Anakin Skywalker

**Anakin Skywalker**, also known as **Darth Vader**, is the main character in Star Wars Episodes I-VI.

## History

### Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace

Along with his mother Shmi, Anakin Skywalker was a slave on Tatooine, owned by junk dealer Watto. When Jedi Knight Qui-Gon Jinn, a Gungan named Jar Jar Binks, and Naboo handmaiden Padmé came to Watto’s shop looking for parts to repair their starship, Anakin befriended them. Unable to afford the parts they needed, Anakin devised a plan to help his new friends: he would enter the Boonta Eve Classic Podrace and give the winnings to Qui-Gon. While risky, Qui-Gon agreed, betting with Watto and adding higher stakes -- Anakin’s freedom. Qui-Gon realized that Anakin was Force-sensitive, and upon his victory in the race, informed Anakin he was free and could train to become a Jedi. The boy was overjoyed, but afraid to leave his mother behind; indeed, Yoda sensed this when Anakin was brought before the Jedi Council, and it was this fear that led to Anakin being denied entry into the Order. Qui-Gon was shocked at the decision, but told Anakin to watch him and stay close in lieu of actual training. Eventually, Qui-Gon, his apprentice Obi-Wan Kenobi, Padmé (now revealed to be Queen Amidala), Jar Jar, and Anakin went to Naboo, hoping to stop an invasion by the Trade Federation. There, Anakin unwittingly found himself in a Naboo starfighter, dogfighting with battle droids and destroying the Droid Control Ship. Qui-Gon fell in battle to the Sith Lord Darth Maul, and with his dying wish, asked Obi-Wan to train the boy. The Jedi Council agreed, and Anakin was accepted into the Order as Obi-Wan’s apprentice. He also began a friendship with Supreme Chancellor Palpatine, who was quite impressed by the boy’s Force abilities.

### Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones

Ten years after the Battle of Naboo, the Jedi Council and Supreme Chancellor assigned Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker to protect Senator Padmé Amidala after an assassination attempt on her life. Anakin was deeply attracted to her, and a love developed between the two. It was a dangerous path, as the Jedi Code forbade attachments and romantic relationships. At the same time, Anakin began to suffer from nightmares and visions that his mother was in pain, dying; despite Obi-Wan’s orders to stay on Naboo with Padmé, he left for Tatooine to rescue Shmi, Padmé in tow. Upon arrival, he found that Shmi had been kidnapped by Sand People. Anakin eventually located their camp and found his mother, where she died in his arms; enraged, the Jedi unleashed an inner fury never before seen, and slaughtered every Tusken he found. He buried Shmi at her husband’s homestead, and then left for Geonosis to rescue Obi-Wan, who was being held by Separatists. There, he and Padmé were captured and sentenced to die, along with his Master. The three staved off the execution, rescued by Jedi and the Republic’s new clone army, and pursued the Separatist leader, Count Dooku. Anakin and Obi-Wan dueled the former Jedi in a hangar, but were no match; Dooku defeated both and severed Anakin’s arm. Yoda arrived just in time to prevent Dooku from delivering a final strike, but the Sith Lord eventually escaped. After recovering from his injuries, including the replacement of his severed arm with a mechanical one, Anakin retreated to Naboo with Padmé where they were secretly married.

### Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith

The Clone Wars continued, and Anakin became a hero and grew vastly in power. Upon returning to Coruscant from a daring rescue of the Supreme Chancellor, the Jedi Knight found that Senator Padmé Amidala, his secret wife, was pregnant. Shortly thereafter, he began suffering visions that she would die in childbirth. Anakin was determined to prevent his dreams from coming true as they had with his mother; at the same time, the Jedi Council and Supreme Chancellor Palpatine had become distrustful of each other, with Anakin caught in the middle. As Anakin’s confusion and anxiety grew, Palpatine told him a Sith legend that spoke of the ability to stop people from dying. Entranced, Anakin was desperate to learn this power. Palpatine revealed himself to be a Sith Lord, Darth Sidious, and promised to train him in the ways of the dark side. Anakin eventually succumbed to this temptation, maiming former ally Mace Windu to save Sidious. The dark side Master claimed the mantle of Emperor, and Anakin led the Empire’s eradication of the Jedi Order as Darth Vader, Sith Lord. Against his wishes, Padmé followed him to the lava planet Mustafar, where he had just ended the Clone War by destroying the Separatist leaders. She confronted Anakin about all he had done; the new Sith claimed that all his acts, no matter how terrible, were done so he would be strong enough with the dark side to save her. But having tasted this power, he now had greater ambitions: to overthrow the newly-minted Emperor and rule the galaxy with his wife. Padmé was repulsed, and with the appearance of Obi-Wan (who had stowed away on her ship), Anakin assumed his wife had betrayed him, and he Force choked her. Padmé was left unconscious, and Anakin and his former Master dueled. In the end, Anakin was dismembered and left with terrible burns, cursing his old friend and becoming a being of pure hate. Recovered on the banks of a lava river by the Emperor, Anakin was encased in sinister black armor that kept him alive, and he truly became Darth Vader. Padmé, having lost the will to live, died after giving birth to twins -- Luke and Leia -- and Anakin was left heartbroken and more machine than man.

### Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope

Nineteen years after his battle with Obi-Wan Kenobi, Darth Vader remained the Empire’s tyrannical hand. Upon the Rebel Alliance’s theft of schematics for the Empire’s ultimate weapon, the planet-sized Death Star, Vader led an attack on a suspected Rebel vessel, seeking to recover the stolen plans and find the location of the Rebel base. Meanwhile, Rebel leader Princess Leia hid the data tapes -- and a distress message -- inside the droid R2-D2, sending him to Tatooine in search of Obi-Wan Kenobi. Vader and his stormtroopers killed all aboard with the exception of the Princess, opting to take her to the Death Star for interrogation. Leia proved able to resist a mind probe, and Obi-Wan Kenobi, having received Artoo’s message, soon arrived with the astromech, Luke Skywalker, Han Solo, Chewbacca, and C-3PO. Vader and Obi-Wan clashed one last time, with the Sith Lord striking down his former Master. Luke, Leia, and the heroes were able to escape, but only because the Empire allowed it: Vader had placed a tracking device on their ship, which led the Empire to the Rebel’s secret base. As the Death Star closed in, the Rebels mounted an attack, with Vader himself entering the fray in his TIE Advanced starfighter. Streaming through the Death Star trench and about to finish off the last of the Rebels -- Luke Skywalker in his X-wing -- Vader and his wingmen were attacked from behind by the Millennium Falcon. Ricocheted away from the Death Star and spun out of control, Vader was unable to stop Luke. The space station was destroyed, but Vader survived, and he flew into the far reaches of space.

### Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back

After the destruction of the Death Star, Darth Vader became obsessed with finding Luke Skywalker. He had dispatched probe droids across the galaxy, finally locating the Rebel base on the remote ice planet Hoth. Upon his arrival the Rebels had already escaped, but he pursued Luke’s friends with relentless fervor. With the Empire unable to secure the Millennium Falcon, Vader hired bounty hunters to track down the starship, and the deadly Boba Fett eventually set a trap for the heroes on Cloud City. Believing they had found sanctuary, Han, Leia, and company actually found Vader and the Empire waiting. Vader tortured Han in an effort to lure Luke to Bespin, and later had Solo frozen in carbonite. Finally, Luke, who had cut his Jedi training short to save his friends, arrived and dueled with Vader. The Sith Lord proved too powerful; he brutalized Luke with flying debris, and eventually severed his right hand with his lightsaber. Seeking to bring Luke to the dark side, Vader revealed that he was Luke’s father -- a shock that rattled the young Jedi to the core. Rather than join Vader, Luke chose to fall into a deep abyss, and survived.

### Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi

With the Empire looking to crush the Rebel Alliance once and for all, construction of a second Death Star commenced. Darth Vader and the Emperor were personally overseeing its completion, though Vader’s Master had another plan: to lure Luke Skywalker to the dark side of the Force. Vader and the Emperor waited for Luke to come to them, which he did; the young Jedi believed there was still good in his father, and tried to turn him back to the light side. Vader was conflicted, but still brought Luke before the Dark Lord. The Emperor taunted and tempted Luke, leading to a final duel between Vader and his son. Giving in to his hate, Luke overpowered Vader, cutting off his hand and was poised to deliver the killing blow. The Emperor commanded that Luke finish his father and join the dark side, but the young Jedi refused, opting instead to throw away his lightsaber. Enraged at this denial, the Emperor shot Force lightning into Luke, torturing him. Vader rose, the good in him awakened by his son’s compassion, and destroyed the Emperor. While he had suffered fatal injuries from the Emperor’s lightning, Vader’s redeeming final act restored his consciousness to Anakin Skywalker, and he had one last moment with Luke before peacefully accepting his death.