In the shooting script, Darth Vader is the one who orders the Death Star technicians to “Release primary ignitions”, thus making him more directly responsible for Alderaan. I wonder why this was changed.

Also, during Vader’s entrance, there were gonna be rebels that were so scared upon seeing him they’d just freeze and then frantically run as if he’s a monster from a horror film.

In the scene where Vader kills Antilles, there would’ve been “broken and twisted” rebel bodies across the floor.

Lucas was not screwing around with the script.

The script also refers to him as the right hand of the Emperor. However, I am aware that the script I read is a slightly modified one, as it’s the one that refers to Jabba as a slug, which was put in there later as an attempt to rewrite history.