The Galaxy’s Most Complicated Villain
Darth Vader’s story is anything but one-dimensional. His kindness is sharp-edged, his cruelty almost mechanical, but somewhere buried deep beneath that black armor sits a Jedi heart beating through the fog. Some moments reveal the boy who once rebuilt droids from scraps behind Watto’s shop, hopeful and oddly tender. Others unleash a rage so cold it feels almost clinical. Watching the shifts can be dizzying, especially in the smaller scenes, the quick head tilts, or the way his breathing changes just slightly when something hits too close to home. Here are 10 occasions he showed his good side, and 10 times the darkness won out.
1. Protecting Ahsoka from False Accusation
Before the mask, before the rasping breath, Anakin went to unruly lengths to defend his Padawan Ahsoka when the Jedi Council accused her of bombing the Jedi Temple and betraying the Jedi Order during the Clone Wars. Restlessly pacing, snapping at authority, tailing clues through dim corridors—Anakin wasn’t just a teacher but an older brother.
Gordon Tarpley from Tampa, USA on Wikimedia
2. Spiraling Into Grief After Losing His Mother
His decision to return to Tatooine wasn’t about power or ambition; it was love, guilt, and a fear that never quite left him. Sitting beside his mother’s body, his face streaked with sand and tears, there’s something achingly sympathetic about Anakin’s inability to leave his past behind.
The Conmunity - Pop Culture Geek from Los Angeles, CA, USA on Wikimedia
3. Sparing Ahsoka’s Life in the Clone Wars Outer Rim Siege
During the Clone Wars Outer Rim Sieges, a pivotal moment occurred when Anakin Skywalker chose to spare Ahsoka Tano’s life, despite the harsh demands of war. Ahsoka, no longer a Jedi, was operating on her own mission alongside the rebels on Mandalore.
4. Showing Mercy to His Son During Their Duel on Cloud City
Yes, he cuts off Luke’s hand, but he also holds back. There are beats in that duel where he could have ended his son’s life with a single stroke, yet he pauses. Vader’s version of mercy is messy, but it’s there.
5. Visiting the Site of Ahsoka’s Final Stand
Years later, Vader finds Ahsoka’s downed cruiser and her discarded lightsaber. He picks it up, activates the blade, and the glow reflects off his mask more softly than expected. He doesn’t speak, but the contemplative stillness makes it clear that Anakin is still behind the mask.
6. Saving Luke from Palpatine
This moment is the redemptive heart of the original trilogy. Electricity crackles from the Emperor’s fingers, Luke screams, and something in Vader breaks open like a cracked kyber crystal. He steps between his son and master and pays the ultimate price.
Roger Murmann from Eppertshausen, Deutschland on Wikimedia
7. Holding Back During His First Duel with Ahsoka
He tests her, almost gently, like a teacher checking a student’s progress, even though they’re now enemies. There’s a hesitation on his part every time she falters. It’s faint, but you can plainly detect Anakin’s Jedi heart preventing him from finishing off his former Padawan.
8. Warning Luke About the Emperor’s Influence
There’s a degree of sincerity in the way he cautions Luke about the Emperor on Endor’s walkway. He’s stuck in the trap and recognizes it. His voice, heavy and dragging, almost feels like he’s hoping Luke avoids the same fate.
Official Star Wars Flickr on Wikimedia
9. Asking Luke to Remove His Mask at the End
He knows it will be the death of him, but he’d rather pay that price if it means looking at his son with his own eyes. That tiny request is more Jedi than anything he’d done in years. It’s the boy from Tatooine resurfacing one final time.
Pasqualino Capobianco on Unsplash
10. Secretly Freezing His Anger During Padmé’s Funeral
Some stories suggest he watched from afar, hidden among the mourners or in the shadow of a Naboo cliffside. There was no outburst on his part, no storming in. Just a silent, aching presence. Whether legend or truth, the image feels undeniably Jedi-hearted.
And now, here are 10 times that Darth Vader was pure Sith.
1. Slaughtering the Separatist Leaders on Mustafar
He walks into that lava-lit chamber without hesitation or mercy. The Separatist leaders plead, stammer, backpedal, and Vader (though he’s not fully Vader yet) cuts them down without hesitation.
2. Force-Choking Padmé on Mustafar
The sound of Padmé’s throat tightening mid-sentence is haunting—and that’s putting it lightly. It’s a reflexive, paranoid burst of Sith aggression that reveals just how deeply the darkness had sunk into his bones by then.
Benjamin Claverie from Münster, Germany on Wikimedia
3. Hunting Jedi Survivors After Order 66
Once the armor’s on, Vader becomes a stormfront. He tracks surviving Jedi with a kind of obsessive hunger, destroying whatever scraps of light still dared to flicker in the galaxy. Even the Inquisitors flinch when he enters a room.
4. Destroying an Entire Rebel Cell on His Own
There’s that moment—Imperial lights flickering, dust shaking loose from the ceiling—when Vader storms a rebel outpost and leaves no one standing. By the time the smoke settles, the ground is a chaotic collage of limbs, sparks, and scorched metal.
5. Mercilessly Interrogating Leia
He doesn’t know she’s his daughter yet, although who knows if that would have been enough to keep him from following through on the interrogation aboard the Death Star. That floating needle and his clinical tone are the embodiment of the Empire’s cruelty.
6. Hunting Rebels Through the Corridors on the Profundity
In that infamous hallway scene in Rogue One, Vader tears through the corridors of the Rebel flagship, the Profundity, like a nightmare come to life. Rebels scatter as he dispatches them clinically, one by one. It’s Sith energy at its most potent.
7. Throwing a Fit in His Meditation Chamber
Vader’s temper tantrums are legendary. When he’s angry, troopers scatter and invariably an unlucky admiral or two winds up collapsed on the floor, their throat crushed. Sith rage isn’t always majestic or awe-inspiring—sometimes it’s just raw emotional immaturity.
8. Killing Younglings in the Jedi Temple
This is arguably the darkest moment in Darth Vader’s storied history. Seeing his familiar face, the little children run trustingly toward him, and he cuts them down. Even after his redemptive arc, the memory of this crime weighs upon us onlookers.
9. Torturing Han Solo Just to Lure Luke In
The torture isn’t even for information; he just wants Luke, and causing his friend agonizing pain is the easiest bait. Han’s screams echo down the carbon-freezing chamber, an ugly reminder of Sith pragmatism.
William Warby from London, England on Wikimedia
10. Wiping Out an Imperial Battalion for Mocking the Force
In Legends, when a lieutenant sneered about the Force being “superstition,” minutes later Vader left the entire unit scattered in pieces across a landing bay. It was petty, brutal, and theatrical—exactly the kind of rageful act we’d expect from a Sith.
