Underachiever59
Spoiler alert for anyone who hasn't read the comic. Don't read this if you haven't read it yet.
So, in the Darth Vader Annual #2, Vader figures out what the Death Star is. He discovers that it is a world-killer, built using kyber crystals. When he confronts Tarkin over this, Tarkin effectively mocks Vader, pointing out Vader's hypocrisy over the Death Star being a technological aberration, while Vader himself is also one. In response, Vader makes a "prediction" that the Death Star will be Tarkin's tomb.
The next page, we see a droid approach Lyra Erso, Galen Erso's wife. Vader learned of Galen and Lyra earlier in the comic. This droid warns Lyra of just what kind of monstrosity her husband is working on, then subsequently self-destructs. Which leads to Galen leaving Project Stardust.
Galen then is forced back into working on Project Stardust by Krennic. Galen engineers a deliberate design flaw into the Death Star. Vader then 'fails' to prevent the Rebels from escaping with the plans over Scariff. Vader then 'fails' to capture the plans on the Tantive IV. When he has the perfect chance to secure the plans on the Death Star, he deliberately allows the rebels to escape, "to lead back to the Rebel base." And ultimately, this chain of coincidences leads to Tarkin, Vader's greatest rival in the Empire, being killed when the Death Star, a piece of technology that would have basically made Vader obsolete, is destroyed by the Rebellion.
The implication, at least from how I see it, is that Vader deliberately engineered all of these events by warning Lyra. This comic set up Vader as a mastermind, orchestrating the downfall of the one man in the Empire who outranked him (not counting the Emperor himself), along with the destruction of a weapon of fear and power so great that Vader's role as the Emperor's enforcer would no longer have been necessary.
To me, this might be the greatest example of weaponized Force precognition I've seen. The domino effect caused by Vader warning Lyra Erso of what her husband was creating effectively wiped out all opposition within the Empire for Vader, opening up an opportunity for him to seize control of the entire Imperial military in the 2015 Vader comic.
Of course, I could be reading too much into this, but I strongly feel that this is what the story was trying to get across. We already know Vader is excellent at long-term scheming, thanks to the 2015 Vader comic run. And it makes sense for his Force precognition skills to be powerful enough for him to predict such a chain of events, given who Vader is. It almost reminds me of how the Shatterpoint ability worked in Legends. Vader just happened to find the perfect shatterpoint to bring down both Tarkin and the Death Star with a few anonymous words to the wife of a random scientist.
That's my speculation on this, anyway. What do you guys think? Was this a grand plan by Vader to wipe out his rival? Or am I reading way too much into this?
So, in the Darth Vader Annual #2, Vader figures out what the Death Star is. He discovers that it is a world-killer, built using kyber crystals. When he confronts Tarkin over this, Tarkin effectively mocks Vader, pointing out Vader's hypocrisy over the Death Star being a technological aberration, while Vader himself is also one. In response, Vader makes a "prediction" that the Death Star will be Tarkin's tomb.
The next page, we see a droid approach Lyra Erso, Galen Erso's wife. Vader learned of Galen and Lyra earlier in the comic. This droid warns Lyra of just what kind of monstrosity her husband is working on, then subsequently self-destructs. Which leads to Galen leaving Project Stardust.
Galen then is forced back into working on Project Stardust by Krennic. Galen engineers a deliberate design flaw into the Death Star. Vader then 'fails' to prevent the Rebels from escaping with the plans over Scariff. Vader then 'fails' to capture the plans on the Tantive IV. When he has the perfect chance to secure the plans on the Death Star, he deliberately allows the rebels to escape, "to lead back to the Rebel base." And ultimately, this chain of coincidences leads to Tarkin, Vader's greatest rival in the Empire, being killed when the Death Star, a piece of technology that would have basically made Vader obsolete, is destroyed by the Rebellion.
The implication, at least from how I see it, is that Vader deliberately engineered all of these events by warning Lyra. This comic set up Vader as a mastermind, orchestrating the downfall of the one man in the Empire who outranked him (not counting the Emperor himself), along with the destruction of a weapon of fear and power so great that Vader's role as the Emperor's enforcer would no longer have been necessary.
To me, this might be the greatest example of weaponized Force precognition I've seen. The domino effect caused by Vader warning Lyra Erso of what her husband was creating effectively wiped out all opposition within the Empire for Vader, opening up an opportunity for him to seize control of the entire Imperial military in the 2015 Vader comic.
Of course, I could be reading too much into this, but I strongly feel that this is what the story was trying to get across. We already know Vader is excellent at long-term scheming, thanks to the 2015 Vader comic run. And it makes sense for his Force precognition skills to be powerful enough for him to predict such a chain of events, given who Vader is. It almost reminds me of how the Shatterpoint ability worked in Legends. Vader just happened to find the perfect shatterpoint to bring down both Tarkin and the Death Star with a few anonymous words to the wife of a random scientist.
That's my speculation on this, anyway. What do you guys think? Was this a grand plan by Vader to wipe out his rival? Or am I reading way too much into this?