Another Anakin Skywalker ~ Palpatine Lucas Quote

”Vader would’ve become infinitely more powerful if he hadn’t ended up his suit, if he hadn’t become half man, half machine which diminishes his powers considerably, which were the powers the Emperor has, so I wanted that relationship of Vader kind of being reduced to, I mean an assistant is too low a word, but he’s a henchmen, which is the impression you had when you saw the first movie by itself, but if you reflect on it a little bit you realize it’s actually not the way it is, the fact that he basically takes orders from Tarkin, who isn’t an equal to him at all, you know he’s way below him, really, but he doesn’t have much choice because he’s hobbled by his infirmities and the New Order, which he’s become a part of.” 

(George Lucas, Attack of the Clones Alternative Commentary with Archival Interviews from Cast and Crew)

---

Credit to Ethan.

@Reynard (Ethanion) nice find

DarthAnt66 wrote:”Vader would’ve become infinitely more powerful if he hadn’t ended up his suit, if he hadn’t become half man, half machine which diminishes his powers considerably, which were the powers the Emperor has, so I wanted that relationship of Vader kind of being reduced to, I mean an assistant is too low a word, but he’s a henchmen, which is the impression you had when you saw the first movie by itself, but if you reflect on it a little bit you realize it’s actually not the way it is, the fact that he basically takes orders from Tarkin, who isn’t an equal to him at all, you know he’s way below him, really, but he doesn’t have much choice because he’s hobbled by his infirmities and the New Order, which he’s become a part of.” 

(George Lucas, Attack of the Clones Alternative Commentary with Archival Interviews from Cast and Crew)

---

Credit to Ethan.

ngl, im kinda confused by the tarkin part. might just be the wording. him saying that tarkin isnt equal to him at all, but also he's way below him, is he going back and forth between real power and political/influential/military power? because like, isnt this changed somewhat? in the influental part of it, at least, not to mention him being sheev's direct right hand or something.

1. George Lucas is considering POWERFUL as a whole (Strength + Political).

2. Darth Vader would’ve become become infinitely more powerful if he hadn’t ended up his suit (TIME SENSITIVE), and would have been the BIG GUY in the Original Trilogy instead of Palpatine but this was no longer possible for him and he was then but a henchmen to Palpatine and below Tarkin as well. This statement does not suggest Anakin's parity to Palpatine at any point in time.

- - -

If pre-suit Darth Vader were to challenge Palpatine in a duel soon after Episode 3, it would make sense for him to mobilize his powerbase to even the odds (501st for example). 501st was a part of his "new powers."

The 501st are foremost loyal to Palpatine, not Vader. And even if they were loyal to Vader, Palpatine has infinitely greater political/military resources than Vader (every other clone legion, the support of the Galactic Senate, etc.). Anakin would never try to fight Palpatine power-base to power-base. The quote is power-specific.

Technically it's saying that Palpatine has the same powers that Anakin had, not the reverse. Palpatine can have Anakin's powers without the reverse (Anakin having Palpatine's powers) being necessary.

I'm sure you can get something useful from the quote, like how Vader is reduced to the status of an assistant, which you could infer to mean that if Anakin was an assistant to Sheev he wasn't bound to be one for very long on account of his power.

DarthAnt66 wrote:The 501st are foremost loyal to Palpatine, not Vader. And even if they were loyal to Vader, Palpatine has infinitely greater political/military resources than Vader (every other clone legion, the support of the Galactic Senate, etc.). Anakin would never try to fight Palpatine power-base to power-base. The quote is power-specific.

It's kind of all-encompassing.

Palpatine's armies were spread around in different planets at the time. 501st was on Coruscant however, and Pre-suit Darth Vader could make his move just after Mustafar. Pre-suit Darth Vader tells Padme that he can overthrow Palpatine for her sake, and she and him can rule the galaxy afterwards - treachery is second nature to Sith. Therefore, it could be him and 501st against Palpatine and his useless guards. Then Pre-suit Darth Vader would be the BIG GUY in Original Trilogy.

One day, Lucas will be able to speak in coherent sentences. I'm assuming that he's saying he's far below Tarkin in the hierarchy.

scan for the source? as for the quote itself pretty sure we have enough prove via g canon to argue anakin=palpatine at the time of the prequel trilogy so nice find

It's a good find, and further confirms what we already know.