One of Emperor Palpatine’s greatest frustrations with Darth Vader during their early years
of ruling the Galactic Empire was his apprentice’s
lacking qualities of being an effective right-hand man.
Although Vader was loyal and expertly served as an enforcer in conquering resisting
planets, when it came time to govern them, he often made things worse by his narrow vision
of simply killing everything with his lightsaber
rather than using deception and political manipulation to keep Imperial subjects in
line.
For Palpatine wanted his apprentice to be a ruler,
not just a warrior.
This was especially important during the early years of the Empire’s reign, as the expanding
Imperial military was simply not at the strength it needed to be where direct control over
systems was sustainable.
As a result, an aura of legitimacy was required to be established to
ensure potentially unruly systems stayed in line.
It wasn’t until Vader’s mission to the planet Vaklin, that the Sith Lord finally
learned how to fill the role as a ruler.
Vaklin was a backwater world that struggled economically for much of its history.
Despite this, it held vital resources that the Empire required
and its location within the Inner Rim meant it was
suitable to become a potential economic hub that the Imperials hoped to establish by
cooperating with the locals.
However, the people living on Vaklin held strong pro-Jedi sentiments, to the point of
them constructing various statues, gardens, and
even a large temple in their honor.
This problem only amplified when three surviving Jedi came to
the planet and formed an insurgency to fend off
Imperial rule.
When Vader first arrived to deal with the rebels, he relied on his previous methods
of just killing them into submission.
Yet no matter how many insurgents he killed, including one of the Jedi
leaders, the planetary rebellion only gained more support from the locals.
After a while, Vader held a meeting with his Imperial officers to discuss a new military
strategy.
As the meeting progressed, Vader became frustrated as the officers started to offer up
alternative solutions to fighting, with the Sith Lord deciding to double down on continuing
to use direct force instead.
This time, after having captured the second Jedi leader of the insurgency, Vader decided
to use torture as a means of forcing their submission.
Once again, this did nothing but encourage the
rebels to stage more aggressive attacks, with the main Imperial headquarters being eventually
leveled following a massive bombing and rescue mission.
Although Vader and the Imperials were able to fend off the attackers and prevent them
from freeing the captive Jedi, who died during
the skirmish, it resulted in them temporarily relocating
to a Star Destroyer in orbit while their planet side base was being rebuilt.
An act which once again bolstered the morale of the rebels.
Upon learning of the events taking place on Vaklin, Palpatine directly contacted Vader
to scold him over his failures.
Despite his attempts of trying to spin the recent actions as victories, by
mentioning the deaths of the two Jedi leaders by his hand, it was when he suggested that
if the insurgency did not crumble following the defeat
of the last remaining Jedi, that a full-scale orbital
bombardment would take care of their problem.
This comment sent Palpatine off, requiring him
to remind his apprentice once again that killing the entire planet’s population was foolish
and counterproductive to their long-term goals
of ruling the galaxy.
Having his patience pushed to its limit, Palpatine threatened that if his apprentice couldn’t
learn to think as a ruler, that he would start assigning
him less duties with him in a leadership position.
Understanding he had one last chance to prove to his master that he deserved to stand at
his side, Vader finally swallowed his pride and
opened himself to listening to alternative solutions.
He did this by holding a one-on-one meeting with an Imperial Security Bureau agent named
Oniye Namada, who had a good pulse on the feelings of the locals after having formed
friendly relationships with many of them while Vader
was fighting the rebels in the outskirts of the main
cities.
Using her knowledge of the people’s attitudes towards the Jedi and the things they
wanted; Vader and Namada formed a new plan to finally put an end to the Vaklin insurgency
once and for all.
The first stage of the plan was removing all cultural traces of the Jedi from the planet,
which included destroying their statues and shrines
from city plazas, as well as the grand temple built
out in the mountains.
The second stage was deeply investing into the planet’s economy, by constructing education
centers for the children and offering job opportunities for those who had been historically
cast aside.
While these first two stages led to progress, with the populace finally starting to become
compliant due to the genuine improvements in their living standards; it was the third
stage that would finally secure the Imperial’s hold
over the planet: the eradication of the people’s hope of
the Jedi ever returning as the heroes they once knew.
This final act required Vader to face off against the final remaining Jedi leader of
the insurgency, but instead of trying to kill him, the Sith
Lord instead toyed with his opponent until he was led
into a cave system.
The Jedi did this because the cave was filled with flammable gas, which
prevented both from using their lightsabers in combat, hoping that would give him the
advantage in their fight.
However, the gas was also toxic, and if inhaled long enough could
cause serious brain damage.
Because Vader was protected by his helmet and suit, he was in
no danger, but the Jedi was.
Nonetheless, Vader was able to overpower the Jedi despite neither
having access to their lightsabers but didn’t kill him when he had the chance.
Instead, having injured his foe, Vader left him in the cave
where the Jedi continued to inhale the toxic gas.
Eventually, the Jedi got out, but had lost his mind and began to hallucinate once he
reached the city for aid.
With most of the locals knowing who he was due to their past support of him, yet
seeing him in such a pathetic and defeated state, all respect they held for him vanished.
Their views of him got so low, that when Namada
shot the Jedi as he was desperately seeking help
from a former rebel ally, the people around publicly denounced him as a drunken thug;
rather than own up that he was once the Jedi they
all looked up to for hope of freeing them from their
Imperial occupiers.
And with that, Vaklin finally submitted to the Empire, with the insurgency ultimately
crumbling and the populace becoming loyal, productive
servants of the New Order.
Impressed with his apprentice starting to learn, Palpatine praised Vader for his successful
efforts and his start into maturing into a proper right hand he can rely on.
However, in spite of this growth, Vader still held on to his need to prove himself against
his Jedi foes, but came to understand he had to put
his master’s wants before his own if he wanted to
remain at his side.
For despite all of Palpatine’s talk of them ruling side by side, Vader
understood he was still only the apprentice and lived to serve.