10 Star Wars Characters More Important Than You Realised

The most die-hard Star Wars fans often credit Admiral Kendal Ozzel (Michael Sheard) with ruining basically everything for the Empire, enough that there are even theories that he was actually a Rebel spy all along.

In The Empire Strikes Back, Ozzel initially oversaw the Battle of Hoth, until he was Force-choked to death by Darth Vader (David Prowse) for his incompetence.

His big miscalculation? Pulling Empire ship the Executor out of lightspeed too close to the Hoth system, which allowed the Rebels to quickly detect their presence and realise an attack was imminent, giving them precious time to shield up.

Had Ozzel adopted Vader's preferred tactic of exiting lightspeed further out and entering Hoth more-or-less undetected, they could've conceivably crushed the Rebels outright.

But Ozzel's foolhardy decision gave the Rebels the breather they desperately needed, and so his role in galactic history - albeit one he'd probably prefer not to be remembered for - shouldn't be underestimated.