Darth Vader

**Level Unlocked** | TBA

**Darth Vader** aka **Anakin Skywalker** is the main antagonist of the Original Trilogy who is one of the many playable characters in LEGO Star Wars: The Force Awakens.

## Background

Anakin Skywalker was a Force-sensitive human male who served the Galactic Republic as a Jedi Knight, and later the Galactic Empire as the Sith Lord Darth Vader. Believed to have been conceived by the Force, he was born to Shmi Skywalker into a life of slavery on the Outer Rim world of Tatooine. At a young age, Skywalker was discovered by the Jedi Order, who freed Anakin from slavery and brought the boy into their community; hailing Skywalker as the Chosen One of Jedi prophecy, destined to defeat the Sith and bring balance to the Force.

In the years leading up to the devastating, galaxy-wide conflict known as the Clone Wars, Anakin was apprenticed to Obi-Wan Kenobi. Following the events of the Battle of Geonosis, -- the opening salvo which sparked the Clone War -- Skywalker secretly married his childhood love, Senator Padmé Amidala. As the war progressed, Skywalker saw very little of Amidala, prizing the moments the two were able to share with one another. Early in the course of the war, the Jedi High Council assigned Anakin a Padawan of his own, Ahsoka Tano; a gifted student who, much to Skywalker's chagrin, eventually left the Order.
Towards the end of the war, Skywalker was blessed with the news of pending fatherhood, when Amidala announced she was carrying their first child. But this joy turned to an overwhelming sorrow, as Skywalker became plagued with visions of his wife's demise in childbirth. Anakin's desire to protect the ones he loved would drive him to the dark side of the Force. In a misguided attempt at saving the life of his wife and unborn child, Anakin betrayed the Jedi, pledging himself to the teachings of his former confidant and friend, Supreme Chancellor Palpatine (secretly the Dark Lord of the Sith, Darth Sidious), who ended the war, destroyed the Jedi Order, and declared himself Galactic Emperor.
Skywalker turned against his former master, Kenobi, and his wife, Amidala, when the two refused to join him. He caused the latter's death, and dueled the former on Mustafar. Kenobi, during the occasion, dismembered and left him for death. Forced to live in a life-supporting armor afterwards, he continued to serve Sidious as his apprentice and enforcer, putting down rebellions with his master and Grand Moff Wilhuff Tarkin. He also trained the Inquisitorius to hunt down any remaining Jedi and retrieve any newborn Force-sensitives per his master's will.
Almost two decades after his turn to the dark side, the various rebel groups who opposed the Empire's tyranny had united to form the Alliance to Restore the Republic, and destroyed the Death Star, the superweapon meant to cement the Emperor's rule over the galaxy. As the sole survivor of the Empire's greatest defeat, Vader was blamed and found himself pitted against several potential replacements vying to become the Emperor's new apprentice. In the meantime, he uncovered that the Force-sensitive pilot who destroyed the Death Star was his son, Luke, whom Amidala had given birth to before she passed away and Obi-Wan had hidden on the one planet he would never return to, Tatooine.
Now aware the Emperor lied to him, Vader drew out Luke, attempting to sway him into joining him and overthrowing his master: Luke refused, unable to accept the truth. But as the Battle of Endor unfolded, Vader fought Skywalker in a final duel on the Death Star II, his son now a Jedi Knight set on turning him to the light side. Skywalker defeated his father but refused to kill him, and when Sidious attempted to kill the young man, Vader abandoned the dark side and sacrificed himself to destroy the Emperor, fulfilling the prophecy of the Chosen One. Mortally wounded, Anakin made peace with his son and became one with the Force.
Before he died, Vader learned he also had a daughter, Leia Organa. She subsequently married the smuggler Han Solo and had a son named Ben. Ben became obsessed with his grandfather and also turned to the dark side, becoming Kylo Ren, master of the Knights of Ren, and apprentice to Snoke, the Supreme Leader of the Empire's successor, the First Order.