Darth Vader’s story has been incorporated
into every aspect of the Star Wars saga, from films to shows, comics, and books. So now, it's time to chart his entire course
from an enslaved boy on Tatooine to the inspiration for the galaxy's current reigning big bad. This is Darth Vader's story, explained. Four decades before he walked onto Princess
Leia's ship as the embodiment of the evil Empire, when audiences got their first glimpse
of Darth Vader, Anakin Skywalker was born on Tatooine as the child of a slave woman
named Shmi Skywalker. When the Jedi master Qui-Gon Jinn asked Shmi
about the boy's father years later, she simply told him that there wasn't one, leading Qui-Gon
to deduce that Anakin had been conceived by the Force entities known as midi-chlorians
. Though it hasn't been conclusively stated, it's heavily implied in both the film and
the comics that Anakin's conception was caused by the manipulations of the Sith Lord Darth
Plagueis and his apprentice, Darth Sidious. Anakin showed tremendous intelligence and
skill from a very young age, and was so adept at mechanics and repairs that he built the
protocol droid C-3PO before he'd turned ten. He was also a skilled podracer, making him
a rarity as human reflexes were usually too slow to allow them to survive in the sport,
which drew the attention of a pair of Jedi knights. After learning about Anakin's curious parentage
and testing his midi-chlorian count, Qui-Gon became convinced of Anakin's potential as
a Jedi. With Qui-Gon's encouragement, Anakin won his
freedom in a podrace and accompanied Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan to Coruscant, sadly having to
leave his mother behind. Qui-Gon took Anakin before the Jedi High Council,
convinced that the boy could be the Chosen One who would bring balance to the Force. Masters Yoda and Mace Windu were wary of Anakin's
age and his fearful demeanor, but Qui-Gon pleaded for the opportunity to train him anyway. In the Battle of Naboo, Anakin piloted a starfighter
against the Trade Federation, proving that his Jedi reflexes and skill as a pilot extended
beyond podracing. After the battle was over, he discovered that
Qui-Gon had been killed at the hands of Darth Maul, and Obi-Wan made a vow to train Anakin
himself, in keeping with his lost master's wishes. The High Council consented, and Anakin became
a Jedi Padawan. Anakin spent the next decade training as Obi-Wan's
apprentice, and proved himself an immensely skilled Jedi who also had a tendency towards
recklessness. As a young man, he reconnected with then-Senator
Padme Amidala on Coruscant, when he and Obi-Wan were tasked with guarding her life after an
assassination attempt. "We will find out who's trying to kill you Padme. I promise you." "We will not exceed our mandate, my young padawan learner." While Obi-Wan sought to track down the people
behind the attempt on Padme's life, Anakin stayed behind as her personal bodyguard and
escorted her back to Naboo. The senator and the Jedi soon fell in love,
but Anakin's darker tendencies intruded as he became tormented by visions of his mother. With Padme at his side, Anakin traveled to
Tatooine, where he learned that a now-married-and-freed Shmi Skywalker had been abducted by Tusken
raiders. Anakin tracked down the Tusken tribe and his
mother, who died in his arms after seeing him one last time. In a rage, Skywalker slaughtered the entire
tribe, and vowed to Padme that he would become powerful enough to prevent the people he loved
from dying, beginning his descent into darkness. After the Tusken raider incident, Anakin and
Padme left Tatooine to rescue Obi-Wan who'd been taken prisoner by Separatists. Unfortunately, they, like Obi-Wan were soon
captured by Separatist leader, Sith Lord, and former Dracula Count Dooku, and sentenced
to death in a gladiatorial arena. As they tried to fight their way out alongside
the Jedi, reinforcements arrived in the form a clone army that had been discovered by Obi-Wan. Under the leadership of Yoda and Mace Windu,
they defeated the Separatists in what would become the first battle of the Clone Wars. With the battle still raging, Anakin and Obi-Wan
engaged Dooku in a lightsaber duel, but Anakin's recklessness got the better of him when he
tried to fight Dooku alone. The Sith defeated Anakin, cutting off Anakin's
right arm before being defeated by Yoda. In the days that followed, Anakin and Padme
were married in secret with the droids C-3PO and R2-D2 serving as witnesses because the
Jedi Order forbade such romantic attachments. As the Clone Wars gained intensity, Anakin
was promoted to Jedi Knight and became a key general for the Republic. His abilities and confidence grew, but so
too did his recklessness and, by extension, his fear of losing those he loved. In an effort to help, Yoda suggested Anakin
could learn how to let go of people by taking on an apprentice of his own who would one
day ascend beyond his training. He was paired with a young Padawan named Ahsoka
Tano, and while the two initially had friction due to Ahsoka's feisty nature, they ultimately
became friends. "Master, if you've taught me one thing it's that nothing is easy when you're around." Ahsoka rose in prominence alongside her master
as the wars went on, until she was framed and arrested for a bombing at the Jedi Temple
that was actually carried out by one of her friends. Ahsoka was expelled from the Jedi Order, but
Anakin and Padme believed in her innocence, and were ultimately able to gain evidence
that led to her acquittal at trial. Though she was offered re-admission to the
ranks of the Jedi, Ahsoka was disillusioned after her trial, and she chose to leave the
Jedi behind. Witnessing the treatment of his former apprentice
only served to further frustrate Anakin, who was beginning to lose faith in the Jedi High
Council. By the end of the Clone Wars, Anakin's growing
abilities and his purported status as the Chosen One caught the attention of the Sith
Lord Darth Sidious. Sidious was manipulating the entire war from
behind the scenes via his dual roles as a Sith and as Sheev Palpatine yes, that's his
first name the chancellor of the Republic. Palpatine finally made his move on Skywalker
in the waning days of the war, urging him to kill Dooku in cold blood in the midst of
space battle above Coruscant. Anakin complied, decapitating Dooku, and Palpatine
continued grooming Anakin as his agent by appointing him as his emissary to the Jedi
Council. The council submitted to the chancellor's
wishes, but they refused to grant Anakin the rank of Master, further inflaming his frustrations,
though Obi-Wan continued to champion him. "I have trained you since you were a small boy. I've taugh you everything I know And you have become a far greater Jedi than I could ever hope to be." Unfortunately, the denial of Anakin's knighthood,
coupled with his frequent visions of Padme who was then pregnant dying in despair, led
Palpatine to finally reveal himself to Anakin, convincing him that he could stop the death
of his loved ones by using the Dark Side of the Force. Conflicted, Anakin first revealed that Palpatine
was a Sith Lord ... and then helped Palpatine kill Mace Windu in the hopes of learning how
to save Padme. Though distressed by his betrayal of the Jedi,
Anakin submitted himself to his new master, who in turn dubbed him Darth Vader. Palpatine dispatched Vader to the Jedi Temple
as part of his Great Jedi Purge, where Vader brutally slaughtered any Force user in his
path, including the children. Vader then journeyed to the fiery planet Mustafar,
with Obi-Wan and Padme, having learned of his betrayal, following to stop him. Enraged by the idea that his old master and
his wife were working together to betray him, he used the Force to choke Padme into unconsciousness,
then engaged Obi-Wan in a duel. Ultimately, Obi-Wan gained the high ground
in the fight, severed both of Vader's legs, and left him near a lava ditch to die. Palpatine saved his apprentice, then outfitted
him in a life-preserving suit of armor, transforming him into the half-machine Vader we all know
and love. Palpatine also told Vader that he'd accidentally
killed Padme and their unborn children back on Mustafar. In truth, Padme had died of a broken heart,
but not before secretly giving birth to Anakin's twin children, Luke and Leia, who were hidden
away from him as they grew up. Vader then took his place at Palpatine's side
as the Republic became the Galactic Empire, although he still harbored a desire to bring
Padme back at all costs. Two decades passed as the Empire continued
to rise, and Vader continued his efforts to eradicate the remaining Jedi. He also had to deal with Palpatine's schemes
to encourage his competitive nature by drafting other warriors who could serve as Vader's
replacement at the Emperor's side. It was during this era that Palpatine gifted
Vader a mask belonging to Momin, an ancient Sith Lord and artist, whose spirit still possessed
the mask. Vader used the gateway opened by Momin to
search for Padme's spirit and bring her back, but instead, he found darkness as her form
disintegrated before his eyes. Vader came out of the experience convinced
that both Padme and Anakin Skywalker were dead, and that his past no longer mattered. While Vader pursued his own interests, a revolutionary
movement formed, blossoming into the Rebel Alliance, a group which sought to wage all-out
war against the Empire. In those early days, Ahsoka Tano joined the
Alliance, dueling Vader to what he believed to be her death. The Rebellion gained an unexpected advantage
19 years after the fall of the Republic, when it managed to seize the plans to a planet-destroying
battle station called the Death Star. Vader led the pursuit of the Rebels and managed
to capture one of their leaders, Princess Leia Organa, who, unbeknownst to him, was
his long-lost daughter. After destroying Leia's adopted planet of
Alderaan, Vader then had an unexpected encounter with an old friend. When a small group that included Obi-Wan Kenobi
infiltrated the Death Star to rescue Leia, the master and the apprentice decided it was
time for a rematch. This time, there was no high ground, and Vader
killed his old teacher, but the rescue was successful, and the Rebels were clear to use
the Death Star plans to attack. In the ensuing battle, Vader almost killed
Rebel pilot Luke Skywalker, his still-unknown, long-lost son, who would go on to destroy
the Death Star and give the Alliance their first big victory.. After learning of Luke's true identity through
his agents, Vader finally tracked down his son at a hidden base on the ice planet Hoth. While the Rebels escaped, Palpatine revealed
his knowledge of Luke to Vader, and the two began working to bring the younger Skywalker
over to the Dark Side. Vader captured Luke's friends, Han and Leia,
using them as bait to lure Luke away from his training with Yoda, who had been living
in hiding for the past two decades. The plan worked, and Luke arrived on Bespin
to battle Vader and save his friends. Vader defeated the young Jedi in a lightsaber
duel, severing Luke's right hand in the process, and revealed that he was Luke's father. Instead of joining the Dark Side, he decided
to fall to his death instead, but was rescued by Leia in the Falcon. Vader returned from Bespin to help oversee
construction of a second Death Star, planning with the Emperor to use the new superweapon
as bait to ensnare and defeat the Rebellion by making it look more vulnerable than it
was. Luke re-emerged on the forest moon of Endor,
allowing himself to be captured and taken to the Death Star. He was determined to redeem Vader, just as
Vader was determined to convert his son by bringing him before the Emperor. During the duel that followed, Vader sensed
in his son's mind that he had a sister, Vader's second child and used this knowledge to draw
out Luke's anger. Rather than giving into the Dark Side, though,
Luke tossed his weapon aside. This didn't sit well with Palpatine, who responded
by using Force lightning to electrocute Luke. Watching his son die, something suddenly switched
inside Vader. Weak and wounded, Vader managed to throw his
master into the core of the Death Star. With his dying breath, Anakin Skywalker returned
from the Dark Side and told his son that he was right about him all along. The Rebels' victory at the second Death Star
marked the beginning of the end for the Galactic Empire. Vader's legacy as a Dark Side legend lived
on, however, and took root again in the form of his grandson Leia and Han's kid, Ben Solo. Ben caught the eye of Snoke, a powerful Dark
Side user and scholar who sensed the Dark Side potential in the Skywalker bloodline,
and he sought to cultivate it within Ben. He succeeded, and Ben Solo rose up against
his uncle, Jedi Master Luke Skywalker, ending Luke's attempt to rebuild the Jedi Order. When he fully turned to the Dark Side, Ben
Solo changed his name to Kylo Ren and vowed to finish Vader's mission to eradicate the
Jedi. He even acquired Vader's old helmet, which
had been partially burned in his funeral pyre. Check out one of our newest videos right here! Plus, even more Looper videos about Star Wars
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