Palpatine first met Anakin in revenge of the
Sith. He was the chosen one for the Jedi and now,
for palpatine. Palps coerced anakin patiently into the dark
side since he first met him. Strategically planting seeds into his mind
until the time came to do what must be done and execute order 66. Anakin was Palpatine’s protoge, he was everything
to him. He was to be more powerful than Sidious, and
to rule the galaxy with his powerful apprentice. However, when Anakin fell to Obi-Wan, or rather,
to his own arrogance in thinking he could defeat his former master atop a less favourable
position, against the high ground, Sidious was devastated. In the film, Revenge of the Sith, we see Vader
being put together in Palpatine’s medical facility on Coruscant. The best medical droids at her service, applying
an out of date suit so Vader would live with the pain of his failure, mentally and physically,
forever. But did you ever wonder, what was Sidous thinking
while Vader was being put together? His prize new apprentice, the one he had tried
to turn to the dark side, had now just become a fraction of the man he almost became. How did Sidious take it? How did he feel about it? What did he think of Vader now? The following excerpt comes not from Matthew
Stover’s Revenge of the Sith novelization of the film, but rather Patricia c Wrede’s
junior novelization of revenge of the sith, and it’s quite interesting what Palpatine’s
thoughts were. Here we go. “Do it,” the Emperor snapped. The droids bobbed their consent and went to
work. Darth Sidious paced. Even an Emperor, even the Dark Lord of the
Sith, with all the resources and technology of the new Galactic Empire behind him, can
do little to hurry the healing process. Much later, a medical droid appeared. “My lord, the construction is finished,”
the droid informed him. “He lives.” “Good,” Darth Sidious said with something
very like relief. “Good.” The droid brought him to the operating room. A black figure lay on the operating table. Black gloves and boots covered the new mechanical
limbs; a mirror shiny black mask hid the scarred face. The table began to tilt, moving the figure
to an upright position. There was the sound of breathing. Yes, Darth Sidious thought. He will terrify them. And even if he is not as powerful as I had
once hoped, he will still be far more powerful than anyone else. “Lord Vader,” Darth Sidious said. “You may rise.” What blows my mind about this is that even
though Sidious is as powerful as he is, and has always been so patient, we’ve never
actually really seen him worry or look stressed out, maybe except in the early stages of his
battle against Yoda, but nothing in comparison to pacing around anxiously. I’m sure he was worried what would happen
if Vader didn’t survive, if he was merely a shell of what Anakin could have become. Where would Sdious have gone? Would he have found Maul again? Would he train his old apprentice to do his
bidding? Or would he find a new apprentice to take
Vader’s place? That’s a fan fiction for another time. The next paragraph describes what anakin felt
as he turned his head and spoke for the first time, essentially it writes that a mechanical
voice spoke for him. And f you didn’t know, Vader’s throat
was completely burned, so he whispered and it was super raspy, so the sound modulator
amplified his voice. It had to, otherwise no one would be able
to hear or understand him. Vader then asks about padme, where is padme,
is she safe, is she alright, to which Sidious thinks this before he tells him that he, anakin,
killed her. It’s the most twisted inner monologue I’ve
read in Star Wars, so buckle up. And now, the final touch, Darth Sidious thought. The words that will bind him forever to the
dark side. And they won’t even be a lie, not really. “I’m afraid she died,” he said, putting
a hint of gentle sorrow and reproach into his voice. “It seems that in your anger, you killed
her.” Vader groaned in protest. And then he The
fact that Sidious knows this is going to destroy Vader, and yet does it for the sole reason
to trap him to Sidious’ orders for the rest of his life, is truly, Sidious. He knows that once Vader is left with nothing
and no one, Sidious is all he has left, and he’ll be loyal to him forever. That is of
course until his son, the last bit of padme comes along and helps him bring balance to the force.
