Rogue One Did Tarkin's decision to nuke Scarif limit the Empire's weapon's programs to Death Stars?

It's all hidden in the basement of Jakku.

 

I reckon Tarkin wasn't targeting the base at all........he was clearly bullseying Krennic on the tower. You don't make a weapon that powerfull without precision targeting and the exact location of Krennic was the first place to go. Everything else.......Collateral damage!

 

That can't be correct, because Jyn and Cassian escape the tower, and they end up being between the tower and the blast point.

 

I agree. I wrote the following in another thread.

My interpretation was it's his excuse to give Krennic the finger when destroying Scarif doesn't make any sense militarily.

The Death Star had no reason to go to Scarif when they only needed conventional reinforcements, as evident when Vadar mobs up the rebels. But Tarkin on hearing Krennic was on Scarif, thought for a while and asked if the plans were there before ordering Vadar to be informed and the Death Star to jump. Clearly he was connecting the dots. He gave a cgi smirk when he said "you may fire when ready", and the beam hits Krennic squarely (on top of the communicates tower) when it could have impacted anywhere on or around the base.

He made it personal at a cost to the empire though replaceable. I doubt he would be chewed out by the emperor due to his clout. Moreover Vadar would be his alibi that the rebels did indeed received a surface transmission thus arguably warrant its destruction.

 

Why then would they target an area some 2 clicks away when wanting to destroy the base? Apart from giving Jyn and Cassian time to leave the tower and head for the beach for an emotional finale.....(incidentally between the tower and blast point)..... or giving ground crew a couple of secs to jump on a transport.
Jedha was hit square on the nail....
Tarkin's strike was surgical and reeked of malice....

 

Oh man, I was really expecting to hear them say "Starkiller" when Jyn and Cassian were going through the list of projects. That would have been cool and kind of helped explain how the First Order came up with the idea. If the plans existed for that long in the Empire's archives, it's more believable that it could actually be built 30 years later by the FO.

 

To me it seems, that Scarif is a pretty important place, given that it contains the imperial archives. The rebel fleet was being taken care off by Darth Vader, and the rebels on Scarif were almost defeated. Tarkin obviously didn't know about the Death Star's weakness, or why the rebels were there. So, destroying the base seems illogical given the stakes, and the importance of the location. Destroying it doesn't really accomplish anything. It also didn't seem Tarkin viewed Krennic as much of a threat. So, it seems Tarkin is acting out of character.

 

I would argue this is equivalent to the real life scenario of destroying secret documents if the information is compromised. If you have seen 13 Hours that is what the CIA operatives did when their compound was about to be over run by insurgents. Tarkin would simply have to conclude that the rebels on the ground could compromise all the data. I would assume that is not the only location where the information is kept, in fact Scarrif was likely their "backup" location, projects from around the empire would send data there to be stored in archive, but the original copies would still exist. It is common practice in the military for people who operate highly classified machinery to carry incendiary grenades to destroy it rather than let the enemy have it, and exploit it (or reverse engineer it).

I believe the filmmakers had him do this because it closes the plot hole of why the empire did not run the analysis the rebels did. Especially when they knew the rebels had the data. The original data was destroyed with Urso, his engineers and the facility in that attack and the backup destroyed at Scarriff. This also helps explain why Vader did not just blow Leia's cruiser at the start of ANH. They did not want the rebels to have the data, but they also wanted the data for themselves to see if the DS had been compromised in anyway.

 

My assumption was that Tarkin ordered the base destroyed because he suspected the rebels were trying to beam out the plans and wanted to minimize the chance they could be successful regardless of friendly collateral damage. Of course we know that the rebels have already sent the plans by the time he fires, but he had no way to know that. I think his logic makes a certain amount of sense when you consider that as long as the death star exists it will be basically impossible for a rebellion to succeed. Whatever was lost in the archives can be replaced; all that matters now is the death star, and any threat to it, however small, outweighs all other considerations.

At the same time, you're right that he didn't actually know about the death star weakness, as Krennic did. But I guess he did know that there had been the leaks coming from the engineering team which could have led him to the same conclusion, plus of course the rebels themselves have shown that they believe something on Scarif is worth losing dozens of ships and soldiers to recover.

 

I suppose, it also shows how ruthless and powerful Tarkin is, since he clearly doesn't have to worry about the consequences of such brash tactics. Makes you wonder, if he ever considered using the Death Star as leverage in his own bid for power. Maybe Palpatine was lucky when this SOB was killed in the Death Star attack.

 

In my opinion Tarkin just wanted to get rid of Krennica to take credit from the destruction of the Alliance.

 

Oh he was not out of character at all. To me he always seemed a "tigger happy idiot"- the destruction of Alderaan accomplished even less tactictly, just made the Rebellion all the more determined. The destruction of Scarif may suggest two things: 1. The Imps are afraid of the Rebels now (so the base must be destroyed before more plans are stolen!) or 2. "It is a faboulous way to get rid of my adversary and some Rebels, let's just do it, I do not even need to read the Manual, this 'single reactor' line sounded good enough."

And if the debris of the blow go up to the orbit of the planet I don't think anyone can guarantee that the vault itself with the other plans can remain intact.

 

I've been thinking the same thing. Tarkin seemed to be using the Death Star in random attacks that really accomplished very little for the Empire but probably helped strengthen the Rebels. Vader seemed to be strongly against the Death Star strike on Jedha, as the galaxy was not supposed to know about it. With all of the strikes that Tarkin was doing in a short period of time, Vader's cover-up story strategy for Jedha was not going to work for long after Scarif and Alderaan. If Tarkin had survived I think he definitely would have been a threat to the Emperor. He seems like a man who's desire for personal power would outweigh his loyalty.

 

That is the case.

He didn't think anything else could oppose the Empire with the Death Star. With Scarif gone, no other "super weapon research" is going to threat the Death Star and his own position. At the same time he could get rid of Krennic.

 

First post here...hello all!

I got the distinct impression from Tarkin's devilish smirk that he was EXTREMELY eager to eliminate his political rival, Krennic. He seemed to barely contain his delight. It was definitely a side (or perhaps even primary) benefit of nuking Scarif. Even though Krennic had been officially marginalized by Palpatine, I think Tarkin still viewed him as a potential rival down the line.

 

I believe the base was a hardened facility. He purposely aimed at the communications dish. The firing arc and impact could've gave some imperials time to evacuate or seek refuge.

Or, given Tarkin's rank, he would have knowledge that there was other backups, or fragmented backups organized on phases of tech projects. This could've been the only offline comprehensive project archive.

The base in his view was compromised. First, he eliminates long range communication and mass data transfer capability. Simultaneously, he eliminates the compromised base giving a brief period of evacuation. General Ramda was also executed for SOX/HIPAA security violations lol

Seriously, data backups was last on his mind. Security breech containment was his mission...Vader came in to do the exact thing.

I believe the imperials were scrambling to find a weakness in the vast amount of data over 20 years worth. Tarkin's adjutant Bast analyzed the attack pattern and narrowed down to Galen's thermal exhaust hack

 

I wrote in the TFA forums' "Starkiller Base: Good Idea or Bad Idea?" on August 16 this year that I believe SKB is a solid device in TFA because it is a logical extension of the Empire/FO thought process, "in-story" - I.e., it makes complete sense to the First Order to build the next-gen Death Star.

If the destruction of Scarif means, in-story, that all Empire weapons plans were destroyed, then perhaps that means that the FO could ONLY build a DS-type weapon like SKB. And perhaps the SKB-haters can look at TFA in a different light.

 

That does not make much sense in my mind. The FO did not seem to be using actual DS schematics and built something that is not really another DS at all in terms of how it functions. No multiple beams becoming one, not an actual space station, it was a totally different energy source and was built in a totally different way and was you know a massive planet being cut into. It is in no way based on the DS in terms of actual mechanism it is only similar in the basic idea of a giant superlaser. SKB honestly seems like a different superweapon the Empire could have built with no relation to the DS. Heck fans have even speculated that SKB was another Imp project the FO used thanks to Hux or Rax having been involved. The Empire losing its files has really nothing to do with why SKB is the way it is.

 

So you're saying the answer is, "no," then.

Sounds like you're a fan of SKB, already, though, so I'm not sure if the question applies to you...

 

I am impartial on SKB. I feel its usage in the film is cheap and it is way to much of a side track, but I love the idea and would have liked it a lot if it was either just a base or the laser gets taken out in TFA but the base itself is intact as the FO's base. I am fine with another superweapon or massive space station but it needs to have more relevance to the film itself much like how the DS was the main driving force (no pun intended) of ANH and RO.

 

My theory is those Death Star Plans were now a liability. Any warlord or Bounty Hunter might try to capture the plans and build their very own Death Star and then the Empire would no longer be the only ones with the secrets on how to build the most destructive weapon in the Galaxy. Infact the plans themselves would become high value on the interstellar black market. Anyone with a grudge against the Empire would be after them so by destroying the only known location of the plans it would prevent the plans from getting out. The real important work was in Galen's lab and with him dead no more Death Star Projects. The Rebels were right to want to kill him only ethically it was wrong. He never wanted to build these killing machines but was left with no choice.

 

Interesting thought, but I'm not sure the black market gangsters who employ bounty hunters have the wherewithal to build a weapon like that.

 

It also ties up the plot - why the Death Troopers aren't ever seen again, etc.

 

^This is actually a very logical idea, I love it. I did say that Tarkin is a trigger happy idiot, and he was one but I kinda like when there is at least some kind of logic behind what the Evil One does... it would make a perfect sense from a twisted POV.

 

Yeah I definitely got the idea that Scarif was a "backup" site, I worked in a data centre for an insurance company in the 90's taking data tapes to backup sites incase of some kind of disaster and the data vault in Rogue One definitely triggered a bit of nostalgia there.