Pride of Tarlandia/Legends
- "She's hurt bad on the left of the tower. Concentrate on that side."
- ―Wedge Antillies on the Pride of Tarlandia during the Battle of Endor
The Pride of Tarlandia was a battlecruiser that served as a communication and coordination unit in Imperial fleet operations.
Characteristics
The Pride of Tarlandia was of a different design than the Imperial-class Star Destroyers, having reactors positioned just inside a cargo bay, instead of in isolated, separate chambers, as on the Imperial-class. It also had extensive jamming capabilities.[2]
The vessel also stood out in a fleet consisting mostly of Imperial-class Star Destroyers, as Rebel starfighters singled it out as one of the larger Destroyers and the main communications ship.[2]
History
- "Starting attack run on the main power tree."
- ―Lando Calrissian beginning his attack run on the Pride of Tarlandia
The ship was present during the Battle of Endor, where it was found to be the main communications ship used by the Imperial fleet.[2] It was aided in its communications role by the Star Destroyers Chimaera and Avenger. It also acted as the second-in-command to the fleet's flagship, the Executor.[1]
The ship went into a rough battle with a Mon Calamari Star Cruiser and emerged victorious, having destroyed the other ship. Because of the damage it had sustained during the duel, Lando Calrissian decided to attempt a fighter run while it was still vulnerable and its shields were weakened enough.[2]
The Millennium Falcon, Red Leader Wedge Antilles, Blue Leader Merrick Simms, and Green Wing went in low enough to avoid the ship's bigger guns, did a high-speed power-dive perpendicular to the ship's long axis, and raced along the hull while under heavy fire. Green Wing was hit and crashed into the front batteries on the port side of the vessel, allowing the other fighters a chance to hit the power reactors located inside a cargo bay.[2]
Pulling out of the bay after a heavy strike, the surviving Rebel fighters escaped as the ship was destroyed in a series of increasing explosions. One of the explosions managed to kill Simms and destroy a nearby Imperial ship. The Pride of Tarlandia's destruction greatly hampered the operations of the rest of the fleet and caused the scanner jamming of the Rebel fleet to stop.[2] Because of both its destruction and the Executor's destruction shortly thereafter, command then fell to the Chimaera.[4]
Behind the scenes
The communications ship appeared in the Return of the Jedi novelization (p. 191), and was described as "one of the larger Destroyers", indicating a heavier class of Star Destroyer or a light Super Star Destroyer.
It's possible that the communications ship appeared in the film itself, due to one scene showing a starfighter attack on an Imperial command tower that had one main bridge and at least five other similar viewports, visually dissimilar from the ISD-I and ISD-II towers seen elsewhere in the original trilogy. A larger blob visible in distant views of the battle is also a possible representation of this vessel, though that angle could simply have been showing two ships overlapping.
Behind-the-scenes shots reveal that the bridge tower shown in this shot was a detailed stand-alone FX model of a command tower rather than part of a larger ship model. Shots of the Millennium Falcon passing by the tower also showed it as a bigger structure compared with the Avenger's tower, which the Falcon perched on in the previous film.
The ship's name, as well as its ship classification as a battlecruiser, were later given in the 2012 guidebook The Essential Guide to Warfare. In addition, the same source also revealed that it was Death Squadron's second in command.
Appearances
- Star Wars: Episode VI Return of the Jedi (Indirect mention only)
- Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi novel (First appearance)
Sources
- The Essential Guide to Warfare (First identified as Pride of Tarlandia)