Cassio Tagge/Legends

"Until this battle station is fully operational, we are vulnerable. The Rebel Alliance is too well equipped...they're more dangerous than you realize..."

- High General Cassio Tagge to Admiral Conan Antonio Motti

Cassio Tagge was a High General in the Imperial Army and a prominent member of the wealthy House of Tagge.

Youth


By 19 BBY, Cassio had enlisted in officer training for the Imperial Army, against the advice of his elder brother Orman. They discussed the new Empire on Tepasi, where, despite Orman's optimism, a skeptical Cassio warned his brother to be careful of dealing with Palpatine and Darth Vader.

Cassio's caution proved well-founded, as Orman fell victim to Vader's wrath, Orman losing his eyesight as a consequence. Learning from his brother's misfortune, Cassio would never be as unwise as to misjudge the competence of his enemies.

The Death Star
Almost two decades later, General Tagge was commander of all Army forces stationed aboard the first Death Star, and sternly protested that the Rebel Alliance was an underestimated foe that the Imperial Starfleet should have taken more seriously. He also raised concerns about the suspension of the Imperial Senate, believing that the Emperor would find it impossible to maintain control without the bureaucracy.

His objections were generally dismissed by his rival and fellow member of the Death Star's command triumvirate, Admiral Conan Antonio Motti, but the Death Star's destruction by a small band of Rebels proved his predictions correct; Tagge died aboard the station in that attack.

Portrayal
Cassio Tagge was portrayed by Don Henderson.

Continuity
Though Motti references Tagge as head of the Imperial Navy, he is actually an Army commander. Motti is a commander in the Navy.

General Ulric Tagge, from the Marvel Comics, was originally intended to be the same character as the General Tagge seen in A New Hope. However, other sources showed that the General Tagge portrayed in the film indeed died aboard the Death Star, and to make matters worse, the Marvel Tagge seemed to resemble the character Motti more closely than he did the Imperial played by Henderson. The discrepancy was reconciled in Geonosis and the Outer Rim Worlds, which revealed that the two Tagges were indeed different persons, and that A New Hope's Tagge's first name was Cassio.

Though fans typically point to Tank as a movie character who was unexplored for a long period in the EU, Tagge in fact beat his "record", of sorts, by appearing in Evasive Action years after Tank appeared in Star Wars: Empire. Also, Tank never appeared in the films, and was only alluded to in passing, while Tagge actually appeared on-screen. As such, Tagge currently holds the record between appearances.

Merchandise
Hasbro produced a Tagge figure with its Death Star Briefing set, alongside Vader, Tarkin, Motti, Bast, Wullf Yularen, and Cass. This was shipped to stores in early 2007 and is still available.

Appearances

 * Evasive Action: End Game
 * Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope novel
 * Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope
 * Before the Storm