77
The middle-management
dreams of Orson Krennic
Rogue One: A Star Wars Story
Writers: Chris Weitz and Tony Gilroy
Director: Gareth Edwards
No matter what your vocation is, no matter what career path you’re on, you want to succeed. You want to know that your work is being appreciated and the credit you deserve is coming your way. Promotions? Sure. Accolades? Definitely. Yet at the end of the day, we all just want one thing: respect from those we work with and for. Which is why the ballad of Director Orson Krennic in Rogue One might ring true for many. (Slightly odd because, you know, he’s not the nicest guy around.) Krennic’s single minded quest to rise in the ranks of Imperial middle management is relatable, but the lesson waiting at the end of his journey is a strong statement about being consumed by your own obsessions.
Orson Krennic was a top engineering student during the final years of the Old Republic and all he wanted were simple things like recognition, power, and prestige. Before the end of the Clone Wars, Krennic became aware and later involved in the massive project that was the construction of the first DS-1 Orbital Battle Station a.k.a. The Death Star. It became his life’s work. The Clone Wars ended, and the Galactic Empire was born. Krennic slid on into those new uniforms (added an amazing cape) and began the long quest to complete this “technological terror.” From early on, we learn two things about Orson Krennic: He wants a better place in the power structure of the Empire and, even then, he’ll want more. Yet, at every step, Krennic is met with opposition and subterfuge. Not from those dastardly Rebels, though. No, his greatest enemies are his bosses.
Oh, yeah, Krennic’s tale is one of office politics on a grand scale.
There is a key peek into the mind of Krennic during the events of Rogue One. One that speaks of what is to come and serves as insight into how far he has compromised his own humanity in his quest for power. When Governor Tarkin calls for a demonstration of Krennic’s prized Death Star, he targets the historic Jedha City. A peaceful city that was a mecca for the spiritually enlightened and those seeking solace and comfort. Miles away from the center of the city, Jyn Erso cries before a holorecording of her father and extremist rebel Saw Gerrera hears and feels a rumbling in the far-off distance. For the first time in history, the Death Star has fired on a target. Jedha City is being wiped out of existence.
In the Rogue One novel by Alexander Freed, we experience the destruction from the city itself as citizens and left-behind stormtroopers alike are wiped from existence in a flash. In the movie, we—perhaps fortunately—watch from ground level as the destruction works its way from Jedha City out into the desert where Saw’s Partisans have been hiding. It’s a horrible wave of earth, wind, and fire. A world is being torn apart. As we witness the panicked last moments for many, many lives, we suddenly switch perspectives.
High above, from the command center of the Death Star, Orson Krennic watches the destruction that his machine hath wrought. Far removed from the voices of those dying, Krennic stoically takes it all in as the explosion and ensuing shock waves roll over the surface of Jedha. From here, it is a macabre art piece, the center of the blast point reaching up to the heavens like a blood orange flower in full bloom. Clouds billow outward, framing the deadly center. Shockwaves fan out in a perfect circle, almost reflecting the very Death Star itself in its own destruction. Krennic is short of breath. He inhales and musters up one thought as he watches the absolute annihilation of a city, a people, a culture, and eventually a planet.
“Oh. It’s beautiful.”
That is followed by a subtle nod. A quiet, personal affirmation that his project does, in fact, work as he believed it would when everyone else doubted. His sick joy is clear, and his thoughts are confirmed moments later when Governor Tarkin, the only Grand Moff in the Emperor’s service, praises Krennic’s work…and then promptly takes it from him. Krennic breaks for good at that point.
The rest of Rogue One finds Krennic slowly losing his mind over having his aspirations taken from him on many levels. Things start going from bad to worse for him. Rebels strike the research center of Eadu. His top scientist and possible information leak Galen Erso is killed. While arriving on Scarif in a simmering panic to plug security breaches, the Rebels attack in an effort to steal the dataplans and technical readouts for the Death Star itself. His moment of triumph has become Orson Krennic’s Very Bad No Good Day.
All this leads to the mad pursuit of Jyn Erso and Cassian Andor as they complete the Rebellion’s Hail Mary pass to get the Death Star plans into the hands of the Rebel Alliance. Krennic himself faces down our hero Jyn, daughter of the man who was playing him all along. He is so focused on her. So focused on her exposing that his beloved Death Star is now a ticking time bomb that will cripple the Empire. So focused that his lifelong obsession has been undercutting him all along that he falls prey to a blaster shot from the injured Cassian Andor. Cassian and Jyn leave, their mission complete.
Orson Kallan Krennic, the director of advanced weapons research, didn’t begin his career wanting to build a weapon that could wipe out entire planets in the blink of an eye. He was an architect, a future leader, and a bright mind. But along the way, he allowed himself to be consumed with his aspirations, the pursuit of prestige, and the never-ending thirst for power. It all led to his final moments. Coming to a lonely platform, high atop the Citadel Vault on Scarif, he looked up at Death Star as it blocked out the sun and took aim on the planet. Grand Moff Tarkin himself gave the order to fire and, in a well-engineered flash, just as he always intended, Orson Krennic was wiped from existence. Destroyed by the embodiment of his own obsession.
A lesson in office politics indeed.