Darth Vader Clone



Being one of the most iconic film franchises of all time, Star Wars has proven to be a major influence on many aspiring creators since the release of A New Hope back in 1977. Its vast array of characters, Cool Starships, aliens, and weapons have all ingrained themselves in pop culture, with one of the biggest standouts being Darth Vader. Perhaps the living embodiment of Evil Is Cool, the iconic dark lord of the Sith captivated millions with his threatening presence, menacing voice, and surprising depth as a character once his familial ties to Luke Skywalker were revealed. So unsurprisingly, he'd become a huge Fountain of Expies as the years passed, with many villains following in his footsteps.

While a Darth Vader Clone won't display all of the following traits, more than a few will definitely be present. These include:


 * Wearing a life support mask or something similar.
 * Being a Tin Tyrant who favors dark armor, or at least black clothes in a more grounded setting.
 * Wearing an awesome-looking cape.
 * Having familial ties to a heroic member of the cast, naturally leading to a Luke, I Am Your Father moment.
 * Being a Fallen Hero.
 * Sometimes being The Dragon instead of the Big Bad, often serving as the terrifying muscle to a less direct, manipulative Bigger Bad.
 * Having complex motivations that make him/her more of an Anti-Villain, although still somewhat dark.
 * Speaking in a really deep voice.
 * Having a Magic Knight skillset.
 * Being the former pupil of the resident mentor figure. Bonus points if they kill said mentor figure.
 * Having a very short fuse. While they may present a stoic front, their powers will often be strengthened by anger and hatred (if not outright stemming from it), and they'll often kill their minions for pissing them off in any way.
 * Extending an olive branch to the hero in a bid to rule with them at their side.
 * Having a tragic past where their fall into villainy stems from losing a loved one, such as a parent or spouse.
 * Wielding an awesome iconic weapon, often some sort of Cool Sword.
 * Redeeming themselves, often at the cost of their life.

Not surprisingly, many characters of this type are found in Star Wars canon itself since many writers want to have a Vader of their own. Funnily enough, the vast majority of these tend to predate Vader in the timeline, making him an Expy of a common Sith archetype in-universe. See also May the Farce Be with You and Vader Breath.

Anime and Manga

 * Iron Mask from Mobile Suit Gundam F91, combining Darth Vader Clone and it's Japanese equivalent, the Char Clone.
 * Griffith from Berserk checks a lot of the boxes: a dirt-poor boy who grew into a powerful, handsome swordsman? A chosen one who lost his way and fell into darkness? A merciless enforcer of the series' ultimate evil clad in black armor and a Badass Cape? He can even crush people with a single gesture thanks to his brutal psychic powers! The similarities are most certainly deliberate given that the late Kentaro Miura was a huge Star Wars fan, but the big difference between the two is that Griffith is an unapologetically cruel and sadistic Complete Monster, completely lacking in any of Vader's sympathetic traits.
 * Much like Kentaro Miura, Eichiro Oda of One Piece fame is a self-admitted Star Wars fanboy. And it shows: two major villains late in the series are distinctly Vader-flavored.
 * Judge Vinsmoke's the evil father of one of the Straw Hats,, and a vicious caped, mask-wearing brute who leads an army of clones dressed in white (bonus points for being named Germa 66, a reference to the Clone Troopers’ massacre of the Jedi when Palpatine issued Order 66) and is one of the chief servants of the pirate emperor Big Mom. But while Vader is a stone-cold Badass, Judge is not. The man's a shit-talking coward who bawls like a baby when he's.
 * A lot less pathetic than Judge is King, pirate emperor Kaido's number two. He’s got the overwhelming strength and stoicism Judge lacks, as well as the kickass suit of black armor and a hellish voice. He's also skilled with a blade, and when he isn't stabbing his opponents he's usually grabbing them in a chokehold.
 * In the Pokémon games, Mewtwo is a monstrously powerful wild animal created through genetic experimentation who simply wants to be left alone. But in the anime, he's basically Darth Vader as a Pokemon. He briefly serves as the ultimate weapon of Giovanni, the boss of Team Rocket, who controls him with a suit of torturous, intimidating Power Armor while using his destructive psychic powers to crush his opponents in battle. When he breaks free from Giovanni's servitude and tries to take over the world, he ditches the armor but keeps the deep voice and destructive psychic powers. And the thing that ultimately moves him into performing a Heel Face Turn is Ash's willingness to sacrifice himself in order to stop his evil ambitions.

Comic Books

 * Star Wars Legacy: Cade refuses to let his childhood love Azlyn die, even though she asks him to, accepting her fate and the will of the Force. When all other option fail, he gets her to people who put her in a Vader-esque life support armor. After waking up, she was really pissed at him. Fortunately for her, she managed to avoid slipping to Dark Side and managed to get the scary black suit replaced with something much more elegant.
 * Micronauts' own Baron Karza, in both the toy and the comic.
 * Lumiya was trained by the man himself and is practically a Distaff Counterpart.
 * There's also Dirk Raider from Brewster Rockit: Space Guy!. Not only is he similar in appearance to Darth Vader (although his helmet is more similar to Boba Fett), he even has a similar backstory to Vader's Start of Darkness in Revenge of the Sith. A notable difference, however, is that Dirk Raider's more of a Card-Carrying Villain instead of a complex character.

Film

 * The original Darth Vader from the Star Wars films is the Trope Namer, and inspired a few other characters in the movies that followed.
 * Word of God says that Darth Maul, Count Dooku, and General Grievous from the prequel trilogy were all deliberate Call Forwards to Vader, with each villain Foreshadowing Anakin Skywalker's fall to the Dark Side by embodying an element of Vader: Maul as The Dragon who enforces the Emperor's will with stoic menace, Dooku as a sympathetic fallen Jedi disillusioned with the Order he served, and Grievous as a foul-tempered cyborg with breathing problems and Bad Boss tendencies.
 * Kylo Ren from the sequel trilogy deliberately models himself after Vader, and is even to boot. He wears a similar ensemble, serves a Palpatine wannabe, and has anger issues even worse than Vader's to the point of throwing violent tantrums at the drop of a hat..
 * Darth Vader's own appearance is often thought to be inspired by the Film Serial character The Lighting from The Fighting Devil Dogs.
 * Dark Helmet from Spaceballs, who's a goofy parody played by the very non-threatening Rick Moranis.
 * Zurg from Toy Story 2. Him being an evil emperor technically makes him closer to Palpatine, but his Tin Tyrant appearance, menacing voice, and badass weapon (a BFG instead of a Laser Blade in his case) all invoke Vader, same with him dropping a Luke, I Am Your Father-style bombshell of his own on Buzz Lightyear.
 * Lord Graal is a pretty blatant one from The Humanoid.
 * The Doctor is this in G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra. The sequel has him closer to his original cartoon incarnation.
 * Tron: Legacy has the masked, black-clad bad guy Rinzler who.

Literature

 * Margaret Weis is a huge fan of the Vader character, so it's no surprise she borrowed his general aesthetic for several of the Dragon Highlords from the Dragonlance Chronicles, which she co-wrote. The closest to Vader in terms of both appearance and character, though, is not a Highlord at all, but rather the undead knight Lord Soth. The direction of Raistlin's story arc also paralells Vader's in some ways, though the two characters aren't very alike in terms of personality, appearance, or abilities.
 * The Star Wars Expanded Universe has a lot of books taking place after Vader's death, and a number of villains who call back to him, even if they'd never met him. Kueller of The New Rebellion is one of the most notable ones, though he also has callbacks to the Emperor. There's even a point where Luke, fighting him, decides to have an Obi-Wan Moment and let himself get killed so he can guide his sister - but his sister.
 * The Horned King in The Book of Three.
 * Galaxy of Fear has a literal clone of Darth Vader... and he's not an impressive one. His armor is crappy, and he's something of a petulant manchild that is easily cut down by the real Vader.
 * There are a lot of parallels between Star Wars and The Inheritance Cycle, but interestingly enough, there is no one true "Darth Vader Clone". Rather, Vader's traits are split among several characters.
 * While mainly more of a Palpatine copy, King Galbatorix has got the tragic backstory of being a child prodigy who grew to be a skilled and celebrated Dragon Rider, only to go insane with grief after losing his beloved dragon. Much like Anakin with the Jedi, he blamed his fellow Riders for all his problems and led the charge in slaughtering most of them. He also kills one of Eragon’s mentor figures, though he's.
 * Morzan, the first of the Forsworn served as the Bigger Bad's brutally powerful right-hand man, was a master swordsman whose weapon was a red Cool Sword, and had parental ties to one of the heroes:.
 * Shruikan gets points for being Galbatorix's literal dragon, whose immense size and void-colored scales make him a Kaiju-flavored Vader clone. He was also Reforged Into a Minion through a torturous procedure that left him a shell of his former self fueled solely by anger and hatred.
 * Shruikan gets points for being Galbatorix's literal dragon, whose immense size and void-colored scales make him a Kaiju-flavored Vader clone. He was also Reforged Into a Minion through a torturous procedure that left him a shell of his former self fueled solely by anger and hatred.

Live-Action TV

 * Wolzard from Mahou Sentai Magiranger. Heavily-armored, deep-voiced, sword-wielding black-magician dragon to the Eldritch Abomination N.Ma - and  His Mystic Force counterpart Koragg also counts, although
 * Before either of them was Chouryou/Iron Face Xiang Lao from Gosei Sentai Dairanger. Fallen Hero and father of . He is by far the most blatant. His boss amongst the villains is a ripoff of the Emperor when in human guise,

Video Games

 * A non-canon example is in The Force Unleashed's
 * Darth Malak from Knights of the Old Republic is possibly the most obvious Darth Vader expy.
 * Dark Madder from Warp Force.
 * Kabal from the Mortal Kombat series.
 * Grahf THE SEEKER OF POWER of Xenogears was specifically designed to resemble Darth Vader.
 * Golbez from Final Fantasy IV is a more fantasy-themed version, complete with a moment. He wears black armor, is a Badass Baritone when he's voiced, has a rather ominous and rather badass theme whenever he is nearby, used to be good but was corrupted and brainwashed by Zemus, and once he comes to his senses he helps the heroes destroy him.
 * As two more Shout Outs, in Dissidia Final Fantasy he has an attack called "Cosmic Ray", which fires blasts of electricity from his hands in a manner heavily resembling Force Lightning (ironically, the original Darth Vader never actually learned this attack and in fact was killed by it), and he calls the CPU boss from IV to fire lasers, the CPU greatly resembling the Death Star as a large black metal Attack Drone.
 * Gabranth in Final Fantasy XII is The Dragon to The Emperor, Vayne, is revealed to be Basch's Evil Twin and is a Fallen Hero who is pretty much single-handedly responsible for the fall of Dalmasca and the Empire's reign in the region. Clad in dark silver armor with a black cape and having a metallic echo to his voice due to his helmet, Gabranth is actually a broken man who feels he has nothing to live for except his servitude to Vayne, his home and family having been taken from him or given up. By the end of the game he helps the heroes defeat Vayne, but is mortally wounded for his heroism and dies soon after.
 * King K. Rool looks nothing like Vader (since he's, you know, a big fat crocodile dressed in royal garb), but he behaves this way in Donkey Kong 64. He's got a prominent case of Vader Breath and a menacing voice to match, reacts poorly to his minions failing him, and spends the entire game trying to destroy Donkey Kong's home with what's basically a miniature Death Star with a crocodile motif.
 * Darth Malgus in Star Wars: The Old Republic. Also, most Sith Warrior PCs can give it a decent go, especially with some of the late game helmets like this.
 * The bosses of the 1987 Star Wars Licensed Game for the Famicom are a long line of Darth Vader knockoffs, such as Scorpion Vader and Wampa Vader, who drop their masks and cloaks soon into the Boss Battle. The actual Darth Vader is defeated before the assault on the Death Star.
 * The Darkshine Knight from Seiken Densetsu 3 qualifies. He wears bulky dark armor, is a formidable swordsman and is second in command to the Big Bad.
 * In the arcade game Xain D'Sleena (also known as Solar Warrior), one finds on the top of a temple located in the planet (named Cleedos Soa/Jupiter respectively) a flying head that looks suspiciously similar to Darth Vader's helmet and that must be destroyed in order to follow on the level. If one skips the planet, it will appear in space chasing your ship from behind. Worse, it cannot be killed since your ship just fires to the front, so you must just dodge its bullets until it retires.
 * Arguably, Xemnas from the Kingdom Hearts series in terms of appearance and backstory. He wears a black cloak, wields "ethereal blades" that resemble red lightsabers, and.
 * Epsilon from Mega Man X Command Mission.
 * The Gamecube game Custom Robo has Sergei, who not only possessed a baritone voice (well, it's implied due to the eight-bit speech sounds being deep), a face mask obscuring all but his right eye, being a high-executive to the Z-Syndicate, and The Dragon to Oboru, but is also the older brother of Marcei. Likewise, he also pulls a Heel Face Turn late into the game.
 * The Magic Emperor in Lunar the Silver Star, being a Fallen Hero on a Knight Templar quest to return the world to divine rule, and clad in black armor and robes with an enclosing helmet that makes his voice sound much deeper than it does otherwise.
 * Fire Emblem: Three Houses has a few. Fittingly, they're associated with an evil emperor.
 * Funnily enough, the Flame Emperor himself is basically Darth Vader in a medieval setting. While his manipulative tendencies and status bring Palpatine to mind, he's got the imposing armor, mechanical voice, Bad Boss tendencies, and tragic backstory most would associate with Vader, and even offers Byleth a genuine offer to team up and eliminate the shadowy Sith-like Agarthans that he answers to..
 * And the similarities go even further after the Emperor's identity is revealed..
 * The Death Knight is an even better example of this trope, being a terrifying warrior clad in skeletal black armor with a hellishly deep voice filtered through his helmet. He's an obscenely powerful combatant that you shouldn't even think of fighting early in the game, and serves as the muscle of the Flame Emperor's army. He's also related to one of the heroes: . More specifically, he's
 * Black Doom from Shadow the Hedgehog is a menacing, deep-voiced alien conqueror who tries to tempt Shadow into embracing The Dark Side. He's even . However, his more overtly sorcerous powers and appearance as well as his Manipulative Bastard tendencies and lack of redeeming qualities allow him to do double-duty as a Palpatine analogue.
 * Batman Arkham Knight gives us the Arkham Knight himself. He's got a sweet suit of high-tech armor that masks his voice with a deep robotic filter, and is the right hand man of the manipulative Scarecrow. He's sharp-tongued towards minions who fail him, fueled by anger and hatred, and has a personal connection to Batman due to being . Despite having nothing but hatred for Batman,.
 * It’s odd to imagine The Tinkerer being portrayed as this, since he's a tiny balding old man in the comics. But his gender-flipped incarnation in Spider-Man: Miles Morales fits this trope to a T. Instead of a (mostly) Non-Action Guy, she's the leader of a gang of dangerous anarchists who isn't afraid to get her hands dirty, and rides into battle wearing a cool-looking mask that deepens her voice. Her fall into villainy stems from the loss of her beloved brother, and she has a personal connection to the hero: . And despite being resistant towards Miles' attempts at making her come to her senses,.
 * The Inquisitors from the Star Wars franchise as a whole are an entire squadron of Darth Vader Clones, but none come closer to embodying this trope than the Second Sister of Jedi: Fallen Order fame. She's got the look down to a T: black armor, Badass Cape, voice-filtering mask, the works. Her presence is nearly as intimidating as Vader's, and she plays a very similar role as she relentlessly hunts Cal Kestis across the galaxy, even killing his mentor/father figure Prauf in the process. . Unfortunately,.
 * Due to being a Sentai-flavored love letter to cinema as a whole, the villains of the first two Viewtiful Joe games are both obvious sendups to Darth Vader. The Black Emperor from the sequel is far more obvious, since he looks exactly like Vader but with a more overt samurai theme, and he pilots a Death Star-themed mech to boot. But both the Black Emperor and King Blue are Fallen Heroes with scary voices that are revealed to be, and both come to their senses after Joe (and later, Sylvia) beat the stuffing out of them.
 * Due to being a Sentai-flavored love letter to cinema as a whole, the villains of the first two Viewtiful Joe games are both obvious sendups to Darth Vader. The Black Emperor from the sequel is far more obvious, since he looks exactly like Vader but with a more overt samurai theme, and he pilots a Death Star-themed mech to boot. But both the Black Emperor and King Blue are Fallen Heroes with scary voices that are revealed to be, and both come to their senses after Joe (and later, Sylvia) beat the stuffing out of them.

Web Original

 * Chad Vader is a near-literal example of this trope, except he's Vader's bumbling klutz of a brother who's stuck working at a grocery store. Funnily enough, his voice actor Matt Sloan would go on to voice the actual Vader in various Star Wars spinoffs.

Western Animation

 * Dark Laser from [The [Fairly OddParents]], who's deliberately designed to be a parody. Some TV Guide misprints even refer to him as Vader.
 * Dark Vegan from Johnny Test - though he's probably more of an Expy of the aforementioned Dark Helmet.
 * Duck Vader from Tiny Toon Adventures
 * Baron Ryang from the Trapped in TV Land episode of Teen Titans
 * Darph Bobo from Tripping the Rift
 * Loonatics Unleashed: Slyth Vester, a combination of the cat Sylvester and Darth Vader!
 * Jack Thompson in the animated adaptation of Ctrl+Alt+Del, where he's portrayed as Vader... but as a censorious anti-gaming crusader.
 * Savage Opress from Star Wars: The Clone Wars looks more like a Darth Maul clone at first glance, but he's a Vader Expy through-and-through. Once a noble Nightbrother warrior, his fall to the Dark Side happened as a result of him trying to protect his beloved little brother, resulting in him being transformed with dark magic into a merciless monster of a man who kills that very same brother with no remorse. He's an imposing, no nonsense berserker who serves as the muscle to various powerful darksiders, and prefers to overwhelm his enemies with brute force rather than finesse. And in an interesting twist on the Luke, I Am Your Father trope, he isn't related to a hero... but a villain. ..