There are several quotes that seem to indicate who was in charge, aboard the death star at least. "I should have expected to find you holding Vader's Leash" and the command Tarkin gave Vader in the conference room about Motti. "Vader, Release him". and in subsequent movies when Vader got to play, people dropped like flies, rank shuffles occured, rapid advancement commenced. its not to say that Tarkin was Vader's superior, more like Tarkin was Grand Moff of the Death star, and Vader was not part of his command. On equal footing, but Tarkin was in command of his space station, Darth could only seriously play with Tarkin's permission. or in the battle later, once he was in his own ship. In the novelisations, tey describe Darth as a henchman, kinda like an independant operator. no in the fleet, or army. would explain why people in the forces got away with talking to him that way in ANH, but in later movies, were SERIOUSLY polite when talking to him, and even that didn't save them at times. "apology accepted Captain Needa" rings silently on that note...
There are several quotes that seem to indicate who was in charge, aboard the death star at least. "I should have expected to find you holding Vader's Leash" and the command Tarkin gave Vader in the conference room about Motti. "Vader, Release him". and in subsequent movies when Vader got to play, people dropped like flies, rank shuffles occured, rapid advancement commenced. its not to say that Tarkin was Vader's superior, more like Tarkin was Grand Moff of the Death star, and Vader was not part of his command. On equal footing, but Tarkin was in command of his space station, Darth could only seriously play with Tarkin's permission. or in the battle later, once he was in his own ship. In the novelisations, tey describe Darth as a henchman, kinda like an independant operator. no in the fleet, or army. would explain why people in the forces got away with talking to him that way in ANH, but in later movies, were SERIOUSLY polite when talking to him, and even that didn't save them at times. "apology accepted Captain Needa" rings silently on that note...