#vader: also we shouldn't use it against alderaan because that won't achieve anything. princess leia is too hardcore and you're all fools

[anghraine]

I was revising and thinking about some of Anakin/Vader’s scenes with Tarkin in ANH, and I think there’s an interesting detail in there with regard to them and the Death Star.

When Tarkin threatens to destroy Alderaan, Leia appears to give up the Rebellion’s base, and Tarkin says:

“You see, Lord Vader, she can be reasonable.”

That’s a kind of weird remark, if you think about it. It might just be an empty rhetorical flourish, of course, but to me, it sounds more like a gloating “I told you so.” If that’s the case, it implies a separate conversation about holding Alderaan over Leia’s head, in which they disagreed.

Later, when it turns out that Leia lied, Tarkin is shocked!! and outraged!!! and Vader twists the knife by saying:

“I told you she would never consciously betray the Rebellion.”

Speaking of I-told-you-sos.

So they definitely seem to have disagreed about this. It’s not like Vader is on the side of the angels here; he ruthlessly works to recover the plans, stands by while the Death Star kills millions of people, and defends it in battle. At the same time, when you consider his earlier open contempt for what he terms “this technological terror,” it is intriguing that he finds reasons to voice opposition.

#vader: i don't have any MORAL qualms about it obviously. i just need to register my objection on religious grounds #vader: also we shouldn't use it against alderaan because that won't achieve anything. princess leia is too hardcore and you're all fools #seriously though i do think the framing of him as basically opposed but willing to defend it anyway is extremely anakin #like it's retcon logic and was probably just meant to highlight the spiritual fantasy side vs the more generic space lasers side #but with the knowledge we have from rotj it does make a certain sense that whatever qualms he has would register as pragmatic complaints #and religious griping #and he'd suppress them enough to keep eviling on #anghraine babbles #star wars #anakin skywalker #tarkin #hmm i think i'll add #anghraine's headcanons #bc it is one hundred percent my headcanon that there's always a certain amount of internal screaming going on w/ him #that registers in ways that allow him to pretend it's not happening—dogmatic or pragmatic disapproval and such #but i mean... it is a pretense. at some level he knows and feels that ... well. 'it is too late for me' doesn't come out of nowhere #:(