Star Wars/Characters/Anakin Skywalker

Anakin Skywalker

 * Played by: Jake Lloyd (as a child, Ep.I), Hayden Christensen (Ep.II-III; as a Force ghost in the 2004 rerelease of Ep.VI), Sebastian Shaw (Ep.VI)

"Something's happening. I'm not the Jedi I should be. I want more, but I know I shouldn't..."

The most pivotal man in the galaxy, whose decisions changed the fate of every living being. Also had a son who did the same thing. Anakin was born on a desert planet (the same one, actually) and grew up with Jedi training; unlike Luke, he was hot-tempered, brash and sometimes undisciplined. Evidently that made all the difference; Luke didn't help put the galaxy under the heel of an evil dictator.


 * Ace Pilot
 * Informed Ability: This is never proven, except for young Anakin shouting, "Let's try spinning! That's a good trick!"
 * Accidental Hero: In The Phantom Menace.
 * Always Save the Girl: His quest to save Padmé from death.
 * And Then Anakin Was A Sith Lord
 * Anti-Hero: Type II or III, veering towards V on the occasions that he flirts with The Dark Side.
 * Anti-Villain: Type II
 * Artificial Limb: Has a cybernetic arm, thanks to Dooku,
 * Awesome McCoolname
 * Badass:
 * Badass Abnormal: He was abnormally Force-sensitive, even by Jedi standards.
 * Badass Adorable: In Episode I.
 * Badass Driver: He IS called the best starpilot in the galaxy.
 * Badass Long Hair: In Episode III.
 * Handicapped Badass: In Episode III, after losing an arm in Episode II.
 * Heartbroken Badass
 * One-Man Army: In Episode III.
 * Took a Level in Badass: Between Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith, obviously.
 * Berserk Button: Torturing someone he loves.  found that out the hard way in Return of the Jedi.
 * And an entire tribe of Tusken Raiders (men, women and children) found it out way earlier.
 * Black Cloak: He begins dressing in black robes in Revenge of the Sith.
 * Born Into Slavery
 * Byronic Hero
 * Captain Crash: He could out-fly grown pilots when he was a kid; it's just a shame he never quite got the hang of landings.
 * The Chosen One: Doubly subverted. He joins The Dark Side, then destroys the Emperor at the end of the saga.
 * Chronic Backstabbing Disorder: Oh, so much. Ironically, his loyalty to the people he cares about ends up being the reason he is constantly stabbing people in the back.
 * Cool Starship: Eta-2 Actis-class light interceptor in Revenge of the Sith.
 * Cybernetics Eat Your Soul: Anakin's descent into evil is paralleled by his cyborg conversion. Also, by Word of God, losing body parts makes you lose midichlorians and thus get weaker in the Force.
 * Dark Messiah / Destructive Savior: To the core.
 * Deadpan Snarker
 * Despair Event Horizon: The Empire is all he has left.
 * Disappeared Dad: Non-existent dad; Word of God confirms that he was conceived by the Force itself.
 * Dual-Wielding: At the end of Episode II.
 * Dull Surprise: Both actors were criticized for it (specially since Vader stands on the other side).
 * Evil Is Hammy: Once he turns to the dark side...
 * Emergency Transformation: When he becomes Darth Vader.
 * Fallen Hero
 * Fantastic Racism: After his mother is killed by them, he really hates Sand People. Enough to kill every last one of them.
 * Freudian Excuse: His upbringing as a slave and inability to let go of any loved ones, particularly his mother.
 * Good Scars, Evil Scars: He has a scar next to his right eye by the time of Episode III, before ending up covered in burn scars after his battle with Obi-Wan.
 * Go Out with a Smile: Anakin's farewell to Luke.
 * Hell-Bent for Leather
 * Heterosexual Life Partners: With Obi-Wan. Before that all goes to hell.
 * He Who Fights Monsters
 * Humanoid Abomination/Golem: The films offer us two choices for Anakin's origin: Either he's an avatar of the Force, conceived by parthenogenesis...or he was created by the Sith Lord Darth Plagueis in that exact same way.
 * Darth Plagueis implies that.
 * I Did What I Had to Do: When trying to justify his actions to Padmé in Revenge of the Sith.
 * I Will Protect Padmé
 * Improbable Piloting Skills: In The Phantom Menace.
 * Jumping Off the Slippery Slope
 * Knight in Shining Armor: He wants to be the most powerful Jedi Knight, but his love for Padme is his first priority.
 * Lady and Knight: The Knight to Padmé's Lady.
 * Large Ham: Not in his normal personality, but after his Heel Face Turn...YOU UNDERESTIMATE MAH POWAAAAAAAAAAAH!
 * The Lancer: To Obi-Wan in the Clone Wars.
 * Leeroy Jenkins: In Attack of the Clones.
 * Love Makes You Evil
 * MacGyvering: He built his own podracer from Watto's junkyard. And won the Boonta Eve Classic with it.
 * Master Swordsman
 * Messianic Archetype
 * Moment of Weakness: See Start of Darkness.
 * Papa Wolf: To his unborn kids. And to his son when Palpatine tries to kill him.
 * The Paragon Always Rebels
 * Physical God: Word of God says that had he not been crippled at Mustafar, he would've eventually ended up as this. His son realizes his potential in the Expanded Universe.
 * Psychic Powers: As a highly Force-sensitive little boy, he was able to use them in some situations (podraces, for instance) without really knowing where it came from. He learned to master them during his Jedi training.
 * Politically Incorrect Hero
 * Power Levels: The "midichlorian" concept was criticized by fans as this, especially with Obi-Wan's non-ironic observation that Anakin clocks in at Over Nine Thousand. This didn't stop Word of God from declaring that Anakin is meant to be the strongest Force-user in canon, equaled only by his son. See also Cybernetics Eat Your Soul.
 * Protagonist Journey to Villain
 * Rasputinian Death: He gets  Subverted in that he
 * Red Eyes, Take Warning: After turning to the Dark Side, his eyes become jaundiced.
 * Red Oni, Blue Oni: The red to Obi-Wan's blue.
 * Redemption Equals Death
 * Renowned Selective Mentor: Due to his unusual affinity with the Force, Anakin gets mentoring and attention from high-ranking Jedi beyond that given to other padawans.
 * Self-Proclaimed Knight: At the end of The Phantom Menace, Anakin is allowed to be trained as a Jedi Knight in even though he is too old. He vents his frustration to Senator Amidala in Attack of the Clones that he's ready to be a knight, but they won't let him move on.
 * Single Tear: After murdering hundreds of Jedi and the helpless Trade Federation leaders, Anakin looks out into the hellscape that is Mustafar and silently sheds a tear of remorse.
 * The Starscream: To the Jedi, and tries to be this to Palpatine twice.
 * Start of Darkness: Slaughtering the Tusken Raiders after his mother's death. The shocker is that this happened in Episode Two, where Anakin is still supposedly a clear-cut good guy. While he was still labeled as a Jedi after that event, mentally he had already stepped into the dark side of the force.
 * To Be Lawful or Good
 * Tragic Hero
 * Universal Pilot's Licence: He could pilot anything from a podracer in his youth (in The Phantom Menace) to the Confederacy's enormous flagship (in Revenge of the Sith). With ease.
 * Villain Protagonist: Towards the end of Revenge of the Sith
 * Weapon of Choice: A blue lightsaber in Revenge of the Sith.
 * Yandere: In Revenge of the Sith
 * Tragic Hero
 * Universal Pilot's Licence: He could pilot anything from a podracer in his youth (in The Phantom Menace) to the Confederacy's enormous flagship (in Revenge of the Sith). With ease.
 * Villain Protagonist: Towards the end of Revenge of the Sith
 * Weapon of Choice: A blue lightsaber in Revenge of the Sith.
 * Yandere: In Revenge of the Sith

Darth Vader

 * Played by: David Prowse (suit, Ep.IV-VI); Bob Anderson (swordplay and stunts, Ep.IV-VI), Hayden Christensen (suit, Ep.III)
 * Voiced by: James Earl Jones (Ep.III-VI)

"I find your lack of faith disturbing."

Dark Lord of the Sith, apprentice to Senator Palpatine (also known as Darth Sidious). The central antagonist (or is he?) in the original trilogy. Killed Luke's father, Anakin Skywalker...FromACertainPointOfView. His descent into evil shaped the fate of the Galaxy.

"Obi-Wan: "He is more machine than man now; twisted, and evil.""
 * Ace Pilot: Still the best in the galaxy. Despite being outnumbered due to being the only pilots Genre Savvy enough to scramble against the rebel's "futile" attack, he and his handpicked Black Squadron shoot down many rebels during A New Hope's Final Battle and would have done the same to Luke Skywalker if not for
 * Achilles' Heel:
 * Anti-Villain: Unlike Palpatine, who is merely obsessed with power, Vader genuinely wants to do the right thing for the galaxy and also hates himself for all the evil he's done.
 * Archnemesis Dad
 * Artificial Limbs: All of them.
 * Authority Equals Asskicking
 * Awesome McCoolname: All Sith Lords come with this.
 * Badass
 * Badass Cape
 * Handicapped Badass: Has to change his entire fighting style due to his injuries, spends his time in life-support armor and cannot use Force Lightning. Even then, he manages to be one of the most proficient single lightsaber users and.
 * Heartbroken Badass
 * One-Man Army: Taken Up to Eleven in EU works such as The Force Unleashed.
 * Bad Boss: Has become a memetic archetype of this trope.
 * He is the Trope Namer for You Have Failed Me..., executing two Imperial officers on screen for failure and implied to have done so to countless others.
 * He forces his fleet to pursue the Millennium Falcon through an asteroid field, ignoring the casualties they suffer as a result—up to and including the loss of a Star Destroyer with all hands.
 * He is more than willing to involve his boss when his own presence fails to adequately cow. "The Emperor is not as forgiving as I am," indeed.
 * Bald of Evil
 * The Battlestar: The Executor is among the largest-ever examples of these.
 * Being Evil Sucks: The way that he says "it's too late for me" implies that on a fundamental level, he despises what he's become, but sticks around largely because he believes it's too late to back out.
 * Big No: After learning of Padmé's death.
 * Black Cloak
 * Black Knight
 * Blood Knight: As much as he might want to kill Palpatine and become Emperor, realistically Vader is too much of a warrior to deal with all the politics and scheming involved with being the ruler of a Galactic Empire. He would most likely have put a figure head in place to deal with that if he ever did get the chance to conquer the Galaxy.
 * Brought Down to Badass: The injuries Anakin sustained on Mustafar severely diminished his potential as a warrior, and he would never be able to achieve the heights of his power if not for his horrible physical state. While his injuries by themselves did nothing to reduce his force potential directly - as shown when he sent Palpatine flying in the canon Darth Vader: Dark Lord of the Sith comic - they still placed a hard limit on how much of his power he could use. Darkside powers are by nature destructive, and frequent use will gradually place a burden on the force user that even an initially healthy being would develop health issues from - Vader in his current state is far from healthy, and pushing his powers to the limit would only end up killing him. Further, his need for a heavy life support suit and armor restricts his movements, forcing him to adopt a less mobile/acrobatic style and focus on power with skill.
 * Byronic Hero
 * Classic Villain: Fits all of the criteria as a Wrath villain.
 * Clothes Make the Legend: His Cool Helmet and Black Cloak are so iconic that just their silhouette in the first teaser posters for The Phantom Menace was enough to let everyone know just who the cute kid in the picture would become.
 * Cool Helmet
 * Cool Starship: The Devastator, the Executor, and the TIE Advanced x1. And that's just from the movies. In the Expanded Universe, he also has the Terror among other vessels.
 * Covered with Scars: The reason for his armour.
 * Cybernetics Eat Your Soul:


 * Cyborg
 * Dark Is Evil
 * The Dark Side
 * Darth Vader Clone: Trope Namer, obviously.
 * Dispense with the Pleasantries: Names the trope in Return of the Jedi.
 * Don't Make Me Destroy You: Names the trope during his famous conversation with Luke in The Empire Strikes Back.
 * The Dragon: The main one for Palpatine.
 * Dragon with an Agenda/The Starscream: Almost immediately after becoming Palpatine's apprentice, he's planning on overthrowing him. He's implied to be attempting this in The Empire Strikes Back, and in Return of the Jedi.
 * Co-Dragons: With Tarkin, to an extent.
 * The Dreaded
 * Even Evil Has Loved Ones: When Vader finds out that Luke is his child, he stops at nothing to find him. He justifies this to the Emperor (and perhaps to himself) that it's because Luke would be a dangerous enemy and a powerful ally. In truth, Luke is all he has left of Padme and family (he doesn't know Leia is his daughter until just before he dies) and the good inside him was slowly being reawakened by the love he felt toward his family. Ultimately, it's what ends up saving Anakin's soul in the end and allowing him to atone for his mistakes.
 * Evil Counterpart: To Luke.
 * Evil Cripple
 * Evil Old Folks: He's pushing 46 in Return of the Jedi but looks much older  due to his injuries and the corrupting effects of The Dark Side.
 * Evil Overlooker
 * Evil Overlord: Despite being The Dragon, Vader still maintains a position of high command (second only to his master) and even has his own set of troops (the 501st Legion, AKA "Vader's Fist").
 * Evil Sounds Deep: An archetypal film example. In fact, they even had to overdub David Prowse's voice with that of James Earl Jones' to get the desired effect.
 * The Faceless: Until the end of the film.
 * Fallen Hero
 * Famous Last Words:
 * A Father to His Men: He earned the 501st Legion's actual respect by never sending them off to do things that he himself is unable to do. In other words, he fights alongside them.
 * Finger-Poke of Doom: His Force Choke.
 * Genius Lightning Bruiser: Vader's cybernetics make him one of the physically strongest characters in the series. Despite serving as the Emperor's muscle, he displays a cold and calculating nature (in the OT) and attacks at a surprisingly high speed. Not to mention as a child, he built C-3PO, and would proceed to personally deck out his extremely advanced custom fighter. And that the entire plot of The Empire Strikes Back was his personal Batman Gambit to trap Luke and get him to convert to the dark side (and possibly even to help him overthrow the Emperor).
 * Genre Savvy
 * The Force Is Strong with This One: Names the trope when he realizes that the pilot of the X-Wing he's targeting in A New Hope isn't just another Red Shirt.
 * Gloved Fist of Doom: Page image. His fists are clenched all the time except when he's blocking lasers with his hands. The glove itself even gets its own story in the Expanded Universe! It's actually a Mandalorian crushgaunt fitted with a Sith amulet.
 * Good Scars, Evil Scars
 * Head Bob: David Prowse does this very well, making Vader an emotive character despite being perpetually masked.
 * The Heavy: The most prominent villain in the series, although he is always subservient to Palpatine. In the first movie, he and Tarkin are somewhat equals, save that the Death Star is actually in the charge of of Tarkin.
 * Implacable Man
 * Improbable Piloting Skills: In Death Star, a decent Imperial pilot remembers flying in training, with low-powered lasers so that no one was killed, and how during one demonstration Darth Vader decided to join them. He toyed with the best of the trainers - a veteran who made the decent pilot feel like a child who could barely walk trying to keep up with a marathon runner - matched every move, did things that TIE fighters should not be able to do, and was later found to have shot everyone down with his targeting and navigation computers disabled before launch, which the decent pilot believed was flatly impossible. Said pilot concluded that if he got on Vader's bad side and was pursued, he'd just overload his engines and commit suicide.
 * Jerkass: Big-time. In-universe, many officers fear working under him due to his Bad Boss tendencies.
 * Large Ham: As Prowse gestures plentifully and Jones speaks bombastically, the result is simply glorious.
 * Leitmotif: The Imperial March. Major and minor key versions of it are all over the place during his key scenes.
 * Love Makes You Evil: One of the reasons why he turned to the Dark Side was to save Padmé Naberrie from death.
 * Luke, I Am Your Father: Trope Namer, sort of, and by far the modern-day Trope Codifier.
 * Malevolent Masked Man
 * Man in the Machine
 * Master Swordsman: Combines elements of multiple styles to become a devastatingly effective duelist despite his bulky cybernetics and inability to use Force Lightning. Taken Up to Eleven in the Expanded Universe. In Star Wars: Purge, he holds off eight Jedi and manages to kill five and disarm a sixth by the time his stormtrooper reinforcements show up to finish the job.
 * Meaningful Name: "Vader" is Dutch for "father". Also, in-"vader".
 * Memetic Outfit
 * Milking the Giant Cow: Exaggerated movement is necessary for a masked character, and Vader is a well-played example... except perhaps for his infamous Big No.
 * Names to Run Away From Really Fast: His Star Destroyer in A New Hope, the Devastator, and his Super Star Destroyer in The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi, the Executor.
 * Neck Lift: Does this to Raymus Antilles in A New Hope. The good captain does not survive the interrogation.
 * Never Bareheaded: He's seen only twice without his helmet:
 * Noble Demon: In the Expanded Universe, he earns his men's actual respect (as opposed to fearful obedience) by never asking something of them that he wouldn't do himself, IE. Leading the charge in battles and fighting side by side with them. He also retains a soft-spot for slaves, as a lingering memory of his own childhood. He also once tells Dengar that, although he does kill when it is necessary to his goals, he never takes amusement in people dying, unlike the Emperor.
 * No, Mr. Bond, I Expect You to Dine: Does this to Lando in Empire.
 * Not So Different: He and Luke.
 * Obviously Evil
 * Ominous Opera Cape
 * One Handed Is Cool: Wields his lightsaber, a notoriously difficult-to-control weapon, one-handed in order to intimidate enemies. Being a Cyborg helps.
 * Papa Wolf: How he redeems himself.
 * Physical Religion: "I find your lack of faith disturbing."
 * Psychic Powers: His most frequent uses of the Force involve telekinesis and choking.
 * Putting on the Reich: His helmet was obviously inspired by the German Stahlhelm. Word of God also stated that his life support suit being all black was deliberate in an attempt to create an analogy to the Schutzstaffel of Nazi Germany.
 * Rage Helm: His iconic helmet has a chillingly penetrating stare.
 * Resistance Is Futile: Vader: You are beaten. It is useless to resist. Don't let yourself be destroyed as Obi-Wan did.
 * Sensor Character: Can sense when other Force-sensitives - notably Obi-Wan and Luke - are nearby. Might have also picked up Leia this way on Echo Base in ESB, although he seemed to mistake her for Luke.
 * Series Mascot: The character most often used to represent the Star Wars franchise as a whole. He made the cover of Time magazine twice, in 1980 and 2005.
 * Sinister Geometry: His obsidian-black helmet is designed to evoke a human skull, from angular cheekbones to rictus grin to Black Eyes of Evil.
 * Sixth Ranger Traitor: Done twice!
 * The Slow Walk: Does this in his very first scene in A New Hope and in The Force Unleashed.
 * Space Fighter: His prototype TIE Advanced x1.
 * The Stoic
 * The Starscream: Because he really wants peace for the galaxy, So his original plan was to backstab Palpatine, and rule the galaxy with his son Luke.
 * Supporting Protagonist: He has the central role in the series and is arguably its most iconic character, but never has the leading role.
 * Taught By Experience: losing all of his limbs apparently taught him restraint and caution when dueling in the original trilogy, where he uses Hannibal Lectures, Psychic Powers, ambushes, and intimidation rather than the berserker tactics that.
 * That Man Is Dead: Or so he thinks.
 * Tin Tyrant
 * Tragic Villain: Knows what he does is evil, and hates himself for it; he must obey his master.
 * Tranquil Fury: Vader is for the most part stoic and silent in his manner and due to the fact that his mask hides his face and expressions, it appears to all that he is a cold emotionless monster. In truth, Vader is always angry due to the perpetual pain of his injuries and cybernetics and the loss of everything he ever cared about. This is partly why he has such a low tolerance of failure.
 * Used to Be a Sweet Kid
 * Vader Breath: Trope Namer.
 * Villain Ball:
 * Provoking Luke into an Unstoppable Rage when dueling him in Return of the Jedi.
 * In The Force Unleashed, attempting to kill who had outlived his usefulness. Fortunately, Marek returned and royally curb-stomped him and The Emperor, giving inspiration to the rebels through his Heroic Sacrifice, which ended with Vader's and the Emperor's death (as well as ).
 * Villain Protagonist: According to George Lucas, the film franchise is fundamentally about Anakin and his progression from innocence to a force of good, his fall to evil, and subsequent redemption.
 * Villain Takes an Interest: In Luke.
 * Villainous Valour: In the Expanded Universe, Vader is revealed to have a code of honor and a willingness to fight alongside his men that stems from his Well-Intentioned Extremist motivation to "bring order to the galaxy", and also from his remaining guilt over having fallen to the Dark Side in the first place.
 * We Can Rule Together: Suggests this to Luke during his Hannibal Lecture in The Empire Strikes Back. Prior to that, he suggested this to Padmé in Revenge of the Sith.
 * Weapon of Choice: A red lightsaber
 * Well-Intentioned Extremist: Anakin's reasons for turning to the Dark Side involved trying to prevent Padmé's death (although that ended up backfiring on him badly), and he legitimately wants to do what's right for the Galaxy.
 * That's for the second time. The first time (during the Mortis arc) was in an attempt to fight fate when the Son exposed Anakin to the future where he would become Darth Vader and cause terrible atrocities. In other words, he did it ironically as a desperate attempt to avoid becoming Darth Vader and cause the future atrocities. The only reason he returned to the light side of the force after that is because the Father removed the memories of what he saw to weaken the Son's hold on him.
 * Wham! Line: You know the one.
 * Wolverine Publicity: Most noticeably in the case of Revenge of the Sith, appearing prominently in most of the posters and promotional art, despite not appearing in the iconic black armor until the last five minutes of the movie.
 * You Are in Command Now: Names the trope when he promotes Piett just after force choking Admiral Ozzel. Ozzel's body hasn't even hit the floor yet.
 * You Can't Go Home Again: Word of God states that the reason Obi-Wan had Luke Skywalker go to Tatooine after birth to live with the Owens despite it being Vader's home planet is because Darth Vader is unwilling to ever return to Tatooine due to painful memories of the place.
 * You Have Failed Me...: Trope Namer.
 * That's for the second time. The first time (during the Mortis arc) was in an attempt to fight fate when the Son exposed Anakin to the future where he would become Darth Vader and cause terrible atrocities. In other words, he did it ironically as a desperate attempt to avoid becoming Darth Vader and cause the future atrocities. The only reason he returned to the light side of the force after that is because the Father removed the memories of what he saw to weaken the Son's hold on him.
 * Wham! Line: You know the one.
 * Wolverine Publicity: Most noticeably in the case of Revenge of the Sith, appearing prominently in most of the posters and promotional art, despite not appearing in the iconic black armor until the last five minutes of the movie.
 * You Are in Command Now: Names the trope when he promotes Piett just after force choking Admiral Ozzel. Ozzel's body hasn't even hit the floor yet.
 * You Can't Go Home Again: Word of God states that the reason Obi-Wan had Luke Skywalker go to Tatooine after birth to live with the Owens despite it being Vader's home planet is because Darth Vader is unwilling to ever return to Tatooine due to painful memories of the place.
 * You Have Failed Me...: Trope Namer.