User blog:X9 The Android/PE Proposal: Moff Jerjerrod (novelization)

Hello guys! Today, here's my twentieth PE proposal, and it's about Moff Jerjerrod, a supporting antagonist of Return of the Jedi, the third and last installment of the Star Wars original trilogy and the sixth film in the Star Wars film series, whose role is much more expanded in the film's novelization, written by James Kahn.

WHO IS HE / WHAT HAS HE DONE?
Moff Jerjerrod is an Imperial Moff who is in charge of the Death Star II battle station by the time of 4 ABY, five years after the destruction of the original Death Star in the Battle of Yavin. When Darth Vader arrives, he asks Jerjerrod to continue with the construction of the station as Emperor Palpatine is going to oversee the construction from now on an doesn't like the lack of progress. Jerjerrod agrees due his fear and continues the operation, promising to double the efforts.

Much later, during the Battle of Endor, Palpatine orders Jerjerrod to prepare the Death Star II's superlaser to assimilate Endor with it in spite that many loyal stormtroopers are still there fighting for the shield generator. However, Jerjerrod prepares to do so after Palpatine and Vader die just before the Death Star II gets destroyed by Wedge Antilles, Lando Calrissian and Nien Nunb, destroying the station and killing Jerjerrod and many other Imperials aboard.

In James Kahn's novelization, Jerjerrod's role is pretty the same, but we go to explore Jerjerrod's true personality and traits...

WHAT'S THE WORK?
Return of the Jedi is the 1983 sequel to the 1980 film The Empire Strikes Back and the third and final installment of the Star Wars original trilogy, which started in 1977 with A New Hope. Like its predecessor, it follows the story of the Skywalker family, and this one features the Rebel Alliance's definitive confrontation with the Galactic Empire as well as Luke Skywalker's journey to become a Jedi Knight.

MORAL EVENT HORIZON
While Emperor Palpatine and Grand Moff Tarkin are regarded as the most evil antagonists of the film series (not counting its Expanded Universe spin-offs), Moff Jerjerrod seems to be a standard villain in the actual film, but his depicting in James Kahn's novelization shows that he is far worse than what he seems onscreen, having no freudian excuse and just loving to make war due his destructive desires. Every PE villain must have crossed the Moral Event Horizon to be PE, and Moff Jerjerrod definitely crosses it when he orders the Death Star II to obliterate Endor despite that their troops are still there upon receiving the news of the deaths of the Emperor and Vader to satisfy himself with the wanton destruction of something green and living.

HEINOUS STANDARDS/MITIGATING FACTORS?
As previously said, while the film doesn't fully explore Moff Jerjerrod's personality and traits, the novelization written by James Kahn fully develops Jerjerrod's character to the insight. Unlike the film, where Jerjerrod is depicted as the nervous yet efficient Imperial commanding officer of the Death Star II, the novelization reveals to us that Jerjerrod is not so different than Wilhuff Tarkin, another well-known Moff of the Empire. Much like Tarkin, Jerjerrod is an arrogant officer, who just joined the military for the violence and had sociopathic tendencies. Seeing the Alliance to Restore the Republic as something weaker and smaller than himself that he could bully with impunity, Jerjerrod expressed enthusiam over Emperor Palpatine's plans to get rid of the rebels and viewed the task as an exercise in total annihilation. In fact, Jerjerrod had just one sole regret: the crushing death of the Rebel Alliance would mean the end of the war he loved, demonstrating that Jerjerrod just loves to impart violence and death without remorse.

Once the Emperor and Darth Vader got killed, Jerjerrod loses whatever remains of his sanity and furiously orders the Death Star II to obliterate the moon of Endor to definitely get rid of the rebels, the Ewoks, every other sentient liferform on the moon and even his own loyal men, just because of the desire to, in his own words, "incinerate something green and living, gratuitously, meanly, toward no end but that of wanton destruction. A small act, but deliciously satisfying". With this, we can conclude that much like Palpatine, Jerjerrod was a petty and sadistic man who believed himself to be invencible with a superweapon to deliver destruction whenever he went. As such, like Tarkin and Orson Krennic, Jerjerrod can be easily considered one of the most cruel and vindictive Imperial Navy officers, unlike many of them who, like Wullf Yularen and Cassio Tagge, just followed orders, weren't too nasty with their enemies and even silently respected them as genuine threats.

Of course, many of you will say that Jerjerrod's only redeeming quality is shown in a deleted scene where he refuses to shoot the superlaser on the Death Star under Palpatine's orders due the presence of several loyal Stormtrooper battalions, leading Palpatine to yell at him and intimidate him enough to follow the command. However, the scene, as mentioned, was cut, and as is well known "deleted scenes aren't canon unless they're referenced by a canon source or onscreen".

VERDICT
Taking all of this into account, I would say yes about considering Moff Jerjerrod to be approved as PE.