Darth Vader (Supermorff)

Darth Vader was a human Jedi in the final days of the Old Republic. His fall to the Dark Side, and his subsequent betrayal and murder of numerous Jedi (including his close friend Anakin Skywalker), led to the end of the Republic and the rise of the Empire.

Early life
Darth Vader was born into a life of slavery, and frequently bought and sold throughout his young life. Though considered little more than property, he learned of the benefits and mechanisms of power by observing his various masters, and believed that he could improve his life (and the lives of those around him) by gaining power for himself. He realised that, despite being a slave, he could nevertheless wield power by serving powerful masters. As a child, he began arranging to pass into the service of increasingly powerful masters. On at least one occasion he allowed one of his masters to die in order to achieve this aim. With each new increase in station, he used what little new influence he had to improve the lives of his fellow slaves, e.g. arranging for more or better food or accommodation.

When he was 12, Darth was freed from slavery by a young Jedi named Obi-Wan Kenobi. Unaccustomed to being free, and recognising Obi-Wan as the most powerful person he had ever met, Darth chose to become Obi-Wan's apprentice and learn the ways of The Force for himself.

Life as a Jedi and fall to the Dark Side
For many years, Darth Vader learned the ways of The Force as Obi-Wan's apprentice. He also befriended another Jedi, Anakin Skywalker, who taught the young Darth to pilot a starship. Darth and Anakin became as close as brothers, but their relationship was tested when Darth became infatuated with Anakin's wife, Padme.

For a while, Darth was able to resist his own feelings, but eventually he gave in. One night, when Anakin left Padme under Darth's protection, Darth attempted to seduce Padme. She rebuffed his advances and in desperation he used the Force to cloud her mind and persuaded her to sleep with him. This union produced a child, Luke, whom everyone except Darth and Padme believed to be Anakin's son.

Realising that The Force was more powerful than Obi-Wan or the other Jedi would tell him, Darth began studying its darker powers on his own. At the same time, he began accumulating power in the wider world. These two quests for power brought him into contact with Chancellor Palpatine, who was in secret a Sith Lord. Discovering that he had finally found a Master more powerful than any Jedi, Darth foreswore all loyalties to the Jedi and pledged himself to Palpatine. Darth turned against the Jedi, slaying many of them, including Anakin Skywalker, before being mortally wounded in a duel with Obi-Wan Kenobi. He was saved on the brink of death by Palpatine (who had now taken the title of Emperor), but Darth's body required considerable repair. He was enclosed in a life-sustaining cybernetic suit that he would wear for the rest of his life.

For many years, Darth Vader, now appointed as a Lord in Palaptine's new Empire, served as Palpatine's enforcer. He hunted down and exterminated many surviving Jedi, and sought to uncover and destroy the nascent Rebel Alliance.

Seeking the Rebel base
"I've been waiting for you, Obi-Wan. We meet again at last. The circle is now complete. When I left you, I was but the learner. Now I am the Master.''" "''Only a master of evil, Darth."

- Darth Vader and Obi-Wan Kenobi

When the plans for the Empire's Death Star battle station were stolen by the Rebels, Darth Vader was charged to recover them. He tracked the transmissions to the Tantive IV, a consular ship belonging to Princess Leia Organa of Alderaan. Before Vader boarded the Tantive IV, Organa was able to load the Death Star plans aboard R2-D2 and send the droid to Tatooine. Vader therefore failed to recover the plans, but now that he had proof of the Princess's involvement with the Rebel Alliance, he captured her and took her to the Death Star, where he used a floating interrogation droid to question her about the location of the secret Rebel base.

When Organa refused to surrender the Alliance's actual base's location while under torture, Vader and Grand Moff Tarkin, the Death Star's commanding officer, threatened to destroy her homeworld of Alderaan. When she told them that the base was on Dantooine, they destroyed Alderaan anyway as a show of force - Dantooine was later revealed to be a wild goose chase.

When the Millennium Falcon carrying Luke Skywalker, Han Solo, Chewbacca and Obi-Wan Kenobi was seized by a tractor beam and brought aboard the Death Star, Vader sensed the presence of his former master and confronted him outside the hangar. Challenging him to a second lightsaber duel, the two engaged one another. Ignoring Obi-Wan's vague warning that killing him would make him "more powerful than you can possibly imagine", Vader viciously struck him down. However, as Vader struck the final blow, Kenobi's body vanished and he became a spirit in the Force.

To determine the location of the Rebel base, Vader allowed Luke and Han Solo to rescue Princess Leia and escape with the technical readouts of the Death Star. During the Battle of Yavin, he piloted a distinctive TIE fighter and almost prevented Luke's attack on the Death Star from being successful. Vader sensed that the young pilot in his sights was Force-sensitive. When the Millennium Falcon shot down one of his two support craft, the other panicked and veered into Vader's fighter, sending him spinning away from the battle station, and leaving Luke free to destroy the Death Star.

Behind the scenes
originally appeared in the original Star Wars, portrayed physically by David Prowse and voiced by James Earl Jones. This version of the character was created by Supermorff as part of an exercise to see how different the Star Wars saga may have been if the franchise had taken a different direction after The Empire Strikes Back. In particular, the concept of Darth Vader and Anakin Skywalker being the same person was not firmly established until Return of the Jedi, so this version of the character explores the possibility that the two characters were distinct. This necessitated numerous changes, completely altering the character's backstory and personality, although Vader's appearances in the original Star Wars (aka Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope) and The Empire Strikes Back (aka Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back) were included unchanged.