CT ROTJ Jerjerrod's Escape and mystery blaster fire

Some fans besides myself noticed it years ago, but if one looks VERY closely at the first few seconds of the following scene:



... specifically, at the group of Imperials in the background. One of them is Moff Jerjerrod! He's accompanied by a single Black Shirt Officer, and 4 helmeted Naval Troopers. That is, the exact same group he had with him in the deleted control room scene. They're escaping together! We already knew that it was the VIP hangar bays that they Luke and Anakin are in, and that Jerjerrod also had access to that area from earlier in the movie. Just like how close analysis of modern quality screenshots of ANH proved that Chief Bast didn't escape the Death Star, the same proves that Jerjerrod DID flee the successor battlestation.

There's also another interesting detail in this scene: at the 40 second mark, a blaster shot is heard from somewhere in the nearby vicinity. Besides Jerjerrod's group, another Naval Trooper and two Stormtroopers can be glimpsed in the hangar. Are they the source of the blaster fire? What happened to them? Who or what were they shooting at?

The presence of these other characters in the hangar also raises some questions. Where was the crew for Vader's shuttle? Who are the other guys and what are they doing in the VIP hangar area? And most of all, why did they all completely ignore Vader and Luke who were right in front of them the whole time, right by the ready shuttle? Maybe it's just my perception, but none of it makes any sense once one stops and thinks about it.

 

The Death Star is in the process of blowing up. No one gives a crap about Vader anymore...

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To be honest, that could be blaster fire, but I liken it to be maybe munitions exploding, or turbolasers misfiring..

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Could be. That is the simplest explanation. If anything, seeing even an injured Vader being dragged away towards a shuttle might even put some pep in their step to hurry up and get off while they still can.

The blaster shot heard in the scene could be the an Imperial shooting another over a space in an escape pod right off screen.

 

I don't see it as a big deal if the officers and stormtroopers are shooting one another in an attempt to escape. Its every living being for itself at this point...

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According to the novelization, Palpatine's power had been holding the Imperials together as instruments of his will, and with his death, chaos and panic ruled the day.

 

Was that in the novelization? I thought Timothy Zahn came up with that in the Thrawn Trilogy. IIRC in the annotated Heir to the Empire 20th anniversary edition he said he'd based it on Sauron's will holding his armies together in LOTR.

 

I'm not sure it is Jerjerrod, it looks like the actor Mike Havord. Havord actually plays two parts in ROTJ, he first appears as one of Vader's shuttle pilots (Colonel Jendon) and moments later as part (Rear Admiral Chiraneau) of the ceremonial parade for Vader's arrival on DSII.


I actually hope it's Jerjerrod and sometime in the future there'll be an EU story of him escaping, may be in the TIE Bomber/Boarder that was in the hanger with Vader's shuttle. Though it seems his group were running straight for the entrance to the dock.

 

The novelization's quote which can be taken as implying it:


Smoke was everywhere, substantial rumblings came from all directions at once, people were running and shouting. Electrical fires, steam explosions, cabin depressurizations, disruption of chain-of-command. Added to this, the continued bombardments by Rebel Cruisers—smelling fear in the enemy—merely heightened the sense of hysteria that was already pervasive.
For the Emperor was dead. The central, powerful evil that had been the cohesive force to the Empire was gone; and when the dark side was this diffused, this nondirected - this was simply where it led.
Confusion.
Desperation.
Damp fear.

 

Imperial rats abandoning the sinking ship. Makes sense.

It wouldn't surprise me if they were shooting each other - perhaps some suicides too?

 

There is a theory out there that the blaster shots we hear are Imperials shooting each other for their own spaces on what shuttle there's left.

As for why no one helped Vader, there's two reasons:

#1- Turns out instilling pants-wetting fear in your subordinates is not a good way to achieve true loyalty. I mean, if your boss is being ****** to you, and suddenly he keels over from a heart attack, would you think about trying to save him? And that's out of the goodness, the purity of your heart -- not some mercenary mindset of 'more useful to me alive than dead'?

#2- They didn't know who Luke was. For all they knew, he was some cadet hauling Vader to safety.

 

To me the blaster sound at 0:40 in the video sounds like a turbolaser firing outside the Death Star, rather than a blaster being fired near the hangar. It has an echo that resembles the turbolaser sound effects.

 

I agree with this. If you go by the old EU, then this is also true. After all, Sidious is a Dark Lord figure. The old Legends wrote of his manipulate technique of first drawing people to Byss and then draining their life force from the unsuspecting beings in order to lengthen his life, and he was using his hard will to keep the Empire together. He used their selfishness, their greed, and their ambition to bate them against each other and to remain under his thumb. He did that much more directly with his Inquisitors and other dark side users like the Emperor's Hands.

But if you're going by movies-only, then this theory also works. Palpatine dies...chaos erupts in the Death Star and in the Imperial Fleet at Endor.

As for this theory of Jerjerrod fleeing, I don't believe it. I think he died on the Death Star. It's his karma. Yeah, he's a coward, but he's more afraid of being flash-fried by the Emperor's lightning than of the Rebels. Jerjerrod was a desk general who was not qualified to be in charge of Death Star II, but he was useful to Palpatine merely because he was weak and would not rebel against his Emperor. He was not Tarkin or Motti, in other words. He would get the Death Star II finished in time, but he wasn't a battlefield commander. He was a numbers guy, a bureaucrat, and that shows.

 

Or they figured even a seemingly-wounded Vader was still a danger. Who knew how he'd react to someone trying to finish him off, or trying to help him? Better to stay away from him and get yourself to safety. And, for all we know, Luke's absolute determination to get his father out of there was sending off "Do NOT mess with me" vibes in whomever was around.

 

I am sure everybody was more concerned getting off the Death Star as it was in the midst of being attacked and destroyed. Seeing some random kid carry the former Sith Lord is of no concern to them...

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really?


I must look absolutely fearsome carrying my shopping

 

Think of the missed opportunity. We could've had Star Wars: Episode VII: The Wrath of Jerjerrod.

 

Except that both of them are sitting at the base of a ramp to a fully-functioning shuttle that may be your only ticket off a battle station that blowing up.

Survival instinct has gone into overdrive. If you buy into the theory of Palpatine's death causing chaos & confusion among the rank and file, then doubly so. Plus Vader is not taking any action to actually board the shuttle. Let the unknown kid sit there and fiddle with Vader's helmet all he wants while the Death Star erupts around him, I'm surprised no other Imperial at least tried to board their shuttle.

 

Rule of drama and narrative. It would've ruined it if random Imperials raced on up the ramp around them or stopping to tell Luke to just leave Vader there and run.

 

I doubt that shuttle was the only small craft in the hangar. If I wanted to bail out in a hurry, I'd head for a ship without a big black-armored Sith Lord dying on its ramp.

 

Not to assume any level of competency on the part of Imperial doctrine, but it's not too hard to imagine that the various personnel aboard the station would have a designated evacuation plan that doesn't involve stealing the Emperor's personal shuttle.

 

Probably escape pods that don't travel fast enough to escape the blast radius before the space station explodes.

 

Indeed. It’s about giving both characters their moment together.