Dr. DVD

Obviously Sidious was disappointed when Vader was left as a cyborg and wanted to replace him with the next best candidate. I was wondering if anyone else got the vibe in ROTJ that Sidious was onto Vader trying to overthrow him with his son as the new apprentice and was trying to turn the tables.

When Sidious appears on the Death Star and is walking with Vader, he says he senses Vader wishes to continue his search for Luke. Upon hearing this, Vader does a brief take as if to say: "Aw shit...he's on to me." My guess is that Sidious sensed his plan and wanted to get Luke on his side before Vader could undo him.

GuessWho

THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK

Dr. DVD

Well, yeah. But at the time it could be seen as Vader trying to sweet talk Luke. Guess he was being serious. Still wonder why Sidious would want to convince Vader to let him help turn Luke, since Sidious knows Vader is trying to overthrow him, and Vader knows what Sidious knows.

Fok

Maybe Sidious was too occupied in trying to kill Luke.

Dr. DVD

But he didn't want to kill Luke, he wanted him to replace Vader.

Ky-Fi

I sort of interpreted that differently. I think Vader being left a cyborg was EXACTLY what Sidious wanted---he sensed that Annakin had the potential to be the most powerful of all jedis, and thus his greatest threat, so he first turned him to the dark side to make him an ally, and then manipulated him to rely too much on his anger, and to fight Obi-wan---leaving Annakin at a disadvantage, which of course led to Obi Wan winning and maiming Annakin severely. Thus Annakin was left as neither a jedi, nor as a healthy Sith powerful enough to usurp the emperor's power---ideal for Sidious.

For those same reasons, I think Sidious most definitely did NOT want a healthy, powerful Luke as his Sith apprentice. I think ideally he would have liked for either Vader to kill Luke, or for Vader to seriously maim Luke as well as turn him to the dark side so that he would be a much less powerful sith.

That's my theory, at least--I guess the way I see it is if the emperor is the embodiment of evil, then he would always put his own lust for power first, and that would include always sabotaging his own apprentices.