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Let's say that, for whatever reason, the Death Star II is completed on schedule. Either there is no rebel attack at all, or it is soundly defeated as planned. My question is, without Grand Moff Tarkin around to be the main proponent of the Tarkin Doctrine, who would get the Death Star II command? Was there any indication in the old source material about this? Would Palpatine have moved his seat there, perhaps? Or was it always going to fall to Grand Moff Jerjerrod upon completion?

NeoGoomba wrote:Would Palpatine have moved his seat there, perhaps?

This was my assumption - he already had a throne there, so making the most powerful starship in the history of ever into his seat of power seemed likely.

There was a throne room on a lot of command ships iirc. I think he would have stayed at Coruscant because political power always trumps military power.

I've more than once speculated, that one reason for DSII's massive increase in size in comparison to DSI (160km to 900km) was because Palpatine sooner or later intended to run the Empire from DSII instead of Coruscant and move the top-levels of the bueuracracy there.

FTeik wrote:I've more than once speculated, that one reason for DSII's massive increase in size in comparison to DSI (160km to 900km) was because Palpatine sooner or later intended to run the Empire from DSII instead of Coruscant and move the top-levels of the bueuracracy there.

What purpose would that serve other than make Palpatine a moving target? He has HoloNet access to much of the Galaxy, and a HoloNet transceiver on his Star Destroyers and Super Star Destroyers in parts of the Imperial demesene where there is no HoloNet access(TESB). Moreover, the local Moffs have authority to make whatever decisions they need to, with direct oversight only from the Emperor or whoever he delegates to act as his represenative. (ANH)

As to who would command DSII, probably not Jerrejod, not with all the excuses and delays on his part. The Emperor takes as dim a view of incompetence as his apprentice, after all. It may very well be that the second Death Star will be placed under Vader's direct command, in his role as Palpatine's roving troubleshooter, though, that's unlikely, given that treachery is the way of the Sith, and the second Death Star would be a perfect way for Vader to repay his master for all he's done.

(unless, of course, Palpatine already has another apprentice waiting in the wings, as he did when he urged Anakin to kill Dooku)

Piett would seem a good candidate for commanding the DSII. He's a competent officer, and a loyal party man, as it were, unlikely to let that new-found power go to his head, and turn against Emperor and Empire.

U.P. Cinnabar wrote:As to who would command DSII, probably not Jerrejod, not with all the excuses and delays on his part. The Emperor takes as dim a view of incompetence as his apprentice, after all.

If you go with the deleted scenes as having any relevance (and we might as well since this is all a "what-if?" anyway) Palpatine did have Jerjerrod cock-block Vader from seeing him at one point. So he can't be too unhappy with him. Especially if his "we shall double our efforts" paid off, which it seems to have done so since the superlaser worked as expected.

RogueIce wrote: If you go with the deleted scenes as having any relevance (and we might as well since this is all a "what-if?" anyway) Palpatine did have Jerjerrod cock-block Vader from seeing him at one point. So he can't be too unhappy with him. Especially if his "we shall double our efforts" paid off, which it seems to have done so since the superlaser worked as expected.

I forgot about the deleted scenes. I stand corrected on Jerrejod being in line to command the DSII then.

I don't see it as improbable that Palpatine could've treated the DSII as something of a "Summer Palace" and shuttled back and forth periodically between that and Coruscant. Daily command would likely fall to a vague rotation of Moffs and Grand Admirals, depending on who was currently within Palpatine's favour. Vader is too useful as an independent agent to let him sit about cooling his heels on the DSII (not to mention the obvious dangers vis-a-vis Sith succession).

IG88?

We do not speak of that.

Maybe Palpatine would have brought Thrawn back (non-canon now I know, but it is a what-if). He's highly competent and loyal enough to the Empire that he kept fighting for it years after Palpatine's death, rather than setting up his own fiefdom as so many other senior officers did.

Or maybe he'll park the damn thing in Coruscant orbit and live there, he's only a shuttle ride away from the important people on the surface and his continued presence with an "I'll kill you all" button is a good way to keep terrifying the population.

I would agree with the line of reasoning that Palpatine would stay aboard. A near unassailable fortress which can combat entire fleets on its own and destroy entire worlds with ease. It's such a display of pure, naked power that he wouldn't even need to step back onto Coruscant. He's the Emperor, all others have to come to him.

I wonder if Palpatine or the ISB placed a substantial emergency "back-door" into the DS architecture in case whoever is awarded command decides to go Warlord (or Sith Lord if it's Vader). Some sort of remote self-destruct or other means? I mean, it is a massive show of trust on Palpatine's part to entrust the greatest non-Force tool in the hands of someone else. And I don't see him being that trusting with anyone other than Tarkin.

Maybe it was built for his true Master, Jar-Jar?

U.P. Cinnabar wrote:As to who would command DSII, probably not Jerrejod, not with all the excuses and delays on his part. The Emperor takes as dim a view of incompetence as his apprentice, after all. It may very well be that the second Death Star will be placed under Vader's direct command, in his role as Palpatine's roving troubleshooter, though, that's unlikely, given that treachery is the way of the Sith, and the second Death Star would be a perfect way for Vader to repay his master for all he's done.

Presumably, anyone given command of the Death Star could become an existential threat to Palpatine's regime - I mean what would have prevented Tarkin from just blowing up Coruscant and declaring himself Emperor?

I guess if he showed signs of disloyalty the Emperor could force choke him from a distance or something. It's unclear what the range on that is.

God knows, 72.

I do know what Vader will do with the Death Star once he has it, though he probably will wait a bit til Palpatine's caught off-guard to annhilate Coruscant. And, no one knows better than Palpatine that treachery is the way of the Sith.

I picked Piett on the same criteria that the Soviet Navy supposedly picked its SSBN skippers: He appears to be a loyal party man, a competent officer, and utterly without initiative. But, who knows what Piett was hiding behind that bland Imperial exterior?

Act least in the (non-canon) "Death Star" novel it was implied that Palpatine had fail-safes put into the Death Star to prevent the commander from getting any ideas about who should rule the galaxy, oh and Tarkin doesn't know exactly what those fail-safes are though he knows they exist.

The exhaust port?

ray245 wrote:The exhaust port?

possible but not likely as said defect was noticed as dismissed as not important enough by people who would not be privy to Palpatine's plans, also people tend to exagrate the importance of that exhaust port. the Rebel attack wasn't some "impossible to fail" mission like people seem to think it was, it had very low chance of success but the rebels didn't have the time to find a weakness that was easier to exploit so they took what they could.

It's more likely that Palpatine's fail-safe is something like a hidden shutdown code that only he and few others know and that's hardcoded into the DS Computers.

RogueIce wrote:

U.P. Cinnabar wrote:As to who would command DSII, probably not Jerrejod, not with all the excuses and delays on his part. The Emperor takes as dim a view of incompetence as his apprentice, after all.

If you go with the deleted scenes as having any relevance (and we might as well since this is all a "what-if?" anyway) Palpatine did have Jerjerrod cock-block Vader from seeing him at one point. So he can't be too unhappy with him. Especially if his "we shall double our efforts" paid off, which it seems to have done so since the superlaser worked as expected.

Well, if you go with deleted scenes, Jerrejod messed up Palaptine's revenge-from-beynd-the-grave plan because of his conscience, and we are talking about just a few battalions (most likely already decimated by murderous locals), what would happen if he was ordered to destroy a planet full of Imperial citizens?

eMeM wrote:

RogueIce wrote:

U.P. Cinnabar wrote:As to who would command DSII, probably not Jerrejod, not with all the excuses and delays on his part. The Emperor takes as dim a view of incompetence as his apprentice, after all.

If you go with the deleted scenes as having any relevance (and we might as well since this is all a "what-if?" anyway) Palpatine did have Jerjerrod cock-block Vader from seeing him at one point. So he can't be too unhappy with him. Especially if his "we shall double our efforts" paid off, which it seems to have done so since the superlaser worked as expected.

Well, if you go with deleted scenes, Jerrejod messed up Palaptine's revenge-from-beynd-the-grave plan because of his conscience, and we are talking about just a few battalions (most likely already decimated by murderous locals), what would happen if he was ordered to destroy a planet full of Imperial citizens?

"Your Majesty, I can't do this... >urk<" (cue troopers dragging body away as either someone holsters a blaster or the Force settles down)

"[Second-in-command], you are now in charge. You will fire that superlaser now."

"...uh YES SIR RIGHT AWAY"

I think he would have left Jerjerrod in command, but probably surrounded him by ISB loyalty officers. Even then, I'm sure Palpatine would have built in redundant failsafe kill switches that he could use remotely in case whomever was commanding the DS2 had any funny ideas about going rogue.

That's simple enough; just program the DS2's fire-control systems to not accept firing orders for Kuat, Fondor, Coruscant, or any other world the Emperor decrees strategically important, without Palpatine physically inputting the orders via voiceprint and biometrics. Or, without Palpatine inputting the necessary codes via HoloNet comm sent from one designated location(e.g. only from the Imperial Palace).

Honestly I think that the whole Vader vs Jerjerrod thing wasn't Palpatine trusting the later. It was a classic example of a dictator playing one of his top individuals off against the other to sponsor rivalries which ensure they can not unite against him. It's that simple.

Jerjerrod a rival? I always thought he was terrified of Vader.

In fact, I could have sworn I read somewhere that Jerjerrod was deliberately selected to command the Death Star because he was not only a competent administrator, but also because he lacked the imagination and ambition to be a serious threat to the Emperor.

Or something to that effect. I could be wrong.

U.P. Cinnabar wrote:That's simple enough; just program the DS2's fire-control systems to not accept firing orders for Kuat, Fondor, Coruscant, or any other world the Emperor decrees strategically important, without Palpatine physically inputting the orders via voiceprint and biometrics. Or, without Palpatine inputting the necessary codes via HoloNet comm sent from one designated location(e.g. only from the Imperial Palace).

Just have a small army of droid engineers design a force-specific system that only a force user can actually use; then destroy the droids afterwards.

EDIT: I'm sure the Jedi in their thousand generations actually designed something like this; so it's not like Palps would be starting from scratch.

In the old EU there were so MANY Dark Side force users (Inquisitors and Prophets of the Dark Side and Imperial Hands and whatnot) that this would be rather unsafe for Palpatine. Since it would be fully in keeping with Sith traditions for one of them to use the Death Star he created to blow up a planet while he was on it.