Second only to the Jedi, a Sith Lord’s greatest threat is their own apprentice – but I’ve figured out why Palpatine never feared Darth Vader. It’s easy to forget that the Sith are naturally self-destructive; the dark side is compeтιтive, so Sith tend to be their own worst enemies.

This is why Darth Bane established the Rule of Two a thousand years before the Skywalker saga. It limits the number of compeтιтors, ensuring there should be an unbroken line of apprentices who usurp their master, with as little knowledge and power lost as possible. But it naturally means every Sith Lord automatically has a rival; their own apprentice.

Why, then, did Darth Sidious show no sign of fearing Darth Vader? After Andor season 2, I’ve finally figured it out.

Palpatine Never Intended Darth Vader To Be His Replacement

Let’s start by establishing a simple fact; Palpatine never expected to be replaced. An egotist to the core, he really did intend to create a thousand-year Sith Empire that he alone would rule. That’s why he resorted to Sith heresy by blending technology with the Force in an attempt to conquer death.

A recently-released excerpt from Adam Christopher’s upcoming Star Wars novel Master of Evil shines a light on the sheer size of Palpatine’s ego. “Remember, Lord Vader,” the Emperor lectured his apprentice, in a story set shortly after the Empire’s formation, “There is no power in the Force that is not mine, for I am the dark side.“

Palpatine did not truly consider himself a Sith at all. No, he believed he’d gone one better, becoming the very personification of the dark side itself. This is why he cared so little for Sith doctrines, and it’s why his former apprentice Darth Maul anticipated the Chosen One avenging both Jedi and Sith – for he believed both consumed by Palpatine.

Palpatine Deliberately Created A System Where His Apprentice Was Sidelined

The Rule of Two mandates that every apprentice should have the potential to surpᴀss their master, and that it is the master’s responsibility to train them with that in mind. Palpatine, however, had no intention of ever being supplanted. He deliberately created an Empire where Darth Vader, his apprentice, was sidelined.

I only realized this recently, rewatching Andor season 2. There were some rumors of a Darth Vader cameo in that season, but in truth it would have been intrusive; Andor was much more preoccupied with the politics and bureaucracy of the Empire, and Darth Vader just wouldn’t have fitted.

There’s a reason Darth Vader would have been a poor fit for Andor; it’s because he was a poor fit for the Empire itself. Palpatine established a vast, sprawling bureaucracy in which Darth Vader had an uncertain role. Mon Mothma declared Palpatine to be the monster who was coming for the whole galaxy, but even she didn’t spare a thought for Vader.

It’s telling that Darth Vader’s base was on the Outer Rim world of Mustafar, far from the Imperial capital of Coruscant and the Core Worlds. Even Darth Vader’s Inquisitors, who he led while hunting Jedi, were based in the Mustafar system. This seems symbolic; to the Empire, Darth Vader was basically a tangent.

Why Palpatine Erased All Knowledge Of The Force

Meanwhile, Palpatine systematically erased all knowledge of the Force. We tend to only think about how that affected knowledge of the Jedi, and the Emperor’s success in this particular mission can be seen by the fact Luke Skywalker didn’t even know what a lightsaber was when he first saw one. But this had an effect on Darth Vader, too.

Darth Vader already felt sidelined in the Imperial structure, an oddity that nobody quite understood. This sense would only grow as a new generation of Imperials rose through the ranks, ones who knew nothing of the Force. Darth Vader would have seemed increasingly anachronistic and irrelevant.

We even see this in the first Star Wars movie, when Admiral Motti openly mocks Darth Vader for his “sad devotion to that ancient religion.” By this point, only older Imperials like Grand Moff Tarkin still respected Vader; they remembered the Clone Wars, and Tarkin had even figured out that Darth Vader was really Anakin Skywalker.

With every year that pᴀssed, Darth Vader’s position became even more precarious. Just as Palpatine had surely planned it.

Darth Vader Could Never Replace Palpatine

All this means Palpatine could be confident that his position was secure. He had no reason to fear Darth Vader; his apprentice could never supplant Palpatine as Emperor, simply because the entire structure had been designed to ensure nobody would respect him or follow him.

Darth Vader, for his part, was preoccupied with the Jedi; he was ᴀssigned to lead the Inquisitors in hunting down Order 66 survivors and any other Force-sensitives. In true Darth Sidious fashion, the Emperor’s two greatest threats were focused on each other; the Jedi on surviving Darth Vader, Vader on wiping out the Jedi.

All this only began to change after the theft of the Death Star plans, when the Imperial system failed to protect the Emperor’s greatest superweapon. Darth Vader himself was brought in to retrieve the plans, but the Sith Lord failed as well, and the Empire’s greatest leaders were killed when the Death Star was destroyed.

With the Empire’s leaders and strategists gone, Darth Sidious was forced to call upon Darth Vader as something of a failsafe. Using him was a high-risk strategy, though, because it would risk awakening Vader’s ambition once again. It is ironic, though, that Vader did not eventually turn on Palpatine because of the Rule of Two at all.

He did it out of love, something Palpatine could never conceive of.