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madelgard · 2 years

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Hi! I've gotten very into the Motti/Jerjerrod ship because of your fics, so I wanted to ask: how did you start shipping them? I'm very sold on the pairing now, so I was curious how you discovered it if you don't mind sharing!

Good question, and thank you for the ask! The answer to this is LONG so uh please enjoy this essay under the cut.

👇👇👇 ship discourse below 👇👇👇

WHY YOU SHOULD SHIP CONAN ANTONIO MOTTI & TIAAN JERJERROD, THE HOTTEST IMPERIALS YOU'VE NEVER HEARD OF

While I've written a lot of Motti/Jerjerrod and have developed quite a few headcanons for their families, personal histories, etc., for the purposes of this post I am sticking to as much canon info as possible. Although their screen time is limited in the original trilogy, there's enough one-off references or minor background appearances in other Star Wars media to give you a solid understanding of who they are as characters, and why their chemistry would be absolutely volcanic.

CANON BACKGROUND INFO: CHARACTER SIMILARITIES

Extreme Wealth: both men are from families who are absolutely loaded. Jerjerrod in particular seems to be from some level of planetary aristocracy.

Navy Men: Jerjerrod is a Rear Admiral in the Navy before being catapulted to the Moff posting, and Motti likewise is a Naval officer.

Death Star Link: both commanded the Death Stars—Motti for the DS-1, Jerjerrod for the DS-2. Also, Jerjerrod helped design the first Death Star, so we have a canon basis for him interacting with Motti there.

High-ranking Naval officers at very young ages: in A New Hope, Motti is an Admiral and also commander of the DS-1 on the sunny side of his 30s (the actor was 31). Likewise, when Motti is commanding the first Death Star, Jerjerrod is right there with him as a Rear Admiral (again, a good basis for them canonically interacting) and he's also in his very early 30s as well:

From the novel Tarkin, by James Luceno (2014).

Both men are members of the hyper-exclusive Joint Chiefs (see above excerpt), which is (per Wookieepedia) the executive group that advised the Emperor on all martial-related matters. Here they are at work:

Force Choke Buddies: Both Motti and Jerjerrod are the only two officers to be choked by Vader on-screen and survive. Narrative parallels my beloved.

Clever Boys: Based on the fact that both Motti and Jerjerrod have ascended the ranks so rapidly, in postings that were probably based mostly on merit (i.e., I would assume a nepotism hire in the Empire gets a big fuckoff war ship and a posting in the Outer Rim, maybe, but you’re not putting him on the Joint Chiefs where he can do REAL damage on a galactic scale, nor would you put Idiot Cousin Cleetus in charge of the Death Star if he couldn’t cut it), we can therefore extrapolate that they are very clever/capable in their respective fields. Jerjerrod is a textbook overachiever and Motti is a pain in the ass who's naturally skilled at warfare; put them in the same room and watch them row until they're breathless.

They’re Hot Actually: This is more of an aesthetic focus but hey, we can be shallow: they’re both six feet tall (going off the actors here—Wookieepedia has an absolutely insane level of incorrect body stats for minor characters) and, in my (correct) opinion, very good looking. Tall, hot, rich, entrenched in the upper echelons of a sci-fi fascist military organization—what’s not to love?

EVIDENCE OF HOTNESS

Michael Pennington (Tiaan Jerjerrod)

Richard LeParmentier (Conan Antonio Motti)

CANON BACKGROUND INFO: DIFFERENCES WHICH GUARANTEE SEXUAL TENSION

I. NAVAL EXPERTISE:

Motti is an active wartime commander. He’s mean, he’s aggressive, he’s a spiked cog in the Imperial war machine. There’s a surprisingly rich amount of canon info (though a lot was lost in Legends, sadly) on how Motti is King Dick of Fuck Mountain:

From Star Wars: The Essential Guide to Warfare Author's Cut, Part 11: "Serving the Empire"

Jerjerrod, in contrast, is NOT at home commanding a fleet in the field of war. He’s…well, a nerd. He’s a mathematically minded technocrat with a blue-blooded pedigree and a habitual uneasiness in the face of danger. Shove a blaster at Motti and he’ll blow your head off. Shove a blaster at Jerjerrod and watch him flounder.

Seriously, we know that Jerjerrod (1) wanted to design starships, which is why he joined the Navy—it’s the engineering and architectural work that calls to him, not warfare, and (2) he’s interested in The Finer Things, like his art vault that’s definitely not filled with erotic art of handsome men and fancy jewels, which were hilariously burgled in canon:

From the Star Wars Databank. “suffered the indignity,” god. Can he be any more dramatic? (yes)

II. CORE WORLDS VERSUS OUTER RIM:

Conan Antonio Motti is from Seswenna, in the Seswenna sector (where Tarkin’s homeworld of Eriadu is located). This sector is the wealthy carve-out in the Outer Rim, where the big money families who don’t live in the Core are located.

Tiaan Jerjerrod is from Tinnel IV (also called “Tinnel”) in the Quanta sector, which is in the Core and notably conservative as a planet. So you get the contrast of culture/values here: the Core is stifling, plummy, oppressive and rigid in its customs and laws; and the Outer Rim is…laxer. There’s a sort of muggy languidness going on out in the more distant slice of space, and it seems to be reflected in the characterization we get for these (extremely) minor Imperials.

III. DIFFERING PHYSIQUES:

Ok so this isn’t “canon background info” so much as “canon physical info about the actors” but I would be remiss if I did not point out that, while both Motti and Jerjerrod are equally tall, Motti is…a lot wider. Jerjerrod has an excellent set of shoulders but he’s absolutely a long lean line compared to Motti. I mean, just look at them in turtlenecks:

Willowy Aristocrat next to a Certified Big Boy. Perfection.

IV. CONTRASTING PERSONALITIES:

What we see of Motti in A New Hope and subsequent media is a man who is arrogant, loud, and prone to saying exactly what he wants to, consequences be damned. He is not tactful; he’s bold and aggressive (which fits his inexplicable American accent, by the way; he’s a cowboy, he’s shooting from the hip, he’s in your face with his hot opinions and you cannot hit the ‘lift button fast enough to run away from him).

Seriously, just look how Motti canonically exercises as an example of his obnoxious alpha-male personality (btw this is the single gayest piece of writing in all of Star Wars):

From the novel Death Star, by Michael Reaves and Steve Perry (2011). “Stripped to a speed-trap and drenched in his own sweat” sure is…something. (If you’d like to read about Jerjerrod losing his marbles over Motti’s speed-strap I have conveniently written a story here).

Jerjerrod in contrast is…well, arrogant as well, it seems, with how dismissive he is of Vader. But he’s snippy, and passive-aggressive in a way Motti is not. He also seems to choose his words far more carefully, and he’s noticeably fearful in a way other officers don’t appear to be (which makes sense, given he’s been a desk admiral his entire career until we see him thrust center-stage as commander of the DS-2 in RotJ; he's uncomfortable so he's getting nervy and whiny).

The rough draft of RotJ does a great job at showing what an absolute passive-aggressive bitch Jerjerrod can be. Witness (also he's a Grand Moff in the draft, which is neat on its own):

Jerjerrod is a sort of unholy mix of star mathlete and head cheerleader, whereas Motti is a jock in charge of a fleet of warships. Naturally they should bang, and also marry each other.

V. THE CHOKING SCENES:

A great example of their contrasting/complimentary personalities is in their respective choking scenes.

CONTRASTING:

Motti is choked and he takes it like a man:

Jerjerrod is choked and he looks like a hamster being squeezed too hard:

COMPLIMENTARY:

Motti is freed from the Force choke, and he looks to be seconds away from standing up and starting another fight.

Jerjerrod is freed from the Force choke, and he gets a really snide attitude about it as well (witness the hips), but of course unlike Motti he’s going to tactfully retreat. Like Motti, he's going to go back to his room and bitch about the AUDACITY of this workplace assault, probably while soaking in the tub.

So yeah, you can easily envision these two in a Joint Chiefs meeting arguing back and forth, the air is electric, everyone is uncomfortable, and the sexual tension is high enough to throw off the artificial gravity generator.

TL;DR

This is getting too long, whoops. Tl;dr: here’s why the Motti/Jerjerrod ship is so great:

Motti and Jerjerrod are a study in contrasts: two men on essentially equal footing as to height, wealth, and power, but radically different in their personalities—fire and ice, red oni and blue oni, however you want to put it. They’re foils in some ways and truly complimentary in others. Let them poke and prod and obsess, let the sexual tension boil over until they’re drowning in it, and let them go at each other like cats in heat. They deserve it.

📝✍️Fics 📝✍️

While I would recommend perusing the entire tag (over 150 fics!), these are some helpful introductory fics:

Collections

Imperial Entanglements by madelgard - individual, unconnected oneshots ranging from the Cadet Era through the original trilogy, serving as a useful crash-course to the ship.

Imptober 2023 collection by @alex-dax - 31 oneshots with many ships represented, including a lot of stellar Motti/Jerjerrod. Very steamy collection of fics, with a focus on explicit smut and intense, tender emotions.

The Phantom Imptober by @shakespeareaddict - multiple pairings are in this oneshot collection, including several gorgeous Motti/Jerjerrod pieces. Special shoutout to the bootlicking oneshot *cough*

Connected Series

Basic Training: The Naval Academy Years by madelgard - a connected series tracking Cadet Tiaan and Cadet Conan falling in love and getting together in the Naval Academy era.

Csillan Nights by @alex-dax - Thrawn takes his motley crew to Csilla, Remnants-era. Also includes some phenomenal Motti/Jerjerrod/Thrawn shipping. Extremely hot series, go read it right now.

✨Fanart ✨