Books The Official TARKIN by James Luceno Discussion Thread (Spoilers Allowed)

Just wanna say it's really weird to me that Motti is in this book at this point in the timeline. The guy that plays him in ANH was like 30 and this is 14 years earlier, yet he's still a high-ranking official.

 

I always thought that this Motti was ANH Motti's father but I couldn't for the life of me recall why that is.

 

According to Wookieepedia it was 13 years earlier. The actor was about 31 in ANH - but, just as some people look older than they really are, it could be rationalized that this guy is "baby-faced" in-universe and looks younger than he is.

Still pushes it a bit - to be a Rear Admiral in his late twenties (if we add ten years to the actor's age) is very good going. Ciena Ree was a full captain in her mid-twenties, and a point was made of how the Empire had to be desperate to be promoting somebody this fast.

For comparison, Kenneth Colley was 43 when playing Admiral (Full Admiral?) Piett, and Michael Sheard was 42 when playing TESB Admiral Ozzel (using Tarkin, 26 when "Rear Admiral Ozzel of the Joint Chiefs").

And Michael Clarke was 57 when playing Admiral Yularen - which if character matches actor, would make Yularen 35 when we first see him in TCW.

Don Henderson was 46 when playing Tagge - which would make (if character matching actor) Tagge 33 when we meet him in Tarkin - already on the Joint Chiefs, though it's not clear if he was already Chief Of The Army then.

And we have Michael Pennington - 40 when playing Jerjerrod - using same formula, makes Jerjerrod 23 in Tarkin.

When it's looked at that way, it seems like all the prominent military figures are really young men.

 

So, Hux being so young in TFA wouldn't be that odd.

 

Show me an example of ANYONE, from ANY service anywhere in the world, who made rear admiral at 26, or general at 33.

Anyone?

 

Or elected ruler of entire planet at 14 (or senator at 16) (sorry)

 

Not on Earth, but since we're not talking about Earth...

 

I didn't consider the other guys because Motti always sticks out in my mind as being younger. I can't believe the guy that played Yularen in ANH was only 57, he could be ten years older. He's already gone almost completely grey at the end of TCW.


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If we count brigadier generals - there's this guy:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galusha_Pennypacker

aged 20.

 

Fiction still has to be believable and plausible to its audience, or else it is not fiction, but farce.

And if I might also address Lente's point: that was part of the problem I had with the prequels, the idea that Lucas would have us believe that ANYONE that young could occupy a position of power that was anything other than strictly ceremonial. I mean, the very idea that any population would ever elect someone with the mentality of a fourteen-year-old to actually LEAD them...

Oh, wait...

And Pennypacker (my GOD, that name!) appears to be an extremely exceptional case of getting your foot in the door early in what was, in 1860-61, an extremely fluid chain of command as what was a unified armed forces divided and became the Union and Confederate armies, and of rising through the ranks by attrition as commanders were wiped out in four years of bloody civil war. None of those specific conditions appear to have been in place for people like Tagge or Motti, not at a period five years after the END of a civil war.

 

This idea originated in NH. Leia in the penultimate version of the script was 16 (if I remember correctly), and then - 19. And she took her place in the Senate not only because being from Royal family, but because she was competent enough.
This is GFFA with its own internal logic)

In war history you can find a lot of young people with high rank (but yeah, that's not how the system usually works here).

 

I like this idea. Motti gaining his position in ANH through nepotism explains a lot about him, from his age to his attitude.

 

And would fit with the way the Empire seems to work by the OT era. The likes of Tagge or Veers get there in the end by hard work and being just that good, but for every one of those there's a Motti or an Ozzel who gets promoted because they come from blue blood backgrounds.

 

Also, at least in Legends, Motti is Tarkin's nephew.


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Alexander the Great.

Also, in the TFA visual guide, they talk about how Kylo Ren despises General Hux because he only got his position of power due to his father and had never seen real combat.

 

Alexander the Great also technically got his position due to his father (what with dear old Dad being the King and all) and just so happened to be one of the greatest military leaders ever. The two are not mutually inclusive, or exclusive actually.

 

Ozzel looked quite a bit older than 42 in ESB. I would have placed him somewhere in his early 60s.

 

The Marquis de Lafayette got a congressional commission to Major General at age 19-20.

 

How 'bout in MODERN times?

 

Assuming WWII is sufficiently modern for your needs, Brigadier General Edward J. Timberlake Jr. reached that rank at age 33.

 

It's also possible that the "Rear Admiral" title is handed out very easily - more of an honorary thing, to heads of research departments and the like.

Krennic was hoping to become Rear Admiral in Catalyst - despite being in Weapons Research rather than the main Navy, and his badge in Rogue One shows "fleet equivalence of Admiral"

Given Jerjerrod's background in building design and starship design - if he's a 23 year old Rear Admiral in Tarkin, or even a little older than the actor - he might have come up that way - through being given great responsibilities and rank to go with those responsibilities - a "boy genius" rather than through the normal naval route.

I could see Krennic being initially extremely jealous of Jerjerrod, for having come so far much faster than he has (using Ben Mendellson's age as a guideline). Which might be why he thinks he can get to Rear Admiral quickly - because Jerjerrod set the precedent.

 

After all, it's true that both Krennic and Jerjerrod were architects! Nice observation.

 

It's also true that these ideas could lead to interesting stories in themselves. We're having a ball just freestyling! Imagine what the professionals could accomplish! .