Exactly. Jedi were rare even during the time of the prequels, I don’t think the movies ever give an exact number but I think Yoda or Obi-Wan implies it’s fewer than 10,000. With billions (more likely trillions) of residents in the Republic, how many people would have even ever met a Jedi, especially 20 years after they were all hunted down and killed?
If destroying the Death Star was the means by which Vader intended to usurp command of the Empire he would surely have been going about it the wrong way. ie. The supreme commander, Palps, wasn’t even aboard the thing at the time! Thus the argument is rendered moot.
Having said that however, as Yoda alludes to and indeed Palpatine himself muses of his own backstabbing exploits relating to his master in those abominable prequels, the desire to assume control in toto is intrinsic within the nature of the Sith. So it is only reasonable to assume that the ultimate goal of Vader too would in fact have been to wrest power from the Emperor. But doing so via the destruction of the Death Star is illogical IMO.
But then again, ‘nuking the fridge’ is something Lucas is fast-becoming better known for than his very films, so… :rolleyes:
Well, if we work from the assumption that in IV, Vader wasn’t the best-known lieutenant of the Emperor, it makes a lot more sense to grab that spot first, rather than gun for the Emperor right away. If destroying the Death Star in IV was what allowed him to take command of the entire military later, he would then be in a much better position to assume command after the Emperor went down (if it weren’t for those meddling kids and their [del]dog[/del] Wookie). Anyhow, I find Star Wars is best enjoyed by pretending that Lucas is merely the slightly retarded narrator, and that the characters therein are far more Machiavellian than he.
Actually, I think he was a very well known henchman/hatchetman of Papa Palpatine, but was viewed as a “has-been,” and that the Moffs and Admirals and Generals were the folks running the Imperial show day-to-day for almost two decades.
Vader protected The Empire from the “traitorous Jedi,” hunting down their remnants and squashing or suborning any native talent that might arise, securing Papa Palpatine in all his Sithy glory upon the throne. But Vader had immense help, from legions of clone troopers and Order 66, paring the task down to manageable proportions
Tarkin and his ilk (let’s call them disgruntled, power-hungry military officers and high-level bureaucrats of the Old Republic) gave the Emperor direct control of the Galaxy. All the industrial and agricultural output of thousands of worlds, administered by his Ministers-Most-Sinister, personified by Tarkin.
Everything we see in the prequels points to Anakin being a good, if limited, “special ops” type. Nothing we see indicates he has any training or talent with organizing entire sectors of planets, fleets and armies, which are necessary to control the Galactic Empire.
And that, ultimatley, makes the Tarkinites, with their Star Destroyers and Death Stars, more important than Vader.
So Vader may not have wanted the Death Star destroyed, but I think he did, for Sithy reasons. He wants to be back in power, he wants Papa Palpatine dloving approval, and he want to kill his mentor and bring order to the Galaxy, as only he can. And to do so, he has to undermine and displace the governors and military leadership in Papa’s eyes.
A little more background on what the Sith almost were. It also shows a little of what Vader was up to between 3 & 4.