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Darth Vader Expanded

The world first saw Darth Vader on screen as a villain. It would be years before his true identity was known. His history shrouded for most of the galaxy, he became a terror to the Rebellion and a traitor to the Jedi. His past would prove far more complicated. Anakin Skywalker was as much victim as villain. The conflicting parts of his life will have repercussions for generations. For his life as Anakin Skywalker, check over here. For now, let’s explore the Dark Lord’s life and career.

A young Jedi named Darth Vader, who was a pupil of mine until he turned to evil, helped the Empire hunt down and destroy the Jedi Knights. He betrayed and murdered your father. Now the Jedi are all but extinct. Vader was seduced by the dark side of the Force.

Obi-Wan Kenobi, Star Wars A New Hope
anakin-turned-vader-vs-obiwan
Kenobi and Vader battle on Mustafar battle in a fight that will end in Vader being in the breath mask.

Family

When Anakin became Vader, he lost all. The brutal murder of his mother and what followed had set his first few steps into the dark side. When his visions of his wife dying in childbirth led him to the promise of Darth Sidious to save her, he made a conscious choice to put his own fear before what she would’ve wanted. Tragically, his very fear of losing those he loved is what separated him from them all. His Mother gone, his wife dead, Obi-Wan being a Jedi who could never condone his actions, his child(ren) assumed gone, he had no one.

Friends

Palpatine had taken great pains to befriend the young Anakin Skywalker, sensing in him not only potential but a great threat if he remained a Jedi. Using the young man’s trust he turned his confidences against him, subtly poisoning him toward his friends and making him feel he had to choose between the Jedi and his wife. In the end, once he took the name Darth Vader, Palpatine was all he had left for a friend. And this was a friend who, should he not measure up, or should a stronger potential apprentice best him, would toss him aside as he had Dooku.

Students

While the Sith had a rule of Two, they were still known to take acolytes. One never knew when an apprentice might have a shot at taking out the Master and they would need someone of their own standing by to step in the role of apprentice. At the very least, this is what the acolytes believed.

Vader’s first apprentice was Galen Marek. He found the young boy when he killed his Jedi father on Kashyyyk, raising and training him with the promise they would overthrow the Emperor together. In truth, he used him to rally the enemies of the Emperor into a Rebellion so they could confirm their identities and arrest them in one sweeping blow. This almost worked, but Galen, who had been given the name ‘Starkiller’, became sympathetic to the Rebels and rescued them, sacrificing himself in the process.

Darth Vader had also cloned Starkiller. Most of these clones proved mentally unstable, a risk with any clone grown too fast, particularly the Force sensitive ones. Only two would prove viable. It’s unknown what happened to either. One was able to completely separate the flash imprinted memories of Starkiller and become a terror. The other, turned to the light as had the original and was unsure if he was a clone at all.

Hethrir and Rillaeo and in love, so Vader hoped to train them and together they would have a Force strong child. But Rillaeo proved resistant to the Dark side as her skills lay in healing, so that both Vader and Hethrir held her in contempt. Hethrir tried to rebuild the Empire by kidnapping Force sensitive children. His downfall was going after his own master, Darth Vader’s grandchildren.

Shira Brie AKA Lumiya was an Imperial Agent he sent to infiltrate the Alliance and find a way to separate Luke from them. When they were flying Imperial fighters in an undercover mission, Luke’s friend/foe computer went offline and his Force sense told her she was a threat. When Darth Vader collected her shattered body he had her healed, making her a cyborg. He gave her to the Emperor to be one of his hands. Lumiya would continue to be a threat to the Skywalker Solo Family and the galaxy.

Kharys of Skye was a Force sensitive he met during the Clone Wars as Anakin Skywalker. He recognized her potential even as a padawan and told her he would one day be back for her, though he knew the Jedi would never approve. She became a tyrant to her people. She was overthrown by Luke Skywalker and the Rebels, ironically because the people of Skye remembered the name Anakin Skywalker as a hero and therefore agreed to aid them.

Flint was a human of Belderone, whose Father had been a Jedi (presumably one who had escaped Order 66) but had since died. Vader found him after the rebels (Luke included) became involved in a battle on Belderone. The boy had lost his Mother in the conflict. Anakin would return in spirit form to Luke in a dream to encourage him to help Flint. Luke succeeded in winning him from the Dark Side.

Agents

Few of Darth Vader’s agents are known. But he did work with Jixton Wrenga, who saved his life on Aridus. Jix had little care for the Dark Lord but figured his death there would lead to danger for his friends. In exchange for keeping the Empire off Aridus, he worked for him ferreting out traitors. He had little respect for traditional rules and was once a stormtrooper combat instructor. What happened to him after Endor is unknown. His last known location was Tatooine, where he had infiltrated Jabba’s palace. He succeeded in his mission there but was forced to pull out as the Hutt became suspicious.

Shira Brie you can read of above. She was an undercover agent who later became his student.

Another who worked for him was Wyl Tarsus. Wyl was a rebel agent who had been working from inside a criminal information broker syndicate. When the criminal found out he implanted a bomb in his brain and forced him to go on a mission, also threatening his girlfriend. Vader discovered him in this, offering to save his life but threatening his girlfriend if he didn’t cooperate with him. It’s unknown what became of him.

Janek Sunber was a promising officer in the Empire. He collided head on with his childhood friend Luke Skywalker and found out the hard way Luke and Biggs had joined the Rebels. Unable to believe he had been so wrong about the Empire, he informed Vader about his relationship. Sunber pretended to want to defect. Luke got in a great deal of trouble for going against orders to retrieve him, and Sunber did try and betray him.

Enemies

Once he turned, Darth Vader sacrificed all the Jedi at the Temple that he could find in order to fuel his power, thinking it would save his wife. At this point even his friend Obi-Wan became his enemy. While most of the Jedi he saw as a threat, Obi-Wan was personal. Obi-Wan had crippled him and put him in the suit. He also blamed him for turning Padme against him, as deep inside he couldn’t face the truth, that he himself had betrayed her.

When Kenobi faced him on the Death Star for the first time since Mustafar, he had no hesitation at striking his old Master and former friend down. He did have pause when the body vanished, but chose to shrug it off.

The rebel alliance would be his enemy next, a threat to his and his Master’s plans. While they initially only meant to gather the resistance groups for an easy kill, Starkiller’s sacrifice made a martyr of him and emboldened a true Alliance to form.

Challenges:

Darth Vader’s initial transformation led to sacrifice all he had once loved, his dream of being a Jedi. It also cost him his friends and family, and the latter he had not expected. He had done this to save his family. This left him both physically crippled and in pain, as well as in a fog of regret, not quite one with the Dark Side but not wholly committed yet either. The Emperor wanted him to glory in what he’d done. At best, he could tell himself it was necessary.

Darth Vader’s Physical Challenges

It wasn’t until his battle with Roan Shyrne on Kashyyyk that Vader truly became one with the Dark Side and accepted his role, and managed to adapt to his new life support suit.

Even so, he took to working on the prosthetics and mechanics of the suit on his own to improve the shoddy rush job he’d been given by the medical droids. He used the Dark Side to try and heal his lungs. After twenty years, he’d only succeeded in using it to breath free for ten minutes or so at a time. He may have been able to improve the situation, but this would’ve required being unconscious and vulnerable, an unacceptable situation.

Vader’s emotional issues

This still left the parts of Anakin Skywalker that he didn’t expect to give up. His focus on chasing Jedi at all costs aggravated the Emperor, who punished him for it. He was expecting an Empire of Order, not slavery. But when the wookiees hid Jedi, he overcame his doubts about slavery. The Emperor taught him strategy, not merely to kill the Jedi but to completely erase them.

Darth Vader learned to destroy the monuments to Jedi, to build Imperial recruitment centers on dead end planets where once the only hope of escape was a young being to be found who the Jedi would train. A person named after a Jedi was forced to choose a new name. Former Jedi allies were forced to denounce them or be executed. Within twenty years, most evidence of the Jedi were gone. Those who remembered didn’t dare speak of them for fear of being punished.

Strategy

Vader’s attitude wasn’t that of the Emperor. He continued to prefer a straightforward approach over the political backstabbing. He wasn’t sadistic, his cruelties were a means to an end rather than an end in itself. He also appreciated a challenge. He truly did believe in the Empire and the Dark Side at this point. He had come to appreciate control.

Military wise he appreciated competence. The incompetent and the unlucky enough to appear incompetent fell victims to his temper more than once. He obeyed only the Emperor and those few the Emperor specifically told him to cooperate with. He was ruthless and without mercy to those he felt threatened the Order of the Empire.

Fleet Command

Darth Vader led the starfighter battle when the Death Star was attacked by Rebel fighters at Yavin 4. He nearly succeeded in killing his own son, and did shoot his own former droid, R2-D2. But Han Solo, Chewbacca and the Millenium Falcon saved him what he later may well have regretted. The Death Star was destroyed but he escaped as he was in a custom fighter with hyperdrive.

The Emperor was ill pleased at losing his Death Star. But Vader was still given command of the fleet to hunt the rebels and the Executor, the first Super Star Destroyer completed. During this time he also set a trap for treasonous admirals, jealous of his power.

Darth Vader VS Luke at Bespin
Darth Vader battles Luke on Bespin

Skywalker

Darth Vader cross checked his information on the destroyer of the Death Star with two interrogated Rebels. The name Skywalker triggered him to kill all the bounty hunter witnesses, though one did escape and inform on him to the Emperor. While the name shocked him, he knew that it wasn’t entirely uncommon. However, this particular Skywalker had been strong in the Force, been with Kenobi on the ship that came from Tatooine. It would’ve taken a man who had far more faith in coincidence not to figure out that this might be his son. Kenobi had last disappeared with his pregnant wife before she died.

Chasing Luke Skywalker was a challenge. Any attack on the rebels risked harming him. But Vader was confident in his own judgement and also believed if Luke was who he thought he would survive. He was correct. This continued until the Emperor rose the subject, as Luke had found a Master and begun training and growing stronger. Darth Vader had to suggest that he would be powerful turned though he wanted Luke for himself to overthrow the Emperor.

Eventually Vader lured Luke to Bespin, away from his training. This was more proof to him Luke was his son as he responded to the same bait a young Anakin Skywalker would have, the pain of his friends. Luke succeeded in injuring him, he in turn was forced to take Luke’s hand to make him stop fighting even when cornered. Luke leaped into the abyss but survived and escaped. But there was a side effect, Darth Vader, in seeking to trap a Skywalker, had been forced to remember being one.

Alone

Luke was a danger to his dark ambition. Not just because he undermined his efforts by becoming a Jedi either. He also reminded him of who he had been. And the sheer thought of him, of no longer being alone, of having someone to be proud of, drove aside the darkness.

Ultimately the Dark Side is a hollow promise. It promises unlimited power but takes away the best reason to desire it: to keep those one shares ones life with safe.

Fall

Darth Vader was ultimately defeated not by external Rebels, or Jedi or even the Emperor who sought a more worthy, uncrippled successor. He was felled by Anakin Skywalker. The Jedi, hero, and something of a rebel himself, finally rose up selflessly to save another.

Legacy

Turning from the Dark Side tilted the balance of the Force back to where it should be by restoring hope to the galaxy. but there was still much damage. Vader had instilled fear and hate in people he harmed. Those he may have helped, were misled to help the cause of tyranny rather than freedom. Of the few surviving Jedi many gave in to despair. Some also turned to the dark side and served the Emperor. Others he let live, tormented and racked with guilt after betraying their fellows hideouts. Some of these would come to haunt the Jedi and New Republic in the years to come.

The Jedi had to be rebuilt almost from scratch. Only a few Jedi and children of escaped Jedi came out of hiding after Luke’s new Jedi were established. The cloned Emperor sought them for their power and for revenge.His students would rise up later to haunt his family. Hethrir and others would aim at kidnapping his grandchildren for no reason but to raise up a new Dark Lord. Lumiya would come back to strike at Luke, the Republic, and his family.

Anakin’s legacy vies for supremacy with Vader’s. But while Darth Vader’s is obvious, Anakin’s is a bit harder to read. Witness Red Leader, Garven Dreis, who had met Anakin and been inspired by him. He was a member of the Alliance, Luke’s first squadron Commander. It was Vader who shot him down. Some of those Anakin saved and inspired went on to join the Rebellion or had families that did so. Vader in turn killed rebels. So it’s difficult to say which had the longer lasting affects.

STORIES starring Darth Vader

  • Dark Lord: Rise of Darth Vader by James Luceno
  • Rise and fall of Darth Vader by Ryder Windham,
  • Classic Star Wars comics (formerly the newspaper strips)
  • Classic Marvel Star Wars
  • Purge comics (all)
  • Dark Times (some)
  • Coruscant Nights 1-3
  • Empire comics
  • Rebellion rebellion comics
  • Vader’s Quest comics
  • Boba Fett: Enemy of the Empire
  • Shadows of the Empire
  • Shadow Stalker
  • Splinter of the the Mind’s Eye
  • The Force Unleashed 1 & 2

Appears in

  • Dark Forces
  • Allegiance
  • Choices of One
  • Death Star