Tantive IV/Legends

"This is a consular ship&hellip; we're on a diplomatic mission&hellip;" "If this is a consular ship, where is the Ambassador?"

- Raymus Antilles and Darth Vader

Tantive IV was a CR90 corvette owned by the Royal House of Alderaan. The ship was a central player in the events following the end of the Clone Wars and the beginning of the Galactic Civil War.

It started life as a CR70 corvette named Star of Alderaan, but was renamed in honor of diplomats from Tantive IV who visited Alderaan. Following the Clone Wars, the ship got upgraded into a CR90 corvette. As such, it sported twin turbolaser turrets and a massive drive block of eleven ion turbine engines.

Design


The hallways of the Tantive IV had mostly pristine bright white walls and gray metal floors. The hallways formed a loosely circular path around the central conference room. The ship also housed living quarters, formal dining rooms, other conference rooms, and an engine room.

Princess Leia Organa also had a luxurious stateroom on the highest level of the ship. It was filled with art and expensive furniture. The stateroom contained many rooms, including a living room with a small round coffee table and two large, red sofas, and was connected to two advanced escape pods.

The blockade runner held eight tiny escape pods that could seat up to three people and four laser-mounted ones that could hold 12 passengers. During its time as a CR70 model, two high-capacity escape pods occupied the area where the CR90 model turbolasers were positioned. These pods were made to mimic real turbolaser turrets to discourage potential attackers.

History
"Commander, tear this ship apart until you've found those plans and bring me the passengers. I want them alive!"

- Darth Vader



The Tantive IV was built by the Corellian Engineering Corporation, sometime before the end of the Clone Wars. Originally called the Star of Alderaan, it was renamed to honor the Tantive system's diplomats. During the time of the Clone Wars, the ship was the consular vessel of Alderaan's Senator in the Galactic Republic, Bail Organa.

After witnessing first hand the betrayal of the Jedi, Senator Organa departed Coruscant in an attempt to rescue as many of the few survivors of the Jedi Purge he could. Using a stolen Jedi Beacon, Organa was able to contact and rescue two of the last surviving members of the Jedi Council, Masters Obi-Wan Kenobi and Yoda. Later, after the death of their mother, it was onboard the Tantive IV the fates of Leia and Luke Skywalker were decided. Accompanying Organa on this fateful journey were Raymus Antilles and Jeremoch Colton. The droids R2-D2 and C-3PO were assigned to the ship at this point.

It was during an exercise testing the launch of escape pods that Tantive IV was attacked by a pirate gang from the Karthakk system. The corvette successfully evaded the attack, though lost its jettisoned escape pods in the process. It was soon discovered that R2-D2 and C-3PO were aboard one of the pods. Chief Petty Officer Corla Metonae, supervisor of the exercise, was blamed for the loss of the droids. Bail Organa placed high importance on retrieving the droids, and eventually succeeded in returning them to Tantive IV.



During the days of the Empire, Princess Leia used the ship and her position in the Imperial Senate to help the struggling Rebel Alliance, often undertaking secret missions under the guise of Humanitarian work.

The vessel's final voyage was during Operation Skyhook: a secret mission to the planet Toprawa to obtain the schematics for the Empire's new battle station, the Death Star.

While the plans from Toprawa were by far the largest part of the plans, two other supplemental sets were also delivered to the Tantive IV from AX-235 by the shuttle Maria &mdash; one set acquired from Danuta and another set stolen during the Death Star Uprising. The original plan was to deliver them to the Star Cruiser Liberty, but the sudden appearance of the Star Destroyer Immortal halted the transfer, and Tantive IV was forced to flee to Tatooine.



The second part of the mission was to reach the planet Tatooine, find Obi-Wan Kenobi, and escort him to Alderaan, along with the plans for the Death Star. However, the ship was intercepted by the Imperial I-class Star Destroyer Devastator while in orbit over the planet. Tantive IV was quickly disabled and captured.

Despite the valiant efforts of the Alderaanian soldiers on board, the stormtroopers of the 501st Legion quickly overran the ship. In a critical move, Princess Leia was able to pass the Death Star plans to R2-D2 and instruct him to make contact with Obi-Wan Kenobi on the surface of Tatooine, before being captured herself.

Unable to find the plans on board Tantive IV, Darth Vader ordered a team of stormtroopers to sweep the planet below to find them. Afterwards the corvette was destroyed and the entire crew was killed. Imperial propaganda would later proclaim that an asteroid storm caused the destruction of the Tantive IV.

Internal layout
The Tantive's interior layout can be fairly well mapped using the cutaway of the ship in Star Wars: Incredible Cross-Sections.

Deck 1

 * Stateroom suite

Deck 2

 * Cockpit
 * Officers' quarters
 * Officers' common room
 * Formal state conference chamber
 * Formal dining room
 * Escape pod access tunnel (circumnavigates the whole deck)
 * Library
 * Airlocks port and starboard

Deck 3

 * Captain's quarters
 * Computer power substation
 * Tech station
 * Airlock
 * Main computer room
 * Main sensor room
 * Sensor power substation
 * Engine room
 * Crew quarters
 * Droid maintenance room
 * In 19 BBY, a small hangar or starfighter bay was located somewhere in the vessel's ventral bulge, as evidenced when Obi-Wan Kenobi landed General Grievous' fighter, Soulless One, aboard the Tantive after Order 66. At the time, the vessel was still equipped as a CR70 corvette, and it is unknown whether it was a standard feature on the model or a modification made specifically by Bail Organa's staff. It is also unknown whether the fighter bay/hangar was still in use in 0 BBY.

Behind the scenes


Tantive IV was originally portrayed using a plastic model for the filming of A New Hope. However, a CG model was used in Revenge of the Sith. The two models have differences in appearance, which led some fans to believe that the corvettes were two distinct vessels.

A quote from Rob Coleman, who was the animation director on Revenge of the Sith, suggests this was one idea for the vessel in the third prequel:


 * "One of the most fun things about this show was linking the first trilogy to this one, introducing designs that make more of an appearance in A New Hope." The cruiser flown by Bail Organa, for example, is a predecessor to the rebel blockade runner featured in the first shot of the original Star Wars. "It looks a little bit different, but you can tell it comes from the same factory." - Cinefex #102 pg. 68

However, at the official Star Wars website,, the Tantive IV is specifically shown to appear in Episode III, Episode IV, and Episode VI. Many sources support this, including The Art of Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith, which states:


 * " . . . Lucas reveals that [the] first ship seen in the 1977 Star Wars -- the Rebel blockade runner (aka the Tantive IV) -- will reappear in Revenge of the Sith. Within the ship, in addition to reconstructing the familiar corridor through which Darth Vader strides, Lucas requests a new meeting room. He also approves of an idea whereby the ship could be reverse-engineered from its Episode IV Rebel version to an earlier peacetime version of itself." - AoSW:RoTS pg. 104



With the profile for the CR70 corvette in SW Insider 90, the Tantive IV's history now fits in with Coleman's comment. It is the same ship in both films, but the ROTS version is a CR70 model and the ANH version is the Tantive IV after an extensive refitting, as a CR90 model.

SW Insider 90 also states, that the ship was built under the name Star of Alderaan by order of Queen Mazicia Organa for Senator Agrippa Aldrete as a consular vessel. Since Agrippa Aldrete was Senator of Alderaan before the time of Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace, this statement contradicts the former statement, that the ship was built some time before the end of the Clone Wars.


 * Tantive IV is one of the most iconic vehicles in the history of film, as it was one of the first vehicles audiences were introduced to in the original Star Wars film.


 * The creators of the original Tantive IV model placed a miniature pin-up girl poster in the cockpit as a joke. It is not visible in the final film.


 * The majority of the interior of the ship can be explored in Star Wars: Battlefront II.

Appearances

 * Bailed Out
 * Star Wars: Battlefront II
 * Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith
 * Dark Lord: The Rise of Darth Vader
 * Star Wars: Empire at War
 * Star Wars: X-wing
 * Star Wars Empire: Darklighter
 * Star Wars Empire: Princess... Warrior
 * Tag & Bink Are Dead
 * Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope novelization
 * Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope
 * LEGO Star Wars: The Video Game
 * LEGO Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy
 * Trooper