Darth Vader is Star Wars‘ most iconic villain, but several things about the Sith Lord do not make much sense. Concerning the release order of Star Wars movies, Vader is one of the first characters ever shown on-screen in the franchise. Many regard A New Hope as the best Star Wars movie due to its iconicity.

A big reason for this is Darth Vader himself, who, above anything else in Star Wars​​​​​​, can truly be labeled iconic. Star Wars’ powerful Sith Lord is the main antagonist of the original trilogy and the protagonist of the prequel trilogy, giving Darth Vader perhaps the most in-depth story in the franchise.

Darth Vader’s Star Wars timeline takes him from a lonely slave on Tatooine to a powerful Sith Lord and then a Force Ghost, providing a wealth of storytelling for the villain. This makes him an icon of pop culture, but the sheer breadth of content means that several things about Darth Vader do not make all that much sense.

Darth Vader’s Ever-Changing Accents

Throughout Star Wars, Darth Vader’s accent undergoes certain changes. Jake Lloyd and Hayden Christensen match up quite well regarding Anakin’s voice, yet they differ mᴀssively from James Earl Jones’ gravitas-infused Darth Vader tone. Jones’ iconicity and in-universe explanation regarding Vader’s mask allow this difference to get a pᴀss, but Return of the Jedi gives Vader yet another accent.

In the final original trilogy film, maskless Vader is played by Sebastian Shaw. As a classically trained actor born in England, Shaw uses his voice to give Darth Vader a British accent. The lines are too few to make this too much of a plot hole, but the return of Hayden Christen in Star Wars’ New Republic era makes the switch even more prevalent.

Darth Vader Doesn’t Sense Princess Leia

The first act of A New Hope surrounds Vader tormenting Princess Leia to get the Death Star plans back. Although Vader senses Luke as his child later in the movie, and senses Obi-Wan’s presence despite not being related to him, the character never senses that Leia is one of his children.

The meta explanation for this is that, during the filming of A New Hope, George Lucas had not conceived of the plot point that Luke and Leia were the twin children of Vader. In-universe, though, with all of the Star Wars saga in mind, it makes little sense that Vader would not sense Leia’s presence on a deeper level.

Darth Vader Doesn’t Recognize R2-D2 Or C-3PO

Anakin Skywalker was responsible for building C-3PO and had R2-D2 as an astromech droid for years. Despite that, Darth Vader never once shows any recognition of either droid throughout the original trilogy. As with the aforementioned Leia point, this can be put down to Lucas’ retconning of Vader’s prior connection to the droids after the OT.

Darth Vader Becoming A Force Ghost

The Clone Wars TV show explains that Star Wars’ Force Ghosts are only able to take this form after undergoing a significant training process. Nothing in the franchise indicated Anakin, nor Vader, underwent this training, meaning his Force Ghost appearance in Return of the Jedi makes little sense, outside the far-fetched argument that he is the Chosen One.

Darth Vader Never Found The Lars’ Homestead

Anakin Skywalker visited the Lars’ homestead on Tatooine during the Star Wars prequel trilogy. However, Darth Vader never thought to visit this place again after becoming the evil Sith Lord.

Star Wars has made it clear that Darth Vader attempted to purge any memory of Anakin’s life from himself after becoming the Sith Lord. To me, it seems as though the Lars’ homestead would have been priority number one. Nonetheless, Vader never visited and never found Luke Skywalker in hiding in his 20 active years as the Emperor’s main muscle.

What Did The Empire Actually Think Darth Vader Did?

A more meta query about Darth Vader in Star Wars is what the regular workers of the Empire actually thought he did. Of course, Vader worked alongside the Emperor to secretly dispatch any surviving Jedi while overseeing important projects. To the regular workers of the Empire, though, Vader was simply a scary man in a dark costume.

A lot of the Emperor’s plans were secret and, depending on what the plan was, were kept limited to small groups of people. Vader had a hand in many of these secret plans, meaning the everyday Imperial grunts would have had no idea what Vader’s purpose was.

If Star Wars Technology Is So Advanced, Why Is Darth Vader’s Suit So Loud?

Perhaps one of the most iconic parts of Darth Vader’s entire character is his breathing. The mask he wears causes the inhales and exhales of Anakin’s broken body to be incredibly audible, with this becoming synonymous with the character of Darth Vader.

For someone who is an important soldier in the Empire’s arsenal, though, Vader’s suit could do with being a little more stealthy. Star Wars has overly advanced technology, yet the Empire never figured out a way to aid Darth Vader’s breathing in a quieter way. This doesn’t make much sense, but then again, subtlety was never Vader’s strong suit.

What Does Darth Vader’s Name Actually Mean (In-Universe)?

Outside of Star Wars, audiences have taken Darth Vader’s name to mean Darth Father, given that the Dutch word for father is vader. In-universe, though, it is never explained where Vader’s name comes from, nor any of the Sith’s names, for that matter.

Sidious and Tyranus, for example, make sense, with the former being derived from insidious and the latter linking to the word tyranny. Vader, however, is just a name plucked out of the Force by Palpatine that is never given an in-universe reason. Thankfully, Palpatine must have a way with words to come up with such an iconic name so randomly.

How Did Kylo Ren Get Darth Vader’s Mask?

Another element of Vader’s Star Wars journey that does not make much sense actually comes after his death. In Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Vader’s grandson, Kylo Ren, shows a desire to continue what the evil Sith Lord began. At several points in the film, Kylo talks to the broken mask of Darth Vader.

The symbolism of this is certainly cool, but Star Wars never explains how Kylo retrieved the mask. Luke removed Vader’s mask in Return of the Jedi, with the Death Star II exploding shortly afterward. Vader’s mask should have been disintegrated, or at least part of the wreckage shown in The Rise of Skywalker. Either way, Kylo’s possession of it is confusing.

So, Why DID Darth Vader Lose To Obi-Wan On Mustafar?

One of the most iconic scenes in all of Star Wars is Obi-Wan Kenobi defeating Anakin via the use of the high ground. The sheer quotable and iconic nature of this scene has made it so that many forget that this makes little sense.

Even Obi-Wan himself proved that high ground is not an automatic win during his duel with Maul in The Phantom Menace. Herein lies one of the final things about Vader that doesn’t make sense.

Anakin, or Vader, is much more powerful in the Force than Kenobi. He is also a better swordsman, meaning he should realistically have won the duel on Mustafar. For such an important moment in Star Wars‘ history, Obi-Wan circumventing all of that with the high ground only makes Vader’s loss make less sense.