With Star Wars has revealed about the Dark Lord between the end of Revenge of the Sith and the beginning of A New Hope. Vader became a mythical figure in the galaxy during the days of Palpatine’s reign, and his life on the dark side was one of pain, suffering, and of course, death. Thanks to the novels, comics, and ancillary shows, a lot more about Vader’s life has come out over the past few years.
After Vader's loss to Obi-Wan on Mustafar and the reconstruction that turned him into a mechanical monster and all but killed the last bit of Anakin Skywalker, he became the Emperor’s right hand and primary enforcer. Over the course of nearly two decades, Vader served as an assassin, commander, and advisor for the Empire. He hunted and killed numerous Jedi, squashed rebellions, and uncovered dangerous powers of the dark side under his master’s tutelage.
While he remains at his core a symbol of fear and anger in the world of Star Wars, Vader has become a complex and fascinating character thanks to recent stories set between the two trilogies. His role as a killer and a weapon of the Sith is expounded, but his struggles and weaknesses are as well. The new canon has added a lot of nuance and intrigue to his history, persona, and myth, with the Darth Vader comics, in particular, revealing new secrets.
Darth Vader Was Hated By Many In The Empire
Throughout his time serving under Palpatine, Vader was rarely liked by his fellow Imperial higher-ups. Especially in the early days of the Empire, he remained in the shadows. Very few were aware of his abilities, and even fewer knew his former identity. That enigma, combined with his status as Palpatine’s most trusted agent, led many of the Empire’s most powerful figures to distrust and even loathe him.
At points, Vader was even targeted by these enemies within the Empire. One arc in the comics, for instance, shows him being attacked by bounty hunters after a price is anonymously put on his head. Believing the assassination attempt is a revenge plot by an officer he once choked and humiliated, Vader kills several high-ranking Imperials and threatens more killings if he ever suspects further foul play. While his foes aren’t nearly so bold in their opposition to him afterward, Vader’s continued power and threats of violence kept him on the bad side of many. Throughout the years, Vader largely remained a solitary figure who was constantly watching his own back, even at home.
Darth Vader Was Constantly Tempted By The Light Side
Though his full redemption didn’t come until just before his death, Darth Vader struggled with the pull of the light side for decades beforehand. The part of him that was once Anakin Skywalker constantly pulled at him, causing guilt at the atrocities he committed and lament over all that he lost by his own actions. In one story, Vader has trouble corrupting the kyber crystal for his new lightsaber because of visions of him leaving the Sith. He sees himself turning on Palpatine and seeking out Obi-Wan in repentance. While the vision obviously doesn’t stop him, Vader constantly struggled with further doubts of his path and grief over what might have been.
Darth Vader Trained Many In The Dark Side
As the Emperor’s apprentice and primary enforcer, one of Darth Vader’s core duties was training and leading the Inquisitorious – a team of Force s turned to the dark side through torture and fear. The Inquisitors were tasked with the permanent erasure of the Jedi, both by hunting down survivors of the Order 66 Jedi purge and by preventing new potential Jedi from being trained. Vader led the Inquisitors in this mission and played an active role in the purge of Jedi from the galaxy, killing many himself.
Vader served as the Inquisitors’ field commander in many instances, but also as their instructor. He would spar with them to teach them saber technique, and lead in them in the general ways of the dark side as well. His methods of teaching were often brutal, however. Insubordination or failure would be met with harsh punishment, torture, or even dismemberment. In this way, the Inquisitorious were kept in a constant state of fear and pain, assuring their loyalty to the dark side.
Darth Vader Found Meaning In His Ability To Destroy
In response to the loss of his wife and the ever-present guilt of murdering so many, Vader dived deeper into his own destructive power as a means of escape. Trying to ignore the bits of Anakin that remained within him, he busied himself with the eradication of the Jedi and any others who opposed Palpatine’s rule as Sith Lord, even nearly killing his former padawan, Ahsoka Tano, in a fierce duel at one point. This was his primary duty, of course, but it also became a source of pride and escape from the pain he felt.
In one story, Vader becomes so obsessed with the need for action that he enlists Moff Tarkin to aid him in a deadly combat exercise. Tarkin hires a team of hunters to track Vader in a makeshift preserve over the course of several days, and the Sith gradually destroys each one of them in turn. The exercise serves no ultimate purpose, save giving Vader a space to exercise his power and inflict pain while he awaits more Jedi to murder.
Darth Vader Never Let Go Of Pé
Eventually, Vader retreats from his residence on Coruscant and returns to Mustafar – the site of his greatest defeat. There he constructs Fortress Vader, a massive castle designed to tap into an ancient dark Force fissure present on the planet. His intention – one that is ultimately achieved – is to break through the barriers between life and death, and between the past and the future. Why? To resurrect Pé.
True to the Sith tradition of attachment and obsession, Vader never lets go of Pé Amidala in his heart. He constructs dark, ancient machinations just to try to see her face once again, determined to use his connection to the dark side for the reason he initially turned – to save her. These efforts result in more pain and grief as often as not, but they represent the core of Vader’s twisted persona – a man who refuses to accept the things he cannot change.
Palpatine Was Involved in Anakin’s Birth
During his trippy, absurdist journey through the barricades of time and death (via the aforementioned dark side locus on Mustafar), Vader witnesses an unnerving image of his conception. The mystery of Anakin’s birth – variously attributed to Darth Plagueis, the Force, and the Chosen One prophecy – is partially revealed by a vision. In it, Palpatine is seen using his dark Force powers to create the essence of Anakin within Shmi Skywalker – a haunting and revealing picture of Vader’s creation.
Because of the bizarre nature of the visions Vader sees on Mustafar, it’s not entirely clear how much truth there is to them or how much Palpatine was actually involved. However, the experience is pitched as a rift in time – not as a generic projection of the dark side. That would suggest that the visions of the past are true, if not entirely clear. Regardless, they add an unsettling element to Vader’s history and the forces that set him on his path to the dark side.
