CT The Sith & The Empire, a huge conflict of interest

If we follow the self contained mythology of the original film, Vader and the Sith are a third party group commissioned by the Empire to help hunt down the stolen plans.

From the extended war room scene that never made it's way into the final film:

"I tell you he's gone mad. This sith lord sent by the emperor will be our undoing..." -General Tagge

So essentially they were an independent body that had no legal jurisdiction prior. The Empire was the state, the Sith was the church.

This was all changed in ESB, with the Sith now in control of the Empire. IMO not only is this a far less interesting angle than the one proposed in ANH, it really diminishes the Empire as villains and reduces them to glorified henchmen.

Most importantly though there is a conflict of interest. The Empire's primary objective was always to hunt down and destroy the rebellion, but ESB communicates very clearly that Vader's primary objective was capturing Skywalker. They are close, but these are not mutual interests. I highly doubt that Captain Needa or Captain Piett would have dedicated the same amount of time and resource to hunting down the Millenium Falcon, which as far as they were concerned meant absolutely nothing in the grand scheme of things. It begs to wonder why the Empire would even serve Vader and the Emperor at all with all of these ill-judged plans, not to mention that they straight up MURDER anyone that fails to do the job!

It would have been very interesting if they had kept the original Emperor character intact, which was that of a corrupt politician and completely separate from Vader's true master. It would have made for a real fascinating subplot if we got to witness the Sith infect the Imperial hierarchy over time as opposed to just abruptly declaring them the leaders from the start.

Plus it would have been more consistent with ANH.

 

In ANH the Emperor as head of state had dissolved the senate once Leia was discovered to be on the Tantive IV providing aid to the Rebellion. Tarkin and the Imperial Council now had the power to rule the galaxy from the Death Star independent of the decision making of the Emperor. Tarkin also had the added proof that the Alderaan's were in cahoots with the Rebels. The Emperor had served his role by dissolving the Senate, now up to the Imperial council. Tarkin could have declared himself Emperor with the Death Star under his control. The Imperial council were firmly in control of the Galaxy at that point and the Emperor could attend meetings and determine together with the Moffs and Grand Moffs how the Empire would be governed.


As for ESB i do agree that Vader's insistence on capturing the Millennium Falcon was careless but it could have been spun in the Empires favour that the lovely Princess was now in captivity, the heroic crew of the Falcon are now Imperial captives so the Rebels have no chance in mounting a fresh offensive against the Empire. They are doomed are composed of misfits and traitors and therefore there is no point in putting your faith in their cause. Had Vader brought those captives back from Bespin the Rebels would have suffered a huge blow. A second time the Princess has been captured and the possibility of further retaliatory attacks from the Empire. Vader was really searching for Skywalker who held the key to unlocking the Rebels and finally undermine the fight. Turning him to a Sith would reverse the loss of the Death Star.

 

Actually, when ESB and ROTJ was released, "the Sith" were still a distinct entity from the Emperor. The intention at the time of ANH's release was that the Sith were a group of Jedi who pledged themselves to the Emperor when the Jedi Purge began, and that intially, Vader was low-ranked among them, but over time all of them died except for Vader. This is why Tarkin says, "You are all that's left of their religion." and Vader says, "When I left you, I was but the learner. Now I am the master." In an earlier version of the screeplay, Vader says this line in response to Obi-Wan incorrectly thinking that Vader still has a Sith master, and in an even earlier version, Vader has a still-living Sith master. There's nothing to suggest that this concept of "the Sith" was discarded for ESB or ROTJ beyond the fact that they all were now established to be apprentices of the Emperor himself, who's revealed to be a secret Force-user. It was only in the prequels that "the Sith" was established to include the Emperor.

 

Might have been better the way it was intended back then. Palpatine could be an independent Dark Side user, who followed a political path & then corrupted some Jedi. This way he would not wield a lightsaber or leap around, like the Jedi or fallen Jedi (Sith).

 

After all, Palpatine does call Luke's lightsaber a "Jedi weapon".

 

Strange thing to say while he has one tucked up his sleeve.

 

Bob the X-Winger wrote

In ANH the Emperor as head of state had dissolved the senate once Leia was discovered to be on the Tantive IV providing aid to the Rebellion.



The point was made that Vader had no proof whatsoever to link Leia to the Alliance and therefore resorted to claims and accusations. I'm not aware that the Tantive IV incident had anything to do with dissolving the Imperial Senate.
The Imperial Senate was dissolved because the Death Star was about to become operational and the regional governors would then take over for the Imperial Senate.

 

The Empire had already suspected that Alderaan was supplying aid to the rebels. The capture of the Tantive IV on a secret mission to the Outer Rim offered the Empire all the proof they required that the Rebellion was seeking an ally to fight against the Empire. The Empire also had valuable info stolen from their archives on Scarif info that had fallen into the hands of the Rebel leadership.

Lord Vader was sent there to retrieve the plans, Sen Leia claimed she was on a diplomatic mission yet their was no ambassador as Vader himself had said so what was a
Galactic Senator doing in the Outer Rims on a ship the Empire correctly ided the ship that stole the plans. As for the Emperor dissolving the senate no sooner had Vader boarded the Tantive IV and secured the ship did the Emperor not now have an excuse to dismantle the Rebel leadership and sympathisers in the Galactic Senate.

 

He's also mocking Luke's desire to be a Jedi.

 

I like to think Palpatine disregards the lightsaber since he lost lightsaber duels to both Mace and Yoda and needs to rely on his Lightning. Thus as the typical egoist coward he has to discredit the thing he's not as good with.

 

Bob the X-Winger wrote

Lord Vader was sent there to retrieve the plans, Sen Leia claimed she was on a diplomatic mission yet their was no ambassador

??? Leia was the ambassador of Alderaan and a member of the Imperial Senate. When Leia was brought before Vader he no longer asked about another "ambassador" because he knew it was her.

The one thing you seem to forget is that Vader had the Tantive IV destroyed to erase all traces of his illegal seizure of a diplomatic vessel:

VADER Leave that to me. Send a distress
signal and then inform the senate
that all aboard were killed!

So how could the Senate possibly be in revolt about a diplomatic vessel apparently destroyed in an accident?

Sorry but no, there is nothing remotely indicating that the Imperial Senate was dissolved because of the Tantive IV incident.

It was dissolved because it had been long planned that the regional governors would take over the bureaucratic duties of the Imperial Senate. Of course, that could only be done while at the same time the Death Star began to become operational to choke off any secessionist tendencies of the outraged Imperial senators.

 

That is not my reading of the situation Tarkin had said that the Senate was a trouble to the Imperial Council and they needed the assemble to be dissolved only when Vader returned to the Death Star with the Senator did Tarkin and the other Imperial leaders know that the Alderaans were supplying aid to the Alliance.

The Imperial Senate was a threat to the Empire with Sen Bail Organa and Sen Leia both well known to the Moffs and Grand Moffs that they were rebel sympathisers. Importantly Sen Leia was kept alive unlike the rest of the crew (their whereabouts unknown) brought before Tarkin to extract info from her the matter of dealing with the Imperial Senate was now of no concern to him as Emperor Palpatine had squashed that bodies abilities to do anything.

The Imperial Senate could well have demanded an investigation into the whereabouts of the crew of the ship or why Vader's ship the Devastator was sent on an unsanctioned mission into the Outer Rims without their approval. We all know why because the Empire did not what Senators to spill the beans to members of the alliance and thus Sen Leia would have known before hand.

In the story we don't know if the Tantive IV did receive word from a source in the Senate only what we see which is that Vader intercepted the Tantive IV and very nearly seized the plans.