Star Wars highlights the biggest tragedy of Darth Vader in the final episode of Star Wars: Visions. In episode 9, “Akakiri,” a Jedi, Tsubaki, struggles with the temptation of the dark side as he goes on a quest to defeat the Sith Lord Masago. With vague and ominous Force visions seemingly assuring him of his victory, Tsubaki confronts the Sith, but ends up in a similar scenario to Anakin Skywalker in the prequel trilogy, choosing to succumb to the dark side for an almost identical reason.
The Force is often misunderstood as having a “light side” and a dark side. The “light side” is simply the Force, which represents balance and harmony with nature. The dark side is a corruption of the Force, intrinsically causing imbalance and representing the unnatural. While the Force requires discipline to use and eventually master, the dark side is a shortcut to seemingly unlimited power. The dark side is also highly addictive, warping the minds of those who fall to it and turning them into monstrous perversions of themselves.
Anakin Skywalker fell from grace and became the Sith Lord Darth Vader in large part due to desperation to save his wife, Padme. Plagued by premonitions of her dying in childbirth, Anakin felt limited by the Jedi and their faith in the Force. The Sith, who are the most powerful practitioners of the dark side, however, offered what seemed to be a quicker path to greater power than the Jedi. In Visions, Tsubaki is deceived by Masago, who tricks him into mortally wounding his companion and lover, Princess Misa. With Misa dying, Tsubaki is given the choice to either join the Sith to save her or remain a Jedi and let her die. Like Anakin and so many other Sith, Tsubaki falls to the dark side to save someone he loves.
Many beings, such as Emperor Palpatine, Lumiya, or Darth Maul, are born or recruited into the draconian life of the Sith. Others, like Maw, Desann, or Jerec, were never cut out to be Jedi, falling to the dark side due to their cruelty. In so many tragic cases, however, Jedi fall to the dark side reluctantly, believing its promises of unlimited power and anything else its victims could want, only to end up destroying their lives and themselves. Turning to the dark side is, ultimately, a Faustian bargain that warps beings into the worst versions of themselves and leaves them with nothing but their power.
Count Dooku, once a Jedi, became the Sith Lord Darth Tyrannus because he’d lost faith in the Jedi and the Republic they served. Wanting to bring justice decency to the galaxy by any means necessary, Dooku joined the Sith and ended up founding an oppressive, corrupt, corporate oligarchy. Jacen Solo, one of Han and Leia’s Legends-era children, became the Sith Lord Darth Caedus as an adult, believing that it was a necessary sacrifice for the power necessary to prevent conflicts that would destroy the galaxy. In both cases, the Jedi created the opposite of what they initially wanted upon becoming Sith.
Anakin could have easily saved Padme if he’d remained a Jedi. His unhinged dark side-fueled rage as Darth Vader ultimately contributed to his wife’s death. In Visions, Tsubaki saves Misa by turning to the dark side, but loses himself in the process, becoming the Sith apprentice of her enemy, Masago. The episode ends with a living Misa watching in horror as her lover accepts his new apprenticeship. Tsubaki’s fall to the dark side in Star Wars: Visions shows that Darth Vader’s tragedy is hardly the only one in Star Wars.
