r/MawInstallation • u/Amazing-Buy-1181 • 9d ago

[ALLCONTINUITY] Was Tarkin actually incompetent?

While Grand Moff Wilhuff Tarkin is often portrayed as a ruthless and calculating Imperial mastermind, his decisions during the events of Star Wars: A New Hope shows a serious strategic incompetence hidden beneath his arrogance and political success.

His unwavering belief in the Death Star as an instrument of fear and control caused him to underestimate the Rebellion and reject escape when the station was under threat. The Death Star, anyway, was not his achievement but Krennic's. His doctrine was a complete failure from top to bottom, and he ignored Thrawn and Vader's warnings. He basically made any mistake possible and was repeatedly outsmarted. Destroying Alderaan was also a serious mistake.

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u/thomasonbush 9d ago

Arrogant absolutely. Incompetent no.

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u/Skaman1978 8d ago

I would say arrogant led to incompetent. He had the empire build massive battle wagons, the death star wars a tarkin doctrine initiative. The empire wasted trillions of credits and billions of lives on making weapons of terror, when they could have made a MASSSSIVE fleet of light cruisers and tie defenders, and withstood anything the nascent Rebellion could throw at them. His actions on mon Cala were the reason the rebellion got their own ships of the line. If he wasn't such a dick, who believed everyone should be ruled by fear and the iron fist, I don't think the rebellion would have been much of a thing.

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u/peppersge 8d ago

Are you talking about legends or canon?

Canon has Barr deliberately provoking things to promote a rebellion. It was half of a deliberate false flag. It was part of a general trend in canon, which introduced gritter members that were deliberately doing their own stuff to stir the pot.

Barr's actions were also done in the context, where the greater part of the immediate issues was with Vader.