Darth Vader / Anakin Skywalker

*In Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace, Anakin Skywalker appears as a nine-year-old slave. Raised on the planet Tatooine by his mother Shmi, Anakin had no father, implying miraculous birth. He is a gifted pilot and engineer and has the ability to "see things before they happen". He even creates his own protocol droid, C-3PO. Jedi Master Qui-Gon Jinn meets him after an emergency landing on Tatooine. After discovering that Anakin's blood has an unusually high number of midi-chlorians (a measure of Force potential), Qui-Gon becomes convinced the boy is the "Chosen One" of Jedi prophecy who will bring balance to the Force. Anakin wins his freedom in a podrace, but is forced to part with his mother. Qui-Gon takes Anakin to the Jedi Council and asks permission to train him, but they are concerned by the fear Anakin exhibits and decline the request. During the film, Anakin forms a close bond with Padmé Amidala, the young queen of Naboo. During the invasion of Naboo, Anakin helps defeat the corrupt Trade Federation by destroying their command ship. After Qui-Gon is killed in a duel with Sith Lord Darth Maul, his apprentice Obi-Wan Kenobi promises to train Anakin, a proposal the Jedi Council reluctantly accepts. Palpatine, the Galactic Republic's newly elected Chancellor, befriends the boy, promising to "watch your career with great interest".*

*Ten years later in Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones, Anakin is depicted as the apprentice of Obi-Wan. Chancellor Palpatine assigns Anakin and Obi-Wan to investigate an assassination attempt made on Senator Padmé Amidala. Anakin travels with Padme to Naboo, where they fall in love. Anakin has a vision of his mother in pain and goes to Tatooine, where he learns that she had been kidnapped by Tusken Raiders. He goes to the Tusken camp, where he finds his mother, tortured beyond saving; she dies in his arms. Overcome with grief and rage, Anakin slaughters the entire tribe. After he returns with his mother's body, he confesses his deed to Padmé, who comforts him. Soon after, Anakin and Padmé travel to Geonosis to rescue Obi-Wan from Sith Lord Count Dooku and his Separatist army, but they are instead captured and sentenced to death. Anakin and Padmé profess their love for each other moments before being rescued by an army of clone troopers and Jedi. During a lightsaber duel with Dooku, Anakin loses his right arm and later has it replaced with a prosthetic. At the end of the film, Anakin and Padmé marry in a secret ceremony.*

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*In Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith, set three years later, Anakin is a Jedi Knight and hero of the Clone Wars. He and Obi-Wan lead an attempt to rescue Supreme Chancellor Palpatine after he is kidnapped by Separatist leader General Grievous. During the rescue, Anakin defeats Count Dooku in a lightsaber duel and decapitates him in cold blood at Palpatine's urging. When he returns to Coruscant, he meets with Padme, who reveals that she is pregnant with his child. That night, he has a vision of Padmé dying in childbirth; he fears it will come true, as it is similar to visions he had before his mother died. Meanwhile, Palpatine names Anakin his representative on the Jedi Council. The Council declines Anakin the rank of Jedi Master, however, and ask him to spy on Palpatine.*

*Palpatine eventually reveals to Anakin that he is Sith Lord Darth Sidious, the mastermind of the war, and that the dark side holds the power to save Padmé's life. Conflicted, Anakin reports Palpatine's treachery to Jedi Master Mace Windu. Despite orders to remain behind, Anakin follows Windu to the Chancellor's office to ensure Palpatine is captured alive. He walks in as Windu is about to kill Palpatine and intervenes on the Sith Lord's behalf: As Windu raises his lightsaber to finish Palpatine off, Anakin severs Windu's lightsaber arm. Palpatine then kills Windu with a blast of Force lightning. Desperate to save his wife, Anakin pledges himself to the dark side and becomes Palpatine's Sith apprentice, Darth Vader.*

*On Palpatine's order, Vader leads a battalion of clone troopers to kill everyone in the Jedi Temple, and then assassinates the Separatist leaders on Mustafar. There, Vader meets with Padmé, who begs him to flee with her. He refuses, saying that the two of them can overthrow Palpatine and rule the galaxy, shocking Padme. When Obi-Wan emerges from Padmé's ship, Vader accuses her of conspiring against him and uses the Force to choke her into unconsciousness. Vader then battles Obi-Wan in a vicious lightsaber duel, which ends when Obi-Wan severs his former pupil's remaining organic limbs. Vader slides too close to a lava flow and bursts into flames. With bitter regret, Obi-Wan retrieves Vader's lightsaber and leaves him to die.*

*However, Palpatine finds the crippled and disfigured Vader and has his apprentice's ruined body reconstructed with the cybernetic limbs and the black armor seen in the original trilogy. Enquiring after his wife, Vader is told by Palpatine that Padmé has died as a result of his anger, and Vader screams in despair. Vader is last seen alongside Palpatine and a young Grand Moff Tarkin viewing the first Death Star's constr*

   *uction.*In *Return of the Jedi*, set one year later, Darth Vader arrives aboard the half-constructed second Death Star. He intimidates the battle station's commander, Moff Jerjerrod, into stepping up construction. When Emperor Palpatine personally arrives, he assures Vader that the two of them will turn Luke to the dark side.

*Luke surrenders himself to Vader in the hope that he can turn his father back "to the light side". Vader brings Luke onto the Death Star, where the Emperor tries to seduce Luke to the dark side. A lightsaber duel erupts between father and son, during which Vader learns that Leia is Luke's twin sister and threatens to turn her to the dark side if Luke will not submit. Enraged, Luke attacks and overpowers Vader, severing his mechanical right hand. Realizing he is close to suffering his father's fate, Luke refuses the Emperor's command to kill Vader and take his place, declaring himself a true Jedi.*

*Enraged, the Emperor unleashes continuous streams of Force lightning upon Luke, intending to slowly torture him to death. The sight of Luke's agony breaks the dark side's hold on Vader, and he kills the Emperor by throwing his treacherous master down the Death Star's reactor shaft. In the process, however, he is fatally injured by the Emperor's lightning. The redeemed Anakin Skywalker asks Luke to remove his helmet and mask so he can look at Luke with his own eyes. With his dying breath, he tells his son that there was good left in him after all. Luke escapes the Death Star with his father's remains, which he later ceremonially burns in a funeral pyre. As the Rebels celebrate the destruction of the Death Star and the fall of the Empire, Luke sees his father's spirit, standing alongside those of Obi-Wan and Yoda.*