Lit A Tarkin Coup: Possibility or Pipedream

Could Lusankya have damaged the local shield generators/projectors while she was rising from her "grave"? That could weaken the planetary shields over that area.

 

Given that she was disguised as a shield generator- it wouldn't entirely surprise me if there was a real one on top of Lusanyka, that was destroyed when it took off.

 

IF there were a feature about the Death Star briefing scene, what other topics related to it would you find of interest?

 

I'd like to know what happened between the novelization and the movie, to change who says what, at the briefing. Was it a very early script?

If I remember rightly, Marvel Star Wars, while having dialogue closer to the book than the movie in many scenes, did have it as Motti rather than Tagge that was rude to Vader.

 

As far as I'm aware, there remains one last unidentified individual sitting in the conference room--the one seated to the right of Cass. And speaking about Cass, what's his rank, by the way? In the days of yore, Curtis Saxton used to think he was a Major General, but Cass was mostly forgotten in the EU, so the issue was never addressed. Oh, and another thing, perhaps: in the movie, Motti says "Dangerous to your Starfleet, [General Tagge]; not to this battle station." However, Motti was the navy officer, and Tagge the army officer, not the opposite. So what does that mean exactly? (Out-of-universe, I know that there lines were switched, but it would be interesting to get a good in-universe explanation.)

It also had Vader levitating a hot cup of coffee.

 

Unless I'm mistaken, the character descriptions in the photo insert with my old paperback copy of the ANH novelization specifically says that Tarkin wants to become Emperor himself. I'm not sure how this fares in terms of canonicity.

 

I think it had to do with taunting- didn't The Essential Guide to Warfare actually mention the rivalry between Tagge and Motti, and that particular remark?

EDIT: it was The Essential Atlas- page 170:

Established military doctrine was that the navy commanded space, giving the army protection for ground assaults. The new model, as championed by Admiral Conan Antonio Motti (to the horror of more tradition-minded admirals), was that the mere threat of the Death Star left the army free to act. If the army met resistance on a world, it would withdraw and the Death Star would threaten that world. General Cassio Tagge disagreed. For one thing, he believed that the existing model was more flexible and efficient than Motti's idea. For another, he thought the Alliance fleet was bigger and more of a threat than Motti and many in the navy believed, and the Death Star was siphoning off needed funds from projects such as the stalled Super Star Destroyer. The two argued frequently and bitterly, to the point of the admiral baiting the general with mocking references to "your starfleet" - an irony Tarkin might have enjoyed if the two's bickering hadn't habitually complicated operations.

 

My mistake, then. But my remarks about the last unidentified officer, as well as Cass' rank and position are still valid, I think. Well, I hope so.

 

need... to... reread... Death Star... novel...

If we talk Tarkin, Death Star, Motti, Tagge und co I'd want the Death Star novel to be further explored/expanded... like where did the 1000 X-Wings and the Lucrehulc Rebel Cruiser come from? (I guess, that was Yavin Base's detachement of fighters and cruisers that got sent off explaining why x-wings and r2s were in short supply, as were pilots after the loss).

Also, Death Star plans... I know there was supposed to be a retcon in Death Star novel... but did it help at all?

As for Motti, Tagge, Tarkin, and Co... I want to have lots more about them... full novels about Tagge.. another about Motti... etc. more pre-ANH stuff and ANH-leadin stuff. Marvelstyle even

may also be interesting to or not to tie some of them to the plot against Vader in "To take the Tarkin" and to further elaborate all the intrigue between pro-superweapon and pro-starfleet factions.

 

While we're on the subject, I admit that the novel's premise is... unlikely, but I think Death Star is a great book.

 

I would absolutely love to see the topic of the meeting addressed -- the dissolution of the Senate. There's the small continuity issue, which I think is interesting, that Palpatine is said to have formally suspended the Senate for the duration of the emergency rather than abolishing it outright, so I'd love to see the implications of that addressed. I also think it would be interesting to peek behind the curtain in general. For such a crucial moment, we see very little about it, and I think we could always stand to have the issue addressed from the perspective of everywhere outside the briefing room -- what Palpatine's process was, what the Coruscanti bureaucracy and the Senate itself's response was, what the public at large thought of it, whether it prompted any crackdowns on dissident senators, that sort of thing.

 

Is that possible ? Sure, but I doubt Tarkin would've tried that. Especially within the new canon, he knows what Jedi like, and he is not holding himself to take help from Vader and the Emperor for dealing with them. He knows he needs them to oppose the Jedi and he would accept Vader and the Emperor as true allies.

 

The unrevised fourth draft of the ANH screenplay supporte this theory. In it, Tarkin says to Vader about destroying the Rebel Base, "This operation will secure my place on the Emperor’s council. With the right maneuvering, I could be Emperor."

 

Of course, in the context of the original screenplay, a coup might be more practical, since at this point the Emperor was just a weak figurehead. I believe the novelization implies that it might not even be the first time.

But yes, ludicrous necrobump or not, this topic has always intrigued me. I'm particularly interested in the dynamics involving Vader and Tarkin that it would create.

 

Obi-Wan's:

"Vader used the training I gave him and the force within him for evil, to help the later corrupt Emperors."

may be what you're thinking of.

 

Well, this thread is ancient, but since I missed it the first tiem around...

I second the motion of wanting to see the dissolution of the Senate. But I actually prefer the film version to the novelization, where instead of the nonsense about suspending for the duration of the emergency, the Senate's simply been dissolved permanently, no qualifiers. Palpatine's been doing the incremental approach for decades - extending his mandate due to the Separatist Crisis, then giving himself emergency powers to fight the Clone Wars, then proclaiming himself Emperor but officially maintaining the Senate for another two decades. I like the idea that by the time of ANH, Palpatine simply decided, "all right, the charade is over. I've ended democracy and been an absolute dictator in all but name since the Clone Wars, the public has had twenty years to get acclimated to the idea. It's time to stop humoring the few silly people who still want to pretend otherwise."