Books A/V STAR WARS: ROGUE #$^$%&ING ONE: A STAR WARS STORY

I think even from the moment Draven gives the order to kill Galen, you can kind of see that Cassian doesn't really want to do it. He'll follow orders, yeah, but that doesn't mean he relishes is. And yeah, like @JediBatman said, he then bonded with Jyn and saw Galen try to save the scientists, so he realized maybe orders weren't all they were cracked up to be.

 

One thousand likes.

 

Fair enough, although I personally attribute buying it more due to Luna's performance than anything.

 

Rewatching Rogue one recently made me realize how much killing Tivek (the jumpy spy at the beginning at the Ring of Kaferene) upset Cassian. You can already see he's growing unbalanced about what he has to do for the rebellion and then he later thinks it's a bad idea to bring Jyn along to find Galen and I think it's because getting to know the daughter of a father he's bound to have to murder will make it even harder. We see with his natural protectiveness of Jyn in the Jedha skirmishes that his instinct is to protect people and killing is going against his nature.

I do have a question. When Cassian tells Jyn that he had an informant in Saw's circle who has gone missing but his sister will be waiting for him, was he referring to Tivek, the spy he kills in the beginning of the movie? Also whatever happens to this sister? We never see her...

 

I know, right? I'd watch the crap out of that movie.

 

It's still up!

. . .


No it ain't.

 

Yes, that's who he's referring to; not sure about the sister, though.

 

He literally doesn't want to kill him from the moment Draven tells him to. He just goes from "I have to do it anyway" to "What if I don't have to do it anyway?" and then a proton torpedo does it for him.

 

...I mean, not to be morbid or anything, but...

 

I didn't find her flip jarring? She begins to flip when she sees her father's recording, and that's a pretty moving moment in the film. From that point on she begins to have a purpose and understanding of the bigger picture her father sacrificed himself for.

 

Oh, you right. I forgot.

 

yes

 

Looking back I am kind of disappointed in Krennik. I would have liked to have seen someone on par with Tarkin in terms of drive and competence. An actual threat to Tarkin's position. Not some toady loser.

 

That's why I love Krennic. He's a galactic-sized middle manager, an insecure egotist, he's dangerous because he's not Tarkin.

 

I love the character of Krennic, but his role in the movie is undoubtedly a casualty of either poor writing or reshoots, since he's ultimately completely superfluous. If he wasn't in the movie after the opening, it would be essentially no different. His personal history with Jyn's family is nice, but completely underutilised as neither of them shows any sign of caring that the other one exists for most of the film's run-time - Jyn doesn't even say anything about him being on the landing platform of Eadu. That really helps rob their final confrontation of any weight IMO; she hasn't talked about or cared about Krennic for this whole movie!

 

I actually think he did well. Krennic is a suck-up trying to get the Emperor's attention whereas Tarkin already has that role. He's a little man who is too big for his shoes, after all even Mas Amedda thought of him as such. In the end, we know that this pettyness meant little as the Death Star was destroyed and eventually the Empire was defeated. Jyn knew who Krennic was but didn't give a flying toss as she cared more for the father she hadn't seen in thirteen years by that time then the man who ordered the death of her mother.

 

I think something else that might have enhanced the drama is if Krennic goes to Scarif to try and retrieve Galen's message. And him finding and watching the message is what prompts him to go to the vaults and discover the breach. Then he would at least be doing something instead of just getting his ass kicked by Tarkin for the runtime.

 

Yeah. Jyn's fighting something larger than Krennic, so for him to be the Final Boss in any meaningful way doesn't work for the story. She's getting revenge for Lyra and Galen by stealing the plans and ensuring Krennic's work is destroyed, not just by killing Krennic personally. The Rogue One characters exist to serve the larger purpose of the OT; it's not about them.

 

It's kind of a shame, really. Krennic isn't the best villain in Rogue One. However, I think his story and Jyn's works incredibly well when paired with Catalyst. The emphasis on the Galen/Krennic relationship in that book plays into the movie in such a way that R1 ties up. But when evaluated from its own perspective, R1 either under- or over-utilizes Krennic by trying to make him the main foil of Jyn and company.

 

I think Krennic still has the best villain death scene of the entire saga. It's understated, but the look on his face when he sees the Death Star is all you need to know. It's not an over the top villain death like Palpatine screaming down the reactor shaft.

 

And shot in the actual face by your own dang Death Star is an impossibly excellent way to go.

 

I love that moment. My friend turned to me and was like "If they wanted to shoot the base, they missed!" and I'm like, "They shot exactly who they wanted to."

 

Ironically though, that might have actually given Krennic a quicker, less painful death than Jyn and Cassian got (who were incinerated by a slower blast wave)...

 

Sure, but given the two options, Tarkin would shoot Krennic's face off every time.