The question, then, is why Vader didn’t simply leave Tarkin to his fate in the battle of Yavin, rather than try and save the Death Star.
Leia had some relatively detailed memories of her mother, at least enough to remember her as, “very beautiful…but sad.” I don’t think that can be ascribed to anything but knowledge of her when she was a small child. We’ll see what he does.
I always imagined the Emperor telling Vader to go the the Death Star, and make sure everything was going well. I could picture him telling Vader to let Tarkin have charge of everything (including, to a certain extent, Vader himself), but to be ready to pull Tarkin’s plug if he does anything too far off the plan.
I always assumed that Vader was known and feared throughout the Empire, but at the same time was outside of the Empire’s standard hierarchy, so that he could be sent to diverse places and events to serve whatever role the Emperor saw fit. Clearly Tarkin was an influential and important man within the Empire, and as such he might have had less fear of Vader than your typical officer. As Tarkin saw it, he was carrying out the Emperor’s plan very well. He captured Leia, destroyed Alderaan, and was about to destroy the military arm of the Rebellion. As such, the Emperor would have no reason to get rid of him, so Vader was not much of a threat to him.
You’re one of two Sith Lords in charge of running an incredibly inefficient, bloated, galaxy-wide bureaucracy – how often do you get a chance to strap yourself into a TIE and blow up some stuff?
My take on Vader and Tarkin:
Vader was on the Death Star for one very specific reason. He was there to kill Tarkin if Tarkin decided to use the Death Star to make a power play for the Emperor’s throne. Tarkin is a ruthless, ambitious, murderous megalomaniac. He’s not going to settle for second fiddle forever. Palpatine knows this, and Tarkin knows Palpatine knows this, and Palpatine knows Tarkins knows that Palpatine knows this, and so on and so forth. Vader himself, at least in the first movie, is outside the hierarchy of the Imperial military. He reports directly to the Emperor, and to no one else. I suspect that, when the Emperor sent him to the Death Star, he was told something like, “Go keep an eye on Tarkin. Make sure he doesn’t get too greedy. Do whatever he says, but if he steps out of line… you know what to do.” That’s why Vader takes Tarkin’s shit, and why Tarkin enjoys jerking Vader around so much. They both know that sooner or later, Tarkin is going to betray the Emperor, and Vader is going to be tasked with killing him. You know Tarkin already has a plan to kill Vader. You don’t fuck with a seven foot tall magical cyborg with a laser sword unless you’ve got a concrete plan to kill him before he can take revenge. And Vader puts up with it, because every little slight about his “dead religion” means one more piece he cuts Tarkin into when the Emperor finally gives the order.
And yes, I’m aware that I’ve probably put far more thought into this than George Lucas ever did. Dammit, someone has to!
I cracked up when I read this. Never have I read a summary of Vader more succinctly put!
Consider how beautiful and sad Padme’s handmaidens are and always have been. Consider they are trained to take Padme’s place when need be.
I’m just speculating, though. I have no insider info on this.
Yeah, if Padme dies at the end, she could always tell a handmaiden to take care of Leia and raise her as her mother.
Jackson got a lot of goodies from Lucas, the purple light sabre blade, having “Bad Motherfucker” engraved on the pommel, and the cool death. Think maybe he has something on Lucas? (Like pristine copies of the movies that he’ll release on Kazaa, etc. if Lucas doesn’t do what he wants?)
I’m hoping that the movie will be cool, but I’m expecting it to suck. I’ll still go see it, because I like the look of the Star Wars universe, even if the storylines are a pale shadow of their former selves.
I’ve known about 2 of the three. What’s up with the bad mofo thing?
“Bad Motherfucker” was embossed on his character’s wallet in Pulp Fiction.
Somehow “Bad motherfucker” ties in with Jackson’s role in Pulp Fiction, I really don’t know the details as I couldn’t sit through the film.
Sorry I meant about this. What does bad mofo have to do with Star Wars?
He’s got fetish or something about the phrase and since it couldn’t be said in the film, he had them engrave it on the pommel of his light sabre.
I believe the exact term was, “I don’t want to go out like a punk.”
Word! 
Of course you never see it right?
I wonder what “force” he holds over Lucas.
Nope, it’s not visible to the camera. The only way I know about it is an interview Jackson gave in some magazine talking about the movie.
He has Lucas’ soul in a briefcase.
Maybe his nickname is Mcguffin.
OK makes sense now, I couldn’t imagine profanity in any way shape or form in SW.
Dooku notes that though the… um, thing looks (what was her name?) and fights like a Sith she couldn’t possibly be one as he sensed fear from her. Dooku seems to have info about Sith behavior, but it is possibly that he read it in a book.
Why wouldn’t Dooku know about the Sith? Dooku is Darrth Tyranus.
Does Jackson really have “Badass Motherfucker” on his hilt? I had heard it was the somewhat-more-innocuous “BAMF” which stood for the same thing.