Blount/Legends

Blount was a Human male who served as a member of Alliance Intelligence and as a Z-95t Headhunter pilot in Tala 2, with the rank of lieutenant in the Alliance to Restore the Republic.

Biography
The Human male Blount served the Galactic Empire during the Galactic Civil War as a member of Imperial Intelligence. Prior to 4 ABY, he defected to the Rebel Alliance, where he lent his skills to Alliance Intelligence and achieved the rank of lieutenant. Blount also served as a spy and a scout, and occasionally piloted a modified Z-95t Headhunter known as Tala 2. The hyperdrive-equipped starfighter was used to monitor Imperial activity during Rebel commando operations.

By 4 ABY, Blount had been involved in enough combat situations to be considered a seasoned combat veteran. In that year, he was with the Alliance Fleet in the Sullust system while an assault was being planned on the Empire's Death Star II battlestation, a superweapon being constructed above the forest moon of Endor. General Lando Calrissian was selected to lead the starfighter contingent of the naval strike on the station from the cockpit of the YT-1300 light freighter Millennium Falcon, and Blount joined the freighter's crew as preparations were made throughout the fleet. He stood in the cockpit with Calrissian, co-pilot Nien Nunb, General Airen Cracken, and a navigator as the fleet entered hyperspace en route to Endor.

The Rebels expected the deflector shield protecting the Death Star to be deactivated due to the efforts of an on-world strike team that had been tasked with destroying the planetside deflector shield generator, but upon the fleet's arrival in the Endor system, Calrissian discovered that the shield was still functional. The fleet could do little save fend off attacking Imperial starfighters, and although Blount left the Millennium Falcon cockpit before the dogfighting began, he continued to actively crew the freighter during the space battle. When the Death Star's superlaser&mdash;thought by the Alliance to be not-yet operational&mdash;began to destroy Rebel capital ships, Calrissian led the entire fleet toward nearby Imperial Star Destroyers in order to avoid the battlestation's powerful weapon.

The Alliance ships attacked the Destroyers at point-blank range, and Calrissian at one point took the Millennium Falcon into an enemy vessel's hangar bay in an effort to dodge its turbolasers; concussion missiles fired by Nunb eventually covered the freighter's escape. When the strike team destroyed the shield generator, the Millennium Falcon and several other Rebel starfighters entered the incomplete battlestation and made their way to its reactor core. Calrissian and Red Leader Wedge Antilles fired at and destroyed the reactor core and power regulator, respectively, and were able to escape from the Death Star mere seconds before it was destroyed in a powerful explosion. The Alliance won the battle and delivered a crippling blow to the Empire.

Personality and traits
During the Galactic Civil War, Blount defected from the Galactic Empire and joined the Rebel Alliance. He worked as an Intelligence agent in both organizations, and also served as a pilot, spy, and scout in the Alliance. By 4 ABY, he was considered to be a seasoned combat veteran. Blount had green eyes, fair skin, and light brown hair. During the Battle of Endor, he wore standard-issue Alliance battledress, which included a protective helmet, a thornproof jerkin, and an identity panel.

Behind the scenes
Lieutenant Blount first appeared in Richard Marquand's 1983 film Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi as a nameless background character visible in the Millennium Falcon cockpit during a single scene. He was played by an uncredited actor. Additional footage was shot of Blount rushing through the Millennium Falcon corridors alongside other crewmen, and of the character manning one of the freighter's quad laser cannons, but the footage went unused in the film's final cut. Gambler's Run, a short story originally published in 1990's Galaxy Guide 5: Return of the Jedi, stated that there were crewmembers operating both quad turrets during the Battle of Endor, and Airen Cracken's presence in one of them was has been canonically confirmed. However, Blount's exact role during the battle has never been established in canon.

Photos of Blount were used to represent a generic Rebel trooper in both 1997's Star Wars Trilogy Sourcebook - Special Edition and the 1998 Star Wars: Behind the Magic CD-ROM, but the character was neither named nor given a backstory until 2000, when the Death Star II Limited expansion set of the Star Wars Customizable Card Game included a card called "Lieutenant Blount." The card erroneously used Cloud City, a location used in the 1980 film Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back, as the card's background. Blount and Cracken were both later pictured in an issue of The Official Star Wars Fact File that discussed rebel troopers present on Endor's surface during the Battle of Endor; however, Blount's presence in the Millennium Falcon during the battle was later confirmed in 2008's The Complete Star Wars Encyclopedia.

Although Blount is in the Millennium Falcon cockpit prior to the Rebel fleet's departure from Sullust in Return of the Jedi, neither him, Cracken, or the navigator are present in Marvel Comics' adaptation of the film, in Dark Horse Comics' Manga adaptation, nor in LucasArts non-canon LEGO Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy. Additionally, James Kahn's novelization of the film does not mention anyone as being present in the cockpit save for Calrissian and Nunb. In the comic miniseries Star Wars Infinities: Return of the Jedi, which tells an alternate version of the film's events, the Millennium Falcon is flown during the battle by Calrissian, the Wookiee Chewbacca, and General Han Solo, the latter blind from being frozen in carbonite.

Appearances

 * Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi
 * Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi PhotoComic