10 Star Wars Characters More Important Than You Realised

10. Bolvan

You probably don't remember his name, and you certainly don't know his face, but Imperial gunnery captain Bolvan (John Forgeham) played a major, unintentional role in the Empire's downfall.

At the very start of A New Hope, he famously told his subordinate officer, "Hold your fire, there's no life-forms. It must have short-circuited," when said officer prepared to open fire on the escape pod jettisoned from the captured Tantive IV.

But of course, the escape pod in fact contained C-3PO (Anthony Daniels) and R2-D2 (Kenny Baker), who were, in turn, able to flee to Tatooine with the Death Star plans, where they would eventually cross paths with Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill).

Had Bolvan ordered the pod to be fired upon, Luke's heroic rise (and the Death Star's destruction) would've likely been prevented - as would the fall of the Empire.

Hilariously, in the wider universe, it's revealed that Bolvan was encouraged not to fire upon the pod due to the Empire's obtuse promotion system, which was tied to an officer's hit-to-kill ratio.

Had Bolvan fired upon and exploded an empty pod - which wouldn't have counted as a kill - he would've been knocked down the pecking order for a promotion. Amazing.