It seems his original proposal was deleted for plagiarism, so here he is again. I have permission from Jester of Chaos to re-propose him.
The work?[]
Star Wars is a science-fiction franchise largely focusing on the war between the Rebel Alliance and the Galactic Empire. The candidate here is Director Krennic from the EU prequel novel Catalyst and the Rogue One film.
Who is he and what has he done?[]
Orson Krennic is the director of weapons research for the Empire, who has been tasked with overseeing the Death Star. He first started out as an officer in the Clone Wars, where he decided to take advantage of his former friend Galen Erso's research to build the station. He travelled to the planet Vallt, where Galen, along with his wife Lyra and daughter Jyn, were being held by the Separatists, and broke them out of prison, then orders his ship to fire on the Keep (where Vallt's government is ruled from and where Galen had been held) with no regard for civilian casualties. When Lyra protests the action, claiming the Separatists there are harmless, Krennic dismissively says they chose the wrong side.
The war ended soon after and the Empire was formed, and Krennic offered Galen a higher position with "Project Stardust" which he framed as a chance to help worlds that had been ravaged during the war. Galen began research on kyber crystals, and Krennic began mining numerous worlds for them, keeping Galen in the dark about what the research would be used for. However an attempt to weaponize Galen's research backfired and destroyed a facility on Malpaz, causing massive loss of life. Krennic covered this up by framing it as an enemy attack and asked his superiors to promote him to give the impression the project was going smoothly, so he was promoted to a full commander. One of the scientists involved with the disaster disappears from the story soon afterward, so it's likely Krennic had him killed for his failure.
During this time Tarkin began interfering with the project, so Krennic secretly staged a rebellion against the Imperial occupation of the Salient system in order to distract Tarkin, allowing Krennic to proceed with his plans unopposed. Eventually he succeeded in weaponizing Galen's research, while trying to frame Tarkin for various acts of sabotage he claimed had been committed. However a number of his men started to ask questions about what their research was being used for, so Krennic had them "permanently relocated" by blowing up their facility and framing it as a hostile attack. Around the same time Galen became disillusioned with the project, as Lyra alerted him to what Krennic had been doing, and they soon escaped from Krennic along with the help of Saw Gerrera.
He next appears at the start of Rogue One, where he tracks Galen and his family down on the farm where they're now living. He tells Galen that work on the Death Star has stalled and he must come back, saying that Galen's family will be brought with him as "heroes of the Empire." Galen claims Lyra has passed away, but she soon reveals herself to be "back from the dead" and pulls a blaster on Krennic in an attempt to protect her husband. Krennic advises her to stand down, but when she defies him he orders her gunned down, then sends his troops to capture Jyn (who at this point is only eight) while having Galen's house burned down. Though Jyn escapes, Krennic blackmails Galen by telling him that they will find Jyn eventually, so Galen is forced to return to the project for her sake.
13 years later, Krennic is summoned by Tarkin who is angered at the numerous setbacks to finishing the Death Star, as well as news that a defecting pilot has spread rumors on Jedha about the weapon. Tarkin demands the Death Star be test-fired on Jedha to take care of this, and Krennic agrees. He announces he will destroy the entire moon, but Tarkin intervenes and says they only need to wipe out the main city. Krennic is displeased but goes along with this. The city is obliterated and Saw Gerrera and his partisans are killed as well, with Krennic calling the destruction "beautiful." However Tarkin then announces that he will now take control of the Death Star, claiming this as his own victory. Krennic is enraged but Tarkin reveals that the security leak originated with Galen's team, so Krennic goes to deal with him.
He arrives on Eadu and demands that whoever betrayed him step forward, holding Galen's entire team of engineers at gunpoint. When Galen finally admits he was the leaker and asks for his men to be spared, Krennic coldly has them gunned down anyway just to spite Galen, before gloating to him about Jedha's destruction. A group of Rebels then bombs the facility, killing Galen in the process, but Krennic doesn't seem to care about this. He is later summoned by Darth Vader who is displeased with Jedha's destruction (as the Empire didn't want to reveal the Death Star yet) but Krennic tries to convince Vader to go to the Emperor and convince him that Krennic is better suited to command the Death Star than Tarkin. Vader isn't having it and leaves Krennic with a warning about "choking on his aspirations."
Krennic then goes to Scarif and orders his men to go through all communications from Galen to be certain he hasn't compromised the weapon. The facility is then attacked by the members of Rogue One, and after his men fail to take action, Krennic orders them to deploy the garrison. A number of Rebels are killed but soon more of them arrive over the planet, so Krennic orders the base locked down and the shield gate closed, which strands the members of Rogue One on the planet.
Jyn and Cassian are able to get into the data vault and steal a copy of the Death Star plans, so Krennic goes to stop them and deploys his personal squadron into the battle, resulting in massive casualties. He shoots Cassian and pursues Jyn to the roof where the antenna is, holding her at gunpoint. When Jyn tells him who she is, Krennic tells her she has failed and the plans will never leave the station, but just as he's about to shoot her Cassian shoots him from behind. They transmit the plans and leave Krennic wounded on the ground, at which point the Death Star arrives. Tarkin orders the base destroyed to prevent the plans being transmitted, and Krennic is vaporized by the superlaser, which is fired straight through the antenna deck where he happens to be.
Heinous standard?[]
While he does have Tarkin to compete with and might not stand out based on the Rogue One film alone, the Catalyst prequel novel (which is meant to be canon to the film) shows many of his prior atrocities which helps him stand out more on his own merits. He has a massive body count for a non-Force user, at one point massacring a city just for being Separatist-aligned, as well as mining numerous planets for the sake of his research, which is shown to have caused significant damage and ruin to those worlds, and the destruction of Jedha alone likely killed hundreds of thousands. On a more personal level, he's responsible for ruining the lives of the entire Erso family with Lyra, Galen, and Jyn ultimately all dying tragically because of his actions. He's also responsible for deploying the Scarif garrison to repel the Rebel's assault, which makes him responsible for the deaths of most of Rogue One along with every other rebel killed before the arrival of the Death Star, so even that alone gives him a massive kill count.
While the test-firing on Jedha, one of his biggest crimes, was suggested by Tarkin, Krennic has no problem going along with it and actually shows less restraint than Tarkin, as he wanted to destroy Jedha in its entirety which even Tarkin rejected as unnecessary (which is lucky for Jyn's team, as had Krennic destroyed the whole planet they would have had no chance at escape). He also has no problem killing his own men on the slightest pretext, massacring one group of engineers for asking questions about the Death Star project, and later repeating this by killing Galen's entire team for something he knows they didn't do, despite having no reason to think they're anything but loyal to the Empire.
Mitigating traits?[]
Not really. It's implied that he and Galen used to be friends but that's clearly subverted as he has no problem manipulating him and threatening his and his family's lives, and he seems more obsessed with keeping Galen under his control than actually caring about him. He also claims he's trying to bring peace and stability to the galaxy but it's rapidly made clear he's only concerned with his own ego and advancement, and given how many Imperials he's responsible for killing it's safe to say he's not that loyal to the Empire either aside from how it benefits him personally.
Verdict?[]
I'd say yes.