Palpatine And His Apprentices...

[HemlockGrey]

First off, can we assume that Palpatine was going to kill Maul eventually if Obi Wan had not done the job for him? Consider that he needs Dooku to instigate the war, and a tattoed freak with horns and no political power is not going to be able to do this. I think it's fairly obvious that Maul was going to be offed and replaced with Dooku, like Anakin replaced Dooku.

Secondly, Dooku is aware that Sidious is Palpatine. Was he not aware that, in the years leading up the Seperatist War, that Palpatine was growing close with Anakin? Wouldn't they set off alarm bells in his head?

(And does anyone else want him to shout out "PALPATINE IS SIDIOUS" right before Anakin chopped his head off?)

Thirdly, we know that Palpatine has a history of killing Sith when they are no longer useful to him. Vader knows that as well. Palpatine also knows that Sith apprentices typically kill their masters in violent fashion. So why was he so eager to turn Luke? Didn't he realize that Vader would try to overthrow him with Luke? Was he simply counting on Luke killing Vader first? Was Vader hoping he could get Luke to kill the Emperor before Luke killed him and joined with Palpatine?

Fourthly, if Luke had followed Palpatine's advice when he said "strike me down and your journey to the Dark Side will be complete"...what then? Why the fuck would Palpatine say that? If Luke takes him up on it, he's fucked.

[Shroom Man 777]

He'd ZAP Luke if that was the case.

[Danny Bhoy]

Thirdly, we know that Palpatine has a history of killing Sith when they are no longer useful to him. Vader knows that as well. Palpatine also knows that Sith apprentices typically kill their masters in violent fashion. So why was he so eager to turn Luke? Didn't he realize that Vader would try to overthrow him with Luke? Was he simply counting on Luke killing Vader first? Was Vader hoping he could get Luke to kill the Emperor before Luke killed him and joined with Palpatine?

Fourthly, if Luke had followed Palpatine's advice when he said "strike me down and your journey to the Dark Side will be complete"...what then? Why the fuck would Palpatine say that? If Luke takes him up on it, he's fucked.

Snipped No.1 and 2.

No.3: The obvious is that if one discounts the EU clones, Palpatine if he really believes in the Sith doctrine wants the continuation of the Sith Empire, with each Sith Lord succeeded by his apprentice in time-honoured Sith fashion. Palpatine gets taken by Vader (without or more likely with Luke) and Vader as the new Sith Lord and Luke as apprentice. Then Luke takes Vader (with or without an apprentice) and so on. Of course for Palpatine if Luke proved himself to be so much better than Vader that he could supplant Vader as his apprentice, I don't think Palpatine would have shed a tear for him. If Palpatine really wanted the best for the Sith line, he would want the best apprentice, the most deserving one to have a shot at killing him. Survival of the Fittest and all that.

No.4: I always thought it pretty obvious that Palpatine was goading Luke to aggression ("Use your aggressive feelings boy" etc) and the Dark Side. He knows that Vader would step in and block Luke's attack (whether Vader is still completely in his thrall or whether Vader wants to prevent Luke from doing damage in the right place but wrong time as indicated in the ROTJ novelisation is irrelevent). In fact, the ROTJ novelisation indicates (answering again your No.3) that Vader does not want Luke to kill Palpatine YET, as there was a chance he could still escape the Dark Side and rejoin his friends. Vader knows that he needs Palpatine's help in educating Luke in the Sith arts.