Skip to main content

star wars - Why was Vader accompanied by the Imperial Royal Guard on Mustafar?


In Rogue One we see Darth Vader bathing in a bacta tank in his castle on Mustafar. He appears to be chaperoned by members of the Emperor's own personal guards with their distinctive red robes.


Vader tank


The only time that I've ever seen these guards is in the company of Emperor Palpatine himself. I also don't recall ever seeing Vader with personal guards of any kind before.


Why did Vader have the Imperial Guards in this instance? Is this the only example we have of someone using the Guards apart from the Emperor himself?



Answer




Vader is relatively vulnerable while in the bacta tank, so it makes sense to protect him with the Royal Guard. If Vader was ever attacked while in the bacta tank, the guards could defend him until Vader got back into his armor.


Although we do not see the Royal Guards protecting Vader in his meditation chamber on Vader's flagship Executor, Vader's castle on Mustafar is much more secluded (and therefore less protected) than Vader's flagship. There are plenty of stormtroopers on Executor to protect Vader whenever he is meditating on his flagship.


Vader's castle on Mustafar is where Vader lives, so Vader would likely need to receive transmissions from Palpatine regarding Sith business. That means the guards there would know of Palpatine's secret (that he, too, is a Sith Lord), and only the Royal Guard is trusted to know that secret:



[Vader] seldom saw his Master so publicly demonstrate his power. And he understood what it meant, of course. There must be no survivors who could bear witness. Only the Royal Guards could be allowed to live—only they could be trusted never to reveal what they’d seen, or even to talk about it among themselves.


Lords of the Sith, p. 168



Hence only the Royal Guard could be trusted to protect Vader at his home. Stormtroopers, security droids, etc. could not be sufficiently trusted.


As far as I know, this is the only instance in which the Royal Guards are seen guarding someone other than the Emperor. Even so, the Guards are largely ceremonial since the Emperor can protect himself.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

harry potter - Do the Kwikspell courses work?

In Harry Potter we are introduced to Kwikspell course in The Chamber of Secrets (and never hear about it again). We see Filch taking courses, presumably by mail. The descriptions of Kwikspell make me think it is for people who are weak in magic (kind of like how Neville was supposed to be when he was younger), but had magic in them nonetheless. However, Ron's comments later in the chapter make it sound like it is mainly for Squibs to learn magic. However, it is strongly implied through out all the books that Squibs are essentially Muggles, and will never be able to do magic. How then is a Kwikspell course supposed to work? Do we have any information to know if it works at all? Is it a scam? An answer from any level of canon is welcome. Answer Kwikspell courses are (probably) useful to some wizards, but not to squibs. The Kwikspell course literature comes with two testimonials. Madam Z. Nettles of Topsham writes: ‘I had no memory for incantations and my potions were a family joke...
Post a Comment
Read more

futurama - How much time is lost in 'Time Keeps on Slippin''

In time Keeps on Slippin' , Farnsworth creates a basketball team which he matures by abusing Chronitons. This leads to time skipping forward by random, but ever increasing amounts. How much time was skipped in this way? Answer Unfortunately, I don't think a good estimate can be made for this, for two reasons: Many of the time skips move forward by an indeterminate amount of time. At one point, the Professor mentions localized regions of space skipping forward much more than others. We then see two young boys on the street below complaining about having to pay social security, only to suddenly become senior citizens and start complaining about wanting their money. Thus, each individual could have experienced a different amount of time skippage.
Post a Comment
Read more

star wars - What "exactly" happens when someone turns to the Dark Side?

When I saw the original Star Wars saga as a kid, the concept of the Dark Side imprinted in me was quite simple. You did a bad thing, so you're a bad person so you go to the Dark Side and keep doing bad things. Now, obviously this doesn't hold true in reality. In my mind it is perfectly reasonable for Luke to kill the Emperor and Vader and then just flee the Death Star and rejoin the Alliance. After all they are at war, those are enemy officers that have captured him and are taunting him by threatening with death of all loved ones and the whole operation was intended to kill the Emperor anyway. The same would hold true for Anakin. He could have killed Mace Windu to save the Chancellor and Padme but that doesn't mean he's going to then go mad and kill all Jedis including children. It doesn't add up from a merely psychological point of view. He had a set of objectives and that made him want to keep the Chancellor alive (quite valid by the way, Mace Windu is quite clums...
Post a Comment
Read more

star trek - Warning regarding forward saucer section in Nemesis?

In Star Trek: Nemesis , just before the Enterprise rams into the Scimitar, Picard sends a text message from his captain's chair arm pad to Troi — who is manning the helm in lieu of the crewman who was just blown out through what was once the view screen — indicating that she should put full impulse on standby. (Literally, if you watch the scene closely, Troi's console prefaces the order with "TXT MSG" !) My question is: Did Picard also somehow warn crew members in the forward saucer section about what was about to happen? The ramming of the Scimitar was a heat of the moment decision. Considering that he also resorted to calling the auto-destruct sequence shortly after (which ended up being offline), he probably was of the mindset that any losses would be acceptable in order to hault Shinzon's march to Earth. Still, I'm curious. Answer The original script indicates that he called for the crew to " brace for impact ". Whether that call (or the comma...
Post a Comment
Read more