Palpatine's relationship with his apprentices

Has anybody noticed that in the films Sidious and his apprentices actually had pretty functional and almost friendly relations

Maul had respect for his master and Sidious gives him constant compliments in TPM
In AotC Sidious shares one scene with Dooku and gives him a soothing welcome home and a compliment
In ROTS Palpatine showers Anakin and Vader with compliments and praise, and even saves his life when he perhaps not needed to.

Same goes for the entirety of the OT, Vader bows for his master, and in returns gets called a "friend" of the Emperor

He did not have emotional attachments to them, he is an evil Sith Lord after all and would gladly sacrifice them for his own benefit. But I couldn't help but think for a lot of years that even if Palpatine didn't love his apprentices like how a Jedi would ( in a brotherly father-son/daughter type ) he atleast liked or respected their skills.

In a lot if not most EU stuff Palpatine is always so abusive and angry towards them, mocks and behaves like a passaive agrresive bully to them.
When you think about it in GL's movies Palpatine never fights or rants against any of his apprentices. He was always very proud and charmy and buddy with them until they served their uses.

In things like Legend and Canon books and comics and tv shows Palpatine beats them, threatens them and makes live miserable for them.
I dunno I sort of liked Palpatine and them having the more friendly relationship that preceded in the movies, like if you do his dirty work well it'll serve you a comfortable seat right next to him. So that you won't notice it when he pushes you off...-

 

I hear what you are saying... People like to portray Palpatine and Vader as monsters, but there were Imperials who had working relationships with them for years without getting killed. It was people that crossed them or failed them big time that copped their wrath!

They go so overboard in the comics and t.v shows etc

 

Sidious liked his apprentices when they were useful to him. When they failed it is a different story.

The only moment that this is not the case was the compassion shown in Sidious on Mustafar, why he felt this is unknown but in my mind gave him a bit of characterization away from one dimensional villain which I welcome (I hate villains in anything being portrayed this way, it's extremely lazy writing) so bravo Lucas

 

Sidious was extremely good at making his apprentices THINK he actually liked them but in reality they were never any more than tools. He's supremely manipulative - if an encouraging word or friendly gesture will get better results he will do that, if not then he will bawl them out and punish them. Even on Mustafar it's more the case that with Grievous and Dooku both dead and Anakin still very powerful even if not as much as before then he will make do.

 

I don't know, I think he had some fondness for Maul and Anakin/Vader in his own way.
He doesn't have genuine empathy no doubt, his warmer persona early in ROTS I think is a mix of acting to get Anakin on his side and actually admiring Anakin's potential power.

He values Vader above every other GFFA being besides himself. He didn't really need to salvage Vader on Mustafar, I think he felt some twisted sort of affection for him, but yeah maybe because Vader was so inherently powerful. And indeed when Luke comes along he is ready to discard Vader without much hesitation. His greed at wanting the strongest version of a second-in-command, seemingly forgetting Vader had put in so much of himself to get themselves to that position, is ultimately his downfall.

 

Well, the Sith are an order of knights. Like the Jedi, they are partially based on feudal orders. They are Lords, so a sense of chivalry and respective manners has always been part of their characterization. In the movies, at least.

I wouldn't call it friendship though. Even when using the term "friend", it's more akin to being a confident than anything else.

As for Sidious saving Vader's life, it was not compassion or friendship either. It was having power. Despite what happened, Vader was still worthy of having around. He was still powerful and useful.

 

Sith Lords and their apprentices occasionally did have sexual relationships, in the old EU at least.

Anyway Palpatine is on relatively good terms with his apprentices but it is understood they are in submission to his will. Part of being a sith apprentice is obedience and deference-we see this even in the OT where Vader is always obedient, addressing Palpatine as "my master", he doesn't backtalk him, disrespect him or counter act him.

Being a sith apprentice requires you do what your master says-like without question or hesitation. That comes with the whole package of being inducted into the order.

 

For me it's like a business relationship
both teacher and apprentice cooperate together to achieve various objectives or goals

The objective of Palpatine was to be emperor and absolute governor of the galaxy
His apprentices were nothing but puppets for him

 

In a movie, if Sidious abused his Apprentices it would have made them look more sympathetic and less of a bad ass. These villians needed to look strong to combat the Jedi, calling them worthless or unworthy mockingly would not make them weak and not make a great villain.

Most of the time in the Movies, everything was going as Planned and even in the Cannon Novels he compliments his Apprentices as well. I do agree the Movies don't show his mental and physical forms of torture to his Apprentices.

 

Palps certainly had no love-lost for Maul when he realized he was planning on usurping his authority by taking on an apprentice of his own.

 

Palpatine is like that guy/girl who dates someone until someone hotter comes along.

 

He's a pimp, once his Aprentices start getting old, he uses them to groom their young replacements. He likes them young lol


Examples: Dooku to Anakin and his attempt at Vader to Luke