It could be reasoned that Anakin’s father figure was Obi-Wan, while Vader’s was Palpatine, further contributing to the inner conflict in him as a Jedi And Sith. A similar ‘conflict’ is personalized in Kylo Ren. Ren’s struggles may even run deeper as he’s been fathered by Han Solo, trained by Uncle Luke and being drawn further to the dark side by grandfather’s Anakin’s Sith side from the after life.
’...Palpatine gave Anakin encouragement, even saved his life at Mustafar...’
Episodes 1, 2 & 3 reveal vulnerabilities from both Dark and Light side users. Palpatine admits being surprised by certain things, over estimates his apprentice’ Vader’s power, and fails to defeat Jedi leader Yoda. The balance of power in the galaxy always seems be tipped slightly toward dark or light but never overwhelmingly to a side. With Rey collaborating with Kylo Ren in Episode 9 we might finally see one side truly prevailing.
Maybe, but I’m not entirely sure Obi-Wan was a particularly good father figure. Episode II really didn’t seem to show him being particularly fond of Anakin at any point, talking down to him. They could have at least had him giving him credit where such was due once.
As far as the point about vulnerabilities, well, that depends on what you mean by “defeat”. Palpatine didn’t kill Yoda, yes, so you could argue that he did not defeat Yoda, but on the other hand, he DID nonetheless force the latter to go into hiding, which does technically qualify as a defeat in another way. And I’m not too sure Palpatine overestimated Vader’s power. He was the Chosen One, after all, and even Lucas indicated that Vader’s full power would have been twice that of the Emperor had he sustained none of his injuries on Mustafar (and at least in the old EU, it’s implied that his potential was harmed not by his physical injuries, but more his psychological wounds). I’ll give you his being surprised by certain things, though, based on his admittance that he did not sense Luke on the shuttle in Episode 6. And are we even sure they’re actually collaborating? I don’t even think we got much info on Episode IX yet.