Warning! Spoilers ahead for Darth Vader #11
In the latest issue of Marvel Comics' Darth Vader, the Dark Lord of the Sith gains some major revelations about the true power of the Emperor, including Palpatine's means of circumventing the Sith's "Rule of Two". While Vader thought that he had the means to finally kill the Emperor, Palpatine quickly put him in his place before revealing all of his secrets held within his secret Sith temple on Exegol, first seen in the Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker. As such, one of the most interesting secrets was how Palpatine had ensured that he'd always have an apprentice if Vader ever failed him.
In previous issues of Darth Vader from writer Greg Pak and artist Raffaele Ienco, Vader was being punished for his failure to capture or kill his son Luke during The Empire Strikes Back, as well as for ignoring the summons of his master in the days following. The Emperor subsequently left Vader for dead on the same lava bank where he rescued him at the end of Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith, taking away his prosthetic limbs, his lightsaber, and forbidding him to use his powers in the dark side until he could reconnect with his inner darkness. As such, the Dark Lord clawed his way towards survival, and Vader's hatred and desire for revenge fueled him towards victory. Despite his losses, Darth Vader fought the Sith assassin Ochi of Bestoon and a band of pirates, faced the Eye of Webbish Bog and received a Sith Wayfinder, using it to find Exegol, dominating a massive summa-verminoth monster along the way to aid in his quest to finally kill his master.
However, the Emperor easily defeated his apprentice and killed his beast before daring him to enter the same Sith temple Vader's grandson Kylo Ren would enter years later. Vader then discovered the full extent of his master's plans, including his cloning facility (featuring what looks to be the severed hand of his son Luke). Palpatine then released cloned warriors to attack Vader, claiming that any one of them could replace him as his new apprentice. While these new foes have clearly received some training in spite of the Sith's "Rule of Two", Palpatine justifies this by saying that they aren't actually Sith...yet.
The Sith "Rule of Two" dictates that there can only be one master and one apprentice at one time in the galaxy. However, it looks as though Palpatine's way of circumventing the Sith rule is to have replacements at the ready should his apprentice ever fail. It should be noted that the Rule of Two was slightly retconned as revealed by Rise of Skywalker's novelization, which said that the Sith could only be Ruled by Two, so perhaps that new clarification plays a factor here.
Is Palpatine breaking the "Rule of Two" by having so many potential apprentices at the ready, or this a loophole he's found by having Vader's role as an apprentice a mere title that can easily be given to another? While there is some precedent for this prior such as Palpatine grooming Anakin Skywalker while still having Count Dooku as his apprentice, as well as doing the same with Dooku while still having Darth Maul, these dark clones and followers on Exegol certainly seem to go beyond. In any case, it certainly must be a shock for Darth Vader himself. Witnessing the full extent of his master's power certainly seems to have brought him back into the fold by the end of the issue, especially considering his epic failure to kill Palpatine and seeing how easy it would be to replace him if the Emperor deemed it necessary.
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