I remember the employees at Lucasfilm were reminding us that Vader is not a "nice" master vis-a-vis his professional relationship with Galen Marek in The Force Unleashed. But I think we knew that after Vader cut Luke's hand off in TESB.
My interpretation of events in TESB and ROTJ were that Luke came to the realization that his father was doing the wrong thing for (what Vader perceived as) the right reasons. Vader is essentially operating under the "ends will justify the means" mentality. THAT mixed with how Luke has come to realize just how easy it is to give in to the darkness, made Luke empathetic to his father's plight. Luke's thought process is probably something along the lines of, "My father thinks he is bringing order to the galaxy and doesn't realize how far he has strayed from his original ideals." Then, fast forward to ROTJ when Luke turns himself in, Luke suddenly realizes that Vader has basically given up on himself and is super subservient to the Emperor so Luke is trying his hardest to reawaken Vader's fighting spirit... but have that spirit aimed at Palpatine and not himself.
You could sat that about every action Anakin takes prior to killing his wife, they were all the wrong thing for the right reason. Without venturing into the upcoming TV shows that could show Anakin as a PTSD suffering war veteran, may be within those moments OWK and Luke share on Dagobah after Yoda's death, OWK inadvertently gives that impression to Luke?
Luke aiding in his father's redemption was one of George Lucas' best ideas. Speaking of George Lucas...happy birthday to the creator of Star Wars!
I don't think Vader loved Luke much, if at all. I think after Vader has broken his connection to the dark side, he acted out of remorse for all he had done when he saved Luke from Palpatine.
Agreed. He simply didn’t have a connection with Luke in the traditional sense to care like he should.
There is no room for love for users of the dark side. When Vader was facing that difficult choice between remaining a Sith and saving his son, he chose the latter. He didn't care that Luke had severed his robotic hand. He didn't want to lose someone else for whom he cared. Sidious had made his life miserable. So, saving Luke at the cost of his own life was an easy decision.
"It really has to do with learning," Lucas says, "Children teach you compassion. They teach you to love unconditionally. Anakin can't be redeemed for all the pain and suffering he's caused. He doesn't right the wrongs, but he stops the horror. The end of the Saga is simply Anakin saying, I care about this person, regardless of what it means to me. I will throw away everything that I have, everything that I've grown to love- primarily the Emperor- and throw away my life, to save this person. And I'm doing it because he has faith in me; he loves me despite all the horrible things I've done. I broke his mother's heart, but he still cares about me, and I can't let that die. Anakin is very different in the end. The thing of it is: The prophecy was right. Anakin was the Chosen One, and he does bring balance to the Force. He takes the one ounce of good still left in him and destroys the Emperor out of compassion for his son." Anakin Skywalker's final confrontation with the Emperor occurs during Luke's final confrontation with the Emperor, which compliments his father's dealings with the same man many years earlier. Indeed the life of the father and the life of the son are commentaries on each other. --George Lucas, The Making Of Revenge Of The Sith; page 221.
Yep - I think this is the answer. He didn't even really know Luke - but it did make him finally accept what a complete disaster he'd made of his own life and he couldn't bear to see his son go down the same path after showing more strength/determination than he had.
It's not about how long he knows him. Anakin loves his son once he let's go of his anger and hate. What happens is when he sees this... ....he's really seeing this.
my thought when watching that scene is he's thinking "i turned to the dark side for him to save Padme , and now he's murdering my son."
Compare what I posted earlier from Lucas to why Anakin turns, also from Lucas. "You almost come a second too late. You're rushing over to make sure that nothing happens-but your anticipation is that they're going to hurt each other. When the lightning starts things are going from bad to worse from your point of view. And when Mace is going to kill him, you have to act. Try and increase how uncomfortable you feel as the shot goes on. Try to think back on the Darth Plagueis story-run that through your head. Take it one step further: you realize that by telling the Jedi about Palpatine being a Sith that Padme is going to die. Basically, you just killed her." --George Lucas To Hayden Christensen, The Making Of ROTS.