Why Palpatine Was Glad Tarkin Died on the Death Star - Star Wars Explained 

huh, i’m surprised that’s not a more well known phrase among Star Wars fans you’ve coined there- the “Palpatine Paradox”. I like it

​@@fionnbarrcasey5247 I think once the sith became the superpower of the galaxy Sidious slowly started losing his ability to socialise and take people for their word and relied more on his own dark side senses and what the dark side itself said about his pawns.

Well no one ever said Sith Lords were level-headed or always rational. Sidious also definitely suffered a decline in his people skills after ascending to power and not needing to play by those rules anymore.

I think that's the paradox of all authoritarians and dictators

I wonder how he really felt about Grand Admiral Thrawn since he was insanely intelligent AND an alien.

Wouldn’t surprise me if alderan was targeted by palpatine as the alderan royal family was heavy rebellion supporter

​@Nicolai MyshkinHoly shit Nicolai. Ur right! these guys are commies. 😆. Funny coming from a name like urs. But, ive lived in Cali since i was born and totally agree it's not the same as it was. Society wise. Sad.

​@Nicolai Myshkin LMAO

Took the words right out of my mouth.

From a lore perspective, one has to question whether _Sideous_ really desired a functional, stable and triumphant Empire - in contrast to a prolongued, perpetual conflict that will erode both sides as eventually reflected in domestic failures and disullusionment of the New Republic. Hijacking entire super star destroyers for a 'counter-offensive' didn't exactly help an Imperial Navy in it's missions.

If Tarkin survived in Legends, Sidious would steal Scar's lines from Lion King before executing him. Palpatine: Before I end your wretched life along with your ambitions, here's my little secret . . . (leans to his ear and whispers) I killed your son!" Yep, in Legends Tarkin had a son whom he loved. And Tarkin manipulated Vader into bumping said son off to make Tarkin the genocidal madman we're familiar with. Read the Legends Dark Horse Comic "Darth Vader and the Lost Command" for reference.

I believe Tarkin was counting on the Deathstar itself being a deterrent to rebellion and the propaganda excuse could have been made that since the Alderaan royal family were traitors then the entire planet were traitors as well and had to be dealt with. It would also send the message of fear that only obedience to the empire would be tolerate and we wont just come and genocide you or replace your leaders we will erase you if you rebel against us. Thats a powerful message and its holds another message as well that no one is beyond the Emperors reach and no one is above reproach, you are just a cog in the machine to us and utterly disposable. In that sense I disagree and I think Palpatine would have approved of the action as long as Tarkin had kept the Death Star intact and functional. Ultimately he was foolish because he knew the rebels had the deathstar plans and failed to do an investigation as to what the rebels may have discovered as a weakness. In a sense the Empire's fundamental character flaw is that its leaders are overconfident and fail to calculate any small variable that could defeat them as they are over eager to bask in triumph. I mean the battle of Endor the Emperor could have just put Luke in a prison cell and ensured the defeat of the rebels and the turning of Luke were done one at a time with Vader leading the fleet to crush the rebels or had him protecting the shield generator. Say is Leia and Han died on Endor then Luke would have had more impetus to turn to the dark side. The problem the empire had in Tarkin and Palpatine is that they were so overconfident about their victory and in their untouchable status they they failed to ensure that a real overkill was achieved. The way you win a battle when you have superior forces is to ensure at all cost that your most valuable pieces cannot be touched and there are no unknown variables. Without Vader protecting the sheild generator then it was always vulnerable to the rebels destroying it. With the rebels possessing the death star plans Tarkin has 0 clue what they know about and is taking a huge risk using the Deathstar against their base as they will have nothing to lose in sending everything against it and employing their hidden advantage. In a sense the destruction of both Deathstars is due to the Empire being impatient, arrogant and giving the Rebels the opportunity to employ hidden advantages against the empire. I mean the Emperor knows the rebels are trying to destroy the shield generator and they are confident they can do it, maybe your best legion of troops isnt good enough and you should have Vader down there as your trump card because with Luke captured and imprisoned the rebels lack any tools to counter Vader. This should be villainy 101, do not give your opponent any chances to exploit your weaknesses and you should mechanically ensure total control of all variables with overkill. Hey whats the one thing that can allow the rebels to win the battle of Endor? Destruction of the shield generator. Okay lets use an overkill force including Darth Vader to ensure they cant achieve their objective. If you dont know all the variables or forces your opponent has in play against you then you should probably withdraw and gather more intelligence instead of taking things to chance. I think me sitting here at my computer screen being a nobody has come up with a better doctrine than a supposed military genius. After the destruction of the first deathstar you think the Empire would have learned something. It reminds me of some statement that a prepper made that you should figure out what imperishable supplies you need for survival for 6 years. Then one you calculate that amount get 5 times more than you think you need.

By the battle of Hoth, the Rebels are still a small band. Where did all the recruits go?

@@gumdeo The Rebels didn't have everyone on Hoth; indeed, in the opening crawl of Empire it says 'A small group of freedom fighters'. Most of what they did was hit and run. Besides, you can help a cause by getting them money etc, and I suspect that's what happened.

yep the rule of fear does not work if you do not give way out form the fear of judgment. Simply put destruction of Alderaan made the current up rising different than all the others because rebels felt they had nothing to lose.

lol

"Including them blowing up that really expensive battle station?" ~ choking sounds ~

I've seen some good explanations as to why the emperors vision of the future did not come true. Basically he is unable to see contingencies where the light side of the force was too strong. There were many examples of this, but the most obvious is the Ewoks. These cute little guys were simply not on the emperor's dark side radar

Always in motion is the future.

@@bryanx0317 Or, and follow me on this, he airquotes sees the future. Did we see him make a prediction that anyone with the information he had access to as a man couldn't make? Did he foresee Ozzel coming out of lightspeed to close to the system? Did he see Rogue One stealing the DS plans? Heck, with the carnivorous teddy bears, wasn't a light side issue involved when they took on the 501st- and if you can't "foresee" more than a few hours in the future, yeah, calling shenanigans. Gotta remember, dude is a master manipulator- and convincing certain people (cough Vader cough) that he can see the future, i.e., seeing what bullshit you're planning, might be good idea.

​@@Sephiroth144 well it did reveal that Anakin had a son who could if he was to be turned become a very powerful ally.

If he was the best Sith Lord ever he would have just dominated all the minds of his highest commanders like Tenebrae would have… and inherently the dark side is not evil… Just as the Jedi are not good…

Palpatine is w :D

@@isessogroup The Sith philosophy is to pursue personal power at any cost, which is inherently evil. But you're right that the Jedi aren't inherently good. Their purpose is to preserve the balance of the Force. If the force were an organism, the Sith would be a virus, and the Dark Side would be an infected cell that has been converted to the virus's purpose and no longer serves the organism. The Jedi would be part of the immune system. Even if Palpatine did mind control his highest officers, that misses the point: He's letting people rise in power on the basis of their ability to manipulate and backstab, rather than their competence at whatever their actual function happens to be, which is a completely different skill. He was lucky with Thrawn being adept at both military command and organizational politics, but overall, letting cutthroats rise just fills the top tiers of an organization with people who are incompetent at their jobs and dangerous to their superiors. That outcome is not conducive to the survival of an organization, but it's what the Sith philosophy promotes. Or the Rule of Two Sith, at least. And even with mental domination, if you surround yourself with dangerous people, there will always be a risk of one of them finding a creative way to take you out anyway.

@@OmegaContingency.Shin-Chara Your confusion is heartbreaking. The force does not NEED the Jedi to balance it. The light and dark are sides of a WHOLE with different routes to the same well of power… the goal of both is to manipulate the everflowing and ever present force. For either to try to destroy each other completely has been proven that the force harshly bites back. There are more teachings and overstanding you must acquire before making such a lengthy post. Palpatine did not adhere to the Rule of Two. The Rule of One and his Empire have been expounded on in his writings

​@@OmegaContingency.Shin-Chara honestly I find the emperor to be one of the most interesting siths that's ever existed. From a political standpoint he's the best Any Sith or force-user has ever been in galactic politics. From a military standpoint he is the worst any sith or Jedi or any other Force user has ever been. You can talk about the Jedi all you want but they ran the republic's wars for over a thousand years. The old sith were constantly backstabbing each other but they managed military Empire for over a thousand years. He was able to effectively defeat all of his potential sith opponents and defeat the Jedi and take over the Republic but he couldn't keep it for more than 20 years. I truly believe if any other sith or dark Jedi took his position they would still be in power by the time of the sequel trilogy.

Well, Thrawn disagreed on the Death Star while Tarkin was all for it.

The Chances of thrawn Agreeing with that Want to be psychopath of a Month Are slim to none

@@hellstrom4209 I wonder if Tarkin thought maybe Thrawns Tie Defender program was a good idea or not and maybe like Thrawns military experience strategies as well

​@@brianpark3395Honestly it was his fault that the tide defender program did not go on with because there were exhausted resources for that stupid death weapon.

​@@jamalsodipe772 The weapon as planned by Tarkin was not a bad idea. The Emperor should have known better though.

Gail Akbar be like…well my old master, here is your last lesson.

And in the end, ackbar became one of Palpatine greatest foes

Imagine talking strategy to a fish who cleans your floor

Palpy never listened to Micheal Jacksons Man in the Mirror and it shows

M.

He's probably thinking about family guys version

I think it just another dumb eu/lore stuff added to Star Wars. Why would Palpatine be glad that someone like Tarkin died?

@@ouissam2502 Because Palpatine was evil and didn't want anyone who could've replaced him around.

@@troyhencely He was evil sure and wanted to stay in power but that doesn’t mean he can’t see usefulness in other beings and tarkin was was one of his useful servant. Besides Vader was there to keep some sort of eyes on Tarkin.

Oh Tarkin was not stupid he knew turning on the emperor would spell death for him instead he choose to be a close ally of the emperor which allowed him alot of power

@@ouissam2502 "He was evil sure and wanted to stay in power but that doesn’t mean he can’t see usefulness in other beings and tarkin was was one of his useful servant." So was Vader, and Palpatine planned to get rid of him once he found someone better (Luke) and Vader started to become a liability. Palps has lost two of his apprentices before now, and didn't give a s*** about either of them.

Thank you for watching and supporting!,

He saw it lol

'i KnoW YoU wOnT sEe ThIs'

Alderaan was harboring rebels and was not peaceful

@@darbyohara - The same could be said of Coruscant. And a lot of other worlds. How many were the Empire going to blow up? At what point would the people decide "Enough!"? The Death Star doomed the Empire ironically by showing that Palpatine's talk of "peace" was really a quote from the Sith creed: "Peace is a lie..."

@@daniels7907 the emperor was on corescant. He ain’t blowing up the planet he’s on

@@darbyohara - My point exactly. But his presence there didn't mean that the city-world wasn't infested with rebels hiding amidst the teeming population. This is what made the Death Stars impractical. Alderaan was sparsely-populated in comparison but its destruction caused an upsurge in people joining the Rebel Alliance. So what would the destruction of one of the ecumenopoli do? How many times could it be done before the Empire's economy broke and the masses just all rose up because they had nothing left to lose?

@@daniels7907 no the Death Star was the the most practical weapon. It has the ability to create peace simply thru the fear of destruction. Even the rebels admitted if the empire has a weapon that great what hope do they have to resist. Without magic (the force) they’d never have destroyed it.

I'm not so sure about that. Sidious also respected the rule of two which was (among other things)all about rivalry and competition. But iirc. these two really fell on the other end of the horse. It makes sense because at that point he didn't have much need for either Tarkin or Vader, basically Sidious himself was made too overpowered canonically compared to any other OT character to the point there doesn't seem to be any reason to keep them beside Sidious's sadistic need to keep torturing Vader.

The reason Vader was on the Death Star was because Palpatine put him there, under the control of Tarkin, to humiliate him for some failure or offense to the Emperor that I cannot remember at this time. And Vader was pissed. He was planning on killing Tarkin, Tagge, and several other high ranking officers who irritated him for reasons. I know Tagge was marked because he made the mistake of talking down to Vader, and also Vader found him to be arrogant and inept. Eventually, Tagge did fall into Vader's hands after Palpatine released him from his punishment.

@@nurseactual the real reason Tarkin was allowed by Palpatine to be ranked above Vader was because of the results of the hunt Vader had previously ordered Tarkin to perform. Vader ordered Tarkin to pick the planet for the hunt as well (the reason Vader wanted Tarkin to organize this hunt is because Vader felt it had been a long time since anyone challenged him in a battle he fought in). Tarkin and the 20 imperial experts he hired began to hunt Vader on Valax. Tarkin armed the experts with flamethrowers so Vader’s lightsaber could not fully prevent the damage the weapons could cause him. Long story short is: after Vader has killed all 20 imperial experts over the course of the hunt Tarkin lures Vader to the top of a mountain and appears to surrender. However just before Vader becomes able to strike Tarkin down Tarkin lowers his body to the ground and says “the taller you stand, the quicker you die”. Immediately after a lightning bolt that Tarkin knew would come shoots from the sky and incapacitates Vader (as a result of his suit’s weakness to force lightning also making it weak to large amounts of external electricity)

"Even a Dark Lord of the Sith can't survive planetary destruction" I don't know, he survived the second Death Star's destruction. "Somehow Palpatine returned."

That sounds like an incredible fanfiction waiting to happen. Tarkin and his cronies take out Coruscant and go absolutely hog wild with the Death Star.

That was pretty much how Hitler ruled Nazi Germany

Only ever held by Sith Lords in ancient history. Those were in different atmospheres, though, where the Sith openly controlled those empires (as evidenced by their names “Sith Empire”). In the Galactic Empire, there was no precedent for that, as Sidious was the first emperor and knowledge that he was a Sith Lord was a closely guarded secret. I can’t remember right off, but I think Tarkin knew, or at least suspected, that Palpatine was a Sith Lord. But, like his knowledge that Darth Vader and Anakin Skywalker were one in the same, it’s information he kept to himself if he knew. So Tarkin, being arguably the second most powerful person in the Empire and having the resources (read: Death Star) at his fingertips to enforce his will, he stood a very good chance of succeeding if he ever made a run at overthrowing Palpatine.

@@Engine33Truck I actually think the only real way Tarkin could take the Emperor’s place is if the Emperor died from natural causes. Tarkin would make certain Vader would not be able to witness the Emperor’s death in this case, and once Tarkin had the Royal Red guards on his side, he would proceed to tell give all imperial troops the order to “execute Order 161” (the military order the Emperor created which would be used in the event Darth Vader either turned against the Galactic Empire or attempted to go to a planet the Empire didn’t have record of against the Emperor’s demands). As powerful as Darth Vader is, there is no real way Vader could defeat the military might of the Empire on his own. Plus, a large part of the cycle Vader had that kept him fully aligned with being Vader and not allowing himself to become Anakin again before he knew he had a son in Luke Skywalker was the idea that there was no possible way the remaining Jedi nor the Rebellion would be able to forgive him regardless of how much he secretly may have wanted to join Ashoka Tano as well as any other friends Anakin had who survived the end of the clone wars

@@CraigMcGuinn we know that, but Tarkin didn’t. Tarkin was familiar with the Jedi. But the Sith were considered extinct until 32BBY. Their re-emergence most likely wasn’t public knowledge, chances are it was something the Jedi covered up. So in Tarkin’s world, the Sith were likely nothing but hushed rumors. Him being smart, he likely figured out that Palpatine was a Sith Lord, and they were basically the polar opposite of the Jedi. But he more than likely had no idea of the Emperor’s true power. He wouldn’t know that he has no chance of overthrowing Palpatine, much less killing him.

Yea u just more of a chess piece to him is all 😂 ♟️

^ true about the sith also cant forget the sith purebloods badass red skin and times some are born with red eyes already other times nice orange and such and very powerful in the force not fully but stronger than ones who are not purebloods.

@@GriffenSpadeIsBack [Deep breath]

Palpatines list of hate 1. Anyone who has ever, will ever, and could ever even slightly inconvenience him

Palpatine didnt hate aliens his plan was that the master sith should be human only because humans control the galaxy at large and thus the sith can takr their revenge easier

But he was powerful enough and ambitious enough to cause the Emperor some problems

@@jamesricker3997 Tarkin at one point considered using the Death Star to assassinate the Emperor but decided against it, believing Palpatine likely had a fail safe that would stop him from doing so.

@@thunderstudent he was right to fear that lol

I think an issue is that Tarkin was essentially a power driven materialist and he eventually would have butted heads with the Emperor because he would not have understood the metaphysical principles of the force being used to direct policy and military matters and I dont think Palpatine could explain it to him without Tarkin becoming more ambitious and seeking to use those principles for his own advantage. Its like lets say magic existed and to a degree anyone could access it and use it as a weapon but the government has convinced people only bullets and ballistic weapons work. They do this because they want to keep the power of magic for themselves while keeping a bunch of stooges around to keep the general population in check and working as slaves. Tarkin for all his intelligence is basically like a commanding robot to Palpatine that he does not want to give any more power or knowledge.

I don't know- pretty sure aliens are part of "everyone", and Palps pretty much hated everyone...

He was a snobby aristocrat from an isolationist world. He almost certainly did.

@@seekingabsolution1907 mas ameeda?

@@jchockey22a useful idiot, to probably counter arguments of anti-alien sentiments. He was a pawn on Palpatine’s chess board.

Palpy didn't care for anyone besides himself.

That's why all those Stormtroopers were stationed on the Death Star. They didn't take orders from Tarkin,they took orders from Vader.

​@@jamesricker3997vader could also lazerbeam sidious.

Palpatine, like real world dictators, incels, and others with “small pp energy”, was threatened by competent subordinates. He knew his power base, while near absolute, was also relatively fragile. He also knew Tarkin had the intelligence, ambition, and resources to stand a good chance of overthrowing him if he really wanted to try.

@@Engine33Truck who knows

I don’t think he would’ve died that way. Tarkin was arguably Palpatine’s greatest/favorite asset. But also Palpatine’s biggest threat. Palpatine, as a person, is not unlike Hitler or Stalin. When subordinated those two respected failed them or became inconvenient, they often gave them the option of suicide or implied execution. As close as Palpatine and Tarkin were for decades, I think Palps would’ve given Tarkin the same option. Also, the imperial propaganda machine had painted Tarkin as essential to the Empire, someone to be respected by the populace. Palpatine may have had to worry about Tarkin’s execution or disappearance putting Palpatine in a precarious spot with public opinion.

@@Engine33Truck I feel Palpatine would of made Tarkin take the blame for Alderaan after the Death Star was destroyed people were outraged about Alderaans destruction so he’d make Tarkin take the blame saying he went rogue or something and giving him the execution in front of the galaxy Tarkin at the end was a pawn to be used and discarded and he would’ve certainly outlived his usefulness

Thank you, good sir.

Thanks.

7 minutes is nasty work

Tell me you watched ancient nazi mysteries on discovery without telling me 😂😂😂😂

​@@pyotrbagration2438the galactic empire was designed by george lucas to be space nazis,to be the bad guy to defeat in order to free the galaxy from brutish space fascists.the references are no myths.

Vader is more like a mix of Goering considering his early life and Skorzeny due to his role. The question remains; Who was Dirlewanger most similar to? Maybe Jabba? Or Grievous with his army of droids he seen as expendable?

Yeah despite the fact that the idea of Himmler being at odds with Hitler is not really true. Anyway i would probably compare Vader more to Walter Model.

He suggestion happened before he even knew of the Death Star's existence. Its explained in the video that Tarkin didn't start the project just took it over and took credit for it. Aka "Great minds think alike" in action or in this case "Tyrannical minds think alike".

@@Warcrafter4 Except he was on the bridge of the Star Destroyer looking over the beginning of its construction in 19 BBY. He's right there in Revenge of the Sith. Go back and watch the last few minutes of that movie.

So, that just means he knew about it by that point! I mean he could have developed the doctrine over the course of the Clone Wars to the beginning of the Empire, with Sidious putting him in charge of overseeing the Death Star project as its was being constructed as Tarkin was pro superweapon so he'd be keen on overseeing such a weapon's destruction! Tarkin's doctrine simply outlined how to use such a weapon to maintain imperial rule through fear! Tarkin & Palpatine were like minded which is why Palpatine was okay with him dying!

@@RaphBlade7 In this very video Stupendous Wave said Tarkin developed the doctrine as a Moff, after the Republic was "reorganized into The First Galactic Empire," and that an idea for a Superweapon was part of that. So either Tarkin thought that huge moon-sized scaffolding was something else entirely and Palpatine replied to him with "Oh well what a coincidence, I happen to be working on one such super weapon right now! You even saw it a few years ago!" or somebody made a bit of a continuity goof.

@@AceSpadeThePikachu I always thought that this scene was years later

One of the best Star Wars villains.

So tarkin was Sejanus in the original idea. I'm not going to lie sometimes I think that George Lucas should have kept a lot more of his original ideas rather than going with the magical emperor idea. I remember in one version of the original series the Jedi in the sith both serve the emperor and that the sith should have took control and pushed the Jedi out. Kind of like the praetorian guard (Sith) vs the Varangian Guard (Jedi).

It’s so good

Thank you so much!

He didn't know about it at the time, he just thought tactically it was a good idea. Note: In another video even Thrawn didn't know until he figured it out on own.

You're not supposed to ask that 😂, just accept the disney canon

@@jenisia3600 It's a movie about “Space Wizards” it's not supposed to make sense.

@@SaraNightfire1 That is what Disney would like you to believe.

👍👍👍👍

Death Star plans were made before the clone wars

He said sects, not sex...

@@Emil.Fontanot Not possible i used the text translate option and it translated sex as well, so you must br wrong. So in conclusion pirates can use sex as a means to escape the empires grasps, thats a whole new way of thinking. I wonder if Disney is going to give us more details about the circumstances. 🙂

Basically they just used the super laser on low power mode.

His pride became his undoing.

Tactical genius that failed basic reconnaissance when interrogating Leia about the rebel base.

No tarkin obsession with making statements was shown before that. Had he did what krennic said and vaporized Jeddah instead of just the city the rebels never would have gotten the plans. Plus his decision to destroy Alderaan was stupid as hell. He should have destroyed mon calamari instead. Would have done a lot more damage to the rebellion plus it was a legitamate military target

@@George-Hawthorne yeah because a general wouldn’t have an escort fleet, deploy more fighters etc.

​@@mider9996 was there anything interesting on Dantooine? Other than the rebel holdout that had just been emptied just barely in time?

Palpatine’s master Plagueis was also involved in that scene which is how he met Palpatine.

@@buyerenogurlfwendo2106 That's Legends though, who knows what current canon is

tarkins family were crazy idiots who wanted the strongest of their bloodline to survive,the rest gets eaten by the carnivorous fauna,this mindset that only the strongest survives and you only get power if you take it away from others because life itself was for him one single power struggle against everyone else,he failed to realize that people can work together instead of brutally taking whatever someone has by force.this idiology of him dominated every corner of his career and led to the ultimate downfall of the empire. Tarkin wasn't a manchild,he was a psychopath.

Advice to future dictators, take a screenshot before they can edit this comment.