I’m just wondering, as when I rewatched the scene earlier, after Vader stabs Starkiller, Sidious pretty explicitly tells him to simply “strike” Starkiller down to finish him off in a simple but brutal way. Instead, Vader puts on a show, where he subjects Starkiller to all sorts of physical abuse by using The Force to slam him into the wall multiple times and even bending his body to the point his bones were cracking, while Sidious is having the time of his life watching this unfold right before his eyes, laughing about as hard as a giddy school boy (with even the novel stating Sidious spent a good few minutes after having a chuckle to himself about what just happened). So, I know Vader obviously needed to secretly keep Starkiller alive, but was the physical abuse to appease Palpatine’s sick and cruel amusement in hurting just about anyone (as he did also threaten Vader mere seconds before) or some other reason? I’m genuinely curious.