Darth Vader

Dark Lord of Sith

Born as Anakin Skywalker to Shmi Skywalker, his birth was a mystery wrapped around him. The reason for this was that Anakin had no father. It was believed that he was concieved by midi-chlorians, themselves. As later discovered by the Jedi Knights Qui-Gon Jinn and Obi-Wan Kenobi, Anakin Skywalker had a midi-chlorian count at a shockingly high level, unsurpassed in history. At age 3, Anakin and his mother moved to Mon Espa Tatooine, where they were sold as slaves to Gardulla the Hutt. But at a routine Pod Race, Anakin and Shmi were given to Watto, a Toydarian junk dealer, because Gardulla had lost the bet on the Pod Race. Since he was very adept mechanically, Anakin soon became Watto's most prized slave. His reflexes were faster than anyone had seen (due to his Force abilities, he was able to see events before they occurred). Along with his mechanical skills, he was a very skilled pilot, which the greedy Watto soon found out. At the age of 9, Anakin entered his first podrace. However, Sebulba, the reigning champion acted too aggressively for the young racer, and, to much of Watto's chagrin, Anakin lost the race and his podracer destroyed. Watto, incredibly angry, worked him harder than ever, whereupon Anakin worked even more diligently. However, Anakin had begun to secretly build his own podracer. And when Jedi Knight Qui-Gon Jinn, Padme Naberrie, and Jar Jar Binks came to Watto's Junkyard to find a new hyperdrive, the Jedi came upon Anakin, who showed him the podracer, and his droid, C-3PO.

The Jedi Qui-Gon Jinn took a midi-chlorian count of Anakin. When it came back as incredibl high, he knew that this boy was not a coincidence. Fate had led him to Tatooine and to Anakin. They were meant to meet and, surely, as Jinn thought, Anakin was to become a Jedi. But how? After all, he was a slave to a junkyard. Qui-Gon thought that if perhaps Anakin could race and win, he could be gambled out of his slavery. The greedy Watto agreed with a little resistance, sinec Jinn was offering the beautiful Naboo royal spaceship. And so, Anakin entered the famous Boonta Eve Pod Race on Tatooine. After a few heart-pounding moments, the race was won by Anakin Skywalker. But, with his freedom, came the realization that his mother was still in bondage. With great reluctance, the young boy left his mother, vowing to come back and rescue her. He left with his new friend, Qui-Gon Jinn. On his way, his first encounter with the Dark Side occured. The Dark Lord of Sith Darth Sidious had decided that it was time to reveal themselves. And so, the first appearance of the Sith for more than four millenia came with Sidious' apprentice, Darth Maul. Maul attacked the vulnerable Jedi Knight, as he made his way back to his ship with Anakin. As the battle began, Anakin watched the duel spellbound, until Qui-Gon, getting a brief moment of breathe, ordered him onto the ship. Jinn barely escaped, however, by jumping onto the ship's landing platform, as it was lifting off.

Anakin went with the Jedi Knights and the Queen of Naboo to Coruscant. Here, as the Queen pleaded for help, Anakin accompanied Jinn and Kenobi to the great Jedi Temple. Here, Jinn decided that his apprentice Obi-Wan Kenobi was ready for full Jedi Knighthood. Upon doing so, he claimed Anakin Skywalker as his new padawan, even if the revered Jedi Council did not permit him. He stubbornly believed that Anakin was the Prophesized One. The Council began to do a series of tests on Anakin to see if he was ready for padawanship. Anakin aced all of them. However, the great Jedi Master Yoda saw great fear inside Anakin. He warned the others, including Jinn, that fear led to the Dark Side and that Anakin Skywalker had alot of fear inside of him. While the Jedi Council decided upon Anakin's fate, he went to Naboo, with the two Jedi and the Queen. There, he accidently took part in the battle, by flying a Naboo starfighter into the enormous Federation battlecruiser. Inside, he accidently released two torpedoes, which homed its way to the power generator and thus, destroyed the main battlecruiser. By managing to knock out the generator of the main Federation cruiser, he blew up the battle droid control computer and saved his friends on the ground. And thus, the battle was won, because of Anakin. When a heart-broken Obi-Wan Kenobi returned, without his master, the Jedi Council had made its decision. After a lecture by Yoda to Obi-Wan, the Council granted Anakin Skywalker apprenticeship to Obi-Wan Kenobi. And so, Kenobi trained the young padawan in the ways of the Light Side of the Force. Soon, however, the great Clone Wars erupted, shattering the lives of many. A great many Jedi were killed, as were other innocent civilians. When the Republic declared war on the Mandalorians, it called to arms many people. Anakin, lusting for the adventure and excitement that the war would bring, joined with the thousands of Jedi warriors in the fighting. He shone among the many pilots because of his extraordinary skills as a brilliant starpilot and fighter. As hero of the war, he married his long-time friend, Queen Amidala. Together, they lived happily, as he trained further in the ways of the Force and she governed her rebuilt world, once again. But then Supreme Chancellor Palpatine declared himself the Emperor of the Galactic Empire. The Empire attracted many, including Anakin, with promises of glory and power.

Anakin did not heed the warnings of Kenobi and Master Yoda and dabbled in the Dark Side. He thought himself strong enough to resist the Dark Side on his own. However, like so many others Jedi, Anakin was wrong. He was contacted by Darth Sidious and became the seventeenth Dark Lord of Sith, Dark Lord apprentice to Dark Lord Darth Sidious. Obi-Wan Kenobi believed that Anakin Skywalker had indeed turned into a menace and could not let it go further. And so, Kenobi confronted Anakin, begging him to return to the Dark Side, showing him how far away he was from his friends and family. However, Anakin would not listen and soon, the two were engaged in a lightsaber duel. The young Anakin Skywalker was no match for the veteran warrior, Obi-Wan Kenobi. As the two battled, Kenobi knocked Anakin into a lava pit. The saddened friend of Skywalker, Obi-Wan, walked away, full of grief and sorrow, thinking his old friend was dead. However, a badly burned and injured Anakin Skywalker crawled out of the pit, barely alive and burning with hatred and anger. The Emperor came to the rescue, promising Skywalker life, if he would accept the Dark Side and join him in the conquest of the Empire. Anakin accepted, vowing to take his revenge on the Jedi. The Emperor took Anakin and encased him in a suit of cybernetics. Anakin ordered special blaster-proof plastoid armor and the color black. And when he put on the suit, he became the menace which Obi-Wan Kenobi had feared he would become. Standing tall and evil in his black suit and flowing cape, Anakin Skywalker also rejected the name Anakin Skywalker and took the alias, Darth Vader.

Meanwhile, however, Anakin's wife had had two twins, Luke Skywalker and Leia Skywalker. Amidala and Kenobi agreed to have them hidden, sending Luke to his uncle Lars and aunt Beru's moisture farm on Tatooine, and Leia to Alderaan, to Senator Bail Organa. Now, as the Emperor's second-in-command, Darth Vader, with his master, hunted down each and every Jedi in the galaxy, called the Great Jedi Purge, trying to exterminate the entire order of Jedi forever. However, some escaped, such as Obi-Wan Kenobi and Yoda, and they went into hiding, to fight again at a later time. Soon, a Rebellion occured. The Emperor's long-time opponent, Mon Mothma had decided that the Empire had gone too far, being a racist and sexist one. And so, the Rebel Alliance came about, growing and growing. Soon, their first major attack on Emperor Palpatine's Empire was at Yavin IV, attacking the first Death Star. Darth Vader actively participated in this battle, shooting down every starfighter who tried to blow up the battlestation by shooting torpedoes into the main reactor core. But, the pirate and smuggler Han Solo shot a TIE fighter wing-guard, who was knocked off course and crashed into Darth Vader's prototype TIE fighter. Thus, Vader was sent flying off into space, wihtout any control. And only then, did Luke Skywalker manage to use the Force and guide the torpedoes into the core, destroying the Death Star.

As soon as Darth Vader regained control of his craft, he wen tback to Imperial Center (Coruscant), where he had to face the wrath of his master. Later, remembered that he had felt a strong Force power emanating from Luke and set out to find the pilot's true identity. After an investigation, he learned that the pilot was his son, Luke Skywalker. Vader immediately adaped him into his life-time scheme. When he had come into league with the Emperor, he had vowed to come to the top, destroying his master, and ruling the galaxt himself. Now, with his son in existence, he decided that, since there were always two Dark Lords in existence at a time, that his son would become the next Dark Lord. Together, they would rule the galaxy together and together they destroy the Emperor. Deciding to wipe out the Rebellion and catch Luke at the same time, Vader made an excuse out of trying to find the Rebellion, while trying to find his son. Finally, after finding the Rebels on the ice planet of Hoth, Darth Vader trapped Luke in the mining colony on the gaseous planet of Bespin, where, after a brief, one-sided lightsaber duel, he cut off Luke's hand. He told him the brutal truth about his parentage and told him how much the Emperor feared him. Calling it his destiny, Vader asked his son to join him in conquering the galaxy. But, his son was not as easily seduced as Vader was. Refusing to be seduced by Vader's visions of power, Luke chose instead to fall into the Bespin's cast trash chute and die. But, by sheer luck, he fell into a smaller trash chute, but then fell out into the atmosphere, where he hung on to small metal rods. Thinking he was dead, he decided to call out to Leia for help. Miraculously, Leia heard and she, Chewbacca, and Lando Calrissian returned in the Millenium Falcon and rescued the young Skywalker.

Knowing the taste of failure, Darth Vader became obsessed with his new mission. He began scheming again to trap his son once more, turn him to the Dark Side, and rule the galaxy together. But meanwhile, Luke had returned to his Jedi Master, Yoda, and asked him the truth. Both Yoda and Obi-Wan's spirit confirmed that Darth Vader was indeed his father. And so, as the prophecies foretold, he had to confront Vader. Luke Skywalker let himself be captured on the moon of Endor because then, once meeting his father, he would be able to turn him back to the Light Side. But both of them did not realize the other's potential to refuse. And so, since he knew that his master would be listening in, Darth Vader took Luke prisoner and brought him before Palpatine on the second Death Star. There, on the Death Star, the Emperor let Luke watch his friends, the Rebels fight a losing battle outside. Since the vision would cause great anger, throught this, did the Emperor again try to seduce Luke. The Emperor also wanted Luke for himself. He had felt the great power in Luke and decided that Luke would indeed be a better servant than Vader. Although he had detected Luke's Force abilities, he had not detected Vader's desire for Luke as well. He pitted the two against each other, deciding to grab the victor as his new servant, knowing that it would most surely be Luke. When Vader touched a soft spot (Luke's sister), Luke exploded in hatred and lashed out from his hiding. With his lightsaber, he pounded his father with all his might, his strength heightened by growing rage. Finally, he chopped off the hand of Darth Vader. He paused a moment, which the Emperor, thinking that he was saying the right thing at the right time, complimented the angry Luke on his anger and telling him to finish off Darth Vader and take his father's place by his side.

And so, this was the Emperor's folly, turning Luke back to the Light Side and saving Darth Vader from certain death. Luke realized, with shock, at what he had done and how he had done it. He repented and cleansed himself from the Dark Side anger that flowed through him. Luke controlled his anger and refused to yield, throwing his lightsaber away. Palpatine, now seeing that this Jedi was too stubborn for his use, grew angry. In his rage, released Force lightning into Luke's body, preparing to kill him. As the lightning seeped through him, Luke cried out to his father to save him. Emperor Palpatine did not notice Vader's looks between him and Luke. He had not counted on Darth Vader as an enemy. After all these years, the one tiny portion of his mostly mechanical heart took over Darth Vader, as he saw his son dying at the hands of his master. Gritting his teeth against the excruciating pain of electrocution, Darth Vader picked up the Emperor and threw him down a ventilation shaft, and into the main reactor core of the Death Star. And so, Anakin Skywalker came back to life. As he knew it would Palpatine's lightning bolts short-circuited Darth Vader's cybernetic suit. His son thanked Vader, and brought him to a shuttle. As he lay dying in the arms of his son, Vader conceeded that Luke was right. Unlike the most of the former Dark Lords of the Sith, some good had still remained in Darth Vader until the end. And so, the great Darth Vader redeemed himself and Anakin Skywalker became one with the Force in the hands of his son, on the second Death Star.