What Did Darth Vader Do in on His Days Off?
427The right-hand man of Emperor Palpatine, Darth Vader was an essential part of the Empire’s success, with him being in large part the image of success of the Emperor’s iron fist which stretched across the entire galaxy.
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Though we know he went on many missions at Palpatine’s request, how did the Sith lord spend his free time? Well, I’m about to break that down so smash the subscribe button, join the StarForceOne discord, and let’s get into it.
First off, we have to keep in mind that Vader actually didn’t have all that much free time to begin with. He was constantly representing the Empire, crushing aspects of the rebellion around the galaxy. In the earliest years of his turn to the dark side, he did have more time to himself, but still spent a great deal of it training the inquisitors and hunting down survivors of Order 66. Hunting Jedi was actually an interest of his, since he and Palpatine both felt that the best way to stamp out any remains of Anakin Skywalker would be to entirely destroy whatever was still alive relating to his past as a Jedi.
In between missions, Vader found refuge in his various palaces and castles dotted throughout the galaxy. He would often spend time in his meditation chamber - although rather than any actual meditating, his thoughts constantly dwelled on his past, the things he lost, primarily his mother and beloved wife. Although he undoubtedly spent a great deal of energy hating himself for what he had done, he harbored the most anger to his old master Obi-Wan. If it weren’t for him, Anakin would have saved Padme and wouldn’t have ended up in such a pathetic, agonising state. Or at least, so he thought.
Thoughts like this fueled his hatred, making him more powerful and aggressive on missions and attacks performed after his time alone. He also continued tinkering like he did throughout his childhood, with him fixing up an old radio sometime before A New Hope, simply out of a desire to have some remembrance of the old, peaceful times when he dreamt of exploring space and its many planets.
Aside from training the inquisitors, Vader also continued his own practice, refining his already masterful abilities in each lightsaber form, something which he ensured he kept himself at the top of the game with so that he could easily defeat Jedi who opposed him. Seven years after his fall from the light side of the force, Vader constructed a fortress on the planet Mustafar, which was home to not only private meditation chambers which Vader frequented often, but also provided the opportunity to revisit and gaze upon the site of his defeat to Obi-Wan, strengthening his hatred of him even more.
It was here, on Mustafar, that the dark lord ended up spending a great deal of his free time, communicating with and eventually battling an ancient sith spirit he came across, known as Darth Momin. Momin assisted Vader in finding a way to gain back his old body through an old portal, which would have made him powerful enough to overthrow Palpatine, but just before Vader could enter the portal, Momin did instead, reclaiming his old body, leading the two to engage in a dark duel.
The construction of Vader’s Fortress led to a lot of hardship for the native Mustafarian population, leading to them rising up against Vader and his troopers, attacking the fortress and attempting to destroy them forever. After the intense defense against the siege on his fortress, during which Vader slaughtered many opponents as his lava troopers dispatched the rest, he realised that there was no way he would be able to reclaim his old body, and pursued a different goal.
He had long wanted to resurrect Padme, and had tried to on numerous occasions, but it was after this crippling blow to his mental state that he set his full determination on this goal, which took him in many adventures but were all, of course, ultimately unsuccessful. This failure only led him to further hate himself and Obi-Wan, with him vowing to find and destroy his old master no matter what.