Saga What is the second-highest position in the Galactic Empire?

I originally thought of it as Supreme Commander as that is what Vader was, but then I hear about Thrawn and how he was the leader of the Empire for a year or so as a Grand Admiral. Also, there's the position of Grand Moff, Grand Vizier and I just begin to get confused.

Could a Supreme Commander take control of the Empire like Thrawn did as Grand Admiral? What is the highest position in the Empire after Emperor, and why did no one take that position after Sidious and Pestage?

 

I always assumed that there was the Emperor and then many people fighting amongst themselves for his favor. Vader and Grand Moff Tarkin seem to be on the same level, more or less, in ANH, and if you read Tarkin it still looks that way. Also, Shadows of the Empire shows this a bit with Xizor and Vader. I don't think there's much of a structure at that level, even though there is a military structure lower than that. You also run into a problem when you get to Thrawn where both Vader and the Emperor and Tarkin and most of the other military officers died on one of the Death Stars.

 

Seems a bit of a stretch to suggest the Empire's military officers are mainly kaput once the DSs are no more. Unlikely. Though I do agree there doesn't seem much structure at the top of the heap but for me Tarkin and Vader are anything but equal and it's conveyed in SW just fine. I take Tarkin as above Vader. He's just an attack dog.

 

I often wonder if Palpatine was gay, like most rulers, he didnt seem to want to have women around. Maybe he was attracted to Anakin. It seems during the Republic era the reunification of the Confederacy and the Republic. They keep the Separatist system of 3 top guys, Sidious, Dooku and Grevious. A supreme ruler, a political enforcer and a military leader. In ANH that would Palpatine, Vader and Tarkin. So when you look at who were Palpatines 2nd in command, we would have to look at Dooku, Tarkin and Vader. Grevious only seemed to report to Palpatine after Dookus death. It seems that Vader was Grevious replacement and Tarkin was Dooku's replacement. So id say Tarkin was until his death.

 

The Death Star was under Tarkin's jurisdiction, as the Executor was under Vader's...
Vader was just a guest on the Death Star....

Vader was not a militar, so there shouldn't have any hierarchy between them...
Maybe Vader's behavior was based on some sort of personal respect...

You are right.... Look:

 

Yeah OK, let's get this topic back on track, thanks...

 

Keep in mind that when the second Death Star went down, so did the Executor and a few other Imperial flagships. In the EU, we saw a whole bunch of warlords try to scramble to the top. Who knows what happened in the new canon? We'll probably learn a bit of that with TFA.

 

My view is that there is 1 Master and 1 Apprentice that rule together (with the Master in the superior position until he is ousted by his Apprentice who is then Master with his own Apprentice) and everyone else in the galaxy is considered expendable and beneath the two of them. Even when the Apprentice becomes master, his new Apprentice takes 2nd position in the galaxy.

However, that does not mean that others like Grievous, Tarkin, Thrawn, Xixor, etc., would not be given massive respect for their achievements and leadership, and a commiserate position in the universe in terms of rank or position from the Emperor's point of view (most of them earned their own wealth or position through hard work and determination or born into it, etc). So they rule their area and they don't get too much interference from the Dark Lords unless the worlds clash (Vader's Rebel Search or the Emperor wanting to inspect their administration/progress or use their services in some way.

So I think you had the military and business sectors which had their leaders like Tarkin and Xixor and then the Dark Lords over them, with the Emperor the leader and his Apprentice the enforcer. I think there were a number of people in the position of Tarkin and Xixor throughout the galaxy with more or less power in their sector depending on its size and importance to the galaxy in terms of contribution to it and to the Emperor.

 

From what I understand, the title of Grand Admiral does outrank a Grand Moff, military wise, the same goes for the Imperial Advisor positions like Grand Vizier. That being said, I believe I read some where(not sure where) that Palpatine liked to keep the ranks rather muddled so they would end up fighting among themselves, rather to pay attention to whatever messed up stuff, Palps is doing at moment, and you see this even a little in the Tarkin novel.

 

There are no Grand Admirals. It was a stupid invention by Zahn who didn't think it through. If there were Grand Admirals, they should have been in the movies, leading the battle of Hoth and the battle of Endor.

 

Think of it like Nazism, where anyone under Hitler was basically played off each other to keep them from forming any opposition against him. Essentially there is the Emperor and there is the Crown Prince which is Vader. Everyone else is josseling for the other positions, none of which really form a second-in-command since the roles are distributed in such a way none can establish a power base. Even Vader himself is thrown amongst this. So there is no real practical second-in-command.

 

Vader was his second in command, and was known as Supreme Commander. Palpatine did keep those after Tarkin pitted against each other so there would be no uprising to overthrow him.

 

Executor/Supreme Commander is supposed to be the second highest. The ranking system in the films isn't well established, to be frank, and the EU definitely warped it into something convoluted.

If we're talking about the EU - what happened in Legends is that there were many different "chiefs" of many different branches of the Empire (COMPNOR, Intelligence, Army, Navy), and once both Lord Vader and the Emperor were killed, they scrambled to fill both spots. There really wasn't any rhyme or reason to it, though it would seem Pestage was the legitimate third-in-command. We still end up with chaos, and Pestage, Isard, Thrawn all holding power at various points. Yet none of them were actually second-in-command, nor were they third-in-command. They were just high-ranking Imperials who took power.

If Emperor Palpatine were to be killed before ROTJ, though, it is assumed that the Supreme Commander (Vader) would take his place. I highly doubt the Emperor actually planned for such, which is why there wasn't any solid order of succession.

 

If both the Emperor and Vader would kill, wouldn't the Grand Vizier take over? In the old EU, it was Sate Pestage; in the new canon, it's Mas Amedda.

 

PCCViking
In the films, there's no indication of such. In the new canon, I know it's been mentioned, but I'm not exactly sure how binding that is, having not read majority of the new books.