CT Why do people blame Vader for destroying Alderaan?

Indeed. From the Illustrated ROTJ Storybook (which is based on a slightly earlier script)

"I want you to know this because ... I might not come back. And you're the only one I can trust. Darth Vader is my father."
"Your father?" Leia felt herself grow pale. She pulled away from him. "No, I can't believe that!" It couldn't be true. Luke was a brave, honorable Jedi Knight. He could not be the son of the inhuman monster who had destroyed her world.

So it's likely that Leia held him and Tarkin jointly responsible.

 

On another Thread, I was just commenting how, over the years, a school of thought has developed that the Emperor wasn't really "so bad", that the Empire wasn't really "so bad", etc. After all, in the movies, we never see the average people being oppressed, we aren't shown, virtually at all, what its really like to live under the Empire. True, Lando doesn't seem eager to come under imperial scrutiny, but he's presented as kind of a sketchy character, and that might just be akin to someone running an off the books operation not wanting attention from the IRS, right? Tatooine is a pretty marginal backwater planet - seems that if you stayed out of town and kept your nose clean you might never even see a Stormtrooper.

HOWEVER, I am pretty confident in saying that yeah, GL meant you to come away seeing the Emperor as outright evil, and the Empire as downright evil, and Darth Vader as being pretty generally supportive of both. I know he talks to Luke about bringing order and ending destructive conflict, and maybe on some level he even believes it, but its the peace and order of an iron fisted absolute dictatorship, with Vader on the throne. As noted above, he is high in the command structure, not some powerless grunt way way way down in the cannon-fodder ranks of the soldiers. There is no reason to think he has any qualms about destroying Alderaan - he certainly never expresses any, and in Rogue One we see him carving through a bunch of Rebels to try to recover the Death Star plans. In short, Vader is one of the most powerful and high ranking officials in an evil regime that will gleefully destroy whole planets simply to make a point (as Tarkin notes!). I'd say he fairly deserves a good helping of blame.

 

When George Lucas was still in control of Lucasfilm, I believe Tatooine was a part of the the Galactic Republic's Arkanis Sector and later, the Galactic Empire. However, the planet teeming with criminals was so remote that the Hutts more or less became the planet's de facto leaders. And both the Republic and the Empire simply ignored it. I've heard that Disney changed the canon and allowed Tatooine only to be part of the Galactic Empire.

 

Newcanon sources do sometimes hint that it was theoretically a Republic planet and that the Republic just couldn't enforce its rules on the Outer Rim - like the Backstories - Darth Vader book.

Wookieepedia on the subject:

https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Tatooine

In the last decades of the Galactic Republic, Tatooine was home to a human slave named Shmi Skywalker and her son, the young Anakin owing to lax enforcement of Republic anti-slavery laws.[17]

Does sound like a badly controlled Republic planet rather than a fully independent one there.

 

For those who doubt the evil of the empire, remember the first few moments when Star Wars was unveiled to the world in '77, the opening crawl told us that Princess Leia was fleeing the EVIL EMPIRE. Doesn't get much clearer than that.

 

He's the Empire's top enforcer and represents the Empire. Police and Military, takes a lot of blame, for decisions made by Politicians.

 

Even though Vader didn't make the decision to go full-on genocide to Alderaan, he allowed it to happen when he had the power to stop it. He decided not to. Can we make a case for negligent homicide?

 

Sith Lord should be > anyone except for the Sith Master hierarchically, but Tarkin was probably the only exception to that rule due to having the full command of the Death Star, granted by the Emperor Sith Master himself, so it's understandable that people think Vader had the command on Death Star, but technically it was Tarkin.

As for why the Emperor gave the command of Death Star to Tarkin instead of Vader, I think the answer is clear. Because Vader is a Sith Lord, and he can use Death Star to overthrow the Emperor, all he had to do is locate which planet the Emperor is on, and destroy it. Then Vader becomes the Emperor. Thus, giving the command of Death Star to Tarkin makes sense.

Of course, Tarkin is responsible for Alderaan, let's not pretend that Vader wouldn't do the same, not Alderaan perhaps, but he could easily destroy Coruscant if he knew that the Emperor was there.

 

Didn't Vader get into trouble with Palpatine for not stopping Tarkin?

I thought Tarkin had a long association with Palpatine, stretching back to the Clone Wars.

 

He does, but the Emperor's primary concern is keeping his underlings at each other's throats so they don't team up and overthrow him. He puts Tarkin in charge of the Death Star to act as a check on Vader, and he sends Vader to the Death Star to act as a check on Tarkin.

That is to say, Vader is there to make sure Tarkin doesn't make any moves that the Emperor wouldn't like. Vader doesn't do anything to stop Tarkin from blowing up Alderaan. Therefore, Vader theoretically has the power to stop Tarkin from acting, but chose not to do so in this instance because it did not interfere with the Emperor's agenda. Thus, Vader is complicit.

 

Vader for its destruction:

 

I blame George.

 

Anakin may have been the Empire's top enforcer, but he had no say so regarding the Death Star. The latter was not under Anakin's control or command. On the Death Star, the buck stopped with Grand Moff Tarkin. And it was the Emperor who personally gave Tarkin that position, because the latter had gained favor with the former. Anakin was not some liaison between the Emperor and Tarkin. You can accuse Anakin of making no attempt to prevent Tarkin from destroying Alderaan - one way or the other. But the final blame should be laid at Tarkin's feet.

 

Related topic, do you think Leia eventually adopted Corellia as her home planet?

 

I think Lucas had in mind back in the 1970s that Tatooine would eventually become the homeworld for Alderaanian refugees. Before Leia and Han became the preferred ship over Leia and Luke, that is.

 

There was this little thing called the Nuremberg trials where this was covered.

 

I believe he deserves partial blame because Tarkin did not have Sidious' permission to destroy Alderaan, and Sidious was also shocked by the decision.





Besides, Vader also respected Tarkin for his diabolically inventive plan to force Leia to name the rebel base's location.



Had Tarkin escaped the Battle of Yavin, Sidious would have surely executed him.

At any rate, while Tarkin deserves the majority of blame, Vader also bears some responsibility. If he had reminded Tarkin of the historical importance of Alderaan and how beloved it was, they could have simply blown up some uninhabitable moon or planet. It would be like, "Leia, if you don't tell us where this base is, we'll do this to your homeworld next." However, that would require Tarkin and Vader to be humane, and they were not. Besides, retroactively speaking, Vader is at his darkest in R1 and ANH. People often mistake him for being at his darkest in TESB, but if he were darker in that film, he would have killed Luke. His humanity is trying to return in that film. He is a violent mass murderer in R1 and he's just as cold in ANH. Besides, Tarkin is the main antagonist of ANH, and Vader defers to him out of respect. Also, if memory serves, Sidious put the Death Star under Tarkin's control. He didn't want his apprentice in charge of that superweapon. It really is a terrifying planet-killer. The Death Star was utilized to obliterate a city, a base, and an entire planet. Also, in the EU, the Death Star tested by destroying Despayre, the penal world over which it was constructed. I'd like to believe that Tarkin did that after Jedha City was destroyed in R1. It makes sense. Annihilate a city first, then use a few shots to destroy a planet, then you can do whatever you want with it.

On a side note, I find it amusing how the Lore Master and Star Wars Reading Club both often feature artwork of Vader standing next to a seated Palpatine, Tarkin, or Thrawn. He likes to stand next to seated people. Lol.

 

Maybe he's just trying to get his steps in!

 

Good post here. Things aren’t always as black and white as our minds like to make them. Even the opening crawls of the prequels mention that there are heroes on both sides. Palpatine is correct in saying that "good" is a point of view which in many cases it certainly is. Even in the Mandalorian TV show there is an episode with Bill Burr where his character mentions that "it doesn’t matter who’s in charge. Someone rules and someone is ruled". Something like that. And in that show we see that even with beloved rebellion in charge there are still oppressed people and problems.

Hate to say it but some order and structure is probably good for any society. Can’t be all mad max or Escape from NY type of thing. That doesn’t work. It is interesting that we don’t see any real oppression by the empire in the films. You could argue that the prequels looking so hi tech and "shiny" which then we get to the OT and it appears that they’ve taken a step back with things more bleak and grim makes it seem Ike things got worse. Dunno though. Interesting stuff.

 

Yes, let's ask the population of Alderaan how bad the Empire is. Oh, wait, we can't, can we?

 

They are probably a bit torn apart regarding the Empire.

 

Dude, you're going to hell.