Gherant

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Gherant was a Human male commander of the Imperial Navy during the height of the Galactic Civil War. Hand-picked by then-Captain Firmus Piett to an assignment aboard Darth Vader's flagship, the Star Dreadnought Executor, by 3 ABY, as a deck officer, Gherant was responsible for overseeing authorized access of the Super Star Destroyer's sensitive areas. During the Battle of Endor in 4 ABY, Gherant served aboard the Executor's bridge under the command of Piett, who had since been promoted to admiral. Gherant was surprised by Piett's order for Vader's warship to hold position rather than attacking the Alliance Fleet in order to give the second Death Star's secretly operational superlaser an opportunity to wreak havoc on the Rebel ships. He and Piett were killed during the battle when a wayward RZ-1 A-wing interceptor piloted by Arvel Crynyd crashed into the Executor's bridge tower, leading to the Super Star Destroyer's ultimate destruction shortly thereafter.

Contents 1 Biography 2 Personality and traits 3 Behind the scenes 4 Appearances 5 Sources 6 Notes and references 7 External links

[edit] Biography

Gherant was a commander of the Imperial Navy during the Galactic Civil War serving aboard Darth Vader's flagship, the Star Dreadnought Executor, by early 3 ABY. Prior to the Battle of Hoth, then-Captain Firmus Piett personally selected Gherant as a deck officer to Vader's command ship. He was responsible for preventing unauthorized access to sensitive areas of the Super Star Destroyer.^[2]

His service aboard the Executor continued into 4 ABY as Piett ascended to the rank of admiral following Vader's execution of Kendal Ozzel as a result of the latter's tactical blunder at Hoth. During the Battle of Endor, Gherant was stationed aboard the ship's bridge alongside Piett, where he was flabbergasted by Piett's order for the Executor to refrain from engaging the Alliance Fleet once it had reached attack position. Piett explained that his orders came down from the highest authority—Emperor Palpatine had instructed the Executor and the remainder of the Imperial fleet to simply hold the Rebel ships at bay to give the secretly operational superlaser of the uncompleted second Death Star the opportunity to wreak havoc.^[1]

Gherant, along with Piett, died when the wayward A-wing of Arvel Crynyd crashed into the Executor's unprotected command tower after the warship's main bridge deflector shields had been knocked out. Although he had seen the starfighter barreling out of control towards the bridge, there was little he could do to escape the collision. With primary bridge control lost, the Executor plummeted into the Death Star's gravity well, obliterating upon impact.^[1]

[edit] Personality and traits

During the Battle of Endor, he, like many involved in the battle, was unaware of the second Death Star's secretly operational status and was therefore initially surprised to learn that the Executor would not enter the fray after reaching attack position.^[1]

[edit] Behind the scenes

Gherant first appeared in the novelization of Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi, just prior to the film's theatrical release. In the film he appears in two scenes aboard the Super Star Destroyer Executor's bridge as a subordinate to Fleet Admiral Firmus Piett. He was portrayed by Pip Miller in the film and credited as "Stardestroyer Captain #1."^[1]

The character was first identified by name and provided a bit of a backstory in the April 1997 Dagobah Limited expansion set of the Star Wars Customizable Card Game.^[2] It should be noted, however, that while the character is included in the Dagobah Limited set, which primarily includes characters seen in the film Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back, Gherant's character does not actually appear in the film.^[3] Additionally, while he is only seen in the film Return of the Jedi, he is not included in any of the expansion sets devoted to that movie.^{[4][5][6][7][8][9][10]}

[edit] Appearances

• Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi novelization (First appearance)
• Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi

[edit] Sources

•  "Dagobah Limited" - Star Wars Customizable Card Game (Card: Commander Gherant) (First identified as Gherant)
• Star Wars: The Annotated Screenplays
• Star Wars: Behind the Magic

[edit] Notes and references

[edit] External links

• The truth about Commander Gherant