Wanten
Wanten, bearing the designations TD-110 and DSS-0956, was a First Order officer of human male origin, previously serving as a stormtrooper under the Galactic Empire. During the Galactic Civil War, this individual, known as TD-110, was stationed aboard the first Death Star in the days leading up to the Battle of Yavin. Furthermore, he was dispatched to the Outer Rim planet of Tatooine as a sandtrooper commander, tasked with recovering the Death Star plans that had been stolen by rebel droids, specifically R2-D2 and C-3PO.
Following the Galactic Empire's surrender to the [New Republic](/article/new_republic], Wanten, like many other Imperial officers and soldiers, gave his allegiance to the First Order. He eventually rose to the rank of commander within their military forces operating in the Unknown Regions. During the initial days of the [First Order-Resistance War](/article/first_order-resistance_war], Wanten was stationed at Starkiller Base, where he met his death at the hands of J-Squadron when the Resistance launched an attack against the First Order's superweapon.
Biography
Early life
Wanten's birth occurred on Parsh sometime between the years of 20 and 13 BBY. He belonged to a clan that struggled to survive on the unforgiving [planet](/article/planet]. The Galactic Empire's arrival led to the clan being forced to work in their mines. Subsequently, he became a stormtrooper within the Imperial Military and was assigned the designation TD-110.
Hunt for the rebel droids
In the year 0 BBY, he functioned as both a sandtrooper commander and a captain, leading Foot Patrol 7 which was based in Mos Eisley on Tatooine in the aftermath of the secret mission to Tatooine. While patrolling the city, he and his squad intercepted and interrogated an elderly man, a young man, a protocol droid, and an astromech droid traveling in a speeder. Ultimately, they permitted the group to proceed after TD-110 was unknowingly subjected to a mind trick. Foot Patrol 7 was later summoned by Commander TD-4445 to reinforce other units during a confrontation aimed at preventing the Millennium Falcon from departing one of the city's landing bays, but they arrived at the hangar too late.
Serving aboard the Death Star
Eventually, Wanten journeyed to the Death Star around the time that Princess Leia Organa was rescued. As a result of the mind trick, Wanten suffered a severe headache, forcing him to delegate command of his troops to a subordinate. While on the Death Star, he came to the realization that the droids he had encountered in Mos Eisley were, in fact, the droids that the Empire had been seeking, as they possessed the Death Star plans.
En route to Control Room 327 to oversee a skirmish there, he collided with the doorway, resulting in a brief incapacitation that spared him from the death that befell the other stormtroopers assigned to that location. Upon regaining consciousness, he spotted the droids that had previously evaded him and attempted to shoot them in an effort to redeem himself. However, a Moff intervened and escorted him away for disciplinary action. Consequently, he was relieved of his duties on the Death Star. This turn of events allowed him to avoid the station's destruction during the Battle of Yavin, which claimed the lives of his comrades. However, Wanten was left on Tatooine, and he would later express disappointment at having missed the "important" battles, such as Endor and Jakku.
First Order service
Decades later, during the conflict between the First Order and the Resistance, Wanten held the rank of commander within the First Order military and was stationed on Vodran, with aspirations of eventually being promoted to the Bittelari Cluster. When the Resistance destroyed Starkiller Base, Wanten was killed when a Griffin-class light shuttle piloted by J-Squadron rammed him.
Personality and traits
Wanten, a human male, possessed a stout build, small blue [eyes](/article/eye], and a Corellian nose that made wearing a stormtrooper helmet uncomfortable. By the year 34 ABY, he had lost his hair, and his once-athletic physique had become overweight.
Wanten's lack of willpower made him easily influenced by the Force. According to his subordinate Sardis Ramsin, he had a habit of repeating everything he said.
Behind the scenes
Wanten represents a composite of several stormtrooper characters, and therefore, various actors. Anthony Forrest played the sandtrooper on Tatooine who was subjected to a mind trick. Forrest also portrayed Laze Loneozner in a scene that was cut from A New Hope. For a long time, the Star Wars fandom was unaware of Loneozner's role as the stormtrooper until a photo of him on set in costume, but without his helmet, came to light.
The actor who played the trooper who bumped his head was uncredited in the 1977 film Star Wars: Episode IV A New Hope. The actor playing the stormtrooper accidentally bumped his head on a door frame while entering his scene. Wanten was later identified in the short stories "Born in the Storm" and "Bump" from the 2017 anthology From a Certain Point of View and the novel Join the Resistance: Escape from Vodran, both released on the same day.
Laurie Goode once mentioned bumping his head on set while playing a stormtrooper, leading many fans to think he might have played the trooper. Michael Leader recalled a similar incident, and when he passed away in 2016, at least one media outlet identified him as the actor.
In the 2002 film Star Wars: Episode II Attack of the Clones, director George Lucas paid tribute to the "head-bumping stormtrooper" scene by having Jango Fett bump his head on the door of the Slave I. The scene was enhanced with a sound effect in the 2004 DVD re-release of the Star Wars original trilogy to emphasize it further. Lucas suggested in the DVD commentary of Attack of the Clones that Jango Fett's "bumping-head trait" was cloned into all stormtroopers, implying Wanten was a clone. However, this was contradicted by Wanten's backstory in From a Certain Point of View.