We all remember the moment. The haunting music, the silence in the Jedi Temple, and Anakin Skywalker—now Darth Vader—marching with the 501st to carry out one of the darkest orders in Star Wars history.
After pledging himself to Darth Sidious, Anakin didn’t hesitate when given his first task: lead the assault on the Jedi Temple. But here’s the part many fans might not know—Palpatine didn’t send Anakin there just to test his loyalty or wipe out the Jedi.
According to the novel Dark Lord: The Rise of Darth Vader, Palpatine had another motive: he wanted to break Anakin’s final emotional tie—his love for Padmé.
I’ve found the story behind this, and it changes the way we see that infamous march into the temple.
We all understood that Anakin’s attachment to Padmé was a big part of his downfall. But what caught me off guard is just how far back Palpatine had planned around that relationship. Palpatine didn’t just take advantage of Anakin’s emotions—he intentionally pushed Anakin toward Padmé from the beginning.
We usually focus on the moment Anakin turns, or the nightmare that triggers his fear of loss. But in the novel Dark Lord: The Rise of Darth Vader, it’s revealed that Sidious had been setting the stage for years. He wasn’t surprised by the secret marriage because that was part of Palpatine’s plan, too.
“Sidious had deliberately brought her and Anakin together three years earlier, both to rid the Senate of her vote against the Military Creation Act and to put temptation in Anakin’s path. Following the murder of Anakin’s mother, Anakin had secretly married Padmé. When he had learned of the marriage, Sidious knew for certain that Anakin’s pathological attachment to her would eventually supply the means for completing his conversion to the dark side.”
That quote says it all—Palpatine didn’t just allow Anakin to fall. He built the path brick by brick. And Padmé, the person Anakin loved most, was part of the foundation. The very love that gave him strength became the thing Sidious used to break him.
So when Anakin begins having visions of Padmé dying and turns to Palpatine for help, that too is part of the trap. Palpatine offers hope—“the power to save her”—but it’s a lie designed to pull Anakin deeper under his control. He wants Anakin to believe that only he can save Padmé. That belief is what finally pushes Anakin to give in.
But even then, turning Anakin wasn’t enough. The hardest part for Palpatine was severing that last connection—Padmé herself. Anakin may have pledged himself to the Sith, but his heart was still bound to her. That’s why, right after Anakin kneels before him in Revenge of the Sith, Palpatine sends him to the Jedi Temple—not because the clones weren’t enough to finish the job, but because he needed Padmé to see what Anakin had become.
The novel puts it plainly:
“Not for the first time Sidious wondered what might have happened had Anakin not killed Padmé on Mustafar. For all she loved him, she never would have understood or forgiven Anakin’s action at the Jedi Temple. In fact, that was one of the reasons Sidious had sent him there. Clone troopers could have dealt with the instructors and younglings, but Anakin’s presence was essential in order to cement his allegiance to the Sith, and, more important, to seal Padmé’s fate. Even if she had survived Mustafar, their love would have died—Padmé might even have lost the will to live—and their child would have become Sidious’s and Vader’s to raise.”
Palpatine didn’t just want Anakin to commit to the dark side—he wanted to destroy the very thing that might pull him back. He believed that once Padmé saw what Anakin did, their bond would be beyond repair. That emotional collapse would be the final step in killing Anakin Skywalker forever.