Darth Vader is one of the most iconic characters in the history of film and of pop culture in general. Just the sound of his breathing is instantly recognizable. The character forms a central part of the Star Wars franchise and is either the main protagonist, as Anakin Skywalker, or antagonist of the first six films. And his legacy is also a huge influence on the events of the ongoing sequel trilogy.

He is, therefore, arguably, the single most important character in the franchise. Some have even tried to position him as its tragic hero, given that he's actually the one who finally defeats the Emperor at the end of Episode VI and thus technically the one responsible for the good guys winning, even after everything. Okay, this might raise a few eyebrows, but he's definitely an interesting and popular character, and there's plenty to say about him and his role in the series... and there are actually a few interesting questions that come up if you think too hard about him that might give you a headache.

You see, not everything in the Star Wars universe makes complete sense, and Vader is far from an exception to this. In fact, quite a few things about him don't make a lot of sense. A lot of this is the result of Lucas making things up as he went along, whether he admitted it or not. But not everything even has that excuse. Below are a few examples.

19 Harder to Figure Out Than Superman, At Least

Before Darth Vader was a Sith Lord and agent of the Empire, he was cute young Anakin Skywalker, good guy, and elite Jedi Knight. However, despite his relative prominence in both roles, this is presumably relatively unknown. And honestly, it isn't that difficult a secret to keep, given that the man lives his entire life in a full body suit. But how exactly did they manage to keep this secret? There doesn't even seem to be rumors flying around about his possible identity, even though it is the case that Anakin Skywalker disappeared (after at least a few people witnessed him doing bad things) and then Vader immediately popped up out of nowhere. Isn't that a little obvious? Yet nobody appears to have noticed or at least admitted to it.

18 She Even Kinda Looks Like Her Mom...

On top of that, there's the issue of Vader's kids. It is apparently an even bigger secret to everybody that Luke and Leia are his offspring even though it should be, well, obvious, at least to him of all people. Especially in the case of his daughter, who, as a senator, he has actually seen and interacted with! Father and daughter interact at least at the beginning of A New Hope.

He shows no sign of recognizing any facial features or even sensing that the force is strong with her.

Notably, he doesn't even give any clear sign that he ever realizes that she's his daughter! Even at the very end, he only refers to the fact of Luke having a sister. Again, shouldn't there at least be records he has access to that show who Luke's sister is?

17 Schrodiner's Padme

In the original version of the canon at least, Leia's biological mother lived into the early years of the Empire, on Alderaan, and the princess actually has memories of her. So how was Vader not at least aware that Leia was his ex-wife's daughter, and shouldn't he have at least been able to put two and two together from that? Lucas tried to retcon this problem away by having Padme perish at the end of Revenge of the Sith, but dialogue in the original trilogy saying she lived remains, leaving us with a mess of continuity errors that there has never been any official attempt to fix. And unlike most continuity errors, which you have to pay reasonably close attention to notice, Leia's memories of her mother are an obvious problem to any casual viewer who has seen all the films.

16 Maybe Skywalker's Just The Star Wars Equivalent Of "Smith"

And then there's Luke, apparently living in secret, but at the home of his father's step-family and with his father's last name... uh, that's not hiding, that's calling being in plain sight. Given that the Empire is a totalitarian police state, presumably keeping at least some tabs on its citizens, he might as well have waltzed into the Imperial throne room wearing a banner reading "I'm Vader's Kid."

Yet, apparently, he actually is a secret.

This ignorance becomes more implausible the longer you think about it. The Lars family, related to Anakin Skywalker through their stepmother, are ended in a search for missing droids carrying important documents. Shouldn't there be some kind of official report? Rebels gather to mount an attack on the Death Star and the Empire prepares for it: shouldn't some intelligence report mention a Force-sensitive individual?

15 Strained Parental Relationship

Vader tries to shoot Luke's craft down at one memorable point in the climactic Battle of Yevon, which implies that he has no idea who the extremely force-sensitive individual in the craft is. But, as outlined above, this stretches the limits of credibility. But, in the next film, we find out he apparently has a plan to recruit Luke to rule the Empire alongside him, which doesn't make sense if he had been relatively recently okay with ending him. Although we can attempt to come up with an explanation by way of some of Anakin's known impulsive behavior, this is actually probably just a result of... well, Vader not actually being written as Luke's father until after the first film. So, as of A New Hope's original release, there was no familial connection for Vader to have been aware of. That came later.

14 No See-3PO

There are actually a lot of examples of Darth Vader being completely non-reactive when he encounters stuff from his past life as Anakin Skywalker; probably because that past life hadn't been written yet at the time, but let's forget that for a moment. As a child, Anakin Skywalker made C-3PO, the beloved gold droid who, alongside R2-D2, is one of only two characters to have appeared in every Star Wars film.

However, when he sees his creation again, after countless years, at the beginning of A New Hope, he doesn't recognize him.

You'd think this past relationship would even be important Imperial security information after the two droids escape with plans for the Death Star, but not a word is uttered on the subject. Huh, it's almost like the past relationship didn't exist yet!

13 You Say No, Imma Say Yes

He was found by Qui-Gon Jinn while stranded on Tatooine with Obi-Wan Kenobi and Padme Amidala (in disguise) during The Phantom Menace. Jinn decided, for various reasons, some of which we'll discuss later on, that the boy was the prophesied "chosen one" who will bring harmony to the force. So, he brings the boy to the Jedi Council... who say 'nah.' Apparently, the boy had some rage and fear issues, so making him a Jedi would be a bad idea. But apparently, Qui-Gon Jinn is able to override them and make him a Jedi anyway. What? How is this a thing? What's the point of a council if you can just ignore it? Are they just there to foreshadow his coming fall and then be brushed away? This is weird especially when later plot points require the council to be relatively powerful to make sense.

12 A Strange Comparison

Especially when details of Anakin's story, as presented to the Jedi, sound completely barmy. There are a few, but let's focus on the big one: according to his mom, Anakin was a birth like Jesus. Now, you'd think this would raise some eyebrows. Especially when this woman has a very understandable reason to want to embellish anything that might get her son out of slavery and into a relatively cushy life as a Jedi.

But Jinn buys it, and so does everyone else.

Literally less than most Christians would usually investigate Jesus. Nobody bothers, for example, to look up a birth certificate, or even ask around: "Is this true?" It is possible that this kind of this was, privately, part of what made the Jedi Council hesitate. Even in the Star Wars universe, this kind of thing isn't heard of.

11 Love Overcomes All...

So Anakin becomes a Jedi. He falls in love with Padme, who he met on Tatooine all those years ago, but Jedi don't get married due to the problem with having attachments, yadda yadda yadda. But Anakin is a rebel boy, so he marries her anyway, but in secret. And nobody finds out... what? They aren't always that subtle, seem to be living together and, well, are surrounded by people who can sense emotion as easily as most people can see the side of a barn. But nobody even seems to expect. This goes on for years, with them both leading active and relatively public lives close to the council. Even the Jedi council is stupid or they simply don't care... which might explain how the Republic fell. If you want to run a Republic you kind of have to well, run it, and enforce rules.

10 ...Until Romeo Loses His Mind

But the storybook romantic relationship ended very badly, quite spectacularly, after Anakin, enticed by the despite to save Padme from a foretold passing, capitulates to the dark side of the force, saving Palpatine's life by ending Mace Windu. Padme is obviously upset about this, so he force-strangles her. She then loses the will to live and goes during childbirth.

This is apparently shocking to Anakin, but it kind of shouldn't be.

How exactly was he so stupid that he thought that his wife of multiple years, who is a vocal supporter of the lighter side of the voice, would be anything but devastated if he well, turned evil? How could he believe that doing something guaranteed to ruin her life would be a good idea for saving it? He's not generally that stupid.

9 Boss Of The Year He Is Not

Alright, now that we think about it, maybe he could be that stupid. Just look at how he does his job... really look at it. If you pay close attention to Vader's work done in the service of the Empire, he's actually quite godawful at his job. Adam Harrell of Halo Recognition writes an article outlining some of his managerial ineptitude. He is uncommunicative, so his underlings often don't understand what he wants, and he still punishes them if they get it wrong. He is unable to take any criticism, basically lies, and seems to become hostile on a whim. Some of this probably actually hurt the Empire: even constructive criticism will be stifled this way. How do you think he would have reacted to anyone pointing out a fatal security flaw? Probably not well.

8 Employee Of The Year He Also Is Not

And of course, there's the bigger reason that Vader wasn't the Emperor's best henchman: he actually wanted to overthrow the Emperor, with his son by The Empire Strikes Back but he probably had designs before that. Not really alarming coming from a Sith Lord, and not that uncommon in an authoritarian bureaucracy.

Problem: given that the Emperor is a powerful master of the force, shouldn't he be able to sense something is up?

But like the Jedi Council on the subject of Anakin's marriage, he is apparently unable to. Does the force have a blind spot in certain cases, and if it does it's interesting that it always seems to be when its convenient for the plot.

7 Spare Us The Poetry, Please Make Sense Instead

But back to the issue of Padme's passing; it seems weird that she passed at all. There's a sort of flimsy, sentimental explanation that she left of heartbreak, but that seems sort of medically implausible and, given that she lives in a society where her husband's significantly more severe medical emergency was handled fine, easily overcome. Maybe she would be miserable, but she should have lived if Anakin can lose his limbs and however much blood plus have his skin burnt and still survive even after transport. I mean, come on, they have artificial intelligence and interstellar travel! Surely they can deal with a little sadness without anyone going, right? Right?

6 It Could Technically Qualify As A Fashion Choice

Let's keep going with this point. Alright, they saved Anakin, but why does he need to spend his life in that suit? Given what we already know can be done, they probably should be able to come up with something better, maybe grow some skin back.

There might be a heck of a lot of scars, but he would be able to take off the helmet at least once in a while.

I'm thinking about Han Solo being frozen for a year and unfrozen: being frozen makes your heart stop, on top of whatever other damage, and they just unfroze him and he was totally okay and cool; that implies some pretty sophisticated stuff is going on in the background. Why does Vader need a clunky suit? I mean, it's cool and all but it must suck to live in.

5 Lucas Likes Poetic Things, Doesn't Like Justifying Them

And then: why exactly did he perish when he did? Okay, he got zapped by the Emperor's lightning bolts, then apparently really injured him, and then he asked for Luke to take the helmet off so he could see his son with his own eyes before he passed. And then, yep, he perished. But... he probably wouldn't have lived if he hadn't taken the helmet off, because Luke had been getting zapped a lot more than his dad was and was just fine. Oops. Kind of less emotionally satisfying then. You'd think Vader was smart enough and familiar enough with both his suit and the Emperor's attack to know this, especially after watching Luke get hit and be okay. Would be a less dramatic conclusion, of course...

4 A Way To Save The Empire

He's the kind, idealistic child who is shown to have severe, secret anger issues. Later, he's hyper-confident and arrogant, while both loyal and sort-of-not-loyal to Jedi ideals... he also goes nuts and ends a bunch of people on Tatooine without much sign of remorse. Is he a psychopath?

The crimes he does at the end of Revenge of the Sith and his whole career as Vader seem to imply this.

But then the movies also make a big deal about his tragic emotions: he actually does love Padme and, if we want the end of the original trilogy to make any sense, he genuinely reformed and became one with the force at the end of Return of the Jedi. But he is clearly extremely unstable, which makes it kind of surprising he had the focus to master the force.

3 Stubborn When He Shouldn't Be

Given that, how did he actually manage to stay so dedicated to the dark side for so long? It's not like he even turned out of genuine, firm conviction anyway. Since he's so all over the map about everything else, how did he manage to stay dedicated to the cause for nearly twenty years? Especially given that his whole reason for going over backfired horribly, you'd think he'd immediately jump ship back to the light just for revenge. But no, he continued to be what he knew ended his wife and is everything he used to hate until the end of Episode VI. He didn't even jump ship when he found out he had a kid with the rebels! If anything, that's an excuse to try to redeem himself and go back to the person we're supposed to believe he still really is.

2 Lowering The Bar

Anakin finally wakes up and smells the coffee when he sees the Emperor being aggressive towards his son, and turns on his master, ending him and thus saving Luke and giving the rebels an opening to triumph. He perishes, but we see him as a ghost standing beside Yoda and Obi-Wan as a fellow Jedi, at long last one of them.

Except, well, we really don't know if it should be that easy.

It was great that he saved his son, but he was responsible for the Emperor living to form the Empire in the first place, on top of a lot of general evil over a period of a couple decades. So you did a nice thing, great, billions of lives ended or were destroyed because of you. One good deed doesn't really feel like it should balance things out like that.

1 Rule Of Two, Or Three, Or Whatever

Okay, last point. It's not really specifically to do with Vader, but the Sith in general; although Vader is pretty involved still. It's about the "rule of two," which dictates that there should only be two Sith lords around at one time. This is meant to minimize in-fighting, since Sith are inherently wrathful and jealous. It seems like a decent idea, given what we know about the Sith, but the rule is broken a few times over the course of the series. Darth Sidious had three different students, and one of them even when he was still a student himself. Darth Maul, that particular student, was actually alive to see both of the others. Later on, both Vader and the Emperor expressed interest in initiating Luke into the Sith, which would also make three. It would be nice if they could at least follow their own rules.