PT Why did Palpatine save Anakin on Mustafar?

Palpatine sense that his new apprentice is in danger and races across the galaxy to save him. This uncharacteristic behaviour is a bit puzzling. Palpatine has shown little regard for his previous apprentices. He sensed no danger for Darth Maul on Naboo and he engineered the death of Count Dooku. Even when Palpatine gets to Mustafar and sees the charred and maimed state that Anakin has been reduced to, he orders the clones to get a medical capsule and rebuilds Anakin into a cyborg.

Why would he even bother with this? The vast majority of the Jedi are gone, and if Yoda couldn't vanquish Palpatine, no surviving Jedi could. Palpatine could easily order the clones to take any surviving Jedi alive and corrupt one of them to the Dark Side.

Was Darth Vader still so powerful, even in his ruined state, that Palpatine thought it was worth it to save him? Or is this the sole moment of compassion we see from the Emperor in the entire Saga. Did Palpatine drop everything and rush to Mustafar because he genuinely cared about Anakin?

 

He certainly didn't give two craps about Vader. After seeing his charred, maimed body, he considered just leaving him there to die, though he decided he was still a considerably powerful Force wielder, and he'd rather have someone else at risk to do his work than he himself

 

I disagree, Seagoat (or do I call you Jon on the boards now?) I absolutely do think Palps cared about Vader although chiefly as a bull dog he felt he commanded. I am not one of the mainstream here that think the 'misguided' in SW are absolutely without redeeming qualities you ought to know that as we've discussed Tarkin.

 

I always oversimplify things without thought xD I really need to stop seeing in black and white
Hm... so perhaps you mean something along the lines of Palpatine cared for him as one would for a pet? (More specifically, like an attack dog so to speak)
Oh and call me whatever, I'm fine with it : P

 

Yes, close. I do think the splayed fingers to Vader's forehead was a gesture of compassion (men don't do that often especially with other men, when they do it's a statement). However, I do think Sidious largely saw Vader as a prize, almost a specially honed toy. To be used as he liked but with more caution and thought then the others because even he ceded that Anakin was 'chosen' by the Force.

Cool. Thanks, Jon.

 

I'm not sure if Palpatine did care for Anakin/Vader or not. Though I do kinda like the idea of Sidious caring for him on some level.

This should be explored in that upcoming Lords of the Sith novel. Maybe even Rebels too.

Maybe Palpatine did. But then again, maybe he didn't. It may have simply been his power and what Vader could bring to the table. To the Dark Side and to Sidious.

Though minus the Dark Side, power, and himself. Vader probably would be the closet thing to another being Sidious may care for. Again minus power and himself.

Here is another idea:

Considering how long Palpatine waited for Anakin/Vader, over thirteen years. He may not have wanted to give up on him just yet. When he saw him on Mustafar. The apprentice he had waited for, for so long, and spent a lot of time and planning to seduce over to the Dark Side.

 

Even if Vader was significantly weakened, Palpatine wouldn't find another apprentice with power comparable to his (until Luke Skywalker, that is). Palpatine can't be expected to do his own dirty work; Vader was his muscle.

Anyways, it is up to speculation as to how much of Palpatine's urgency was out of compassion, and how much was just to reclaim his servant. It is out of the ordinary to see Sidious give some sort of concern to the well-being of his apprentice, despite being shown to be the embodiment of evil otherwise.

 

Palpatine's comments in the film are somewhat confusing. When he arrives on Mustafar, the clones precede him and when he sees the lava bank, he shouts

"There he is," in a very panicked, urgent tone. Then he sees Anakin's ruined form, still moving, and says "He's still alive," as if in awe at the sheer tenacity of Darth Vader. Then he tells the clones "Get me a medical capsule immediately."

I think Palpatine knew Anakin had been injured, but didn't expect to find him in such a damaged state. Then he sees that Vader is still, stubbornly clinging to life. I think that he was impressed by this display of willpower and then realized that if Anakin was still alive after all this, then he could be rebuilt and would still be able to become a powerful Sith Lord.

 

Palpatine was infatuated with Darth Plagueis, whose main focus of life was the unnatural aspects of the Force. This is obvious by Palpatine's desire for power. Saving Anakin, in Palpatine's mind, brought him closer to eclipsing Plagueis' legendary status. If he could both save Anakin from dying, and stop Anakin from overthrowing him, then he could lay clam to being the greatest of the Sith. He did keep Anakin from dying(for the time being) and he did stop Anakin from overthrowing him(the only reason he died was because he tried to dump Vader for Luke in Episode VI). So he has a pretty valid case of being the greatest of the Sith.

 

That's actually something I tend to dislike about a good deal of EU material. I personally find it better when film and characterization are to be interpreted by the consumer, not just stated as an absolute. Any one scene is never the same to two different people because of how variable human interpretation is

 

Or it's him using the Force to help keep Vader alive, as per the novelization.

In the junior novel, he's angry at Vader and tempted to abandon him, but hasn't given up yet.

 

It's true that Palpatine prefers an apprentice to do his dirty work for him, he's the. Sith Master and Galactic Emperor, he'll only deal with things personally when they are of great consequence, such as dealing with Maul and Savage in the Lawless. One possible reason that Palpatine chose to salvage Vader is that it would be difficult to acquire a new apprentice with ease, as the Jedi had been wiped out, leaving the number of Force-sensitives in the galaxy extremely low. I think the fact that Vader was still alive after all that impressed Palpatine. If Vader could still crawl out of the lava in such a cripple state, imagine what he could do once he was rebuilt with the best cybernetics available and trained to fully embrace the Dark Side by the greatest Dark Lord of the Sith to live.

 

Palpatine is a complicated character.

In RotS he ordered he clones WITHOUT hesitation, or much, to get a medical capsule after he sees Vader trying to pulling himself up the lava bank.. Than he walks down the slope to kneel beside Vader/Anakin and touches Vader/Anakin's head in a gentle manner. Whether the touch was gentle because of affection or the simple fact that his apprentice was severely burned I don't know. I think it might be worth noting that in ANH and AotC we see a similar gesture made by Obi-Wan Kenobi. After scaring off the Tusken Raiders and kneeling beside Luke Obi-Wan touches one of Luke's wrists, maybe one more thing, before he touches Luke's forehead. Obi-Wan did the touching the forehead thing in the arena after Dooku ordered the battle droids to stand down. One of my sisters and I have theorized that it might be a Force Technique to either check on someone's well-being or lend strength. They both make some sense but the former would make more sense since Obi-Wan told Artoo that Luke would be fine.

Another question is how did Palpatine/Sidious feel about Anakin. Was Anakin a friend to him or did he make Anakin think they were friends when he really saw Anakin as a tool? Palpatine/Sidious calls both Anakin and Vader a friend but does he really feel that way or is it just for show?

In the novelizations it was implied that Palpatine didn't WANT to have to train another apprentice from scratch but if this is true or not I don't know.

Palpatine/Sidious would need an 'attack dog' to do his dirty work and put fear in the hearts of everyone. I imagine that Vader/Anakin's injuries on Mustafar were advantageous in two ways: one it cut Vader/Anakin's power in about half and that suit and mask are a lot more frightening than whatever the Emperor might have had in store.

I will point out that Vader/Anakin had given up on taking his Master's place in RotJ. What he says to Luke on the bridge thingy on the Endor Moon says that he wants Luke to replace him as the Sith Apprentice. If he wanted to be the Emperor he would have let Luke attempt to kill the Emperor instead he and Luke fight. Anakin/Vader only turns against Palpatine/Sidious when the later was killing Luke.

If Palpatine/Sidious allowed himself to feel compassion I don't know. Was he motivated by power and laziness to save his apprentice or was it a twisted form of friendship? I do know that the reconstruction was painful either because he had ordered the medical droids to deny Vader/Anakin pain killers or it was too dangerous to administer them.

Ah Palpatine/Sidious will remain a mystery a little longer.

 

It's an interesting question and one I've pondered quite a lot over the years.

I do think this is probably the one moment of compassion that Palpatine display's throughout the Saga, though I'm sure he also had a twisted agenda in saving Vader (he needed someone to hunt down any Jedi that had survived Order 66 for instance) But yeah, when Palpatine gently put's his hand on Anakin's forehead, I think it's the one and only time we see Palpatine showing some semblance of humanity or compassion - He didn't have to go down to Vader, he could have just watched as the Clones got him into the medical pod.

 

IL: Believe whatever you like but you know I don't put stock in the novels, either.

 

How about the opinion of Lucas?

Or perhaps the guy who played Palpatine?

Ian McDiarmid had these things to say:

In a January 24, 2002 Star Wars Insider interview, Ian McDiarmid compared Palpatine's character to that of Shakespeare's Iago, the villain in the play Othello:

"Everything he does is an act of pure hypocrisy, and that's interesting to play. I suppose it's rather like playing Iago. All the characters in the play—including Othello until the end—think that 'Honest Iago' is a decent guy doing his job, and he's quite liked. But at the same time there's a tremendous evil subconscious in operation. There's a moment in one scene of the new film where tears almost appear in his eye. These are crocodile tears, but for all those in the movie, and perhaps watching the movie itself, they'll see he is apparently moved—and of course, he is. He can just do it. He can, as it were, turn it on. And I suppose for him, it's also a bit of a turn-on; the pure exercise of power is what he's all about. That's the only thing he's interested in and the only thing that can satisfy him, which makes him completely fascinating to play, because it is an evil soul. He is more evil than the devil. At least Satan fell; he has a history, and it's one of revenge."

"He has a black, irredeemable heart. There's nothing that can be said about him that's good. When we first saw Vader in the original trilogy, we thought he was the heart of darkness, and nobody could be darker. But now we understand what happened to him. And one of the exciting things about seeing this movie is that you can follow Vader through Anakin's journey every step of the way even if you don't agree with the choices he's making. In part his decisions stem from his traumatic childhood, and his impatient lust for power. And it's that which my character takes and then uses against him."
―Ian McDiarmid

 

No, Palpatine didn't care about Anakin, not even remotely. First off, he needed to keep the Sith tradition of the Rule of Two. Second, he had already won, and was in no need of an all powerful apprentice. Third, he didn't want to have 13 years of manipulation go to waste.

 

he was the chosen one and palpatine's plans revolved around him at that point. vader still did really well at being a sith lord.

 

Vader was a pretty dang powerful Sith Lord, so of course Palpatine would go back to save him.

 

The only thing that kept Anakin alive on Mustafar was sheer hatred; it forced him to fully embrace the dark side and prevent himself from dying. Someone with that power, cannot be allowed to die.

Recall Palpatine's face when Vader's force scream destroys the entire medical facility and droids; the force potential was still there.

 

Didn't there used to be a lot of speculation about Palpatine indirectly being Anakin's father?

In Episode I, Shmi tells Qui-Gon that Anakin had no father, and Qui-Gon reasons that the midicholrians themselves created Anakin from the Force. Then in Episode III, Palpatine tells Anakin the story of Darth Plagueis, how he was the only Sith capable of influencing the midichlorians to create life. It was heavily implied that Palpatine was Plagueis's apprentice, and according to Palpatine's story, Plagueis taught his apprentice everything he knew before he was killed. Therefore, Palpatine would have been able to create himself the ultimate apprentice/offspring.

 

He said that he was the only one to have achieved the power of cheating death, but he didn't say that he was the only one capable of creating life.

 

He said both:

Palpatine: Did you ever hear the Tragedy of Darth Plagueis the Wise?

Anakin: No.

Palpatine: I thought not. It's not a story the Jedi would tell you. It's a Sith legend. Darth Plagueis was a Dark Lord of the Sith so powerful and so wise, he could use the Force to influence the midichlorians to create life. He had such a knowledge of the Dark Side, he could even keep the ones he cared about from dying.

 

It's not considered canon anymore, but this was also reinforced in the Darth Plagueis novel by James Luceno.

 

Wtf how strong was plaguies, why didnt he just kill palpatine