Throughout most of his role as the Sith Master of Darth Vader, Palpatine regularly manipulated
his apprentice by appearing to care for him and masking his agenda as one with both in
mind.
In reality, Vader was nothing more than a tool in his master’s eyes, one that could
easily be disposed of if needed.
And Palpatine made this absolutely clear to his apprentice after coming
to the conclusion that he had become weak after the revelation that he had a son named
Luke Skywalker.
It was shortly after the events of The Empire Strikes Back, when Vader decided to go on
a personal crusade in discovering who hid his
son from him after Padme gave birth.
This mission led him to eventually allying himself with
one of his wife’s former handmaidens, a woman named
Sabe.
Together they were able to uncover the scant information that remained of Padme’s final
moments right before her death, in which she professed her belief that there was still
good within her husband despite his fall to the
dark side.
Although Sabe was a rebel, one who even tried to kill Vader at the start of their reluctant
team- up, the Sith Lord ultimately allowed her and
her rebel cell to live, perhaps not being able to kill
someone who shared such a similar likeness to the very woman he loved.
Nonetheless, when Vader returned to Coruscant and the Imperial Palace, he was met with a
livid Emperor Palpatine.
Upon sensing his apprentice, Palpatine realized the great conflict within
him, believing Vader to no longer be drawing upon the full extent of the dark side, as
grief overflowed his mind, rather than hate and
anger.
As the two stood feet away from each other, Palpatine randomly attacked, shooting out
his Force Lightning toward his apprentice, being
mildly satisfied to see Vader still capable of
defending himself.
When asked why he was being attacked, Palpatine had his Grand Vizier Mas Amedda explain
the situation.
Failure in turning Luke Skywalker to the dark side and allowing him to escape,
ignoring his summoning to meet with the Emperor in favor of pursuing his personal mission,
and allying himself with Rebels and letting them
live.
All actions when combined, could be viewed as
treason.
Vader’s leash seemed to have loosened following the discovery of his son and after seeing
Padme’s final message about him.
Palpatine being his master was going to tighten it no matter
the cost, even if it meant the risk of his apprentice dying.
And thus, the mask fully came off and his true sadistic nature was revealed.
After the explanation, Palpatine had his guards attack Vader with intent to kill.
The Sith Lord was able to defend himself with ease, to which
his Master swiftly disarmed him of his lightsaber, forcing his student to rely solely on the
power of the dark side.
Even without his weapon, Vader was still able to overpower the guards without trouble to
his master’s amusement.
But it still was not enough.
By giving Vader a taste of his own medicine, Palpatine began to force choke him, holding
him up in the air as if he were a toy and slowly
started crushing his throat.
While this was happening, Palpatine berated Vader by calling him weak, fearful, and by
mocking the fact that he was named the Chosen One
by the Jedi, despite his recent actions suggesting otherwise.
Palpatine even sadistically mocked Vader’s feelings for Padme, stating that her death
fueled his power and that was her purpose, but now it
was all lost due to the weakness of his past being
slightly reignited within him following his recent experiences.
And with that, Palpatine began to slowly crush Vader’s limbs one by one while ordering
him to forget Padme, to forget Luke, and to forget
everything but his servitude to his Sith Master.
As that was Vader’s only purpose now.
With his apprentice now on the ground before him with only one of his limbs remaining,
Palpatine made it clear that Vader had to reignite the anger that fueled his connection
to the dark side as before, or that he would simply
be eliminated.
The test resulted in dropping off the still severely injured Vader to the very same spot
on Mustafar that he was found after his defeat
by Obi-Wan.
His test was to survive and rebuild himself without using the Force.
Afterwards, Palpatine returned to his shuttle nearby and gleefully watched as his apprentice
struggled to his castle by dragging his body across the planet’s rocks.
Unknown to Vader, his Master had also sent an assassin that specialized
in killing Sith after him, to add to the entertainment Palpatine was about to watch
his student struggle in.
The comic ends after the revelation of the assassin, with it to continue in the next
issue of the 2020 Darth Vader comic series.
Let us know if you want us to cover it in a video when it comes
out!