It certainly seems so, he memorably commands Vader to stop choking Admiral Motti…and Vader complies. Moreover, Vader stands in his presence, and their dealings are that of a subordinate-commander rather than that of equals.
As I understand it Vader is higher up in the hierarchy, but Tarkin had authority over the Death Star (it was his pet project). On the other hand, Tarkin knew that the main reason Vader was there was as the Emperor’s representative; specifically, to kill him if he got any ideas about using the Death Star to try for a coup.
Plus, the Imperial system was designed to produce exactly that sort of internal conflict over who had authority (yet another way the SW Empire was based on Nazi Germany; Hitler did the same, giving officials overlapping areas of authority to keep them busy fighting each other).
I wouldn’t say that Vader was higher up in the hierarchy, because my impression was that he wasn’t part of any hierarchy. He was the Emperor’s special emissary, and as such, he had whatever authority the Emperor chose to grant him at any time. Perhaps the Emperor had ordered him to defer to Tarkin, or perhaps his position was left intentionally vague, and Tarkin ordered him around simply on the basis of “my Death Star - my rules.”
I would agree with you, except in the next two films, Vader is shown as clearly in command of military and Naval personnel. And he exercises *operational * rather than merely political control.
IMHO, he’s in command because the Emperor placed him in command. Thanks to the absolute nature of the Emperor’s rule, that means that Vader can take operational control if he chooses to do so. Besides, it’s not as if he lacks military experience.
Or to put it another way, if Vader wanted to take direct control of the troops, who would argue with him?
Vader’s more or less outside the command structure. He’s the Emperor’s right-hand man, sent to act as a kind of watchdog and to add his own particular skills to the maiden mission of the Death Star. In that context, he’s not a superior officer to Tarkin (there IS no superior officer to Tarkin other than the Emperor himself. At best, he’s a sort of “highest among equals” as one of the Empire’s Grand Moffs). He wields the Emperor’s authority, but in a limited way. The Death Star was Tarkin’s baby, so he was ultimately in charge.
As I read it, Vader did not have to listen to Tarkin, but his other option was taking over the death star. Tarkin was strong enough and confident enough in his position that he didn’t feel the need to bend over to Vader’s whims. And Vader new that if forced a confrontation over something that petty he would have to take his place and later justify it to Palpatine.
Tarkin was a ruthless officer & bureaucrat who had proved his loyalty to the Empire throughout his career, as such he was a valuable asset to the Emperor. But, he was not a Sith Lord, IOW he had no telekinetic/physic ‘force’ abilities. If push came to shove Vader could certainly have ‘relived’ Tarkin of his authority, but there was little chance that that would ever have been necessary. Sith Lord isn’t a military rank so Vader didn’t ‘outrank’ Tarkin per se, but the Siths were clearly in a class by themselves above the military and all others (except the Emperor).
I always sort of figured that Vader didn’t defer to Tarkin so much as he respected Tarkin for being an utterly ruthless bastard.
In-universe reason: all of the above.
Real reason: Lucas had no clue what the organization was, since he just wrote the one script and hadn’t figured out things yet.
Of course Tarkin was Vader’s superior. He was Peter Freakin’ VanHelsing BaronFrankenstein Cushing, for Godssake.
I always read that scene more as Tarkin was the only one who could safely tell Vader to stop indulging his force choking fetish and sit down. Either because the Emperor would be pissed if he killed Tarkin, or that the two had history which made it safe.
If you include Clone Wars in canon when they first meet Anakin has great respect for Tarkin(at that point a ship captain in the Republic) and toward the end of the last season Tarkin does outrank Anakin(there was a whole plot about the Republic military taking over leadership from the Jedi).
If you include Episode 3 in canon we see Vader meet a younger Tarkin near the end on the Deathstar. So they clearly go way back.
I’m not sure we can dismiss it quite that easily. I don’t know whether Lucas had a detailed org chart at the time, but he clearly plays up a conflict in authority between Vader and Tarkin.
For one of the clearest examples: when the Dearth Star officers become aware that the rebels might be a threat, Tarkin dismisses it. Vader’s response is to take a couple squadrons of fighters out. So it shows that Vader cannot override Tarkin entirely in a broad sense… but that Vader does have direct authority over at least some of the personnel on the Death Star.
Tarkin isn’t in command of Vader. They both report directly to the Emperor. However, at the beginning of the first movie, the Death Star is clearly the Emperor’s top priority, and that gives Tarkin a lot of pull. He can’t order Vader around, as such, but he can remind him that the Emperor will not be happy if the Death Star project is delayed by, for example, Vader murdering top staff on the project.
Vader serves another important, unspoken role on the Death Star. He’s the Emperor’s guard dog on Tarkin. Tarkin’s an immensely ambitious and ruthless man. You don’t give control over an invincible battle station to a man like that without having some way of taking him out if he decides to park the Death Star in orbit around Coruscant and start planning a coronation ceremony. Vader’s there to remind Tarkin who really rules the galaxy.
Well, that’s after Tarkin (and, presumably, a huge number of senior staff in the Imperial navy) were atomized over Yavin 4. I imagine that, when the Emperor staged his coup, it was Tarkin who brought in the Imperial Navy, and that most of the senior staff was personally loyal to Tarkin, not the Emperor. When Tarkin, and most of his supporters, are killed in the Yavin debacle, the Emperor uses it as an excuse to purge the remaining Tarkin loyalists, and put the navy directly under his control.
I think Vader and Tarkin were essentially equal in power - as said above, you don’t put someone like Tarkin in charge of the greatest power in the galaxy (short of the Force) lightly.
I think that Vader was there (again, as said) as a towering reminder of the Emperor’s authority. With everyone dressed in gull-grey uniforms with colorful rank insignia, the military structure will be adhered to, however grudgingly, but Vader would have none of that, and clearly would have been a noticeable and imminent reminder that Palpatine is watching you. I think the officer he choked clearly resented his presence in the midst of a professional military operation, couldn’t hold his tongue, and we got a taste of Vader’s barley restrained anger. Tarkin, being the Emperor’s chosen military high-commander, was able to use “The Voice of Command” to bring Vader to heel - or, if you prefer, to remind Vader that his role did not extend to executing high-ranking military officers over religious differences. Remember, that’s why Vader lashed out at him.
Second theory - it was a staged act. Vader could have killed him instantly with a thought, but chose to slowly choke him instead, giving Tarkin a chance to call him off. Maybe it was just for show, indicating that Vader was an unstoppable force - except he could be stopped, by Tarkin, with a word. Tarkin’s word was Law, even to Vader, the Emperor’s right-hand man. This would reinforce Tarkin’s authority and power, real or not, at least as far as control of the Death Star was concerned.
I prefer to think of Tarkin and Vader having “tea” and chuckling about it afterwards.
I would point out that he should instead-
*ack… Choke,
fall down.*
I agree with what’s been said above - Vader served as a representative of the political order and check upon Tarkin. He’s basically playing a roll borrowed from the Soviet system - the political officer on a submarine or major surface combatant.
Tarkin failed miserably in IV, the next commander ‘came out of hyperspace too close to hoth’ and failed miserably…
Look, if you want to crush the rebellion, you don’t send in a ‘commander’ to do a ‘sith job’.
And what the hell is an aluminum falcon anyway?
But, in the next movies he is the commander in the field. It’s like he has been promoted. Moreover, even in epIV he does act like a commander, a lower commander. He is chasing the TantiveIV and later fights in the battle of yavin.
My own take has been that he was expected to defer to the ranking imperial officer at the time. After Yavin, with a much greater threat to the empire from the rebellion, Papa Palpatine remembered that he was in fact the best field commander of the clone wars and promoted him to being the chief of the armed forces.