final demise of Palpatine himself at the hands of Rey. As the Steadfast burst into flames, Pryde ran towards the front of the bridge, staring out at the doomed Sith Fleet in horror, and was killed in the following explosion, which violently ejected Pryde's lifeless body off the viewport.

Personality and traits
"Where did they get all this fighter craft? They have no navy." "It's not a navy, sir, it's just... people."

- Enric Pryde and Frantis Griss, during the battle at Exegol

Enric Pryde longed for the return of the Galactic Empire and authority to the galaxy. Pryde favorably remembers the spectacle that was the Empire Day parades. Pryde recognizes that he knows more about Palpatine and Snoke's machinations than most of his cohorts and uses it to maintain his own power.

Unlike his First Order allies, Pryde displays a tolerance for mysticism but refuses to voice his opinions. When the First Order joined forces with the Sith Eternal he was ambitious to use their forces while most of the First Order clashed with their new allies. Pryde views the arcane behavior of the Sith Eternal as by-products of a thirst for power.

As a First Order officer, Enric Pryde was a calm yet highly intelligent and ruthless general. Although Pryde served the Order faithfully, he has a disdain for the gruesome and horrible aspects of it. After the Resistance fighters escaped the Steadfast, Pryde was the first officer to identify General Armitage Hux's betrayal as the spy against the First Order and ruthlessly executed him on the spot without hesitation, showing no remorse for his actions. Pryde could see the value in the legions of Star Destroyers that had been created by the Final Order, even when others dismissed it. Although Pryde had ambition when it came to cementing his power, he was also loyal to Emperor Palpatine as a veteran of the Galactic Empire, pledging the First Order to him. Pryde was able to maintain a calm composure even when bewildered, such as when an allied fleet arrived to reinforce the Resistance at the battle at Exegol. However, when facing his death, Pryde ultimately lost his cool composition, giving in to anger and fear when faced with his last defeat.

Enric Pryde had blue eyes, fair skin, and gray hair. He wore a unique First Order military officer uniform along with his appropriate rank insignia of the First Order. He also often carried a lacquered ebonwood swaggerstick, which connected to the riding traditions of the military of Alsakan, Pryde's homeworld.

Behind the scenes
Pryde is a character who first appeared in the 2019 film Star Wars: Episode IX The Rise of Skywalker, the third and final installment of the Star Wars sequel trilogy. He was portrayed by Richard E. Grant. To get the role of Pryde, Grant had to audition by acting out scenes from "a forties British war film" and a few months later, he was taken to Pinewood Studios to meet director J.J. Abrams, who told him he got the role. When playing Pryde, Grant took inspiration from Peter Cushing's portrayal of Wilhuff Tarkin in the 1977 film Star Wars: Episode IV A New Hope.

Appearances

 * Star Wars: Episode IX The Rise of Skywalker