Following the destruction of the First Death Star, Darth Vader’s life got really rough.
He got blamed for the destruction of the Imperial Superweapon by his very own Master, who was
quite snarky about it too.
He then got demoted and put under the command of the newly promoted Grand General Cassio
Tagge.
A couple days after that, Vader was forced to make a trade treaty with Jabba the Hutt,
the very creature that had enslaved him and his mother long ago.
Then shortly after that, Vader discovered that the very pilot who destroyed the Death
Star was in fact his very own son, Luke Skywalker, and that this entire time he had been deceived
by Palpatine.
And finally, to make matters even worse, Vader soon discovered that Palpatine had a cyborg
scientist create experimental, lightsaber wielding warriors, with the not so subtle
hints of them eventually replacing his Sith Apprentice.
So in just a couple of weeks, Vader was humiliated, learned he was deceived this entire time by
the one man he trusted, and that there were plans in motion of replacing him.
Quite a rough time the Sith Lord was having.
With all of this on his plate, Vader did the unthinkable.
He went behind his Master’s back, in an attempt to both save his own skin by eliminating
all the threats to his position in the Empire, while also setting up the groundwork of his
eventual plan to overthrow Palpatine with Luke Skywalker at his side.
Vader’s first primary objective was to make sure that all those who threatened his position
were eliminated and to ensure the Emperor that he was in fact still useful to him.
And one by one, the lightsaber wielding warriors that were created to replace him were eliminated,
either by Vader’s hand, or by their own ambitions as they fought and killed one another
to succeed the Sith Lord as the Emperor’s next right hand man.
Darth Vader also put down a couple of very necessary planet revolts in order to please
Palpatine, and to show his master that he was still fully capable of serving as his
main enforcer.
After weeks of this great effort by Vader, he was finally invited to speak to Palpatine
again, face to face, aboard the nearly completed Super Star Destroyer known as the Executor.
Impressed, or perhaps more likely, satisfied to not being disappointed again, Palpatine
offered clarity to his overworked apprentice.
First Palpatine started out with a monologue detailing the rise of the Sith, their initial
failures and evolution as an Order to eventually rise above the Jedi and their ultimate successful
takeover.
Palpatine continued to state how all what the Sith had built led to him, for him to
be the one to set the galaxy ablaze and destroy the Jedi, and to finally bring Sith rule back
to the galaxy.
And to achieve this final grand plan, Palpatine had to use everyone that he came into contact
with, even his apprentices.
Darth Maul, an unfortunate failure, and Darth Tyranus, a simple tool who only had a purpose
to serve.
For Palpatine had a superior candidate in mind, Anakin Skywalker, the one who would
eventually become Darth Vader.
“We did it Vader” Palpatine announced to his apprentice.
The Jedi dead, the Republic resurrected as the Empire, and then finally Vader, the boy
transformed into the man he was destined to be.
Everything had gone exactly Palpatine had hoped for, his perfect apprentice was created…
or so he thought.
As then came Mustafar.
Vader’s failure at Mustafar had jeopardized everything in Palpatine’s eyes, as he had
so many more things in mind for his new apprentice.
But rather than giving up and ditching Vader like he did with his past apprentices, Palpatine
instead decided to go out of his way to not only save him, but also to strengthen him.
So he called upon the greatest minds within the Empire to rebuild Vader into the machine
he was now, in hopes of allowing his apprentice to redeem himself to Palpatine.
And in many ways he did.
He was the apprentice Palpatine always wanted.
Once his Master finished, Vader then spoke, suggesting that had any of the scientist’s
experimental warriors succeeded in replacing him, Palpatine would have made this very same
speech to them.
An awkward silence came, with Vader quickly breaking it, saying that it did not matter
in the end, for that ultimately he was the one here.
For that the dark side is strength, and he was that strength.
And with that, Palpatine was satisfied, giving Vader the order to eliminate the scientist
who had originally created the experimental warriors, as he had gotten too powerful within
the Empire and was suspected of treason.
Vader instinctively obeyed his master once more, reignited with his new determination,
but with a different focus this time.
For before learning of his son Luke Skywalker, Vader may have remained a forever loyal servant
of Palpatine, but now he had other plans.
Plans of eventually overthrowing his master with his son at his side.
But now, he had to carry out his master’s order of eliminating the traitorous Imperial
scientist.
Remember how earlier we mentioned Darth Vader was also setting up the groundwork of his
future empire to overthrow Palpatine?
Well Palpatine found that out shortly afterwards when one of Vader’s pawns essentially ratted
him out.
You would expect an immediate execution to be in order, at least the pawn who ratted
Vader out expected that, but instead the opposite happened.
Vader going behind his master’s back actually impressed Palpatine, amusing him as well.
Going out to tell Vader that he was everything he had hoped for in an apprentice.
As from Palpatine’s point of view, going behind ones back and betraying them was the
way of the Sith.
And he was happy that Vader finally learned that, impressed even with the lengths his
apprentice had gone to with everything he had accomplished.
And Palpatine was amused, in the sense that Vader actually thought he ever had a chance
of overthrowing him.
For the Emperor’s greatest weakness was always his overconfidence in his ability to
predict the future and his hold over his greatest minion, and Palpatine would only learn his
fault a few years later, when it is all too late for him.