Conan Antonio Motti

Conan Antonio "Zi" Motti was an Imperial officer who served aboard the Death Star as the head of Naval operations during the Galactic Civil War. Born into a powerful and wealthy family on Seswenna, he entered Imperial service, rising rapidly through the ranks of the Imperial Navy. It was not long before he advanced past Captain Jaim Helaw, who he had served under early in his career. By 0 BBY, he had been promoted to the rank of admiral, and was working aboard the Empire's massive battle station, the Death Star. Only Grand Moff Wilhuff Tarkin outranked Motti on the battlestation, although General Cassio Tagge—his counterpart in the Imperial Army—was his equal.

Motti was extremely confident in his viewpoint that the Death Star was invulnerable, believing that the Rebel Alliance posed no threat to the station. He was even bold and arrogant enough to openly question Dark Lord of the Sith Darth Vader for his failure to discover the location of the Rebellion's secret base during one meeting in the Death Star conference room. For this, Vader Force-choked him, which greatly frightened Motti, who realized that Vader could have easily killed him had Tarkin not ordered the Dark Lord to relent. Nonetheless, Motti remained overly confident in himself and the Death Star. Despite Motti's unshakable credence in the Death Star, the Rebel Alliance—which had obtained a copy of the Death Star blueprints—managed to find a weak spot in the station's defenses, and succeeded in destroying it during the Battle of Yavin, killing Motti.

Text and facts from the “Conan Antonio Motti/Legends” article on Wookieepedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0. Modified for this site.