Editing Darth Vader (section)

=== Prequel trilogy ===
{{Main|Star Wars prequel trilogy}}
The first film of the prequel trilogy, ''[[Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace|The Phantom Menace]]'' (1999), takes place 32 years before ''Star Wars''.<ref name=":1">{{Cite web |last=Travis |first=Ben |date=June 12, 2024 |title=Star Wars Timeline: Every Movie, Series And More |url=https://www.empireonline.com/movies/features/star-wars-timeline-chronological-order/ |access-date=2024-07-02 |website=Empire |language=en |archive-date=March 23, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240323122442/https://www.empireonline.com/movies/features/star-wars-timeline-chronological-order/ |url-status=live }}</ref> Anakin is a nine-year-old slave living on Tatooine with his mother [[Shmi Skywalker|Shmi]].<ref name="gamesradar">{{cite web |last=Houghton |first=David |date=May 4, 2016 |title=George Lucas nearly wrote a perfect prequel trilogy. He just didn't notice |url=https://gamesradar.com/george-lucas-nearly-wrote-perfect-prequel-trilogy-he-just-didnt-seem-notice/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170331115418/http://www.gamesradar.com/george-lucas-nearly-wrote-perfect-prequel-trilogy-he-just-didnt-seem-notice/ |archive-date=March 31, 2017 |access-date=March 30, 2017 |website=Gamesradar}}</ref> He is a gifted pilot and mechanic, and has built his own protocol droid, [[C-3PO]]. Anakin Skywalker claimed that he had built C-3PO himself, although later Star Wars lore made clear that C-3PO had already existed and just fallen into disrepair until Anakin reconstructed him with new parts.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Collins |first=Elle |date=2019-08-29 |title=The Entire C-3PO And R2-D2 Story Finally Explained |url=https://www.looper.com/164303/the-entire-c-3po-and-r2-d2-story-finally-explained/ |access-date=2025-04-14 |website=Looper |language=en-US}}</ref> The Jedi Master [[Qui-Gon Jinn]] meets Anakin after making an emergency landing on Tatooine with Padmé Amidala, the queen of [[Naboo]]. Qui-Gon learns that Anakin was conceived without a father and can see the future. He becomes convinced that Anakin is the "Chosen One" of Jedi prophecy who will bring balance to the Force. After winning his freedom in a [[podrace]] wager, Anakin departs the planet with Qui-Gon to be trained as a Jedi, leaving his mother behind.

During the journey to [[Coruscant]], Anakin forms a bond with Padmé. Qui-Gon asks the [[Jedi Council]] for permission to train Anakin, but they refuse, concerned that the fear he exhibits makes him vulnerable to the dark side. During a conflict with the [[Trade Federation]], Anakin helps end the blockade of Naboo by destroying a control ship. Qui-Gon is mortally wounded in a duel with the Sith Lord [[Darth Maul]], and with his dying breath asks his apprentice Obi-Wan Kenobi to train Anakin. With the council's reluctant approval, Anakin becomes Obi-Wan's apprentice. Palpatine, the newly elected Chancellor of the [[Galactic Republic]], takes an interest in Anakin and his career as a Jedi.

''[[Episode II: Attack of the Clones|Attack of the Clones]]'' (2002) is set ten years after ''The Phantom Menace''.<ref name=":1" /> Anakin has grown powerful but arrogant, and believes that Obi-Wan is holding him back. After rescuing Padmé from an assassination attempt, he travels with her to Naboo as her bodyguard. They begin to fall in love, despite a Jedi Code prohibition against romantic relationships. Sensing that his mother is in danger, Anakin travels with Padmé to Tatooine and  finds that she was kidnapped by [[Tusken Raiders]]. He locates her at a Tusken campsite, where she dies in his arms. Overcome with grief and rage, Anakin massacres the Tusken tribe. Padmé is disturbed by what he has done, but comforts him nevertheless. Anakin and Padmé then go to [[Geonosis]] to aid {{No wrap|Obi-Wan}}, only to be captured by the Sith Lord [[Count Dooku]]. Facing execution, Anakin and Padmé profess their love for each other. They are saved from death by an army of Jedi and [[clone trooper]]s, led by the Jedi Masters [[Mace Windu]] and Yoda. Anakin and {{No wrap|Obi-Wan}} then confront Dooku, but he defeats them both and severs Anakin's arm. After being rescued by Yoda, Anakin is fitted with a robotic arm and marries Padmé in a secret ceremony.[[File:Hayden Christensen as Anakin Skywalker.jpg|239px|thumb|right|A wax sculpture of Anakin Skywalker at the [[Madame Tussauds]] museum in London]]''[[Episode III: Revenge of the Sith|Revenge of the Sith]]'' (2005) is set three years after ''Attack of the Clones''.<ref name=":1" /> Anakin, who is now a Jedi Knight and a hero of the [[Clone Wars (Star Wars)|Clone Wars]], leads a mission with {{No wrap|Obi-Wan}} to rescue Chancellor Palpatine from the Separatist commander [[General Grievous]]. The two Jedi again battle Count Dooku, whom Anakin overpowers and then slaughters at Palpatine's urging. Anakin returns to Coruscant to reunite with Padmé, who tells him she is pregnant. Although initially excited, Anakin soon begins to have nightmares about his wife dying in childbirth.

Palpatine appoints Anakin to the Jedi Council as his personal representative, but the council is suspicious of the Chancellor. They decline to grant Anakin the rank of Jedi Master and instruct him to spy on Palpatine, which upsets Anakin. Later, Palpatine reveals to Anakin that he is the Sith Lord Darth Sidious, the mastermind of the Clone Wars. He suggests that Anakin can prevent Padmé's death by using the dark side of the Force. Anakin reports Sidious' treachery to Windu, who confronts and subdues the Sith Lord. Desperate to save Padmé, Anakin betrays Windu by cutting off his hand, which allows the Sith Lord to kill him. Anakin then betrays the Jedi by pledging himself to the Sith, and Sidious appoints him Darth Vader. 

On Sidious' orders, Vader slaughters all the Jedi in the Jedi Temple, including the younglings. After learning what her husband has done, a distraught Padmé travels to [[Mustafar]] and pleads with him to abandon the dark side, but he refuses. Believing that Padmé and {{No wrap|Obi-Wan}} are conspiring against him, Vader uses the Force to strangle his wife into unconsciousness. He then engages {{No wrap|Obi-Wan}} in a lightsaber duel that ends with {{No wrap|Obi-Wan}} severing his limbs and leaving him for dead on the banks of a lava flow, where he catches fire and sustains severe burns. Sidious finds the barely-alive Vader and takes him to Coruscant, where his mutilated body is covered in black armor that keeps him alive. When Vader asks if Padmé is safe, Sidious lies to him and says that his strangulation killed her, which causes Vader to scream in anguish. At the end of the film, Vader supervises the construction of the first Death Star alongside Sidious and Tarkin.