At the end of Anakin Skywalker’s life, long after he was given the title of Darth Vader and stripped of almost everything that made him human, his son, Luke Skywalker, wanted to redeem him. For Luke, helping his father seek and gain redemption is part of his quest in life.
Though Vader struggled along the way, Luke, ultimately, holds his father and takes his helmet off for him as he dies. However, throughout Darth Vader’s life up in Star Wars until that point, he committed a number of heinous acts and countless atrocities. There are many who would sooner kill Vader themselves than allow him redemption, and with the terrible things he’s done, few would argue with their decision.
10 Served Alongside The Emperor As His Right-Hand Man For Years
Emperor Palpatine is notoriously the worst man in the entire galaxy. A twisted, evil man who is really no longer a man at all, Palpatine is more of a gnarled old monster than anything else. In spite of Emperor Palpatine’s numerous horrible actions, though, Anakin Skywalker is swayed to his side and stays there as Darth Vader for years. Through all of the terrible things the Emperor does, Darth Vader not only stands by him, but he helps him.
Whatever Palpatine wants, Vader will make sure it gets done. The two of them are a monstrous, murderous duo, tormenting the galaxy for years and years.
9 Turned On Ahsoka Tano
When Anakin Skywalker was still a young Jedi, he had an apprentice of his own. He trained Ahsoka Tano to follow in his footsteps, though the two of them often found themselves butting heads. Ultimately, they loved each other and were like a big brother and a little sister, or a father and a daughter.
However, after Anakin falls to the Dark Side and becomes Darth Vader, he willingly helps execute Order 66 to kill all the Jedi — including Ahsoka. Even worse, when Anakin and Ahsoka finally fight against each other, Vader seemingly doesn’t care if Ahsoka is dead or not at the end of the battle. The girl he once loved becomes the woman he leaves for dead after a fight.
8 Had His Own Daughter Tortured
Anakin Skywalker has two children with Padmé Amidala, twins: Luke Skywalker, and Leia Organa. The two of them have different surnames as they were taken in by different families as newborns; Princess Leia Organa was raised on Alderaan by Bail Organa and Queen Breha Organa. As her parents were rebels, so was Leia — she was a member of the Rebel Alliance, which drew Vader’s attention to her.
Regardless of whether or not Vader knew Leia was his daughter, he is still the one responsible for her torture. He orders an interrogation droid to torture Leia for information, indicating he would do this to anyone he captured — to a diplomat, a princess, his own daughter.
7 Cut Off His Own Son’s Hand
Darth Vader has countless sins against his children; not only does he have Leia tortured and physically harmed, but he is also the one personally responsible for Luke losing his hand. When the two of them were locked in battle, Darth Vader sought to remove the lightsaber from Luke’s hand. Rather than just knocking the lightsaber out of his grasp, Vader chops Luke’s entire hand off.
He then reveals to Luke that he is his true father, leading Luke to feel so hopeless and devastated that he tries to kill himself. If Leia had not heard his call and come to help him, Luke would have died after this encounter with Darth Vader, his own father, who hurt him so horribly badly.
6 Helped To Kill The Jedi
Emperor Palpatine, while he was still known as Darth Sidious, knew that he had to clear the path for the Sith — and, in doing so, destroy all the Jedi. While Anakin Skywalker was once a Jedi, Darth Vader is meant to have no qualms about killing Jedi indiscriminately, and it seems that he truly doesn’t. Darth Vader is instructed to kill every Jedi he crosses paths with; Anakin travels to Mustafar and kills absolutely everybody he lays eyes on. Darth Vader just willingly participates in the execution of Order 66. He is the one who helped kill all the Jedi in the first place.
5 Responsible For Padmé’s Death
Anakin Skywalker once claimed to love Padmé Amidala above anyone and anything else in his life. The Jedi are discouraged — and often flat-out forbidden — from having romantic relationships, but this is not something Anakin can, or wants to, commit to. He believes love has its own strength in the Force. Besides, Anakin loves Padmé so much that he would do anything to be with her, including marry her in secret and give her two children.
However, he betrays her in the most savage of ways not long after: he Force-chokes her, believing that she betrayed him when she did no such thing. She collapses and goes into early labor; though her official cause of death is apparently just “losing the will to live,” it’s obvious Vader is the one who killed her.
4 Orphaned And Separated His Children
Almost immediately after Luke and Leia were born, Padmé Amidala passed away. Darth Vader was told his entire family had died, not knowing that he had living twin children out there. In the process, Vader effectively orphaned his children and separated them for the first time. Leia was raised on Alderaan and Luke was raised on Tatooine.
However, later in their lives, Vader was partially responsible for the destruction of Alderaan and for the deaths of Luke’s Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru. As if it wasn’t bad enough that Vader had orphaned them once before, he took their adoptive parents from them, as well.
3 Killed His Own Master
When Anakin Skywalker was still a boy, the Jedi Council was hesitant to raise up someone with such immense and misunderstood powers inside of him. Some believed he would bring balance to the Force, and some believed he would destroy the Jedi. However, Obi-Wan Kenobi saw the best in Anakin Skywalker and took him under his wing as his Padawan, eventually. While Anakin was Obi-Wan’s apprentice and the two of them were closer than brothers, Anakin still felt the pull of the Dark Side.
The two of them fell out spectacularly, only to be reunited years later as Obi-Wan tried to guide Luke in his fight against Vader. Luke survived, but, after all these years, Vader finally killed Obi-Wan — his own former master, and best friend.
2 Helped Destroy Alderaan
Darth Vader is literally responsible for the destruction of an entire planet. Grand Moff Tarkin may have been the one to actually give the order, but Darth Vader was right there with them, forcing Leia to watch as her planet was destroyed. Darth Vader forces his daughter to watch the only home she has ever known get blown up, with countless lives lost in the process, including the lives of her family members. He is partially responsible for killing so many people that even Obi-Wan can’t fully process the devastation that is the loss of Alderaan.
1 Murdered A Number Of Younglings
Perhaps one of the most despicable acts Darth Vader ever commits on screen is the murder of a group of younglings. When Anakin was instructed to kill all the Jedi he came across and purge the Jedi temple, this did not just include adult Jedi. This also included the younglings being trained: a group of innocent children taken in by the Jedi, just beginning to learn the ways of the Force. They trusted Anakin, until the moment he illuminated his lightsaber in front of them. With two children of his own on the way, Darth Vader heartlessly and ruthlessly slaughters innocent children, forever proving himself to be irredeemable.