If Tarkin had deciced to take the Death Star to say the capital and try to blow up the Emperor the officers may have gone along with it but that's when Vader's role would have kicked in and no more Tarkin.
Yes. If you think about it, their command functions more closely resemble that of a Soviet commanding officer (Tarkin) and a commissar or political officer (Vader). Also, I maintain that the "weak point" in the original Death Star served a similar purpose, especially for the scenario you describe. From the attitudes of the Death Star's command staff, deciding that as the men who control "the Ultimate Power in the Universe", THEY should be running the Empire and not the geezer in the bathrobe, whose only claim to rule (now that he has undermined his Senate-granted authority by disbanding said Senate) is his theoretical possession of a power they do not even believe in. From there, it is a matter of flying the Death Star to Coruscant and ordering the administration to ignore bathrobe-boy if they don't want to get blown up. The hole you could blow up the Death Star by shooting, was claimed by the actual pilot to be an impossible-to-hit shot and only the guy who had never flown an X-wing disagreed with him. We later see that the leader of the team tasked with hitting the weak spot fails to make his shot. When Luke is going for it, ObiWan comes back from the grave to tell him to switch off the computer and use the Force, which Luke has never done in his life, in a life-or-death situation. Plainly the Force was required or the computer would have been a better bet. Otherwise, it looks like Obi-Wan is endangering the mission and the survival of the entire rebellion just to get Luke some more practice.
Therefore, if the weak spot was made so that only the Force could hit it, it seems highly likely that the Emperor or Vader had it deliberately installed as a fail-safe just in case their Force-agnostic military command (and you don't put anyone but your most trusted and loyal commanders in charge of weapons like a Death Star) decides to turn their toy against the Sith Lords. TIE fighters are supposedly short-range fighters that could not be out in space alone, but Vader has a special one that allows him to get back to the Imperial Fleet or territory after the Death Star blows. Why give him such a fighter based out of an "indestructible" battle station? Unless the plan was for him to use it if he had to destroy the Death Star...
Also note how Vader takes the threat of the rebel fighters seriously, while Tarkin scoffs at the possibility of them doing any harm. Almost like he knew they could do it, but Tarkin was kept in the dark.
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Fan of Lanfear
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This message last edited by Sidious on 26/08/2011 at 08:26:37 AM
Star Wars: The Prequels Strike Back
23/08/2011 05:22:54 PM
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point 4 of the "bad things about the original movies" is kind of weak
24/08/2011 01:07:01 AM
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They'll have to refer to these notes when they remake all of them in 10 years
24/08/2011 04:31:39 AM
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Re: Vader and Tarkin
24/08/2011 04:20:43 PM
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Also, it makes the military guys feel better if they see the chain of command at work.
25/08/2011 01:53:02 AM
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Nice theories *NM*
26/08/2011 08:26:20 AM
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Good stuff. And there are many more. I like the PT better than the OT.
24/08/2011 07:48:19 PM
- 791 Views
I don't want to alarm you, but you might be a monster.
24/08/2011 07:54:17 PM
- 733 Views
Most people I know under age 22 or so prefer the PT. *NM*
24/08/2011 09:07:10 PM
- 442 Views
So the real question is ...
24/08/2011 09:19:51 PM
- 857 Views
I'm 26, but it's pretty close.
24/08/2011 11:46:39 PM
- 803 Views
No offense
25/08/2011 12:10:17 AM
- 856 Views
LOL I don't like Whedon either, and hate Firefly. My nerd friends do not love me. *NM*
25/08/2011 01:37:51 AM
- 329 Views
I'm 38, and I do love the PT
25/08/2011 12:45:11 AM
- 754 Views
Traviss's Mandalorian fan-fiction makes Kevin J Anderson almost tolerable by comparison
25/08/2011 02:11:41 AM
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Ugh Zahn was so boring. *NM*
25/08/2011 04:00:28 AM
- 433 Views
Thankyouverymuchindeed.
24/08/2011 09:04:54 PM
- 787 Views
I tend to consider the prequels to be inferior
26/08/2011 08:41:46 AM
- 1026 Views
I still think that James Franco would have been awesome as Anakin
26/08/2011 09:05:48 AM
- 935 Views
I've said that before. And they look almost exactly the same. *NM*
28/08/2011 12:26:29 AM
- 574 Views
It's the Force, stupid.
25/08/2011 02:46:38 AM
- 1073 Views
Woah, woah.
25/08/2011 03:26:02 AM
- 794 Views
Yeah Cannoli has trouble letting petty things like reading get in the way of his nerdrage. *NM*
25/08/2011 04:03:56 AM
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You realize if I'd actually sucumbed to nerdrage, he wouldn't have complained?
25/08/2011 07:41:50 PM
- 743 Views
I still remember how much I adored Episode I
25/08/2011 08:05:02 PM
- 999 Views
Probably because the bad guys were analogues of the OTHER Axis powers.
26/08/2011 06:11:07 PM
- 744 Views