Tiaan Jerjerrod

"Lord Vader, this is an unexpected pleasure. We are honored by your presence.''" "''You may dispense with the pleasantries, Commander. I'm here to put you back on schedule."

- Jerjerrod and Darth Vader aboard the Death Star II

Jerjerrod was a Human male Moff of the Galactic Empire who served as the commander of the Death Star II prior to and during the Battle of Endor. Tasked with overseeing the space station's difficult final stages of assembly, Jerjerrod faced the wrath of both the Sith Lord Darth Vader and Emperor Sheev Palpatine when the massive construction effort fell behind schedule. Despite warnings from Vader that the Emperor would not tolerate any further setbacks, the Emperor paid little attention to Jerjerrod when he visited the Death Star, though he did authorize the commander to operate the station's superlaser against the starships of the Rebel fleet when the Rebel Alliance launched its attack on the Death Star&mdash;a battle that culminated in the station's destruction and the death of all aboard.

Biography
"The Emperor is coming here?''" "That is correct, Commander, and he is most displeased with your apparent lack of progress." "We shall double our efforts!" "''I hope so, Commander, for your sake. The Emperor is not as forgiving as I am."

- Jerjerrod and Vader discuss the Emperor's impending visit to the second Death Star

A Moff of the Galactic Empire, the Human male Jerjerrod was a technocrat assigned to supervise the difficult endeavor that was the completion of the Empire's Death Star II, a massive space station armed with a planet-destroying superlaser. He served as the commander of the station while it was under construction above the forest moon of Endor. However, the assembly process began to slow under Jerjerrod's watch, threatening the construction timetable and prompting Darth Vader, the personal enforcer of Emperor Sheev Palpatine, to travel to the Death Star to rectify the situation.

Upon learning that Vader's transport had touched down inside one of the Death Star's hangar bays, Jerjerrod ventured to the hangar to greet the Emperor's emissary as he disembarked from his shuttle. After brushing aside Jerjerrod's formal greeting, Vader bluntly informed the commander of the purpose behind his impromptu visit&mdash;the Emperor had become displeased with the Death Star's slowing construction, and Vader would see to it that the station was completed on schedule. At first, Jerjerrod protested that the task was understaffed and nearly impossible given the circumstances, but when the Sith Lord announced that the Emperor was to personally oversee the station's completion, he pledged himself and his crew to a renewed effort, heeding Vader's mocking warning that the Emperor would not tolerate failure.

The Emperor later arrived aboard the Death Star with great fanfare, and Jerjerrod joined Vader and a group of Imperial officers to welcome their ruler and his retinue. Despite Vader's earlier warnings, the Emperor ignored Jerjerrod and the other officers as he conversed with Vader about their grand plan to deal with the Rebel Alliance, with which the Empire had been at war for some time, and Luke Skywalker, a young Rebel commander who happened to be Vader's son. In the Emperor's throne room on a spire high above the surface of the Death Star, the Emperor tasked Vader with setting the trap for the Rebel fleet at Endor, all while Jerjerrod stood by silently.

The Rebel Alliance unknowingly took the Emperor's bait, launching a two-pronged, all-out assault on the Death Star's construction site at Endor, in which a strike team infiltrated onto the forest moon's surface would disable the deflector shield protecting the space station while Rebel starfighters, supported by the capital ships of the Alliance fleet, would fly into the Death Star's superstructure and take out its reactor, thereby destroying the weapon before it could be completed. Palpatine had prepared for this, however, and once the Rebel fleet arrived and found itself trapped between the Imperial Navy and a shielded Death Star, he contacted Jerjerrod in the station's command center and authorized him to target and destroy the Rebel starships with the Death Star's superlaser. Under his command, the Death Star atomized a number of Rebel cruisers as the battle progressed. Nevertheless, despite the odds, the Alliance soon gained the upper hand, and the battle concluded with the Emperor's death and the destruction of the Death Star with all hands lost.

Personality and traits
A technocrat with a chilly personality, Jerjerrod served as the commander of the second Death Star as it neared completion, a position of which he was proud, yet one he found concerning given the complicated nature of the station's construction. Though he claimed the men under his supervision were working as fast as possible to complete the station, the threat of personally facing the Emperor's displeasure at the lagging construction effort&mdash;a threat which made him visibly nervous&mdash;compelled him to reevaluate the speed with which the work was proceeding. When in the Emperor's presence, Jerjerrod was respectful, kneeling upon greeting him and bowing before departing.

Behind the scenes
Moff Jerjerrod appeared in Star Wars: Episode VI Return of the Jedi, the 1983 final installment of the original trilogy. Portrayed by Michael Pennington, he is never identified by name in the movie and only addressed as "Commander," though both his name and proper rank are provided in the film's closing credits. Jerjerrod serves as a minor antagonist with relatively little screen time or dialogue in the finished film, though in earlier drafts his role was substantially larger, owing to the fact that he functioned as the Emperor's "secret agent," operating behind Vader's back to further the Emperor's plans. In these versions of the script, Vader kills Jerjerrod for his subterfuge. The Moff is also featured in a number of scenes filmed for Return of the Jedi that were ultimately cut from the finished product; some of these, comprising a subplot in which Jerjerrod is ordered by the Emperor to destroy Endor once the battle turns against the Empire's favor (scenes retained in the novelization of the film), were included in the Star Wars: The Complete Saga Blu-ray set.

Before the Lucasfilm Story Group initiated a reboot of Star Wars canon in anticipation of the sequel trilogy, Jerjerrod's backstory had been explored and developed in a number of sources, one of which gave him the first name "Tiaan." The vast majority of this information has been relegated to the "Legends" realm of Star Wars continuity; as such, this article reflects only information found within the new established canon, which includes the films and the StarWars.com Encyclopedia.

For the Special Edition of Star Wars: Episode V The Empire Strikes Back, archival footage of Darth Vader's arrival aboard the Death Star at the beginning of Return of the Jedi was recycled to depict Vader returning to the Executor following his duel with Luke Skywalker on Cloud City. While the scene itself is presented from a different angle than the source scene in Return of the Jedi, Michael Pennington is still visible in the shot. In the original canon, this was confirmed as an appearance of Jerjerrod, with the explanation being that he had traveled to the Executor to update Vader on the status of the Death Star's construction. However, Jerjerrod's presence on the Executor during the events of The Empire Strikes Back has not been confirmed in the new canon, and the StarWars.com Encyclopedia only lists Return of the Jedi under Jerjerrod's film appearances.

Appearances

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