Vader's plan in TESB...

I was kind of thinking about this the other day, and it occured to me that it seems people often look really deeply into the actions and motivations of the heroes in the saga, and a lot of time is spent discussing the pros and cons of what they did and why they did it.
Then it struck me, people don't ever seem to give to much thought to what was going on at the end of TESB - I mean, I've never really seen a lot of consideration being given to what Vader was actually trying to achieve there...


Okay - here are a few non-submersible points we can discern by the time of TESB, intentionally ignoring anything which may have been established by the EU...

• Vader senses that the Force is strong with the Rebel pilot who eventually destroys the Death Star.
• Even if he is not aware of the name of the vessel at the time (he appears to be later) Vader knows that the Millennium Falcon is being used by the people who busted Leia out of the Death Star, and that they have some connection with Obi-Wan, because they brought him with them.
• Vader is obsessed with finding Luke Skywalker following the destruction of the Death Star, so says the opening crawl to TESB. He clearly knows the Rebel he is after is called 'Skywalker': "That is the system. And I'm sure Skywalker is with them."

Now, the scene where Vader communicates with Palpatine, as we all know, was changed in 2004. Prior to this change, the dynamic of this scene always seemed pretty clear cut to me: Vader had latched on to the idea that Luke may be his son, and was - to an extent - using the pursuit of the Rebels as a cover to tracking down Luke specifically. Palpatine basically catches Vader with his trousers down - he is saying "look, Vader, I know what you know, and I know what you are up to here..." Vader knows that with Luke by his side, he may be able to overthrow the Emperor. Palpatine knows Luke is a threat, but the idea of a new, improved apprentice is too irresistable an opportunity to pass up. Because that is how Palpatine rolls. They are both playing each other, although that is not obvious until you see what happens as the saga progresses.
The revised scene implies Vader was obsessed with finding this boy called Skywalker, but needed Palpatine to point out to him the possibility that it was his own son.
Either way, I suppose it's irrelevant to the point I'm making - by this point in the saga, tracking down Luke and luring him to the Dark Side, or destroying him, is Vader's goal, is Palpatine's goal, and is, by proxy, the goal of the Empire in general.

• Vader and Palpatine do not seem to know Yoda is still alive. "He's just a boy, Obi-Wan can no longer help him". Vader knows this, because he killed Obi-Wan. Later: "Obi-Wan has taught you well." And even in ROTJ, it is all about Obi-Wan, in fact he repeats that exact same line during their duel.

But I'm getting ahead of myself a bit there, the point I am getting to relates to the time before Luke is ever face to face with Vader. I'm just kind of setting the scene, considering everything we know up to this point...

• After the battle of Hoth, Vader immediately turns his attentions to hunting down the Millennium Falcon. I suppose this is the basis for the first part of my question. Well, it's not so much a question, just some random thoughts on things I kind of always took for granted:
The Rebels were being evacuated under cover of the Ion Cannon. I'm not sure how or why the Empire fell for that same trick every time a wave of vessels were evacuated, but let's just presume they did, and the Rebels all whizzed past the Imperial craft and jumped straight to hyperspace without pursuit. Vader is on the surface of Hoth when Leia, Han, Chewie and 3PO blast of in the Falcon. Luke is also still preparing to leave, because we see him watch the Falcon get safely away.
So, did the Empire turn its attentions to the Falcon simply because it was the only craft that didn't blast straight off into hyperspace, as it was unable to do so? At what point did Vader actually come up with his plan of using Leia and Han as bait? Did Vader simply presume Luke was onboard the Falcon initially - it's the craft he was on when he rescued the princess? And if he did, at what point did he decide Luke was not? What Lando says suggests that the Falcon being on Cloud City was always intended as a trap for Luke, but I suppose that could also have only become the case once the ship had landed and it became clear Luke wasn't onboard...

So that's basically it - what was Vader's plan in TESB, and how did he come up with it?

It seems simple on the surface, but it's not something I've ever thought about in much detail before. I'm not saying there is a flaw in the plan, just that it's interesting to break it down from Vader's point of view.

• Vader knows - or presumes - Obi had been training Luke at some point before he died. And to be fair, he did sense the Force was with Luke and see that he was able to bullseye the Death Star's one weak spot, against the odds.
But, by the same token, he didn't have much else to go on. It's not like he had ever seen Luke in action, or even knew that he owned a lightsaber. That said, we can also say that Luke was creating a disturbance in the Force sensed by both Vader and his Emperor.
• Vader knows that Leia would "never consciously betray the Rebellion". She would even watch her home planet be destroyed before selling out the Rebels. It is worth noting to that at this point, Vader and Tarkin seem quite happy to assassinate a member of the Imperial Senate, once she has outlived her usefulness. These are the kind of people Vader was dealing with, and this is how little value they were to him.
• So, by the end of TESB, Leia and Han are kept alive - just as bait to draw Luke to Bespin. Firstly, how could Vader have possibly known Luke was powerful enough to sense their pain and take the bait. If he was powerful enough to sense the trap, then surely he may also have been powerful, and schooled enough, to resist the bait?
And, secondly, how did he know these people mattered to Luke? Like I said, Leia's family and friends back on Alderaan probably mattered to her, but she still didn't betray the cause of the Rebellion to protect them. Vader has no evidence Luke would even care. Yes, he was the one who helped rescue the princess first time around, but from Vader's point of view, Luke may simply be totally committed to the Rebel cause - what went down on the first Death Star could purely have been about Luke getting the plans delivered to the Rebellion so that they could destroy the station. He has no reason to presume Luke actually cares about these people, or that - if he did - he would risk the greater cause for their sake.

Because the thing is, we know that Luke is still undergoing training with Yoda on Dagobah, Vader does not. We know that Luke struggling with these visions of his friends being made to suffer, but Vader could not have known. For all he knew, Luke was on the other side of the galaxy with the rest of his Rebel chums after the evacuation of Hoth, and Leia and Han were just presumed dead, martyrs for the Rebel plight. For all he knew, Luke just might not be that well-trained enough to have even sensed Leia and Han's situation.
Because when Luke eventually does turn up, Vader is impressed by the extent of his abilities. Even though he was kind of relying upon them for his plan to work.

It's interesting, because it seems pretty clear Vader was expecting the whole thing to end right there in the carbon freezing chamber. Bang, force him into the pit, flip the switch, one frozen Skywalker. All too easy...
It's also interesting to imagine how things might have played out next were that the case. Did Vader then just deliver Luke to the Emperor - was that ever his plan? Or did he intend to double-cross Palpatine and make the same offer to Luke he eventually did - to team up with him and overthrow the Emperor?
People often speculate as to when, if ever, Yoda and Obi-Wan intended to tell Luke the truth about his father... but I've not really seen much discussion about the timing of Vader making that revelation. Was it only once he had seen how powerful Luke really was that this became Vader's plan, when he was convinced Luke may be powerful enough to overthrow the Emperor if he could somehow appeal to him? I'd say it is more likely this must have been his plan all along, given the conversation with Palpatine earlier in the movie. Or was he just waiting until Luke was beaten, until Luke was backed into a corner to drop the revelation, so that Luke would see it as his only option? Because then, that doesn't fit in with Vader's clear intention for the encounter to be over the moment Luke had dropped into the carbon freezing chamber.

So many possibilities as to what might have actually happened next had Luke been frozen...
Do we go from here straight to the confrontation we eventually get to see in Jedi, but with an "unprepared" Luke? Imagine the revelation about Luke's father only coming out then, in front of the Emperor?
Or do we encounter a Luke being held by Vader, after being freed from the carbonite, and Vader revealing the truth and making Luke an offer he is not in a position to refuse...?

What do people think Vader was trying to do, or do you think he was kind of winging it...?
Do you think Vader's plan changed as he fought with Luke - when he went from being "just a boy" to someone who could actually hold his own?
And do think Vader was ever puzzled about how Obi was able to train him so well?

 

That's funny, because I was reading some great stuff about both of those subjects just last night, that came up in the ROTJ story conference prior to Kasdan's second draft, as reprinted in Rinzler's Making of ROTJ book. Bit long-winded for a message board post, but worth reading just to see what was going through their minds back then:

It does certainly make me appreciate more why that whole issue of Vader wanting to turn Luke / The Emperor wanting to turn Luke was handled the way it was in ROTJ after reading some of the reasoning behind it...

I do wish that vision of Yoda was retained.
The subtle difference between "Yoda, the Jedi Master, who instructed me..." and "Yoda, the Jedi Master who instructed me..."

 

I must confess, when I initially posted I was thinking more of Vader's short-term plan as opposed to his long-term ambitions.
It just kind of struck me - as amazing as TESB is - there is an strand to it that I'd never noticed before until recently... that, because we have the privilege of seeing Luke's training and progress play out simultaneously with everything else that's going on, it makes it easy for us to accept what Vader is "wanting to happen" because we see how that dovetails into what Luke is experiencing.
But when you actually think about it, Vader had no reason to believe his trap on Bespin was actually going to attract Luke, and he also had no reason to presume Obi-Wan had not actually already told Luke Vader was his father. For all Vader knows, Obi-Wan could have been preparing Luke for this from birth...

--- Double Post Merged, Jun 25, 2015, Original Post Date: Jun 24, 2015 ---

I guess the way I look at things, the films and the process that went into them are primarily what interests me.
I'm kind of into the idea that a canon of work - in its strictest sense - is usually something which is discerned by scholars and enthusiasts through study and classification, rather than dictated by the company churning stuff out.
Don't get me wrong - I accept and appreciate that if something is canon, then it is "canon" in the grand scheme of things - and there are lots of EU nuggets I have enjoyed over the years...

But, by the same token, I think people just rely on "canon" as a shortcut to finding some kind of "truth".
Because, the only truth - for me - is the bit that is rooted in the real world: that some talented people spent years making these films way back when. They made decisions. They had intentions. Some we know about, some we don't. Some we possibly never will. That really happened - that is "the truth".
So, sometimes I look at the movies, and I just want to explore them further, try to delve deeper into them - by understanding more about the process behind their creation and the circumstances under which they were made. And what the story is all about - what these people were trying to get across onscreen.

I guess there are just different ways of looking at these things.

So when I consider "what was Vader's plan?" there are different contexts to apply to that question.
And while I appreciate the answer that some author - 30-odd years detached from the making of the movies and the people who made them - came up with an interesting story involving Vader to fill some chronological gaps in the story, and got the thumbs up from the "story group"... that's usually not the answer I am interested in hearing. I tend to gravitate towards trying to understand what is going on in the movies themselves, within the context of the movies themselves.

It's great that Marvel are making new SW stories - the Dark Horse stuff had become pretty stagnant, IMHO - but to be honest, these things rarely change my opinions or interpretations of the movies, whether we are told they are canon or not. My reaction tends to be "oh, they are saying is canon now... okay, whatever..."

But, of course, that's just me...

 

Nah, there's no right or wrong answer. And it's a fairly trivial thing anyway really. I suppose I'm just curious what different conclusions people come to despite having seen the exact same movie...

So I guess the other part of my point was - taking all the above as a given - at what point did "capturing the Falcon" become secondary to "using it to lure Luke". What I mean is, did he think Luke was onboard the Falcon initially? Vader had to get to Bespin before the Falcon and describe a plan to Lando which involved setting a trap for "someone called Skywalker"... At what point did he decide he was going to do that?
I know it's not really important, but it kind of intrigues me...