Needa, Captain Lorth

• Appeared in:
  
  I
  II
  III
  IV
  V
  VI
  CW

• Species:
  Human

• Gender:
  Male

• Size:
  1.75 meters

• Vehicle:
  Star Destroyer Avenger

• Affiliation:
  Empire

• 

From the Movies

What's worse, failing Darth Vader or having to apologize for it? Captain Needa was in that most terrible of positions when his Star Destroyer, the Avenger allowed the Millennium Falcon to escape pursuit after the Battle of Hoth.

Ingeniously, the Falcon never really escaped as Needa surmised. It was a daring maneuver executed by her pilot, Han Solo, that caused Needa to think so. Solo charged the Star Destroyer at attack speed. At the last possible instant, he cut speed and power and settled his ship in a blind spot on the Avenger's conning tower. The ship effectively disappeared from Imperial scopes, just as Lord Vader requested an update on the pursuit from Needa.

Gathering his courage, Needa went to Vader's flagship, the Executor, to apologize to Lord Vader personally.

Vader accepted Needa's apology ... and killed him.

From the Expanded Universe

Captain Lorth Needa was survived by his first cousin, once removed, named Virar Needa. Not exactly one who aspired to greatness, this Needa had the thankless job of controlling an orbital mirror high over Coruscant, which helped distribute sunlight to the city-planet. When the New Republic's Rogue Squadron began operations to take Coruscant from Imperial control, they targeted Needa's orbital mirror. The agent known as Winter reprogrammed Needa's mirror to target and evaporate one of Coruscant's major reservoirs, resulting in an immense thunderstorm that helped short out the planetary shields.

Behind the Scenes

Captain Needa was the second Imperial officer to die by telekinetic strangulation in The Empire Strikes Back.