darth_ender said:
Clearly if Luke had killed Vader, the Emperor believed that such would have been sufficient to make him an evil replacement.
Actually, you bring up another good point. Let's assume that the Emperor is lying - killing Vader does not make Luke a Darksider. He can kill Vader and still be the good guy....
And Luke kills Vader....
And...then what? Is he just going to ask Luke nicely to join the Sith club?
Why is the Emperor doing this whole "let's turn Luke to the Dark side" exercise if it doesn't work that way? Wouldn't that expose the Emperor as an incompetent buffon when it comes to Dark side meta-physics? The Emperor, the guy who is patently the strongest Dark side user of the Saga...doesn't even understand how you recruit people to the Dark side?
I'm sorry, but that sounds...not so plausible...and it makes the Emperor come across as much less intimidating, cuz incompetent folks aren't.
Good catch!