As the Emperor’s apprentice and right hand
man, Darth Vader was given tremendous amounts of power within the Galactic Empire, serving
as the emperor's main enforcer. But when he wasn’t hunting down Jedi or
killing Rebel scum, what did Vader do in his free time? First off, despite having so much power within
the empire, Vader barely had any time for himself. For the first half of the Empire’s reign,
Vader was tasked in putting resisting systems into check by forcing them to comply with
Imperial law as well as being tasked in hunting down surviving Jedi. When things seemed to settle down and not
require his assistance, the galactic civil war started, which forced Vader into the front
lines and to do even more work. But when Vader did have free time, he typically
spent it within one of his many palaces and castles spread across the galaxy. One of these palaces was located on Coruscant,
and it was known simply as Darth Vader’s palace. It was the second tallest building on the
planet, only being shorter than Emperor Palpatine’s Imperial Palace, which actually was only a
walking distance away. But unlike Emperor Palpatine’s palace, which
was decorated with expensive treasures, artifacts, and artwork, Vader’s palace was pretty empty
and dull, only containing items that were necessary for his survival. And this was purely by choice, as Vader did
have the credits to purchase pretty much anything he wanted. When at this particular palace, Vader spent
most of his time within his meditation chamber, the only place he could safely be without
his mask and helmet, which he hated wearing. For the first few years of his new life, Vader
mourned his wife’s death and hated himself for the choices he had made within his chamber. He was pretty much depressed because of it,
constantly reminding himself of how much he messed up and how he failed to protect Padme. He once even visited her mausoleum on Naboo,
paying his respects to his dear wife and wishing her a final goodbye. When he wasn’t grieving over his wife’s
death, Vader spent his time within his meditation chamber trying to heal himself, particularly
his lungs. Vader despised the suit he was living in,
comparing it to a metal coffin. By repairing his lungs and making them not
rely on his suit’s life support system, Vader would have been allowed to ditch his
mask and to ease his pain. Despite his effort, he was never able to fully
achieve this. Probably the only thing he enjoyed doing within
his meditation chamber was having the ability to eat food. Due to his injuries, he was fed through his
life support system, which directly pumped nutrients into his body, but within his meditation
chamber he was able to remove his mask and eat normally, tasting the flavor of his food. But even that was difficult for him sometimes,
so he usually substituted regular food to liquid food. However he still prefered that over how his
suit sustained him. Another thing he typically did in his free
time was practice with his lightsaber, usually sparring against training droids. Vader also owned a fortress retreat on Coruscant,
which was located near the only visible body of water left on the planet, the Great Western
Sea. It acted kind of like a beach resort, though
it’s not known if he ever used it. Another property owned by Vader was Bast castle,
which was located on the remote planet Vjun. There he also had a meditation chamber, where
he did the same things we mentioned earlier, such as consuming liquid food or attempting
to heal his lungs. In this castle, Vader had a workshop which
he used to repair and modify his Advanced TIE fighter. It was one of the few things he still enjoyed
doing outside his meditation chamber, showing us that a part of his younger self was still
within him. The other thing Vader did on his own time
was search for Obi Wan so he could kill him. For him it was personal, and he wanted the
pleasure of killing his former master himself. It seems Vader went out of his way to occupy
himself with tasks as a way to avoid thinking about his past and his wife. Perhaps as a way to keep himself from being
reminded of her death and the pain her memories brought him. Currently in canon we haven't seen much of
Vader outside of his work, other than that he did once go out of his way to slaughter
an entire Tusken raider camp during one of his missions on Tatooine for revenge for what
they did to his mother decades prior. But lets be honest, he probably did it for
fun too. The final portion of his video contains spoilers
for Rogue One, so just a heads up if you haven’t seen it yet. In Rogue One, we see that Darth Vader has
a castle on Mustafar, where it seems he spends most of his time within a bacta tank without
his armor on. It’s probably the only time he’s not in
constant pain, as the bacta eases his burned body. Seeing how the castle is on Mustafar, Vader
probably also spent time reminding himself of his failures and fueling himself with anger
over his defeat against Obi Wan.
