Why Palpatine Never Trained With Darth Vader - Star Wars Explained

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Twitter: @StupendousWave

Composer: Whitesand (Martynas Lau)
Year: 2017
Title: Eternity Additional Music Terminus by: Scott Buckley
Released under CC-BY 4.0.

[jamisonreynolds]

Sidious understood that Vader could still potentially defeat him if he became too strong. Keep in mind, Sidious went through great lengths to keep him mentally weak. Sidious believed that Vader’s weakness had more to do with mental limitations than physical. Even after his injuries on Mustafar, Vader still had the potential to grow more powerful than Sidious.

[leroyjenkins]

Palpatine never physically trained Vader because he was constantly looking for a replacement for him. Palpatine tried to get rid of Vader by sending him on missions that were virtually impossible to survive but Vader never died.

[Sunday-expx]

I think he just wanted the satisfaction of corrupting the Jedi’s chosen one and making him into a monster more than he actually wanted a powerful apprentice. He seemed intent on never being over thrown and especially after Anakin was injured in Mustafar he just gave up on the whole rule of two thing

[mr.starman]

The funny thing is in canon, Palpatine still saw Vader as a potential candidate to take his place, even after what happened on Mustafar. But in Legends, he saw him as a useful and powerful weapon, but only a tool. Just some Star Wars thoughts for you.

[cmdrlightwalker_]

Makes sense to me, though Vader was able to figure out things on his own according to the comics. Anakin was no mental slouch he was smart and his countless battles during the clone wars made his wits sharp. He had his own secrets from Sidious as well.

[JRMB]

I think Palpatine never trained with him because he wanted Vader to never really know the extent of his powers and skills. He wanted Vader to fear him, respect him, he didn’t want him to become a rival. He didn’t want Vader to get his knowledge of the force. He just gave him enough to maintain is adhesion to the dark side. As a puppet, but it didn’t work flawlessly

[kararay]

From what I've seen in the comics he did learn some with secrets on his own and became super powerful compared to most with users. He still has deficits that sidious played upon. The films don't show us much of that. His emotions held him back from full evil, but I'm n the end allowed him to reach out to Luke and transform back into Annakin

[WonderfulHayden]

Almost all of what Vader learned was through his own efforts (aside from what he learned as Anakin from Obi-Wan). Sidious wanted to live forever, be Master forever. He didn't want to teach anyone anything that could jeopardize his hold on power. His plan was to discard Vader like garbage once the latter became too old to be useful, replace him with a new apprentice, repeat ad nauseum. He didn't want to divulge knowledge to Vader for fear that Vader would figure out his machinations. He didn't teach Vader how to become stronger with a saber or in the Dark Side for fear that Vader would overpower him in a fight.

[mace]

Sidious eventually acknowledged how much stronger Vader became as a result of him constantly pushing himself as was explained by Lucas (80% of palpatine's even after the events of mustafar) and offered Vader a proper functioning suit, but Vader refused the new suit because he was afraid he wouldn't survive the transfer into the new one. Therefore he stayed in the old one he was accustomed to, and never gained strength further to challenge the emperor. Also Vader had no ambition to get stronger then the emperor because he viewed him as his only connection to anyone, as he had betrayed or slain everyone else, Palpatine was all he had left.

[sinisterdjedialive]

This video is amazing.. the topic, the music, the insane editing, the vibe is super enlightening

[DynomyteDewd]

“One to embody the power, the other to crave it.”

The master is not supposed to just relinquish his position, authority, and power, the apprentice must take it.
This is especially the case with Palpatine, he was never just going to give his position away and by not training Vader, it remained as such. However, Palpatine did give him instruction at times “bury yourself in the dark side, overcome your past”, and by Vader craving the power, he was never going to be successful in taking it, because he could not entirely overcome his former life as Anakin, there was always some sort of conflict.

[MemesOfProduction]

considering Plagueis considered himself and Sidious as the culmination of the Rule of Two and Sidious killed him, I'm sure Sidious thought of himself as quite literally ALL the Sith because he WAS the culmination of the Sith. He only ever viewed his "apprentices" as executioners

[KM____________]

this is a great essay and it elucidates so much of the lore. amazing work

[aykay]

because sidious wanted to rule the empire by himself, he did not wish to continue the sith tradition after order 66.

[Cauin]

Because from Sidious' point of view it was like training a guard dog to be a master.

[katiepersons]

Palpatine abandoned the rule of two long before Anakin came into the picture. He made Maul his apprentice and made him a full blown sith and gave him the full title of Darth despite still being apprenticed to Plagueis himself at the time.

[luchi]

You just make the world of Star Wars feel so real and interesting, by far my favorite youtuber!

[Zouly]

‘’Vader can’t survive without his breathing apparatus for more than seconds’’ that’s not true. In the show Kenobi he turns off his breathing to suprise Obi Wan and that was atleast 3 min.

In one of the comics Vader is haunted by tarkin where he turns off his breathing FOR DAYS, Vader is weaker without his apparatus sure, but with the dark side he is able to live without it for a while.

[taramaforhaikido]

It's more likely that every sith lord simply makes things as difficult as possible. The rule of two is about being overthorwn. The master must be overthrown. So of course the master isn't going to make it easy. And will try to prevent that as best they can while keeping their dog on a short leash.

Vader knows he's a dog. It's the game they play. They both know it. Only when Luke thought of Vader did Vader have a reason to change his goals. Before that point Vader simpy didn't have a reason to care. Or at least no one pushed him enough and got under his skin like Luke did. The line "Then my father is truely dead" is what got Vader thinking. How he fled from the past. How it makes him a coward. So Luke taught Vader to be braver in a sense. Just with that one line. Causing Vader to shift his goals towards protecting Luke. It's the one thing the emperor didn't teach him. The most important lesson of all. To always face and confront. No matter how painful it might be.

Sidious just wanted to make sure Vader worked for it. Whatever the end he's probably laughing about it. Because that's a lesson he already knows. He shows this because he's always making the best of the situation he's in. With a smile and a laugh. A part of him was likely proud of Vader as he fell. Knowing he'd been bested at last.

[georgesellhorn]

You answered so many questions I've had...THANKS