Every Star Wars fan is well aware of how Palpatine corrupted Anakin Skywalker to the point of twisting his mind with the Dark Side and creating the dreaded Darth Vader, but they may not know the Emperor’s methods in his attempt to do the same thing to Luke Skywalker–and those methods were the exact opposite of what he did to Vader.
While fans were introduced to Darth Vader before they got to know Anakin Skywalker, the prequel era of Star Wars fleshed out Anakin’s character completely–which means fans were also privy to Anakin’s inevitable corruption. It began as an innocent mentor-mentee relationship between a rising-star Jedi and an established political figure, Sheev Palpatine. Sheev was the kind hand that guided Anakin through the complexities of his new life, far away from the simplicity of his childhood on Tatooine. Anakin was almost constantly overwhelmed and confused–dealing with feelings he was forced to suppress as they were against the teachings of the Jedi, processing the abandonment and subsequent death of his mother, and trying to subdue the gnawing feeling of paranoia and dread that raged within him incessantly. Come to find out, most of Anakin’s internal anguish was due to the mental and social manipulations of Palpatine himself, as he groomed Anakin from a young age to be his perfect servant–and he did so in a way that played to who Anakin was, and where most of his insecurities were.
Palpatine Made Anakin Feel Weak, While He Made Luke Feel Strong
In Star Wars: Age of Rebellion – Luke Sywalker by Greg Pak, Chris Sprouse, Scott Koblish, and Stefano Landini, readers are given a deeper look into Luke Skywalker’s character during the events of the original trilogy. So much storytelling is crammed into three movies during that age of Star Wars, so moments like these where fans can slow down for a moment and absorb what each character is going through on a personal level is immensely important, and incredibly telling. In this case, readers follow Luke Skywalker during the events that took place between Episodes V and VI as he masters the art of being a Jedi while eluding Vader and crippling the Empire. Due to Luke’s exponential growth in strength with the Force, the Emperor knew he needed to corrupt him, so Palpatine reached out to Luke’s mind from across the galaxy and began twisting Luke’s perception of his life, those around him, and of himself.
When Palpatine entered Luke’s head, he immediately sniffed out the one thing that he could exploit that would push Luke to the Dark Side–his pride. Throughout the comic, Luke is shown having the keen ability to sense danger through the Force, so Palpatine fans that flame until Luke believes that his heightened awareness makes him better than those around him, and that they are all stupid if they don’t follow his direction in every given scenario. This is the exact opposite approach Palpatine used on Anakin. The Emperor made Anakin feel powerless which pushed him to pursue the power he needed to save the ones he loved (primarily Padmé), while Palpatine made Luke feel powerful to the point of arrogance.
In the end, Luke is able to break free from Palpatine’s influence while Anakin, tragically, succumbs to it. Nevertheless, it is incredibly interesting to observe how Palpatine went about trying to manipulate Luke compared to Vader. Not only does it show how inherently different Luke is from his father, but also the power Palpatine wields, that he can slither into the minds of his victims and prey on their insecurities, no matter what those insecurities are–and in this Star Wars story, Palpatine planned to corrupt Luke Skywalker by reversing how he broke Anakin Skywalker.
