Grand Moff Tarkin

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NOTE: This article is specifically about the Legends version of Grand Moff Tarkin, as the Canon version of this character was voted Pure Evil. Thus, only information about the Legends version of Tarkin should be included, and nothing about the Canon one.

Near Pure Evil

Old
Young

Full Name

Wilhuff Tarkin

Alias

Grand Moff Tarkin

Governor Tarkin
Tarkin
Mr. Tarkin
Moff Tarkin
Admiral Tarkin
Captain Tarkin

Origin

Star Wars

Allies

Emperor Palpatine

Darth Vader
Natasi Daala (mistress)
Admiral Termo

Powers / Skills

Military genius

Charisma
Analytical skills
High combat skills
Marksmanship

Goals

Assassinate the Trade Federation board and replace them with Nute Gunray and the Neimodians
Become powerful and turn the Republic into an authoritarian government
Replace the Jedi Order in the Republic military (all succeeded)
Make the Empire dominant within the galaxy
Destroy the Rebellion (both failed)

Moral Event Horizon

Enslaving multiple species including the Geonosians, Wookiee’s, and Mon Calamari

Kidnapping and working numerous 10 year old Onmwat children to death and destroying their home cities when they failed a test or had a breakdown
Destroying Alderaan with the Death Star

Kill Count

Billions

Crimes

Mundicide
Mass genocide
Mass murder (including child murder)
Brainwashing
Torture
Terrorism
Blackmail
Slavery
Abuse
Incrimination
Mass destruction
War crimes
Crimes against humanity
Invasion
Abuse of power
Conspiracy
Blackmail
Extortion

Type of Villain

Genocidal Totalitarian

Grand Moff Tarkin is a major antagonist in the Legends continuity of Star Wars franchise.

He is a xenophobic politician and one of Emperor Palpatine's closest allies during the reigns of the Galactic Republic and Empire.

He was portrayed by the late Peter Cushing in A New Hope and Wayne Pygram in Revenge of the Sith. In the radio drama adaptation of A New Hope, he was voiced by the late Keene Curtis and the 2008 animated TV series Star Wars: The Clone Wars, he was voiced by Stephen Stanton.

His Evil Ranking[]

What Makes Him Close to Being Pure Evil?[]

In General[]

He shows ungratefulness towards those who saved his life during the Clone Wars, such as Ahsoka and R2-D2.
Besides Darth Sidious himself, he acts as the driving intellectual force of the Empire, producing works and speeches to rationalize the brutal autocracy.
He is notorious for the brutal and merciless tactics he uses to win battles and is seen as ruthless even compared to most Imperial officers.

Star Wars[]

He acted as an accomplice in Palpatine’s conspiracy to assassinate almost all of the Trade Federation's board to replace them with Nute Gunray and other Neimoidians, then blocked any investigation into the assassination.
- He also stalled said investigation long enough for all evidence of Tarkin and Palpatine's involvement to be lost, and for the scandal to help weaken Chancellor Finis Valorum, meaning he played a part in Valorum's removal and Palpatine's rise to becoming the next Chancellor.
  - He then continued to act as one of Palpatine’s closest allies after their initial acquaintance and Palpatine becoming Chancellor.
He inspired the rise of the New Order movement which agreed with his authoritarian, humanocentric (racist against non-humans), and militaristic beliefs.
He monitored the Jedi to ensure their power would not increase, being involved in multiple Trade Federation plots to assassinate members of their Order.
He purposefully left a damaged secret spy droid for a young Anakin to discover, repair, and deliver to the Jedi Temple so he could eavesdrop on sensitive Jedi Council meetings.
During a mission to locate the legendary planet of Zonama Sekot, he took interest in his old "friend" Raith Sienar's plans for an "Expeditionary Battle Planetoid", which could control star systems.
- This was seen by Tarkin as the first precursor to the Death Star, thus helping inspire the infamous space station.
He forced Raith to lead a taskforce to Zonama Sekot and purposefully set him up to fail, then arrested him for said failure to capture the planet.
- He also led an invasion himself to capture the living planet and secure the living starships so he could rise in status and gain more galactic influence. This also means he planned to use and double-cross Palpatine, who sent him on the mission in the first place.
- He also attempted to murder a 12-year-old Anakin Skywalker on the planet by attempting to provoke the boy into attacking him.
He presented and took sole credit for the Expeditionary Battle Planetoid designs in front of Palpatine to save his own skin.
He helped support Palpatine’s authoritarian consolidation of power and frequently argued in the Senate to grant the Chancellor more power.
He showed no gratitude towards the Jedi for rescuing him from the Citadel during the Clone Wars, instead complaining and only following their plans because he did not have any other option.
Years after his attack on Anakin, he served as a corrupting influence for him and only "respected" him for his ruthlessness as he found that the ethics of the Jedi were limiting.
Although he served under Jedi General Even Piell, he did not care when the general died, instead being angered that Piell had chosen to pass the other half of the Nexus route information to Ahsoka Tano.
- Likewise, he showed no gratitude when Ahsoka saved his life from Osi Sobeck, continuing his pattern of being ungrateful towards the Jedi.
It is heavily implied that he was lying when he claimed he was only supposed to share the Nexus Route information with Palpatine as Even Piell did with Ahsoka, supposedly to then share it with the Jedi Council.
He wrote an ungrateful memorandum requesting that the Jedi be taken out of commanding the Republic Military over an incident where Anakin's droid R2-D2 actually saved him and an entire Republic conference from a Separatist trap.
He tried to execute Ahsoka Tano, a minor, for the Jedi Temple bombings, based on incredibly circumstantial evidence.
When he discovered the long lost and incredibly powerful Omwat species, he kept it as a a secret to himself only as he saw the species as a resource he could exploit in the future.
As he predicted and wanted, he became the first Moff or regional governor of the Galactic Republic which rendered the Senate and democracy practically worthless, something he took pleasure in.
Once the Galactic Empire had been formed, he supervised some of the project's construction and plotted to gain complete oversight over the project.
He tracked several fugitive Jedi after Order 66 and convinced Darth Vader not just to hunt them down, but to lead a full scale invasion of Kashyyyk where they were hiding, so Tarkin could enslave the Wookies.
He enslaved 200,000 Wookies to work on the Death Star and was one of the few Imperial officers not to be disturbed by Darth Vader’s ruthlessness, instead asking to be partnered with Vader more often as he saw Vader as an effective asset.
He threatened to end Vader’s career if Vader failed to rescue his son.
He became much more ruthless and consumed by vengeance against rebels after the death of his son Garoche Tarkin (which Vader and the Emperor had actually murdered to accomplish this effect).
He sent a survey team to find other routes to the unstable Maw Cluster and established a base within it, then killed the survey team and erased all evidence of the Maw Cluster to ensure only he knew of its existence.
Landed his ship on peaceful protestors on the planet Ghorman, killing dozens and injuring hundreds.
Created the Tarkin Doctrine policy (soon adopted by Sidious and the Empire), which stated that the Empire should create more superweapons and invest in more military force than required to terrorize planets in display of power to intimidate the galaxy into submission.
He became the first Grand Moff of the Empire, controlling the largest territory of any Imperial governor and gained total control of the Death Star project as Sidious was very impressed by the Tarkin Doctrine. He would use his power to decimate and pacify the Outer Rim, wiping out nearly all resistance.
He married Thalassa Motti not out of any love for her but simply for her contacts and money. In fact he soon had an affair with young academy graduate Natasi Daala after getting married to her.
Tutored Natasi Daala into becoming a skilled and devoted tactician to the Empire.
When he heard one young officer complain about his and Daala’s relationship, he jetted the officer out the airlock and turned on the comms so the entire crew could hear him scream, plead, and die horribly to deter any other complaints.
He carried out the Atravis Sector massacres, leading to the deaths of billions.
Carried out the enslavement and subjugation of the Mon Calamari, personally enslaving Gial Ackbar as his servant and “pet”.
Showed no sadness over the death of his brother, and once he gained custody of his niece Rivoche, he showed no sympathy to her over the loss of her father and instead sent one of her servant’s and her family to a prison asteroid to intimidate Rivoche and then an elite academy to mold her into an obedient socialite.
Created the Maw Installation to solve the problems of the Death Star design and make a working prototype, murdering all the workers who built the installation to keep it a secret.
Kidnapped numerous scientists to force them to work on the Death Star project.
Promoted Daala to admiral and assigned her to the Maw Installation to destroy any stray ships that come across it.
Finally exploiting the Omwat discovery, he forced the planet’s children to take an abilities test and kidnapped hundreds of the highest scoring ones. He then forced the top ten into hard labor for two years and if they either slipped up or failed a test, he would destroy their home cities. All the children were killed except one named Qwi Xux who survived the process.
Ordered the construction of other superweapons like the World Devastators and Sun Crusher.
Placed the Death Star in the Imperial prison Despayre system and enslaved the prisoners to work on the project. He executed them all when their lack of experience led to delays and malfunctions and brought in Wookie slaves instead.
Led another invasion of Kashyyyk to force Wookie leaders to give their people up as slaves. When the leaders refused, his forces killed them, took over the planet, enslaved the entire planet, and executed any who resisted. He kept hostages on the planet to force the slaves into compliance along with torturing and drugging them for that purpose.
Took sadistic pleasure in Vader executing two of the least efficient foreman and hanging their bodies on the Death Star’s mainframe, callously remarking that he was happy to see production speed up.
Had Vader lead an invasion of Geonosis to wipe out rebel support and resistance along with enslave the planet to work on the Death Star.
Successfully defeated ex-Imperial officer Han Solo to stop him from freeing Wookie slaves on Kashyyyk.
Led an attack on Jabiim to wipe out the rebel base there.
Gave Vader an interdictor cruiser so he could capture the Imperial defector Kalast.
Planned to commit a full genocide to wipe out the population of the planet Delrakki, but was thankfully stopped by the Rebel Alliance.
Ordered Vader to pursue the stolen Death Star plans.
Destroyed the Confederate turned Rebel ship Fortessa using only 4% of the Death Star superlaser power in its first test, killing millions.
Tested the full power of the superlaser on Despayre once he had no more use of the prison planet, destroying all life on the planet and the planet itself.
He signed an execution order for Princess Leia once Vader captured her, fully planning to kill her once her usefulness was over.
Tortured Princess Leia and threatened to destroy her homeworld Alderaan unless she gives up the location of the rebel base.
Once Leia told him that the rebel base was on Dantooine, he notoriously commits his famous MEH crossing by destroying Alderaan, killing 2 billion people including one of the three founders/leaders of the Rebel Alliance Bail Organa (who is Pure Good), ironically leading to dozens of worlds turning against the Empire and almost all Alderaan Imperial officers to defect.
Once he discovered that Leia lied to him about Dantooine being the rebel base, he ordered her death immediately but he later agreed with Vader to let her escape so she could lead them to the actual rebel base through the tracking beacon Vader placed on the Millenium Falcon.
Insisted to Vader that Obi-Wan Kenobi could not leave the Death Star alive and watched remotely as Darth Vader killed his former master.
He dispatched Admiral Termo to commit a genocide on Delrakkin while he destroyed Yavin 4.
Ordered the Death Star to fire on Yavin 4 and refused to escape even when pointed out possible weaknesses before his infamous and karmic death.
It's strongly implied he was planning to use the Death Star to overthrow Sidious. While Sidious was even more evil, he didn't want to overthrow him for any moral reasons, but rather so he could be the Emperor himself.
Even after his death, his legacy would carry on through Tarkin doctrine where Sidious announced the Empire would launch even greater terror and oppression to destroy the rebellion along with his lover/protegee Natasi Daala who would continue on his legacy and successfully unify the remnants of the empire after the Emperor's death.

What Prevents Him from Being Pure Evil?[]

He genuinely loved his son and had Vader try to rescue him when he thought his son was captured by rebels. When he learned from Vader that the rebels killed him (which was a lie as Vader killed him in a conspiracy with the Emperor), Tarkin became consumed with hatred and this was part of the reason he became the cruel and merciless figure we know now just as Darth Sidious wanted.
He genuinely loved Natasi Daala as he felt their relationship had the passion and love that his marriage lacked. He helped Daala break past the sexist barriers of the Imperial military and promoted her to the first female admiral of the Imperial military as he recognized her skills and talent. He trusted Daala with secrets that he trusted no one else like the existence and location of the Maw Installation and he missed her when she was stationed at the Maw. When she returned but got injured, he rushed her to the med bay and checked on her, reluctantly assigning her back to the Maw when it became clear that she was in danger as his love for her could be used as a weakness by his enemies. She was also the only person who could make him laugh and call him Wilhuff even in professional settings.