Star Wars: 10 Things Everyone Gets Wrong About The Empire
4. What Imperial Officers & Soldiers REALLY Thought Of Darth Vader
Though it is somewhat clear in the original trilogy that Darth Vader isn't unanimously adored by those following orders within the Empire, many viewers likely didn't realise just how much the Emperor's right-hand cyborg was despised by the Imperial officers scurrying around the galaxy.
In fact, there were even times when certain Imperial personnel attempted to have Vader assassinated! Many within the Imperial brass didn't like that the masked figure seemingly just popped up out of the blue and was now suddenly bossing them around because of his connection to Palpatine.
And how did Vader respond to this? By Force choking five random Imperial officers in front of the rest of the Imperial Officer Corps, showing what would happen to anyone who defied his orders. Damn.
All that went down after the Emperor had informed the Corps that any command from his Apprentice was to be taken as one by the wrinkly big bad himself.
It's also largely thought that the only person Vader answered to away from Palpatine was Grand Moff Tarkin, as seen in 1977's Star Wars. However, in the wake of the embarrassing destruction of the Death Star, Vader actually had a bit of his authority taken away, with General Cassio Tagge (the officer Vader choked in Episode IV - A New Hope) being made Vader's commanding officer for a while.
...before 'The Chosen One' eventually executed Tagge after he was demoted for his own failures.
Not hard to see why he wasn't the most popular bloke in the organisation, then.