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star wars - Why did Palpatine care about Anakin Skywalker in the Prequels given Palpatine's pretty good Force Vision?



Why did Palpatine care about Anakin (Vader), especially when considering his powerful "future Force visions"? Palpatine organizes the framework-setting Order 66 to kill the Jedi. It is Palpatine who defeats Yoda.


It is Palpatine who pretty much organizes the whole thing. He organizes the Death Star, his ascension, the destruction of all opposition.


It is Vader who tells Mace about Palpatine being a Sith. It is Vader who gets sushi'd by Obi-Wan.


Vader is the only survivor of the Death Star Mk1, but he was never the commander, the engineer or the saviour of the darn thing. Vader also throws Palpatine off a balcony.


While Vader does manage to murder a bunch of kids... that doesn't really seem that difficult a skillset for Palpatine to find to warrant any of the effort in winning Vader over.


Palpatine seems pretty cognizant of the whole "Sith kill each other", he doesn't appear to even need another Sith, so what? Was Vader just a really really good conversationalist?


To be clear, I'm referring to the prequels - as in, why does Palpatine have interest in Anakin "back then" - not just saving him, but, well, trying to turn him at all?


With all of Palpatine's "future Force vision" powers, Vader doesn't seem to be useful in the future or at the present, although he does throw Palpatine off a ledge... I'm just assuming Palpatine didn't see that, and wasn't, like, really into extreme sports


This related (not a duplicate) question suggested deals with the Sith code of ethics, and the strong ignoring the weak, and effectively asks "why would one Sith help another, junior Sith". It is an interesting question, check it out.


This question asks why Palpatine bothered with Vader, given both Vader's uselessness to the overall story arc (aside from killing Palpatine) and Palpatine's ability to see the future. It also (implicitly) inquires why Palpatine, who is solely responsible for everything that happens in the prequels, even bothered with an apprentice at all.




Answer



Both Palpatine and the Jedi council knew that Anakin would "bring balance to the force".


However, none of them knew exactly what that meant. The Jedi council thought it meant that the Dark Side would finally be abolished. I'm not sure if we were ever privy to Palpatine's thought on the matter.


Regardless, if you know that someone is powerful enough to alter an incredible dynamic wouldn't you want them on your side? That's why the council decided to train Anakin and that's why Palpatine put so much effort into bringing him close. If someone is supposed to bring balance, then you want to do everything in your power to ensure it's your side that get's the leg up.


Unfortunately for all concerned, Anakin brought balance by getting rid of all of them. First by decimating the Jedi order then by destroying Palpatine and elevating his own child up to be the last remaining "Jedi". Seems like Palpatine and the council should have eliminated him as a threat on day 1.


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