| “ | Oh, it's beautiful. | „ |
| ~ Orson Krennic after watching the first test of the Death Star on Jedha City, resulting in its complete destruction. |
| “ | Are we BLIND? DEPLOY THE GARRISON! MOVE! | „ |
| ~ Orson Krennic's most famous quote. |
| “ | Kalkite! Synthetic kalkite! Kalkite alternatives! KALKITE SUBSTITUTES! I mean, the amount of time spent pondering this grubby little bit of rock is sadly astonishing. | „ |
| ~ Orson Krennic rambling about the kalkite needed for the Death Star. |
| “ | How does one balance such passionate competency with the mindless decision to confront Luthen Rael ON YOUR OWN?! | „ |
| ~ Orson Krennic chastising Dedra Meero for fumbling the arrest of Luthen Rael. |
Director Orson Callan Krennic is a major antagonist in the Star Wars franchise, serving as the main antagonist of Rogue One and Season 2 of Andor and one of the overarching antagonists of the original trilogy.
He was a high ranking official of the Galactic Empire, who worked with Galen Erso during the construction of the Death Star I. Due to how he resorts to extreme measures of destructive warfare in maintaining his chain of command, Krennic is one of the biggest legitimate negative points on the Empire's track record and reputation among the citizens of the galaxy. He is the archenemy of the Rogue One squad (especially Galen's daughter Jyn Erso and Cassian Andor) and Grand Moff Tarkin's arch-rival.
He was portrayed by Ben Mendelsohn.
What Makes Him Pure Evil?[]
In General/Background[]
- Despite being friends with Galen before, he clearly no longer has any care for him as he got his wife killed as well as tried to capture Jyn only to make him work on the Death Star by force.
- Despite the heinous standards of the Star Wars franchise, he has low resources and stands out mainly for being the creator of the Death Star, making him responsible of events like the destruction of Alderaan and the Battle of Yavin. Palpatine also was inspired by Krennic to create the Death Star II, making Krennic indirectly responsible for the events of Return of the Jedi.
- While he does have some comedic moments, such as his constant bickering with Tarkin, flamboyant mannerisms, yelling at his Imperials, and a memed scene where he rambled about kalkite, they do not detract from his villainy and the characters take him seriously.
- Despite being dead by the time of A New Hope, he still played an indirect role in the destruction of Alderaan due to being the creator of the Death Star.
- During the Clone Wars, he massacred civilians and noncombatants who were affiliated with the Separatists:
- He traveled to the planet Merj, where he and some other smugglers captured two Separatist scientists, then arranged for the two scientists to be received by the Separatists in exchange for Galen, Lyra, and Jyn Erso (while disguised as a Zerpen Industries employee).
- He tried to sway Galen by showing him the destruction on his homeworld, Grange, hoping to frame the Republic as the more noble side.
- He orchestrated a war on Malpaz, incriminating the planet for opposing the Galactic Empire due to its supposed terrorist attack on the Project Celestial Power facility, which claimed the lives of ten thousand people.
- In actuality, it happened due to experiments ordered by Krennic to test the energy output of the Death Star.
- He was behind the creation of the Death Star.
- He also invoked the work of Poggle the Lesser and his hive on the Droid Army and the Death Star plans, and Poggle agreed pragmatically to aid in building the battle station because the Geonosian hives would revert to their native barbaric infighting without their archduke or major construction plans.
- He blew up a facility full of engineers who wanted to back out of the Death Star project.
- He tracks down Galen and tries to use his wife Lyra and his daughter Jyn as hostages to force him to return to the project.
- When Lyra turns up and aims a blaster at him, Krennic at first tries to talk her down, but when she stands up to him, Krennic orders his guards to open fire and the Death Troopers kill Lyra. He then sends troops to capture Jyn and has Galen's house burned down.
Andor[]
- He orders Imperial officers to take firm control of the planet Ghorman in order to mine their natural resource, kalkite, and to silence any resistance. It is said that mining the kalkite would render the planet's core unstable and kill 800,000 people, but he views this as an acceptable risk.
- He instructs Imperial officials to enact a dehumanizing smear campaign against the Ghormans so that public opinion of them will become bad enough for the Empire to justify removing the population from the planet. This eventually escalates into a complete genocide of the Ghorman people known as the Ghorman Massacre, which results in the formal founding of the Rebel Alliance.
- Though he admits that relocating the Ghormans would be preferable to killing them, it is heavily implied that he is lying and intends to have them wiped out either way, since he claimed earlier that their deaths were an acceptable risk.
- He has Dedra Meero imprisoned in an Imperial labor prison, similar to the one on Narkina 5, for the rest of her days because she discovered intel directly connected to the Death Star, which leaked to the Rebellion.
- He goes out of his way to make Dedra uncomfortable during her interrogation, slamming his finger onto her head and grabbing her by the face.
- According to Dedra, he had a rebel prisoner tortured to death while trying to get information about Luthen Rael.
Rogue One: A Star Wars Story[]
- He tests the Death Star on the civilian city of Jedha, obliterating it and destroying the Rebel Saw Gerrera and his Partisan cell, and calls the destruction "beautiful."
- He also wanted to destroy the entire moon at first, but even Tarkin felt that was too much and ordered him to scale down.
- Informed that one of the scientists is a traitor, he orders their immediate execution upon nobody coming forward.
- Although Galen admitted he was the traitor and not any of his scientists, Krennic regardless orders all of Galen's scientists to be killed and slaps Galen, knocking him to the ground, then psychologically tortures him by gloating about Jedha City's destruction.
- He shoots Cassian Andor during the battle on Scarif while he was trying to transmit the Death Star plans, nearly killing him.
- He holds Jyn Erso at gunpoint as she's about to transmit the Death Star plans, gloating that she's too late to stop him, before trying to kill her.
- His death is portrayed for satisfaction as he was killed by the thing that he created and planned to use to hurt countless people.
Trivia[]
- Catalyst: A Rogue One Novel includes additional backstory for Krennic, which reveals his heinous actions during and after the Clone Wars before the events of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, thus giving Krennic the necessary traits to qualify as Pure Evil. While one could argue that Krennic isn't as bad as Grand Moff Tarkin due to the chain of command and Krennic's apparent lack of resources in comparison to the vile Grand Moff in the movie, the novel demonstrates that Krennic wasn't too different than Tarkin and would have done anything like him to further his own career.
- In the Rogue One novelization it's hinted that Krennic had some remorse for Lyra's death, as he notes he would have preferred not to kill her out of "cordiality" to Galen. However this isn't canonical since Lyra dies differently in the novel (as she shoots Krennic first and is then killed by his troopers in retaliation, while in the film Krennic orders her gunned down himself). Also even if he was conflicted at first he later mocks her death when he confronts Galen on Eadu so it's clear he no longer feels bad about it.
- Krennic is the only Star Wars Pure Evil to appear in the movies that wasn't from the Skywalker Saga.
External Links[]
- Orson Krennic on the Villains Wiki
- Orson Krennic on the Star Wars Wiki
- Orson Krennic on the Entertainingly Detestable Wiki
- Orson Krennic on the Wikipedia
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