Darth Vader

Characteristics

Height: 6'1" as human as cyborg 6'8"

Weight: 185 lbs., 300 lbs. as cyborg

Early Years

Anakin Skywalker was a little slave boy who lived on the desert planet Tatooine. He lived with his mother and worked as a slave for an alien named Watto. All in all, it was a rather normal life for a slave.

But since that changed, the Universe has trembled in terror of its eventual would-be destroyer.

Anakin's world was shaken up when the Jedi Qui-Gon Jinn and his "Padawan," or apprentice, Obi-Wan Kenobi, came to Tatooine. Jinn immediately recognized something massive in Anakin. Deeply connected to the Force, he had the potential to become the strongest Jedi Knight ever. After winning a Pod Race largely due to his Force skills, Anakin left with Qui-Gon, Obi-Wan, and Queen Padme' Naberrie Amidala of Naboo. Meanwhile, the evil Emperor had sent his apprentice, Darth Maul, after the two Jedi Knights. They went to Corouscant, narrowly escaping Maul at each turn. Unfortunately, he caught up with them. Maul battled Jinn and Obi-Wan. Although he killed Qui-Gon, Obi-Wan destroyed him, and took the boy as his apprentice.

Although Obi-Wan trained him well, Anakin had a natural violence within him. He was rash and unthinking--and he feared losing the ones he loved very much. However, he proved to be a great Jedi Knight, and speculation arose that he might be The Chosen One--the one who would destroy the Sith Peerage once and for all. He loved his mother, Shmi Skywalker, and wanted her, so he traveled to Tatooine to see her. But when he got there, he realized that Tusken Raiders, or "sandpeople," had murdered her. Anakin slaughtered an entire tribe of Tuskens, even the women and children of the tribe, in a blind rage. He was turning to the Dark Side. He also started a romance with Padme' Amidala, former queen of Naboo--one of whose Senators, Palpatine, now Supreme Chancellor of the Republic, would eventually corrupt it into the Sith Empire.

Yoda

He married Padme' soon after, and she got pregnant. However, Anakin feared losing her as he had lost his mother. "Fear leads to anger; anger to hate; hate to suffering," said Yoda who recognized that the boy might be on the path to the Dark Side. He started to distrust those around him, and he loathed the Jedi Order when he felt they wronged him. He also was taken in by Palpatine, who was secretly a Sith Lord. Palpatine gained Anakin's trust and loyalty, only to have Anakin learn that he was a Sith Lord. Palpatine told him, however, that with Sith powers, he could become immortal and stop other people from dying. Mace Windu defeated the Emperor--but Anakin had made his decision. He killed Windu and became Emperor's new apprentice: Darth Vader.

Padme

Anakin, now Vader, discovered that Obi-Wan was traveling to Mustafar, and that that was where Padme' Amidala was. He thought that Obi-Wan was trying to turn his wife against him--and that Padme' was plotting with Obi-Wan against him. Anakin went berserk. He nearly killed Padme and attacked Obi-Wan. They fought a huge battle on the lava planet, with both nearly striking death blows. In the end, Obi-Wan got the winning position. Anakin foolishly attacked anyway--and Obi-Wan hacked his legs off. Anakin then caught fire, and he nearly burned to death. Kenobi left sadly, for his friend and apprentice had turned to evil. Anakin was discovered by the Emperor-who healed him and put him in a black suit of armor with robotic limbs and covered with flowing black robes and a huge black cloak. He became the Emperor's apprentice and leader of the Empire as Darth Vader.

Almost twenty years passed from there.

Darth Vader

Power of the Dark Side

Darth Vader gained power beyond power beyond power and became the most powerful Sith ever. Vader ruled the Empire with an iron fist, using his power and evil to dominate everything beneath him. He had no rivals or real enemies--the Empire simply ruled everything. And then, the Rebellion, officially the Alliance To Restore The Republic, came.

Princess Leia Daughter

The Rebellion was trying to stop Vader and the Empire, so they engaged in vicious combat. And a young man, barely twenty years of age, but with a strong connection to the Force--Luke Skywalker--emerged. Skywalker was allied with Han Solo, a Corellian pilot and smuggler who had been cashiered from the Corellia Merchant Marine, Princess Leia Amidala Skywalker-Organa of Alderaan(whom Luke then did not know was his own fraternal twin sister), and a now very old, almost has-been Obi-Wan Kenobi. These destroyed Vader's base, the Death Star. Vader and Kenobi fought for one last time before this happened, though, and Vader killed Kenobi--only to have Kenobi vanish into a crumple of his own brown robes just as he was being beheaded. Before Kenobi died as a physical being, Luke heard him say, "Darth Vader...betrayed and murdered your father." Luke, not knowing that this meant Anakin Skywalker's corruption had betrayed everything he had believed in and seemingly destroyed the good man he had once been, swore revenge and promised that he would grow strong in the Force and bring down the Empire.

Luke Skywalker Son

The Empire, led by Vader, counterattacked. Three years after the Death Star had been destroyed, the Empire destroyed the Rebel Base on Hoth VI, though many of its All-Terrain Armored Transports (AT-ATs, or walkers) were destroyed in the battle. The Empire had gained strength, so as Luke traveled to Dagobah, in whose swamps Yoda now made his home, to become Yoda's apprentice and continue his training in use of the Force, Han Solo and Leia Organa traveled to Cloud City, in the Bespin system, to meet Han's old friend, Lando Calrissian. However, Lando betrayed them, and Vader captured them. Han Solo, who proved to have a price on his head thanks to Jabba the Hutt, was frozen in carbonite, and the Mandalorian bounty hunter Boba Fett took him to Jabba. Luke escaped, having reached Cloud City too late to save Han or Leia--but he and Vader engaged in a lightsaber battle. Vader's power was much more vast than Luke's, but he did not kill Luke because he wanted Luke to turn to the Dark Side and become an ally of the Empire. They fought, and Vader eventually slashed off Luke's hand at the wrist, over a balcony, causing Luke to lose the lightsaber Anakin had meant for him before becoming Vader.

Then Vader said, "Obi-Wan never told you what happened to your father, did he?"

Luke screamed, "HE TOLD ME ENOUGH!" Then he added, "He told me you killed him."

But Vader replied, "No. I am your father." Then he urged Luke, one last time, "Join me, and we can rule the galaxy as father and son."

But Luke chose death over life as Vader's son, and he let go and fell. He barely survived and continued the fight against Vader and the Empire.

Jabba The Hutt

More than six months passed. Over that time, Luke formed a plan to free Han. The group went to Luke's former home planet of Tatooine, location of Jabba the Hutt's palace, where Han was frozen. (Lando Calrissian participated in order to win a wager against Leia Organa, who had bet that he could not redeem himself by assisting them.) They freed him, and Leia succeeded in killing Jabba himself.

The Alliance had learned that the Empire was building a second, more powerful Death Star, knowledge that the Emperor had secretly allowed it to obtain. When Luke traveled to the base where Vader and the Emperor were, he revealed his acceptance of the fact that Vader had once been Anakin Skywalker, his father, and tried to draw Vader back where Kenobi had failed. But aboard the unfinished second Death Star, when Luke refused to turn even after defeating Vader in another lightsaber duel, the Emperor fired Force lightning at him, and was about to kill him as Vader watched. As Luke was was electrocuted, he moaned, "Father, help me!"

All the while, Anakin Skywalker had been fighting that which made him Darth Vader.

Successfully overcoming what had made him Vader, Anakin seized the Emperor and threw him into the Death Star's power core. He died after killing the Emperor and saving his son, who unmasked him to find that his father had still been essentially human all the time. No matter how evil Darth Vader had been, Anakin Skywalker died a hero, his ghost was seen at the Endor celebration.

Darth Vader had an apprentice called Samuel Witer. He was planning on over throwing the Emperor but his plans where shattered when he sacrificed himself for his son Luke Skywalker.

Powers, Abilities, and Weapons

All Powerful

Darth Vader had quite possibly the strongest mastery over the Force of anyone who ever lived. He could employ it for the purposes of psychokinesis and telepathy, and he could sense danger and perceive possible futures. Though his organic body was almost useless, Vader had had an extensive array of bionic prosthetic hardware cybernetically fused to it, hardware that granted him enhanced strength, speed, stamina, agility, and the like.

As his chief weapon, Vader carried a red-bladed lightsaber personalized to him. (Both Jedi Knights and Sith Lords had to construct their own lightsabers by hand.) He was a master with it, easily fighting the best lightsaber users ever. He could also employ special Force moves, such as Force Choking, but he could not fire, or resist the impact of, Force Lightning because of his cyborg body. Near the end, his mastery over the Force was nearly limitless--he easily deflected a series of blaster bolts that Han Solo fired at him without sustaining any damage to his armor or his cyborg body.

In his prime, Darth Vader never even came close to being successfully challenged as a lightsaber duelist and all-around combatant. He personified the tyranny of the Sith Empire, which ruled the Andromeda Galaxy. At the time he encountered Luke Skywalker for the first time(even though he apparently did not then recognize Luke as the son of the Anakin Skywalker he had once been), he could even destroy entire planets using a massive laser cannon mounted on the Death Star.

Appearances