Grand Moff Tarkin

Grand Moff Tarkin was a male human imperial grand moff and governor who was part of the Empire since it's beginning in 19 BBY. Tarkin was the highest officer in the Empire, and served it greatly. He was also the overseer of the Empire's superweapon, the Death Star, that was capable of destroying entire planets.

## History

### 19 BBY

In 19 BBY, soon after The Galactic Republic had been turned into The Galactic Empire, Tarkin was onboard an early Imperial Star Destroyer that overlooked the contruction of the Death Star, together with The Emperor and The Emperor's new apprentice Darth Vader. There Tarkin was in command of several officers working for The Empire.

### 0 BBY

In 0 BBY, Tarkin would have contact with Director Krennic, taking the place of Krennic as the overseer of the almost finished Death Star, much to Krennic's despise and anger as Krennic felt obliged to have the spot of overseer as he was the one who constructed the Death Star. Although Krennic didn't have a choice as Tarkin took the role of overseer by force with Krennic unable to do anything about it because of Tarkin's high role in the Empire.

Later, Tarkin and Krennic would fire a test shot with the Death Star on Jedha City which was a city on the planet Jedha, destroying the city and killing everybody there. Tarkin later ordered another firing at the planet Scarif, that was being attacked by rebels who sought to steal the Death Star plans there to reveal the Death Stars weakness. Although, the rebels managed to escape with the plans anyway, and Krennic, who was located on Scarif, was killed there among others after the Death Star fired. Tarkin, Vader and their men were from then on focused on getting the plans back to save the Death Star from destruction.

After some time Vader had captured the ship that tried to escape with the rebels plans and there captured Leia Organa who was one of the higher leaders in the Rebel Alliance. She was put into a cell where she would wait for questioning.

Soon Tarkin would receive word that The Emperor had dissolved the Imperial Senate, erasing the last remnants of the old Republic, and Tarkin joined a meeting in the conference room onboard the death star together with Vader where Tarkin told the others about it. Afterwards they discussed the plans and the Death Star, with Vader and admiral Motti getting into an argument resulting in Vader choking Motti with the force, but stopped as soon Tarkin commanded him too.

Later, Leia was brought in front of Tarkin where he began to question her about the location of the rebel plans. Soon he would become tired of asking her as Leia would refuse to admit anything. Tarkin later threatened to blow up Leia's home planet Alderaan with the Death Star if she would continue to hide the location of the plans and so she told him that the plans are on the planet Dantooine, which was in fact a lie. Although Tarkin began the operation of destroying Alderaan anyways as Dantooine was too remote to make an effective demonstration. Therefore Leia watched as Tarkin commanded his troops to fire the Death Star laser at Alderaan that exploded from the shot, ending millions of lives, making the Death Star fully operational. Leia was later taken back to her cell onboard the Death Star.

Soon Leia would be rescued from her cell by an unknown team who had entered the Death Star earlier and disguised themselves in stormtrooper armor, with Tarkin losing his only source to find the actual location of the plans. Afterwards, when the rebels had already inspected the plans, the attack on the Death Star by the Rebel Alliance finally began with several rebel X-Wings and Y-Wings on a mission to shoot a missile into the exhaust port in the Death Star that would destroy the station. The rebels managed to get the upper hand, with admiral Motti asking Tarkin if he should prepare an escape pod for him because of the risk that the rebels might succeed their mission. Tarkin told Motti aggressively that he think Motti is overestimating the rebels chances, answering no to the request and that this is actually the moment of triumph for the imperials. Soon Vader also joined the fight killing several rebel pilots. Although, one of the rebel pilots succeeded in employing his missiles into the exhaust port and escaping, which led to the death star exploding killing everybody onboard, including Tarkin.

## Legacy

Vader survived the fight, with him becoming even more aggressive the years afterwards, most likely because of the death of his close ally and friend Tarkin and the destruction of the Death Star.

## Personality

Tarkin was most likely a psychopath and showed sadistic behavior, seeming to enjoy giving pain to others but remaining a serious mood while doing so. A great example is how he blew up Leia's home planet in front of her despite him not needing to do so. However, he was a great politician and one of the greatest servants to the Empire, if not the greatest. Tarkin was also a very proud figure, who looked at the Empire very highly and perhaps even too highly, overestimating it's power which was what ultimately led to his death.

## Notes

* Tarkin and Vader seemed to have developed a respected friendship over the years in the Empire, and Tarkin's death was probably rather devastating for Vader because of this.

## Appearances in chronological order

* *Episode III - Revenge of the Sith*
* *Rogue One*
* *Episode IV - A New Hope*