Quote Originally Posted by Keltest View Post
But why though? Everything we've seen shows that he's actually pretty terrible at politics. He's responsible for a lot of the biggest rebel propaganda moments, like Alderaan, for example, and generally alienates everyone he works with. People don't like him or his ideas.
Tarkin is bad at counter-insurgency and prioritizes appearing strong over actually being strong, but those are strategic failures more than political ones. People who are bad at politicking don't rapidly rise through the ranks until they're running the entire military, and Tarkin's strong influence in the Empire in canon is what makes me think he's the most likely to take charge if Palpatine and Vader are out of the picture.