Darth Vader / Anakin Skywalker

Anakin grows up enslaved to the trader Watto in Mos Espa, alongside his mother, Shmi. He builds droids and flies podracers, something no other human can do. Qui-Gon Jinn senses a huge presence in the Force in him and bets on the Boonta Eve race to get him out. Anakin wins and gets his freedom, but Shmi stays behind.

On Coruscant, the Jedi Council doesn't like what it sees: the boy has too much fear and is too old to start training. Qui-Gon believes he's the Chosen One of an ancient prophecy. When Qui-Gon dies on Naboo, Obi-Wan Kenobi takes on the promise to train him. On that same journey, Anakin meets Padmé Amidala.

Ten years later, Anakin is a gifted apprentice. Assigned to protect Padmé, he falls in love with her and starts seeing Jedi discipline as an obstacle. Nightmares about his mother take him back to Tatooine, where he learns Shmi was captured by Tusken Raiders. She dies in his arms, and Anakin slaughters the entire camp, including women and children.

On Geonosis, he loses his right arm in a duel with Count Dooku and starts using a mechanical prosthetic. The film ends with his secret wedding to Padmé on Naboo, against the rules of the Order.

During the Clone Wars, Anakin becomes a general and a war hero. The Council gives him an apprentice, Ahsoka Tano, partly so he'll learn to let go. The opposite happens: the two form a strong bond. When Ahsoka is falsely accused of a bombing at the Temple, Anakin is almost the only one who believes her. Even after she's cleared, she decides to leave the Order, and he can't stop her.

In Revenge of the Sith, Anakin kills an unarmed Dooku at Chancellor Palpatine's urging. Padmé is pregnant and he dreams she'll die in childbirth. Palpatine reveals himself as a Sith Lord and offers what the Jedi can't: a power that can stop death. Anakin reports the chancellor to Mace Windu, but at the decisive moment he saves Palpatine and helps kill the Jedi Master.

Now Darth Vader, he attacks the Jedi Temple and executes the Separatist leaders on Mustafar. There, he Force-chokes Padmé, believing she betrayed him, and faces Obi-Wan. He loses his legs and his remaining arm and burns at the edge of the lava. Palpatine picks him up, and he wakes up inside the black armor, being told Padmé died because of him.

The Siege of Mandalore happens at the same time as the film. Anakin hands Ahsoka part of the 501st, with helmets painted with her markings, and leaves to rescue Palpatine. It's the last time they see each other as friends. At the end of the arc, Vader, already in armor, arrives at the wreckage of a Star Destroyer on an icy moon, where clones were buried, and picks up the lightsaber Ahsoka left behind.

Ten years after Mustafar, Vader uses the Inquisitors to hunt surviving Jedi. When he learns Obi-Wan is alive, the hunt gets personal. On Mapuzo, he sets fire to the fuel on the ground and burns his old master, paying back what he suffered on Mustafar. On Jabiim, he takes down the Inquisitor Reva, who wanted to avenge the younglings he killed at the Temple.

In the final duel, Obi-Wan cracks the helmet and sees Anakin's face underneath. Vader replies that Obi-Wan didn't kill Anakin; he did. Obi-Wan says goodbye, calling him simply Darth. Afterward, Palpatine demands loyalty and Vader gives up the search.

In Rebels, Ahsoka already knows Vader is Anakin. On Malachor, the two face off in a Sith temple. Vader recognizes her voice, the cracked mask reveals part of his face, and she tells him that this time she won't leave him. He answers that then she will die. The temple collapses and Vader walks out of the rubble alone.

In Rogue One, Vader receives Orson Krennic at his castle on Mustafar and Force-chokes him as a reminder of who's in charge. At the end, he walks into a corridor on the rebel ship and kills dozens of soldiers trying to recover the Death Star plans, which narrowly get away.

In A New Hope, Vader storms Leia's ship looking for the stolen plans and takes her prisoner. On the Death Star, he meets Obi-Wan again and kills him in a duel. In the final battle, he nearly takes Luke down in the trench, until Han Solo shows up and sends Vader's ship spinning away.

In The Empire Strikes Back, Vader is obsessed with Luke. He chases the rebels from Hoth to Bespin, freezes Han in carbonite, and uses Luke's friends as bait. In the duel in Cloud City, he cuts off Luke's hand and reveals he is his father, offering to rule the galaxy alongside his son. Luke chooses to throw himself into the void.

In Return of the Jedi, Luke turns himself in, believing there's still good in his father. Palpatine tries to get Luke to kill Vader and take his place. Luke refuses. When the Emperor tortures him with lightning, Vader lifts him up and throws him down a reactor shaft, taking a fatal shock. Without the mask, Anakin looks at his son with his own eyes and dies. At the celebration on Endor, he appears as a Force spirit alongside Obi-Wan and Yoda.

In Ahsoka, the title character is wounded by Baylan Skoll and wakes up in the World Between Worlds, where Anakin is waiting for her, looking the way he did during the war. He takes her back through Clone Wars battles and makes Ahsoka face her own fear of repeating his mistakes, until she chooses to live. In the final episode, Anakin's spirit is seen watching Ahsoka on Peridea.

Hayden Christensen is confirmed for season two, which premieres January 20, 2027.

Thirty years after Endor, Vader's melted helmet is in the hands of his grandson, Ben Solo, now Kylo Ren. Kylo talks to the mask and promises to finish what his grandfather started.

In Marvel's canon comics, the Darth Vader series (2015) covers the period right after A New Hope, when he learns that the pilot who destroyed the Death Star is named Skywalker.