Today I've been wondering about something for the first time: Did Palpatine's iconic red Royal Guards have any clue whether the man they were protecting was a Sith Lord? Obviously, Palpatine had them around mostly for show, trying to create the facade of an old, robed leader in need of protection by elite guards. But did he intentionally keep them in the dark on his powers? In ROTJ he sent them away just as Luke was brought before him- so they probably saw nothing of the action that took place in the throne room afterwards. In ROTS, they weren't present during Mace Windu's ill-fated arrest attempt. Most likely the Chancellor had sent them away, so the Jedi would be led into his trap without prior obstacles. Then, when Yoda entered his sub-Senate quarters, they got knocked out cold before Palpatine could make a move. So just what were they aware of?
In the EU, Royal Guard Carnor Jax knew- he arranged for the sabotage of Palpatine's clones, and attempted to take over after Han killed the last one. Going by their roles: http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Emperor's_Royal_Guard they would have gotten pretty close to his uses of the Force.
Going only with the movies: What about Vader and Palpatine always talking about the force and about the dark side, turning Luke etc. I believe they knew, since they were always so close to the Emperor and Vader. Remember when the Emperor spoke openly to Vader about turning Luke to the dark side when he first arrived at the Death Star in TESB.
Yeah they had to have known. He probably told them himself when selecting them; "You're largely irrelevant, I could handle any assassin or threat on my own because I am the Dark Lord of the Sith. But I really like the color bright red, but all my robes are dark colored, and I never get to play with my lightsaber anymore, so I like to keep you guys around."
He uses telekinesis throughout Crimson Empire. But if we're just going based on the movies here, I don't think that the Royal Guards knew anything. Remember the Sith are a 1000 year old legend now. It's like one of the Secret Service agents hearing a rumor that Obama is part of the Knights Templar...It just doesn't make sense!! Besides they were simplemindedly devoted to protecting him regardless. Heck, maybe at that time even the Royal Guard were clones.
I don't think the guards were familiar enough with Jedi, Sith, and the Force to really know strange powers exhibited by Palpatine indicated that. Remember when Palpatine initially tried to explain to Anakin that he was just knowledgeable of the Dark Side because of his position. Maybe Palpatine never even really exhibited anything with the guards around until he removed Luke's binders on the Death Star (if they even saw that; right off the top of my head I can't remember if he did that before he told the guards to leave them.) There was probably never a reason for him to do anything obvious like Force lightning or move things around. The general populace seemed to only know myths and rumors about the whole religion and its history anyway.
Making the Royal Guards clones would make them lose their originality, who they were, and the Crimson Empire story. I think they originally planned on doing this, but decided not to.
I think the original Star Wars Poster Monthly article that had the Stormtroopers as clones also mentioned that the best of them get promoted into the Imperial Guard: STAR WARS: OFFICIAL POSTER MONTHLY #4 Published January 1978 by Galaxy Publications. Text writers Jon Trux, John May, Anthony Fredrickson. http://theforce.net/image_popup/image_popup_global.asp?Image=timetales/misc/arcana/post4-03.jpg
They must have known Vader was a Force user: Bit of a no-brainer that Palps must have been, as well, if his right hand man was a known Sith Lord, but EU aside, I always had the impression that they were a bit zombie-like anyway.
Great post - Thanks for the link to that article. I remember reading this back in the day - IIRC, it's probably the first place that references Stormtroopers being clones, obviously long before AOTC. (Also IIRC, on the filecard which was in the back of the 1995 POTF2 Stormtrooper action figure, their being clones was also referenced). Not sure if the "Imperial Guards" mentioned in the article were supposed to be the "Emperor's Royal Guards" that we saw in ROTJ - they may have just been a special contigent of stormtroopers. This article was published in 1978, long before we saw the Red Royal Guards in ROTJ. Of course, I could be completely off here. Re: the question in this OP, just going by the films, I have a strong feeling that the Red Royal Guards DID know that Palpatine was Sith Lord. They seem to have been specially hand-picked by him, and it would make sense that they would know more than, for example, a regular Stormtrooper or Tie Fighter Pilot.
IIRC the Imperial Guards from the Poster Monthly always struck me as not-Royal Guards...the part describing them doesn't even mention the Emperor iirc, and describes how they're always off on assassination missions against their Moff's enemies (other Moffs).
That wasn't for very long though was it? I thought that by TESB the Emperor had changed to the tyrannical, autocratic, evil incarnate figure that he is perceived as currently.
Remember on the Death Star this isnt just for the person im quoting but for everyone my self included lol. Anyway Darth Vader chokes one of the imperial officers i think it is Motti , Tarkin tells vader to release him , Vader was choking motti bc he insulted the dark side of the force calling it an ancient religion and that it could not match the technological wonder that is the Death Star. So my point is, that some people were aware that Vader is a force user as for the red guards i liked this thread , it had me wondering whether or not they knew their Emperor was a sith lord or not.
We don't know how long the Emperor really was that way, though-the basic quote is from the ANH novel, which predates even the film and varies quite abit from the finished film in general. The film itself is silent on Palpatine's rule for all intents and purposes, beyond Tarkin saying that the Emperor had dissolved the Senate.
