Star Wars/Characters/Anakin Skywalker

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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. You might know him better as Darth Vader.

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... From a Certain Point of View. His descent into evil shaped the fate of the Galaxy.

  • 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 Han Solo's Big Damn Heroes moment.
  • Adaptational Angst Upgrade: This is Zig-Zagged between Star Wars: Legends continuity and the current continuity. The trauma and angst for Vader in both are the same but he handles them differently between the two continuities.
    • Legends ~ In Legends continuity, Vader turns his rage inward and is defined by an extreme self-loathing. Vader resigns himself to being a monster after losing everything he cared about and his horrible injuries. His personal view of himself was so low that he unconsciously limited his power and in his private moments wallowed in grief and despair. The hatred that fueled Vader and made him so strong was hatred for himself. Vader in this canon chooses to side with the empire and Palpatine from a combination of The Penance and Self-Inflicted Hell. When Vader fought an apparition of Darth Maul, he succeeded in defeating Maul and with his dying breath Maul asked what he hated so much to give him the power to win. Vader's response? "Myself"
    • Marvel Canon ~ In more recent continuity, Vader turned his rage outward towards everyone and everything in response to his tragedy. Rather than shoulder the weight of his guilt, Vader would do anything to bury his shame and sorrow. While this made him much stronger as this allowed him to be in a state of almost perpetual fury, it also made him unstable and unhinged. While he carried tremendous guilt this would often express itself into unconscious Death Seeker tendencies where he would jump at the chance to engage in combat. Vader would adopt something of a Never My Fault attitude in that, while he would not deny the situation he was in was entirely his own doing, he would delude himself into believing that the Empire and his actions were Necessarily Evil and it was the price he had to pay to bring order to the Galaxy.

Power Luke. If only you knew. Only power can save.

  • Achilles' Heel: Force Lightning. His cyborg physiology means he can't use it without frying his own life support, and this is how Palpatine kills Vader during the latter's Heroic Sacrifice.
  • 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
  • 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.
  • Benevolent Boss: While Vader has a low tolerance for failure and incompetence, he respects talent, commitment, and work ethic. Vader doesn't care about how other people look at him or their opinions of him, save the emperor, and as such only cares about completing his goals and the job at hand. He generally treats subordinates he routinely works with and the men he fights with well so long as they are doing their jobs and can even be tolerant of failure if it is a rare exception from the subordinate and it was also an unavoidable failure such as the situation being more than his men could handle. He also gets on well with other people who are professional and respectful towards him but not in a kiss-ass type of way. The best example is his interactions with Inspector Thanoth. Thanoth was an excellent investigator, always showed Vader respect, and continuously proved himself capable and talented. His interactions with Vader were never tense and Vader even seemed to like working with him as Vader never showed Thanoth any malice nor showed open dislike which he often does even if the other party hadn't done anything to warrant his ire.

Thanoth: Lord Vader, may I make a daring suggestion?
Darth Vader: Do so.
....
Thanoth: This will mean abandoning out current mission but surely it's the only course
Vader: We are in accord, inspector.
....
Thanoth: (To the grand general) Strictly speaking I gave the suggestion, So if there is blame to be assigned I--
Vader: The decision was mine.
....
Thanoth: Thank you lord Vader. I have had commanders who would have thrown their subordinate into the trash compacter in such a situation.
Vader: I do not fear these fools.

  • 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:

Obi-Wan: "He is more machine than man now; twisted, and evil."

  • Cyborg
  • Dark Is Evil
  • The Dark Side
  • Darth Vader Clone: Trope Namer, obviously.
  • Death Seeker: Anakin at his core despises what he's become and unconsciously wants to die both as a punishment for what he's done, friends and family he betrayed and knowingly throwing away everything for a man he would come to despise. In more more than a few Imagine Spot sequences from the current canon comics, Vader had expressed that he wished Obi Wan had finished him off.

If you loved me Obi Wan, you would have killed me.

Obi Wan....(Vader takes of his helmet and kneels in front of Obi Wan)...Please.

Padme: I know there's still good in him. (Vader becomes consumed with grief)

  • Used to Be a Sweet Kid
  • Vader Breath: Trope Namer.
  • Villain Ball:
  • 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.
  • Worthy Opponent: an Averted Trope with the Jedi he hunted as part of the purge. For them he only feels contempt and scorn. In spite of the fact that a fully trained jedi was the only one who could stand against Vader, he sees them as inferior and beneath him while openly mocking them in combat. There are only a few exceptions
    • Vader respects Obi Wan as Obi Wan was the only one to defeat Vader and give him his devastating injuries. Obi Wan was also his teacher and they were like brothers before the fall of the republic and Jedi order.
    • Towards Luke, his son, who is not only his flesh and blood but also possesses the same level of force potential. During his fight with Luke Vader's normal smack talk was absent with his demeanor and attitude were surprisingly calm and he would even offer Luke words of encouragement.

Impressive. Most impressive. Obi Wan has taught you well.

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