Palpatine vs Darth Vader from early ROTJ script

97. INT. THRONE ROOM - HAD ABBADON

Vader storms into the throne room and marches right up to where the Emperor is sitting. The Emperor slowly raises his head to stare at the Dark Lord.

VADER Where is he?

EMPEROR Safe…There is no need for you to worry. I will take good care of him…

VADER It is for me to train my son…you must…

The Emperor raises his hand, and Vader's breathing suddenly stops. The Dark Lord struggles at his controls, attempting to regain his air supply. He chokes.

EMPEROR You forget yourself…Lord Vader. I will tolerate no more discussion on the subject. The boy is mine to train. Your place is with the fleet.

Vader collapses on the floor and the Emperor lowers his hand. Vader starts breathing again and rises to a kneeling position.

VADER Forgive me, master.

EMPEROR The Rebels will soon begin their attack. You must be ready for them. For now that I have all of them in one place, they will be crushed once and for all.

VADER Yes, my master.

EMPEROR Now take your leave, for I have your son to attend to.

Vader rises and exits the throne room, and the giant door slides closed behind him.

Vader keeps taking more L's.

All we get from this is that Vader is vastly below Palpatine, like most characters....

Something cool to note is that Vader fought and killed all of Palpatine’s Imperial Guards stationed in the Imperial Palace to get there.

Should have posted that as well to balance out the "lowball".

There’s no official script for that, unfortunately. It’s just said in brief summary notes.

Ah, shame.

Is this G Canon?

Pretty epic tbh. Utter domination.

There's also Vader in ESB TPing Luke from across the galaxy and knocking him out, then barely being pushed back by ESB Luke who while on Dagobah draws upon his own anger and the nexus there to push Vader back.

I'd be hesitant to call this a clear show of Sidious being >> Vader, to be honest. The way it's described Sidious turns off his air supply (pretty much one of Vader's greatest weaknesses) and stops Vader from resuming it. It shows more power, yes, but it's not really quantifiable.

I mean, Lucas said that in the ESB fight, Vader held a “slight advantage”.

That's why they're called drafts.

He said that about the final film in the late 2000s or early 2010s in a documentary released on SW.com. 

Correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't George's input into ESB extend to writing an outline of the story and setting up ROTJ rather than the actual specifics of the story? 

I believe you'd be wrong. He wasn't a big fan of Leigh's script and basically completely rewrote it (although still extended her a lot of credit).

Apparently, this is what happened:

After the success of the original film, Lucas hired science fiction author Leigh Brackett to write Star Wars II with him. They held story conferences and, by late November 1977, Lucas had produced a handwritten treatment called The Empire Strikes Back, and asked her to write a draft from his notes.
Brackett finished her first draft in early 1978. It was similar to the final film. It reportedly contains

• a Battle of Hoth,
  
  
• a rebel base hidden in ice,
  
  
• a wise old Jedi Master,
  
  
• spaceships zooming through a deadly asteroid field,
  
  
• a more overt love triangle,
  
  
• a city in the clouds,
  
  
• unexpected betrayals by old friends,
  
  
• and a climactic duel between Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader.
  
  

But there are supposed to some differences between her version and the final film.

• Han is never frozen and there are no bounty hunters like Boba Fett.
  
  
• Lando has a different last name (Kadar) and a lady friend.
  
  
• Planet names are different.
  
  
• Yoda is called Minch.
  
  
• Han is sent on a mission to speak to his powerful step-father.
  
  
• Luke has a secret sister named Nellith, who is not Leia.
  
  
• Darth Vader does not reveal he is Luke's father, but Luke's father appeared as a ghost to instruct Luke.
  
  

I'm not sure how much of the final duel was actually changed, reading the original draft now. The original does take the view that Vader is more skilled and that "Luke holds his own, but just barely." The Lucas script doesn't change this, as Brackett's also describes the duel as being intense.

Yeah, Lucas changed a lot of the more bizarre things Brackett included. This link discusses them: http://whatculture.com/film/the-empire-strikes-back-5-things-in-the-original-script-that-would-have-ruined-the-movie

I think the specific, more nuanced story-beats of the film were changed. Secret History of Star Wars book dives into it.

Not that it matters given Lucas’ take is G-Canon regardless, and the official script is very supportive of his POV.

Do you have the source for him saying Vader only had a "slight advantage?" Seems pretty contradictory to what the film showed.

https://youtu.be/RIefj6dOhnM

Should be this one. I’m on mobile right now so I can’t time-stamp.

YousufLatham wrote:Is this G Canon?

The final scripts by George are G-canon, but the drafts contain a lot of weird shit that doesn't mesh with established continuity. So not sure. I guess we should accept everything that's not contradicted, though.

This is contradicted given it takes place on Coruscant.

DarthAnt66 wrote:This is contradicted given it takes place on Coruscant.

But the Emperor's ability to choke Vader like this contradicted?