The Death Star in Rogue One
- Thread starter DaddlerTheDalek
- Start date
Maybe his name was Arnold Rimmer. At least they could list him as a "technician, second class".
Got off a train today and felt like I was on a space station for some reason............
"How to disable tractor beams" to your right
"How to cripple power to entire space station" to your left
"Food court" upstairs.
Troopers love Pizza Express!
Got off a train today and felt like I was on a space station for some reason............
"Someday when you grow up, this Death Star will all be yours."
What, the curtains?
Timothy Zahn's assessment of the Death Star was quite good. Speaking through his characters inner monologue he postulated that the Death Star was an effort - like the Grand Admirals - to bring the Empire's military more directly under the Emperor's control.
As we have seen from the Clone Wars series, and as has been touched on in other various "canon" materials - Vader was extremely popular with the regular troops in the Imperial Armed Forces. Even his force choking tended to weed out bad officers and failures. Considering the rivalry between the two Sith Lords, I am sure the Emperor saw a need to consolidate military power, and one single superweapon that could be an extension of his will would be a great way to do that.
As we have seen from the Clone Wars series, and as has been touched on in other various "canon" materials - Vader was extremely popular with the regular troops in the Imperial Armed Forces. Even his force choking tended to weed out bad officers and failures. Considering the rivalry between the two Sith Lords, I am sure the Emperor saw a need to consolidate military power, and one single superweapon that could be an extension of his will would be a great way to do that.
Makes you wonder what would have happened had Tarkin succeeded in destroying Yavin IV and then gotten ideas of his own. This seems to have also occurred to Palpatine in the interim as he had a throne room built on the second one. Wouldn't be surprised if he'd intended to make it his new capital. I mean who could he really trust with that much power?
It is entirely possible there was a throne room on the first one as well, but it was for the Emperor's use only.
Palpatine did trust Tarkin, to a point. Vader was there partly as a reminder that the Emperor is watching. Grand Moff Tarkin is probably the most dedicated officer in the Empire to the ideals of the New Order. Partly because he is the architect of its policy of rule by fear. He was a major supporter of Palpatine during the Clone Wars as well.
Tarkin might have given into temptation to take power with the Death Star. Might. Though his loyalty to the Emperor was fairly large. Very few people could "hold Vader's leash" as Leia puts it.
Also if the Director Krennic in Rogue One is the Director of the ISB, that means Palpatine also sent his highest intelligence/political officer to keep an eye on Tarkin.
Palpatine did trust Tarkin, to a point. Vader was there partly as a reminder that the Emperor is watching. Grand Moff Tarkin is probably the most dedicated officer in the Empire to the ideals of the New Order. Partly because he is the architect of its policy of rule by fear. He was a major supporter of Palpatine during the Clone Wars as well.
Tarkin might have given into temptation to take power with the Death Star. Might. Though his loyalty to the Emperor was fairly large. Very few people could "hold Vader's leash" as Leia puts it.
Also if the Director Krennic in Rogue One is the Director of the ISB, that means Palpatine also sent his highest intelligence/political officer to keep an eye on Tarkin.
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I'm pretty sure they said somewhere in the EU that Vader was on the Death Star to make sure Tarkin didn't use it for his own purposes, like killing the Emperor.
Also, Timothy Zahn established in the novel Outbound Flight that the Emperor created the Death Star, and the Empire for that matter, to fight the forthcoming Yuzhaan Vong invasion. All those trillions of lives that were lost are all on the Rebels' heads.
Also, Timothy Zahn established in the novel Outbound Flight that the Emperor created the Death Star, and the Empire for that matter, to fight the forthcoming Yuzhaan Vong invasion. All those trillions of lives that were lost are all on the Rebels' heads.
I remember the old EU novel Death Star had an inner monologue for Tarkin in which he discards the idea of using the Death Star to destroy Coruscant and take over the Empire, feeling quite certain the Emperor had to have installed some sort of failsafe to prevent just that from ever happening.
I though the Visual Dictionary pages referred to him as the head of the Imperial military? Which I assume is the Imperial equivalent of Chairman of the Joint Chiefs. Also, I don't get the impression from the trailers he's permanently aboard the Death Star, he's likely only visiting when we see him in that shot in the control room. At the very least, we know he'll be at that bunker that Jynn and her team go to.
I've always thought that it was Palpatine's policy to keep his underlings in check by playing them off each other. Making sure they're too busy jockeying for privilege to ever form a powerbase that could threaten him directly. Even Vader to a degree, thanks to that whole Rule of Two thing.
Still, a Death Star is a hell of a thing to entrust to one man, even with Vader at his side. Indeed, that could have massively backfired if Tarkin had a mind to talk Vader around to his side. He's a clever man and has never been overly impressed or intimidated by the Jedi. I don't think the possible threat of Vader would have stopped him in his tracks.
And thank goodness it's not canon since it was always an awful idea. Palpatine didn't need a looming external threat as motivation for doing what he did. He's a Sith. It's rather built in.
A distinct possibility.
I wouldn't put too much stock in that material. It's pretty obvious that the copy is mostly just place holder material there for layout purposes. The real text probably hasn't been written yet.
I loved adding some moral complexity to the Emperor, making him a hero in some twisted way. Though it's an obvious piece of ret-con; why wouldn't he just scream to the heavens, hey guys I found out about this extra-galactic alien invasion let's band together and fight them! It's a much better excuse to extremism than Separatist holdouts and newborn Rebels.
Probably some badass alien invasion that's forty years(?) away is too abstract to convince a bureaucracy-choked Republic to get off its ass and react, while an "enemy at the gate" is going to stir enough influential senators into action and a belief they need to turn to militarism after a millennium of pacifism.
