Death Star Conference #1
Blue Milk Special in other languages…
Admiral Motti or General Motti? Also, why does Motti say “your star fleet” to General Taggi… a general? Why are Taggi and Motti spelled Tagge and Motte in the books? Why do I even care?
–EDIT–
Just so I can clear myself of coming across like some sort of dumbass by being caught out by fans willing to point out the name spelling differences between film, book and other media, we erred on the side of the Original Trilogy which credited “Motti” and “Taggi”, not Motte and Tagge. Why do we trust the film over the books and later material? Well duh! Because they are the films. When it comes to trivialities like this film should always be the canon which spin off media should be reconciled against. But then, that’s just my opinion I guess. 😉
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Oh, just have a look at the Tagge *family* in the Expanded Universe. Initially either Ulric Tagge or Orman Tagge (first appearing in 1979 comic-books) were intended to be General Sideburns Tagge here, but Sideburns eventually got a name in a 2004 RPG book…
‘Cause you’re a Star Wars analytical geek!
That doesn’t bother me so much, actually. Being in the military, Admiral and General are comparative ranks in the different services, so it could be they’re called different things in different scenarios (i.e. General on the ground, Admiral in space). Also, Commander doesn’t have to be an O-5, it can also just mean the commander of a ship or aircraft, regardless of rank.
FOURTH WALL SMASHING!!!
Couple things — It’s Motti in the EU. Tagge was the only one to get a spelling change. I seem to remember something about the people doing the end credits doing a sloppy job and no one bothered to correct it.
Also, from everything in the films, “Commander” is not the naval rank, but a force commander position — equivalent to anything from Colonel to about Brigadier General, depending on context. It’s the highest rank a CLone/Stormtrooper can hold, and they are subordinate to the commanding Generals (like Veers). I conjecture that Tagge is the Death Star’s Stormtrooper Garrison Commander or the Commander of the onboard Starfighter Wing — traditionally part of the Imperial Starfleet, and that by addressing him by his position rather than his rank, Motti was reinforcing Tagge’s subordinacy to him and insulting him by not addressing him correctly.
Elsewhere in the EU, Tagge is referred to as having been opposed to the Death Star project, and much more in favor of fleet buildup as a way to counter the Rebellion, which would also be what Mottie means when he refers to “YOUR Starfleet”.
/geek hat off
I think George just likes the idea of higher ranks being called “Generals.” They’re all over, and people get instantly promoted to General often.