Moonlady's Notes: Okay, this is a theory that my dad came up with after he watched Episode One. I'm posting it because I wanted to see what other people thought of it a rely the opinion to Dad.
Disclaimer: Do I really need one?? My Dad isn't George Lucas, which should be obvious. It's just a theory, might not even happen, but...
Anakin's Game
c. 2000 by Wm. E. Overton
I'm going to tell you something about Star Wars that you don't know. Something that George Lucas may not know.
Darth Vader never existed.
Anakin Skywalker was the ultimate deep-cover mole.
As the chosen one, Anakin was supposed to bring balance to the Force. The system we saw in Episode One was not balanced by any definition of the term, so he had to tear it down and replace it with something else. Luckily --- if luck had anything to do with it --- he had the perfect means to tear it down in Darth Sidious, AKA Senator Palpatine. Palpatine's goal, though, was to replace the system with one even more unbalanced --- an empire where the Dark side ruled supreme and the Light side hardly existed at all.
Anakin had to see that Palpatine succeeded, and then topple him at the peak of his success.
Before you decide that I'm crazy, please note that this is exactly what happened at the end of Episode Six. Luke didn't kill Palpatine. Anakin did, and we all saw it coming. I remember thinking "Come on, Darth --- kill this turkey so we can all go home."
Let me make one thing clear. Anakin Skywalker is not a nice person. He is THE FORCE. Light side and Dark side are only points of reference to him and he could give Palpatine lessons in ruthlessness. Yoda recognized instinctively that he is not here to play the game, but to dynamite the field.
Anakin's game begins when he allows himself to be trained as a Jedi. This lulls everyone's suspicions and gives him time to grow up, get organized, marry Amidala and have children. His children, Luke and Leia, are essential to his plan --- they will establish a new, more balanced order after the old one has been destroyed. Anakin's children are not nice people, either. Look at the way they deal with Jabba the Hut in Episode Six. They have a job to do, and they tend to be abrupt with people silly enough to get in their way.
With his groundwork laid, Anakin allows himself to be turned to the Dark side. By carefully manipulating Palpatine's preconceptions he eases himself into a position of trust --- as far as one Sith Lord ever trusts another. Even an ego like Palpatine's might wonder why someone who could pick him and Yoda up and bang their heads together until the Force ran out of their ears would want to be his disciple, but he doesn't really know, and Anakin's massive disfigurement --- the result of his break with Obi-wan --- undoubtedly helped him carry out his deception.
With Anakin as Darth Vader in position to choreograph Palpatine's takeover, the demolition of the Republic and the Jedi are almost inevitable. He is in complete control of the situation. His children are safely beyond Palpatine's reach and knowledge and every plan the would-be emperor makes is given to "Darth Vader" to carry out.
One thing I'm not sure of is whether or not Obi-wan Kenobi was in on the gag. He is obviously aware of who Luke and Leia are, and making some attempt to watch over them. By Episode Four he knows enough to steer Luke away from what could be a disastrous line of thought. Yoda, on the other hand, almost certainly did not know.
I won't go into the events of the trilogy yet except to point out that "Darth Vader" was at every critical point, orchestrating Luke's and Leia's successes and hairbreadth escapes. At one point in Episode Four, Leia actually points this out. Later Luke comes dangerously close to blowing Anakin's cover.
In the end, things turn out exactly as Anakin intended. The rebellion succeeds, the Emperor dies and Anakin's children have a clear field to rebuild a more balanced system.
Anakin's game is over.
What?
You don't believe it?
You want proof?
Okay. Let me make one thing clear, though --- my whole source here is the four films we've seen and the two we haven't. I have no interest in refutations based on Star Wars novels, comic books, video games, fanfics or letters from George Lucas. The films are the Cannon; all other sources are apocryphal. With that understood, here is my evidence:
At the start of Episode Four, an Imperial cruiser captures Leia's starship and she is turned over to "Darth Vader" for questioning. She resists every form of interrogation and is only persuaded to talk when the Grand Moff Tarkin threatens to blow up her home planet of Alderon. Through all this we are asked to believe that "Vader" never noticed that she was strong in the Force or suspected that she was his daughter. Anakin Skywalker, on the other hand, might very well have loaded the hypodermics with saline solution and told everyone that it was truth serum. Are you going to call a seven-foot giant with supernatural powers and Imperial authority a liar? Is anyone?
Then too, Leia was aware that Obi-wan Kenobi lived on Tatooine --- a fact of which the Empire seemed abysmally ignorant. A twenty-year campaign of hunting down Jedi had failed to turn him up, perhaps because he was living under the diabolically clever alias of "Ben Kenobi". Of course we are given to believe that guess who directed the search.
We can safely assume that Leia gave R2D2 Obi-Wan's mailing address, which accounts for the escape pod landing in the right general area, but how to account for Luke's being in the same area? Or "Darth" not knowing that his son was living on his home world without even an alias? Skywalker might be as common a last name as Smith on Tatooine, but I doubt it. My explanation is that Anakin knew exactly where they were --- he may even have arranged for Leia's ship to be intercepted in the vicinity of Tatooine --- and that Obi-wan was there to watch over Luke until he was old enough to start his training as a Jedi.
There may have been some coincidence in Luke's and Obi-Wan's first meeting, but I'm sure that Obi-wan would have arranged it one way or another. In any case, Obi-wan begins training Luke as a Jedi and they start making plans to go to Alderon.
Obi-wan tells Luke that Darth Vader killed his father --- a point that becomes important later --- and also gives him Anakin's light saber, which he says that he has been keeping because Anakin wanted Luke to have it. After a narrow escape from Tatooine, Luke and Obi-wan head for Alderon and are captured by the Death Star. We are not shown what went on behind the scenes, but Anakin and Obi-wan both act as if they are keeping a pre-arranged rendezvous.
The rescue of Princess Leia and the escape are about what we would expect from a trio of talented and lucky amateurs --- they neither support nor deny my basic thesis --- but the duel between Anakin and Obi-wan and the actual escape of the Millennium Falcon both deserve a closer look. When Darth Vader senses Obi-wan aboard the Death Star the Grand Moff Tarkin says that he won't escape. Darth replies that Obi-wan is not here to escape. Since their meeting seems on the surface to be pure coincidence, an ego as big as this answer seems to imply hardly leaves room for anything else aboard the Death Star.
Suppose, though, that Anakin set their confrontation up? It wouldn't even take collusion --- just the knowledge that Leia had sent a message and an awareness of how Obi-wan was likely to react. This assumes, of course, that Anakin knew Obi-wan was on Tatooine --- something that "Darth Vader" wasn't supposed to know. Another possibility is that Darth Vader got the information from Leia and deliberately withheld it. Either way, Anakin has set the meeting up. And unless Obi-wan is senile or incredibly naive for his age and experience, he knows it.
Note also that even though he has been aware of Obi-Wan's presence since before the Millennium Falcon was captured, Anakin hangs back and allows Obi-wan to release the tractor beam --- not to mention allowing Luke and Han Solo to carry out their hare-brained rescue of Leia. We are even told later that he may have planned it.
(Since "Darth Vader's" plan depended on Luke and Han rescuing Leia and leading them to the rebel base, do you wonder what would have happened if they hadn't managed to disable the trash compactor?)
As I said, I'm not sure how much Obi-wan knew about Anakin's game. Certainly more than he let on. The conversation between him and "Darth" during the duel sounds almost as if they are talking over Luke's head. The duel ends with "Darth Vader" being suckered into a really stupid mistake --- or Anakin deliberately co-operating with Obi-Wan's translation to a higher plane.
The escape of the Millennium Falcon is so raw that Leia feels compelled to comment on it, and the Grand Moff Tarkin makes it clear in a scene shortly afterward that "Darth Vader" set it up. Which means that he had to plant the homing device before anyone aboard the Death Star had any reason to think Leia would escape, Obi-wan would turn off the tractor beam, or any member of the Falcon's crew would make it back to their ship.
Is "Darth Vader" starting to seem awfully convenient for the Good Guys?
The Millennium Falcon reaches the rebel base with the Death Star on its heels. The rebels analyze the stolen plans and brief their pilots. Luke's comment about "Whomp Rats" during the briefing makes his skill as a pilot clear to the audience.
The battle begins. The Death Star's defenses prove inadequate. They were designed to cope with larger, slower ships. (And whose fault, exactly, was that? Was "Darth" also in charge of The Empire's military intelligence?) "Darth Vader" takes the initiative and leads a fighter defense against the Rebels. The Grand Moff Tarkin isn't too bad a villain, but a really good Bad Guy doesn't mind getting dirt --- or blood --- under his fingernails.
The battle comes down to Luke's target run on the vent with "Darth" right on his tail. Obi-wan tells Luke to turn off the targeting computer and use the Force.
Why?
Bear in mind that Luke Skywalker is probably the second or third best pilot in that galaxy. Certainly one of the top ten. He can hit a two-meter target with a targeting computer, an abacus or a cuisinart. Turning the computer off isn't going to hurt, but using the Force won't help. He doesn't need help! All that using the Force will do is flag him for Darth Vader.
After all, we can't have Anakin Skywalker blowing his son out of the sky by mistake, can we?
"Darth Vader" sits on Luke's tail and makes suitably menacing comments until Han Solo and the Millennium Falcon burst onto the scene and give him a convenient excuse to bug out. Luke goes on to blow up the Death Star and everyone goes home.
Can you imagine "Darth" explaining to the Emperor later just how he happened to lose the Death Star and its whole crew? And just happened to survive? We get a few clues to how Anakin manages tricks like this in Episode Six.
Episode Five doesn't provide a lot of evidence either way. Darth Vader is off-camera for most of the movie, and Luke is almost a minor character. In the final duel between Luke and "Vader", though, Anakin finds it necessary to blow his own cover, at least to the extent of admitting that he is Luke's father. Luke, being half-trained at that point, can't really grasp the admission and is devastated by the knowledge. Later, though, the mere fact that he knows turns out to be more of a risk than Anakin probably anticipated.
Episode Six is where things start coming together fast. Luke completes his training and gets confirmation from Yoda and Obi-wan that "Darth Vader" is really Anakin Skywalker. With his spiritual feet on the ground, so to speak, he decides rightly that Anakin is still in there --- something that Yoda never accepted and Obi-wan felt it necessary to conceal.
Didn't you just love Obi-Wan's rationalization of the lie he told Luke about Darth Vader killing his father? Talk about self-serving explanations! Still, no one ever said that Good Guy and Nice Guy were the same thing, and I suspect that Obi-wan was either Anakin's lieutenant or had figured out what Anakin was doing after the fact.
Luke's awareness of Anakin's identity almost throws a monkey wrench into the Plan. He sets out to "save" his father. First, though, he has to reassemble his team --- most of who have at this point been captured by Jabba the Hut.
Poor Jabba. A big fish in a little pond, he is in so far over his head that he has no hope of competing and only one chance to survive. Luke tries to be nice about it --- he offers to ransom Solo, Leia and Chewie. When this doesn't work, he offers Jabba one last chance. "Let us go and stay alive". Shortly thereafter we see what happens to the sort of idiot who gets in the way when the Chosen One's children can't be bothered. Considering the disadvantages that Leia was working under --- weaponless, chained up and practically naked --- I found it significant that she was the one who actually killed Jabba and destroyed his yacht.
With his team back together and his training complete, Luke rejoins the Rebels in their assault on a new Death Star now under construction. Did anyone not in the movie fail to realize that this was bait for a trap? Luke, of course, goes with his own team to assault the force field generator that protects it.
By this time, Anakin is walking on eggs. The time isn't right for him to reveal himself, but Luke is determined to push him into doing just that. Worse yet, he has to keep Luke alive --- not an easy task, the way things are shaping up. From the way things come down, I suspect that Anakin had to let Palpatine think he had screwed up with the first Death Star and is subtly touting Luke as his possible replacement. He may also be encouraging Palpatine to think that he wants to assume the throne himself, with Luke at his side. Palpatine would buy that scenario in a minute. Aggressive ambition and a massive ego are virtues to be admired in a Sith Lord's disciple. Not necessarily tolerated, but admired.
One indication of Palpatine's growing suspicion is his comment when "Darth" mentions that he has sensed Luke on Endor. (And in the shuttle, which he specifically told the watch officer not to challenge.) "Strange that I didn't". Maybe he is starting to figure out who Anakin Skywalker was supposed to be.
Once Anakin brings Luke into the Emperor's presence, the chips are down. Anakin doesn't care who wins the battle --- a rebel victory would be good, but his main goal is to make sure that Palpatine does not survive. To achieve this, he has to focus all of Palpatine's attention on Luke. The way he does it is so totally ruthless that he may eventually be glad that he doesn't have a material neck for Luke to get his hands on.
It works, though. When Anakin strikes, Palpatine has no warning at all.
Anakin has been working for twenty years for that moment. Maintaining his cover for so long has to have been exhausting, even for the Chosen One. When he tells Luke afterward to "let me see you without this mask", you can't help but wonder which mask he means.
Most of the "evidence" I've presented here may have been the result of poor plotting and hasty writing. Once the idea presented itself, though, points to support it seemed to jump out of the movies almost of their own volition. Watch the trilogy with the idea that "Darth Vader" is just a cover for Anakin's game and you'll notice a dozen points that I've missed. The more you consider it, the more sense it seems to make.
It is, however, all speculation and circumstantial evidence. There are still two movies that we haven't seen, filling in the gap between Episodes One and Four. I'm waiting to see if they support my idea or blow it out of the water.
If you've read this far, I'll bet you are, too.
Disclaimer: Do I really need one?? My Dad isn't George Lucas, which should be obvious. It's just a theory, might not even happen, but...
Anakin's Game
c. 2000 by Wm. E. Overton
I'm going to tell you something about Star Wars that you don't know. Something that George Lucas may not know.
Darth Vader never existed.
Anakin Skywalker was the ultimate deep-cover mole.
As the chosen one, Anakin was supposed to bring balance to the Force. The system we saw in Episode One was not balanced by any definition of the term, so he had to tear it down and replace it with something else. Luckily --- if luck had anything to do with it --- he had the perfect means to tear it down in Darth Sidious, AKA Senator Palpatine. Palpatine's goal, though, was to replace the system with one even more unbalanced --- an empire where the Dark side ruled supreme and the Light side hardly existed at all.
Anakin had to see that Palpatine succeeded, and then topple him at the peak of his success.
Before you decide that I'm crazy, please note that this is exactly what happened at the end of Episode Six. Luke didn't kill Palpatine. Anakin did, and we all saw it coming. I remember thinking "Come on, Darth --- kill this turkey so we can all go home."
Let me make one thing clear. Anakin Skywalker is not a nice person. He is THE FORCE. Light side and Dark side are only points of reference to him and he could give Palpatine lessons in ruthlessness. Yoda recognized instinctively that he is not here to play the game, but to dynamite the field.
Anakin's game begins when he allows himself to be trained as a Jedi. This lulls everyone's suspicions and gives him time to grow up, get organized, marry Amidala and have children. His children, Luke and Leia, are essential to his plan --- they will establish a new, more balanced order after the old one has been destroyed. Anakin's children are not nice people, either. Look at the way they deal with Jabba the Hut in Episode Six. They have a job to do, and they tend to be abrupt with people silly enough to get in their way.
With his groundwork laid, Anakin allows himself to be turned to the Dark side. By carefully manipulating Palpatine's preconceptions he eases himself into a position of trust --- as far as one Sith Lord ever trusts another. Even an ego like Palpatine's might wonder why someone who could pick him and Yoda up and bang their heads together until the Force ran out of their ears would want to be his disciple, but he doesn't really know, and Anakin's massive disfigurement --- the result of his break with Obi-wan --- undoubtedly helped him carry out his deception.
With Anakin as Darth Vader in position to choreograph Palpatine's takeover, the demolition of the Republic and the Jedi are almost inevitable. He is in complete control of the situation. His children are safely beyond Palpatine's reach and knowledge and every plan the would-be emperor makes is given to "Darth Vader" to carry out.
One thing I'm not sure of is whether or not Obi-wan Kenobi was in on the gag. He is obviously aware of who Luke and Leia are, and making some attempt to watch over them. By Episode Four he knows enough to steer Luke away from what could be a disastrous line of thought. Yoda, on the other hand, almost certainly did not know.
I won't go into the events of the trilogy yet except to point out that "Darth Vader" was at every critical point, orchestrating Luke's and Leia's successes and hairbreadth escapes. At one point in Episode Four, Leia actually points this out. Later Luke comes dangerously close to blowing Anakin's cover.
In the end, things turn out exactly as Anakin intended. The rebellion succeeds, the Emperor dies and Anakin's children have a clear field to rebuild a more balanced system.
Anakin's game is over.
What?
You don't believe it?
You want proof?
Okay. Let me make one thing clear, though --- my whole source here is the four films we've seen and the two we haven't. I have no interest in refutations based on Star Wars novels, comic books, video games, fanfics or letters from George Lucas. The films are the Cannon; all other sources are apocryphal. With that understood, here is my evidence:
At the start of Episode Four, an Imperial cruiser captures Leia's starship and she is turned over to "Darth Vader" for questioning. She resists every form of interrogation and is only persuaded to talk when the Grand Moff Tarkin threatens to blow up her home planet of Alderon. Through all this we are asked to believe that "Vader" never noticed that she was strong in the Force or suspected that she was his daughter. Anakin Skywalker, on the other hand, might very well have loaded the hypodermics with saline solution and told everyone that it was truth serum. Are you going to call a seven-foot giant with supernatural powers and Imperial authority a liar? Is anyone?
Then too, Leia was aware that Obi-wan Kenobi lived on Tatooine --- a fact of which the Empire seemed abysmally ignorant. A twenty-year campaign of hunting down Jedi had failed to turn him up, perhaps because he was living under the diabolically clever alias of "Ben Kenobi". Of course we are given to believe that guess who directed the search.
We can safely assume that Leia gave R2D2 Obi-Wan's mailing address, which accounts for the escape pod landing in the right general area, but how to account for Luke's being in the same area? Or "Darth" not knowing that his son was living on his home world without even an alias? Skywalker might be as common a last name as Smith on Tatooine, but I doubt it. My explanation is that Anakin knew exactly where they were --- he may even have arranged for Leia's ship to be intercepted in the vicinity of Tatooine --- and that Obi-wan was there to watch over Luke until he was old enough to start his training as a Jedi.
There may have been some coincidence in Luke's and Obi-Wan's first meeting, but I'm sure that Obi-wan would have arranged it one way or another. In any case, Obi-wan begins training Luke as a Jedi and they start making plans to go to Alderon.
Obi-wan tells Luke that Darth Vader killed his father --- a point that becomes important later --- and also gives him Anakin's light saber, which he says that he has been keeping because Anakin wanted Luke to have it. After a narrow escape from Tatooine, Luke and Obi-wan head for Alderon and are captured by the Death Star. We are not shown what went on behind the scenes, but Anakin and Obi-wan both act as if they are keeping a pre-arranged rendezvous.
The rescue of Princess Leia and the escape are about what we would expect from a trio of talented and lucky amateurs --- they neither support nor deny my basic thesis --- but the duel between Anakin and Obi-wan and the actual escape of the Millennium Falcon both deserve a closer look. When Darth Vader senses Obi-wan aboard the Death Star the Grand Moff Tarkin says that he won't escape. Darth replies that Obi-wan is not here to escape. Since their meeting seems on the surface to be pure coincidence, an ego as big as this answer seems to imply hardly leaves room for anything else aboard the Death Star.
Suppose, though, that Anakin set their confrontation up? It wouldn't even take collusion --- just the knowledge that Leia had sent a message and an awareness of how Obi-wan was likely to react. This assumes, of course, that Anakin knew Obi-wan was on Tatooine --- something that "Darth Vader" wasn't supposed to know. Another possibility is that Darth Vader got the information from Leia and deliberately withheld it. Either way, Anakin has set the meeting up. And unless Obi-wan is senile or incredibly naive for his age and experience, he knows it.
Note also that even though he has been aware of Obi-Wan's presence since before the Millennium Falcon was captured, Anakin hangs back and allows Obi-wan to release the tractor beam --- not to mention allowing Luke and Han Solo to carry out their hare-brained rescue of Leia. We are even told later that he may have planned it.
(Since "Darth Vader's" plan depended on Luke and Han rescuing Leia and leading them to the rebel base, do you wonder what would have happened if they hadn't managed to disable the trash compactor?)
As I said, I'm not sure how much Obi-wan knew about Anakin's game. Certainly more than he let on. The conversation between him and "Darth" during the duel sounds almost as if they are talking over Luke's head. The duel ends with "Darth Vader" being suckered into a really stupid mistake --- or Anakin deliberately co-operating with Obi-Wan's translation to a higher plane.
The escape of the Millennium Falcon is so raw that Leia feels compelled to comment on it, and the Grand Moff Tarkin makes it clear in a scene shortly afterward that "Darth Vader" set it up. Which means that he had to plant the homing device before anyone aboard the Death Star had any reason to think Leia would escape, Obi-wan would turn off the tractor beam, or any member of the Falcon's crew would make it back to their ship.
Is "Darth Vader" starting to seem awfully convenient for the Good Guys?
The Millennium Falcon reaches the rebel base with the Death Star on its heels. The rebels analyze the stolen plans and brief their pilots. Luke's comment about "Whomp Rats" during the briefing makes his skill as a pilot clear to the audience.
The battle begins. The Death Star's defenses prove inadequate. They were designed to cope with larger, slower ships. (And whose fault, exactly, was that? Was "Darth" also in charge of The Empire's military intelligence?) "Darth Vader" takes the initiative and leads a fighter defense against the Rebels. The Grand Moff Tarkin isn't too bad a villain, but a really good Bad Guy doesn't mind getting dirt --- or blood --- under his fingernails.
The battle comes down to Luke's target run on the vent with "Darth" right on his tail. Obi-wan tells Luke to turn off the targeting computer and use the Force.
Why?
Bear in mind that Luke Skywalker is probably the second or third best pilot in that galaxy. Certainly one of the top ten. He can hit a two-meter target with a targeting computer, an abacus or a cuisinart. Turning the computer off isn't going to hurt, but using the Force won't help. He doesn't need help! All that using the Force will do is flag him for Darth Vader.
After all, we can't have Anakin Skywalker blowing his son out of the sky by mistake, can we?
"Darth Vader" sits on Luke's tail and makes suitably menacing comments until Han Solo and the Millennium Falcon burst onto the scene and give him a convenient excuse to bug out. Luke goes on to blow up the Death Star and everyone goes home.
Can you imagine "Darth" explaining to the Emperor later just how he happened to lose the Death Star and its whole crew? And just happened to survive? We get a few clues to how Anakin manages tricks like this in Episode Six.
Episode Five doesn't provide a lot of evidence either way. Darth Vader is off-camera for most of the movie, and Luke is almost a minor character. In the final duel between Luke and "Vader", though, Anakin finds it necessary to blow his own cover, at least to the extent of admitting that he is Luke's father. Luke, being half-trained at that point, can't really grasp the admission and is devastated by the knowledge. Later, though, the mere fact that he knows turns out to be more of a risk than Anakin probably anticipated.
Episode Six is where things start coming together fast. Luke completes his training and gets confirmation from Yoda and Obi-wan that "Darth Vader" is really Anakin Skywalker. With his spiritual feet on the ground, so to speak, he decides rightly that Anakin is still in there --- something that Yoda never accepted and Obi-wan felt it necessary to conceal.
Didn't you just love Obi-Wan's rationalization of the lie he told Luke about Darth Vader killing his father? Talk about self-serving explanations! Still, no one ever said that Good Guy and Nice Guy were the same thing, and I suspect that Obi-wan was either Anakin's lieutenant or had figured out what Anakin was doing after the fact.
Luke's awareness of Anakin's identity almost throws a monkey wrench into the Plan. He sets out to "save" his father. First, though, he has to reassemble his team --- most of who have at this point been captured by Jabba the Hut.
Poor Jabba. A big fish in a little pond, he is in so far over his head that he has no hope of competing and only one chance to survive. Luke tries to be nice about it --- he offers to ransom Solo, Leia and Chewie. When this doesn't work, he offers Jabba one last chance. "Let us go and stay alive". Shortly thereafter we see what happens to the sort of idiot who gets in the way when the Chosen One's children can't be bothered. Considering the disadvantages that Leia was working under --- weaponless, chained up and practically naked --- I found it significant that she was the one who actually killed Jabba and destroyed his yacht.
With his team back together and his training complete, Luke rejoins the Rebels in their assault on a new Death Star now under construction. Did anyone not in the movie fail to realize that this was bait for a trap? Luke, of course, goes with his own team to assault the force field generator that protects it.
By this time, Anakin is walking on eggs. The time isn't right for him to reveal himself, but Luke is determined to push him into doing just that. Worse yet, he has to keep Luke alive --- not an easy task, the way things are shaping up. From the way things come down, I suspect that Anakin had to let Palpatine think he had screwed up with the first Death Star and is subtly touting Luke as his possible replacement. He may also be encouraging Palpatine to think that he wants to assume the throne himself, with Luke at his side. Palpatine would buy that scenario in a minute. Aggressive ambition and a massive ego are virtues to be admired in a Sith Lord's disciple. Not necessarily tolerated, but admired.
One indication of Palpatine's growing suspicion is his comment when "Darth" mentions that he has sensed Luke on Endor. (And in the shuttle, which he specifically told the watch officer not to challenge.) "Strange that I didn't". Maybe he is starting to figure out who Anakin Skywalker was supposed to be.
Once Anakin brings Luke into the Emperor's presence, the chips are down. Anakin doesn't care who wins the battle --- a rebel victory would be good, but his main goal is to make sure that Palpatine does not survive. To achieve this, he has to focus all of Palpatine's attention on Luke. The way he does it is so totally ruthless that he may eventually be glad that he doesn't have a material neck for Luke to get his hands on.
It works, though. When Anakin strikes, Palpatine has no warning at all.
Anakin has been working for twenty years for that moment. Maintaining his cover for so long has to have been exhausting, even for the Chosen One. When he tells Luke afterward to "let me see you without this mask", you can't help but wonder which mask he means.
Most of the "evidence" I've presented here may have been the result of poor plotting and hasty writing. Once the idea presented itself, though, points to support it seemed to jump out of the movies almost of their own volition. Watch the trilogy with the idea that "Darth Vader" is just a cover for Anakin's game and you'll notice a dozen points that I've missed. The more you consider it, the more sense it seems to make.
It is, however, all speculation and circumstantial evidence. There are still two movies that we haven't seen, filling in the gap between Episodes One and Four. I'm waiting to see if they support my idea or blow it out of the water.
If you've read this far, I'll bet you are, too.