Conan Antonio Motti/Legends

"Don't try and frighten us with sorceror's ways, Lord Vader. Your sad devotion to that ancient religion has not helped you conjure up the stolen data tapes, or given you clairvoyance enough to find the Rebel's hidden fortr&hellip;" "I find your lack of faith disturbing."

- Admiral Motti and Darth Vader in the Death Star conference room

Conan Antonio Motti, also known as C. Antonio Motti, was an Imperial admiral who was in charge of station operations aboard the first Death Star, and had a rivalry with General Cassio Tagge. Motti was related to Grand Moff Tarkin by marriage: Tarkin had married Motti's relative, Lady Tarkin.

Biography
"You are close to treason, Motti." "Is it treason to point out that you could demand a position of authority second only to that of the Emperor?" "I would not care to have the Emperor as my enemy."

- Wilhuff Tarkin and Conan Motti, shortly before the beginning of the Battle of Yavin

Little is known about Conan Motti's Imperial service record before being assigned to the Death Star project out of necessity. Wilhuff Tarkin, as Grand Moff and administrator of the region encompassing the station's construction site, was technically permitted the title and rank of high admiral and/or priority sector high commander himself, but to prevent him from having to divert time and energy from the construction process, it was decided that a separate fleet commander would be necessary. Palpatine selected Conan Motti as head of Naval Operations for the battle station, to provide security for and defend the project.

Upon being informed of Motti's assignment, Tarkin made an entry in his personal journal. From an excerpt:



Tarkin was quite right in his assessment; Motti was, relatively speaking, a rather young being to hold the rank he held, and he had earned it more for his devotion to the New Order than anything else. As Tarkin had guessed, the many successes in Motti's record were overrated. It was his belief in technology that made him a natural choice to function as head of Naval Operations for the battle station, and he was promoted over the heads of many senior officers.

As the commander of four Sector Groups, Motti's Order of Battle (abbreviated variously as ORBAT or OB), based on current research, would have consisted of at least 9,600 ships, which included about 96 Star Destroyers of either Victory-class, Venator-class, or Imperial-class, and an additional 6,400 combat starships. Of that number, at least one full Navy squadron (an average of 14 to 60 ships) would likely have been turned over to Tarkin's Sector Group HQ and placed under his personal command, but as he, like certain particularly competent or politically-connected beings, was influential enough to do so, it is possible that he could expand that number to as many as fifteen squadrons (about 210 to 900 ships).

Service aboard the Death Star
An arrogant man, Admiral Motti believed that the Death Star was the "ultimate power in the universe", and that even the mighty Imperial Navy would not stand a chance against it, much less the rag-tag Rebel Alliance. So confident he was in the power of the Death Star, he openly insulted Darth Vader and his adherence to the dark side of the Force during a meeting in the Death Star's conference room.

Motti reasoned that Vader's failure to find the missing technical readouts of the battlestation and inability to divine the location of the Rebels' secret base was evidence that the Force was truly insignificant. Vader was quick to punish Motti for his ignorance, using the Force to telekinetically strangle him. Luckily for Motti, Tarkin intervened and ordered Vader to spare the jaded admiral. Vader obeyed, though he sounded reluctant to keep Motti alive.

Personal agendas
Motti clearly did not learn the lesson that Vader had tried to teach him. He believed that once the Rebellion was destroyed, the Death Star - not Coruscant, not even Palpatine himself - would be the font from which power would flow in the Galactic Empire. As such, he tried to convince Tarkin that command of the battle station made him a valid player in the great political struggle, that the very weapon intended to intimidate the Rebellion into nonexistence could also intimidate the Empire itself into accepting a new power structure, dominated by Tarkin (with Motti conveniently at his side). Motti made his appeal to Tarkin thus:



However, one immediate obstacle would have to be removed, and that would be the Emperor's emissary, Darth Vader; there was little likelihood that Vader would accept his master's overthrow (unless the intended successor was Vader himself) and would act to hinder or prevent any such coup attempt. But here, again, Motti's utter lack of respect for Vader's power and abilities made him underestimate his Sith opponent. Vader was but Palpatine's emissary, while the actual command structure terminated in Tarkin's person, not Vader's. If Tarkin gave the order for the station's personnel to act against Vader, Motti reasoned, they would obey, and against so many well-armed and well-trained troops even a Sith Lord had little chance:

Tarkin told Motti that he would like to hear the admiral further expound upon his ideas after the Rebels were crushed. But it can be assumed that he suspected that Motti was not being entirely truthful. Motti would hardly have envisioned any kind of equitable split of the Empire between Tarkin and Palpatine; this notion of sharing dominion was likely a way of bringing Tarkin over to his side gently, slowly, though it is probable that Tarkin saw through this at once. Furthermore, Motti, ambitious as he was, would not have tolerated a secondary position for long. He would have permitted Tarkin to do the heavy lifting of supplanting Palpatine, but he very well would have overthrown Tarkin as soon as was feasible, leaving him, Conan Motti, in sole control of the Galactic Empire with the Death Star as his hammer. But Motti would not live to see his vision come to fruition.

The Battle of Yavin
Motti's disregard for intangibles extended beyond his scoffing of Vader's use of or belief in the Force&mdash;the very idea of spirit and faith eluded him. Thus when the Rebels attacked at Yavin IV, using only a collection of tiny starfighters, Motti was at a loss; he and his tacticians, operating on his principle of tangible assets, expected that the Rebels would not attack without massive offensive capabilities he knew they did not have, and that their only possible option for resistance would be a massive defense of the moon itself. That the Rebels should launch a hurriedly-planned attack with vastly inferior numbers on a small, almost impossible-to-hit target, based on nothing more than spirit and faith, simply eluded him. His overconfidence in the capabilities of the battle station in which he was investing all his hopes for advancement proved terribly misplaced when he died in the station's destruction.

Personality and traits
Conan Motti chose to wear the prominent sideburns that were popular among the Imperial officer class at the time. Other serving Imperial officers who wore their hair in this fashion, many of whom were also assigned to the Death Star, included Cassio Tagge, Moradmin Bast, Nahdonnis Praji, and Pol Treidum.

Behind the scenes
Motti was played by Richard LeParmentier and was credited as "General Motti." LeParmentier was one of the few non-English actors cast as Imperial officers in A New Hope and, as such, did not speak with an English accent. He said, "...I suggested a mid-Atlantic accent to George and he thought it was a good idea. I was doing a light mid-Atlantic accent for the role..." As such, he is one of the few Imperial officers in the original trilogy to speak without an English accent, with Gherant, Dyer, Nahdonnis Praji, and Daine Jir being among the others.

Early scripts of A New Hope shuffled the names of Admiral Motti and General Tagge. He is curiously absent from the Death Star meeting scene in the novelization of A New Hope, and there it's General Tagge who is the victim of Vader's telekinetic stranglehold while Motti himself is replaced by a new Imperial officer named Romodi. Motti does appear later on in the novel, proving that he and Romodi are different characters. Many wrongfully believe that Romodi is Motti's first name, however.

Motti was one of the last Imperial characters from the original trilogy to receive a full name. Tarkin, Tagge, Ozzel, Piett, Veers, and Needa all have had first names given to them by the Expanded Universe in the decades following their appearances (as seen in their respective articles). Michael Reaves and Steve Perry had intended to finally give the character a first name with their novel Death Star. Their name&mdash;"Zi"&mdash;had already been approved when George Lucas suddenly created his own name for the character, after which the writers were able to change the name before printing. Motti's full name was given by Lucas on the May 1, 2007 episode of Late Night with Conan O'Brien, Lucas was challenged to a trivia question by a "fan" (O'Brien Associate Producer Jordan Schlanski) as to the name of this Imperial officer who Darth Vader Force chokes in A New Hope, to which Lucas jokingly replied "Conan Antonio Motti." Although the character had previously been known only as "Motti," Lucas's statement finally gave a full canon name to this character. On the day after the episode aired, Late Night posted a blog entry on the NBC website about their surprise at Wookieepedia's quick response in adopting the new name for the character, and their appreciation for Lucas in naming a Star Wars character after him. With Motti named, the last major Imperial commander without a first name is Jerjerrod.

When asked at Celebration IV to confirm the canon status of Motti's first name, Leland Chee said that "It'll be revealed eventually," which was generally interpreted as a directive for fans to wait until Motti's appearance in the StarWars.com Visual Guide or the release of the Death Star novel. The name was confirmed when Sue Rostoni posted the dramatis persona for Death Star on the StarWars.com message boards and Motti's Databank entry was subsequently updated as well to reflect the character's full name.

"Conan" is an actual Celtic name meaning "little dog."

Motti was a Finnish military tactic in World War II to use small, mobile detachments in order to surround and destroy enemy mechanized units.

Appearances



 * Death Star
 * Tag & Bink Are Dead
 * Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope
 * Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope novel
 * Star Wars radio dramatization
 * Darksaber