Saga Did Palpatine even need Anakin?

He had all the Clones on his side, which were shown in masses to be strong enough to run over the Jedi. He also had a highly trained Sith Apprentice by the name of Count Dooku. Was there any other reason aside from his ego - taking under the wing the Jedi's "saviour" - for Palpatine to make Anakin his apprentice?

 

"Palpatine has told Dooku. 'I have somebody who I think will be a great Sith Lord and I think we can get him to join us. But we need to test him. So we're going to setup a situation where you fight him. If he gets the best of you, then I'll stop the fight and he'll have passed the test. If you get the best of him, then we'll let him go, and we'll let him stew for a few more years until he's ready.' But behind it, obviously, is Palpatine's real intention: If Anakin is good enough, Anakin can kill Dooku and become Palpatine's new apprentice. But he didn't tell Dooku that."

--George Lucas, The Making Of ROTS; Page 41.


"After Darth Sidious' first apprentice is killed, he has to come up with a new apprentice, and rather than coming up with some baby that he trains from birth, which is what he should have done--well, he shouldn't have gotten himself in a position of getting his apprentice killed anyways--he's decided to make his move, so he needs somebody that was already trained. The point is to set up that he turned this one Jedi, so that he could turn another Jedi. It has to be set up that way."

--George Lucas, AOTC DVD Commentary.

"Anakin, as Skywalker, as a human being, was going to be extremely powerful, but he ended up losing his arms and a leg and became partly a robot. So a lot of his ability to use the Force, a lot of his powers, are curbed at this point, because, as a living form, there’s not that much of him left. So his ability to be twice as good as the Emperor disappeared, and now he’s maybe 20 percent less than the Emperor. So that isn’t what the Emperor had in mind. He wanted this really super guy, but that got derailed by Obi-Wan. So he finds that, with Luke, he can get a more primo version if he can turn Luke to the dark side. You’ll see, as this goes on, Luke is faced with the same issues and practically the same scenes that Anakin is faced with. Anakin says yes and Luke says no."

--George Lucas, “Star Wars: The Last Battle,” Vanity Fair, 2005

"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.

"The Emperor wants Luke to kill Vader so that he will have a new young Jedi. Lets face it Vader is half mechanical and he is not half as good as he could be. He is not nearly as good as he was hoping Anakin would become because Anakin ends up in the suit. He is hoping he gets a new better apprentice in Luke. If he kills his father then he would take his place as an apprentice; which actually there is something that in the next film is how Anakin becomes his apprentice. There are a lot of things repeated in these movies. Fathers vs Sons."

--George Lucas, ROTJ DVD Commentary.

He doesn't really need him, but he wants Anakin because of his power. It has nothing to do with his being the Chosen One.

 

Need? No, but he was a great asset.

 

Well he needed an apprentice to exercise his will. As the Emperor he can't deal with all dark matters himself. Plus the Rule of Two declares he needs an apprentice to pass his knowledge on to, and Anakin is perhaps the most powerful force wielder that ever lived. Though it is true they have deluded the rule of two with dozens of other dark side users (to my disappointment ) the principle still stands.

 

If we follow the rules set in the recent finale for the season 2 of Rebels, then a master and apprentice duo is what is required to access Sith Holocrons and Sith Temples. This, yes, an apprentice was is necessaryfor a Sith master.

 

An apprentice, but not necessarily Vader. Palpatine sacrificed a perfectly apt apprentice in Dooku to get Vader for no apparent reason other than to bolster his ego.

 

He sacrificed Dooku because he was not strong enough. If he was, then Anakin would be dead and not Dooku. It had nothing to do with ego. The first rule of the Sith is that there can only be two and Dooku failed to live up to that.

 

There's also the fact that, as the Chosen One, Anakin was also one of the most powerful force users to ever exist. That made him a prize as much as an apprentice.

 

Dooku couldn't have executed Order 66 like Anakin did.

 

The Rule of Two is about ensuring the strongest goes forward; before Mustafar injuries, Vader would have reached full potential and became unstoppable.

 

Darth Tenebrous foresaw that there would be a shadow, which he termed the One Sith, who would be powerful and crafty enough to hold the galaxy by its throat without any need for an apprentice. (This is not to be confused with the One Sith Order founded and led by Darth Krayt.) That was Darth Sidious. However, as ObiWanKnowsMe and Dinos4Ever pretty much summed up why Sidious wanted Anakin to become Vader. Everything Sidious Palpatine does is an egotistical exercise.

 

It was the Clones that eliminated the majority of the Jedi; not Anakin. I'm sure Sheev could've just sent a few more towards the Jedi temple to wipe them out.

 

The Jedi at the Temple had a better shot at taking out Dooku instead of Anakin

 

Perhaps, but the point is - it was the Clones and order 66 that brought him victory, not his apprentice

It seems like the Sith have 2 conflicting goals:

(1) Seize as much power as possible only for themselves

(2) Find really powerful apprentices who have the potential to take your power from you one day​

 

Palpatine executed it. Dooku would have been able to lead the raid on the Temple, if he was on Coruscant. Neither one was required for that. Dooku was a skilled swordsman and far more advanced than the ones in the Temple.

 

Anakin potential with the force was just a little higher than Master Yoda,when Anakin had all his body.
After Anakin looses his hand,I think Master Yoda is strongest Force user.

Sidious always believed Anakin would become most strongest force user ever,even after Anakin looses his hand.
Sidious is egotist, but he desire to have an apprentice strong enough,to kill him one day and take his place.
He was a Sith and wanted to have the Siths remaining at the leadership of the galaxy.
And for this,he needed a very powerful apprentice.

 

I don't think that's true in the slightest.

 

Need him? No, not necessarily, but would he have been in a better position with perhaps the strongest Force adept ever on his side instead of that of the Jedi? Most definitely yes, and it paid off.

There's no way of knowing how matters might have turned out if Palps had simply settled for Dooku as his apprentice, but even if he'd pulled it all off, it could have taken many more years and been much messier. He'd have had a very powerful Jedi Master/Republic General by the name of Anakin Skywalker to deal with, for a start.

Crunching numbers regarding clonetroopers and so on misses the point. Anakin was an integral part of the plan all along, even before Dooku became a Sith apprentice - Palps had been grooming Anakin for Sithhood since he joined the Jedi Order as a boy. He recognised his potential far better than the Jedi did, with the exception of Qui-Gon.

 

Power...? It wasn't a requirement but he was a great (if not the greatest) asset he could have. And Anakin wasn't the Jedi's saviour.

 

Dooku was part of the plan before Anakin was discovered. He was already working for the Sith, but with Maul being taken out of the equation and learning that Anakin existed, Palpatine decided to factor him into the plan.

 

Remember what Darth Sidious is telling to Master Yoda,when Master Yoda block Sidious way :
"You can not stop me; Darth Vader will become more powerful than either of us!"
So,Darth Sidious is egotist but is wanting even more than Sith Lords would rule the galaxy.
Darth Sidious have not foreseen that Darth Vader will loose to Obi Wan.
I guess Darth Sidious thinks as safety options:
- either Master Yoda will defeat him and Master Yoda will fall to the dark side
- either Master Yoda will defeat him and than,Anakin will defeat Master Yoda.
Darth Sidious has sensed that Darth Vader is extremely strong with the Force and being a Sith,that is for him equivalent with the fact
that Darth Vader is strongest Force user.
However,besides raw potential there is also the will of the Force (which Siths are never taking into account) and,how wise a Force user is
(which Sidious also neglects it).

 

He wanted Anakin since The Phantom Menace. The boy was the Jedi's "chosen one".

 

I used to think he didn't. He has all of the military and Anakin is still just one guy. But The Clone Wars changed my mind. If Anakin would have eventually become a near-invincible Force god being like The Father, no amount of ships/troops/weapons/etc could stop him. But does Sidious even know about Mortis?

 

Not Anakin per se, there were plenty of non Jedi force sensitives out there that Palpatine could have sought out. I always got the impression that Anakin's Force aura compared to other Jedi was what drew Palpatine to him, not to mention the prophecy.
As for Mortis, if Palpatine knew about it, he'd fear it and try to destroy it.

 

It was greed, as well as neutralizing a threat (or so he thought).