Originally posted by: xhonziA little EU question for everyone here:
1) Did/could Vader have known about the Emperor's Clones as described in Dark Empire?
Possibly. At least, he was probably aware of the Deep Core enclave and his master's continuing research into the Dark Side. He knew Palpatine had an interest in achieving immortality. He may not have known the exact reason for Palpatine cloning himself. (Maybe for some kind of bizarre sex thing?)
On the other hand, the Deep Core is small enough that Palpatine could've populated it while Vader was busy on the rim, or subordinate to the Grand Moffs. I always got the impression that the Deep Core forces were loyal directly to the Emperor, outside the system of Moffs and Vader's shadow. In the event that Vader overthrew Palpatine and took control of the main body of Imperial forces, the Deep Core forces would launch a counterattack; if that was the plan, it would be good to keep it secret from Vader.
2) How does that change Vader's actions at the end of RotJ if he knew that he was (most likely) only destroying a clone and not the evil that is the Emperor?
It doesn't. Under the old continuity, all of Palpatine's transfers up to that point had been done in comfort, in the clone lab on Byss. Palpatine wasn't powerful enough to transfer his spirit from Endor to Byss; he ended up floating through the madness of the Dark Side for nearly a year before the Dark Lords on Korriban threw him a bone and helped him to a clone body. For all he knew, Vader was taking the Emperor out of commission permanently, and knocking out the subconscious influence he had over the Endor taskforce. That's what led to the sudden panic, confusion, and incompetence of the Imperial forces.
Under the new continuity, that was Palpatine's first body anyway. There was no precedent for him taking a new body. And the Endor fleet was coordinated by a Grand Admiral performing battle meditation in the Death Star, so the Emperor's death didn't affect the outcome of the battle.
(There's no clear delineation between old and new continuity here; old is just the original stuff, and new is retcons made over the last few years.)
3) What if Vader was hanging out with the Emperor this whole time on the promise that one day he would be ready to force transfer himself to a healthy clone the way the Emperor had been doing?
