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This Inconsistently Heinous was Headlined on May 2022. | ||
| NOTE: NOTE: This is a composite profile of both mainstream versions of Darth Vader being his Canon and Legends counterparts where both incarnations take different directions in their storylines with the exceptions of the films and The Clone Wars. |
| “ | No. I am your father. | „ |
| ~ Darth Vader reveals his true identity to Luke, and one of the most famous movie quotes of all time. |
| “ | Don't be too proud of this technological terror you've constructed. The ability to destroy a planet is insignificant next to the power of the Force. | „ |
| ~ Vader to Admiral Motti on the first Death Star. |
| “ | Obi-Wan Kenobi: What have you become? Darth Vader: I am what you made me. |
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| ~ Vader confronting Kenobi ten years after the latter left him for dead on Mustafar. |
Darth Vader, born as Anakin Skywalker, is the secondary antagonist of the Star Wars franchise.
He is a high-ranking Jedi Knight-turned-powerful Sith Lord in service to the Galactic Empire. As such, he is the former Padawan of Obi-Wan Kenobi; the former Jedi master of Ahsoka Tano; the final Sith assassin of Darth Sidious (after Darth Maul and Darth Tyranus); the husband of Padmé Amidala; and the father of both Luke Skywalker and Leia Organa respectively. He is also the grandfather of Ben Solo in the canon continuity, and several other descendants in the legends continuity - with his grandchildren being Jacen Solo, Jaina Solo, Anakin Solo, and Ben Skywalker altogether.
As Darth Vader, he was portrayed by the late David Prowse and voiced by the late James Earl Jones in the original trilogy, while his unmasked version at the end of Return of the Jedi was portrayed by the late Sebastian Shaw. In the prequels and Obi-Wan Kenobi, he was portrayed by Hayden Christensen as an adult and young adult and by Jake Lloyd as a child. In Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, he was portrayed by Daniel Naprous and Spencer Wilding, while James Earl Jones returned to voice him. In The Clone Wars animated film and show, he was voiced by Matt Lanter. In several video games, he is voiced by Matt Sloan.
His Evil Ranking[]
What Makes Him Heinous?[]
Canon Material[]
In General (Involving Legends)[]
- Even before becoming Darth Vader, he committed some evil deeds that seeded his fall to the dark side. He has been consistently arrogant, consistently jerkish during pre-Clone Wars, and wrathful (in a bad way) for most of his life, and although Obi-Wan was too dead set on following the flaws of the rules of the Jedi Order, Anakin's defiance to them made him an easy trouble maker where he was likely to mess things up and let his emotions take over (for bad purposes).
- Although he has a multitude of comedic and immature moments, most of them happened during his time as a hero, and once he took on the mantle of Darth Vader, he loses his comedic timing and is taken dead seriously.
The Phantom Menace[]
- He beat up Greedo just because he childishly called him a cheater (deleted scene).
Attack of the Clones[]
- He looked at Padme Amidala in a creepy way, and while he apologized for making her feel uncomfortable, it did not sound even remotely sincere.
- He slaughtered a village of Tusken Raiders for torturing and murdering his mother, and, uncaring that the women and children had nothing to do with it, murdered them out of revenge. While he was emotionally low at the time, he blamed everyone but himself for his mother's death, even accusing Obi-Wan of holding him back with some kind of ulterior motive.
The Clone Wars[]
- He brutally attacked and force choked Poggle the Lesser during interrogation.
- He told Obi-Wan to drop Dooku when he teamed up with them.
- He gave into the Son corrupting him after he showed him his future as Darth Vader.
- He attacked Obi-Wan and tried to escape Mortis to kill Palpatine before having his memories erased by Father.
- He goes on a quest to avenge Obi-Wan's "death" by searching for Rako Hardeen, nearly killing him.
- He gives Rush Clovis a brutal beating, though, to be fair, this was because Clovis tried to force himself on his wife. Plus Anakin also stated that something in him snapped and he was also horrified that he almost killed Clovis.
- He force chokes Asajj Ventress in brutal rage.
Revenge of the Sith[]
- He goes against the Jedi code by murdering an unarmed Dooku shortly after defeating him in combat.
- He stops Jedi Master Mace Windu from finishing off the Sith Lord Darth Sidious, which consequently allows Sidious to murder Windu. While he was justified for wanting the Chancellor to stand trial, he knew exactly what he was doing when he watched Windu's death and silently put his lightsaber away and allowed it to happen.
- He goes to the Jedi Temple with a legion of clone troopers and assaulted all of the Jedi there, including all of the younglings, to the point that nobody survived the horrific onslaught.
- He lies to his own wife, claiming that the Jedi wanted to overthrow the Republic when the ones doing that were actually the Sith.
- He brutally and mercilessly killed the Executive Separatist Council (though admittedly, some of them, Wat Tambor and Nute Gunray especially, deserved it).
- He tempted Padme to come with him so that they could betray Sidious, take advantage of the fresh Imperial infrastructure the malevolent tyrant had established, conquer the entire galaxy, and remake society whatever they want it to be.
- He force chokes Padme into unconsciousness, believing at first she betrayed him then later accused Obi-Wan of turning her against him when it was really his own fault that she turned on him.
- This is also what abhorred R2-D2 enough to disobey his orders of staying with his Jedi Interceptor, leave with Obi-Wan, and eventually join Vader's enemies, promising his loyalty to the Rebel Alliance.
- He tries to kill Obi-Wan Kenobi on Mustafar and recklessly destroyed a huge portion of the facility by cutting apart the deflector shield generator within a control room.
- He blames Obi-Wan for his condition (even though it was his own fault).
- When he joins the Sith, that was what broke Padmé's heart so badly that it killed her.
Pre-Original Trilogy[]
- He brutally mutilated the Inquisitors (Seventh Sister, Ninth Sister, Fifth Brother, Eighth Brother, and Sixth Brother) during their training as a lesson of loss. Among the cause was the Ninth Sister loosing an eye and the Fifth and Sixth Brother loosing a arm.
- The Grand Inquisitor and Fourth Sister later uses similar methods on Dante and Barriss Offee in Tales of the Empire. Although it is less brutal than Anakin.
- Jedi: Fallen Order shows he had several Jedi like the future Second Sister endure torment.
- He breaks Commander Fox' neck over misunderstanding on his part.
- He throws all the Clones occupying a ship off of it and killed the Jedi Jocasta Nu.
- He hunts an exceptionally skilled Jedi named Kirak Infil'a. After chasing him across the galaxy, their final confrontation takes place on the river moon of Al'doleem. As the two fight, he senses a water tank under where they're fighting. Relying on the Jedi's empathy and altruism, he ruptures the tank, which will cause the dam to burst and subsequently cause the nearby city to flood. The Jedi focuses his energy on preventing this, which costs him his life. He forces him to choke him while the tank ruptures and the city is destroyed.
- Killed the Jedi Ferren Barr who was planning to destroy the Sith and the empire.
- He executes two Inquisitors (Iskat and Tualon Yaluna) for suspected treason after the Fifth Brother caught Iskat Akaris letting Eeth Koth's wife and child escape and later reported it to Vader.
- Kills Eeth Koth by stabbing him in the back and he steals his daughter away from him so the infant can be used to serve the Galactic Empire.
- In the 2015 novel Lords of the Sith The Emperor and Vader were led to a nearby Twi'lek village by an innocent girl who didn't know who they were. They were taken in and helped by the kind villagers, claiming to be lost travelers, and he repays their kindness by slaughtering everyone in the village to get rid of the witnesses.
- When he engaged a family of bounty hunters in a bar, he uses the customers either as objects to throw at them or as living shields to defend himself from their attacks.
- When he catches up to them he threatens their daughter Chanath Cha unless they help him track down who did it.
- He force-chokes Colonel Barokki and four other officers chosen at random after being subjected to assassination attempts, stating that whenever he is subjected to an assassination attempt, five Imperial officers chosen at random would die. While Barokki was responsible, the other four weren't.
- He mercilessly executes Trilla Suduri in front of Cal Kestis and Cere Junda, Trilla's master, for failing her mission.
- He tries to kill Cal and Cere in a duel in order to reclaim the Holocron from their possession.
- He leads an Imperial attack on the Jedi Archives on Jedha which destroys most of the remaining Jedi records.
- He kills Cere by stabbing her to death in their battle, which consequently had a deep effect on Cal afterwards.
- He force choked Lank Denvik to his death for his failure.
- He force chokes a man to death and then instantly killed the deceased's son by force snapping the latter's neck.
- He force grabs Obi-Wan and burns his arm in the flames as a means to make him suffer a similar fate to the one his former master indirectly inflicted on him.
- He force chokes the Third Sister (also known as Reva Sevander) out of rage for her failure to capture Obi Wan, nearly ending her life until he relents after she admits to putting a tracker on Leia's droid as part of her plan to locate Obi Wan and his allies.
- He stabs Reva after defeating her in their duel when she tried unsuccessfully to assassinate him. Moments later, he tauntingly reveals to Reva of his awareness that she was one of the younglings whom he previously stabbed when killing all of her brethren in the Jedi Temple during Order 66. Thereafter he leaves Reva to die after telling her that she is no longer useful to him.
- He tries to kill Obi Wan once again in their rematch on an unnamed barren moon. Then after he is defeated, Vader denounces Kenobi and professes that he will destroy him even after Kenobi attempts to reach out to his old friend - which consequently causes Obi-Wan to realize that Anakin has completely embraced the Dark Side before leaving him.
- He tries to kill Ezra and later Ahsoka on Malachor.
- In the latter's case, he renounces his attachment to Ahsoka when she attempts to reach out to him shortly after discovering his identity as Anakin.
- He somehow traps the Grand Inquisitor’s spirit, preventing him from passing on to whatever lies ahead in the afterlife. Using Sith alchemy, Vader bound the Grand Inquisitor`s spirit to an abandoned Jedi temple on the planet Tempes. There, the Grand Inquisitor`s wrathful ghost will haunt Jedi who visit the temple for years to come, leaving the Grand Inquisitor in a fate worse than death.
- In the comic book Star Wars: Vader — Dark Visions he kills a nurse because she was obsessively in love with him after he stabbed her with his lightsaber. He then told the guards of his chamber to clean the “garbage”. When Vader said garbage he was referring to the nurse.
- While this would be seen as comedic, it's only on the nurse's part and Vader is taken completely seriously.
- Vader had no reason (at least for the Empire) to force choke Krenic apart for seeing the latter's plea to remain in power as a nuisance.
- He kills a group of rebels who were going after the Death Star plans.
A New Hope[]
- He force chokes Captain Antilles to death after interrogating him over the Death Star plans, mainly because the latter did not respond to Vader's brutal interrogation.
- He orders his Stormtroopers to capture Leia.
- He force chokes Admiral Motti after he disrespectfully insulted the Force, coming close to ending Motti's life in the process until Tarkin orders Vader to release him even if it was pragmatic.
- He interrogates Leia and even resorts to wrongfully torturing her.
- When Leia doesn't respond to the interrogation, he goes to Tarkin, who offers to blow up the planet Alderaan and made sure she didn't stop him from doing so.
- While he lets Leia live, it is only to try to dig out more information from her.
- He kills Obi-Wan Kenobi, whom Vader was unaware that the former intentionally sacrificed himself to become a Force ghost.
- He orders TIE Fighters to shoot down rebels trying to blow up the Death Star.
- He defeats two rebel attack runs.
- He personally shoots down Biggs' ship.
- He orders the Falcon to be scanned.
- He hits Luke's X-Wing, which results in R2-D2 being damaged - not knowing and probably not even caring over the fact that he just attacked the same droid whom he once formed a close rapport with back in his past as Anakin Skywalker.
Between A New Hope and The Empire Strikes Back[]
- He sabotaged Luke’s podracer because he was on the verge of becoming the supposedly first human podracing champion. Vader was simply jealous because his own victory as a child was never made public to the galaxy as a whole.
The Empire Strikes Back[]
- He invades Hoth to destroy the rebel base and capture Luke.
- He executes Admiral Ozzel via Force choke, after finding out that the rebels discovered the invasion plans, before instantly promoting Firmus Piett to become the new Fleet Admiral.
- He has his Stormtroopers destroy the rebel shield generator under his orders.
- He orders TIE Fighters to go after Millennium Falcon inside an asteroid field.
- Even after a Star Destroyer is destroyed by an asteroid, he still forces the fleet to continue the search.
- After learning that Luke is his son, he comes up with a plan to turn Luke to the Dark Side.
- He hires bounty hunters to find the Millennium Falcon.
- He kills Captain Needa as punishment for the Millennium Falcom escaping from the fleet.
- He holds Han and Leia captive, torturing the two (especially Han, who was tortured by a Scan Grid that was used to painfully electrocute him to an unbearable extent).
- He threatens to destroy Cloud City and made the deal worse for Lando in altering it in having Leia taken.
- He helps Boba Fett hand in a frozen Han Solo to Jabba the Hutt.
- He cuts Luke's right hand off during their duel.
- He tries to convince Luke to join him so they can defeat the Emperor and rule the galaxy together.
Star Wars: Outlaws[]
- He supported Sliro Barsha, a criminal and director of the Imperial Security Bureau, allowing him to consolidate control over rival syndicates through murder and manipulation.
- He agreed to let Jaylen Vrax take control of Zerek Besh, fully aware that Jaylen would betray and kill his own brother, Sliro Barsha.
- He willingly allowed the continuation of Zerek Besh's criminal operations, knowing it would benefit the Empire's control over the underworld.
- By endorsing Zerek Besh and Jaylen Vrax, Vader indirectly enabled the murder of rival syndicate leaders.
Return of the Jedi[]
- He oversees the building of the second Death Star.
- He intentionally allows Luke land on Endor to capture him and seduce him to the Dark Side.
- He force chokes Moff Jerjerrod completely unprovoked (deleted scene).
- He captures Luke and has Stormtroopers take him to Sidious.
- He battles with Luke, repeatedly trying to turn him to the Dark Side.
- When he extracts Luke's mind and learns that Leia is Luke's sister, he tauntingly threatens to turn Leia to the Dark Side if Luke will not.
Ahsoka[]
- He left the legacy of death and destruction which his former friend Baylan Skoll pointed out.
- He tries to test Ahsoka one more time and threatens to kill her if she fails.
Legends Material[]
- In Vader's ending of the PlayStation 2 game of Revenge of the Sith, if Vader kills Obi-Wan in their dual on Mustafar, then he will kill Sidious, taking over the galaxy as emperor, and likely train his children to be raised in the ways of the Dark Side.
- Just a month after him getting the suit, he killed a group of Jedi violently in Murkhuna and weeks after the Jedi Murkhuna massacre, he killed more Jedi on Kessel.
- He led the ”Cleansing of Serenno," during this cleansing Vader accused the leaders of the noble houses of treason for supporting Count Dooku’s Separatist movement instead of the Republic. To eliminate opposition, Vader issued a brutal ultimatum to the sons of these leaders: if they wanted to claim their fathers' positions, they would have to kill them themselves. Initially, the sons protested, but when Rodas Borgin took the first step and stabbed his own father, fear swept through the group. Realizing that refusal would likely result in a far more brutal death at Vader’s hands, the remaining sons reluctantly followed suit, each killing their father. When the massacre was over, the new leaders of Serenno's noble houses pledged their allegiance to the Galactic Empire. Vader spared only Adan Dooku, as he had been raised away from Serenno for most of his childhood.
- He killed Governor Tarkin's son, Garoche Tarkin, which plunged him into becoming an extremely dangerous man murdering billions.
- He once ordered a full-scale razing of Jabiim, that would of destroyed all life on its surface with the excuse that the Alliance would thus be deprived of a potential ally.
The Last of the Jedi Series[]
- Plans to arrive to the temple, and plans with Malorum to wipe the lower levels of Coruscant.
- Tied with Palpatine trying to get Ferus to help them destroy their enemies as a double agent.
- Holds angry detest over Ferus, simply for reminding him who he was before becoming the Sith Lord.
- Kills Roan
- Overpowers Ferus and has him and Amie captured.
- Was on the brink of killing Ferus in rage over mentioning that he murdered Padmé,
- Killed Ferus, who was protecting Leia.
The Force Unleashed Duology[]
- Killed Kento Marek and took his son Galen Marek for harsh weaponized training and manipulated pawn involving:
- He betrays his men by using Galen to be his soldier student.
- Vader's action of murdering Galen's father Kento traumatized Galen so badly, that he even lost memory of the event happening until his late teens.
- It's implied the reason why Vader chose Juno to be Galen's pilot was to potentially mess with his apprentice's personal feelings, being his attractive features as a means to control him by placing her in danger, and given how he knows this from experience with how Sidious used this attachment with his wife, and how effective this became with Galen's clone, he's willing to make Galen more of his slave than a Sith student.
- Rahm Kota getting blind.
- Killing Kazdan Paratus.
- Killing Shaak Ti which causes Maris Brood to fall to the Dark Side.
- Literally back stabbed Galen with his lightsaber making him believe they were going to fight Darth Sidious and rag-dolled him into the vacuum of space.
- This betrayal also screws over Juno, getting branded as a traitor to the Empire for being Galen's pilot.
- Lied to Galen again about the need for a rebellion as only a means to set up an ambush on potential traitors (being the rebellion) which would have gotten them to be tortured to death by the Emperor.
- Tries to kill Galen on the Death Star.
- On the Nintendo DS Version, he insists on Galen to give into the Dark Side by killing him.
- After Galen died, he made and killed hundreds of clones to do his bidding, which he planned on making another clone eviler than the previous.
- Threatened to kill Juno, if the Galen clone didn't obey him.
- Killed An'ya Kuro also known as the Dark Women.
- Ordered Imperial Bioweapons project 17A, causing a disastrous zombie outbreak on the Star Destroyer Vector and the Prison Barge Purge.
- In the Marvel Comics depiction, Vader's kill on Obi-Wan is shown to be more painful, with his Lightsaber causing him to briefly burst into flames before his body disappears.
Splinter of the Mind's Eye[]
- Attempted to get ahold of the Kaiburr Crystal to have dominating power.
- Caused rubble to fall unto Luke.
- Injured Leia in a dual.
- Nearly killed Luke.
Post Episode V: TESB's Legends stories[]
- Continues to persist on trying to corrupt Luke to the dark during Shadows of the Empire.
- Get's Guri to try and kill Luke
- On Star Wars Issue 76, he orders the tower execution of Griggor Tower for endangering Luke, although probably not so much of a moral man, he was an imperial who was just doing his job in attacking the rebels that involved Luke, who had no knowledge of him being his son.
- On Star Wars Annual 3, he makes an imperial attack on the factory of a rebel base on the planet Kulthis, that destroys a town.
- He had a part to play with his apprentice Lumiya having a heinous legacy after him.
What Makes Him Inconsistent?[]
- He is far too tragic to even be Near Pure Evil for numerous reasons:
- Before becoming a Jedi, he was a slave, and the Jedi didn't bother freeing slaves because they felt their allegiance was to the common good of the Republic and the Senate, and indirectly its corruption, rather than the actual good.
- When he joined the Jedi Order, he was forced to leave his mother at a very young age. The Jedi also never bothered to free Shmi from slavery.
- He loved his mother, and when he saw her again (for the first and only time) as a young adult, she was murdered by the Tusken Raiders. And he was completely broken when she died in his arms. Anakin sensed his mother being tortured for an unknown time and the Jedi told him that it is not true and basically told him to discard her.
- He struggled to meet the expectations of what every Jedi or person wanted the Chosen One to be, and was aware that many on the Council didn't want him to be a Jedi in the first place.
- This behavior never stopped as Jedi like Mace Windu and his classmates (one is implied to be Baylon Skoll) often treated Anakin as a potential threat and outcast. Plus most of the Jedi only liked Anakin because he was legendary for his power and strength not his character.
- Additionally, during the battle of Jabiim in the Clone Wars, Anakin was deeply traumatized by the battle, loosing the Padawan Pack, and supposedly his master and Alpha-77 (both were kidnapped by Ventress). As a result of the heavy lost inflicted on the planet, Anakin ordered the Clones to evacuate and tried to peacefully let the Jabiim Loyalist understand his reasons but they instead cures his name.
- As a Jedi, Anakin was told he was not allowed to have emotional attachments to others, but he fell in love with Padmé (not to mention the attachments he had to his Padawan, his clone commander Rex, his master Obi-Wan, and his wife made him a powerful Jedi and brought out the best of him, all in spite of the Jedi Code).
- Despite him violating the Jedi Code for bad purposes at times, he had good intentions for doing so similar to how Qui-Gon and Count Dooku (when he was a Jedi) did. It also gave him more reasonable justice as he immediately understood why Ahsoka left the Order (the Council also violated the code by expelling one of their own without a fair trial).
- Yoda even often used Anakin a few times to break the rules for his own gain despite lecturing Anakin not to do it multiple times.
- His best friend, Obi-Wan, was at times a jerk and very hypocritical to him. An example is when Obi-Wan lectured him about having love attachment to Padmé while Obi-Wan himself fell in love with Duchess Satine. Obi-Wan also faked his death and often never stood up for Anakin, despite all the times Anakin stood up for Obi-Wan. Obi-Wan never did the same for Anakin.
- Even as a Jedi, Anakin felt that the people around him were just using him, as they never gave him much of a choice when he has things other people don’t; although it is for good reasons, the fact that his friends often never lets him choose is the problem. An example is during the Zillo Beast incident where Obi-Wan and Padmé forced him to help them because he has an influence over the Chancellor Palpatine than anyone else, causing Anakin to get caught between his mentor (and father figure) and his wife as the two politicians argue opposite views on diplomacy and the captivity of the Zillo Beast. Also Anakin wasn't exactly the right choice to help defend the Zillo Beast so his reasons was more valid.
- He was forcefully removed from participating in the Battle of Umbara by the Jedi Order and Pong Krell briefly took control of his unit, but Krell caused massive casualties among his unit and backstabbed the Jedi Order, which had haunted him by the time of the Jedi Temple Bombing.
- The Jedi Council wrongfully expelled his apprentice Ahsoka for crimes she didn't commit (and violated the Jedi Order by casting out one of their own as well).
- Whenever he tried to tell the Jedi Council of their mistakes, they refused to acknowledge their mistakes and instead told Anakin that his attachment to Ahsoka prevented him from doing what needed to be done (deleted scene).
- When he found out that Barriss Offee was the real perpetrator of the Jedi Temple Bombing, he was hurt that Ahsoka trusted Barriss yet Barriss betrayed her by framing her. After defeating her in a duel and putting her in trial, he sees that Barriss only wanted to call the Republic and the Jedi Order out for their corruption and Ahsoka sympathized with her motive, which made him feel more conflicted.
- He is genuinely upset when Tup’s inhibitor chip malfunctioned and executed Order 66 by killing Jedi Master Tiplar on Ringo Vinda. He is also upset that ARC Trooper Fives spent time investigating on the matter only to see him feel unstable when confronting him before he was killed.
- The Jedi Council refused to acknowledge his good accomplishments, often judged him because of his maturity and never truly trusted or respected him despite his years of genuinely loyal service and often put him on restrictions. In fact Anakin had also saved their lives on multiple occasions. Although they were right about Anakin not being mature enough to be a Master, the fact that they failed to tell him this and purposely making him lose his patience after being screwed over by them one too many times was very irresponsible on their part, not helped by the fact that he technically qualifies for the title since Ahsoka was to be given the rank of Jedi Knight if she returned, which she didn't. He also meet the other requirements like mastering a lightsaber form (in this case Anakin master Form V and also modified Form IV, something Yoda, who many considered to be a master of this style couldn’t even do. Yoda only was able to overcome it's weakness by adding moves from other forms while Anakin actually modified the classic Form IV moves to deflect blaster fire).
- The Jedi Council wanted him to spy on Palpatine, a person who Anakin considered (at the time) to be a good friend and mentor to him, not caring if Anakin was going to be torn between his duty to the Order and his friendship with the Chancellor, or even the huge risks of him being corrupted by Palpatine. Anakin even pointed out that the Council wanted to use him as a pawn, which was true.
- When he told the Jedi Council of his discovery of Palpatine being a Sith Lord, Mace said that Anakin finally earned their trust, with Anakin being unaware until near the end of the Clone Wars that Mace and many of the other Council members never trusted him at all. He was aware that they never respected him, but he never thought this extended to not trusting him. While Padmé argues that they trusted him with their lives, she wasn't present for a lot of Jedi affairs and wasn't the best informed opinion.
- After Mace defeated Darth Sidious, he attempted to kill him without mercy, which placed Anakin under deep pressure to let Mace potentially give into the dark side of the Force and cause a great controversy between the Jedi and the Senate, or to stop him by his own hand and the fear of not having the power to save Padmé from dying in childbirth, as he had at least two nightmarish visions about her. Mace was not only going against the Jedi way, but was committing a crime in not letting Sidious stand in trial, making it impossible for Anakin to handle the situation peacefully.
- Understandably the Jedi were responsible for their own downfall, as their constant wariness to trust Anakin due to his emotions and for other petty reasons is a major part of why he turns in the first place. Before Anakin meet them, Anakin had a lot of compassion and sympathy for others, as well as a lot of humility which he gradually lost due to the Jedi teachings and their politics. In fact, the Jedi Council didn't grant Anakin the rank of master because he lacked humility, which he lost due to suffering from the Council's mistakes and often allowed Anakin to be bullied by the other younglings.
- Part of the Jedi's politics is that they never went out and stop things like slavery, due to caring more about the politics of a corrupted Republic. It was made clear that the Jedi had tremendous power and could have ended injustices like slavery anytime (Dooku manage to reclaim his home planet in 2 weeks all by himself).
- He was heavily afraid of losing his loved ones to death, such as having to lose Padmé and expressed decades of self-hating regret over Force choking her. And when Darth Sidious told him that he killed her in his anger, he felt all of the psychological fracturing he had once endured on Tatooine all over again.
- After his battle with Obi-Wan, he had his legs and half of his left arm cut off and was set on fire. After that, he had to be put on life support just to stay alive and was in constant physical pain due to his burnt skin and in a suit Palpatine designed to make him feel pain. While it's arguably self inflicted and somewhat deserved, it's still played sympathetically.
- Overall, he was a good person who tried to be free from his slave past, but ended up a slave again for the Jedi Order (who he once respected and idolized) and then Palpatine and the Empire, which causes him to continue being evil because it is the only thing he has left. He also just wanted to be accepted by people because he never fit in with anyone on Tatooine and in the Jedi Order. Even if he never returned to the light side of the force, his backstory prevents him from ever being Near Pure Evil.
- He genuinely loved his family:
- He was emotionally upset about his mother's terrible death and being the one who accidentally caused his wife Padmé's death, always wishing he could bring her back, showing that his love for her was still there and just as genuine as ever.
- He was also duped by Palpatine's lies when he told Vader that he force choked Padmé to death out of anger on Mustafar, which devastates and heartbreaks Vader emotionally for the accidental loss of his wife and unborn children. When in reality: it was Padmé's broken heart that killed her due to Anakin's turning to the dark side, but she manages to give birth to Luke Skywalker and Leia Organa on Polis Massa in time.
- In the original trilogy, he never wanted to harm his son Luke, and sacrificed himself to save him from the Emperor. When Vader investigated and found out Luke was his son, he did everything he could to avoid killing him. In his final moments, Vader admitted that he loved his daughter, Leia, asking Luke to tell her the truth.
- He has some Pet the Dog moments.
- He saves Aiolin Astarte from being completely burned when she was betrayed by her brother and left for dead. Vader used his lightsaber to kill her quickly and put her out of her misery.
- In the 2017 comic book series Star Wars: Darth Vader, he crushes a Holocron containing a list of all Force-sensitive children in the galaxy to make sure that Palpatine wouldn't get his hands on them, turn them to the Dark Side, and suffer the same fate as Vader.
- In the Legends-exclusive Force Unleashed game, after becoming curious and surprised to learn that Kento Marek had a son—Galen Marek (who telekinetically snatched his lightsaber), he was impressed by the boy's Force-sensitivity and quickly protected him by killing his own stormtroopers before they could kill him. While Vader did indeed take Galen in as an apprentice and kept his existence a secret for pragmatic reasons (not to mention that Galen had to witness multiple deaths, including his father's, as a child, and endured harsh training from Vader all the way to adulthood), the moment of Vader meeting Galen for the first time was played for sympathy by revealing a future he could have had if he had not turned to the dark side and accidentally killed Padmé, as well as highlighting his protective side rarely ever shown as a Sith and slightly atoning for his murder of the younglings and Tusken children from a few years earlier.
- He spares Kreel's life despite Kreel failing him and shit talking him to his face, as he saw Kreel was loyal to the Empire.
- He is legitimately and genuinely loyal to Palpatine. as he obeys all of his orders thinking he would save Padmé and saved his life from Mace Windu. That is, until, he found out that Palpatine manipulated him, which makes wanting to kill him understandable.
- He retains legitimate affability and honor to Grand Admiral Thrawn in the Thrawn novel.
- His care for Padmé has never been subverted because he saves Sabé on one occasion without the realization that she is only disguised as her.
- He also still cared for his old friends Kitster and Wald, as despite not seeing them in a long time, Vader still saved their lives and spared them. Also at the end of his series despite Ochi of Bestoon, sparing the two, Vader order him to not go after them again and their other friends Amee, Seek, and Melee.
- He feels some confliction when fighting Obi-Wan during the Imperial Period. This continues up to his dying day, where Luke also saw the conflict in him.
- He redeemed himself and sacrificed his life to save Luke's and killed Darth Sidious. This fulfilled the prophecy of The Chosen One, which foretold what he would do by ending the Sith.
- Even before that, he already showed remorse for some of his actions, for example, when Sidious told him to kill all of the younglings, Vader could be seen shedding tears, showing that he didn't like committing child murder, and he was even crying when he killed the confederation leaders. He even nearly committed suicide at one point because of his regrets. At one point he even acknowledged that nobody can forgive him for his horrible atrocities. He also thoroughly noticed the errors in his ways after talking with Luke.
- As a force ghost, he reconciled with his old friends Yoda and Obi-Wan, tried to complete Ahsoka’s training, and motivated Rey to defeat Darth Sidious for good.
Trivia[]
- He is the icon of the Inconsistently Heinous Wiki.
- He is the icon of the stub template.
- He is the first ever Inconsistently Heinous to be proposed and headlined on this wiki.
- A interesting subject about Vader's villainy is despite him having severe preventions that hold him from being even NPE, he was seen by the audience as a complete monster during the original film, where he had no redeeming qualities or even a tragic backstory. In The Empire Strikes Back, it is revealed that he cares about his son. And in Return of the Jedi, he redeems himself to save his son's life. And the prequel trilogy goes into detail about his childhood and young adulthood.
- During early development of A New Hope, Darth Vader and Luke's father were separate characters. If George Lucas had not chosen the now-famous plot twist, Vader would have been written to be more consistent to the evilest moral scaling, possibly having a profile on the Pure Evil or at least the Near Pure Evil Wiki.
- With the exception of Return of the Jedi, many Post-The Empire Strikes Back stories involving Vader were limited, with the heading's purpose only to collectively gather all that happened exclusively within that continuity, secondary canon involving the original Marvel Comics Star Wars issues is accepted, though there are continuity events that have been excluded from EU's Canoncity.
- Speaking of limited roles, oddly enough in the Legends timeline stories, Vader has been mostly absent from the majority of his life with 17 BBY to 4 BBY hardly even mentioning him during these years, why this was the case for pre-Disney Lucasfilm to be adamant on writing installments for him in the time frame is unknown, but what can be assumed is 19 BBY to 18 BBY and 3 BBY to 4 ABY were close to the time frames of the G-Canon containing the most important plots in his life being near to the Prequel Trilogy and Original Trilogies events, with 17 BBY to 4 BBY being the more quiet time period for almost a decade and a half by comparison and ironically Disney Canon explores these events.
External Links[]
- Darth Vader on the Villains Wiki
- Anakin Skywalker on the Heroes Wiki
- Anakin Skywalker on the Inconsistently Admirable Wiki
- Darth Vader on the Star Wars Wiki
- Darth Vader on the Disney Wiki
- Darth Vader on the VS Battles Wiki
- Anakin Skywalker on the VS Battles Wiki
- Darth Vader on Wikipedia
- Darth Vader on the Shonen Villains Wiki
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