History Literature / StarWarsTarkin

* VillainRespect: Sidious has been ''trying'' to invoke this between Tarkin and Vader and is irritated it's stuck in a holding pattern. The two men finally develop it by the novel's end.

** Said verbatim by Vader to Sergeant Crest, a particularly bumbling Stormtrooper. Despite it emphatically being "for the last time," Vader allows him to continue breathing, which seems slightly out of character for the usually failure-intolerant Dark Lord. [[spoiler: In fact, Crest ends up getting promoted to lieutenant over the course of the story. Perhaps Lord Vader was feeling somewhat sentimental?]]

*** Crest having served as clone trooper in specifically the 501st legion, otherwise known as Anakin Skywalker's legion, throughout the clone wars may also have had something to do with the sparing too.

* ThrownOutTheAirlock: [[spoiler:Vader does this to Rancit, having his Stormtroopers load him into an escape pod and shoot him into outer space. He further decrees that Rancit himself will give the order to fire on his pod as his final act.]]

* FridgeLogic: In-universe example when Tarkin reflects on Palpatine's scarred appearance. The official story he gave to the Senate 5 years earlier remains that it was a Jedi 'assassination attempt' and a ferocious duel ensued in his office. However, as Tarkin privately notes, the story doesn't hold up to scrutiny; it doesn't explain ''how'' the Jedi Masters were actually killed, or ''how'' exactly Palpatine was scarred. So with those holes in the story, Tarkin's nursed his private suspicions of what actually happened (and has correctly deduced Palpatine's a Sith).

* MythologyGag: Star Wars Infinities once depicted Palpatine turning the Jedi temple into his residence.

** Evil is the wrong word, as he's talking about animals at the time (albeit chimp-level intelligent ones), but Tarkin's success during his RiteOfPassage came through engineering one in the ferocious veermok troop; having correctly predicted that the TheStarscream would use the distraction Tarkin provided as an opportunity to launch a coup against the current alpha, Tarkin then promptly killed the new alpha just as he was being acknowledged by the troop. The sudden removal of any candidate for leadership thew the troop into such disarray that not only did they cease all attempts to attack Tarkin, they abandoned their territory entirely and were never seen again.

* DramaticIrony: Having privately deduced Palpatine's Sith, Tarkin correctly concludes the Jedi's 'attempted assassination was to take out their ancestral enemy. However, Tarin incorrectly believes it was less about taking control of the Republic and more because the Jedi couldn't abide the idea of a Sith emerging as the hero of the war the Order had failed to stop and win. Tarkin of course doesn't know that Palpatine was actually PlayingBothSides and orchestrated the entire conflict.

* LockedOutOfTheLoop: Despite being one of Palpatine's closest allies, Tarkin still doesn't know the Emperor is a Sith. However, between Vader's own Force abilities (and ties to Palpatine) and questions about the Jedi arrest attempt during ''Revenge'' which have never been satisfactorily answered, Tarkin has pretty much figured it out on his own.
** Likewise, Tarkin is not among those in the Empire who're aware of Vader's true identity. However, as with Palpatine's Sith abilities, there's enough circumstantial evidence (the timing of Vader's debut, his personal dislike of the Moff) for Tarkin to pretty much guess who's in the armor.

[[AC:Five standard years have passed since Darth Sidious proclaimed himself galactic Emperor. The brutal Clone Wars are a memory, and the Emperor’s apprentice, Darth Vader, has succeeded in hunting down most of the Jedi who survived dreaded Order 66. On Coruscant a servile Senate applauds the Emperor’s every decree, and the populations of the Core Worlds bask in a sense of renewed prosperity.]]

[[AC:In the Outer Rim, meanwhile, the myriad species of former Separatist worlds find themselves no better off than they were before the civil war. Stripped of weaponry and resources, they have been left to fend for themselves in an Empire that has largely turned its back on them.]]

[[AC:Where resentment has boiled over into acts of sedition, the Empire has been quick to mete out punishment. But as confident as he is in his own and Vader’s dark side powers, the Emperor understands that only a supreme military, overseen by a commander with the will to be as merciless as he is, can secure an Empire that will endure for a thousand generations ...]]