Kendal Ozzel/Legends

"He is as clumsy as he is stupid."

- Darth Vader

Kendal Ozzel was an officer served in the Imperial Navy during the Galactic Civil War, as commander of the Super Star Destroyer Executor, and an Admiral of the Imperial Navy.

Biography
Kendal Ozzel was born on the planet Carida, a descendant of trading mastermind Mann Ozzel. He was regarded as clumsy and stupid, so that many fellow officers were puzzled as to how he achieved promotion, but he was driven by immense personal ambition. For a short time, Ozzel served as an instructor at the Imperial Academy on Coruscant. He was the presiding officer at Han Solo's court-martial for saving Chewbacca. Han took a fairly low view of his intelligence.

Solo later sighted Ozzel aboard Executor in the Black Widow Nebula before the vessel was officially launched.

In 0.5 ABY, he was Captain of the Imperial Star Destroyer Reprisal, the largest capital ship in Shelsha Sector, and probably ranking officer of the area's small Sector Group. He oversaw the brutal massacre of "Rebel sympathizers" on the planet Teardrop, after which Reprisal was assigned a full tactical unit of the Imperial Security Bureau under the command of Colonel Vak Somoril, to further prosecute the suppression of resistance in the sector.

When a group of stormtroopers killed ISB Major Drelfin and fled the Reprisal, Ozzel and Colonel Somoril mistakenly believed that the subsequent arrival of Mara Jade in Shelsha Sector was part of a high-level investigation into the incident, and they conspired in an unsanctioned scheme to kill her. Mara was ultimately unable to prove their complicity, but suggested to Darth Vader that he should keep a close eye on Ozzel, a suggestion that evidently appealed to the newly-appointed Supreme Commander's dark sense of humor.

Ozzel unexpectedly achieved his aim of being promoted to Admiral, as well as command Vader's flagship, the Executor, with Firmus Piett as his senior subordinate. Perhaps simultaneously, he was also promoted to overall commander of Death Squadron, a promotion assisted in part by the loss of the cadre of able officers whom Willhuf Tarkin had assembled aboard the Death Star, and which took place despite whispered rumors that he had Rebel sympathies.

According to rumors that had reached Alliance Intelligence, Ozzel and Vader saw only rarely eye-to-eye. In 1 ABY the Rebels managed to plant seeds of discord between Vader's fleet commanders. Ozzel took the bait and believed the rumors that said that Vader wanted to replace him with a junior officer.



Shortly before the Battle of Hoth, Piett and his staff received a transmission from a probe droid of the rebel shield generator, suggesting there was life in a supposedly uninhabitable system of Hoth. While Ozzel dismissed it, Darth Vader ordered his fleet to the Hoth system.

"You have failed me for the last time, Admiral."

- Darth Vader to Admiral Ozzel

A miscalculation brought the Imperial fleet out of hyperspace too close to Hoth, alerting the Rebels and allowing them time to activate an energy field, rendering orbital bombardment useless. Ozzel was Force Choked to death by an angry Vader for incompetence and Piett became Commander of the fleet.

Behind the scenes

 * Kendal Ozzel was played by Michael Sheard in The Empire Strikes Back.
 * In the audio drama version of The Empire Strikes Back, Ozzel was voiced by Peter Michael Goetz.
 * The name 'Kendal' is a reference to the character Danny Kendall from the British Grange Hill TV series, with whom Sheard's character 'Mr Bronson' had a long-standing enmity. The name first appeared in the Official Star Wars Fact File and later made its way to the official website.
 * There are inconsistencies between the various sources describing Ozzel's path to becoming Vader's senior subordinate in Death Squadron: most notably, he appears as an Admiral aboard the Executor under Vader's command in Scoundrel's Luck, which apparently takes place while Vader is still in a healing trance in his TIE after the Battle of Yavin &mdash; though the depiction of Vader's recovery here contradicts that shown in Star Wars Empire 14: The Savage Heart.

Appearances

 * The Hutt Gambit
 * Star Wars: Rebellion
 * Scoundrel's Luck
 * Allegiance
 * Star Wars Rebellion: My Brother, My Enemy
 * Star Wars: Galaxies
 * Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back novel
 * Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back
 * LEGO Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy