Lit Why didn't Palpatine punished Vader for the Death Star explosion?

Is this ever addressed? Considering how big of a blow it was, I am surprised Palpatine didn't punished him.

 

Wasn't Vader personally maimed and tortured by Palpatine?

 

That sounds like some Zahn or KJA stuff right there.

 

Mara said that Vader's hand was removed by Palpatine after the destruction of the PT, but that was before the PT came out and Dooku cut Anakin's hand off. So he was punished...by Palpatine cutting off his already-cyborg hand, which he's lost at least three times now.

 

Indeed. In Dark Force Rising, Mara tells Luke that Vader lost his hand because of the Death Star destruction. Not that this is much of a punishment, as Vader loses his hand every other Thursday.

I have seen some interesting retcons, though. My favorite is that the Vader losing his hand incident actually referred to when he lost it in Splinter in the Mind's Eye, and Palpatine just told Mara that he took it as a warning.

Either that or Palpatine was trolling Vader, having foreseen that he could take Vader's hand, give him a new one, and he'd lose it again shortly after.

 

Hey, Vader did yell "ARGGGHHHH!!!" when Luke cut off his hand in ROTJ, and was visibly weakened afterwards, so there was possibly some tactile sense in his arm. The real question is and what'll bake your noddle, is the hand that Palpy took his original Clone Wars era model or his post-Mustafar cybernetic limb model other arm/hand?

I'd see it as Palpy took away his Clone Wars era mechanical hand, taking away yet another piece of Anakin Skywalker. Maybe Palps thought that was punishment.

 

just how many spare gloves does he have lying around? and which is THE real GLOVE OF DARTH VADER... we must know.. or else we'll never know who will be the true next Emperor! No wonder Imperial succession was a mess.. 5 people waving gloves claiming to be the next Emperor. Monty Python would be proud!

 

Mara's claim of insider knowledge while not actually knowing anything jibes with her role as ignorant Emperor's Hand that thinks she's as important as Vader.

 

LOL so true.

 

And also Palpatine's tendency to play people against each other for his own purposes. As seen with Vader and Xizor, he likes to inspire rivalries among his underlings.

 

It's addressed in issue 13 of the new Star Wars comic by Brian Wood

 

No lies detected.

Also, wouldn't it really have been Tarkin's fault the Death Star was destroyed? I mean, not that Palpatine would have necessarily cared about that sort of thing....

 

Zahn was serious though about her importance. Either way the idea of chopping Vaders hand off seems a bit of a stupid idea.

Besides how is it Vaders fault anyway if Han had not come back, something that is hard to plan for he would have won.

 

Vader's Quest has Palpatine bring it up:

Any moment now my apprentice will come with yet another failure to report! He'll bow and apologize and offer another bit of his flesh, all the time hiding the truth I already know. I'll let him play his game, and I'll play it along with him, because ... it amuses me to do so.

Within the game there is a game and when I greet him I'll do so with these words -- "Hello, apprentice, Dark Lord of the Sith, Hello Darth Vader, Hello -- SKYWALKER!"

It is addressed in several issues:

Early in the In The Shadow of Yavin book
Vader: Yavin Four was a setback. Tarkin was a fool --"
Palpatine: "I do not need to be reminded of Tarkin. Just as you do not need a reminder that it was your failure to stop a single snubfighter that set the Empire back trillions of credits and nearly two decades of work."
...
Palpatine: "You will transfer all command codes to Bircher. You will not be returning to this ship. I can sense your anger. It has very nearly eclipsed your shame. Good. You see this as a demotion. I do not place much importance on rank. It is the actions of a subordinate that matter to me. Redeem yourself, Lord Vader ... and the loss of your Star Destroyer will be trivial compared to all that you may gain. And I will be in no position to deny any of it to you."

Later (narration):

Near the Sanctuary Moon, in the Endor system.
Darth Vader, due to his failure at the Battle of Yavin, has been relieved of his position commanding the primary Imperial fleet and suffers under constant insult from his master, the Emperor Palpatine.
The existence of his replacement, the upstart Colonel Bircher, mocks him from light years away.
The Second Death Star, being constructed in secret within the resource-rich Endor system, one day may serve as Vader's revenge on the Rebels. For now, it is a remote construction site and well beneath Vader's abilities to administrate.

 

Hmm I thought Heir when that first came out was in 91 before those you have quoted. Eitherway its still a stupid plot point in jmo

 

The point being that "Vader is punished" is a plot thread that's being harked on to this day.

Though it should be said that Vader's Quest came out before AoTC (and long before RoTS), so the writer, like Zahn, may have been under the impression that Vader still had "flesh to offer" off his limbs.

 

Or it's figurative, like giving a pound of flesh!

Maybe Mara has difficulty understanding figurative language!

 

Four actually.

 

It's possible. Or Palpatine may simply have lied to her because he wants to subtly build up rivalry between the two.

Once in Splinter of the Mind's Eye, once in RoTJ- what were the others?

 

Star Wars: Purge, TFU2, and after the Battle of Yavin, so it's 5 times now!

And yes, it was the same hand every time.

 

Were all of the "on-screen" examples Vader's right hand? The Mara example was more heresy than actually shown.

 

Right hand every single time.

 

The Glove was searching for a new bearer...

Sent from another Galaxy

 

I'm quite certain that Vader got electrocuted within an inch of his life for letting the Death Star be destroyed mere days after it's completion. Palpatine would have been furious that his pet project was destroyed so easily, after spending countless credits and two decades to get it built.

And with Vader being the only Imperial that survived the Death Star's destruction, all of Palpatine's fury would have fallen squarely on Vader's mechanical shoulders. This nonsense about being demoted or losing a mechanical hand is far too lenient.

Darth Sidious would not have forgiven his apprentice easily for such a costly failure. Vader would have been extremely lucky to get away from that particular meeting with his life. As we've seen before, Palpatine has a very nasty temper and a tendency to violently torture those who fail him.