It seems that in some deleted scenes and even the scenes that were shown the Emperor had given the signal or was preparing to use the Death Star against Endor. Was it like the Emperor wanted the Death Star to move away from the planet and blast the rebels and Ewoks to smithereens.
Likely he just wanted to demoralize the Alliance However, it seems a bit illogical. I'm not entirely sure, but did the deleted scenes not show him formulating the idea to destroy the planet BEFORE the shield generator was itself destroyed?
Seagoat I think the deleted scenes provide no real hints at what point in time the order would have been given which irritates me enormously. (IMHO, the throne room footage rather looks like having been mixed in there at random) The order to destroy the forest moon of Endor would have only made sense once the shield generator had been destroyed, but with the fighters flying into the superstructure rightaway that would have required more time (Luke and Vader fighting it out, Emperor being killed, Luke dragging his father to the nearest shuttle etc.). IIRC, the ROJ novelization by James Khan portrayed Jerjerrod as the guy who wanted to destroy Endor, not the Emperor.
It's both - Jerjerrod has been given an "If the shield generator is destroyed, destroy Forest Moon" contingency order (which he initially questions) - but, once the Emperor's dead, he's downright vengeful, and eager to carry out that order. The Emperor hissed. "Your fleet is lost — and your friends on the Endor Moon will not survive..." He pushed a comlink button on the arm of his throne and spoke into it with relish. "Commander Jerjerrod, should the Rebels manage to blow up the shield generator, you will turn this battle station onto the Endor Moon and destroy it." "Yes, Your Highness," came the voice over the receiver, "but we have several battalions stationed on—" "You will destroy it!" The Emperor's whisper was more final than any scream. "Yes, Your Highness." Commander Jerjerrod sat, brooding, in the control room of the Death Star, watching all about him crumble. Half of his crew were dead, wounded, or run off - where they hoped to find sanctuary was unclear, if not insane. The rest wandered ineffectually, or railed at the enemy ships, or fired their guns at all sectors, or shouted orders, or focussed desperately on a single task, as if that would save them. Or, like Jerjerrod, simply brooded. He couldn't fathom what he'd done wrong. He'd been patient, he'd been loyal, he'd been clever. he'd been hard. He was the commander of the greatest battle station ever built. Or, at least, almost built. He hated this Rebel Alliance now, with a child's hate, untempered. He'd loved it once - it had been the small boy he could bully, the enraged baby animal he could torture. But the boy had grown up now; it knew how to fight back effectively. It had broken its bonds. Jerjerrod hated it now. Yet there seemed to be little he could do at this point. Except, of course, destroy Endor - he could do that. It was a small act, a token really - to incinerate something green and living, gratuitously, meanly, toward no end but that of wanton destruction. A small act, but deliciously satisfying. An aide ran up to him. "The Rebel fleet is closing, sir." "Concentrate all fire in that sector." he answered distractedly. A console on the far wall burst into flame. "The fighters in the superstructure are eluding our defense system, Commander. Shouldn't we-" "Flood sectors 304 and 138. That should slow them up." He arched his eyebrows at his aide. This made little sense to the aide, who had cause to wonder at the commander's grasp of the situation. "But sir ..." "What is the rotation factor to firing range on the Endor Moon?" The aide checked the compuscreen. "Point oh two to moon target, sir. Commander, the fleet-" "Accelerate rotation until moon is in range, and then fire on my mark." "Yes sir." The aide pulled a bank of switches. "Rotation accelerating. Point oh one to moon target. Sixty seconds to firing range. Sir, good-bye, sir." The aide saluted, put the firing switch in Jerjerrod's hand as another explosion shook the control room, and ran out of the door. Jerjerrod smiled calmly at the view-screen. Endor was starting to come out of the Death Star's eclipse. He fondled the detonation switch in his hand. Point oh oh five to moon target. Screams erupted in the next room. Thirty seconds to firing.
Iron_lord Thanks for the clarification. I think it provides an insightful idea how the novelization was written. Apparently, Khan had the screenplay but didn't really have the visual footage how Jerjerrod reacted (i.e. he did not want to destroy the moon because of his concerns for his fellow officers). The aide saluted, put the firing switch in Jerjerrod's hand as another explosion shook the control room, and ran out of the door. This is rather obviously an artistic liberty Khan took. The firing mechanism was operated from that control tower and the controller made no attempts whatsoever to abandon his post. On the contrary the deleted footage rather suggested that everything was calm in the command center, one could say almost too calm. In contrast we have several Imperials running around (abandoning posts) in the hangar with the Emperor's shuttle Luke is about to use. Suffice to say that the novelization gave me a rather bad impression of Jerjerrod until I saw these deleted scenes.
Well, I don't think Kahn knew if footage from ANH was going to be recycled or not. So he probably went with the idea that there would be new footage and that's where the liberty was taken.
darth-sinister Good observation (ANH), but I was referring to the newly shot hangar stuff with Imperials running around "behind" Luke on the ROJ set, much like previously the citizens of Bespin (carrying stuff): http://starwarsscreencaps.com/star-wars-episode-vi-return-of-the-jedi-1983/79/
Destroying Endor was going to be a mission of self-sacrifice. If the rebels managed to destroy the Death Star and take out the Emperor, Palpatine hoped to demoralize the rebellion by eliminating their friends on the surface and probably hoping the blast from the explosion would wipe out any remnant of the rebel fleet nearby so they couldn't claim any sort of victory in the wake of his destruction. It's basically Palpatine saying if I can't have control over the galaxy, the rebellion sure isn't going after I'm gone either. He wants to make sure any ability of the rebellion to continue on after the battle is wiped out if he is.
It's the same thinking of Hitler willing to firebomb Paris before the Allies retook it in 1944 or sacrifice Berlin to the Soviets as a last stand.
And unlike in Paris the German general refused to fire proving the Empire in Star Wars was as bad as Hitler's Reich or worse.
This clip makes me think that the Emperor intended to destroy Endor simply as a bluff to intimidate Luke into turning to the dark side.
