Darth Vader

The great villain of Star Wars is Lord Vader, formerly known as Anakin Skywalker, the one "chosen to bring balance to the force".

Click here to download Darth Vander art (pdf)

The story of Anakin becoming Darth Vader is the main theme of Episode III: The Revenge of the Sith. We saw how a child who grew up with a degree of arrogance was eventually lured to the dark side of the Force. Blinded by love (for Padmé Amidala), he was manipulated by Senator Palpatine, who played a loyal friend, hiding his real power as Sith Lord Darth Sidious.

But how can a love story give birth to such evil? Padmé Amidala was very ill and Anakin was told by Sidious that her life could be saved only if he went deep into the dark side of the Force. So Anakin left behind all that he had lived for and learnt as a Jedi and decided to become the new apprentice of Darth Sidious. This was a hard and cruel path to cross.

Anakin started by killing Count Dooku and collaborating in the murder of the great Jedi Mace Windu.

Anakin then felt that he had been betrayed by everyone, including Padmé. So, after the activation of the Order 66 (which killed almost every Jedi), Anakin lost his mind and ended up fighting against his former friend and master, Obi-Wan Kenobi.

The battle left Anakin seriously injured and he also fell into the lava – they were fighting on the volcanic planet Mustafar – and was burnt badly.

Darth Sidious, newly declared Emperor of the Galactic Empire, found his new apprentice severely injured and took him into the Emperor Palpatine Surgical Reconstruction Centre. Anakin gained new robotic arms and legs, made with an updated version of the same technology that had transformed General Grievous into a cyborg.

At that moment, Anakin Skywalker died. Lord Vader was born with an obsession: hunting down Obi-Wan Kenobi to maintain the supremacy of the Empire.

This changed years later only when he met his son, Luke Skywalker. Vader sacrificed his life and eliminated Sidious in order to save Luke.

With that, Darth Vader finally returned to his Jedi roots.

Homeworld: Tatooine
Species: Human
Gender: Male
Height: 2.02 metres (in armour)
Weapon: Lightsabre
Vehicle: TIE Advanced x1, Executor
Affiliation: Empire, Sith
Associations: Galactic Empire