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?

Then it was pretty stupid of him to toss the Emperor down an air shaft. When your boss has achieved apotheosis and offers the chance at immortality, you don't throw him down air shafts.

I mostly meant that between the time he becomes Vader (in the suit, more machine than man) and we see him again in A New Hope, that he may have been working towards transferring into a body. I have a problem with Anakin's acceptance of the Dark Side and Vader's allegiance to Palpatine as depicted in RotS. I'm digging here for a potential reason for both of those.

Obviously he's given up on both those things when he gives (bad pun warning) his "master" the shaft.

Matt