Gilad Pellaeon

During the reign of the Galactic Empire, Gilad Pellaeon was an Imperial officer who held the rank of captain within the Imperial Navy, serving in Admiral Thrawn's 96th Task Force. Under Thrawn's directives, Pellaeon attended select gatherings of Imperial personnel, scouting for promising individuals who shared a specific vision. Sometime between 9 BBY and 2 BBY, Pellaeon participated in one such assembly aboard an Imperial-class Star Destroyer above the city planet of Coruscant. There, he observed a presentation by Morgan Elsbeth, the magistrate of the planet Corvus, showcasing her designs for an advanced starfighter called the TIE Defender in hopes of striking a deal with the Empire for its production.

While Pellaeon was impressed by Elsbeth and her work, Moff Isdain abruptly terminated the magistrate's negotiation and expressed his intent to forcibly acquire the resources of Corvus and its neighboring star systems on behalf of the Empire. Once Isdain and other officers exited the boardroom, Pellaeon approached the disheartened magistrate, praising her work and inquiring about the alteration to the engine manifold in her fighter design. After reassuring Elsbeth of his genuine interest, unlike Isdain's scheme to exploit her resources, Pellaeon questioned the magistrate about her decision to offer her services to the Empire. Elsbeth then responded with a canned answer about serving "the glory of the Empire," to which Pellaeon acknowledged by pondering for a moment and thanked her for her time before leaving the room.

Pellaeon later conveyed his encounter with Elsbeth to Thrawn, who soon traveled to Calodan, the capital city of Corvus, with the captain to meet the magistrate in person. There, they first assessed Elsbeth's combat prowess by sending the Noghri assassin Rukh to attack her on the city's rampart. As the assassin was bested by Elsbeth, Pellaeon approached the two, commending the magistrate's triumph and dismissing Rukh. After Pellaeon explained to the magistrate that the skirmish was a deliberate test, he expressed his eagerness to collaborate with her and left, leaving the scene for Thrawn, who welcomed Elsbeth to his service.

Some time later, Pellaeon was assigned to Grand Admiral Balanhai Savit's Third Fleet as the commanding officer of the Imperial Star Destroyer Harbinger, though the Grand Admiral was not satisfied with the degree of Pellaeon's personal loyalty to him. During the fleet's anti-piracy campaign in the Esaga sector in 1 BBY, Savit ordered Pellaeon and the latter's first officer to meet him to discuss a pirate-hunting mission. However, unbeknownst to Pellaeon, the Grand Admiral himself had hired the pirates in order to steal components from Project Stardust, which saw the construction of the Empire's Death Star superweapon.

Not long after, Thrawn— who had been promoted to Grand Admiral of the Seventh Fleet and was aiming to remove Savit from command by exposing his treachery—asked Savit to turn over the captive Assistant Director Brierly Ronan to him and sent coordinates for a rendezvous. Savit traveled to the prearranged star system with four Star Destroyers, including Pellaeon's Harbinger, and met with Thrawn's flagship, the Star Destroyer Chimaera, commanded by Commodore Karyn Faro. Suspecting an ambush, Savit sent the Harbinger to sweep a nearby space station, which was actually used by Savit's pirates, as a precaution to keep Pellaeon away from a possible conflict. Savit also gave Pellaeon permission to send over boarding parties if he wished, which the captain benefited from by dispatching an advance survey team to the station, even though the Grand Admiral would later ignore Pellaeon's report on the matter. Meanwhile, Faro transmitted evidence of Savit's complicity with the pirates to the Third Fleet personnel.

Shortly after, Savit's three remaining Star Destroyers engaged in a skirmish against the Chimaera. During the encounter, Pellaeon reviewed the evidence against Savit and concluded that an official inquiry against the Grand Admiral was justified. Pellaeon then called for Savit to surrender his command, as well as calling on fellow Captains Lochry and Rasdel to join him. He further placed the Harbinger under the command of Faro. Following Savit's arrest, Grand Moff Wilhuff Tarkin reassigned Pellaeon and the Harbinger to the Seventh Fleet, believing the captain might prove useful to Thrawn's ongoing struggle against the Lothalite insurgents. On the Grand Admiral's order, Faro contacted the reassigned captain and arranged a rendezvous of the Harbinger with Thrawn's fleet at the planet Lothal.

Later in 1 BBY, Pellaeon took part in the Empire's orbital blockade around Lothal as part of Thrawn's fleet. However, the blockade failed to stop a band of rebels, led by Jedi Padawan Ezra Bridger of the Spectres, from launching an attack that liberated the planet from its Imperial occupation.

While Thrawn was dealing with the rebels on the planet's surface, he learned that the entire blockade was destroyed by several objects not identifiable to the Imperials. The Grand Admiral subsequently contacted Pellaeon to inquire about the situation, and the captain reported that their attackers had come out of hyperspace before their communication was quickly severed. Moments later, Thrawn discovered that the Imperial vessels were destroyed by flocks of purrgil—massive, whalelike creatures that were naturally capable of traveling through hyperspace—as part of Bridger's attack. Although Pellaeon survived the battle, Thrawn and Bridger went missing in action as both were aboard the Chimaera when the ship was carried into hyperspace by the purrgil, leaving Thrawn stranded in a far galaxy. Having lost the liberated planet to the rebels, the Empire never again returned to Lothal.

Years after the Liberation of Lothal, the Empire lost the Galactic Civil War against the Rebel Alliance, which restyled itself as the New Republic. With the apparent death of Emperor Sheev Palpatine at the Battle of Endor in 4 ABY, the Empire shattered into various remnant factions. Despite the Empire's fall, Pellaeon remained an Imperial loyalist and joined the secret Shadow Council, which consisted of remnant Imperial warlords wanted by the Republic, in hopes of restoring the Empire to its former glory. The captain represented his own delegation in the Council, whose members each operated in a particular sector of the galaxy. Along with fellow council member Commandant Brendol Hux, Pellaeon held a considerable amount of resources and equipment at his disposal.

Around 9 ABY, Pellaeon attended a meeting of the Shadow Council via hologram, during which he warned an Imperial warlord about the latter's hit-and-run operations to plunder the hyperspace lanes, believing they were gaining too much New Republic attention. While other council members voiced their opinions in favor of a demonstration of power for citizens of the galaxy, Pellaeon advised the group to be cautious about revealing their true strength until the imminent return of Grand Admiral Thrawn, which, in his opinion, would bring forth the reemergence of the Imperial Military, while proving sufficient time for the completion of Project Necromancer supervised by Hux.

Moff Gideon, another member of the Shadow Council, was skeptical about Pellaeon's claims and openly criticized the captain for speaking with much confidence despite the lack of evidence of Thrawn's return. Although Pellaeon tried to assure him by stating that it was kept secret, Gideon suggested to the Council that perhaps a new leader should be sought, a proposition that saw support by some of the warlords, much to the displeasure of Pellaeon. During the remainder of the meeting, Hux and Pellaeon also reviewed the Moff's request for reinforcements for his forces, including three Praetorian Guards, TIE interceptors, and TIE bombers.

Although Pellaeon mocked Gideon's request for guards at first, he was concerned to hear the Moff was up against Mandalorians, an ancient society of legendary warriors preparing to reclaim their homeworld of Mandalore. Fearing that a Mandalorian resurgence would hinder the Council's designs, Pellaeon, alongside Hux, approved Gideon's request. With his promise of victory against the Mandalorians, the Moff uttered the phrase "Long live the Empire," which was echoed by the other council members in unison. Despite the Shadow Council's support, Gideon ultimately failed to stop the Mandalorians from retaking their homeworld, which cost him his life. Not long after, thanks to Elsbeth's efforts, Thrawn returned from his exile in the far galaxy as Pellaeon hoped.

Gilad Pellaeon was a human male who possessed blue eyes, light skin, and white hair with a mustache. By 2 BBY, the captain had an elderly appearance. While serving in Thrawn's 96th Task Force, Pellaeon was intrigued by Elsbeth following her TIE Defender presentation, recognizing her as a potential asset to the Empire. When the magistrate demonstrated her combat proficiency against Rukh, he was impressed and indicated his keen interest in working with her while tipping his kepi.

As an Imperial officer, Pellaeon's loyalty lay with the Empire itself instead of blindly following any individual commander. After receiving evidence suggesting his commanding officer, Grand Admiral Savit, had committed treason, Pellaeon turned against Savit and demanded his surrender. During the Liberation of Lothal, Captain Pellaeon was astonished upon witnessing the purrgil swarm coming out of hyperspace and attacking the blockade of Imperial starships over the planet.

After the Empire's fall, Pellaeon's loyalty to the regime endured as he continued to work for the Imperial remnants. While he found the New Republic to be vulnerable, Pellaeon believed the remaining Imperial forces must not waste their strength and should operate discreetly without revealing the coordination between the remnant factions. The captain coveted Thrawn's leadership for the remains of the Empire and saw the Grand Admiral's return as their only hope for success.

Gilad Pellaeon was a capable military officer whose skills were noticed by high-ranking Imperials such as Grand Admiral Savit and Grand Moff Tarkin. He possessed a degree of knowledge about the inner workings of a starfighter as he was able to appreciate the sophistication of Elsbeth's schematics for the TIE Defender. The captain was also fluent in the Galactic Basic Standard language.

Pellaeon wore a gray Imperial officer's uniform along with an Imperial kepi, a pair of black gloves, and a black belt. Both his kepi and belt buckle featured an officer's disk on the front. The captain's tunic was adorned by code cylinders in small pockets near the shoulders and a rank insignia plaque on the top left torso, which consisted of three squares followed by a blue square when the single line plaques were the norm in the Empire. By the time of the New Republic Era, his rank plaque had three red squares over three blue squares, and his tunic featured the emblem of the Seventh Fleet on the left shoulder.

Gilad Pellaeon was reintroduced into Star Wars canon in the Star Wars Rebels animated series finale, "Family Reunion – and Farewell," which was written by executive producer Dave Filoni and his team and first aired on March 5, 2018. The character was voiced by Jim Cummings, who was also the voice of Hondo Ohnaka in the series. Although author Timothy Zahn, the character's original creator in Star Wars Legends, was not informed of Pellaeon's inclusion in Star Wars Rebels beforehand, he later used the character in his 2019 novel Thrawn: Treason, which reintroduced the character's first name, "Gilad," into canon.

Pellaeon was first pictured, albeit in hologram form, via the character's live-action debut in "Chapter 23: The Spies," the seventh episode of the Disney+ original series The Mandalorians third season, which was written by Filoni and Jon Favreau and premiered on April 12, 2023. In the episode, Pellaeon was played by actor Xander Berkeley, whose portrayal of the character was praised by Zahn. Berkeley had to shave his beard but keep his mustache to bring Pellaeon to life based on the character's depiction in Star Wars Legends media. Berkeley reprised his role as the voice of Pellaeon in "The Path of Anger," the second episode of the animated anthology Star Wars: Tales of the Empire released on May 4, 2024.

Filoni described bringing back Legends characters like Pellaeon into canon as being one of his favorite parts of the job. He said that bringing in Pellaeon in Star Wars Rebels serves as both an Easter egg for fans of the old Expanded Universe and an opportunity for other authors to explore new stories for the character in canon, which creating a new character with a new name would not necessarily allow for. Before the character's survival was confirmed in The Mandalorian, Filoni had indicated that, in his opinion, Pellaeon somehow escaped and survived the events of the Star Wars Rebels finale—believing the character should not be "whimsically" killed off by a purrgil—and expressed hope that other authors would continue Pellaeon's story. He later hinted at the possibility of the character reuniting with Thrawn in the future New Republic–era stories set after the events of the first season of Ahsoka, a 2023 live-action series created by Filoni.

A trivia quiz published in Titan Magazines' Star Wars Insider 222 as part of the magazine's recurring "Jedi Master's Quiz" department on October 31, 2023 describes Pellaeon as an admiral in a wrong answer for one of the questions. According to the Imperial rank chart in Star Wars: Dawn of Rebellion: The Visual Guide, a 2023 reference book written by Pablo Hidalgo and Emily Shkoukani, Pellaeon's rank insignia plaque seen in "The Path of Anger" denotes the rank of army captain. However, since the 96th Task Force was a naval unit and the character is portrayed as a captain in the Imperial Navy in his other appearances, this article assumes Pellaeon was a naval captain at that time as well.

The character of Gilad Pellaeon originally appeared in the 1991 Star Wars Legends novel Heir to the Empire, the first volume in The Thrawn Trilogy by author Timothy Zahn. Zahn named the character after Pelleas, a knight from the King Arthur legend, while the 1995 reference book The Essential Guide to Characters, written by Andy Mangels, introduced his first name, "Gilad." Pellaeon was first illustrated by Allen Nunis and Xeno Beckwith in Heir to the Empire Sourcebook, a 1992 roleplaying supplement and companion reference to Zahn's novel, published by West End Games for use with Star Wars: The Roleplaying Game.

In these stories, Captain Pellaeon was a prominent military officer who served as Grand Admiral Thrawn's right-hand man during the latter's campaign against the New Republic following the Battle of Endor. Pellaeon also played a significant role in numerous other Legends stories, acting as the founding leader of the Imperial Remnant and signing a peace treaty with the New Republic that ended the Galactic Civil War. Through his many appearances over two decades, Pellaeon became a fan-favorite Legends character.

• "Thrawn: A Villain's Purpose" — Star Wars Insider 182
• Star Wars Rebels: Complete Season Four
• "Thrawn: A Villain's Purpose" — Star Wars Insider Special Edition 2022
• "Star Wars: The Mandalorian Season Three Companion" — Star Wars Insider 222
• "Jedi Master's Quiz" — Star Wars Insider 222
• "Who's the Boss?" — Star Wars Insider 224
• Star Wars: The Rise and Fall of the Galactic Empire