Vader learns that his child is alive: Does he look for Padme

Ok, so in ROTS, Vader thinks that Padme dies with his unborn child. However, when he learns that his son is alive, he would have to know that Padme made it off of Mustafar and that he didn't kill her on the platform (#1. The Emperor lied to him and he should realize it). Then, seeing how his child ( he doesn't know about Leia) has been hidden wouldn't it occur to him that Padme may be hiding as well and wouldn't he go forth and look for her as well?

I figure, if there is a chance that Padme is alive, wouldn't he go nuts looking for her?

 

I would say no because his reasons for searching for Luke are hardly altruistic. He sees Luke merely as a powerful tool that he can use to build upon his own strength and further his own ambitions. Even if he suspected Padme was alive, he was too consumed by the dark side to bother seeking her out--it was from another lifetime that they cared for each other. At least that's how I interpret it.

 

Indeed, in Darth Vader's mind Anakin Skywalker is dead. Searching for Padme would be something Anakin Skywalker would do, but not Darth Vader.

 

But Didn't Anakin become Darth Vader for Padme. He believed that by becoming Vader that would be the only way to be able to save her. His only goal was to save her. Now that he finds that she may be alive wouldn't that spark an interest?

 

Well, that's sort of the twisted irony of turning to the dark side. He does it to save her, but he ends up killing her. And how can he still care for her when he's not even the same person anymore?

 

But do you forget some of Vader's last words in ROTS?

"Where is Padme? Is she safe? Is she alright?"

He still cared...

 

True, but when he learns that he "killed her," I think he buries that part of his life and moves on to phase two: being the scourge of the galaxy. He probably learns to repress the pain and shame associated with Padme at first as a way of coping, but after a while she probably inadvertently becomes suppressed forever. Remember, when he finds Luke, he doesn't try to rekindle anything from his past life, he just continues to be Vader--this tells me he's only thinking of himself and not even wondering about Padme, which you'd think would be a logical side-effect of discovering that his progeny survived.

 

"However, when he learns that his son is alive, he would have to know that Padme made it off of Mustafar and that he didn't kill her on the platform (#1. The Emperor lied to him and he should realize it)."

He knows Obi-Wan made it off Mustafar alive - he should know Obi-Wan took Padmé or her body off-planet as well.

And then he sees her funeral on the HoloNetNews. No reason to believe she's alive and hiding.

Doesn't change that he killed her. Which he did. It just didn't take effect immediately after choking her.

 

Instead of that silly, redundant "binary sunset" ending, Vader could have visited Padmé's grave on Naboo and made an emotional speech just like in Forrest Gump.

 

Well he says "She was alive--I felt it!" or something similar in ROTS. So apparently, Vader could "sense" when Padme was alive. I've always assumed that after Sidious tells Vader that he killed Padme, and Vader says "That's impossible, she was alive" or whatever, he sort of tries to sense her, and he realizes she is really dead -- and that's when he goes crazy, because he no longer senses her alive.

So I think he knows she is dead. But the existence of Luke gives him the chance to question if he really killed her or not, because if he did kill her, then the child would also have died right then. It gives him the chance to question Sidious and his role in Padme's death, because originally he never thought he could have killed her, it was only after Sidious told him he did that he believes it. And that belief that he killed his wife is tremendous in keeping him on the Dark Side. Maybe he does wonder what really happened to her, but I think regardless he is certain that she is no longer alive - he can feel that she is long dead.

 

I think that about sums it up. Padme is visibly dead and the Galaxy gets to see it, Vader would have too.

 

Gosh all he?d have to do is dig up her grave on Naboo ? like how Heathcliff dug up Cathy & hugged her corpse twenty years after she was dead.

 

I'm sorry but i believe you are mistaking Anakin Skywalkers dying words for Darth Vaders first words. I do not believe we ever saw the "Darth Vader Personality" speak in the PT, i would argue that to the extent that Darth Vader circa ANH believes Anakin is dead, we did not hear Darth Vader speak until ANH.

i don't personally believe psycho babble about how they are two different people, it's the same Anakin but 20 years of hate and pain had errased any of the young man who loved the wifew he injured/killed.

Further i don't think he would have looked for her if he thought she was alive. He had a new love, power and she could not help him with it.

 

I'm going to have to disagree there.
The minute Vader learns of family, he becomes obsessed. He sees Luke as a tool, yes, but he's also obssessed with the family he lost even as Vader.
When the Emperor told him Padme died, if he didn't care, he would've said 'oh that sucks' and moved on.
Hell he's still obssessed with Obi-Wan twenty years later. Vader is many things, but he's certainly not a man who lets things go. If he found out Padme was alive you can be sure he wouldn't just shrug it off and go 'ok, whatever'. Would he lose his mind again and try to kill her once more? Probably. He's unstable. But he's also very much obssessed.

Instead of that silly, redundant "binary sunset" ending, Vader could have visited Padm�©'s grave on Naboo and made an emotional speech just like in Forrest Gump.

VADER: You died... on a lava planet... and I had you buried right here under our meadow *choke back sob* I had that Trade Federation of Viceroy Gunray's blasted to the ground. Momma always said I can't stop change anymore than I can stop the suns from settin'. I sure wish I could. Little Palpatine, he's doin' just fine. About to start rulin' his Empire. I make his breakfast, lunch, and dinner everyday. I make sure he combs his hair and brushes his teeth everyday. Teachin' him how to race pods. He's really wizard. We supress the masses a lot. And every night, we play a holocron. *breaking sob* He has so much unlimited power, Padme! You'd be so proud of him. I am. He uhh, left you a Delegation of 2000, but he says I can't read it. I'm not supposed to so I'll just leave it here for you. I don't know if Mace was right or if, if it was Qui-Gon Jinn. I don't know if I'm the Chosen One or if I'm just floating around all accidental like on a breeze, but I, I think maybe it's both. Maybe I brought balance to the Force by makin' it two Jedi and two Sith. I miss you, Padme. If there's anything you need, I'll be purgin' Jedi.

Poor Vader

 

I would say yes because the possiblity of her being alive might spark something within him. He loved her so much that he was willing to do quite literally anything it took to save her. Thus, knowing of the betrayal the Emperor had done to him, I think he would do everything in his power to look for her. He loved her and still loved her until the day he died, in both senses. If anything, Vader is not the man to double-cross and that is exactly what Emperor did to him. He'd be pissed and if nothing else he would want proof (after all, he was sort of like his daddy). Therefore, IMHO, he would want to find the love of his life, the girl he had been in love with since he was 9 years old. You don't forget that too easily...And he certainly never forgot her.

 

Her public funeral with the open casket being driven down the street in front of everyone pretty much confirmed her death for the galaxy. He would not look for someone who he saw dead on T.V.

 

TWD -

 

TWD-- That's the best thing I've seen all day!

Ben R-- Maybe they did a VH1 special about her or something.

 

I'm glad I could help brighten both of your days

 

I believe that he searches for her and found where they layed her. But to hear upteen years later, that still has to be mind boggling

 

To quote Darth Vader

"That name no longer has any meaning for me"

 

But that's because the dark side is all about channeling one's rage into strength. He dwells on Obi-Wan because it's a source of strength for him. I would bet that a lot of his rage is due to the condition of his body, which he can directly blame Obi-Wan for. Padme would probably only be good as a source of anger (and power) if he still genuinely believed that she might have cheated on him and/or cooperated with Obi-Wan to bring him down. Heck, maybe he even believed that the child she was pregnant with was Obi-Wan's and not his. But it's hard to say if he still felt that way years after the fact or if it was just a far-out accusation he came up with in a fit of rage on Mustafar. Young Vader was completely off his rocker on Mustafar, but older Vader seems to have mastered the art of tapping cold anger rather than hot anger. He's definitely more rational than he was as a young man.

I very much disagree. I would say he never cared, not even in the PT. What he cared about was possessing Padme; he probably would have been happiest if he could store her in a glass case somewhere. Note the way he tells her to "wait for him" in RotS as if she were a possession he thought he might lose? Note that pretty much the only nice thing he ever says to her is to compliment her on her looks, and he seems to be completely oblivious to her actual personality, like her kindness and her love for all living beings, even the ones other people might think of as subhuman? He doesn't respect her values or trust her to make her own choices. He can't even respect her when she's desperate to try to tell him the secret about this rebellion she's gotten into and asks if he ever wonders if they're on the wrong side. She was essentially his trophy wife, and their relationship was dysfunctional in every sense of the word. If he actually loved her in the sense that a mature adult would use the word, he wouldn't have gone off to kill children in her name. He would have been honest with her from day one of their relationship (why is it that after three years of marriage, Padme still has to ask him how long until they can be honest with one another?). What he felt for Padme was obsession and/or lust, not love. You have to actually know a person to be in love with them, and he doesn't know her at all. (On that note, I'm pretty sure he wasn't mature enough to be a good father, either. )

Incidentally, I'm not saying that Padme is blameless either. It takes two to make a relationship dysfunctional. However, Anakin is the worse of the two by far. Padme is just an enabler; Anakin is out-and-out crazy.

I really think people are missing the point when they call the Anakin/Padme relationship a romance and talk about how love led Anakin to the dark side. That relationship was only a romance in the sense that Romeo & Juliet is a romance - namely, a tragedy based around the crazy things that a couple of kids did when they mistakenly believed they were in love. At least Romeo and Juliet only managed to tear apart each of their respective families with their youthful shortsightedness - Anakin and Padme inadvertently managed to destroy an entire galaxy.

Anyway, to answer the original question, I'm honestly not sure if Vader still cared about Padme by the time he found out about Luke. I guess it's possible he would still want a trophy wife/evil queen, but it seems like she's on his mind less and less after he begins dabbling in the dark side. Vader uses his hate for power, so he's probably more apt to dwell on ho

 

You make a good point, Mara. I dunno if I 'want' to believe it, but it certainly seems to be the case. It kinda furthers this thing I've notice about Anakin, which is most noticeable in AOTC. He seems to have a complete lack of manners towards her, and lack of being a gentleman to her. Several instances of this include him not bowing to her as Obi-Wan did in thier first meeting (although maybe insignificant as that may be), he generally walks in front of her, he kinda disregards her when meeting Wato again, and he doesn't bother to introduce her to Owen and Beru... she has to introduce herself. It just overall seems like he is rude in that manner, which kinda ties in to what you were saying. However, I try, or better yet, I want to think of Anakin as better than that, and maybe I'm just reading too much into it.

 

I agree with DLM on this issue.

 

Its an interesting question to bring up but I agree with everyone else in that I am sure he knew she was dead... even when he realized that he didn't actually kill her on the platform he has to know that she died soon after.