A young Jedi named Darth Vader, who was a pupil of mine until he turned to evil, helped the Empire hunt down and destroy the Jedi Knights...He betrayed and murdered your father.
—Obi-Wan Kenobi to Luke Skywalker.
Darth Vader, born Vader, was a Jedi Knight during the Clone Wars who fell to the dark side. A former Padawan of Jedi Master Obi-Wan Kenobi and a friend of Anakin Skywalker, Vader apprenticed to Darth Sidious and had a hand in the destruction of the Galactic Republic and the rise of the Galactic Empire. He served as the right hand man and Sith apprentice to Sidious.
Biography[]
Jedi career[]
Vader was born on an unknown planet strive with civil war. The son of a guerrilla fighter and a house wife, Vader was brought into the conflict at the suggestion of his father. By the time he was 18, Vader had a reputation of a beloved freedom fighter and worshipped as hero of his planet. By 22 BBY, Vader was discovered by Obi-Wan Kenobi, a Jedi Master of the Jedi Order and Galactic Republic, when he and his former pupil Anakin Skywalker came to the planet to put an end to the 800 year violence and ensure the planet's allegiance to the Republic during the first year of the Clone Wars.
At Skywalker's suggestion, Kenobi took Vader as his second apprentice, despite the young warrior's age. Together, the trio fought in many heroic battles. Kenobi taught Vader the ways of the Jedi and the Force while learning some piloting from Skywalker. Skywalker and Vader formed a close bond, which started from both having been Kenobi's pupils.
The horrors, war crimes and massacres committed by the Separatists affected Vader more than Skywalker and Kenobi. Vader came to believe that the Separatists were unworthy of trial and deserved to executed on the spot. Skywalker and Kenobi opposed this view, though Skywalker understand how he felt, having faced a similar crisis.
Fallen Knight[]
Darth Sidious: “I promise you, my young Jedi, peace, freedom and justice are our ultimate goals here. You are one with the Order of the Sith Lords. A powerful Sith you will become. Henceforth, you shall be known as Darth Vader.”
―Vader pledges his loyalty to Sidious
During the last year of the war, as Vader achieved Knighthood, he was approached by the Supreme Chancellor of the Republic Sheev Palpatine after Count Dooku was executed by Skywalker. Palpatine was secretly Darth Sidious, the Dark Lord of the Sith. Sidious sensed Vader's anger and sorrow at how the Clone Wars had torn the galaxy apart and how the Republic/Jedi were slow to act. Sidious made a proposal to Vader: if he became his Sith apprentice and did his bidding, Sidious would help Vader end the galactic war and bring about "peace". Although Vader was hesitant to abandon the Jedi Order, after a week, he accepted his offer. As Jedi Master Mace Windu and three other Jedi Masters attempted to arrest the Chancellor, Vader came to the Sith Lord's defense.
Despite his immediate remorse, with the deaths of four members of the High Jedi Council, Vader felt there was no turning back for him. Vader knelt to Sidious and pledged his loyalty to the Order of the Sith Lords on the condition that Sidious ended the Clone Wars and free his home plant, which had been occupied by the Separatists. Sidious agreed to Vader's demands and took the young man as his apprentice, naming him Darth Vader.
Sith Lord[]
Sidious sent Darth Vader to the Jedi Temple along with the 501st Legion to kill all the Jedi as Sidious issued Order 66. Vader and the 501st Legion massacred every Jedi in site, including Battlemaster Cin Drallig. Vader eventually confronted Anakin Skywalker, who was leading the defense of the Temple while at the same time evacuating Jedi into the streets and off world. Attempting to draw on the bond they had formed, Vader tried to get Skywalker to join him, to overthrow Palpatine, end the war and install a regime they had previously talked about a year before. Skywalker however, was loyal to the Jedi Order and the people of the Republic and would not turn on it. Skywalker expressed his feelings of betrayal and begged Vader to return to the light. Vader declined in sorrow, saying it was too late.
Igniting their lightsabers, the two warriors saluted each other before engaging in combat. The duel drew across half the temple. Clone troopers that witnessed the duel from afar later described in journals how the fight shook the temple as the battle grew in enormity, parts of the ceiling even falling down among the troopers and Jedi still fighting, due to the impacts of Force attacks used by both warriors. Skywalker was a formidable opponent and was the strongest warrior Vader had faced, but by the time the two found themselves in the Jedi Council chamber, where Vader had slaughtered younglings hiding in there, Skywalker's strength began to fade. Vader was also getting exhausted, but his newly found rage fed him power. Both weary from battle fatigue, Vader finally struck him down. Looking down on his former friend's body, Vader was almost overcome with emotion, but he continued with the mission. All of the Jedi Darth Vader slew by the time of his death in 4 BBY, Anakin Skywalker was one of the few Jedi he regretted killing.
When Operation: Knightfall was complete, Sidious sent Vader to Mustafar to wipe out Viceroy Nute Gunray and the Separatist Council. After this was done, Vader was confronted by his former master. Kenobi attempted to talk Vader away from the dark side, but Vader had made up his mind. The two dueled across the planet. Vader and Kenobi ended up on droids floating across a lava river. Eventually, Kenobi seized the high ground. Kenobi warned his former student to abandon the fight, but blinded with rage and arrogance, Vader left at him, blade angled for the kill. With one swift stroke, Kenobi severed Vader's left arm and both legs before the Sith lord even made contact with the ground.
The young Sith Lord's clothes caught on fire because the fumes from the river. Found by his master, Vader was taken to Coruscant and put in a life-support suit that he would wear for the rest of his life. His remaining right flesh arm was so badly burnt that it had to be amputated. Sidious ordered the medical droids to not give Vader anesthetics, because the pain would increase Vader's rage, therefore his power.
When Darth Vader came off the operating table, Vader swore vengeance on the Jedi, especially Kenobi, and vowed to rule the galaxy with Sidious with an iron fist.
What Vader and Sidious didn't know was that Skywalker had married Senator Padme Amidala in secret and Amidala had recently given birth to twins, Luke and Leia. Kenobi and Jedi Grand Master Yoda took them into hiding.
19 years later, Darth Vader captured Princess Leia Organa, the second child of Skywalker and Amidala, after the Imperial Senator-turned-Rebel had stolen Imperial plans to the Death Star, the Empire's ultimate super weapon that had the capability to destroy entire planets. Vader was present when Grand Moff Wilhuff Tarkin, seeking to demonstrate the willingness of the Empire to achieve the galaxy's obedience, ordered the destruction of Organa's adopted home of Alderaan by the Death Star's super laser. While Darth Vader said nothing, he felt destroying the planet was unwise. He reasoned that while the merepresence of the Death Star itself would make the systems of the Galactic Empire fall in line, he correctly knew that destroying an entire planet would cause the Rebel Alliance to use the planet's destruction as a rallying cry for their fight against the Empire. Vader believed that the Death Star should've been used solely against the Rebel Fleet's ships, especially the flag and capital ships. This would show the galaxy that the Empire was willingly to use super weapons while still respecting sentient life.
Shortly thereafter, Vader sensed a chance to avenge his defeat on Mustafar when Obi-Wan Kenobi along with four others came to the Death Star to rescue Organa. As Kenobi was attempting to return to the ship he came aboard, the Millennium Falcon, the Jedi Master encountered his former Padawan. With Darth Vader calling himself the master after leaving Kenobi as "but the learner" and Kenobi saying he was only a master of evil, the two engaged in lightsaber combat after almost two decades. The two duelists' powers and skills were formidable. Vader had a dual-phase lightsaber, allowing him to extend and retract his blade, having some-what an element of surprise. However, Kenobi had two more decades worth of experience, having been trained by Qui-Gon Jinn shortly before Vader was born.
By the time Darth Vader and Obi-Wan Kenobi came to the hanger, Kenobi's companions had made it to their ship. Contacted by Anakin Skywalker's spirit that it was time for Kenobi to become one with Force (which Vader didn't hear), Kenobi allowed himself to be struck down by Vader.
Darth Vader attempted to defend the Death Star during the Battle of Yavin in his Advanced TIE Fighter. During the battle, he came across Luke Skywalker, whom Vader sensed the Force was strong in. Before Vader could kill another Skywalker, his fighter escort was shot up by Han Solo in the Millennium Falcon.
After the battle, Darth Vader made it his personal mission to identify the identity of the pilot who destroyed the Death Star. His spies and a bounty hunter reported that his surname was "Skywalker". Darth Vader deduced that the boy was the son of Anakin Skywalker. Vader, determined to rule the galaxy, planned to persuade the young Jedi to become his apprentice and overthrow Sidious. Feeling he owed Anakin, Darth Vader was determined to not kill the "son of Skywalker".
Behind the scene notes[]
This is based on Darth Vader and Anakin Skywalker being two separate individuals until the writing of Empire Strikes Back. "So what I told you was true, when I told it to you."