Grand Moff Tarkin?

[The Other Librarian]

SW 3 X plus Alpha (remixed).

 

[Orius]

As for the Maw Installation, in 16 years there's plenty of time for Tarkin to take the plans to the Maw and start trying to turn those blueprints into something more palpable. Including the Darksaber (a Death Star stripped down to just the big gun, looked like a lightsaber handle, but huuuuuge).

That's true enough, the plans that were shown in AotC may not have had the specs for the superlaser or whatever. I think Lucas stuck it in there as a kind of teaser or something anyway. And the scientists in the Maw Installation were working on other projects as well, like the Sun Crusher.

The Darksaber came a bit later, and was developed by the Hutts, and not the Empire.