Warning! This article contains spoilers for Star Wars: Dark Droids #3 Darth Vader has more than proven himself a master tactician in Star Wars lore, both as the Sith Lord during the era of the Galactic Civil War, and as the Jedi Anakin Skywalker during the Clone Wars. However, even a master can have his shortcomings, and Darth Vader’s greatest tactical weakness has just been exposed – and it goes right back to his childhood.
As shown in Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace, Anakin Skywalker loved tinkering with droids, and also dabbled in other forms of mechanical engineering. Not only did he build his own podracer, but Anakin brought C-3PO to life as well, proving his natural skill and interest level when it comes to droids and mechanics. This is something that Anakin carried with him all his life, including and especially after he made the transition to the Sith cyborg, Darth Vader.
Darth Vader was not only more machine than man, but he pretty consistently surrounded himself with droids. While the movies don’t really show this, his many adventures in the comics show him regularly commanding droids to do his bidding, as their loyalties were never in question, and he could quite literally control their actions. It seems even as a Sith Lord, Anakin never lost the love he had for droids when he was just a child. Unfortunately, that was nearly the cause of his ultimate downfall.
Star Wars’ The Scourge Almost Defeated Darth Vader With His Own Droids
In Star Wars: Dark Droids #3 by Chalres Soule and Luke Ross, the Scourge has set its sights on Darth Vader, as the AI hivemind has grown more aggressive in its desire to inhabit organic lifeforms along with synthetic ones. Previously, the Scourge came to the conclusion that the best way to achieve this dark goal was by accessing an organic body through their cybernetic enhancements/replacements, meaning the Scourge needed to master possessing cyborgs before it could even attempt to assimilate a non-cybernetic person – and there’s no cyborg stronger than Darth Vader.
After assimilating Darth Vader’s droids on Mustafar, and then having those droids board Darth Vader’s vessel as he makes his way to Coruscant, the Scourge activates Vader’s personal droids to attack him while he’s resting in his bacta tank. However, the Scourge’s flagship was attacked by Ajax Sigma and the other droids of the Second Revelation at that same time, thereby skewing the Scourge’s attention, causing the AI to fail in its mission to capture and attempt to assimilate Vader. However, if it wasn’t for that distraction, Vader would have almost assuredly lost.
Star Wars Further Proves Joy Is Impossible For Darth Vader
A fondness for droids is something Anakin Skywalker was born with. No one taught him this love for synthetics, especially not when he was a slave on Tatooine. He couldn’t help it, anytime he looked at a droid – or even a box of parts that could conceivably become a droid – Anakin was filled with inspiration and joy. It was a part of who he was, and whether he meant to or not, he carried that with him when he became Darth Vader. However, upon fully accepting the dark side into his mind and spirit, everything that could be considered ‘good’ in his life was slowly corrupted. Padmé died, his children lost, his body mutilated, and now, his inherent and borderline subconscious love for droids almost got him killed.
While the Scourge isn’t an agent of the dark side, it is still a life form that exists in the Star Wars universe, and is therefore susceptible to the will of the Force – both light and dark sides. Since Darth Vader is an agent of the dark side, he is destined to only experience corruption and suffering for the sake of power, and that includes the childhood interest that he carried into adulthood. Darth Vader almost being beaten by his own droids courtesy of the Scourge was a tactical weakness, to be sure, but was also something that goes far deeper than mere military strategy.
Star Wars: Dark Droids #3 by Marvel Comics is available now.
