Rogue One Why no Emperor?

he didn't need to be in it.

 

Granted, but in the context of the OT-era films, the pattern stands.

 

The Vader comics really show how precarious of a position the Emperor was in after the destruction of DS1. He lost an effective joint chiefs, and a left arm with Tarkin, who would've been head of a new order of governing with the DS1 cow towing systems in line.

The senate was a way to find out his enemies and keep abreast of their intrigues. He lost that contact by disbanding them, and lost his main threat of fear via Tarkin architect of his miltary might. It was time for him to get hands on, and he lost confidence in Vader.

 

The Empire is a means to an end, not an end itself. The Empire allows Palpatine to establish order, and purge his enemies and create security.

But Palpatine is a Sith. His goal is achieving unlimited power through the Force. Vader seems unimpressed by the Death Star compared to what the Force can achieve, and Palpatine probably was too.

The Death Star would have been a great tool to maintaining order through fear, but ultimately Palpatine didn't seem to feel too threatened about entrusting it to ambitious military men.

The man doesn't show up to the inauguration of his superweapon, but makes time to travel to the Outer Rim when he foresees that Luke will seek out Vader and that he can spring a trap to manipulate Luke.

Where Luke was concerned and the possibility of a stronger apprentice, he got involved. Similarly in the Vader comic, when Vader failed, he was made subordinate to Tagge and Cylo was given the opportunity to demonstrate potential replacements to Vader.

While Vader ultimately triumphs and Palpatine tells him it was all a ploy to weed out Cylo as a traitor, Vader calls Palpatine out and says that had one of Cylo's creations killed Vader, Palpatine would be giving them praise instead. But when Vader wins, he is instead made Tagge's superior and basically inherits Tarkin's task of suppressing the Rebels.

Matters of the Force seemed to triumph everything in Palpatine's eyes, which is largely why I think he's reclusive, as Pablo seemed to indicate. I think the Tarkin novel also alludes to Palpatine being preoccupied with the Force.

I think the political machinery was largely beneath him once he became Emperor and he entrusted administration to the Imperial council.

When it comes to someone like Krennic whining to Palpatine about his accomplishments and desiring more power, I don't think Palpatine cares or wants to be bothered with it.

Tarkin isn't going to put in a good word for Krennic, because they're rivals. Vader chokes Krennic and cuts him off because I think Vader frankly looks down on people like Krennic as he's not interested in doing Krennic any favors.

When Tarkin eliminates Krennic, I don't get the impression that it was due to any order from Palpatine, but merely a move made by an ambitious man who saw an opportunity to remove a hurdle. And at the end of the day, I would think Palpatine would think that whomever managed to take hold of the Death Star deserved it.

I don't think Vader or Tarkin saw any need to involve the Emperor, and I don't think Palpatine himself saw any need to be involved. He's not the guy you want to report failures to.




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I love that this film largely gave us new players and not OT characters, Vader, Tarkin, Leia and the shoehorned droids cameo aside.

I would argue we didn't need to see Leia either…or at least her face. Vader's earlier scene on Mustafar was largely unnecessary even if it was very cool. The droids also had a pointless cameo.

Tarkin was necessary though. And so was Vader's at the end to connect the films.

But I'm glad we didn't see Palpatine. Wasn't necessary.

 

You probably could have done without Vader in RO but equally I don't think his presense had a negative effect and did tie the film to ANH a bit more effectively.

Tarkin on the other hand was I think even with quite limited screen time a much more important character to the plot. For one thing he obviously benefits from being a bit more of a clean slate but also I think he providesa much more effective of the ruthless imperial power politics in his conflict with Krennic.

I'm not read any of the recent new Canon books but I wouldn't be surprised if there's a deliberate choice to shift the Emperor a bit more into the background in terms of presense and day to day planning of imperial actions since this obviously does leave more room for new characters to be introduced. What will be interesting I think is what happens if we get another anthology film similar to Rogue One but set latter into the conflict, the OT increasingly presents Imp officers are brow beaten by Vader and the Emperor although you could argue we don't really see enough to take this as meaning there wasn't anybody stronger around.

 

In the novel Tarkin, Sheev was already annoyed by the politic; however, he knew when to keep tabs on genuine threats.

The first issue of the Vader comics has Palpatine interrupting Vader pontificating about the Force and that the Imperial High Command were arrogant in their faith if the DS1.

The Emperor is genuinely concerned that twenty years of planning was now orbital dust at Yavin.

The power of two dark lords isn't enough when you have a galaxy of trillions of sentients ready to take aim at you. Jabba warned Vader of his situation when negotiating with him.

The practicality of the Death Star was it was a force multiplier; and Palpatine knew that he and Vader couldn't personally threaten the Galaxy into submission.

 

I'm not arguing that they could pound the Galaxy into submission. Merely that the Tarkin novel has Palpatine lusting after Dark Side secrets that would allow him to shape reality, and dreams of power that would put Plagueis' quest for immortality to shame.

He thinks that he and Vader will achieve this together, and he can't if both are preoccupied with politics. The Empire and Death Star were supposed to quell their opponents so that they could direct their attention elsewhere, at least that is the implication given in the Tarkin novel. That Palpatine wasn't going to sit on some throne and rule over the Empire, he was largely letting his bureaucracy manage things while he stays in seclusion for the most part.

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As I have already said we are WAY past the OT.

Even in that context we know who the Emperor is since this is a prequel and in the larger context we know even more.

Besides that R1 is not just an OT era film. It's a saga era film that in particular is as it's purpose is tying the post III and pre IV Imperial story threads together.

This I would say is the one major misstep in that regard which is odd in that is one of the driving themes of the movie which is also tied into the Vader and Tarkin dynamic which in ANH is at odds with how Vader is seen.

Why the Vader of R1 would be the Vader of ANH who is certainly not the presence that is felt by others.

Granted that there is no terrific way to do it but they didn't do anything to smooth it over either.

R1 Vader should be choking Imperials all over the place in ANH not the least Tarkin.

So my point is by having their dynamic onscreen with Sidious then it makes ANH's relationship work better.

 

For the same reason Jabba should have stayed out of ANH.

Could have had Krennic stepping on his foot or something... "Sheev, you're a wonderful human being"