High General Tagge
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Star Wars character | |
| High General The Hon. Cassio Tagge | |
|---|---|
 General Tagge tries to explain the danger the Rebels pose against the station with the plans at their disposal. |
|
| Position | High General, Commander of Death Star Imperial Army Forces |
| Homeworld | Tepasi |
| Species | Human |
| Gender | Male |
| Height | 5 feet 10 inches |
| Affiliation | Galactic Empire/Imperial Army |
| Portrayed by | Don Henderson |
High General Cassio Tagge is a character in the Star Wars universe who appears in Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, portrayed by Don Henderson.
In the film, High General Tagge is commander of all Army forces stationed aboard the Death Star. He is referred to in dialogue as "Commander", but this is most likely a positional title (i.e. Commander of Ground Forces) since post-production publications have indicated Tagge's rank as High General.
Tagge makes an appearance in the Death Star conference room early in Episode IV, sternly protesting that the Rebel Alliance is an underestimated foe that should be taken more seriously by the Imperial Navy. His objections are generally dismissed and the Death Star is later destroyed by the very same rebels to whom Tagge had warned could be a considerable danger.
[edit] Expanded Universe
In 1979, the character Ulric Tagge appeared aboard an "Imperial battle cruiser" after the destruction of the Death Star in Marvel Comics's "Return to Tatooine!" (Star Wars Vol. 1, No. 31). Although General Ulric Tagge never mentioned having been aboard the Death Star and bore little resemblance to the General Tagge seen in the film, they were assumed to be the same person (the 1978 Star Wars Holiday Special revealed that at least one other Imperial officer, Chief Bast, had escaped the Death Star before its destruction, and it was more or less conjectured that Tagge and Bast had escaped together; more recently, in 2002, it was shown in LucasArts' Force Commander that Colonel Maximillian Veers had also escaped from the Death Star). In 1998, the Star Wars Encyclopedia stated that General Tagge had been killed when the Death Star was destroyed, drawing the identity of Ulric Tagge into question. The question was finally settled by Wizards of the Coast's 2004 Geonosis and the Outer Rim Worlds, which stated that Ulric was the youngest of the Tagge brothers, and that his brother Cassio Tagge was "a cautious, plodding strategist" who "died aboard the Death Star."
High General Cassio Tagge was the middle child in a family of six: elder siblings Baron Orman Tagge, and Dr. Silas Tagge, and younger siblings Major General Ulric Tagge and Sister Domina Tagge, of the Order of the Sacred Circle. They were members of the baronial House of Tagge, a distinguished and ancient noble house descended from one of the Founders of the Republic, and which held majority ownership of the Tagge Company (TaggeCo.), an enormous conglomerate with interests in nearly every aspect of the galactic economy. He was also the first of his siblings to die, soon followed by Orman and Silas (who was technically not dead but rather locked in suspended animation), leaving Ulric to inherit the title and control of the family interests.
In the credits of the film, Tagge is credited as "Commander Taggi," a spelling that is occasionally seen in some versions of the script and early materials in the Expanded Universe. This spelling (and title) has been almost entirely superseded, but gave rise to the mistaken belief that he was mentioned in Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith (Palpatine gives orders that a certain Captain Kagi should ready his ship, and the name Kagi was misheard as Taggi; the subtitles on the DVD of the film definitively settle the matter in favour of Kagi, an otherwise unknown character who is one of only five Imperial officers referred to by name on screen).
Early screenplays of A New Hope swapped the names of Tagge and Admiral Motti with little rhyme or reason, leading to notable confusion. In the novelization of the film's conference room scene, Motti is nowhere to be found so Tagge not only gets Motti's dialogue, but also gets choked by Darth Vader with the Force. The Marvel Comics adaptation of the film is even less clear, since Tagge in that version looks like Richard LeParmentier, who played Motti, and not Henderson, who played Tagge.
