Tiaan Jerjerrod Tiaan Jerjerrod was a human male who served in the Galactic Empire during the Galactic Civil War . Initially an architect and a starship designer , he was eventually granted the rank of Imperial Moff . Prior to and during the Battle of Endor , he was made commander of the Death Star II partly owing to his previous work on the original Death Star . Tasked with overseeing the space station ' s difficult final stages of assembly , Jerjerrod faced the wrath of both the Sith Lord Darth Vader and Emperor Sheev Palpatine when the massive construction effort fell behind schedule . Despite warnings from Vader that the Emperor would not tolerate any further setbacks , the Emperor paid little attention to Jerjerrod when he visited the Death Star , though he did authorize the commander to operate the station ' s superlaser against the starship s of the Rebel fleet when the Rebel Alliance launched its attack on the Death Star — a battle that culminated in the station ' s destruction and the death of all its occupants , including Jerjerrod . Biography . Early career . A human male from the Core World of Tinnel IV , Tiaan Jerjerrod hailed from a wealthy family . In his youth , he attended an engineering academy until his high grades earned him a job drafting plans for warehouses . Later , his plans for a freight depot on Ord Mantell drew the attention of the Corellian Engineering Corporation , and he was hired as a starship designer . Eventually , his designs for an interstellar trash hauler led him to serve the Galactic Empire . By the sixth year of the Empire ' s reign , Jerjerrod held the rank of Rear Admiral , and was a member of the Joint Chiefs . He helped build the first Death Star , a moon - sized battle station that used kyber crystal s to generate a planet - destroying superlaser . Jerjerrod told himself that such a weapon would provide a defense for the Empire simply by existing , deterring attacks without ever being used . However , the Empire did use the megaweapon , blowing up the planet of Alderaan . Although extremely powerful , the station was finally destroyed when a pilot of the enemy Rebel Alliance fired two proton torpedo es into an unprotected thermal exhaust port . Running behind schedule . Eventually , Tiaan Jerjerrod became one of the twenty Imperial Moff s . Despite the fiasco of the original superweapon , the Emperor ordered the construction of a second Death Star above the Forest Moon of Endor . Moff Jerjerrod was assigned to supervise the difficult endeavor of completing that superweapon , and was given the cover title of Director of Imperial Energy Systems due to the project ' s secrecy . In order to fulfill his difficult mandate , Jerjerrod exhausted himself day after day , slaving over the plans and filing endless paperwork . The Moff notably made sure that all the exhaust ports of the new station were heavily armored , thus fixing the fatal flaw of the original Death Star . However , the architect faced a number of problems , ranging from budget cuts and supply chain breakdowns to the shortage of construction workers . Eventually , the glaring lack of progress on the Death Star prompted Darth Vader , the personal enforcer of Emperor Sheev Palpatine , to travel to the station to rectify the situation . Upon learning that Vader ' s transport had touched down inside one of the Death Star ' s hangar bays , Jerjerrod ventured to the hangar to greet the Emperor ' s emissary as he disembarked from his shuttle . Feeling secure enough in his position , Jerjerrod planned to show Vader his detailed daily reports , hoping that the emissary might take his side and realize the Emperor was asking for the impossible . However , after brushing aside Jerjerrod ' s formal greeting , Vader bluntly informed the commander of the purpose behind his impromptu visit — the Emperor had become displeased with the Death Star ' s slowing construction , and Vader would see to it that the station was completed on schedule . At first , Jerjerrod protested that the task was understaffed and nearly impossible given the circumstances , but when the Sith Lord announced that the Emperor was to personally oversee the station ' s completion , the Moff pledged himself and his crew to a renewed effort , heeding Vader ' s mocking warning that the Emperor would not tolerate failure . Last battle and death . Driven by the fear of the Emperor ' s arrival , the Moff exhausted himself and his workers for several weeks . In spite of his best effort , the Moff was unable to finish the station before his master ' s arrival , and one whole hemisphere was still covered in scaffolding and girders . When Palpatine finally arrived aboard the Death Star with great fanfare , Jerjerrod joined Vader and a group of Imperial officer s to welcome their ruler and his retinue . The Moff had hoped that he would be rewarded for his hard work . However , despite Vader ' s earlier warnings , the Emperor ignored Jerjerrod and the other officers as he conversed with Vader about their grand plan to deal with the Rebel Alliance , with which the Empire had been at war for some time , and Luke Skywalker , a young Rebel commander who happened to be Vader ' s son . Jerjerrod realized that not having displeased his master was enough of a reward . In the Emperor ' s Throne Room on a spire high above the surface of the Death Star , the Emperor tasked Vader with setting the trap for the Rebel fleet at Endor , all while Jerjerrod stood by silently . The Rebel Alliance unknowingly took the Emperor ' s bait , launching a two - pronged , all - out assault on the Death Star ' s construction site at Endor , in which a strike team infiltrated onto the forest moon ' s surface would disable the deflector shield protecting the space station while Rebel starfighter s , supported by the capital ship s of the Alliance fleet , would fly into the Death Star ' s superstructure and take out its reactor , thereby destroying the weapon before it could be completed . Palpatine had prepared for this , however , and once the Rebel fleet arrived and found itself trapped between the Imperial Navy and a shielded Death Star , he contacted Jerjerrod in the station ' s command center and authorized him to target and destroy the Rebel starship s with the Death Star ' s superlaser . Under his command , the Death Star atomized a number of Rebel cruiser s as the battle progressed . Nevertheless , despite the odds , the Alliance soon gained the upper hand , and the battle concluded with the Emperor ' s death and the destruction of the Death Star with all hands lost , Jerjerrod included . Legacy . While Tiaan Jerjerrod perished over Endor , other members of his family would join the First Order , the Imperial successor regime to the fallen Galactic Empire . One member of his family , Jo Jerjerrod , the son of First Order officer s Jax Jerjerrod and Jul Jerjerrod , defected from the First Order and joined the Resistance . Personality and traits . Unlike most officers , Jerjerrod showed petty spitefulness and a lack of ambition as he rose through the Imperial ranks — qualities which were considered admirable for a Moff . A technocrat with a chilly personality , Jerjerrod served as the commander of the second Death Star as it neared completion , a position of which he was proud , yet one he found concerning given the complicated nature of the station ' s construction . Though he claimed the men under his supervision were working as fast as possible to complete the station , the threat of personally facing the Emperor ' s displeasure at the lagging construction effort — a threat which made him visibly nervous — compelled him to reevaluate the speed with which the work was proceeding . When in the Emperor ' s presence , Jerjerrod was respectful , kneeling upon greeting him and bowing before departing . Behind the scenes . Tiaan Jerjerrod was portrayed by Michael Pennington in . Late English actor originally auditioned for Jerjerrod ' s role , whom he wanted to play with a " Big , slow , low voice " , but at the end , Pennington was cast instead of Rickman . He is never identified by name in the movie and only addressed as " Commander , " though both his name and proper rank are provided in the film ' s closing credits . Jerjerrod serves as a minor antagonist with relatively little screen time or dialogue in the finished film , though in earlier drafts his role was substantially larger , owing to the fact that he functioned as the Emperor ' s " secret agent , " operating behind Vader ' s back to further the Emperor ' s plans . In these versions of the script , Vader kills Jerjerrod for his subterfuge . The Moff is also featured in a number of scenes filmed for " Return of the Jedi " that were ultimately cut from the finished product ; some of these , comprising a subplot in which Jerjerrod is ordered by the Emperor to destroy Endor once the battle turns against the Empire ' s favor ( scenes retained in the ) , were included in the " " Blu - ray set . In earlier versions of the film ' s script , Jerjerrod was written as a Grand Moff instead of just a Moff , also being Emperor Palpatine ' s personal representative , reason for which the two were planning to turn Luke Skywalker to the dark side of the Force and then betray Darth Vader . Following his discovery about this scheem , Vader was going to break out Jerjerrod ' s neck . Jerjerrod ' s role , however , was greatly reduced in the finished version of the film , in which he barely has some connection to Palpatine . Before the Lucasfilm Story Group initiated a reboot of " Star Wars " canon in anticipation of the sequel trilogy , Jerjerrod ' s backstory had been explored and developed in a number of sources , one of which gave him the first name " Tiaan " . The vast majority of this information has been relegated to the " Star Wars Legends " realm of " Star Wars " continuity ; as such , this article reflects only information found within the new established canon , which includes the films and the StarWars . com Encyclopedia . However , his first name of Tiaan was brought back into canon with the publication of " Ultimate Star Wars " , a sourcebook published by Dorling Kindersley in 2015 . For the Special Edition of , archival footage of Darth Vader ' s arrival aboard the Death Star at the beginning of " Return of the Jedi " was recycled to depict Vader returning to the " Executor " following his duel with Luke Skywalker on Cloud City . While the scene itself is presented from a different angle than the source scene in " Return of the Jedi " , Michael Pennington is still visible in the shot .