Skip to main content

star wars - Was Admiral Ozzel a Rebel agent or just incompetent?


I was re-watching The Empire Strikes back this afternoon and there is the scene where Ozzel and Piett are arguing over the data sent by the Hoth probe droid. Ozzel is insistent that this isn't Rebel activity. He then continues to argue it with Darth Vader when the Sith lord joins the conversation. Finally, after losing the argument, he then makes the most incompetent approach to Hoth, providing the Rebels with enough warning to allow most of them to escape the planet.


From a logic standpoint, it seems unlikely that someone who was that completely incompetent and that poor a strategist could have risen to the rank of Admiral. It seems to me that a reasonable alternate theory is that Admiral Ozzel is actually a Rebel agent (or sympathizer) who competently made his way to the rank of Admiral, then used that position to try and divert Imperial forces away from Rebel bases. And that, failing that, he risked death (and received it) to try and save as many Rebels as possible.



I know nothing in the movies supports this, but is there anything in either other canon or Legends that would support such a theory?



Answer



Various canon source (such as Ultimate Star Wars indicates that he's simply incompetent at his job. There's no suggestion whatsoever that he was in league with the Rebellion.



Admiral Kendal Ozzel commands Darth Vader's flagship, the Executor. Ozzel displays poor judgement; first doubting evidence of life on Hoth, and then failing in a bid to surprise the rebels there.


Ultimate Star Wars - Admiral Ozzel



and from the canon junior novelisation, we have Ozzel's internal thought process. He feels that Piett is simply being over-enthusiastic about a very small find.



“I think we’ve got something,” Captain Piett is saying. “The report is only a fragment from a probe droid in the Hoth system, but it’s the best lead we’ve had.”

Admiral Ozzel shrugs off his captain. Piett is entirely too enthusiastic, in Ozzel’s opinion. As if every sentence he utters might prove sufficient for a promotion. “We have thousands of probe droids searching the galaxy, Captain…”
“The visuals indicate life-readings, sir. And the Hoth system is supposed to be devoid of human forms.” Admiral Ozzel represses the urge to roll his eyes. These young, ambitious captains tire him so. “If we followed up every little lead a probe sent back—”


Star Wars - The Empire Strikes Back: So you want to be a Jedi?




This assertion (that he's incompetent rather than devious) is backed up by the Official Star Wars trading card for Ozzel which offers some additional backstory about his earlier military career, persistently failing upwards due to his wealth and family connections.



Born into a wealthy Caridan family, Kendal Ozzel graduates from Core World institutes as a Captain of the Line but is relegated to teaching positions because superiors doubt his ability to function as an effective field commander. Even so, he continues to serve the reorganized Galactic Empire, eventually assigned to Darth Vader's Star Destroyer, the Executor.



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

harry potter - Do the Kwikspell courses work?

In Harry Potter we are introduced to Kwikspell course in The Chamber of Secrets (and never hear about it again). We see Filch taking courses, presumably by mail. The descriptions of Kwikspell make me think it is for people who are weak in magic (kind of like how Neville was supposed to be when he was younger), but had magic in them nonetheless. However, Ron's comments later in the chapter make it sound like it is mainly for Squibs to learn magic. However, it is strongly implied through out all the books that Squibs are essentially Muggles, and will never be able to do magic. How then is a Kwikspell course supposed to work? Do we have any information to know if it works at all? Is it a scam? An answer from any level of canon is welcome. Answer Kwikspell courses are (probably) useful to some wizards, but not to squibs. The Kwikspell course literature comes with two testimonials. Madam Z. Nettles of Topsham writes: ‘I had no memory for incantations and my potions were a family joke...
Post a Comment
Read more

futurama - How much time is lost in 'Time Keeps on Slippin''

In time Keeps on Slippin' , Farnsworth creates a basketball team which he matures by abusing Chronitons. This leads to time skipping forward by random, but ever increasing amounts. How much time was skipped in this way? Answer Unfortunately, I don't think a good estimate can be made for this, for two reasons: Many of the time skips move forward by an indeterminate amount of time. At one point, the Professor mentions localized regions of space skipping forward much more than others. We then see two young boys on the street below complaining about having to pay social security, only to suddenly become senior citizens and start complaining about wanting their money. Thus, each individual could have experienced a different amount of time skippage.
Post a Comment
Read more

star wars - What "exactly" happens when someone turns to the Dark Side?

When I saw the original Star Wars saga as a kid, the concept of the Dark Side imprinted in me was quite simple. You did a bad thing, so you're a bad person so you go to the Dark Side and keep doing bad things. Now, obviously this doesn't hold true in reality. In my mind it is perfectly reasonable for Luke to kill the Emperor and Vader and then just flee the Death Star and rejoin the Alliance. After all they are at war, those are enemy officers that have captured him and are taunting him by threatening with death of all loved ones and the whole operation was intended to kill the Emperor anyway. The same would hold true for Anakin. He could have killed Mace Windu to save the Chancellor and Padme but that doesn't mean he's going to then go mad and kill all Jedis including children. It doesn't add up from a merely psychological point of view. He had a set of objectives and that made him want to keep the Chancellor alive (quite valid by the way, Mace Windu is quite clums...
Post a Comment
Read more

languages - Do we ever see written English in the Star Wars films?

In Empire Strikes Back , we see a transcription of what R2's beeps and bloops mean, but it's not English (sorry for the low quality, it's from the 2004 DVDs): I'd assume it's what Basic looks like when written, but is there some point in the the Star Wars films we see written English instead? (This sort of spun off from a discussion in How do people understand astromech droids? .) Answer At one point there was English but it has been phased out in subsequent versions of the films. Chris Gould at DVD Active did a comparison of all versions of each of the Star Wars films, and in his comparison of Episode 4 , there are a couple of screenshots showing how the power gauge for the Death Star tractor beam was changed. I imagine there are probably more to be found in his other comparisons but I haven't got around to reading those yet.
Post a Comment
Read more