Why did Palpatine care about Anakin Skywalker in the Prequels given Palpatine's pretty good Force Vision?

Question

Why did Palpatine care about Anakin (Vader), especially when considering his powerful "future Force visions"? Palpatine organizes the framework-setting Order 66 to kill the Jedi. It is Palpatine who defeats Yoda.

It is Palpatine who pretty much organizes the whole thing. He organizes the Death Star, his ascension, the destruction of all opposition.

It is Vader who tells Mace about Palpatine being a Sith. It is Vader who gets sushi'd by Obi-Wan.

Vader is the only survivor of the Death Star Mk1, but he was never the commander, the engineer or the saviour of the darn thing. Vader also throws Palpatine off a balcony.

While Vader does manage to murder a bunch of kids... that doesn't really seem that difficult a skillset for Palpatine to find to warrant any of the effort in winning Vader over.

Palpatine seems pretty cognizant of the whole "Sith kill each other", he doesn't appear to even need another Sith, so what? Was Vader just a really really good conversationalist?

To be clear, I'm referring to the prequels - as in, why does Palpatine have interest in Anakin "back then" - not just saving him, but, well, trying to turn him at all?

With all of Palpatine's "future Force vision" powers, Vader doesn't seem to be useful in the future or at the present, although he does throw Palpatine off a ledge... I'm just assuming Palpatine didn't see that, and wasn't, like, really into extreme sports

This related (not a duplicate) question suggested deals with the Sith code of ethics, and the strong ignoring the weak, and effectively asks "why would one Sith help another, junior Sith". It is an interesting question, check it out.

This question asks why Palpatine bothered with Vader, given both Vader's uselessness to the overall story arc (aside from killing Palpatine) and Palpatine's ability to see the future. It also (implicitly) inquires why Palpatine, who is solely responsible for everything that happens in the prequels, even bothered with an apprentice at all.

Answer 1

Both Palpatine and the Jedi council knew that Anakin would "bring balance to the force".

However, none of them knew exactly what that meant. The Jedi council thought it meant that the Dark Side would finally be abolished. I'm not sure if we were ever privy to Palpatine's thought on the matter.

Regardless, if you know that someone is powerful enough to alter an incredible dynamic wouldn't you want them on your side? That's why the council decided to train Anakin and that's why Palpatine put so much effort into bringing him close. If someone is supposed to bring balance, then you want to do everything in your power to ensure it's your side that get's the leg up.

Unfortunately for all concerned, Anakin brought balance by getting rid of all of them. First by decimating the Jedi order then by destroying Palpatine and elevating his own child up to be the last remaining "Jedi". Seems like Palpatine and the council should have eliminated him as a threat on day 1.

Answer 2

I think the answer to this changes depending on when you ask it.

If you're asking the question in the prequel trilogy Sidious wants Anakin to be his apprentice because he's on track to become one of the most powerful Jedi ever. If he can corrupt him and seduce him then he would have that power serving the dark side. Sure, it's a risk but if he can manipulate "Vader" to be dependent on him (for example pretending to work together to save his wife) then he should be safe and have a very powerful apprentice to back him up.

Move onto the original trilogy. Vader is a broken man, he loathes the man he's sworn to serve but he has no other choice. He's so irreparably dedicated to the dark side of the force he has no alternative. Sidious has seriously limited his options by executing Order 66, he'd bet heavily on Anakin being the last Jedi and hadn't really got what he'd been hoping for - oh well, Vader is better than no apprentice. That is until they discover Luke.

As soon as they discover Luke, Sidious begins to try and seduce him to take his father's place as his apprentice. All of Anakin's power but without his weaknesses - otherwise why would he arrange the two of them to duel so the last man standing would serve him?

Why does Sidious care about Vader? To begin with he wants his power, later on... because he's the only option - until Luke comes along!

Answer 3

I would say it this way. From the standpoint of Ep. I-III, Palpatine sees Anakin as a potentially powerful adversary. If Anakin is fully trained and "indoctrinated" in the Jedi way, he will, as all the other Jedi, be used to defend the galaxy and the Republic from the kind of evil that Palpatine embodies.

But, by planting seeds of doubt and temptation in Anakin's mind, Palpatine can effectively eliminate a great "weapon" for the Light side of the Force. Distractions like those he uses to sway Anakin (the desire for power and respect, the promise to find a way to save his wife's life, etc.) would derail much of the Jedi training that teaches control over emotion and passions. Even if Palpatine wasn't able to turn him to the Dark side, he would have already crippled Anakin's training in many ways.

Of course, Palpatine was a master at manipulation, and knew (through both experience and his ability to see the future) that it was just a matter of time before he would be presented with an opportunity to "push" Anakin over the edge and away from the Jedi. Again, even if Anakin doesn't become as powerful as he could be, he's still much more powerful than many force users. Palpatine (Sidious) would much rather have even a "broken" Anakin (Vader) working for him than a powerful and devoted Jedi Anakin working against him.

One other point is that, even Yoda - one Jedi who was extremely in tune with the force - could not predict the future with any certainty. He could see some of the possible outcomes of certain decisions, but, as he stated:

Difficult to see. Always in motion is the future.

Palpatine was great at playing the "long game", and used his ability to peer into the future to set up all of the circumstances he needed to get what he wanted. Even so, he wasn't omniscient. The future is still in flux, and no amount of manipulation can account for every possible variable and outcome when people and emotions are involved.

Answer 4

Palpatine is a planner, a schemer. He is brilliant with organization, plotting, and bureaucracy. He is not a battle commander or enforcer. Yes, he defeated Yoda in a duel, but that was the extent of his combat abilities.

Palpatine needed a powerful apprentice to lead his crusade against the Jedi. He started with Darth Maul, who was exceptionally good after his decades of training. He was dispatched by Obi-Wan. Palpatine moved on to Count Dooku, an experienced battle commander and former Jedi Master. Dooku was also defeated. His killer, Anakin Skywalker, was the next logical choice. The most powerful Force-user seen in centuries, with training that began too late after a troubled childhood of slavery, and a secret love-child(ren) on the way whose death Palpatine had foreseen.

Not only was Anakin skilled enough in combat and starship operation to hunt down every last Jedi, he was trained in battle tactics and strategy during the Clone Wars. Add in his emotional vulnerability and he is an obvious choice as Palpatine's right hand.

TL;DR: Palpatine required a general/assassin through whom he could execute the Great Jedi Purge while simultaneously consolidating the galaxy into the Galactic Empire. Anakin Skywalker was the best choice.

Answer 5

The following is entirely speculation, but I would guess a large factor is Anakin's status as a kind of chosen one and the one with the strongest connection to the force ever. Even if Palpatine wasn't to use those properties directly for his purposes (though, a force-aware second-in-command is still better than one unaware of the force), he might still have wanted Anakin (or rather Vader) on his side as a mere status symbol demonstrating his and the Sith's power over the galaxy by having dragged that chosen one onto their side.

Answer 6

Strictly speaking, Palpatine didn't NEED Anakin to carry out his plan to become Emperor, or to turn the Republic into the Empire. He more or less took care of that on his own.

But he could tell that Anakin had the potential to become the most powerful Jedi of all. In Episode II, he said this directly. Anakin later proved him right when, as Darth Vader, he hunted down and killed all the remaining Jedi (except of course for Yoda and Obi-Wan).

Taking an early interest in young Anakin, and successfully turning him to the Dark Side, therefore served a dual purpose: first, it eliminated an obstacle to his initial plan of creating the Empire; second, it created an ally who, in the future, could lead the fight to eliminate anyone who might later try to defeat the Emperor, restore the Republic, or interfere with his plans in any other way.

Answer 7

TL;DR: Palpatine failed to forsee Vader's crippling on Mustafar.

While it's true that Palpatine had a knack for Force Vision, he was not omnipotent. His abilities allowed him to see the most likely future(s), but certainly not every possible contingency. He never saw Vader's betrayal coming, nor did he forsee Vader being crippled during his fight with Obi-Wan on Mustafar. If not for that single event, Darth Vader would have potentially been one of the most powerful Sith in the history of the galaxy.

For instance, let's take into account the events of Episode VI. Throughout the years, Palpatine had forseen other attempts by Vader to betray & usurp him. However, with his gift of Foresight, he was always able to deflect the attempts and/or manipulate events so that Vader cancelled his plans. In many cases, he manipulated Vader himself into the position of killing his OWN assassins rather than allow them to attempt (and fail) to assassinate the Emperor. In effect, Palpatine typically turned Vader's own plans against him. Ironically, the one betrayal that worked - Vader throwing him into the pit to save Luke - is the one betrayal that Palpatine never saw coming. This is likely because it was an emotional, spur-of-the-moment decision by Vader.

Likewise, Palpatine knew that Anakin/Vader would face off against Obi-Wan on Mustafar. He knew they would fight, he knew the "betrayal" of Obi-Wan would fuel Anakin's rage and make him stronger. What he failed to see, though, was one minor thing... the same thing that would later result in his death... an emotional decision by Anakin/Vader. Anakin's poorly-thought-out attempt to best Obi-Wan despite the situation is what lead to his crippling. At that point, having already wiped out 99.9% of the galaxy's Force users, Palpatine was forced to save Vader and make the best out of a bad situation. As a result, he was left with a half-man, half-machine apprentice whose Force potential was severely limited by his condition.

Answer 8

To decimate the Jedi order.

The Jedi had a prophecy that Anakin would "Bring balance to the Force." Unlike the Jedi, who labored under the false assumption that 'balance' meant there would be no Dark Side (apparently they couldn't be bothered use a dictionary), Palpatine knew the actual definition of the word. Not only that, but there was the Rule of Two for Sith. This means that there can only ever be two Sith at a time. Combining both rules means that there should only be two Jedi as well.

Palpatine used Anakin/Vader (along with Order 66) to literally fulfill both rules, obliterating the Jedi.

Answer 9

If Anakin was the one spoke of in the prophecy, the one who was destined to destroy the Sith and bring balance to the Force, what greater tactical blow could Palpatine deal to the Jedi than to turn that asset against them? In this sense, it seems to me that Palpatine never needed Anakin/Vader to be an effective ally, he only needed him to be ineffective for the opposition.

Answer 10

This is what I read out of the 3rd novel:

Anakin was of great use to Palpatine. Mace Windu's fighting style (Vaapad) could turn the greatest dark powers directly against their source. So when Palpatine fought Mace, it could have ended in a defeat (instead of the stallmate he could expect against Yoda). So Palpatine needed someone who was capable of fighting Windu. This could not have been another Sith or Dark Jedi. Instead, he used Anakin and during this procedure also brought him closer to his side.