Tarkin: The only Moff?

Was Grand Moff Tarkin the only Moff in the movies or are there others? If so, is he the only Grand Moff? Furthermore, where in the heirarchy of the empire does the Position of Moff fall? Is he akin to the Secretary of Defense? State Dept? Interior Dept?

I have so many questions...

 

The commander of the 2nd death star was a Moff, Tarkin was a Grand Moff.

 

Yes but what manner of rank is a Moff?

 

Moff is a regional governor. Grand Moff is a Priority Regional Governor. They are directly under Palpatine and replace the Senate when it is disbanded in episode IV.

Emperor
Vader
Grand Moff
Moff
Officers and troopers of the Imperial Military
Clone Stormtroopers (Answerable to Palpatine only if he so orders it)

 

So why is it so easy for Grand Moff Tarkin to order Vader around in Ep. IV? He doesn't even call him Lord or Darth, he just says, "Vader, that's enough!" Is it possible that Tarkin answers only to Palpatine and not to Vader as Vader is still his apprentice?

 

That has always been up in the air as to where Tarkin falls in the line of command. Vader may only listen to him because he is very close to Palpatine.

 

Vader listens to him because he is of higher rank. Tarkin could have him killed in a heartbeat...well, attempted.

 

I didn't realize there were different levels of Moff. Although it is clear that Moff Jerjerrod was a peon, whereas Tarkin had real power.

In the ANH commentary, GL says Vader is on the same level as Tarkin, and is on the same level as all the top level Imperial officers.
-Palpatine
-Vader, Tarkin, etc...
-Motti, Taggi, Jerjerrod, etc...
-everyone else
This is how I think it goes.

 

Tarkin was only in charge of Vader on the Death Star.

 

Isn't there a line in AHN that suggests that Vader is on Tarkin's "leash"?

Is one to assume that "Moff" is a term used exclusively for high ranking officials on ships?

 

actual line from a novel:

a grand conference of moffs, a mofference.


hahahaha i read that i almost lost it laughing.

 

"Vader listens to him because he is of higher rank. Tarkin could have him killed in a heartbeat...well, attempted."

Vader is the current Sith apprentice, the only one higher up than him is Palpatine/Sidious.

"So why is it so easy for Grand Moff Tarkin to order Vader around in Ep. IV?"

I didn't see anything in ANH that showed Tarkin as being definitively higher up than Vader. If you're reffering to the scene where Vader is forcechocking the imperial officer and Tarkin steps in here's my interpretation. Vader could have forcechocked him to death and Tarkin would not have been able to stop him, but firslty Vader seems to respect Tarkin, and secondly if the officer he was chocking held a high enough position he would probably have had to answer too the emperor as too why he felt the need to kill one of his higher ranks. Vader might have tried to right it off as it would inspire fear and respect but the truth was that there would have been no reason to kill him.
The way Vader says, "as you wish." implies more that he was simply indulging Tarkin because he wasn't going to kill him anyway.
Then when Leia refers to Tarkin holding Vader's Leash interpereted it this way,
Tarkin understands that he is in a position that has certain merits because while he can be replaced, he can't be replaced easily. So therefore he is perhaps the only one in the Empire who can come as close as he does to Vader. Tarkin cannot overide Vader's authority, but unlike most, he can voice his opinion, which Vader can choose to indulge.

 

And how much time do you spend as a petit moff before you make grand moff?

 

Sephirah....

dude go back and watch ANH with the commentary on. lucas himself states that vader and tarkin are equals. he doesn't really talk about rank though but he says how vader evolves to go from a equal in ANH to higher in ESB and ROTJ.




the way i look at it

vader doesn't have any specific rank.

he is like the bosses son. no real rank but TONS of influence.

vader is a specialist called in to make things right.

 

^ Yeah, that's how I've always seen it too. Vader's not really a part of the military so he doesn't really have any kind of Imerial rank, but he still has a lot of power as he's the Emperor's right hand man.

 

Vader and Tarkin have no real power over the other. They both take orders only from the Emperor himself.

 

"vader doesn't have any specific rank.

he is like the bosses son. no real rank but TONS of influence."

i totally agree. Vader is like the Dark Pope. for palpatine and vader, politics and military are ultimately tools. And any rank they may or may not hold in those realms are secondary and solely utilitarian. They are the clergy in a time and place where religeous/spiritual power will trump military and political power. (religeous hegemony is still a reality in some places on Earth in the 21st century.)
Tarkin appears dominant because the religeous hegemony is ascending, but hasn't yet become dominant. By the end of ANH, it has.

 

I don't know about you guys but I'd say that answers my question pretty well...

 

Don`t you think it would be unwise for Palpatine to give total power over Empire military and administration to Vader?

It seems Darth is more in charge in ESB than ANH.

 

Yeah and Vader can choke the high ranking officers and no one can even complain about it! Apparently Tarkin was the only person who could reason with him.

 

watch ANH with the commentary on

lucas himself explains all this