Tiaan Jerjerrod

Born on Tinnel IV in 35 BBY, Tiaan Jerjerrod was a human male hailing from a wealthy family on the Core World of Tinnel IV. He was born there. He was a member of the Taung & Zhell Society and attended the University of Coruscant. As a young man, he excelled as a student at an engineering academy. His excellent marks led to an initial position creating warehouse designs. Later, the Corellian Engineering Corporation noticed his designs for a freight depot on Ord Mantell, which resulted in his hiring as a starship designer. His designs for an interstellar trash hauler eventually led to his recruitment by the Galactic Empire.

Jerjerrod prospered within the structured environment of the Imperial Navy. By 14 BBY, he had achieved the rank of Rear Admiral and was a member of the Joint Chiefs. He participated in the construction of the first Death Star, a moon-sized battle station utilizing kyber crystals to power a planet-destroying superlaser. Jerjerrod convinced himself that the weapon's mere existence would serve as a deterrent, providing defense for the Empire without requiring its use. Nevertheless, the Empire employed the megaweapon, blowing up the planet Alderaan. Despite its immense power, the station was ultimately destroyed when Luke Skywalker of the Alliance to Restore the Republic, launched two proton torpedoes into an unprotected thermal exhaust port. The torpedoes initiated a chain reaction within the reactor core, resulting in its explosive demise.

Following the Battle of Hoth, and after Darth Vader's failed attempt to convert his son, Luke Skywalker, to the dark side of the Force during their confrontation on Cloud City, Vader returned to his flagship, the Executor. Jerjerrod was among the officers present in the hangar bay to receive the Sith Lord.

Jerjerrod eventually rose to the rank of Imperial Moff. Despite the prior superweapon's failure, the Emperor mandated the construction of a second Death Star above the forest moon of Endor. Jerjerrod was appointed station Commander with the task of overseeing the challenging completion of the superweapon, and was given the cover title of Director of Imperial Energy Systems due to the project's secrecy. To meet this difficult challenge, Jerjerrod devoted himself tirelessly, meticulously reviewing plans and managing extensive paperwork. He notably ensured that all exhaust ports on the new station were heavily armored, rectifying the original Death Star's critical vulnerability. However, the architect encountered various issues, including budget reductions, supply chain disruptions, and a shortage of construction personnel.

The Death Star's evident lack of progress ultimately prompted Vader, the personal enforcer of Emperor Palpatine, to visit the station to resolve the situation. Upon learning that Vader's transport had landed in one of the station's hangar bays, Jerjerrod went to the hangar to greet the Emperor's representative as he disembarked from his shuttle. Feeling confident in his position, Jerjerrod intended to present Vader with detailed daily reports, hoping to gain his support and demonstrate the impossibility of the Emperor's demands. However, Vader dismissed Jerjerrod's formal greeting and directly stated the purpose of his visit: the Emperor was dissatisfied with the Death Star's slow construction, and Vader would ensure its timely completion. Jerjerrod initially argued that the project was understaffed and nearly impossible under the circumstances. However, when the Sith Lord announced that the Emperor would personally oversee the station's final completion phase, Jerjerrod pledged renewed and intensified efforts from himself and his crew, acknowledging Vader's mocking warning that the Emperor would not tolerate failure and that the Dark Lord of the Sith was not as forgiving as his apprentice.

Following Lord Vader's threat, Jerjerrod returned to his quarters to formulate a plan. He located Vader's meditation chamber using the schematics and waited for the Sith Lord there, offering to lead him on a tour of the battle station in the hope that his imposing presence would motivate the workers. They traveled together through the vast station, using shuttles and lifts as needed. Vader acknowledged the evident work being done and inquired about the causes of the delays. Jerjerrod, having already cited the timeline as the primary issue, speculated that Vader was referring to the significant design modifications: the new venting system designed to prevent the station from being exploited as the first one had been. Vader, however, expressed his displeasure with the response and instructed Jerjerrod to avoid dwelling on past failures before departing.

Upon returning to his quarters, Jerjerrod again contemplated his impossible situation. He lacked the necessary time and resources to make the massive battle station operational. He then considered what "operational" could mean and decided to concentrate the majority of the workforce on completing the superlaser, which was intended to be the final component of the station. When he presented this concept to Vader, he simply replied that Jerjerrod must remember that any work worth doing was worth doing well before departing.

Driven by the fear of the Emperor's arrival, Jerjerrod pushed himself and his workers to their limits for several weeks. Despite his best efforts, he was unable to complete the station before Palpatine's arrival; one entire hemisphere remained covered in scaffolding and girders. When Palpatine finally arrived aboard the Death Star with considerable fanfare, Jerjerrod joined Vader and a group of Imperial officers to greet their ruler and his entourage. Jerjerrod had hoped for recognition for his hard work, but despite Vader's earlier warnings, the Emperor ignored Jerjerrod and the other officers, instead conversing with Vader about their grand strategy to destroy the Rebel Alliance, with whom the Empire had been at war for four years. Jerjerrod soon understood that simply avoiding his master's displeasure was reward enough.

Within the Emperor's throne room, situated on a spire high above the Death Star's surface, Jerjerrod and the Emperor's advisors, Sim Aloo and Janus Greejatus, observed as the Emperor tasked Vader with setting a trap for the rebel fleet at Endor. After instructing his apprentice to return to his command ship, Vader and Jerjerrod left the throne room.

Unknowingly, the Rebel Alliance walked into the Emperor's trap, launching a two-pronged, all-out assault on the Death Star's construction site at Endor. A strike team infiltrated the forest moon's surface to disable the deflector shield protecting the space station, while Rebel starfighters, supported by the capital ships of the Alliance fleet, would penetrate the Death Star's superstructure and destroy its reactor, thus destroying the weapon before it could be completed. When Vader learned that the strike team was on the planet and that his son, Luke Skywalker, was among them, he attempted to return to the throne room to inform Palpatine, unaware that the Emperor had decreed that he was not to be disturbed. Upon arriving at the entrance to the turbolift, Jerjerrod and two of the Emperor's Royal Guards stopped Vader. Jerjerrod informed Vader that he was forbidden to enter, but Vader simply began choking him with the Force. Gasping for air, Jerjerrod managed to convey that it was the Emperor's command, prompting Vader to release him and state that he would await Palpatine's convenience.

When the Rebel fleet arrived, they found themselves trapped between the Imperial Navy, concealed on the far side of Endor, and the still-shielded Death Star. Palpatine had anticipated their arrival and tasked an entire legion to capture them before they could destroy the shield generator. He contacted Jerjerrod on the station's Overbridge and authorized him to target and destroy the Rebel starships with the Death Star's superlaser. Under his command, the Death Star obliterated the Liberty and the Nautilian as the battle unfolded. However, the Imperials were forced to cease firing the superlaser when the Rebels engaged the Imperial Navy at point-blank range, preventing the Death Star from destroying their ships without also destroying their own. When the Rebels on the planet received assistance from a native Ewok tribe, they successfully destroyed the Death Star shield generator, giving the Alliance the advantage. The battle ended with the Emperor's death and the destruction of the Death Star, resulting in the loss of all hands, including Jerjerrod.

Although Tiaan died over Endor, his descendants became members of the First Order, the Imperial successor regime to the fallen Galactic Empire. His grandson, Jothan Tiaan Jerjerrod, the son of First Order officers Jax Jerjerrod and Jul Jerjerrod, left the First Order and joined the Resistance.

Jerjerrod displayed minor spitefulness and a lack of ambition as he progressed through the Imperial ranks—qualities considered admirable for a Moff—unlike many other officers. Jerjerrod, a technocrat with a cold demeanor, was proud to be the Commander of the second Death Star as it neared completion, but he was also concerned about the station's complex construction. While he asserted that his subordinates were working as quickly as possible to finish the station, the prospect of facing the Emperor's personal displeasure over the project's delays—a threat that visibly unsettled him—compelled him to reassess the pace of the work. Jerjerrod was respectful in the Emperor's presence, kneeling upon greeting him and bowing before departing. In addition to the Emperor, Jerjerrod feared Vader, not wanting to become another name on Vader's list of victims, as every Imperial soldier knew about the Sith Lord's tendency to strangle those who failed to follow his orders. Despite this fear, he considered Vader to be a vital organizing force, a form of certainty that was fundamental to the Empire.

Jerjerrod was a simple man whose quarters were sparsely furnished with only a standard-issue bed and a drafting table. With an engineering background, Jerjerrod was meticulous about details. He preferred to keep specifications for his projects on flimsiplast rather than using datapads. Jerjerrod also enjoyed music.

Michael Pennington played Tiaan Jerjerrod in Star Wars: Episode VI Return of the Jedi. Alan Rickman, an English actor, initially auditioned for the role of Jerjerrod, intending to use a "Big, slow, low voice," but Pennington was chosen instead. Although he is only referred to as "Commander" in the film, his name and rank are listed in the film's end credits. Jerjerrod is a minor antagonist with limited screen time and dialogue in the final film, although his role was significantly larger in earlier versions of the script. The Moff also appears in several scenes filmed for Return of the Jedi that were ultimately cut from the final product. Some of these scenes, which form a subplot in which Jerjerrod is ordered by the Emperor to destroy Endor once the battle turns against the Empire (scenes retained in the novelization of the film), were included in the Star Wars: The Complete Saga Blu-ray set. As a result of a props "blooper" during production, Jerjerrod and all other Imperial officers wear the incorrect rank badge in the film.

During the script development of Return of the Jedi, Jerjerrod's role was significantly expanded and contracted. Earlier drafts depicted him as a tall Grand Moff and a confident technocrat, rather than simply a Moff. In these drafts, Jerjerrod acted as Emperor Palpatine's "secret agent," overseeing the transformation of the Green Moon of Had Abbadon into a paradise for its inhabitants while operating behind Darth Vader's back. When informed of a Rebel presence on the moon while aboard Jerjerrod's shuttle, Jerjerrod dismisses it as an insult to his work, even as a stolen Imperial transport piloted by Leia Organa and two other Rebels nearly collides with the shuttle. Upon arriving on Had Abbadon, Vader and Jerjerrod descend to the Emperor's Throne Room. After Vader leaves, reprimanded for failing to capture Luke Skywalker, the Emperor tasks Jerjerrod with monitoring Vader, as he plans to replace him with Skywalker. He also reveals that the Rebels are launching an attack on the Death Star. Jerjerrod later clashes with General Veers, who took Skywalker prisoner to the Executor instead. Enraged, Jerjerrod confronts the Sith Lord to demand why Skywalker was not delivered to the Emperor, leading Vader to snap Jerjerrod's neck and kill him.

In Lawrence Kasdan's revised rough draft, Jerjerrod's shuttle nearly intercepts Leia's captured transport as it moves to assist a panicked Wedge Antilles piloting a captured TIE Fighter during the strike team's infiltration without a clearance code. However, after Leia's craft receives clearance, Vader complains to Jerjerrod that the Emperor has not contacted him. Although Jerjerrod tries to avoid an argument, he is forced to reveal that the Emperor has reassigned Vader to oversee the construction of the two new Death Stars because of his failure to capture Skywalker. Jerjerrod also doubts Vader's ability to seduce Skywalker to the dark side of the Force, unlike the Emperor. Jerjerrod also reveals that the Emperor knows about the impending Rebel attack and that Skywalker will soon be captured on Tatooine. After communicating with the Emperor via hologram in the Executor's private communications chamber, Jerjerrod takes responsibility for delivering Luke without Vader's knowledge by using coded transmissions and disabling all surveillance equipment, concluding that the Rebel attack is a distraction for Vader. Upon learning of this, Jerjerrod is killed by Vader.

For the Special Edition of Star Wars: Episode V The Empire Strikes Back, footage of Darth Vader's arrival aboard the Death Star at the beginning of Return of the Jedi was reused to show Vader returning to the Executor after his duel with Luke Skywalker on Cloud City. Although the scene is presented from a different angle than the original scene in Return of the Jedi, Michael Pennington is still visible in the shot.