Bolvan/Legends

"Hold your fire. There is no lifeform. It must have been short-circuited."

- Bolvan to Lieutenant Hija

Bolvan was a Human male serving as a captain in the Imperial Navy during the Galactic Civil War. He was the commanding officer of Darth Vader's flagship, the Imperial I-class Star Destroyer Devastator during the time of the incident in the bioweapon laboratories of Falleen, when&mdash;against Bolvan's suggestion&mdash;the Dark Lord ordered orbital bombardment of the planet. By 0 BBY, he served on the same ship as gunnery captain under Captain Mulchive Wermis during the battle of Tatooine. When his chief gunnery officer spotted and escape pod fleeing the captured CR90 corvette Tantive IV, Bolvan's instuments detected no lifeforms, so he ordered not to fire on the pod.

Biography
"Hold your fire, Lieutenant Hija&hellip; Don't waste your power."

- Bolvan to Lieutenant Hija

The Human male Bolvan was a member of the Galactic Empire's Navy during the Imperial Period. By 7 BBY, he captained Lord Darth Vader's flagship, the Imperial I-class Star Destroyer Devastator. When a biological experiment of an Imperial weapon development project failed on the Mid Rim planet Falleen, Captain Bolvan showed Vader some projections based on information salvaged from the laboratories: the flesh-eating bacterium threatened to devastate the whole planet in short time. The captain suggested the requisition of the ordnance from Project X271 and incinerate the plague from orbit, but Vader disagreed, because he did not wish to wipe out the entire Falleen species. The Sith Lord ordered Lieutenant Hija to prepare for orbital bombardment and fire on the bacteriological research outpost and everything within 40 kilometers, exterminating 200,000 Falleen.

Seven years later during the battle of Tatooine in the Galactic Civil War, Bolvan still served on the Devastator, although not as the commanding officer,&mdash;who was Captain Mulchive Wermis at that time&mdash; but as gunnery captain in charge of the main weaponry. After the capture of the Tantive IV, Senator Leia Organa's CR90 corvette, several escape pods attempted to flee the doomed vessel. Immediately after Lieutenant Hija spotted the one containing the protocol droid C-3PO and R2-D2, the astromech droid carrying the plans of the DS-1 Orbital Battle Station, Bolvan ordered him to hold his fire to conserve power, since no lifeforms were detected aboard. By this order, he unknowingly helped the Rebel Alliance to acquire the plans of the first Death Star.

Personality and traits
"Captain, you must learn when it is appropriate to offer your counsel. Not is not the time."

- Darth Vader to Bolvan

Bolvan was able to complete his training at the Imperial Academy, and was commissioned as a lieutenant like every other Crewman-Cadet who successfully graduated. Later as a captain during the incident on Fallen, Bolvan seemed thorough and merciless and dared to oppose Darth Vader. In 0 BBY he was less profund, when he ordered to let a wrongly-supposed empty escape pod go in change for sparing some energy.

Behind the scenes
The character of Bolvan first appeared in the novelization of Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, ghostwritten by Alan Dean Foster and first published in December of 1976 by Del Rey. In the Revised Fourth Draft of A New Hope he is addressed as "Captain" and in the novel he is described as "the captain of the ship". The Marvel Comics 21th issue identified the captain as Mulchive Wermis, but more than fifteen years later, the West End Games's Shadows of the Empire Sourcebook gave an other name for the captain: Bolvan. In 2008 the The Complete Star Wars Encyclopedia identified Bolvan as gunnery captain during the event of A New Hope.

Appearances

 * Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope novelization
 * Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope
 * Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope junior novelization
 * Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope junior novelization

Notes and references
Bolvan