Anakin Skywalker

Anakin Skywalker was a Force-sensitive Human male who served the Galactic Republic as a Jedi Knight. He eventually turned to the dark side and came to serve the Galactic Empire as the feared Sith Lord Darth Vader. Born to the slave Shmi Skywalker, he was conceived by the midi-chlorians, the microscopic lifeforms contained in the cells of all living beings, through which the Force spoke. Anakin became a slave like his mother; the two were property of Gardulla the Hutt, but she lost ownership of them to a Toydarian junk dealer named Watto while betting on a podrace. The entirety of Anakin's young life was spent on the desert planet Tatooine; from a young age, he displayed exceptional piloting skills, as well as the ability to build or repair almost anything. In 32 BBY, Skywalker encountered the Jedi Master Qui-Gon Jinn and Padmé Amidala; he helped them secure the parts they needed for their starship by winning the Boonta Eve Classic; Skywalker had also won his freedom by doing so. At last, he would be able to fulfill a lifelong dream of his: to become a Jedi.

Reluctantly leaving his mother behind, Anakin accompanied Qui-Gon and his group to the Republic's capital, Coruscant, where the members of the Jedi Council deemed him too old to be trained in the Jedi arts. Skywalker then participated in the Battle of Naboo; his efforts eventually led to the freedom of Padmé's homeworld from the armies of the Trade Federation. While Qui-Gon Jinn was killed in the Battle of Naboo by the Sith Lord Darth Maul, Jinn's apprentice, Obi-Wan Kenobi, promised to fulfill his master's dying wish and take Anakin as his Padawan. The Jedi Council came to believe over time that Anakin was the prophesied Chosen One; he would be the one to destroy the Sith and bring balance to the Force. Skywalker trained with Kenobi for the next decade, but soon, a Separatist Crisis arose that threatened to tear the Republic apart. In 22 BBY, Anakin was reunited with Padmé Amidala, and he was assigned to protect her when she became the target of various assassins. The two grew close over the course of Skywalker's assignment, but their budding romance was caught up in the Battle of Geonosis and the start of the Clone Wars. Anakin lost an arm to the Sith Lord Count Dooku; he received a cybernetic replacement and married Padmé in secrecy in the days following the battle, despite the Jedi Code's restrictions on attachment.

During the Clone Wars, which raged on for the next three years, Anakin was granted the rank of Jedi Knight and took on the Togruta Ahsoka Tano as his apprentice. Skywalker participated in several battles with Obi-Wan Kenobi and other members of the Jedi Order; his friendship with Supreme Chancellor Palpatine continued to grow stronger, even though the other Jedi were wary of Palpatine's rapid acquisition of power. Throughout the Clone Wars, Anakin Skywalker's anger and fear of loss pushed him ever closer to the dark side of the Force; his visions of Padmé dying in childbirth in 19 BBY made him desperate to find a way to save his wife. Palpatine, who was actually the Sith Lord Darth Sidious, manipulated Skywalker into becoming his apprentice; the Sith Lord promised that the dark side would grant Anakin the power he needed to save Amidala. Anakin became known as "Darth Vader," and Palpatine reorganized the Republic into the first Galactic Empire, decimating the Jedi Order in the process.

Darth Vader and his former master, Obi-Wan Kenobi, clashed on the volcanic planet Mustafar after the newly-christened Sith Lord attacked Padmé under the assumption that she had betrayed him; Vader was left limbless and ravaged by fire at the end of the climatic duel. Encased in a suit of life-sustaining black armor and told that his beloved wife had been killed, Darth Vader fully embraced his role as the Emperor's right hand and enforcer. When the Empire's superweapon, the Death Star, was destroyed in 0 BBY by a young Rebel pilot, Vader became obsessed with discovering the pilot's identity. He eventually learned that it was Luke Skywalker, his own son, who had been born just prior to Padmé's death.

Darth Vader continued to pursue Luke Skywalker and the other members of the Rebel Alliance for the next three years; he eventually managed to trap his son in Cloud City, where the two dueled. Vader revealed his identity to Luke and urged the young man to join him, but Skywalker refused and escaped. When Darth Sidious learned of Luke Skywalker's existence, he began to plot a means of turning him to the dark side and replacing Darth Vader; he made his attempt when Skywalker surrendered to Imperial forces on the forest moon of Endor in hopes of redeeming his father and returning him to the light side of the Force. In a final duel with his son on the Death Star II as the Battle of Endor raged around them, Darth Vader refused Luke's attempts at redeeming him and learned of the existence of his daughter, Skywalker's twin sister, Leia Organa. In the end, Luke defeated Vader but refused to kill him. When Darth Sidious decided to kill Luke instead, the broken Sith Lord, moved by his son's love, 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.