"He will come to me?"
"I have forseen it. His compassion for you will be his undoing. He will come to you, then you will bring him before me."
"As you wish."

Yoda and Obi-Wan Kenobi both warned Luke against the persuasive words of the Sith. And yet, close examination shows that often times the 'bad guys' told the truth, and it was the 'heroes' who told tales slanted from 'a certain point of view', and never was this more evident than in Return of the Jedi.

Luke Skywalker has returned to Dagobah to find Master Yoda gravely ill. Finally, after a year of waiting Luke has confirmed the truth - Anakin Skywalker is not dead but lives under the protective shell of Darth Vader.
Alarm bells clearly ring in the young Jedi's mind. Vader was telling the truth on the Bespin gantry. And, just as he had promised Padme so many years before, his offer to rule the galaxy side by side was likely a genuine one.
After all, Anakin is a 'bad guy', so he's probably telling the truth.

Luke learns more. He is a twin, and his sister is one of his closest friends, Leia Organa. And what's more, Kenobi is still insistent upon Luke destroying Anakin.
And perhaps it is here that the starkest differences between Ben and Luke become clear.

Ben Kenobi sees only Darth Vader. The darkness that consumed his Padawan. The man who had cut him down four years before on the Death Star. The black armoured holder of all his secret shame. Kenobi cannot, or refuses to get past the fact that Anakin lives. "He's more machine now than man. Twisted and evil." He didn't finish him off, and the galaxy suffered for it, and he suffered just as much.

But Luke sees otherwise. He has finally found the father he never had. Owen Lars was a guardian, and Luke clearly saw Kenobi as a father figure, but here was the real thing. The suit didn't hold Darth Vader, it was Anakin Skywalker, hero of the Jedi, a man who simply took a wrong turn. Luke is operating on limited knowledge - after all, most of his information comes from a man who told him his father was "killed by a young Jedi named Darth Vader". But here we see that where Ben couldn't let go of his own bitterness, anger and hate, Luke's fell away like a veil to reveal his own deep compassion.
And the reason why he truly was one of the wisest of all Jedi.

But scroll back to the first lines of this blog. On the Death Star Palpatine informs Vader of his thoughts, the most revealing of which states that Luke's compassion for his father will bring him to Palpatiine and...what? His destruction? His turn to the dark side?

Let's run another thought through. Vader knew three things. First, that he wasn't the Jedi he should have been. He knew it before he turned to the dark side, but from a physical and power point of view the Mustafar battle weakened him. The Darth Vader that Palpatine desired was the one who murdered the Sepratist leaders on Mustafar, not the one assembled in a Coruscant medical centre after his immolation at the hands of Kenobi.
Second, Vader knew the Sith. Once he knew the existence of his son, he also knew that his master had lied to him during his first moments as the armoured Vader. Padme couldn't have died by his hand, as he had been told. She had given birth to a son after he had force choked her. She had lived. His master had lied to him, and ever since his obsession with finding Young Skywalker had begun he once again knew that Palpatines deceit ran deep.
And thirdly, Anakin had seen this pattern before. Palpatine had lost Darth Maul to Obi-Wan, and sacrificed Dooku to gain Anakin. Now, almost a quarter of a century later it was Anakin's turn to be replaced by a younger, fresher apprentice. To bring Luke to Palpatine meant one of three things - the death of his son, the death of his master or his own demise.
And perhaps Palpatine's words - "His compassion for you" -flicked a switch in Vaders mind.

But how come Palpatine sensed the compassion in Luke, when neither Yoda or Kenobi could?
It could be argued that the Sith are ruled by passion, whereas the Jedi are ruled by strict emotional restrictions. Not to love, not to be attatched. Anakin couldn't live this way, and broke countless rules by loving and marrying Padme. Luke clearly held the same feelings for his father, the belief that he could be returned to goodness.
Let's not forget, in this post-prequel age it is clearer than ever that the Jedi referred to in Return of the Jedi isn't Luke, or the Jedi Order but Anakin Skywalker himself.

In conclusion, Palpatine forsaw the exact thing that led to his own destruction. A young Skywalker, full of passion and compassion, faced with a choice. Only this time, unlike Anakin's decision to turn on his master Mace Windu and side with Palpatine, this Skywalker makes the right choice and throws away his weapon, choosing death before the dark side.
Perhaps at that moment Anakin sees the Jedi he should have become and, during a life of servitude to Watto, the Jedi and the Sith, makes a free choice.
And proves that Luke's faith in his father - in The Chosen One - was well placed.