CT What was Vader thinking after knowing the truth of Luke?

After he knew Luke is his son, there seems to be a lot of struggle in his mind, he did want to let Luke join the Dark Side, but at the same time he didn't really wish Luke to suffer the same fate and become the Emperor's pawn like himself. In EP VI , after Luke talked to him, the internal struggle had grown stronger.

 

"What was Vader thinking after knowing the truth of Luke?"

 

What was Vader thinking about after finding out about Luke's existence? Hm, I need to get this boy trained so we can open up a can of whoop-ass on old Sid's! Then we shall rule the galaxy as Vader and son! Vader and son? I kind of like the sound of that.

Yeah I could see it now, Vader and Luke join forces and buy out Watto's old junkyard and set up their own shop! This has a series potential.

 

There wasn't a struggle with the idea of turning Luke. He knew right away once he found out, what he was going to do.

"At this point, Vader’s plan really, now that he knows he’s his son, is to convince him to come with him. Join the Dark Side and together they’re going to overthrow the Emperor, which is the thematic devices used through the whole movies in terms of the Sith, which is Sith Lords are usually no more than two because if there are three, then two of them will gang up on one to try to become the dominate Sith. Anakin would have been able to do it if he hadn’t been debilitated and now he’s half machine and half man, so he’s lost a lot of the power of the Force, and he’s lost a lot of his ability to be more powerful then the Emperor. But Luke hasn’t. Luke is Vader’s hope. His motives at this point are purely evil. He simply wants to continue on what he was doing before which is get rid of the Emperor and make himself Emperor. He only sees his son as a mechanism for the ambition. His mad lust of power."

--George Lucas, TESB DVD Commentary.

"And when he finds out Luke is his son, his first impulse is to figure out a way of getting him to join him to kill the Emperor. That's what Siths do! He tries it with anybody he thinks might be more powerful, which is what the Emperor was looking for in the first place: somebody who would be more powerful than he was and could help him rule the universe. But Obi-Wan screwed that up by cutting off his arms and legs and burning him up. From then on, he wasn't as strong as the Emperor -- he was like Darth Maul or Count Dooku. He wasn't what he was supposed to become. But the son could become that."

--George Lucas, Rolling Stones Interview, 2005.

 

I've always felt that from the confrontation with Luke at the end of TESB onwards, Vader was somewhat, although he wouldn't admit it til much later, conflicted. The conversation through the force, the decision not to employ the force choke. Something was going on there.

 

Vader obviously wanted Luke to join him and overthrow the Emperor, but in light of the prequels, I wonder about his motivation. Yes, ultimately he craves more power. And in the OT era, it would end right there. But after the prequels, upon learning about Luke's existence, part of Vader must've been like "Wha-? But…oh my god, Palpatine ****ing lied to me!!" And maybe that influenced his thinking when deciding "You know what? It's time for this Emperor to *go*."

 

Yeah, I've sometimes wondered whether Vader just really wanted to off Palpatine on a straight out personal level, as much as he wanted to rule the galaxy himself. At some point he must've come to realise that Palpatine had been completely full of **** and he'd suffered prodigiously as a result

 

Well by then he knows the Emperor is always pretty much always lying to him.

That is the Sith way. Hence the changed dialogue for TESB when they communicate.

 

Like everyone else said, DV wanted Luke to join him and give him back up to kill the Emporer. He wanted to be top dop, and Luke could bring him there. He gets that extra security of being his father too, so the two of them could equally rule until Vader was gone.

 

That does strongly suggest that Vader has only just found out about Luke in this moment (it's not a case of him knowing Luke is his son from shortly after ANH, and faking surprise in TESB.)

 

In the light of the PT, and assuming Vader had discovered the lie, then maybe a little from Column A, a little from Column B - but I think given the nature of the Sith and the Dark Side, he still would have seen Luke's emergence as an opportunity to rule the galaxy as #1 regardless.
I'm inclined to think that Palpatine's 'lie' about Padme (and the children) had little to no influence upon Vader's ambitions to rule the galaxy, they were there before Padme died anyway. The 'truth' about Padme's demise and the fate of Anakin/Vader's children was more involved with his decision to sacrifice himself and kill the Emperor, it's what was going on in his mind as he silently watched Palps electrocuting Luke, then decided that enough was enough.

If revenge towards Palpatine was on Vader's mind from ESB onwards, or at least prior to the Throne Room scenes in ROTJ, he never would have blocked Luke's initial strike - he probably wouldn't have even bothered letting Palps get a word in once they came out of the elevator.

 

In The Rise & Fall of Darth Vader, while Vader is ambitious during TESB - his ambition begins to weaken, and he loses hope of overthrowing Palpatine even with Luke. It's that state of mind that he's in, when he says "I must obey my master" in RoTJ.

 

I don't know if Sidious blatantly lied to Vader about Padme. "It seems that in your anger you killed her." Key word being "seems." He doesn't know for sure, and if he did intend to lie to Vader, he wouldn't have left himself open to suggestion. Most likely, he saw on the Holonet or something that Padme was dead and being buried on Naboo. His guess may have been that it was Vader's fault.

 

Vader's initial desire to rule the galaxy seemed to me to be driven by his unfaltering belief in the power of the dark side, as suggested to him by Sidious. He seemed to be besotted by his 'new powers', specifically the power to save the ones he loved from dying. By the time of the OT era, I wonder whether that whole line of reasoning might have worn a bit thin. I agree with Iron_lord that the Vader of ROTJ is a fairly dis-spirited and resigned character. 'It's too late for me' and 'I must obey my master' suggest that to me.

 

I think that's because the Dark Side might be the only way to heal his wounds?

 

The injuries are healed except for his lungs. Though that was the subject of a scene in "Shadows Of The Empire", where Vader is in his chambers with his helmet off and tries to breath on his own, without help. He can only hold it for so long, before he loses his grip either due to letting go of his anger, or his inability to hold it long enough. He believes that Luke can help him long term.

 

Vader wanted Luke to join him, but he was extra obsessed because it was his son. As time went on his feelings became even more clouded.