"Backstabber" was a human TIE fighter pilot in the Galactic Empire's Black Squadron who served as the wingman of Darth Vader during the Battle of Yavin. He was shot down by Han Solo when Vader was following Luke Skywalker and his X-wing starfighter who was trying to destroy the Death Star.
At the battle, during which the Rebel pilots attacked the Death Star, Vader ordered Backstabber and Mithel to be his wingman. Vader pursued Red Squadron as they targeted the thermal exhaust port, a flaw in the Death Star put in place by Imperial scientist Galen Erso, which would allow a precision shot to destroy the main reactor, destroying the station.
Vader, along with several other Imperial pilots, destroyed or disabled the attacking Rebel ships, with the exception of Luke Skywalker. As Vader and his wingmen targeted Skywalker, the Millennium Falcon, piloted by Han Solo, engaged the Imperials, shooting down Backstabber. His death caught Vader by surprise, and led Mithel to attempt to evade the attacker, clipping Vader's TIE Advanced x1 in the process before crashing into the Death Star. With Vader's ship damaged and incapacitated, he fled the battle, while Skywalker fired a proton torpedo into the thermal exhaust port, destroying the Death Star.
Backstabber (left) and Mithel (right) obediently followed Darth Vader into battle.
"Backstabber" was the nickname of a human male from the planet Corellia who served as a Imperial Starfighter Pilot in the Galactic Empire during the Galactic Civil War against the Alliance to Restore the Republic. In 0 BBY, Backstabber was an ace stationed on board the Death Star superweapon when it traveled to the Yavin system to destroy the rebel headquarters on the moon Yavin 4.
Alliance starfighters attacked the Imperial battlestation, but its commander, Grand Moff Wilhuff Tarkin initially refused to give the launch order for any Imperial starfighters. The Darth Vader eventually scrambled a single TIE/ln space superiority starfighter squadron, Black Squadron on his own authority to engage the rebels. With less then seven minutes until the Death Star was within range to fire, Vader then encountered Backstabber and his fellow pilot Mithel in one of the battlestation's corridors and ordered them to accompany him, commandeering them for as a flight under his command to hunt down a trio of BTL-A4 Y-wing assault starfighter/bombers in the rebel Gold Squadron that had broken off from the main group.
Backstabber flew as wingman to Darth Vader during the Battle of Yavin.
Mithel and Backstabber then boarded their TIE fighters in one of the Death Star's hangar's and launched alongside Vader, who piloted a TIE Advanced x1. Vader ordered his two wingmen to stay in attack formation as the trio made their way to the battlestation's meridian trench, where the three Gold Squadron pilots where making an attack run on the Death Star's thermal exhaust port, a weak point that could be used to destroy the entire station. With five minutes until the Death Star was in range, the turrets in the trench ceased firing on the rebels as Vader, Backstabber, and Mithel approached, with the Sith Lord ordering the two TIE pilots to provide cover while he destroyed the three rebels himself. Vader then successfully destroyed the three rebels without them firing on the exhaust port and then left the trench with his two wingmen.
With only three minutes until the Death Star was in range, the rebels soon attempted a second attack run with three T-65B X-wing starfighters from Red Squadron. Vader ordered Backstabber and Mithel to close up formation as the Imperial trio again began pursuit in the trench, with Vader destroying the first of the three X-wings. Backstabber then opened fire and destroyed the second, which was piloted by rebel pilot Theron Nett. The final X-wing, piloted by Red Leader Garven Dreis, then did managed to launch a proton torpedo at the port; however, it merely impacted on the surface of the Death Star. Vader then pursued Dreis alone as the rebel left the trench and soon shot his X-wing down.
With almost all of the rebel starighters destroyed and under a minute until the Death Star was within range, another trio of Red Squadron X-wings attempted a third attack run, this time going at full throttle to try and outrun Vader, Backstabber, and Mithel. The rebels then spotted the trio approaching as before, and Backstabber opened fire on the X-wing of rebel pilot Wedge Antilles. The attack failed to destroy the fighter, but severed its hydraulic lines and melted its micromanuevering controls, forcing Antilles to abandon the run and pilot his vehicle out of the trench. Sensing that one of his wingmen wanted to pursue Antilles, Vader ordered Backstabber and Mithel to let the rebel go and continue pursuing the run's leader, the pilot Luke Skywalker, before shooting down Skywalker's only remaining wingman, Biggs Darklighter.
Backstabber perished when the Millennium Falcon shot down the pilot's TIE fighter.
Vader damaged Skywalker's fighter but failed to destroy it, with the pursuit continuing as the Death Star entered within range of Yavin 4 and began its firing sequence. Backstabber was then suddenly killed when his vehicle was destroyed by blaster fire from above the trench, having come from the YT-1300 light freighter known as the Millennium Falcon. Its pilot, rebel ally Han Solo, then whooped with glee. The shock wave from the destruction of Backstabber's fighter and the panic of seeing the freighter caused Mithel to collide with Vader and then crash into a wall, while the Sith Lord was sent spinning away into space. Clear of his Imperial pursuers, Skywalker was able to successfully launch a torpedo into the exhaust port, destroying the Death Star. The Alliance later leaked footage of the battle on to the DarkNet that showed Backstabber's TIE being destroyed by the Falcon.
Backstabber wore a black Imperial pilot's uniform including a helmet with a gray strip down each side of the face. The headpiece also bore a High Galactic inscription on the brow. The pilot flew a TIE/ln space superiority starfighter during the Battle of Yavin and also made use of an E-11 medium blaster rifle.
Backstabber first appeared in the 1977 original trilogy film, Star Wars: Episode IV A New Hope. In the current Star Wars canon, the character's nickname was first used in a 2020 blog post on StarWars.com revealing a Kotobukiya figure of the character being released later that year. The character's nickname originated in the Star Wars Legends continuity, where it was first used on two cards in the 1995 "Premiere Limited" set for the Star Wars Customizable Card Game made by Decipher, Inc.. The cards also gave the pilot's designation as DS-61-3.
In the non-canon 2022 video game LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga, Vader is shown accompanied by Backstabber and Mithel's TIE fighters during the game's version of the Battle of Yavin. When Vader orders them to cover him, the two fighters and several others swarm Vader's fighter and cluster around it before he shakes them all off. When Skywalker later fires the torpedo down the Death Star's exhaust port, Backstabber and Mithel's TIE fighters "gulp" in fear and then crash into one another, both knocking Vader off course.
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