PT Sidious Saving Vader

Do you think Sidious is using a skill he learned from Plagueis to save Vader's life after he lost the duel with Obi-Wan on Mustafar? I've been thinking about the Plagueis cheating death secret and maybe Sidious actually did learn how to cheat death and how that could play out somehow in the ST.

 

Like Maul, Vader's hatred kept him alive long enough for Sidious to rescue him. He just submerged himself in the dark side completely.

 

ROTS: Matt Stover novelization:


A Naboo skiff reverted to realspace and flashed toward an alien medical installation in the asteroid belt of Polis Massa.
Tantive IV reentered reality only moments behind.
And on Mustafar, below the red thunder of a volcano, a Sith Lord had already snatched from sand of black glass the charred torso and head of what once had been a man, and had already leapt for the cliffbank above with effortless strength, and had already roared to his clones to bring the medical capsule immediately!
The Sith Lord lowered the limbless man tenderly to the cool ground above, and laid his hand across the cracked and blackened mess that once had been his brow, and he set his will upon him.
Live, Lord Vader. Live, my apprentice. Live.

The YA ROTS novelization (Patricia C. Wrede):

As the Imperial shuttle closed its wings and settled on the topmost landing platform, Darth Sidious saw a small starship fleeing from Mustafar. But he could not order the shuttle into pursuit—the uneasy urgency was stronger than ever, and it was tied to the planet, not the ship.
The clone troopers disembarked first, fanning out through the quiet building to make sure nothing would endanger their Emperor. They found only bodies. Then, as Darth Sidious inspected the control room, one of the troopers came in through an exterior door.
"There's something out here," he reported.
That's it. As quickly as he could, Darth Sidious followed the troopers outside, onto the black sand banks of the lava river. No, it can't be!
But it was. His promising new apprentice, who was to be the greatest Sith who'd ever lived—maimed and burned, perhaps dead. Darth Sidious ground his teeth in frustrated anger. Part of him wanted to turn on his heel and leave what was left of Darth Vader to burn to ashes in the rising lava. Even if he was alive, even if he could be saved, Vader would be crippled.
And not just with his mechanical limbs. The Force—dark side as well as light—was generated by living beings, and it took living flesh to manipulate it. Darth Vader would never be able to cast blue Force lightning; that required living hands, not metal ones. And with so much of his body replaced by machinery, he would never come close to the potential he'd had.
It was a great pity, Darth Sidious thought, controlling his anger, but perhaps not irreparable. Even diminished, Darth Vader would still be very strong, and there were no Jedi left to challenge him. Darth Sidious had seen to that himself. So he kept walking until he could bend over the body. And to his surprise, his apprentice was still alive.
Relief swept his doubts away. "Get a medical capsule immediately," Darth Sidious commanded, and clones ran off to do his bidding. Leaning down, he placed a hand on Darth Vader's forehead, using the dark side to keep him alive.

 

Sidious used simple foresight or Force sense to realize that A.) Anakin was in a duel against an opponent he couldn't handle, or B.) Anakin was going to receive a gruesome injury and his time was limited.

 

Do not underestimate the power of the medical capsule.

 

I think it was partly the medical capsule, and then partly just "normal" dark-side Force-healing - not actually manipulating the midichlorians or something like that to cheat death like what Plagueis experimented with.

 

One thing I like about that scene is Sidious's tone when the clones tell him they've found Anakin.

"This way Your Majesty,"

"There he is!" Sidious says in a very panicked and worried, and even as he sees what's left of Vader it's clear in his tone that he thinks his apprentice is dead.
It's only when he sees Vader still moving that he realizes that his apprentice lives. I like this scene because it shows us that unlike his previous apprentices, whom he discarded without a second thought, Palpatine actually cares about Anakin, in his own twisted way.

 

Obviously a medical capsule was used, but Sidious goes to Vader's side and places his hand over his head and there is a glow. It leaves wiggle room for interpretation that maybe Sidious does know something about cheating death.

 

If there is a glow in that shot, it's from the lava on the background.

 

I don't know. I've watched a few more times and looks like the glow is in between Vader's forehead and and Sidious's hand.

 

Anakin kept himself alive initially, he was very strong in the Force. But he could only do that for so long in the condition Obi-Wan left him (a different topic, but it was quite cruel and unusual punishment to leave Anakin to die like that - it is more compassionate to just shoot the horse dead). So Sidious was left to keep him alive until he could bound him up in the suit.