Pour One Out For Tivik, The Most Important Star Wars Character No One Talks About

Let's give it up for a man named Tivik. Without him, there's every chance that Alderaan wouldn't have been the only planet destroyed by the Death Star in "Star Wars: Episode IV — A New Hope." Sure, a lot of people can make that claim: Galen Erso, Jyn Erso, Luthen Rael, Cassian Andor, Bodhi Rook. But they all get their place in the spotlight and we talk about them. So much digital ink gets spilled all over those characters, yet Tivik just waits for his day in the sun, so we're going to give it to him. 

For those who don't remember him, Tivik appeared at the beginning of "Rogue One: A Star Wars Story" (where he was portrayed by actor Daniel Mays). The "Star Wars" universe is full of fascinating side characters, yet Tivik found himself tucked away in the back alleys of the Ring of Kafrene, an asteroid-based environment. There, he waited for Cassian (Diego Luna) in order to give him information about a super-weapon he heard about while roaming Saw Gerrera's (Forest Whitaker) hidden base on Jedha. This weapon was alleged to have the power to destroy planets, so the confirmation of its existence from multiple individuals and disparate sources of information was enough for the Rebellion to take the possibility seriously and allow Cassian to continue his investigation. This ultimately led him to the planet Scarif, where he, Jyn (Felicity Jones), Bodhi (Riz Ahmed), and many others were able to steal the plans to said super-weapon, aka the Death Star.

If it weren't for Tivik, however, it's likely the Rebel Alliance would have dismissed the rumors completely.

Unfortunately, Cassian had to shoot Tivik in the back after meeting him at the Ring of Kafrene. It's a move that left a lot of people scratching their heads and wondering if Cassian really was the hero they assumed he was. But why did he do it?

With stormtroopers bearing down on both of them, he and Tivik couldn't be taken alive. Cassian shot the two stormtroopers harassing them because he had to get out of there with that information. If they had run his scandocs or identity, he would almost certainly never escape again. Again, they had to get out of there. Being caught at the dead-end of an alley, there was really only one route that wasn't going to get Cassian and Tivik shot or caught, and that meant climbing up the pipes. In fairness to Cassian, he didn't seem to notice Tivik's broken arm until the latter revealed it from behind his jacket. That left Cassian with a split second decision to make.

For Cassian, the calculus was morally difficult (as evidenced by the look on his face after shooting Tivik) but operationally simple. Tivik was obviously a trusted contact, and Cassian didn't enter the meeting intending to kill him. Tivik also couldn't escape because of his broken arm and, under no circumstance, could Cassian let him get caught by the Imperials. Cassian knew what had happened to someone the last time they had information about him — the Imperials had tortured Bix Calleen (Adria Arjona) for weeks for the information they wanted, as revealed by "Andor" season 1.

If Tivik told the Empire he had passed off information about a planet-killing weapon to a Rebel like Cassian, the Empire would stop at nothing to hunt him down, making any attempt to find a weakness in the station impossible. So, operationally, Cassian had no choice. He had to leave the Imperials a cold trail if the mission to bring down the Death Star was going to have any chance to succeed.

The result is a haunting, chilling moment, and perhaps one of the best ones in the entire "Star Wars" saga. But that's an argument for a different time.

Tivik's name gets bandied about quite a bit during the final episode of "Andor" season 2 (and the show as a whole). General Draven (Alistair Petrie) is nervous because Tivik has sent a message to the Rebels insisting that he has extremely important and urgent intel ... but Cassian is the only person he will give it to.

This is troubling to the general for a couple of reasons. First, Cassian was just confined to his quarters for not following orders — again. Hence, the general isn't quite sure he can trust Cassian. He tries to see if Tivik will be willing to send his information to the Rebels or if he'd be willing to talk to anyone else, but Tivik is insistent.

This fact actually makes his final destination all the more heartbreaking. If he insisted on Cassian, it's because he didn't trust anyone else. When someone is involved in spycraft, they want to talk to the people they trust, i.e. those they have a relationship with. They do that just so they can protect themselves from getting shot in the back. It was just his poor luck that his information was so explosive, and the situation so dire, that Cassian didn't have another choice.

The clues Tivik did leave, and the threads that Luthen Rael (Stellan Skarsgård) and his assistant Kleya Marki (Elizabeth Dulau) left for the Rebels to explore in order to find out about the planet-killing Death Star, were tantalizing and intertwined. If Tivik was going to speak only with Cassian, General Draven was going to have only one choice. That's why he convinced Senator Bail Organa (Benjamin Bratt) to let Cassian chase down the lead and head to the Ring of Kafrene.

In the end, Tivik gave his life to a man he trusted to pass on that information. He ultimately paid the same price as so many others who strove to destroy the Death Star, Cassian included. "Rogue One" has a complicated ending, much like the one to "Andor" season 2 and they both hit hard.

Tivik wasn't the first time Cassian Andor was forced to shoot a contact in the back. If one were to watch both seasons of "Andor" first and then watch "Rogue One," one would be aware of the danger inherent to Cassian meeting Tivik in a way that you wouldn't have been if you watched "Rogue One" only.

Indeed, we see Cassian shoot someone in the back in his very first arc in "Andor" season 1. Later, when Cassian and Bix are staying in Luthen's Coruscant safe house in season 2, they argue about whether or not it was right for Cassian to have shot a contact. Cassian argues that the contact saw their faces and he had no other choice. He further rationalizes that it was the only way to keep the both of them safe and ensure their trail remained cold.

Everything in Cassian's rationalizations to Bix apply to what must have been running through his mind as he shot Tivik in "Rogue One." As you listen to Cassian explain things to Bix, though, it's almost as though he's rationalizing it to himself as much to her.

Mays, for his part, thought it was very likely his appearance as Tivik would end up on the cutting room floor. "It was an amazing day," he told Yahoo Movies UK while he was promoting his movie "Fisherman's Friends" in 2019. "I was on the reshoots. I was just thankful that I didn't hit the cutting room floor because you could have dropped that character. But in actual fact, when I watch that film back, it's a really good scene."

He explained that he had a great experience on the "Rogue One" set and was delighted by the fact that he got to act opposite stormtroopers. That and, like many fans, he found the film to be one of the finest "Star Wars" movies ever made.

"I was absolutely like a fanboy," he told Yahoo. "I love 'Star Wars' and so does my son, so it was the coolest thing I could've been in, in terms of telling my son the news. But I loved it."

The entirety of "Andor" and "Rogue One: A Star Wars Story" are currently streaming on Disney+.