Did Darth Sidious make a Stupid Mistake?

[Warren-Stride]

Did Sidious, renowned for his planning, forethought, and ability to see the future, somehow slip up and forget that Anakin was the Chosen One?

 

The Chosen One was foretold in Jedi prophecy to bring balance to the galaxy and end the Sith threat. Anakin was named the Chosen One by the Jedi Council, and it hardly seemed like a well-kept secret. Palpatine no doubt knew about the prophecy, considering his vast knowledge, influence, and manipulation of Anakin. Anakin actually probably told him about it in the movies... I don't have a quote though.

 

So why did the greatest evil mastermind in all of galactic history chose to ignore the fact that his new apprentice was literally destined to kill him?

 

Was this a matter of pride? Did he find it poetic to turn the being meant to defeat the Dark Side? Did he simply believe that he could defeat Vader in combat? Did he not believe the prophecy at all?

 

I find it strange that Palpatine would make such a rash choice. After he killed his master, Darth Plagueis, he was paranoid about his apprentices being able to kill him in an unexpected way.

 

Did Darth Sidious make a stupid mistake by taking the Chosen One as his apprentice?

Edited June 29, 2013 by Warren-Stride

[Wolfninjajedi]

He was at first a little worried about him, given that Vader's limitations were all in his head not his body, but when he got his clones it didn't really matter in the end if Vader killed him or not. But nah I don't think so, having a powerful apprentice like that seems like a smart move. Edited June 29, 2013 by Wolfninjajedi

[AlexDougherty]

Not really, firstly he and his master created Anakin in the first place, so he knew Anakin's force ability had it's roots in the Darkside. Secondly, he had Anakin under control, don't forget that until he tried to kill Luke he had Vader/Anakin completely under his thumb. Thirdly, a Sith is supposed to kill his master, so Vader killing him would just have been the cycle of the Sith Master-Apprentice Cycle. And Finally he didn't care, he had mastered the force so much that he felt he could thwart any prophecy.

[LadyKulvax]

Nah his biggest mistake was screwing Thrawn over.

[TheSelkie]

I always thought it would have been smarter for Sidious to get rid of Vader immediately after the purge. Once the jedi are scattered they pose no major threat, the only real threat to him is Vader. If he'd really wanted a particular jedi killed he could have done it himself.

[Warren-Stride]

But nah I don't think so, having a powerful apprentice like that seems like a smart move.

 

It would be, except that apprentice is destined to kill you. And (I may be incorrect on this) Sidious had no intention of continuing the Rule of Two cycle. So why have a super powerful apprentice that is destined to kill you if you're trying to avoid being overthrown?

 

The logic escapes me.

 

I always thought it would have been smarter for Sidious to get rid of Vader immediately after the purge. Once the jedi are scattered they pose no major threat, the only real threat to him is Vader. If he'd really wanted a particular jedi killed he could have done it himself.

 

Exactly.

 

And Finally he didn't care, he had mastered the force so much that he felt he could thwart any prophecy.

 

If this is the case, which I find unlikely, it shows that Sidious was overconfident and arrogant, things which I don't believe him to be. He seems to be an "all loose ends tied up" kind of guy.

 

 

I know next to nothing about post-ROTJ EU, so can someone explain why these clones would justify his keeping around the man meant to destroy him?

[Wolfninjajedi]

It would be, except that apprentice is destined to kill you. And (I may be incorrect on this) Sidious had no intention of continuing the Rule of Two cycle. So why have a super powerful apprentice that is destined to kill you if you're trying to avoid being overthrown?

 

 

I know next to nothing about post-ROTJ EU, so can someone explain why these clones would justify his keeping around the man meant to destroy him?

 

To have power over someone? Maybe he just wanted to keep Vader around to do his dirty work and killing remaining Jedi, he is running an Empire after all he can't do everything and be everywhere at once, he isn't exactly just twidling his thumbs like another certain Sith Lord.... Plus also having Vader, would keep more people in line rather then a seemingly weak old man.

Edited June 29, 2013 by Wolfninjajedi

[Warren-Stride]

To have power over someone? Maybe he just wanted to keep Vader around to do his dirty work and killing remaining Jedi, he is running an Empire after all he can't do everything and be everywhere at once. Plus also having Vader, would keep more people in line rather then a seemingly weak old man.

 

I'm not saying that keeping Vader around didn't have its uses. But it just seems out of character for Sidious to keep the Chosen One within arms reach.

[Wolfninjajedi]

I'm not saying that keeping Vader around didn't have its uses. But it just seems out of character for Sidious to keep the Chosen One within arms reach.

 

Well Sidious broke him, and transformed him into the man he is. He had Vader under his thumb, sure Vader wanted to kill him but couldn't due to mental issues he had.

 

I guess its more he just wanted to have power over someone really, to show that even though he has a dangerous apprentice they are nothing compared to him.

 

Darth Sidious is Master Troll!

Edited June 29, 2013 by Wolfninjajedi

[Aurbere]

Nah his biggest mistake was screwing Thrawn over.

 

^This. How easy would Thrawn have swept aside the New Republic if Sidious kept his nose out of it?

[Beniboybling]

Both Sidious and Plagueis saw Anakin as a threat, and tried to prevent him from being trained as a Jedi. Sidious in particular ordered Darth Maul to kill Qui-Gon so he might never be trained, but it didn't work. You pretty much hit the nail on the head with the poetic part, Sidious saw the opportunities that turning the Chosen One to the dark side would create. And did they really have any choice? Anakin was a Jedi, he was fighting for the destruction of the Sith. What better way to neutralize him as a threat than to turn him to your side?

 

Though admittedly, arrogance was Sidious' downfall. He thought he could control the Chosen One when in reality he couldn't. The safest option would simply to have destroyed him. Sidious didn't learn from his mistake either, in the Creation of Monsters he remarks if he had the chance to create a monster like Vader again, he would do so.

 

You could argue that it didn't really matter, because Sidious had his clones. But really his death above Endor was the beginning of the end.

[Kaedusz]

Vader was Sidious' creation and he liked it(as a creation).Also he thought that having an aprentice is important for a sith,despite that fact that he did not fully adhere to the Rule of Two.And there wasn't anyone powerful enough for Sidious to consider getting rid of Vader,untill Starkiller came along and Luke after that.

[Kaisernick]

i always beleived that Sidious may have felt he was no threat to him sincs he became chop liver, my guess is that if Vader had turned against him he knew that now he could kill him.

 

That being said since it was love that turned him evil (ie love for padme) you would think that he would have realized that Vader may hold love for his son and didn't want to loose him, i mean that was his whole selling point to vader in becoming sith.

[Euphrosyne]

^This. How easy would Thrawn have swept aside the New Republic if Sidious kept his nose out of it?

It wasn't Sidious that destroyed the Wayland facility, nor did he get the Noghri to switch sides.

 

While Thrawn rightfully deserves plaudits for being one of the premiere military commanders in the EU, Zahn deliberately avoided making him as infallible as a lot of people seem to think he was. Thrawn didn't pick up on the Noghri volte-face at all (despite having most of the relevant evidence in his hands), his handling of C'baoth was extremely uneven and eventually backfired completely, and some of his biggest advantages had vanished by the time of the Battle of Bilbringi, independent of Rukh's assassination attempt: Mount Tantiss was destroyed, Delta Source was silenced, and the fringe organizations had united against him.

 

None of this means that Thrawn's offensive was doomed to fail; far from it. If he won the Battle of Bilbringi and eviscerated the better part of two full Republic fleets, then the playing field definitely would've been even more level. But "easy"? I don't think so.

 

Even if Sidious hadn't drawn the disparate Imperial warlords to Byss and sucked up their military potential, it wasn't as though Thrawn would've been able to make use of them, either. His political incompetence was always one of the key sticking points in the books - incompetence mitigated by his and Palpatine's desire to have him out in the Unknown Regions anyway, but still. He never made use of even the forces theoretically available to the rump Empire in the New Territories: Ardus Kaine and the sector Moffs got the lion's share of the fleets, and Thrawn himself kept a relatively small strike force. So there's no reason to believe that he would've been able to wrest fleets from the likes of Teradoc or Delvardus, even if they hadn't been hiding out in the Deep Core.