Ingen, åtminstone initialt
En anledning till att både Tarkin och Krennic verkar vara "ansvariga" ungefär samtidigt är att Palpatine har en verklig politik att låta ingen ensamperson kontrollera alla Death Stars utveckling:
All the same, he had no compelling reason to solve the enigma of the battle station’s beginnings. What bothered him was that, compliant with a strategy that no base commander—Moff, admiral, or general—should have unrestricted access to information regarding shipments, scheduling, or construction progress, no single person was in charge of the project, unless of course the Emperor was considered to be that person.
Tarkin
Det är sagt att beskrivningar av Tarkins roll i projektet från Tarkin och Catalyst i stor utsträckning:
And there were rumors to the effect that Tarkin had been instrumental in convincing Palpatine to move forward with the battle station—even that he had had a similar weapon in mind even before the discovery of the Geonosian schematics. Serving nominally as adjutant general for the navy, he was rapidly being brought up to speed on the status of the battle station, and there was talk among the members of the inner circle that Tarkin was being groomed to assume leadership of the entire project.
Catalyst: A Rogue One Novel
Detta är i stort sett förenligt med den berättelse som presenteras i Tarkin:
If establishing the identity of Sentinel’s enemies was already proving daunting, getting to the truth of the battle station’s origin was nearly impossible. Everyone from celebrated ship designers to gifted engineers wanted to take credit for the superweapon. Tarkin himself had discussed the need for such a weapon with the Emperor long before the end of the Clone Wars. But no one outside the Emperor knew the full history of the moonlet-sized project. Some claimed that it had begun as a Separatist weapon designed by Geonosian Archduke Poggle the Lesser’s hive colony for Count Dooku and the Confederacy of Independent Systems. But if that was the case, the plans had to have somehow fallen into Republic hands before the Clone Wars ended, because the weapon’s spherical shell and laser-focusing dish were already in the works by the time Tarkin first set eyes on it following his promotion to the rank of Moff—escorted to Geonosis in utmost secrecy by the Emperor himself.
Tarkin
Båda källor är överens om att:
- Tarkin var kanske "ansvarig" i den meningen att han hade tagit tanken på ett dödstjärnsvapen före rikets uppkomst.
- Tarkin var en viktig kraft bakom mobilstationen.
- Tarkin skulle så småningom få full ledning av projektet.
Katalysator äger rum före Tarkin . I slutet av Katalysator har Krennic blivit nere och Tarkin har fått betydligt större auktoritet över projektet (den position vi hittar honom i Tarkin ):
Krennic snorted. “Is that why Tarkin has been assigned command of the Sentinel bases?”
Amedda spread his large hands. “He is merely there to safeguard against further setbacks. It pleases the Emperor to keep him close to you.”
“That’s Tarkin’s job—to monitor me?”
Catalyst: A Rogue One Novel
Anledningen till att det inte finns något omnämnande av Krennic eller Erso är att det inte finns någon anledning till att de dyker upp. Krennic har blivit generad och förvandlad till en mindre prestigefylld position och orsakar inte riktigt några problem. Erso är bara en forskare, om än en högprofilerad, och Tarkin tror antagligen inte mycket om honom.