Motti, Admiral Conan Antonio

• Appeared in:
  
  I
  II
  III
  IV
  V
  VI
  CW

• Species:
  Human

• Gender:
  Male

• Size:
  1.7 meters

• Weapon:
  Blaster pistol

• Vehicle:
  Death Star

• Affiliation:
  Empire

• 

From the Movies

Admiral Conan Antonio Motti was the senior Imperial commander in charge of operations aboard the original Death Star. The arrogant officer believed in the ultimate superiority of the battle station over any possible foe that would dare challenge it.

Motti was a true adherent to the philosophy of technological might. He found the methods of Darth Vader archaic and laughable. When Vader failed to produce the location of the main Rebel headquarters, Motti openly scoffed at Vader's devotion to the Force. The Dark Lord of the Sith quickly educated Motti as to the Force's true power by inflicting a telekinetic stranglehold on the admiral. At the behest of Grand Moff Tarkin, Vader released Motti, and it was a lesson that the admiral wasn't soon to forget.

It's likely that lesson was still on Motti's mind as he perished a short time later when the Rebel Alliance destroyed the Death Star.

From the Expanded Universe

Motti, like many officers of his era, was vastly overrated, having padded his career with routine missions labeled military successes. It was his connections that landed him a prestigious appointment to the Death Star project. Motti, together with Grand Moff Tarkin and General Tagge, formed the command triumvirate for the battle station.

Though Motti's record is one of exemplary devotion to the New Order, his unbridled ambition extended even to fantasies of usurping the Emperor's throne. He saw the Death Star as but one step in an eventual bid for absolute power. In quiet moments aboard the station, Motti would casually drop hints to Tarkin that they now possessed greater power than even the distant Palpatine. Tarkin took note of Motti's insinuations, but never challenged his treasonous notions. Had the Rebels not destroyed the Death Star when they did, it's possible that the power structure of the Empire could have vastly changed with Tarkin and Motti in command.

Behind the Scenes

Early draft scripts of Star Wars shuffled the names of Motti and Tagge. The revised fourth draft screenplay introduces Motti as "wounded." Motti is curiously absent from the novelization of the film's conference room scene, and it's Tagge who's the victim of Vader's telekinetic stranglehold. In that scene, there's a battle scarred officer named Romodi. Later in the novel, though, Motti would appear.