Tarkin... a monster or a good guy??

This is coming from a confessed Tarkin Lover. I think that Tarkin isn't the monster he is made out to be. Sure he's evil (who isn't) but he is just doing his job. Another thing... would all the Rebles fear him so much if he was a weakling?? I hate the fact that Tarkin had to die, because that made the Rebel Sucm'S life easier. Pohh. (Besides, he was WAY important)

 

Well, lessee here....

He lied, he decieved, he murdered billions of civillians, he acquiesced to torture, and ordered Leia executed in a fit of pique.

All in a day's work? I think not. He could have "done his job" with half the brutality that he did.

Although perhaps Vader was rubbing off on him.

 

I think Tarkin represents the average Imperial, willing to do whatever it took to get the job done for the sake of 'order', but not necessarily evil at heart, just extremely brutal and afraid of the consequences, aka the Emperor, Vader, etc.

 

By the same logic, you could say that most of the Nazi war criminals during WWII shouldn't have been punished since they were 'only following orders'. Sycophants who follow orders without the slighest concern for morality are the only reasons tyrants are able to stay in power at all. Anyone willing to kill hundreds of millions of people just because they were ordered to deserves just as much blame as the person who made them do it.

This topic also brings to mind a part of the RotJ novelization in which Grand Moff Jerjerrod, while watching the second Death Star fall to pieces around him, wonders what he ever did wrong since his entire life he always did whatever his superiors told him to.

 

I enjoyed the character of Grand Moff Tarkin. Why? Not becuause he was a "good-guy" but he was so well done. You can be a fan of a certain character for his persona and not have to defend his actions.

Tarkin was intrigueing because he gave the almighty Darth Vader orders, had a suave cruelty to him, and was a prime example of a Star Wars character's ability to be evil without being a acolyte of the Darkside.

I think watching him in deep thought just before the Death Star was blown into space dust was actually quite satisfying......

Edit - BTW I just knew someone was going to bring up Nazi Germany to rebuttel the duty argument.

<[-]> Saber

 

tarkin is just plain cool.

end of story.

 

Tarkin...a monster or a good guy??

Probably depends on which way you fall on President Bush.

 

Tarkin was more evil than Darth Vader.
Will we ever know if he acted alone in blowing away Alderaan, or was he ordered to to do it by the Emperour. Sounds like Sidious thinking "Wipe them out, all of them" TPM referring to the Gungans

 

I've always liked the Tarkin character. His fierce loyalty to the Empire and his ruthlessness was unmatched in the OT.

 

What BLUEJEDI said.

Tarkin is more evil than Vader. He's the one who ordered Alderaan's destruction and the execution of Princess Leia. Vader actually spared her life.

 

Absolutely. Vader is cruel, but nowhere near as unethical as Tarkin. Tarkin kills and destroys without reason and apparently has no deeper motivation for what he does than a desire to get ahead in the hierarchy of the Imperial government.

 

I think the destruction of Alderaan is what makes Tarkin ruthless. I mean you would have to be pretty bad to want to destroy an entire planet killing millions or maybe even billions.

The power of the Death Star could have been tested on a Larger Unhabited Dead Planet instead. This still would have scared the crap out of the Rebellion.

I don't hate Tarkin as a SW Character, but his ruthlessness is right up there with Papaltine and gives the rest of us Sith a bad name! LOL

 

Wow... so much response. I do havbe to admit that I like Tarkin because of how suave and powerful (bossing Vader around??? Vader RESPECTS the man for crying out loud) he is. I mean, powerful guys are a great draw. Plus, I don't think the Nazi comparrison is fair. He wasn't systematically trying to kill all one ethnic group, he was trying to restore order to "his" worldly sense of order. However, your point is well taken. Besides, it has often been shown that Tarkin was not xenophobic, and that he found "alien" (non humans) to be equals on both intellectual and phisical levels. (Whem!!) Now that I got this outta me, thanks for the response!! Please contribute more!!

 

"Plus, I don't think the Nazi comparrison is fair. He wasn't systematically trying to kill all one ethnic group, he was trying to restore order to "his" worldly sense of order. However, your point is well taken. Besides, it has often been shown that Tarkin was not xenophobic, and that he found "alien" (non humans) to be equals on both intellectual and phisical levels. (Whem!!) Now that I got this outta me, thanks for the response!! Please contribute more!!"

I didn't mean that I thought Tarkin was racist/specist. I simply meant that he, like a number of Nazi officers, was willing to do terrible things simply because his superiors told him to and he wanted to get ahead in the military.

 

oh he's definetly a monster. He's 3vil, no getting around that. But like others have just said, his character is well done and very interesting. He's one of my favorite characters in ANH and I wish he could have lived so we could see more of him in the next two movies. His arrogence in refusing to evacuate the DS is one of my favorite scenes in ANH. He's a very despicable man but very fun to watch.

 

I agree he's an interesting character, but to call him a 'good guy' is going over the line, unless you have a very strange sense of morals.

 

Tarkin... a monster or a good guy??

Monster

Blowing up a planet of civilians, especially considering the planet wasn't an enemy planet, it was an Imperial controlled system

And blowing up Alderaan wasn't going to end the war, blowing up a planet for no reason is just going to piss people off, it isn't going to make the rebels surrender

Had Alderaan been a rebel stronghold then it would have been arguably justified, but there is no line of thinking that could condone (sp?) what he did

And if you get into the EU it was the Gorhman massacre, where Tarkin landed his shuttle on top of protesting civillians, that caught him the Emperor's eye

But who knows, maybe the protestors were like the hippies that tried to "shut down" san francisco, if they were then I'd say all power to ya Tarkin

 

BRILLIANT THREAD - EXCELLENT POSTINGS

Tarkin is brilliant because of Peter Cushing

Classic villian, didn't need to get angry to be evil, pure class

 

Tarkin was definatly a monster but, he's a monster who's fun to watch.