2016 STAR WARS 2" MINI HELMETS Valentines Day favors Darth Sith red stormtrooper

$32.99 Buy It Now or Best Offer, $5.76 Shipping, eBay Money Back Guarantee
Seller: sidewaysstairsco ✉️ (1,180) 100%, Location: Santa Ana, California, US, Ships to: US & many other countries, Item: 204658494703 2016 STAR WARS 2" MINI HELMETS Valentines Day favors Darth Sith red stormtrooper. Check out our store for more great new, vintage, and used items! FOR SALE: 22 retired and rare party favors featuring Darth Vader and stormtroopers 2016 STAR WARS VALENTINE'S DAY MINI HELMETS WITH CANDY DETAILS: May the love be with you! Are you ready to bring a galaxy far, far away to your Valentine's Day celebration? Look no further than the 2016 Star Wars Valentine's Day Classroom Exchange with Candy by Galerie! The box includes 22 mini party favors in the shape of Darth Vader and stormtrooper helmets - perfect for spreading the Star Wars love in your classroom or among friends and family. Includes a sheet of "To:/From:" stickers for labeling. Each Star Wars Valentine's Day party favor comes with tiny helmet-shaped candies inside, they have expired but fear not - the real treasure lies in the helmet-shaped containers. While the candy may have expired, the possibilities with the mini helmets are endless. Refill them with your favorite treats or favors, label them with personalized messages, and gift them to friends and loved ones. Use them for storage of tiny items like beads, stickers, rhinestones, hardware etc., get crafty and turn them into string lights or a Star Wars -themed wreath, or simply use them as decor around your home. Did you know that these red trooper helmets predate Darth Sidious's own red-helmeted Sith troopers, also known as the red stormtroopers? The addition of the unique red stormtrooper helmets was merely to add a festive touch for Valentine's Day, coincidentally red troopers would later be a part of the Star Wars universe.  It's a fun tidbit to share while you enjoy these adorable mini helmets, making this set even more special. Part of the massive catalog of products released by Disney after the rekindling of the Star Wars franchise and success of Star Wars VII: The Force Awakens . The 2016 Star Wars Valentine's Day Classroom Exchange with Candy by Galerie is a must-have for any Star Wars fanatic, especially the collectors. Don't miss out on this limited run, retired, and rare product that brings a touch of the Force to your Valentine's Day celebration. A retired and rare! The Star Wars Classroom Exchange with Candy from Galerie was made for the Valentine's Day season of 2016 and soon after this Disney product would be retired. The Valentine's Day-themed Star Wars product hasn't been available in store or online for many years now - making it hard to find and collectible. Because these favors were meant for children much of the supply is likely sitting in a landfill by now, just adding to their scarcity. Dimensions: Mini Helmet: approximately 1-7/8" (W) x 2" (H) x 1-1/4" (D) Candy best by date is "08/28/2017" Because the candy's best by date has long passed we highly recommend not eating the candy. Please, do no eat the candy inside the helmets. Throw out the candy or preserve it, if you wish, then do whatever you'd like with the mini helmets. CONDITION: New with damaged packaging. The pieces are new and sealed in a bag but the box has lots of storage wear and damage. The candy has expired - we highly recommend not eating the candy. The package pictured has the worst damage and will be sent out last. Please see photos. *To ensure safe delivery all items are carefully packaged before shipping out.* THANK YOU FOR LOOKING. QUESTIONS? JUST ASK. *ALL PHOTOS AND TEXT ARE INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY OF SIDEWAYS STAIRS CO. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.* "Star Wars is an American epic space opera[1] media franchise created by George Lucas, which began with the eponymous 1977 film[a] and quickly became a worldwide pop culture phenomenon. The franchise has been expanded into various films and other media, including television series, video games, novels, comic books, theme park attractions, and themed areas, comprising an all-encompassing fictional universe.[b] Star Wars is one of the highest-grossing media franchises of all time. The original 1977 film, retroactively subtitled Episode IV: A New Hope, was followed by the sequels Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back (1980) and Episode VI: Return of the Jedi (1983), forming the original Star Wars trilogy. Lucas later returned to the series to write and direct a prequel trilogy, consisting of Episode I: The Phantom Menace (1999), Episode II: Attack of the Clones (2002), and Episode III: Revenge of the Sith (2005). In 2012, Lucas sold his production company to Disney, relinquishing his ownership of the franchise. This led to a sequel trilogy, consisting of Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015), Episode VIII: The Last Jedi (2017), and Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker (2019). All nine films, collectively referred to as the "Skywalker Saga", were nominated for Academy Awards, with wins going to the first two releases. Together with the theatrical live action "anthology" films Rogue One (2016) and Solo (2018), the combined box office revenue of the films equated to over US$10 billion, making Star Wars the third-highest-grossing film franchise of all time. Premise The Star Wars franchise depicts the adventures of characters "A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away"[3] across multiple fictional eras, in which humans and many species of aliens (often humanoid) co-exist with robots (typically referred to in the films as 'droids'), which may be programmed for personal assistance or battle.[4] Space travel between planets is common due to lightspeed hyperspace technology.[5][6][7] The planets range from wealthy, planet-wide cities to deserts scarcely populated by primitive tribes. Virtually any Earth biome, along with many fictional ones, has its counterpart as a Star Wars planet which, in most cases, teem with sentient and non-sentient alien life.[8] The franchise also makes use of other astronomical objects such as asteroid fields and nebulae.[9][10] Spacecraft range from small starfighters to large capital ships, such as the Star Destroyers, as well as space stations such as the moon-sized Death Stars.[11][12][13] Telecommunication includes two-way audio and audiovisual screens, holographic projections and hyperspace transmission.[14] The universe of Star Wars is generally similar to the real universe but its laws of physics are less strict allowing for more imaginative stories.[15] One result of that is a mystical power known as the Force which is described in the original film as "an energy field created by all living things ... [that] binds the galaxy together".[16] The field is depicted as a kind of pantheistic god.[17] Through training and meditation, those whom "the Force is strong with" exhibit various superpowers (such as telekinesis, precognition, telepathy, and manipulation of physical energy).[18] It is believed nothing is impossible for the Force.[19] The mentioned powers are wielded by two major knightly orders at conflict with each other: the Jedi, peacekeepers of the Galactic Republic who act on the light side of the Force through non-attachment and arbitration, and the Sith, who use the dark side by manipulating fear and aggression.[20][21] While Jedi Knights can be numerous, the Dark Lords of the Sith (or 'Darths') are intended to be limited to two: a master and their apprentice.[22] The franchise is set against a backdrop of galactic conflict involving republics and empires, such as the evil Galactic Empire.[23] The Jedi and Sith prefer the use of a weapon called the lightsaber, a blade of plasma that can cut through virtually any surface and deflect energy bolts.[24] The rest of the population, as well as renegades and soldiers, use plasma-powered blaster firearms.[25] In the outer reaches of the galaxy, crime syndicates such as the Hutt cartel are dominant.[26] Bounty hunters are often employed by both gangsters and governments, while illicit activities include smuggling and slavery.[26] The combination of science fiction and fantasy elements makes Star Wars a very universal franchise, capable of telling stories of various genres.[27] Films Main article: List of Star Wars films The Skywalker Saga Film     U.S. release date     Directed by     Screenplay by     Story by     Produced by     Refs. Original trilogy: Episodes IV–VI Star Wars     May 25, 1977     George Lucas     Gary Kurtz     [28][29] The Empire Strikes Back     May 21, 1980     Irvin Kershner     Leigh Brackett and Lawrence Kasdan     George Lucas     [30][31] Return of the Jedi     May 25, 1983     Richard Marquand     Lawrence Kasdan and George Lucas     Howard Kazanjian     [32][33] Prequel trilogy: Episodes I–III The Phantom Menace     May 19, 1999     George Lucas     George Lucas     George Lucas     Rick McCallum     [34] Attack of the Clones     May 16, 2002     George Lucas and Jonathan Hales     [35][36] Revenge of the Sith     May 19, 2005     George Lucas     [37][38] Sequel trilogy: Episodes VII–IX The Force Awakens     December 18, 2015     J. J. Abrams     Lawrence Kasdan & J. J. Abrams and Michael Arndt     Kathleen Kennedy, J. J. Abrams and Bryan Burk     [32][39] The Last Jedi     December 15, 2017     Rian Johnson     Kathleen Kennedy and Ram Bergman     [40][41] The Rise of Skywalker     December 20, 2019     J. J. Abrams     Chris Terrio & J. J. Abrams     Derek Connolly & Colin Trevorrow and J. J. Abrams & Chris Terrio     Kathleen Kennedy, J. J. Abrams and Michelle Rejwan     [42][43] The Star Wars film series centers around three sets of trilogies, the nine films of which are collectively referred to as the "Skywalker Saga".[44] The saga was produced non-chronologically, beginning in media res with the release of the original trilogy between 1977 and 1983. This was followed by the prequel trilogy, released between 1999 and 2005, and the sequel trilogy, released between 2015 and 2019.[45] Each trilogy focuses on a generation of the Force-sensitive Skywalker family and their struggle against the evil Sith lord Palpatine (Darth Sidious).[46] The original trilogy depicts the heroic development of Luke Skywalker as a Jedi and his fight against Palpatine's Galactic Empire alongside his sister, Leia.[47] The prequels tell the tragic backstory of their father, Anakin, who is corrupted by Palpatine and becomes Darth Vader.[48] The sequels follow the conflict between Leia's son, Ben Solo, and Luke and Leia's protegé, Rey, and their eventual alliance against Palpatine after the fall of the Empire.[49] Original trilogy Main article: Star Wars original trilogy The original trilogy's main cast includes (from left to right) Mark Hamill (Luke Skywalker), Harrison Ford (Han Solo), Carrie Fisher (Princess Leia), and James Earl Jones (Darth Vader's voice). In 1971, George Lucas wanted to film an adaptation of the Flash Gordon serial, but could not obtain the rights, so he began developing his own space opera.[50][c] After directing American Graffiti (1973), he wrote a two-page synopsis, which 20th Century Fox decided to invest in.[51][52] By 1974, he had expanded the story into the first draft of a screenplay.[53] Fox expected the film would be of limited financial success, and so it was given a relatively low budget, with production being moved to Elstree Studios in England to help save on cost.[54] Star Wars was released on May 25, 1977, and first subtitled Episode IV: A New Hope in the 1979 book The Art of Star Wars.[55] The film's success led Lucas to make it the basis of an elaborate film serial.[56] With the backstory he created for the sequel, Lucas decided that the series would be a trilogy of trilogies.[57] Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back was released on May 21, 1980, also achieving wide financial and critical success. The final film in the trilogy, Episode VI: Return of the Jedi, was released on May 25, 1983. Prequel trilogy Main article: Star Wars prequel trilogy The prequel trilogy's main cast includes (from left to right) Ewan McGregor (Obi-Wan Kenobi), Natalie Portman (Padmé Amidala), Hayden Christensen (Anakin Skywalker),[d] and Ian McDiarmid (Palpatine). According to producer Gary Kurtz, loose plans for a prequel trilogy were developed during the outlining of the original two films.[58] In 1980, Lucas confirmed that he had the nine-film series plotted,[59] but due to the stress of producing the original trilogy, he had decided to cancel further sequels by 1981.[60] In 1983, Lucas explained that "There was never a script completed that had the entire story as it exists now ... As the stories unfolded, I would take certain ideas and save them ... I kept taking out all the good parts, and I just kept telling myself I would make other movies someday."[61] Technical advances in the late 1980s and early 1990s, including the ability to create computer-generated imagery (CGI), inspired Lucas to consider that it might be possible to revisit his saga. In 1989, Lucas stated that the prequels would be "unbelievably expensive".[62] In 1992, he acknowledged that he had plans to create the prequel trilogy.[63] A theatrical rerelease of the original trilogy in 1997 "updated" the 20-year-old films with the style of CGI envisioned for the new trilogy.[64] Episode I: The Phantom Menace was released on May 19, 1999, Episode II: Attack of the Clones on May 16, 2002, and Episode III: Revenge of the Sith on May 19, 2005.[65] The first two films were met with mixed reviews, with the third being received somewhat more positively. Together with the original trilogy, Lucas has referred to the first six episodic films of the franchise as "the tragedy of Darth Vader".[66] Sequel trilogy Main article: Star Wars sequel trilogy The sequel trilogy's main cast includes (from left to right) Adam Driver (Kylo Ren), Daisy Ridley (Rey), John Boyega (Finn), and Oscar Isaac (Poe Dameron). Prior to releasing the original 1977 film, and made possible by its success, Lucas planned "three trilogies of nine films".[57][67] However, he announced to Time in 1978 that he planned "10 sequels".[68] He confirmed that he had outlined the prequels and sequels in 1981.[69] At various stages of development, the sequel trilogy was to focus on the rebuilding of the Republic,[70] the return of Luke as a Jedi Master (a role similar to that of Obi-Wan Kenobi in the original trilogy),[67] Luke's sister (not yet determined to be Leia),[58] Han, Leia,[71] R2-D2 and C-3PO.[57][72] However, after beginning work on the prequel trilogy, Lucas insisted that Star Wars was meant to be a six-part series and that there would be no sequel trilogy.[73][74] Lucas decided to leave the franchise in the hands of other filmmakers, announcing in January 2012 that he would make no more Star Wars films.[75] That October, the Walt Disney Company agreed to buy Lucasfilm and announced that Episode VII would be released in 2015.[76] The co-chairman of Lucasfilm, Kathleen Kennedy, became president and served as executive producer of new Star Wars feature films.[77] Lucas provided Kennedy his story treatments for the sequels during the 2012 sale,[78] but in 2015 it was revealed Lucas's sequel outline had been discarded.[79][80] The sequel trilogy also meant the end of the Star Wars Expanded Universe stories, which were discarded from canon to give "maximum creative freedom to the filmmakers and also preserve an element of surprise and discovery for the audience."[2] Episode VII: The Force Awakens was released on December 16, 2015, Episode VIII: The Last Jedi on December 13, 2017, and Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker on December 18, 2019, in many countries.[e] The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi were both critical and box office successes.[81][82] Episode IX received a mixed reception from critics and audiences.[83] Standalone films Film     U.S. release date     Directed by     Screenplay by     Story by     Produced by     Refs. Rogue One: A Star Wars Story     December 16, 2016     Gareth Edwards     Chris Weitz and Tony Gilroy     John Knoll and Gary Whitta     Kathleen Kennedy, Allison Shearmur and Simon Emanuel     [84] Solo: A Star Wars Story     May 25, 2018     Ron Howard     Jonathan Kasdan & Lawrence Kasdan     [85] Several Star Wars films have been produced separately from the Skywalker Saga. In 2008, Lucasfilm released the animated film The Clone Wars, which is set during the prequel trilogy and serves as the theatrical pilot of the television series of the same name.[86] Following Disney's acquisition of Lucasfilm in 2012, an "anthology" film series set between the main episodes of the Skywalker Saga entered development in parallel with the production of the sequel trilogy,[87] described by Disney chief financial officer Jay Rasulo as origin stories.[88] The anthology films' main casts include (from left to right) Felicity Jones (Jyn Erso) and Diego Luna (Cassian Andor) from Rogue One and Alden Ehrenreich (Han Solo) and Woody Harrelson (Tobias Beckett) from Solo. The first film released was Rogue One in 2016, which tells the story of the rebels who steal the plans for the Death Star, the Galactic Empire's superweapon, just before the events of the original Star Wars film.[89][90] A second film, Solo, was released in 2018 and tells the backstory of original trilogy character Han Solo several years prior to the original Star Wars film.[91] The television series Obi-Wan Kenobi was originally planned as a film, but changed to a limited series due to Solo underperforming at the box office.[92] Upcoming films Film     U.S. release date     Directed by     Screenplay by     Story by     Produced by     Status     Refs. The Mandalorian & Grogu     2026     Jon Favreau     Jon Favreau and Dave Filoni     Jon Favreau, Kathleen Kennedy and Dave Filoni     Pre-production     [93] Untitled New Jedi Order film     TBA     Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy     Steven Knight     Kathleen Kennedy     [94] Untitled Dawn of the Jedi film     James Mangold     In development     [94] Untitled New Republic film     Dave Filoni     Kathleen Kennedy and Jon Favreau     [94] In April 2023, three new Star Wars films were announced to be set within different eras of the franchise.[95] An untitled film written and directed by James Mangold will be set during the "dawn of the Jedi".[95] Dave Filoni will direct a film set between the original and sequel trilogies during the New Republic era, serving as the climax of the various live-action television series that began with The Mandalorian in 2019.[95] Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy will direct a third film about a new Jedi Order, set fifteen years after the sequel trilogy.[94][96] In January 2024, it was announced that Jon Favreau would direct a new Star Wars film, titled The Mandalorian & Grogu.[97] In February of the same year, Bob Iger announced that the film would be the first release of the next slate of Star Wars movies.[98] Other potential projects Lucasfilm has a number of Star Wars films in various stages of development, including:     Untitled Rian Johnson trilogy: In November 2017, a trilogy of movies written by The Last Jedi writer/director Rian Johnson was announced to be in development.[99][100] In April 2023, Kennedy stated that trilogy of films is still in open development at the studio, with the writer/director working on the story, although it is not currently a priority.[101]     Untitled David Benioff & D. B. Weiss trilogy: In February 2018, it was announced that David Benioff and D. B. Weiss would serve as writers and producers on a trilogy of new Star Wars movies.[102] The plot would take place chronologically before the Prequel Trilogy, and center around the origin of the Jedi.[103] By May 2019, the duo were also slated to serve as co-directors of the first installment in their three films.[104] In October of the same year however, the filmmaking duo exited development of the projects due to scheduling conflicts with projects they are developing for Netflix. Kennedy stated that the studio is open to working with the duo, and developing their films once their schedule allows it.[105]     Untitled Taika Waititi film: In May 2020, Taika Waititi signed onto the project which was stated to be the first priority for the studio, with the filmmaker Waititi serving as director from a script he is co-writing with Krysty Wilson-Cairns.[106] In May 2022, the movie was named as the next Star Wars film to begin production ahead of Rogue Squadron, with Kennedy stating that the studio was tentatively looking towards late 2023 for a debut, but had not yet officially set a release date.[107][108] By April 2023, she stated that the project is still in development, with Waititi continuing to work on the script.[109][101]     Rogue Squadron: An anthology film, following the events of Rogue One, will be directed by Patty Jenkins with a script written by Matthew Robinson.[110] In April 2023, Kennedy stated that the script is still in development, with the studio considering changing the project into a television series.[111]     Untitled J.D. Dillard film: In February 2020, a film was announced to be in development from director J. D. Dillard and writer Matt Owens;[112] although, Dillard announced he was no longer to direct that film in November 2022.[113]     Star Wars: A Droid Story: In December 2020, an animated film centered around the adventures of R2-D2 and C-3PO was announced as being in development; the story will introduce a new heroic character to the franchise, alongside these characters. The project will be a joint-venture production between Lucasfilm Animation, and Industrial Light & Magic. The film is being developed to debut via streaming, exclusively through Disney+.[114][115][116]     Untitled Shawn Levy film: In November 2022, Shawn Levy entered talks to direct a Star Wars film, following his work on Deadpool & Wolverine (2024) and the fifth and final season of Stranger Things.[117]     Lando: A film focused on original trilogy character Lando Calrissian, reported to be written by Donald Glover (who portrayed the character in Solo) and Stephen Glover.[118] Television Main article: List of Star Wars television series Live-action series The Star Wars franchise includes several live-action series. The first series, The Mandalorian, was released in 2019 for the streaming service Disney+ and is set between the original and sequel trilogies of the Skywalker Saga.[119] Due to its success, the series spawned multiple live-action spin-offs set during the same fictional era, including The Book of Boba Fett, released in 2021; Ahsoka, released in 2023; and the upcoming Skeleton Crew.[120][121][122] These series follow the plight of the New Republic and its allies against the remnants of the fallen Galactic Empire.[123] A story focused on Obi-Wan Kenobi, a character from the original Star Wars trilogy, was planned as a film before becoming a live-action series after the box office failure of Solo in 2018.[92] The series was released on Disney+ in 2022 and is set between the prequel and original trilogy films.[124] It was followed by the live-action series Andor in the same year; both series follow their titular characters during the reign of the Empire.[124][125] Series    Seasons    Episodes    Originally released    Network Live-action series The Mandalorian    3    24    November 12, 2019 – present    Disney+ The Book of Boba Fett    1    7    December 29, 2021 – February 9, 2022 Obi-Wan Kenobi    1    6    May 27 – June 22, 2022 Andor    1    12    September 21, 2022 – present Ahsoka    1    8    August 22, 2023 – present Game shows Jedi Temple Challenge    1    10    June 10 – August 5, 2020    StarWarsKids.com Animated series The first two animated series, Droids and Ewoks, were produced in the 1980s.[126] They were followed by the Clone Wars animated micro-series in 2003 and the 2008 series of the same name. Following Disney's acquisition of Lucasfilm, all animated series released prior to 2014, apart from the 2008 series, were discarded from the franchise's canon.[2] Subsequent animated series include Rebels, released in 2014; Resistance, released in 2018; and The Bad Batch, released in 2021. Several micro-series and shorts have also been released by Lucasfilm since Disney's acquisition, with the earlier animated series falling under Disney's "Vintage" collection of Star Wars content.[127][128] Series    Seasons    Episodes    Originally released    Network Animated series Droids    1    13    September 7, 1985 – June 7, 1986    ABC Ewoks    2    26    September 7, 1985 – December 13, 1986 The Clone Wars    7    133    October 3, 2008 – May 4, 2020    Cartoon Network / Netflix / Disney+ Rebels    4    75    October 3, 2014 – March 5, 2018    Disney XD Resistance    2    40    October 7, 2018 – January 26, 2020    Disney Channel The Bad Batch    2    32    May 4, 2021 – present    Disney+ Visions    2    18    September 22, 2021 – present Tales of the Jedi    1    6    October 26, 2022 – present Young Jedi Adventures    1    25    May 4, 2023 – present    Disney+ / Disney Junior Animated micro-series and shorts Clone Wars    3    25    November 7, 2003 – March 25, 2005    Cartoon Network Blips    1    8    May 3 – September 4, 2017    YouTube Forces of Destiny    2    32    July 3, 2017 – May 25, 2018 Galaxy of Adventures    2    55    November 30, 2018 – October 2, 2020 Roll Out    1    16    August 9, 2019 – April 1, 2020 Galaxy of Creatures    2    24    October 14, 2021 – February 21, 2023    StarWarsKids.com Galactic Pals    1    12    April 12 – November 1, 2022 "Zen – Grogu and Dust Bunnies"    Short    1    November 12, 2022    Disney+ Films and specials Film     U.S. release date     Directed by     Teleplay by     Story by     Produced by     Network Star Wars Holiday Special     November 17, 1978     Steve Binder     Pat Proft, Leonard Ripps, Bruce Vilanch, Rod Warren, and Mitzie Welch     Joe Layton, Jeff Starsh, Ken Welch, and Mitzie Welch     CBS The Ewok Adventure     November 25, 1984     John Korty     Bob Carrau     George Lucas     Thomas G. Smith and Patricia Rose Duignan     ABC Ewoks: The Battle for Endor     November 24, 1985     Jim Wheat and Ken Wheat     Thomas G. Smith and Ian Bryce...he Star Wars canon fictional universe spans multiple eras, of which three are focused around each of the film trilogies.[129] The following eras were defined in January 2021,[130] and further refined and expanded in April 2023:[131]     Dawn of the Jedi: The first Jedi wields the Force, which will be depicted in an upcoming untitled film.[95][132][129]     The Old Republic: The Galactic Republic is founded and the Jedi Order emerges to protect it. A schism within the Jedi leads to the creation of the Sith.[129]     The High Republic: Under the protection of the Jedi, the Republic grows into a golden age. This era includes The High Republic literary works and the animated series Young Jedi Adventures.[129]     Fall of the Jedi: The Republic's Supreme Chancellor, Palpatine (secretly the Sith lord Darth Sidious), orchestrates the Clone Wars, overthrows the Republic, exterminates the Jedi Order and corrupts Anakin Skywalker.[129][133] This era includes the prequel trilogy films, the beginning of the episodic Skywalker saga, and the animated series Tales of the Jedi and The Clone Wars.[129]     Reign of the Empire: Palpatine's Galactic Empire rules the galaxy and the remaining Jedi are hunted down.[129] This era includes Solo: A Star Wars Story, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Andor, Rogue One, the animated series The Bad Batch and Rebels, and the video games Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, Star Wars Jedi: Survivor and Vader Immortal.[129]     Age of Rebellion: The Rebellion against the Empire spreads across the galaxy, while the Jedi return with the emergence of Luke Skywalker.[129][134] This era includes the original trilogy films[f] and the video games Star Wars Battlefront II and Star Wars: Squadrons.[129]     The New Republic: Following the Empire's defeat, the emergent New Republic attempts to reunite the galaxy, while threatened by the remnants of the Empire.[129] This era includes The Mandalorian, The Book of Boba Fett, and Ahsoka.[129]     Rise of the First Order: The remnants of the Empire transform into the First Order but are fought by the Resistance, climaxing with the defeat of Palpatine and the Sith by the Jedi Rey.[129][133] This era includes the sequel trilogy films, the animated series Star Wars Resistance and the video game Star Wars: Tales from the Galaxy's Edge.[129]     New Jedi Order: Rey builds a new Jedi Order, which will be depicted in an upcoming untitled film.[95][129] The Expanded Universe of spin-off media depicts different levels of continuity, which were deemed non-canonical and rebranded as Legends on April 25, 2014, to make most subsequent works align to the episodic films, The Clone Wars film, and television series....Cultural impact Main article: Cultural impact of Star Wars The lightsaber and the blaster are iconic elements of the franchise. The Star Wars saga has had a significant impact on popular culture,[266] with references to its fictional universe deeply embedded in everyday life.[267] Phrases like "evil empire" and "May the Force be with you" have become part of the popular lexicon.[268] The first Star Wars film in 1977 was a cultural unifier,[269] enjoyed by a wide spectrum of people.[270] The film can be said to have helped launch the science-fiction boom of the late 1970s and early 1980s, making science-fiction films a mainstream genre.[271] The widespread impact made it a prime target for parody works and homages, with popular examples including Hardware Wars, Spaceballs, The Family Guy Trilogy and Robot Chicken: Star Wars. In 1989, the Library of Congress selected the original Star Wars film for preservation in the U.S. National Film Registry, as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant."[272] The Empire Strikes Back was selected in 2010,[273][274] and Return of the Jedi was selected in 2021.[275] 35 mm reels of the 1997 Special Editions were the versions initially presented for preservation because of the difficulty of transferring from the original prints,[276][277] but it was later revealed that the Library possesses a copyright deposit print of the original theatrical releases.[278] Industry The original Star Wars film was a huge success for 20th Century Fox, and was credited for reinvigorating the company. Within three weeks of the film's release, the studio's stock price doubled to a record high. Prior to 1977, 20th Century Fox's greatest annual profits were $37 million, while in 1977, the company broke that record by posting a profit of $79 million.[258] The franchise helped Fox to change from an almost bankrupt production company to a thriving media conglomerate.[279] With over $10.3 billion in worldwide box office receipts, Star Wars is the second-highest-grossing film franchise of all time.[280][281] Star Wars fundamentally changed the aesthetics and narratives of Hollywood films, switching the focus of Hollywood-made films from deep, meaningful stories based on dramatic conflict, themes and irony to sprawling special-effects-laden blockbusters, as well as changing the Hollywood film industry in fundamental ways. Before Star Wars, special effects in films had not appreciably advanced since the 1950s.[282] The commercial success of Star Wars created a boom in state-of-the-art special effects in the late 1970s.[279] Along with Jaws, Star Wars started the tradition of the summer blockbuster film in the entertainment industry, where films open on many screens at the same time and profitable franchises are important.[283][270] It created the model for the major film trilogy and showed that merchandising rights on a film could generate more money than the film itself did.[269] Film critic Roger Ebert wrote in his book The Great Movies, "Like The Birth of a Nation and Citizen Kane, Star Wars was a technical watershed that influenced many of the movies that came after." It began a new generation of special effects and high-energy motion pictures. The film was one of the first films to link genres together to invent a new, high-concept genre for filmmakers to build upon.[284] Finally, along with Steven Spielberg's Jaws, it shifted the film industry's focus away from personal filmmaking of the 1970s and towards fast-paced, big-budget blockbusters for younger audiences.[258][285][286] Some critics have blamed Star Wars and Jaws for "ruining" Hollywood by shifting its focus from "sophisticated" films such as The Godfather, Taxi Driver, and Annie Hall to films about spectacle and juvenile fantasy, and for the industry shift from stand-alone, one and done films, towards blockbuster franchises with multiple sequels and prequels.[287] One such critic, Peter Biskind, complained, "When all was said and done, Lucas and Spielberg returned the 1970s audience, grown sophisticated on a diet of European and New Hollywood films, to the simplicities of the pre-1960s Golden Age of movies... They marched backward through the looking-glass."[287][288] In an opposing view, Tom Shone wrote that through Star Wars and Jaws, Lucas and Spielberg "didn't betray cinema at all: they plugged it back into the grid, returning the medium to its roots as a carnival sideshow, a magic act, one big special effect", which was "a kind of rebirth".[286] The original Star Wars trilogy is widely considered one of the best film trilogies in history.[289] Numerous filmmakers have been influenced by Star Wars, including Damon Lindelof, Dean Devlin, Roland Emmerich, John Lasseter,[290] David Fincher, Joss Whedon, John Singleton, Kevin Smith,[284] and later Star Wars directors J. J. Abrams and Gareth Edwards.[291] Lucas's concept of a "used universe" particularly influenced Ridley Scott's Blade Runner (1982) and Alien (1979), James Cameron's Aliens (1986) as well as The Terminator (1984), George Miller's Mad Max 2 (1981), and Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings trilogy (2001–2003).[284] Christopher Nolan cited Star Wars as an influence when making the 2010 blockbuster film Inception." (wikipedia.org) "Stormtroopers are soldiers in the fictional Star Wars franchise created by George Lucas. Introduced in the original Star Wars film, the stormtroopers are the shock troops/space marines of the autocratic Galactic Empire, under the leadership of Emperor Palpatine and his enforcers, most notably Darth Vader and Grand Moff Tarkin, during the original film trilogy (1977–1983) and Rebels (2014–18). The prequel trilogy (1999–2005) and The Clone Wars (2008–2020) explores their predecessors in the Galactic Republic's clone troopers, clones of the bounty hunter Jango Fett, used by Supreme Chancellor Palpatine to "win" the Clone Wars and later to take over the government and exterminate the Jedi. After this, in The Bad Batch (2021–present), stormtroopers are established as human recruits, trained by clone troopers gradually being phased out of active service; at the time of the original trilogy, only a few stormtroopers are clones, with the only known legion to still contain a significant number of clones being the 501st Legion, a.k.a. "Vader's Fist", with many stormtroopers remaining in service to Imperial remnants following the Empire's fall under Moff Gideon and Grand Admiral Thrawn in The Mandalorian (2019–present) and Ahsoka (2023). In the sequel trilogy (2015–2019), the First Order employs stormtroopers (including Finn and Jannah) under the leadership of Supreme Leader Snoke and his enforcers, most notably Kylo Ren, General Hux, and Captain Phasma. The order of battle of the Stormtrooper Corps is unspecified in the Star Wars universe. Accompanying the Imperial Navy, stormtroopers are able to be deployed swiftly and respond to states of civil unrest or insurrection, act as a planetary garrison, and police areas within the Galactic Empire. They are shown in collective groups of varying organizational sizes ranging from squads to legions and for some, their armour and training are modified for special operations and environments. Development In early drafts of the original Star Wars film[a] as well as designs by conceptual artist Ralph McQuarrie, stormtroopers wield lightsabers and handheld shields as common weapons, as opposed to the former being mainly limited to the Jedi and Sith factions. While outlining his franchise in 1977, George Lucas said there were numerous female stormtroopers in some units, but few were stationed on the Death Star.[1][2] Performers While stormtrooper performers like Michael Leader (Episode IV),[3] Laurie Goode (Episode IV),[3] Peter Diamond (Episode IV-VI), Stephen Bayley (Episode IV), and Bill Weston (Episode IV) have generally been uncredited in the film series,[citation needed] there have been a few exceptions. In Attack of the Clones (2002) and Revenge of the Sith (2005), the clone troopers, which serve as the basis of what would initially become the Empire's stormtrooper force, were computer-generated images and voiced by Temuera Morrison, who played the bounty hunter Jango Fett, the template of the clone army.[4] The child clone troopers were played by Daniel Logan, who also played Jango's clone son Boba Fett, and the clone troopers as young men were played by Bodie Taylor, who was cast for his resemblance to a younger Morrison. In Revenge of the Sith, Morrison also played Commander Cody, the only named clone trooper who is seen unmasked in the prequel trilogy. In The Force Awakens (2015), John Boyega stars as Finn, the former Stormtrooper FN-2187 who defects from the First Order and joins the Resistance,[5] and Gwendoline Christie portrays Captain Phasma, commander of the First Order's stormtroopers.[6] Daniel Craig has a small uncredited role as a stormtrooper whom Rey compels using the Jedi mind trick to let her escape from captivity,[7][8] and director J. J. Abrams also cast Alias and Lost composer Michael Giacchino as FN-3181, and Radiohead producer Nigel Godrich as FN-9330.[7] A riot control stormtrooper who calls Finn a traitor during the battle on Takodana, portrayed by stunt performer Liang Yang and voiced by sound editor David Acord, is identified as FN-2199 "Nines" in the anthology book Star Wars: Before the Awakening (2015) by Greg Rucka.[9][10] The trooper, armed with a "Z6 baton" and dubbed "TR-8R" by fans, quickly inspired multiple memes and fan art.[9][11][12] Actor/director Kevin Smith also voiced a stormtrooper in the Takodana sequence.[13] In Star Wars Rebels, different voice actors have provided the voices of the stormtroopers, including David Acord, Dee Bradley Baker, Steven Blum, Clancy Brown, Robin Atkin Downes, Greg Ellis, Dave Fennoy, Dave Filoni, Tom Kane, Andrew Kishino, Phil LaMarr, Liam O'Brien, Freddie Prinze, Jr., André Sogliuzzo, Stephen Stanton, Greg Weisman, Gary Anthony Williams, and Matthew Wood.[14] In Ralph Breaks the Internet, the stormtroopers in the "Oh My Disney" website are voiced by Jesse Averna, Kevin Deters, Jeremy Milton, and Rich Moore.[15] Jason Sudeikis and Adam Pally play scout troopers in "Chapter 8: Redemption", the 2019 first-season finale episode of The Mandalorian.[16] Background Skywalker saga Introduced in Star Wars (1977), the Imperial stormtroopers serve as the army of the Galactic Empire, establishing Imperial authority and putting down any revolts. In the prequel film Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones (2002), the first clone troopers are cloned from bounty hunter Jango Fett, to be the Army of the Republic in the Clone Wars.[4] In Episode III: Revenge of the Sith (2005), Chancellor Palpatine orders them to slay their Jedi generals in the Great Jedi Purge.[17] After the change in regimes from the Galactic Republic to the Galactic Empire, the clone troopers who had served the Republic became the first generation of stormtroopers, enforcing the Emperor's will as military units, and law enforcement, policing the Emperor's ever increasingly oppressive laws.[18] The Imperial Stormtrooper Corps swell in size in The Bad Batch (2021–present) after Palpatine almost completely replaces the clones with recruits and conscripts of the Empire,[19] though the replacement of clones with natural beings lowered the effectiveness of the Empire's soldiers. With the Empire firmly stabilized and an Imperial Army and Navy established, the stormtroopers are integrated into Palpatine's personal army and stationed on Imperial bases and cruisers, as well as on the Death Star. As established in The Force Awakens (2015), after Palpatine's death, stormtroopers continue to serve under the factions that broke apart from the Empire. With redesigned armor, they eventually serve under the leadership of the First Order.[20] In the First Order, an undisclosed number of stormtroopers are abducted as young children, given serial numbers for names and mentally conditioned for loyal service.[21] Stormtrooper FN-2187, later known as Finn, plans his escape when his resistance to this conditioning puts him in line to be reprogrammed.[21] Additionally, Rey's goggles were based on scavenged stormtrooper lenses.[22] Other appearances The streaming series The Mandalorian, which is set after the fall of the Empire, portrays stormtroopers as freelance mercenaries in the service of Moff Gideon, a former officer of the Imperial Security Bureau.[23] Star Wars Legends media such as games and comics feature a number of specialized stormtrooper units. The Marvel-produced comics of the late 1970s and early 1980s featured Shadow Troopers. Other specialists have included commandos and troopers equipped to work in the vacuum of outer space, such as the zero gravity Spacetroopers depicted engaging in extra vehicular battle in the 1991 novel Star Wars: Heir to the Empire, and its 1995 Dark Horse Comics adaptation. A distinct variant known as "Shadowtroopers" appear in Star Wars Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast, wearing black armour that incorporates a lightsaber-resistant mineral called cortosis. As a project of the Dark Jedi named Desann aligned with a Remnant of the Empire, the Shadowtroopers themselves had been immersed in a Force nexus on Ruusan, temporarily empowering them with Force sensitivity. This armour has a green synthetic gem set into the breastplate which sustained the otherwise temporary effect of their Force empowerment and combines with their abilities to render them near-invisible, with only a faint area of blue discoloration giving them away. In conjunction with their Force-granted telekinesis, reflexes, and agility, the Shadowtroopers are armed and trained in the use of mass-produced red lightsabers. Their combination of abilities allow them to lie in wait and ambush the enemy, representing formidable opponents even for trained Jedi, most often the game's Jedi protagonist, Kyle Katarn. Shadow stormtroopers appear in Star Wars: The Force Unleashed and wear exactly the same type of Phase III armor[clarification needed] as normal stormtroopers but not white in color, but rather a mixture of silver, grey and red detailing. These troopers also possess the invisible feature and use this tactic to ambush their enemies, but only if stormtrooper officers call out for support. In Lego Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy, Speedo-clad and stormtrooper-helmet-wearing "Beach Troopers" appear relaxing at the beach. In Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga, they also wear life jackets. Stormtroopers made their canonical debut in the Star Wars: The Bad Batch Season 1 episode "War–Mantle", which was released on July 30, 2021. Description Evolution of clone trooper & stormtrooper armour, illustrated by cosplayers. Left to right:     Modern Mandalorian (Jango Fett)     Phase I clone trooper (RC-1140 "Fixer")     Phase II clone trooper (Commander Gree)     Imperial stormtrooper     First Order stormtrooper Cosplay of Imperial stormtrooper at the Helsinki Exhibition & Convention Centre in September 2018 Cosplay of First Order stormtrooper According to Star Wars lore, Imperial stormtroopers are men and women who have been recruited (or conscripted) at a young age to serve as expendable foot soldiers of the Empire, gradually replacing clone troopers as their accelerated aging forces them to retire. These recruits are trained at Imperial Academies spread out across the galaxy where they undergo intense conditioning that instills fierce loyalty, strict discipline and ruthless efficiency while removing any sense of individualism or empathy. As the backbone of the Imperial Army, stormtroopers are dreaded for their brutality, carrying out atrocities in the name of Emperor Palpatine, and their fanaticism, engaging the enemy with no regard to casualties. Inevitably, some use their position for personal gain against a civilian population too terrified to resist.[24][25] However, inconsistencies in academy standards led to stormtroopers of varying combat skill and ability compared to the superior clone troopers,[26] which, among other things, can be seen in the stormtroopers' mainly variable, sometimes even weak, ability to hit the target in firefights.[27][28] After subduing any remaining Separatist holdouts left over from the Clone Wars, stormtroopers primarily serve as an internal security and peacekeeping force until the Galactic Civil War where they start to engage the Rebel Alliance in large-scale battles.[24][25] Unable to conscript noventillions of soldiers to fill its stormtrooper ranks, yet unwilling to switch back to using rapidly produced clone troopers, First Order stormtroopers are bred, trained and indoctrinated from birth, raised their entire lives for no other purpose. First Order soldiers and crews have constantly trained for combat in war games and simulations, making them much more effective one-on-one than the endless waves of stormtrooper conscripts fielded by the Galactic Empire. First Order stormtroopers are regularly put through mental indoctrination and propaganda programs, to make sure that they remain fanatically loyal and never hesitate or question orders. Being taken from their families at birth, these soldiers are not even given individual names for themselves but merely serial numbers, such as "FN-2187".[29] Equipment Standard Imperial stormtrooper armor is white and has a utility belt and helmet. Vehicles Main articles: List of Star Wars air, aquatic, and ground vehicles; List of Star Wars spacecraft; and List of Star Wars starfighters Weapons Main article: List of Star Wars weapons The standard firearm for Imperial stormtroopers is the BlasTech E-11 blaster rifle, described in Star Wars sources as combining excellent range and firepower in a compact and rugged design. Features include a telescopic range-finding sight, accessory mounting rail, power setting adjuster, three-point folding stock, magnatomic adhesive pistol grip, and advanced cooling system. Plasma cartridges provide enough gas for 500 shots, though a standard power cell which energizes the gas to produce blaster bolts will last for approximately 100 shots.[25][30] In addition to the E-11, stormtroopers employ a variety of different weapons as seen in the Star Wars films and other media. Examples include thermal detonators, sniper rifles, crew-served heavy repeating blasters, and mortars.[25][30][31] Both firing and non-firing prop models of the E-11 were based on the Mk 4 Sterling submachine gun, with approximately 20 models built for the first Star Wars movie A New Hope. External modifications to the Sterlings to transform them into blaster rifles varied based on the parts available but most were similar in design. This included an American Mk38 azimuth tank scope and a Hengstler industrial counter box affixed to the top and left side of the receiver respectively. The Sterling would continue to serve as the basis for or inspire other blaster rifle designs in the rest of the Star Wars films.[32] Background literature explains how the First Order's stormtroopers were armed in secret by the Sonn-Blas Corporation, a subsidiary of BlasTech Industries and Merr-Sonn Munitions created to circumvent the New Republic's disarmament treaties. Building on classic design templates, they are meant to possess greater battlefield accuracy, ammunition yields and operational lifespans. Examples include the F-11D blaster rifle, SE-44C blaster pistol, and FWMB-10 repeating blaster cannon. For subduing civilian populations, First Order stormtroopers will also carry ballistic riot shields and riot control batons.[26][33] Armor As established in the original Star Wars trilogy of films, the troopers' most distinctive equipment is their white battle armor, which completely encases the body and typically has no individually distinguishing markings. According to in-universe reference material, this armor was developed and manufactured by the Imperial Department of Military Research, and consists of 18 white plastoid armor plates magnatomically attached to a black body glove. These plates are generally impervious to most projectile weapons and blast shrapnel, and will protect against glancing hits by other blaster rifles though a direct hit will penetrate. The armor also provides protection against inhospitable environments, including the vacuum of space for a short period of time. Their helmets are fitted with filtration systems for polluted environments, with hookups for incorporating an external atmospheric tank while operating in space or to filter potent toxins. The helmets also include built-in communication system and multi-frequency targeting and acquisition system linked to in-lens displays that provide tactical information, protection from excessive brightness, and vision modes for seeing through smoke, fire and darkness.[25][30] Based on conceptual drawings by Ralph McQuarrie, Liz Moore and Nick Pemberton sculpted designs for the helmet, Brian Muir sculpted armor pieces for the stormtrooper costume. Muir, who was also responsible for sculpting the Darth Vader costume, worked out of the Art Department at Elstree Studios. The suit was molded and initially cast in plaster, with Muir sharpening the detail at the plaster stage. The plaster casts were then remolded and cast in fiberglass to use as the "tools" for the vacuum forming process. The suits were produced in house by Tashy Baines, the resident vacuum former, but then a problem developed with the machine. As Shepperton Design Studios had already been used to vacuum form the helmets, the fiberglass molds for the armor were then sent to them for vacuum forming the suits. By the end of production, two different helmets were produced; one for the common stunt trooper and a second design for close-ups. Fifty stunt helmets were produced in white-painted HDPE and six hero helmets were produced in white ABS plastic. Besides the material used, the two designs can be differentiated by differences in the eyes, the ears, and the mouth area.[citation needed] The copyright status of the armor design has undergone legal challenges.[34] A 2004 lawsuit by Lucasfilm against one of the original prop designers, Andrew Ainsworth, who had been selling helmet replicas, confirmed the design to be under copyright in the US.[34] However, a 2011 UK court decision in Ainsworth's favor deemed the costume to be industrial design, which is protected there only for 15 years.[34] This puts the armor design in the public domain in the UK, and likely throughout the European Union.[34] To differentiate the First Order stormtroopers from their earlier Imperial counterparts, the helmet and armor were redesigned for the 2015 film Star Wars: The Force Awakens by costume designer Michael Kaplan with input from director J. J. Abrams.[35] Within the Star Wars setting, this armor is described as being an improvement over the previous iteration, including better joint design for greater flexibility, stronger betaplast armor plating, and upgraded helmet communication and targeting systems.[25][30] 501st Legion Further information: Clone trooper § 501st Legion The 501st Legion Elite Stormtrooper Unit, or "Vader's Fist", is a stormtrooper unit from the Star Wars movies and Star Wars Legends continuity. Commanded by the ruthlessly cunning General Maximilian Veers and composed of the best trained soldiers in the Star Wars galaxy, the legion earned a fierce reputation for completing missions considered unwinnable or suicidal. The 501st serves as Darth Vader's personal death squadron, whom he notably leads in the Jedi extermination. The 501st spearhead the assault upon the Tantive IV consular ship, and capture Princess Leia. During the Battle of Hoth, the 501st is instrumental in the destruction of the Rebel Alliance base, and nearly succeeds in capturing the Millennium Falcon. Most of the background story linked to the 501st comes from Star Wars novels, the games Star Wars: Battlefront II and Star Wars: The Force Unleashed,[36] and the TV show Star Wars: The Clone Wars.[citation needed] The elite 501st designation is resurrected by Grand Admiral Thrawn, who in the Thrawn trilogy is charged with the defense of the "Empire of the Hand" Imperial Remnant forces. Thrawn's 501st is composed of aliens and humans. The Legion's name is based on a fan organization of the same name; their inclusion in the official continuity was based on the worldwide organization's dedication to Star Wars fandom.[37] Specialists Within the Star Wars franchise, several types of "military occupation specialist" stormtrooper units are seen. These include: Imperial variants     Sandtroopers are first seen on the desert world of Tatooine during Star Wars (1977). They are trained to serve in arid environments and their armor is equipped with cooling units, anti-glare lenses, extra rations, and water supplies. Sandtroopers can be distinguished by their colored pauldrons which indicate rank: black for enlisted, white for sergeants, and orange for unit leaders.[38][39] Sandtroopers that ride Dewbacks are known as Dewback riders.     Snowtroopers, also known as cold weather assault stormtroopers, are first seen during the battle of Hoth in The Empire Strikes Back (1980). Their armor is insulated against cold weather and modified with polarized snow goggles, a heated breather mask, insulated belt cape and ice boots. Battery packs can keep their systems powered for up to two weeks, while additional cold-weather gear is carried including grappling hooks, ion flares and homing beacons.[38][40] Cosplay of scout trooper     Scout Troopers are first seen on Endor in Return of the Jedi (1983). They are trained in advanced reconnaissance and with an unusual degree of independence so they can serve as scouts and snipers far from Imperial support. Their armor is lighter than standard stormtrooper suits, with protection only covering the upper body and head, while their helmets incorporate a boosted communication system and enhanced macrobinocular viewplate for spotting targets at long range. On Endor, scout troopers piloted swift 74-Z speeder bikes to patrol the area around the Death Star II's shield generator.[38][41]     Shock Troopers are an upgraded variant of the Clone Shock Troopers, the red-armored clone troopers, who first appeared in Revenge of the Sith (2005). They patrol government facilities and serve as bodyguards for Emperor Palpatine and those closest to him.[42]     Death Troopers are elite soldiers of Imperial Intelligence who make their first appearance in Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016). Undergoing rigorous training and receiving top-secret augmentations which boost their performance beyond human limitations, death troopers are assigned to defend VIPs such as Commander-in-Chief Darth Vader, Grand Moff Tarkin, Director Orson Krennic, Grand Admiral Thrawn and Moff Gideon, and take part in operations involving stealth and espionage.[43][44] Their black, classified armor monitors biofeedback implants in their bodies and can stimulate sensory organs for increased performance, features targeting systems far superior to standard stormtrooper versions, and is sprayed with a polymer called "reflec" that warps electromagnetic waves to defeat enemy sensors. The in-universe origin for their name is that it was specially chosen by Emperor Palpatine to play on rumors of an Imperial project to reanimate dead tissue.[38][45][46] The Star Wars novel Death Troopers, part of the non-canon Legends continuity, revolves around the outbreak of a zombie virus aboard an Imperial Star Destroyer.     Shoretroopers, also known as coastal defender stormtroopers, are introduced in Rogue One, where they are seen patrolling the beaches and bunkers of Scarif. They are described as uncommon stormtrooper specialists trained for combat in coastal environments on tropical worlds. Their armor is flexible and lightweight, designed to withstand corrosive aquatic environments and repel excess moisture, and can be modified to operate underwater. Shoretroopers are generally of sergeant rank or higher and command squads of other stormtroopers during instances of seaside combat.[38][47][48] Shoretroopers returned in "Chapter 15: The Believer" of The Mandalorian, in which they serve in an Imperial remnant stationed at a mining facility on Morak.[49][50] as well as appearing in Episode 7 of Andor on the planet Niamos     Combat assault tank pilots and commanders, also known as tank troopers, operate the Empire's arsenal of armored repulsorlift vehicles, from troop transports to heavily armored hovertanks. Combat drivers are lightly armored, relying instead on the thick skin of their vehicles to protect them in battle. The commander stays in contact with his crew and with headquarters to keep updated on changing combat conditions.[51] This type of troopers were introduced in the 2016 Han Solo comic book series and made their on-screen debut in Rogue One.     Patrol Troopers are enforcement-based stormtroopers, commonly found in large cities with particular strategic importance where they take the place of local security forces. The urban counterpart to scout troopers, they ride speeder bikes much like them. Patrol troopers are first seen in Solo: A Star Wars Story (2018), where one such trooper briefly pursues Han Solo and Qi'ra on Corellia.[52]     Swamp Troopers, also known informally as mudtroopers, are Imperial Army troopers assigned to fight on swampy, war-torn worlds. Army troopers are regular infantry who fight alongside stormtroopers; many were members of planetary forces before being conscripted into Imperial service. Mudtroopers wear water-resistant clothing, partial armor with respirator masks, and polarized goggles. Swamp troopers are first seen on the planet Mimban in Solo, with Han Solo having been one such trooper during his service for the Empire.[53] Their armor is that of a standard stormtrooper but heavily customized to allow for optimal operation in the areas where they are dispatched. They can be distinguished by their grey, muddy armor, and waterproof capes.     Range Troopers are first seen on Vandor in Solo. Considered to be one of the toughest branches of the Imperial Army, this type of troopers are selected from the ranks of the most skilled Imperial soldiers and usually assigned to protect valuable cargo, but sometimes can also be deployed to combat zones. Range troopers are outfitted with snowtrooper-like armor, including heavy fur-lined armor for protection against cold environments, and magnetic boots.[54][55] In Solo, a group of range troopers guard a cargo train transporting coaxium which is raided by Tobias Beckett, Han Solo and Chewbacca.[43][55]     Jumptroopers, also known as rocket troopers, are outfitted with jetpacks. They are trained to act in unison, often swarming and overwhelming their targets.[56] There are multiple variants of jumptroopers, such as the Arctic Jumptrooper, deployed in cold environments, the Desert Jumptrooper, deployed in arid environments, and the Forest Jumptrooper, deployed in forested areas. Jumptroopers are featured in various Star Wars media, both Legends and canon, with varying designs.     Dark Troopers have made various appearances in Star Wars Legends material, often with varying designs. They are commonly depicted as dark-armored cybernetically enhanced humans, or in some variations droids, and are used in small numbers by the Empire. Dark Troopers were reintroduced in the current Star Wars canon through the mobile game Star Wars: Commander (2015), and made their live-action debut in the second season of The Mandalorian (2020).     Shadow Troopers, also known as black hole troopers, are elite special-ops troopers featured mostly in Star Wars Legends material. Assigned to the Empire's mysterious Shadow Guard, one of their most prominent appearances is in the video game Star Wars: The Force Unleashed, where they have shiny, reflective black armor that allows them to become invisible. Shadow Troopers returned in Star Wars Battlefront, which reintroduced them in the Star Wars canon.     Purge Troopers are a specialized class of stormtroopers trained and equipped to assist Darth Vader and his Imperial Inquisitors in hunting down surviving Jedi and other Force-sensitive beings who threaten the Empire.[57][58] Many Purge Troopers are former clone troopers. They appear in the comic series Darth Vader: Dark Lord of the Sith (2018) and the video game Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order (2019).[44][58][59] Purge troopers appear also in the 4th and 5th episodes of Obi-Wan Kenobi (2022).     Lava Troopers are an elite class of stormtroopers stationed at Fortress Vader on Mustafar. They are outfitted with heat-resistant black armor. Lava Troopers are featured in the comic book series Tales from Vader's Castle.     Forest Troopers are trained to serve in forested environments. They are distinguished by their camouflaged armor. Forest Troopers have featured in the novel Aftermath: Life Debt.     Seatroopers specialize in underwater operations. They are outfitted with breathing tubes attached to a scuba backpack and underwater propulsion jets. Seatroopers were originally introduced in Star Wars Legends in Marvel Comics' Star Wars comic book series, before being later reintroduced in the current Star Wars canon.     Spacetroopers are stormtroopers trained to operate in Zero-G environments. They resemble the standard stormtroopers, but are outfitted with a rebreather pack to survive the harsh conditions of space. Two spacetroopers can be seen outside the Death Star in Star Wars (1977). They have since made appearances in a few other pieces of Star Wars media. In Star Wars Legends material, a different variation of space troopers with a bulkier appearance called Zero-G assault stormtroopers, are featured.     Flametroopers specialize in the use of flamethrowers. They have appeared in various Star Wars media, with varying designs.     Incinerator Troopers are outfitted with flamethrowers and heat-resistant armor. They are distinguished by their red pauldrons and the red markings on their armor. They are likely an improved variant of the flametroopers. An Incinerator trooper is seen in the season one finale of The Mandalorian (2019).     Artillery Stormtroopers, also known as mortar stormtroopers, are outfitted with mortars and heavy armor. They are distinguished by their yellow pauldrons and the yellow markings on their armor, similar to the markings of the Incinerator Troopers. A Mortar Stormtrooper is seen in "Chapter 14: The Tragedy" of The Mandalorian.     Special Commando Advanced Recon Troopers, or SCAR troopers, are an elite class of stormtroopers in the Imperial Special Forces division. Most of these stormtroopers are unique in terms of armor design, equipment, and specialization, and are deployed in small groups by the Empire, to complete tasks that require their talents. One notable SCAR trooper squad is Task Force 99, featured in the 2016 Star Wars comic book series.     Elite Squad Troopers are specially selected soldiers from across the galaxy after the Clone Wars to allow the Empire to not be entirely reliant on clones.[60] They are first seen in Star Wars: The Bad Batch (2021), which features a particular Elite Squad of recruited soldiers led by former Bad Batch member Crosshair.[61][62]     Storm Commandos, also known as shadow scouts, are elite stormtroopers, trained to perform tasks that regular troopers are incapable of accomplishing. They operate in small groups and are outfitted with silver scout trooper armor to make them less visible to the enemy. Storm commandos are featured in various Star Wars Legends material, and were reintroduced in the current Star Wars canon through the mobile game Star Wars: Galactic Defense.     Heavy Troopers are an elite class of stormtroopers that specialize in melee combat. They carry electrostaffs and are outfitted with special combat armor. Heavy Troopers are featured in Star Wars: The Force Unleashed, and were reintroduced in the current Star Wars canon through Star Wars: Galactic Defense.     Riot control stormtroopers specialize in melee combat. They are outfitted with batons and sometimes a shield. Most riot control stormtroopers are used as a security force tasked with the dispersion and arrest of insurgents taking part in disruptive activities. A different variation appears in the Legends game Star Wars: The Force Unleashed II, where they are outfitted with electro staffs and sport unique armor rather than standard stormtrooper armor.     Rocket stormtroopers are stormtroopers outfitted with rocket launchers. They are usually tasked with destroying armored vehicles or buildings. Rocket stormtroopers have appeared in several Star Wars games.     Demolition Troopers are stormtroopers that specialize in the use of explosive weapons, such as smart rockets. They are featured in the video games Star Wars: Battlefront (2015) and Star Wars: Battlefront II (2017).     Heavy Weapons Stormtroopers, also known as heavy assault stormtroopers, heavy troopers, or heavy gunners, are stormtroopers that specialize in the use of large rapid-fire blasters. Heavy troopers have appeared in various Star Wars media, with varying designs.     Stormtrooper snipers are outfitted with sniper rifles. They can be distinguished by their visor and blue pauldron. A variant of the stormtrooper sniper, known as Imperial sharpshooters, appears in Star Wars: Commander; this type of sharpshooters are drawn from the ranks of elite scout troopers and outfitted with E-11s sniper rifles and a grey variant of the scout trooper armor.     Magma Troopers are stormtroopers used by the Empire to crush revolts on volcanic mining worlds, such as Sullust and Mustafar. They are outfitted with heat-resistant armor and a respirator connected to a backpack via a tube to protect them from volcanic ash and gasses. They can be distinguished by their black pauldrons (colored for the officers) and extra armor on their legs. Magma troopers first appeared in Star Wars: Battlefront (2015).     Undead Troopers are Imperial Stormtroopers who have been infected by the Imperial Bioweapons Project Blackwing. They are standard troopers who have since died and been reanimated by the virus with the goal of infecting others and causing as much death and infection as possible. First Order variants     Flametroopers are first seen during the attack on the Tuanul village on Jakku in The Force Awakens (2015). Often deployed alongside standard First Order infantry, these specialized units flush out entrenched enemies with roaring sheets of flame from their flamethrowers. They wear backpack-style propellant tanks, special helmets with slit-like lenses that reduce glare, and temperature-control body gloves beneath their armor.[63]     Megablaster heavy assault troopers, more commonly known as heavy troopers, are introduced in The Force Awakens. They carry large FWMB-10 repeating blasters and web gear loaded with extra ammunition.     Riot Control Troopers are first seen during the battle of Takodana in The Force Awakens. While they resemble the standard First Order stormtroopers, these specialized units excel in riot control and are outfitted with non-lethal betaplast shields and Z6 batons.[10][64] One such trooper, FN-2199, calls Finn a traitor and fights him with a baton in the aforementioned battle before being killed by Han Solo.[9][11]     Snowtroopers are first seen on Starkiller Base in The Force Awakens. They wear specialized armor and gear that let them operate effectively in icy conditions. Snowtroopers carry a backpack-style personal environment unit and wear insulated helmets with glare-reducing slit lenses, gloves, a kama, and a heat-resistant body glove beneath an oversuit of wind-resistant fabric. Snowtrooper teams scouted the planet that once housed Starkiller Base, eliminating native life forms that posed a potential threat.[65]     Executioner Troopers, introduced in The Last Jedi (2017), are a branch of military police specialists specifically founded to dispense final justice toward stormtroopers who are found guilty of treason. They are outfitted with BL-155 Laser axes used for execution and are distinguished by the black markings on their armor.[66] In The Last Jedi, a pair of executioner troopers attempt to execute Finn and Rose Tico.[67]     Jet Troopers are first seen on Pasaana in The Rise of Skywalker (2019). They are equipped with agile rocket packs that they use to soar into battle.[68] Jet troopers specialize in aerial and space operations.     Treadspeeder drivers are seen on Pasaana in The Rise of Skywalker. Reminiscent of the Imperial scout troopers, they are outfitted with lighter armor and specialize in riding speeder bikes; in this case, the 125-Z treadspeeder bike, from which they take their name.[69]     Electropod troopers are featured in The Rise of Skywalker. They are outfitted with electrical staffs called "electropods", but are otherwise identical to the standard First Order stormtroopers. They are primarily used to guard prisoners.     Raiders, featured in Star Wars Resistance, are an elite variant of First Order stormtroopers that specialize in hunting, especially relic hunting. They are mainly used by Supreme Leader Kylo Ren in his search for Sith relics.[70]     SCUBA troopers, featured in Star Wars Resistance, specialize in underwater operations. They are outfitted with underwater blasters, flippers, and a breathing apparatus.[71]     Tech stormtroopers, featured in Star Wars Resistance, specialize in extracting, decrypting, and analyzing data from droid memory cores or other sources.[72]     Walker Drivers are stormtroopers trained to operate the First Order's walker vehicles, including the All-Terrain Armoured Transport, All-Terrain MegaCaliber Six, and All-Terrain Heavy Hauler. They wear armour akin to that of the regular First Order stormtrooper or snowtrooper, with a grey jumpsuit and grey marking on their helmets. Sith Eternal variants     Sith Troopers are introduced in The Rise of Skywalker. Loyal only to the Sith Eternal, the resurrected Emperor Palpatine's secret Sith cult, these elite stormtroopers make up most of the Sith Eternal's military. As the next evolution of stormtroopers, Sith Troopers were raised by the Sith Eternal on Exegol to be the perfect soldiers, and outfitted with highly impact-resistant armor and better equipment than the First Order stormtroopers. They are distinguished by their bright red armor, which feature a slightly more textured pattern, although the overall design is reminiscent of past clone troopers.[73] Sith Troopers draw their power and inspiration from the ancient Sith Order, with their armor's color meant to be reminiscent of the Sith's red lightsaber and strike fear into the hearts of their enemies.     Sith Trooper Officers are trained to command squads of Sith Troopers. Their armor is outfitted with advanced sensor technology.     Sith Jet Troopers are outfitted with jet packs. They closely resemble the First Order jet troopers, but are outfitted with red armor like the standard Sith Troopers.     Sovereign Protectors serve as the resurrected Emperor Palpatine's elite bodyguards on Exegol. Outfitted with red armor and full-body capes, they are reminiscent of the old Emperor's Royal Guard, but carry two-pronged blaster rifles instead of force pikes. Within Star Wars Legends material, Sovereign Protectors are the most elite variant of Imperial Guards. Cultural impact See also: Cultural impact of Star Wars Stormtroopers have become cultural icons, and a widely recognized element of the Star Wars franchise.[74] In 2015, an Imperial stormtrooper helmet from The Empire Strikes Back that was expected to sell at auction for $92,000[75] sold for $120,000.[76] In 2019, a team of biologists named a new genus of Colombian spiders, Stormtropis, after the stormtroopers,[77] noting the spiders, like the fictional soldiers, are "very similar to each other, with some capacity for camouflage but with unskillful movements".[78] Stormtroopers also appear as cosmetic outfits in Fortnite." (wikipedia.org) "The Sith are the main antagonists of many works in the fictional universe of the Star Wars franchise.[2] They are the antithesis and ancient enemies of the Jedi. The Sith Order is depicted as an ancient cult of warriors who draw strength from the dark side of the Force and use it to seize power by any means necessary, including terrorism and mass murder; their ultimate goals are to destroy the Jedi and rule the galaxy. The various antagonistic factions in the franchise, namely the Confederacy of Independent Systems, the First Galactic Empire, the Imperial Remnant and the First Order, all originated, either directly or indirectly, from the Sith. Sith, known individually as Sith Lords, are ruthless and totalitarian by design, in which supreme autocratic authority is concentrated in a single individual granted the honorific Dark Lord of the Sith. Sith culture is based on perpetual treachery and betrayal; Sith Lords are typically eventually murdered and replaced by their own apprentices. Sith teach their apprentices to revere the dark side of the Force, to give full reign to aggressive emotions such as rage and hatred, and to believe that others are expendable in the pursuit of power. Like the Jedi, the Sith use the lightsaber as their traditional weapon, a device that generates a blade-like plasma powered by a kyber crystal. In contrast to the Jedi, who primarily use blue and green lightsabers, among other colors, the usual color for a Sith lightsaber is red, born of an unnatural corruption of the kyber crystal through the dark side's malignancy, causing it to "bleed". This even affects the sound of ignition, with a harsher hiss. Etymology The word Sith is taken from the 1914 science fiction novel, The Warlord of Mars, by Edgar Rice Burroughs in which it refers to a species of beetle. It was first used for Star Wars in the 1974 rough draft of Star Wars[3] with the first published use being the 1976 novelization of Star Wars as a title for the villain Darth Vader, the "Dark Lord of the Sith". Sith characters had also been portrayed as such in some Star Wars Legends works prior to the release of The Phantom Menace (the first film to identify characters as Sith on-screen), and in deleted footage from the original film. In his novel series The Thrawn Trilogy (1991–1993), author Timothy Zahn labeled Darth Vader and Emperor Palpatine as "Dark Jedi", as the meaning of the term "Sith" had not yet been defined. Subsequent Star Wars Legends media use the term "Dark Jedi" for various characters attuned to the dark side of the Force. Some of these characters (including Vader and Palpatine) would be later identified as Sith, although the term would also be applied to non-Sith characters with similar goals and practices. Influences Main articles: Star Wars sources and analogues and Star Wars § Themes George Lucas acknowledged that the Jedi, Sith, and other Force concepts have been inspired by many sources. These include: knighthood, chivalry, paladinism, samurai bushido, Shaolin Monastery, Feudalism, Hinduism, Qigong, Greek philosophy and mythology, Roman history and mythology, Sufism, Confucianism, Shintō, Buddhism and Taoism, and numerous cinematic precursors. The works of philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche and mythologist Joseph Campbell, especially his book The Hero with a Thousand Faces (1949), directly influenced Lucas, and was what drove him to create the 'modern myth' of Star Wars.[4][5] In particular, the contrasting narrative relationship between the dark side-using Sith and light side-using Jedi mirrors several modern and classical literary tropes. The ongoing struggle of the humanistic "light side"-affiliated Jedi to permanently defeat the egoistic "dark side"-affiliated Sith is framed not only as a contest of values, but as a deep metaphysical conflict: The dark side of the Force is viewed by the Jedi, and generally represented within Star Wars media, as not only a dangerous expedient but as a form of existential corruption which must be purged for the universe, or a person, to attain spiritual balance.[6] Jedi are often depicted as imperfect individuals, but their cause of selfless heroism is ultimately on the right side of an inexorable cosmic struggle against evil, embodied in the power-hungry Sith and the dark side of the Force. The dualistic relationship between these Sith and Jedi concepts of "purity" mirrors the philosophical and literary concept of "Apollonian and Dionysian": the Jedi are portrayed as embracing purity, reason, temperance, altruism and other humanistic virtues; the Sith, by contrast, embrace curiosity, emotion, conflict, power, instincts, unfettered self-interest and other hedonistic vices. However, whereas the classic Greek concept did not necessarily view the Apollonian and Dyonisian principles as opposed, Star Wars frames the Jedi and Sith as opponents in a dire moral struggle, with the Sith cast as corrupted villains apparently destined to defeat or self-destruction in the end.[7] Within the Star Wars narrative, the Jedi and Sith naturally have a different understanding of the Force. In Sith rhetoric, the relationship between the philosophy of Jedi versus Sith closely mirrors German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche's concept of master–slave morality; Sith value "master" virtues, such as pride and power, whereas the Jedi value altruistic "slave" virtues like kindness and compassion.[8] The goal of the Sith is tangible greatness: the ability to shape or destroy a world according to one's will, alone. The goal of the Jedi is moral goodness: freedom from inner turmoil and selfish desires. However, the Sith consider the Jedi's aspirations to be either hopeless or pathetic. To the Sith, achieving greater power, following one's passion, and freedom from inhibition are more authentic ways of expressing the Force. While the Jedi seek a harmonious connection to the Force, the Sith seek a deeper understanding through conflict because they believe the Force is defined by conflict.[9] Development Originally, George Lucas conceived the Sith as a group that served the Emperor in the same way that the Schutzstaffel had served Adolf Hitler. In developing the history for The Empire Strikes Back, Lucas condensed this into one character in the form of Darth Vader.[10] Ideology Sith philosophy values conflict as a catalyst for growth and as a tool for purging the weak, disloyal, and undisciplined. Sith emphasize the maxims, "because we feel like it" and "survival of the fittest" and view restraint as a weakness. Members adhere to master morality, are characterized by the desire to seize power by any means necessary, leveraging force (both physical and supernatural), social maneuvering, and political cunning to their advantage.[8] Throughout Star Wars media and in popular culture, the Sith are infamous as the dualistic antagonists to the Jedi, an affiliation of altruistic warriors who strive to use their own martial training and connection to the "light side" of the Force to promote peace and the common welfare throughout the galaxy. To counteract the Jedi's benevolent influence, the Sith instigate both large and small-scale conflicts as part of their larger plan to destabilize the Republic and eventually take control of the galaxy. The Code of the Sith The Sith are dedicated to the "Code of the Sith" and to mastering the dark side of the Force.[2] The Code of the Sith identifies conflict as the fundamental dynamic of reality, and holds that the search for lasting peace, within or without, is both quixotic and misguided. Rather, Sith embrace strife and dark passion as salutary and emancipatory forces, as they believe that violent struggle purges the decadent and weak, and that emotions such as aggression and hate provide the strength and resolve to secure freedom through victory.     The Code:     Peace is a lie. There is only passion.     Through passion I gain strength.     Through strength I gain power.     Through power I gain victory.     Through victory my chains are broken. The Force shall free me.     — The Code of the Sith[11] Although Sith seek dominion, Sith philosophy stresses that power belongs only to those with the strength, cunning, and ruthlessness to maintain it, and thus "betrayal" among the Sith is not a vice but an endorsed norm. Accordingly, the Sith reject altruism, self-denial, and kindness, as they regard such attitudes as founded on delusions that fetter one's perceptions and power. In connection with their philosophy, the Sith draw on the dark side of the Force through severe negative emotions, a technique opposed to that of their archenemies, the Jedi, who rely on the Force's "light side," i.e., the Force as experienced through disciplined states of apathy. Notably, both the Jedi and Sith shun romantic and familial love, as well as other positive emotions; the Jedi fear that such love will lead to attachment, and thus selfishness, while the Sith fear it will compromise their ruthlessness and connection to the dark side of the Force. Although the Sith are intimately linked to the dark side, not every user of the dark side is a Sith, nor is every user of the light side a Jedi.     Yes, a Jedi’s strength flows from the Force. But beware of the dark side. Anger, fear, aggression; the dark side of the Force are they. Easily they flow, quick to join you in a fight. If once you start down the dark path, forever will it dominate your destiny, consume you it will, as it did Obi-Wan's apprentice.     — Yoda, in The Empire Strikes Back The dark side of the Force is stigmatized as seductive, corruptive, and addictive by the Jedi, who view it as evil,[12] whereas the Sith consider the dark side of the Force to be its most powerful manifestation, and regard the abstemious Jedi as blinded by false virtue. As portrayed in all Star Wars-related media, the dark side provides users with powers similar to those of the light side-using Jedi, but as it leverages passion and violence, its use is enhanced by negative raw and aggressive emotions and instinctual feelings such as anger, greed, hatred, and rage. By deciding to learn the ways of the dark side of the Force, the Sith may also acquire powers and abilities considered by some in the Star Wars universe to be unnatural. A notable example is "Force lightning", electricity projected from the fingertips as a means of attack and torture, most famously used by Darth Sidious to torture Luke Skywalker in Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi. In Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith, meanwhile, Palpatine claims that the dark side gave the Sith lord Darth Plagueis power over death itself. Being uninhibited in their use of the Force, Sith could also repurpose abilities shared with the Jedi, such as telekinesis, to new and terrifying effect: Darth Vader was infamous for his use of telekinetic strangulation, or "Force choke," as a means of execution or intimidation.     "Fear is the path to the dark side. Fear leads to anger, anger leads to hate, hate leads to suffering."     — Yoda, in The Phantom Menace Extended use of the dark side reshapes the user's very nature, resulting in a loss of humanity, morality, and the ability to love, leaving every Sith, to varying degrees, amoral, cruel, and violent. Considering this dark change in personality to be a transformation into a different person altogether, some who turn to the dark side take on a different name, as they regard their former persona as dead and destroyed. Sith Lords, in particular, adopt a new name upon their initiation into the Order, prefixing it with the title Darth (e.g., "Darth Vader"). Severe saturation in the dark side may even lead to physical degradation. It is common for Sith who have immersed themselves in the dark side to have yellow eyes and pale skin, as evidenced by Darth Sidious in Return of the Jedi and the newly corrupted Vader in Revenge of the Sith.[13] Although Sith are deeply affected by the Machiavellian methods and dark arts they practice, they are not portrayed as necessarily irredeemable: some Sith, most famously Darth Vader in the final moments of his life, have renounced the Order and the dark side of the Force.     The dark is generous... It is patient and it always wins – but in the heart of its strength lies its weakness: one lone candle is enough to hold it back.     — Revenge of the Sith novelization Martial arts are a core part of the Sith tradition, and Sith featured in the Star Wars film series have all been highly trained warriors who further augment their abilities with the Force. Like the Jedi, the Sith's signature armament is a lethal focused energy melee weapon known as a lightsaber, which (generally) only those trained in the ways of the Force can use effectively, although General Grievous, a non-Force user, is able to murder numerous Jedi and seize their lightsabers as trophies. Sith use lightsabers in combination with Force-derived powers, such as telekinesis, enhanced dexterity and precognition, to achieve superhuman combat prowess. A well-trained Sith is depicted as being at least a match for a well-trained Jedi Knight, and either can handily defeat multiple ordinary attackers. In matters of dress, Sith may adopt any attire consistent with their plans or guise; they commonly favor black robes and armor. Fictional backstory (Legends) The Sith's history prior to the events of the films is portrayed in the comic book series Tales of the Jedi, published by Dark Horse Comics from 1993 to 1998 and considered part of the non-canonical Legends continuity.[14] The Sith Order began around 6,900 BBY, during a period known as the Hundred Year Darkness. A series of conflicts began between the rebellious Dark Jedi, a faction of the Jedi Order, and the rest of the Order. The Dark Jedi were defeated and cast out, exiled to the unknown regions. These Exiles settled on the planet Korriban, and encountered its native species, the Sith. The strongest among the Exiles, Ajunta Pall, became the first to hold the title Dark Lord of the Sith. His contemporaries, such as Karness Muur and XoXaan, became Sith Lords. The human Dark Jedi interbred with the Sith species, who also had an affinity for the Dark Side. They would become the original Sith Empire.[15] One of the earliest leaders of this Sith Empire was Tulak Hord. He expanded the Sith territories and conquered the Dromund System, home to Dromuund Kaas, later the capital of the Sith Empire. He was eventually followed by Marka Ragnos, the last ruler of a period known as the Golden Age of the Sith. Upon the passing of Ragnos, two contenders for the throne of Dark Lord, Naga Sadow and Ludo Kressh, dueled at his funeral. Eventually, after a series of conflicts, Sadow was victorious, and Kressh apparently killed.[16] Sadow began the Great Hyperspace War, invading the Republic and laying siege to its planets. Sadow's efforts were initially met with success, his forces amplified by illusions that Sadow projected from his meditation sphere. Ultimately, however, his concentration was broken when his apprentice turned on him. With his illusions dispersed, Sadow's forces were forced to retreat. Upon returning to Sith space they found that Kressh had not been killed, and they engaged him in a space battle. Sadow was victorious once again, but they were soon attacked by Republic forces. Sadow escaped by causing the Denarii Binary Star to go supernova. The Sith Empire was saved from collapse by Darth Vitiate, another one of Ragnos' former acolytes, who led the Sith into hiding in the Unknown Regions. In the Empire's absence, the influence of the Sith eventually led to the corruption of several Jedi Knights, including Freedon Nadd, Exar Kun, and Ulic Qel-Droma. Nadd, a former prodigy from the Jedi stronghold world of Ossus, made the conscious choice to embrace the dark side of the Force and sought out knowledge from Sadow's fallen empire, eventually leading him to Sadow himself, still alive and in exile on Yavin IV. After learning from Sadow, Nadd killed him and used his Sith status and power to conquer the planet Onderon and produce a royal lineage. After Nadd's death, Exar Kun sought out Sith arts from both Nadd's spirit and that of Marka Ragnos. The latter declared Kun Dark Lord of the Sith and made Qel-Droma his apprentice. Corrupting several Jedi to their cause and allying themselves with warriors such as the Mandalorians, Kun and Qel-Droma declared war on the Galactic Republic. During a raid on the Jedi Library at Ossus, Qel-Droma dueled and killed his brother, but was captured. Qel-Droma was redeemed and was instrumental in Kun's downfall, when the latter retreated to Naga Sadow's former stronghold on Yavin IV. Exar Kun's invasion directly influenced the Mandalorian Wars, whereas the individuals known as Revan and Alek came across Darth Vitiate's empire in the Unknown Regions. Seduced to the dark side and declaring themselves Sith Lords, Revan and Alek became Darth Revan and Darth Malak, respectively. Vitiate had them seek out the Star Forge, an ancient, alien weapons plant that the Sith hoped to use to speed up their return to the galaxy. Revan and Malak instead opted to use the Star Forge to fuel their own imperial war machine and led a brutal and hugely successful campaign against the Republic. Revan was eventually betrayed by Malak, allowing a Jedi strike team to capture him. Malak continued his conquest without Revan's tactical leadership until a redeemed Revan defeated him, and the Star Forge, the source of the Sith fleet, was destroyed. Remnants of Revan's Sith Empire were reorganized into a loose alliance of soldiers, assassins, and fallen Jedi led by the Sith Triumvirate, a triad of Sith Lords consisting of Darth Traya, Revan's former teacher; Darth Nihilus, a fallen Jedi and survivor of the Mandalorian Wars; and Darth Sion, a veteran Sith warrior from Exar Kun's war. The three of them began a shadow war against the Jedi, with Nihilus using his power to absorb Force energies to wipe out an entire planet of Jedi refugees, while Sion led a contingent of assassins to hunt down the survivors. This First Jedi Purge brought the Jedi Order to the brink of extinction. The Triumvirate's downfall came about when Meetra Surik, a Jedi who was exiled after the Mandalorian Wars, returned to known space. She defeated the three Sith, and without the Sith leadership, and the destruction of their base of operations on Malachor V, the remaining Sith forces faded into obscurity. Surik's students were able to help the Jedi recover from the Triumvirate's purge. Around 300 years later, the original Sith Empire, still under the leadership of a seemingly immortal Vitiate, emerged from the Unknown Regions and declared war on the republic. This war, dubbed the Great Galactic War, was halted when Vitiate, on the cusp of victory, was restrained by the telepathic prowess of Revan. After a period of non-fighting, called the Galactic Cold War, tensions boiled over, and the Galactic War began. The war briefly fell in favor of the Republic and the Jedi, with the Sith gradually losing ground, until both factions were forced to join in an alliance against a third faction of Force-users known as the Eternal Empire. Once the Eternal Empire was defeated, the war against the Sith resumed. Vitiate perished during the conflict, with Darth Malgus eventually taking control. Malgus proved to be a fairly successful leader but over time the Sith Empire eventually fell to infighting and mostly disappeared. Occasionally, a Dark Lord such as Darth Rivan or Darth Ruin would rise and fall, but the Sith did not become a major threat again until around 2,500 years later. At this point the Brotherhood of Darkness arose, led by the Sith Lord Skere Kaan. They focused on controlling the infighting between the Sith. This policy allowed them to make great progress in their war against the Republic. Ironically, one of their own, the Sith Lord Darth Bane, turned on them, engineering a civil war that ended with the deaths of every one of the Brotherhood's members, except for Bane himself. Bane then started the Rule of Two, which evolved into the Sith as they are seen in the films - an order consisting only of two Sith lords, a master and an apprentice. Fictional history Main article: Star Wars § Premise The Star Wars saga began with the film Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, which was released in 1977.[17] Since then, films, books, computer games and comics have been released, all set in the fictional universe of Star Wars, which has expanded the history of the Sith within their stories. The schemes of the Sith are key to the overarching plot of the Star Wars films and much other fictional material in the franchise. Their background has varied among depictions, but the Sith have always been insidious archenemies of the Jedi leveraging dark arts in pursuit of power and revenge. The Sith were first mentioned in A New Hope in a scene ultimately cut from the film. They were expanded upon heavily in the following years in books, comics, games and other multimedia. The Sith were formally introduced on-screen with the release of Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace in 1999 as a shadowy martial order manipulating the movie's political factions into a galaxy-spanning civil war. Star Wars: The Clone Wars first aired on Cartoon Network in 2008. This series took place between Episode II: Attack of the Clones and Episode III: Revenge of the Sith. During this time, Anakin Skywalker is a full-fledged Jedi Knight and the series shows how he progresses into his fall to the Dark Side of the Force.[18] Count Dooku is the active Sith Lord and leader of the Separatist Alliance. The series also explores Dooku's attempts at training secret apprentices like Asajj Ventress and Savage Opress in order to eventually defeat Darth Sidious and become the ruling Sith Lord. Emergence of the Sith Order The origin, agenda, abilities and philosophy of the Sith are intertwined with their relationship to the Force. With proper training, the Force may be called upon by rare individuals capable of "sensing" or "touching" it to achieve extraordinary feats such as telekinesis, precognition and mental suggestion. Not all psychological states are conducive to employing the Force; discipline is required. However, both quietude and focused, intense passion alike can be effective. The Sith originated in a species of Force-sensitive warriors who discovered the efficacy of passion as a tool to draw on the Force at least 5,000 years prior to the events of the first Star Wars film.[19][20] Fully embracing this approach, they became defined and corrupted by it. The warriors who would become the first Sith were apparently heterodox members of the Jedi. The Jedi served as a space-faring knightly order within the Galactic Republic, a representative democracy encompassing most developed worlds. The Jedi Order sought to use the powers of the Force to help defend the weak and advance the rule of law across the galaxy, in keeping with their ethics of self-sacrifice and service to the common welfare. The Jedi creed mirrored their method of utilizing the Force, and Jedi doctrine favored states of serenity, detachment, compassion, and humility as the proper means of accessing its power. Controversy emerged when members of the Jedi Order began to experiment with passion as an alternative. The Jedi establishment saw these innovations as a threat to the ethos of the Jedi, opening members to the seduction of power and cruelty. Eventually, this controversy led to a conflict in which the rebelling Jedi were defeated and exiled.[21] In exile, the dissident Jedi were free to explore the relationship between passion and the Force. They concluded that the martial and ethical disciplines of the Jedi establishment were foolish and misguided. Passion, not quietude, was the most potent means of accessing the Force, and conflict, not peace, was the natural and healthy state of the universe. Rejecting the teachings of the Light side of the force, the exiles now embraced ruthless personal ambition, believing that power belonged to those with the cunning and strength to seize it. In their training, the dissidents would seek to master the Force by cultivating dark passions such as anger and hate, a practice condemned by the Jedi. Guided by their egoistic philosophy based on ruling by seizing power, and armed with taboo Dark Side techniques, the former Jedi exiles reemerged to menace the galaxy as the Sith Order, aiming to conquer the Galactic Republic and exact revenge against the Jedi. Great Hyperspace Wars A succession of Sith-led regimes would arise to challenge the Jedi and the Galactic Republic, an era known as The Great Hyperspace Wars.[22] The Jedi-led Republic Armed Forces managed to repel the Sith Invasion from Coruscant and then pursued them all the way back to Korriban and essentially killed and purged all of the Sith they could find; Republic historians would call this campaign the post-great hyperspace War counter Invasion but the Sith simply called it a holocaust. However, internal power struggles would prove decisive in thwarting the Sith's designs. The paradox of reconciling endless personal ambition with the interests of the Sith as a whole became a great practical and philosophical concern for the Sith. Ultimately, this paradox was “resolved” through a drastic reorganization by Darth Bane, who recast the Sith into a master-apprentice tradition called the Rule of Two.[23] Starting with Darth Bane, there would be only two Sith at a time: one to embody power, and the other to crave it. While concealing their identity as Sith, a succession of Sith masters and apprentices would work through the centuries to place themselves into positions of power and undermine the responsible authorities, preparing to overtake the Galactic Republic. The Banite tradition encouraged each apprentice to eventually challenge and murder his or her master, and take an apprentice in turn. In this way, Darth Bane guaranteed the conspiracy remained a secret for a thousand years. He believed the Sith could exert their power and obtain their revenge against the Jedi by galactic domination. The first six Star Wars films chronicle this ancient scheme. Ascent to power of the Sith Darth Bane's plan would come to fruition through Sheev Palpatine, a Naboo Senator, later Supreme Chancellor, of the Galactic Republic, and secretly a Dark Lord of the Sith (“Darth Sidious”). By manipulating disgruntled factions within the Galactic Republic, Palpatine orchestrated civil war. This conflict, known within the Star Wars universe as the "Clone Wars", provided a justification for consolidating power in the Galactic Republic's chief executive and assembling a large army of cloned soldiers conditioned to obey certain key commands issued by Palpatine. The Jedi eventually discovered Palpatine's identity as a Sith Lord and attempted to arrest him. Palpatine framed their actions as an attempted coup, using it as a pretext for annihilating the Jedi by activating “Order 66,” one of the embedded protocols in the clone soldiers. In the course of effecting his designs, Palpatine also manipulated the most powerful Jedi knight, Anakin Skywalker, into his service by promising to teach him how to save the life of Padmé Amidala. In a tragic irony, Padmé's sheer horror at discovering Anakin's collaboration with Sidious resulted in her death during childbirth. Sidious would trick Anakin into believing that he had killed Padmé in anger. Anakin's subsequent emotional collapse would lead him to fully embrace the dark side of the Force. Sidious would rule the newly created Galactic Empire for approximately 20 years as its Emperor with Darth Vader at his side. Initially unknown to Vader and Sidious, two children were delivered by Padme before her death. Sith temples The Rebels episode "Twilight of the Apprentice" features a forbidden planet called Malachor,[24] home of an ancient Sith temple.[25] The temple contains a superweapon, and can only be activated by placing a special Sith Holocron[26] in an obelisk at the summit of the pyramid inside the temple. Thousands of years prior, a battle was waged on Malachor that resulted in the deaths of its inhabitants. Somewhere between the events of his last appearance in Solo: A Star Wars Story and this Rebels episode, Darth Maul had become stranded on the planet. When Ahsoka Tano, Kanan Jarrus and Ezra Bridger arrive, Ezra is separated from them. He is discovered by Maul, and together, they use the Force cooperatively to solve a series of tests, and retrieve a Sith Holocron. With the help of Kanan and Ahsoka, they fought three Inquisitors, all of whom are killed by Maul. Maul then betrays his allies, blinding Kanan, and proceeds to activate the superweapon. Maul is defeated by a sightless Kanan, and Darth Vader arrives with the intention of retrieving the holocron, but is challenged by Ahsoka, his former Padawan. While the superweapon is preparing to fire, Kanan and Ezra retrieve the holocron and escape, preventing the weapon of mass destruction from being used. Even though the temple is destabilized, Ahsoka and Vader keep fighting to the death within the rapidly crumbling building, until it eventually explodes, wounding Vader.[27] The Star Wars Resistance episode "The Relic Raiders" depicts a Sith temple hidden underneath a later Jedi temple.[28] End of the Sith Anakin's children, Leia, and Luke Skywalker would become key members of the Rebel Alliance to restore the Galactic Republic. Luke would be secretly tutored in the ways of the Force by Vader's own former Jedi master, Obi-Wan Kenobi, and a powerful elder Jedi, Yoda, who also survived Emperor Darth Sidious' purge. Ironically, during a final confrontation between Luke Skywalker, Darth Vader and the Emperor aboard a mobile battle station known as the Death Star, the Sith lineage would end as Darth Bane prescribed that it proceed. Darth Sidious offered Skywalker an ultimatum to enter his service or die, and proceeded to use his Force-derived powers to torture and threaten to kill Skywalker when the latter refused to embrace the dark side of the Force. Experiencing a crisis of conscience at the imminent death of Skywalker, whom Vader now knew to be his son, Darth Vader chose to intervene and kill his former master, Sidious, fulfilling the prophecy of the Chosen One. Vader would die of his own injuries shortly thereafter, thus apparently bringing an end to the Sith and their ancient vendetta. The 2019 film The Rise of Skywalker depicts the climax of the conflict between the Sith and the Jedi,[29] and features the group known as the Sith Eternal, led by a resurrected Darth Sidious. When Sidious meets his final demise at the hands of his granddaughter, Rey, the moment also marks the definitive end of the Sith. Overview Timeline     Before the films - At an unknown point in time, numerous Jedi become disillusioned with the Order and exile themselves, forming the Sith Order. Thousands of years later, a centuries-long war between the Jedi and the Sith takes place, which culminates with the apparent death of all the Sith. The sole survivor, Darth Bane, takes an apprentice and goes on to create the Rule of Two, beginning the era of the modern Sith, who live in secrecy. Almost 1000 years after Bane's death, Darth Plagueis trains Darth Sidious, who ultimately kills his master and takes Darth Maul as his first apprentice.     Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace - Sidious and Maul are the only known Sith in the galaxy. The latter kills Jedi Master Qui-Gon Jinn but is defeated by his padawan Obi-Wan Kenobi and is presumed dead.     Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones - Sidious has replaced Maul with Darth Tyranus who had formerly been a Jedi Master and was once the mentor of Obi-Wan’s late master Qui-Gon Jinn.     Star Wars: The Clone Wars film and television series - Sidious and Tyranus are the main pair of Sith in the galaxy. Tyranus takes Asajj Ventress as an informal apprentice, and later replaces her with Savage Opress. After betraying Tyranus, Opress finds his lost brother, Maul, who resurfaces as a Sith Master to rival Sidious and takes Opress as an apprentice. Sidious later kills Opress, and Tyranus kills Ventress.     Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith - Tyranus is killed by Jedi Knight Anakin Skywalker, who later turns to the dark side and becomes Sidious' third apprentice, Darth Vader. The Sith effectively take over the galaxy by nearly exterminating the entire Jedi Order and converting the Republic into the Galactic Empire, which Sidious rules as Emperor.     Star Wars Rebels - Sidious and Vader are the main pair of Sith in the galaxy. Vader trains the Inquisitors, most of whom are former Jedi, to hunt down surviving members of the Order hiding from the Empire. Maul lives in exile and no longer sees himself as a Sith; he later tries to take Ezra Bridger as an apprentice, but fails, and is eventually killed in a duel against Obi-Wan.     Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope, Star Wars: Episode V – The Empire Strikes Back, and Star Wars: Episode VI – Return of the Jedi - Sidious and Vader are the only Sith in the galaxy. Vader eventually kills Sidious to save his son, Luke Skywalker, redeeming himself and returning to the light side at the cost of his own life. The deaths of Sidious and Vader signify the end of the Sith for the following three decades, and the beginning of the downfall of the Galactic Empire, which eventually collapses one year later.     Star Wars: Episode VII – The Force Awakens - Snoke and his apprentice, Kylo Ren, Vader's grandson fill in the power vacuum left by the absence of the Sith in the galaxy. Snoke serves as Supreme Leader of the First Order, which emerged from the remnants of the Galactic Empire, while Kylo leads the Knights of Ren, a group of Force-wielders who take their strength from the dark side. None of them are official Sith.     Star Wars: Episode VIII – The Last Jedi - Snoke is killed by Kylo Ren, who replaces him as Supreme Leader.     Star Wars: Episode IX – The Rise of Skywalker - Sidious is revealed to have been resurrected and to have manipulated Kylo Ren's actions. He leads the Sith Eternal on Exegol and attempts to reconquer the galaxy for the Sith, but is ultimately killed by his granddaughter Rey, the last living Jedi. Kylo is redeemed like Vader before him and kills the Knights of Ren, before giving his own life to help Rey defeat Sidious. Without its leadership, the First Order eventually collapses, marking the definitive end of the Sith....Darth Sidious Main article: Palpatine Darth Sidious (Sheev Palpatine) was a human Dark Lord of the Sith who appeared in each trilogy of the Skywalker Saga. Originally the eldest son of an aristocratic family from the planet Naboo, he rose to power within the Galactic Republic's government system starting from Senator of his homeworld, then to Supreme Chancellor of the Republic, and finally to self-proclaimed Emperor of the Galactic Empire. This was done by cultivating a public image as a humble and competent politician while secretly mastering dark Sith arts studying under Plagueis, and planning the destruction of the Jedi Order and Republic. Eventually, by manipulating disaffected political groups and using double agents to sow discord, Palpatine fomented a civil war that provided an opportunity for him to seize absolute power. He had three known Sith apprentices: Darth Maul, Darth Tyranus, and Darth Vader. He was eventually betrayed and killed by his last, Vader, at the end of Return of the Jedi.[30] He returned more than 30 years later in The Rise of Skywalker, having managed to cheat death through powerful mastery of the dark side of the Force.[31] He attempted to reclaim control of the galaxy through the Sith Eternal's fleet of Xyston-class Star Destroyers, the Final Order, but was finally killed by his granddaughter, Rey, who deflected his Force lightning back at him using the two Skywalker lightsabers. Darth Sidious' final death marked what appears to be the definitive end of the Sith. In Legends continuity, Darth Sidious would return using clones and ancient Sith powers, returning in several clone bodies over the course of several novels and comics. During this time he would briefly turn Luke Skywalker to the dark side of the Force through sheer power as much as by guile, though Luke would later be redeemed by his sister Leia and restored to the light side of the Force and defeat Palpatine once and for all. Shortly before his first death, Palpatine had sent a psychic command through the Force to Mara Jade, planting in her the need to kill Luke. She eventually fulfilled this command by slaying a clone of Luke called Luuke Skywalker, whom Palpatine had made in an attempt to use him against the original, though this plot ultimately would fail due to Mara's fatal attack on the clone. Darth Maul Main article: Darth Maul Darth Maul was a Dathomirian Zabrak Sith Lord who served as the first apprentice of Darth Sidious. He first appeared in Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace, where he was ordered by his master to capture Queen Amidala of Naboo in order for her to sign a treaty that would legalize the Trade Federation's invasion of the planet. During a duel with Jedi Master Qui-Gon Jinn and his Padawan apprentice Obi-Wan Kenobi, who were assigned to protect Amidala, Maul killed the former, but was sliced in half by Obi-Wan and fell down a shaft. Although presumed dead, he survived his injuries and ended up on the junk planet Lotho Minor, where he would become a cyborg and be driven to insanity. He was eventually rescued by his brother Savage Opress twelve years later, during the Clone Wars. After being provided with a pair of new robotic legs by the Nightsisters, led by Maul's mother, Talzin, he sought revenge against Obi-Wan. This culminated with Maul allying with various crime syndicates, taking over the planet Mandalore, and killing Duchess Satine Kryze, whom Obi-Wan loved. Although he was then captured by his former master, Sidious, who came to see him as a rival, he managed to escape and rebuild his criminal empire. Following his overthrow and capture by the Galactic Republic, Maul escaped once again and went into hiding while no longer being a Sith Lord. During the reign of the Galactic Empire, Maul resurfaced as a crime lord and ran his syndicate, the Crimson Dawn, from the shadows, but is eventually stranded on the Sith world of Malachor. He escaped years later, after meeting Ezra Bridger, whom he then forced to assist in locating Obi-Wan. Finding him to be hiding on Tatooine, Maul fought his old nemesis one last time and was mortally wounded. Before dying, Maul took comfort in the fact that Obi-Wan was looking after who he believed to be the "Chosen One", who would one day avenge them by destroying the Sith. Darth Tyranus Main article: Count Dooku Darth Tyranus (Count Dooku) was a human Dark Lord of the Sith and the second apprentice of Darth Sidious, first appearing in Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones. Born to the royal family of the planet Serenno, Dooku was rejected by his family as an infant upon the discovery of his connection to the Force, which his father in particular feared and, as such, abandoned him after contacting the Jedi Order to come and take him to Coruscant. During his training under Yoda, Dooku proved himself to be both strong with the Force and a skilled duelist, regarded by many as one of the best in the Order. Upon becoming a Jedi Master, he left the Order and returned to Serenno to reclaim his title and heritage as a nobleman. He later fell to the dark side and became a Sith Lord and Darth Sidious' puppet. Dooku helped Sidious with his galactic conquest plans, recruiting the bounty hunter Jango Fett as the template of the clone army that would be used by the Galactic Republic, and forming the Confederacy of Independent Systems from various planets and systems that wanted to become independent from the Republic, resulting in the Clone Wars. Dooku served as the figurehead of the Separatist Alliance throughout the Clone Wars, until meeting his demise at the hands of Anakin Skywalker in Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith. In his final moments, Dooku realized that Sidious had merely used him to aid his schemes, and had planned to have him killed and replaced by someone more powerful all along.[32] Darth Vader Main article: Darth Vader Darth Vader (Anakin Skywalker) was a human-cyborg Dark Lord of the Sith and the third and final apprentice of Darth Sidious, who first appeared in the Star Wars original trilogy, and later in the prequel trilogy. As the Jedi hero Anakin Skywalker, he fought alongside his master Obi-Wan Kenobi during the galaxy-wide Clone Wars, but was slowly seduced to the dark side by Darth Sidious, then Sheev Palpatine, a well respected senator. After helping Sidious kill Jedi Master Mace Windu, he swore allegiance to the Sith and was given the name Darth Vader before setting out to destroy all Jedi left on Coruscant. After being sent by Sidious to assassinate the Separatist council members on Mustafar, Vader was badly injured in a duel with Kenobi, resulting in the loss of his remaining organic arm, both legs, and severe burn injuries. He was saved by Sidious, and encased in a black suit of armor with extensive cybernetics which kept him alive. As the Galactic Empire was established and continued to grow, Vader became the Emperor's immensely feared second-in-command and was given the task of finding surviving Jedi and the Rebel Alliance's base. After the destruction of the first Death Star, Vader was charged with tracking down the Rebel Alliance and destroying their headquarters. However, the actions of his son, Luke Skywalker, eventually turned Vader against his master, resulting in both Sidious' and Vader's deaths, as well as the fulfilment of the Chosen One prophecy.[33] Darth Plagueis Main article: Darth Plagueis Darth Plagueis was a Muun Dark Lord of the Sith and Darth Sidious' master, first referenced in Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith. In the film, Sidious (as Palpatine) uses Plagueis' story to seduce Anakin Skywalker to the dark side, claiming that Plagueis' abilities in the Force grew to such an extent that he could create life by influencing microscopic Force-sensitive entities called "midi-chlorians," and even save people from dying. According to the Rule of Two, Plagueis was eventually killed by Sidious in his sleep, who subsequently became the new Sith Master and would later take on an apprentice of his own. Plagueis is the main character of the Legends novel, Star Wars: Darth Plagueis, which explains much of his backstory, including his training under Darth Tenebrous, mentorship of Palpatine, and early plans to undermine the Galactic Republic and drive the Jedi Order into ruins. The novel also reveals that Plagueis' public identity was Hego Damsk II, a member of the Intergalactic Banking Clan. Darth Bane Main article: Darth Bane Darth Bane (Dessel) was a human Dark Lord of the Sith and the sole survivor of the Sith Order in the aftermath of the ancient war between the Jedi and the Sith. He is best known for establishing the Rule of Two, which was considered the beginning of the modern Sith within the Star Wars canon. This law stated that there must be only two Sith Lords at a time: a master to embody power, and an apprentice to crave it and eventually overthrow his/her master and adopt an apprentice of his/her own.[2] He is the main character of the Darth Bane Trilogy by Drew Karpyshyn, which part of the Legends continuity. In the Star Wars canon, Darth Bane's backstory as the only Sith survivor of the Jedi-Sith war and the creator of the Rule of Two is mostly unchanged, though not much else is known about him. His only canonical appearance was in the episode "Sacrifice" of Star Wars: The Clone Wars, where his spirit was encountered by Yoda on the Sith homeworld of Moraband. It is revealed by the novelization of The Rise of Skywalker and Darth Sidious in his book, titled The Secrets of the Sith that the Rule of Two is a pale imitation, an unworthy but necessary successor to the Doctrine of the Dyad, a concept centered on two Force-sensitive beings who had an unbreakable Force-bond—which made them one in the Force—collectively known as a Force Dyad. Darth Momin Darth Momin was a humanoid Dark Lord of Sith who appeared in the comic book Darth Vader: Dark Lord of the Sith and briefly in Lando. Once a sculptor, he was imprisoned at a young age for his creations, which scared most people who saw them. Momin was eventually rescued by a Sith Lady named Shaa, who trained him in the dark side of the Force until he became more powerful than her and killed her. Momin then built a superweapon named Fermata Cage to destroy a city and perished when the Jedi intervened to stop him, losing control over the energy he wielded and causing his physical body to be destroyed, leaving behind only his mask with his spirit inside. Many years later, the mask was retrieved from the Jedi Archive vault by Darth Sidious, who gave it to Darth Vader as a gift for his journey to Mustafar, which Vader sought to make his personal stronghold. After Momin's spirit killed some of his personnel, Vader examined the mask and learned of Momin's past, before letting him possess the body of a Mustafarian and build a fortress for him. Shortly after Momin finished building of the fortress, Vader was distracted by an invasion of Mustafarians, which Momin took advantage of to open the door to the Dark Side and resurrect himself. However, after challenging Vader to a duel, Momin met a quick demise by being crushed with a giant rock. Despite Momin's death, his dark essence remained in the mask for several more years. At one point, Momin's mask was aboard the Imperial yacht Imperialis, when a group of thieves led by Lando Calrissian attempt to rob the ship. After Momin's spirit possessed the bodies of two thieves, the others were forced to abandon them and blow up the ship, seemingly destroying Momin's mask, and his spirit with it. Luke Skywalker later learned about Momin and his history during his travels across the galaxy, and described the Sith Lord's role in building Vader's fortress in his book, titled The Secrets of the Jedi. Other canon Sith Lords     Darth Atrius – Ancient Dark Lord of the Sith who lived before Darth Bane and the modern Sith. He owned two crossguard lightsabers, which were found and given away by the smuggler Sana Starros after the Battle of Yavin. The anger possessed by Atrius when wielding both these crossguard lightsabers at the same time, carried over to the weapons themselves, and can transfer over to their new owners. These lightsabers were eventually destroyed by Darth Vader and Luke Skywalker, thus possibly erasing all knowledge about Atrius himself.[34]     Darth Caldoth – Duros Dark Lord of the Sith mentioned in the 2019 novel Myths & Fables. He lived at an unknown point in time before Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace and wrote a book titled The Bestiary of Darth Caldoth, which mentioned various Sith warbeasts. According to the legend, Caldoth eventually gained a Sith apprentice, the Twi'lek Ry Nymbis, and they were considered the two most powerful individuals in the galaxy at the time. Caldoth killed his own apprentice with a Sith ritual that turned the person's body into stone when he felt Nymbis was going to betray him. With the ritual, Nymbis was trapped in an eternal nightmare.     Darth Krall – Dark Lord of the Sith born as Radaki, who lived at an unknown point in time before Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace. He was first mentioned in the 2019 audiobook Dooku: Jedi Lost. Krall was seduced to the dark side after losing his faith in the Jedi Order, believing that the Jedi should retain their family ties and wealth. During his life, he fought in the Battle of Wasted Years, where the Sith emerged victorious, and tamed the Nightmare Conjunction. His lightsaber would later be stored in the Bogan Collection at the Jedi Temple on Coruscant.     Darth Skrye – Dark Lady of the Sith mentioned in the audiobook Dooku: Lost Jedi. She lived at an unknown point in time before Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace. Her voice was heard by Count Dooku during his time as a Jedi Padawan, in a Force vision that he had after encountering the Presagers of Hakotei on Asusto. In this vision, Skrye claimed that the Sith were reborn and activated a superweapon called the Cauldron, which destroyed a planet. She also owned an artifact called the Hand of Skrye, which would eventually be found by the Jedi Lene Kostana and Sifo-Dyas on Rishi.     Darth Wrend – Dark Lord of the Sith mentioned in the novel Master & Apprentice. He lived at an unknown point in time before Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace, and was best known for coming back to life after being killed by the Jedi Order, in order to fight them once again. The legend of Darth Wrend would come to Qui-Gon Jinn's mind during his time as a Padawan, who opened the holocron of prophecy, which contained numerous prophecies, many of which dated from ten thousand years ago. One of the prophecies said that evil would disappear yet appear again once the righteous had lost its light, which many believed that was referring to the return of the Sith. At that time, Qui-Gon believed that the prophecy talked about Darth Wrend's return from the dead and that it had already been fulfilled; it would later be revealed that the prophecy was actually about the return of the Sith after living in secrecy for almost a millennium.     Darth Tanis – Ancient Dark Lord of the Sith who lived at least 4000 years before Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope, as Sith accounts from the year 3966 BBY describe kyber weaponry developed by him on the planet Malachor. Darth Tanis is only mentioned in The Rise of Skywalker: The Visual Dictionary, where it is revealed that Darth Sidious' Sith Eternal cult named the 17th Legion of Sith Troopers after him.     Darth Revan – Ancient Dark Lord of the Sith mentioned in The Rise of Skywalker: The Visual Dictionary, as the namesake of the 3rd Legion of Sith Troopers from Darth Sidious' Sith Eternal cult. Darth Revan is a more important figure in the Legends continuity, where he is main protagonist of the video game Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, and a major character in related works. Once a Jedi hero of the Old Republic who led the Jedi to victory in the Mandalorian Wars, Revan later searched for the secret Sith Empire and was captured and tortured by the Sith Emperor, turning him to the dark side. After breaking free of the Emperor's control, Revan and his friend and Sith apprentice, Darth Malak, created their own Sith Empire using the ancient Star Forge to wage war on the Republic, but Malak eventually betrayed Revan and ordered his soldiers to fire on his ship during a battle against the Jedi. The wounded but still alive Revan was then captured by the Jedi, who erased his memories and gave him a new identity so that he could fight on their side once again. In the end, Revan defeated Malak and his Sith Empire and was seen as a Jedi hero once again, but was later captured by the Sith Emperor again and his psychic broke into a lighter half and a darker half. After being rescued by his descendant Satele Shan 300 years later, Revan's darker half sought to resurrect the Emperor's physical form so that he could kill him for good, but was defeated by the combined efforts of the Jedi, Sith, and his lighter half. The two halves of Revan then merged in peace and died for the final time.     Darth Andeddu – Ancient Dark Lord of the Sith mentioned in The Rise of Skywalker: The Visual Dictionary, as the namesake of the 5th Legion of Sith Troopers from Darth Sidious' Sith Eternal cult. Darth Andeddu is a more important figure in the Legends continuity, where he is one of the first known Sith Lords to have lived, as he preceded the creation of the "Darth" title. After being forced to flee from Korriban, Andeddu created the world of Prakith, which he ruled as a deity for several centuries, before tombing himself to prevent his followers from stealing his secrets after his death. During his life, he created the first ever Sith holocron to store his knowledge, and discovered the ability to cheat death by transferring one's essence into another vessel.     Darth Tenebrous – Dark Lord of the Sith mentioned in The Rise of Skywalker: The Visual Dictionary, as the namesake of the 26th Legion of Sith Troopers from Darth Sidious' Sith Eternal cult. Darth Tenebrous is a more important figure in the Legends continuity, where he was Darth Plagueis' master and possessed an unusual ability to foresee the future, including his own death. He maintained a public persona as Rugess Tome, a legendary artisanal starship designer, and was forced to wear a breathing apparatus. Tenebrous hoped to possess the Chosen One once they would be revealed and gain immortality, but he was eventually betrayed and killed by Plagueis. Although Tenebrous managed to cheat death by entering his apprentice's body, he couldn't do anything when Plagueis was killed by his own apprentice, Darth Sidious. Unable to return to his original body or possess another person, Tenebrous was cursed to remain a vague spirit for the rest of eternity.     Darth Phobos – Ancient Dark Lady of the Sith mentioned in The Rise of Skywalker: The Visual Dictionary, as the namesake of the 39th Legion of Sith Troopers from Darth Sidious' Sith Eternal cult. Darth Phobos also exists in the Legends continuity, where she was a seductive Theelin Sith with mind manipulation abilities. She killed many of her fellow Sith in a bid of power and formed a cult to worship her, but was ultimately killed by the combined forces of the Jedi and Sith. Her image was later incorporated in the training simulations at the Jedi Temple on Coruscant. This virtual representation of Phobos was fought by Starkiller in Star Wars: The Force Unleashed.     Darth Desolous – Ancient Dark Lord of the Sith mentioned in The Rise of Skywalker: The Visual Dictionary, as the namesake of the 44th Legion of Sith Troopers from Darth Sidious' Sith Eternal cult. Darth Desolous also exists in the Legends continuity, where he was a Pau'an warrior expelled from the Jedi Order due to his violent nature. He trained an army of fellow Pau'ans to fight them, but ended up falling into a trap set by the Jedi and perished in battle. His image was later incorporated in the training simulations at the Jedi Temple on Coruscant. This virtual representation of Desolous was fought by Starkiller in Star Wars: The Force Unleashed. Legends Sith Lords Main articles: Star Wars canon and Star Wars expanded universe Following the 2012 acquisition of Lucasfilm by The Walt Disney Company, Lucasfilm rebranded most of the licensed Star Wars novels, comics, and other fictional media published since the original 1977 film (previously identified as the Star Wars Expanded Universe) as Star Wars Legends and declared them non-canonical to the franchise in April 2014.[35][36][37] The Sith feature heavily in many stories of the Star Wars Expanded Universe (EU), appearing in a variety of media created prior to the advent of the 2015 feature film Star Wars: The Force Awakens.[38] Future authors and screenwriters are not required to honor all of the events depicted in this material, but the Expanded Universe has remained a source of creative inspiration. The EU thoroughly details the schism between the dissident “Dark Jedi” and the Jedi establishment that led to the creation of the Sith Order, as well a series of conflicts between the Sith, Jedi and the Galactic Republic spanning the millennia prior to the events of the Star Wars motion picture series, and certain events thereafter. In the EU, the Sith trace their origins to the followers of a dissident Jedi named Ajunta Pall, who endorsed the use of the Dark Side of the Force, contrary to Jedi orthodoxy.[39] After Pall and his “Dark Jedi” followers were exiled for their practices, they eventually settled on a planet named Korriban, which was occupied by the "Sith," a red-skinned humanoid race with a high prevalence of Force-sensitives. Over the course of centuries of intermingling between the ethnic Sith and Dark Jedi, the name "Sith" would come to apply to the martial philosophy and political affiliation created by the former Jedi exiles on Korriban, rather than a specific race. This Sith regime would strike out at the Galactic Republic and Jedi on numerous occasions. Notable conflicts between the Sith and the Galactic Republic include the "Great Hyperspace War," in which the Sith would launch a massive invasion of the Republic but succumb to infighting, and the “Sith Holocaust,” in which the Galactic Republic failed in its attempt to exterminate the Sith from known space, leading the Sith survivors to take a vow of eternal vengeance on the Galactic Republic. The EU also describes the exploits of Sith characters following the collapse of Emperor Palpatine's Galactic Empire and the restoration of the Republic, such as the attempt by “Darth Krayt” to establish a New Sith Order on Korriban. The first Expanded Universe novel was Splinter of the Mind's Eye, written by Alan Dean Foster and published in 1978. The setting for the novel takes place between Episode IV: A New Hope and Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back. It provides a new adventure that includes Princess Leia, R2-D2, C-3PO, Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader. In the story, Darth Vader tries to get the kyber crystal to use it for his evil schemes. Other novels that depict Sith characters are Darth Maul: Saboteur and Cloak of Deception by James Luceno.[40] Cloak of Deception describes the political background surrounding the Republic in the time period before The Phantom Menace, as well as Darth Sidious' plans to rule the galaxy, starting with the blockade of Naboo. In Darth Maul: Saboteur, the Sith Lord Darth Sidious sends Darth Maul to destroy InterGalactic Ore and Lommite Limited.[41] In Darth Maul: Shadow Hunter, by Michael Reaves, Darth Sidious sends his apprentice, Darth Maul, to investigate the traitor who leaked the secret of his plan to take down the Republic.[42] Shadow Hunter provided insight into the Sith while detailing how Darth Sidious brought his plan of usurpation into action. Dark Horse Comics purchased the copyrights to several Star Wars stories.[43] With their publication of Star Wars: Dark Empire #1 in 1991, they initiated what has become a large line of Star Wars manga and comics.[44] The Sith appear as major antagonists throughout this story's plot.[44] Many of the comics that were published helped expand the backstory of the characters and followed the rise and fall of the Dark Lords of the Sith.[44] Star Wars video games have also been adapted from the plots of the films, novels, and TV shows. The games follow the basic plot of the story, but they can also include alternative, non-canonical, endings depending on which character is being played. Some of the video games that have a heavy focus on Sith characters and lore are Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, released in 2003,[45] Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II – The Sith Lords, released in 2004[46] and Star Wars: The Force Unleashed, released in 2008.[47] Darth Caedus Main article: Jacen Solo Darth Caedus (Jacen Solo) was a Dark Lord of the Sith born as the oldest son of Han Solo and Leia Organa Solo. A Jedi hero of the Yuuzhan Vong War, he eventually fell to the dark side years later and masterminded the Second Galactic Civil War. He was eventually killed by his twin sister Jaina for his actions. Marka Ragnos Main article: Marka Ragnos Marka Ragnos was an ancient Sith-human hybrid, who lived during the time of the first Sith Empire, and seized the title of Dark Lord of the Sith, serving as the ruler of the Empire. After his death, two Sith Lords, Naga Sadow and Ludo Kressh, fought to occupy his throne, only for Ragnos' spirit to appear before them and claim that only the most worthy should succeed him. Ragnos lived on as a Force spirit after his death, trapped within his tomb in the Valley of the Dark Lords on Korriban. A thousand years after the Dark Lord's death, Exar Kun summoned Ragnos from his grave through the use of talismans. Ragnos crowned Exar Kun as the new Dark Lord, with Ulic Qel-Droma as Kun's apprentice, as an attempt to resurrect the lost empire thousands of years prior. Several thousands of years after that, in the video game Star Wars Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy (set during the New Republic era), a cult dedicated to Ragnos, led by the Dark Jedi Tavion Axmis, intended to resurrect the Sith Lord using an old artifact called the Scepter of Ragnos. After absorbing Force energy from numerous locations across the galaxy using the scepter, Tavion and her cult traveled to Korriban and almost succeeded in resurrecting Ragnos, but were stopped by Luke Skywalker's New Jedi Order. Inside Ragnos' tomb, the Jedi Knight Jaden Korr defeated Tavion, before Ragnos' spirit possessed her body, attempting to kill the Jedi himself. However, Jaden was able to defeat Ragnos, whose spirit left Tavion's body and returned to the depths of the Force, swearing revenge against the Jedi. Darth Malak Main article: Darth Malak Darth Malak (Alek) is the main antagonist of Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic. Once a Jedi Knight and Revan's best friend, he fought him alongside in the Mandalorian Wars. Later, Alek and Revan unwittingly discovered the Sith Empire in the Unknown Regions and were captured by the Sith Emperor, who, using Sith sorcery, turned them to the dark side, but the two broke free from his control and formed their own Sith Empire using the Star Forge to wage war on the Republic, with Revan as the leader and Alek, now Darth Malak, as his Sith Apprentice. At some point, Malak attempted to kill Revan and take over the Sith Empire for himself, but was defeated and had his entire lower jaw cut off, forcing him to don a prosthetic jaw instead. Later, when Revan prepared to battle the Jedi who boarded his flagship, Malak betrayed him, ordering the ships under his command to fire on Revan's flagship's bridge, so that he could take over the Sith Empire for himself. However, Revan survived the ordeal and was taken to the Jedi Council Enclave, where he had his memory wiped, so that he would become a Jedi once again. Eventually, Revan faced off against Malak, who revealed the truth of his identity, but was ultimately killed by him, which also led to the downfall of his Sith Empire. Darth Traya Main article: Kreia Darth Traya (Kreia) is a mentor to the "Jedi Exile" and the hidden main antagonist of Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II – The Sith Lords.[48][49] She is revealed to have been a Sith Master at the end of the game, and is ultimately killed in battle. Darth Sion Main article: Darth Sion Darth Sion, also known as the Lord of Pain, is an antagonist in Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II – The Sith Lords. Alongside Darth Nihilus, he served as one of Traya's apprentices, until ultimately betraying her and driving her into exile. Sion managed to achieve immortality by calling on his pain, anger and hatred every time he was facing certain death, at the expense of all-consuming agony, which also led to his extremely disfigured appearance. The player's character eventually defeated Sion, and was then given the option to turn him back to the light side. Regardless, upon being shown the price he paid for immortality, Sion finally let go of his hate and allowed himself to die permanently. Darth Nihilus Main article: Darth Nihilus Darth Nihilus, also known as the Lord of Hunger, is an antagonist in Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II – The Sith Lords. Alongside Darth Sion, he served as one of Traya's apprentices, until ultimately betraying her and driving her into exile. Nihilus imbued his dark soul into his mask and robes and had the power to drain the life force out of any living thing. Following the betrayal of his master, Nihilus used the might of the Sith Armada not to conquer planets, but to contain them so that he could "feed" off the Force energy of each planet's lifeforms, wiping planets of life. However, Nihilus was later drawn out and tricked into launching an attack on Telos, believing it to contain the last Jedi. The Exile confronted Nihilus on his ship, and Nihilus was killed either after his former slave Visas sacrificed herself due to their shared link in the Force, or after his attempt to feast on the Exile's connection to the Force backfired and weakened him. Despite his death, Nihilus' soul would continue to live in his mask and robes for millennia to come, as well as inside his own Sith holocron. Lord Vitiate Known for much of his 1300-year life as "the Sith Emperor", Lord Vitiate was a sociopathic young lord in one of the earliest iterations of the Sith Empire. When that empire fell, he led an exodus of survivors to the other side of the galaxy to establish a continuation of it, with himself as Emperor. It was Vitiate who corrupted Revan and Malak, but Revan's redemption and Malak's defeat seemingly derailed his plans. Three hundred years after Revan's disappearance, the Emperor launched a surprise attack on the Republic, setting the stage for the video game Star Wars: The Old Republic. Darth Malgus Main article: Darth Malgus Darth Malgus (Veradun) is a major antagonist in Star Wars: The Old Republic. A human Dark Lord of the Sith who trained under Vindican, Malgus served the Sith Empire during the Great Galactic War against the Republic. Following the recapture of Korriban from the Jedi, Malgus killed his master and later led a surprise assault on Alderaan, only to be defeated by his nemesis and former opponent from Korriban, Satele Shan. Malgus was severely injured in the fight against Shan, forcing him to wear a respiratory apparatus for the rest of his life. Sometime later, Malgus was tasked by his superior, Darth Angral, with leading an assault team on the Jedi Temple on Coruscant, which Malgus and his forces destroyed, disgracing the Jedi Order in the eyes of the Republic. Although Malgus believed that the Battle of Coruscant was the first step of destroying the Republic, it only served as leverage in the peace negotiations that took place on Alderaan. While the Alderaanian summit progressed, the Sith settled into an occupation of Coruscant. Malgus was placed in charge of orbital security, but the Sith Lord defied his orders and traveled back to Coruscant's surface to strike against the renegade Jedi Aryn Leneer, who wanted to avenge her master Ven Zallow, killed by Malgus during the attack on the Jedi Temple. Although Leneer ultimately failed, the conflict caused Malgus to become disillusioned with the Empire and to kill his lover Eleena Daru, seeing their relationship as a weakness that prevented him from preserving his own power, which he later used to cleanse the Empire of the politicians whom he blamed for allowing the Republic to survive. During the Cold War years that followed the successful peace negotiations, Malgus led Sith forces into the Unknown Regions, claiming previously-unknown territories for the Empire. Towards the end of the war, following the presumed death of the Sith Emperor and his service on the Dark Council, Malgus formed his own Empire, free of the infighting of the Dark Council. However, the Republic and the Sith Empire forces soon teamed up to fight against Malgus' Empire and managed to track him down to his secret base, where they defeated him. Despite his apparent death, Malgus later resurfaced during the Invasion of Ossus at the start of the Third Galactic War, once again serving as a commander within the Sith Empire. However, following the Battle of Corellia, Malgus went rogue, determined to expunge all physical and mental restraints used to keep him under control. Thousands of years after his death, Malgus was still remembered as one of the most powerful Sith Lords to have ever lived. At one point, Darth Sidious acquired some surviving excerpts of Malgus's journals, which he bounded into his Book of Sith, an anthology of Sith historical writings. Sith Affiliates Dark Side Force-wielders who use the dark side of the Force, but don't follow the Sith ideology and, therefore, are not considered official Sith. Some can be trained by a Sith master as an informal apprentice or assassin, in which case they are called Sith Shadow Hands. Canon Asajj Ventress Main article: Asajj Ventress Asajj Ventress was a Dathomirian Sith Shadow Hand trained under Darth Tyranus (Count Dooku) and an antagonist of the Star Wars: The Clone Wars. She first appeared in the 2003 microseries Star Wars: Clone Wars, in which Darth Sidious assigned her to kill the then-Padawan Anakin Skywalker. After tracking the young war hero to the planet Muunilinst, Ventress engaged Anakin's Republic fighter forces fighting above the Separatist-occupied world and baited him in a chase to Yavin 4, where a fierce battle from the forest to the Massassi temple took place. Though she initially gained the upper hand in the ensuing lightsaber duel, Anakin called upon his immense connection to the Force to brutally overpower her, causing the Dathomirian to fall over the edge of a cliff. However, survived the landing and continued to serve her master throughout the Clone Wars on several occasions. In Star Wars: The Clone Wars, Ventress was a recurring antagonist during the first seasons, as she assisted Dooku with several schemes, most of which were thwarted by the Jedi. After being replaced with Savage Opress for her failures, Ventress returned to the Nightsisters until General Grievous led a massacre against them, which only she and Mother Talzin survived. From there, she helped Boba Fett's team of bounty hunters on a dangerous mission, which thus marked the start of her own bounty hunting career. Ventress later appeared in the novel Star Wars: Dark Disciple, which was intended for a story arc in the TV series. In the novel, she teamed up with Jedi Quinlan Vos to assassinate Dooku, and, along the way, the two fell in love. However, their attempt to kill Dooku failed, and Dooku captured Vos, turning him to the dark side. Ventress managed to turn Vos back, but died saving him from Dooku. She was buried on Dathomir, amongst her fallen sisters. Savage Opress Main article: Savage Opress Savage Opress was a Dathomirian Zabrak Sith Shadow Hand first trained under Darth Tyranus (Count Dooku) and later under his own brother, Darth Maul, as well as a major antagonist in Star Wars: The Clone Wars. Originally a Nightbrother under Mother Talzin on Dathomir, he was handpicked by Asajj Ventress as part of her scheme to kill Dooku for the attempt on her life. He was eventually altered by the Nightsisters, making him more of a berserker on Ventress' call to the point of killing his brother Feral without remorse. Opress managed to become Tyranus' new Shadow Hand and learned only a little about the ways of the Sith before Ventress had him help her fight their master due to his actions under him getting unwanted attention from the Jedi. However, in the heat of the moment and provoked by both of them, Opress tried to kill both Tyranus and Ventress before escaping back to Dathomir. There, he was instructed by Mother Talzin to find Maul so that he could complete his training to defend himself against the numerous enemies he had made. After finding his long-lost brother as a shell of his former self on a junk planet, Opress managed to stir up Maul's grudge with Obi-Wan Kenobi to aid him in his revenge against the Jedi. From there, the two Zabrak brothers were able to set up a Confederacy against the Republic separate from the Separatists, and soon took over Mandalore. However, Darth Sidious, who considered Maul's sudden rise to power a threat to his rule, arrived on Mandalore and fought Maul and Opress. The latter met a quick demise as he was stabbed by Sidious' two lightsabers and died in his brother's arms moments later. Quinlan Vos Main article: Quinlan Vos Quinlan Vos was a Kiffar Jedi Master during the Clone Wars. Near the end of the war, he partnered with Asajj Ventress (who was working as a bounty hunter at the time) to assassinate Count Dooku. After being captured by Dooku, Vos willingly turned to the dark side and became his apprentice, in hopes he could discover the identity of Dooku's master, Darth Sidious. During his time as an agent for the Confederacy of Independent Systems, he became known as "Admiral Enigma". Vos was eventually turned back to the light side by Ventress, at the cost of her own life. After respectfully burying Ventress on her homeworld, Dathomir, Vos was reinstated into the Jedi Order and continued fighting in the Clone Wars on the Republic's side. He later presumably survived the Great Jedi Purge. Inquisitorius This section is about the organization. For the individual self-known as "The Inquisitor", see Grand Inquisitor (Star Wars). For the 2023 novel, see Star Wars: Inquisitor. The Inquisitorius, formally known as the Inquisitors, were an organization of Force-sensitive warriors in the service of the Galactic Empire who became defunct at some point before A New Hope. All of them were former Jedi, who had lost their faith in the Jedi Order and succumbed to the dark side, during or shortly after the Clone Wars. They were all trained by the Sith Lord Darth Vader, who tasked them with hunting down other survivors of the Great Jedi Purge, as well as other Force-sensitive individuals, mostly children, to prevent them from becoming future Jedi.     The Grand Inquisitor – The individual who would become known as the Grand Inquisitor was originally a Pau'an Jedi Temple Guard during the Clone Wars. After losing his faith in the Jedi Order and falling to the dark side, he came into service of the Empire and worked his way up its ranks to become the leader of the Inquisitors. The Grand Inquisitor was introduced as the main antagonist of the first season of Star Wars Rebels, where he was assigned to hunt down Kanan Jarrus and Ezra Bridger. He was eventually defeated by Kanan and chose to commit suicide rather than face the infamous wrath of Darth Vader for his failure. His light side essence later helped Kanan pass his final trial to become a Jedi Knight. In the Star Wars comic series, it was revealed that the Inquisitor's spirit was somehow tied by Darth Vader to an abandoned Jedi outpost on Tempes, where it briefly fought Luke Skywalker and where it was cursed to stay forever, unable to pass on and become one with the Force.     The Second Sister – Trilla Suduri was the Padawan of Jedi Knight Cere Junda and one of the few survivors of the Great Jedi Purge. After Cere was captured and interrogated by the Empire, she betrayed Trilla's location, leading to her being captured and tortured by the Empire as well, until giving into the dark side and becoming the Second Sister Inquisitor. She initially made a cameo appearance in the comic book Darth Vader: Dark Lord of the Sith, and later served as the main antagonist of the video game Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, where she was tasked with hunting Jedi Padawan Cal Kestis, as well as a holocron containing a list of Force-sensitive children. Although she succeeded in securing the holocron, she was eventually defeated by Kestis and Cere at the Inquisitor headquarters on the planet Nur. Cere then attempted to make amends with her former Padawan, but Darth Vader appeared and executed Trilla for failing her mission.     The Third Sister – Reva Sevander was a youngling of the Jedi Temple on Coruscant and one of the few survivors of the Great Jedi Purge. Reva was introduced as the main antagonist of the first season of Obi-Wan Kenobi, portrayed by Moses Ingram, where, recruited to the Inquisitorius after living on the streets, she secretly plots revenge against Darth Vader for killing her peers during Order 66, having survived being stabbed through the stomach by him during the Purge, seeking to track down and kill Vader's former master (as Anakin Skywalker) Obi-Wan Kenobi for allowing his apprentice to fall to the dark side, arranging the kidnapping of Leia Organa to lure Kenobi out of hiding. After the Grand Inquisitor attempts to take credit for her tracking down of Kenobi, Reva stabs him through the stomach, apparently killing him, and convinces Vader to appoint her as the new Grand Inquisitor in his stead. After Kenobi rescues Leia from Reva's forces before the inquisitor can personally torture her for information, Reva tracks down Kenobi again, who surmises her past as a youngling and offers her an opportunity to take her revenge on Vader while he himself. Attempting Reva attempts to engage Vader in combat, he effortlessly disarms her without using a lightsaber, before stabbing her through the gut with a lightsaber again. The Grand Inquisitor, revealing himself to be alive, takes back his ranking, before leaving Reva in the gutter to die. However, after Vader and the Grand Inquisitor leave, Reva finds a message left for Kenobi by Bail Organa, revealing to her that Vader's son, Luke Skywalker, is hidden on Tatooine, under the protection of Owen Lars, whom she had previously met there while hunting Jedi. Proceeding to Tatooine, Reva attempts to kill an unconscious Luke, but, reminded of her younger self, elects to spare him. On Kenobi's return, he forgives Reva for her actions, informing her that she can do whatever she wants with her life.     The Fourth Sister – The Fourth Sister is an Inquisitor appearing for the first time in Obi-Wan Kenobi, portrayed by Rya Kihlstedt. She participated at the chase of Obi-Wan Kenobi.     The Fifth Brother – The Fifth Brother was a former green-skinned humanoid member of the Jedi Order who eventually lost his faith in the Order and became an Inquisitor sometime after the rise of the Empire. He was introduced in the second season of Star Wars Rebels, where he and the Seventh Sister were tasked with hunting the Ghost crew after the Grand Inquisitor's death, during which they also competed against each other to become the next Grand Inquisitor. The Fifth Brother was eventually defeated after dueling Kanan Jarrus, Ezra Bridger, Ahsoka Tano and Maul on Malachor, being disarmed by Ahsoka and subsequently killed by Maul.     The Sixth Brother – Bil Valen was a former humanoid Jedi Knight who eventually lost his faith in the Jedi Order and became the Sixth Brother Inquisitor sometime after the rise of the Empire. He was described as tall with unnatural-looking grey skin, piercing ice-blue eyes, broad shoulders, and distinctive scar/tattoo-like marking, and was also shown to have lost an arm to Darth Vader during one of his training sessions. The Sixth Brother was first introduced in the Ahsoka novel, where he was tasked with hunting Ahsoka Tano, but was ultimately defeated by her after she caused his lightsaber to overload and explode, killing him. Clancy Brown voices the Sixth Brother in "Resolve", the first season finale of Tales of the Jedi (2022), and a loose abridged adaptation of the main events of Ahsoka. Unlike the novel, the Sixth Brother is defeated by Ahsoka with his own lightsaber, after she disarms him.[50]     The Seventh Sister – The Seventh Sister was a former Mirialan member of the Jedi Order who eventually lost her faith in the Order and became an Inquisitor sometime after the rise of the Empire. She was introduced in the second season of Star Wars Rebels, where she was shown to be using small droids to help her track down her targets, and was also working closely with the Fifth Brother, as they were both tasked with hunting the Ghost crew after the Grand Inquisitor's death, during which they also competed against each other to become the next Grand Inquisitor. The Seventh Sister was eventually defeated by Maul on Malachor and subsequently killed by him, after Ezra Bridger refused to do so.     The Eighth Brother – The Eighth Brother was a former Terrelian Jango Jumper member of the Jedi Order who eventually lost his faith in the Order and became an Inquisitor sometime after the rise of the Empire. He was introduced in the second-season finale of Star Wars Rebels, where he was tasked with hunting the former Sith Darth Maul, eventually tracking him down to Malachor. He dueled Maul, Kanan Jarrus, Ezra Bridger, and Ahsoka Tano alongside his fellow Inquisitors, the Fifth Brother and the Seventh Sister, but the latter two were ultimately killed by Maul. Cornered, the Eighth Brother then attempted to escape, but his lightsaber had been damaged during the battle and exploded in his hands when he tried to use it to fly away, causing him to fall to his death.     The Ninth Sister – Masana Tide was a former Dowutin Jedi Knight who eventually succumbed to the dark side and became the Ninth Sister Inquisitor after intense torture at the hands of the Empire. She first appeared in the comic book Darth Vader: Dark Lord of the Sith, where she assisted Darth Vader, the Sixth Brother and the Tenth Brother in hunting the Jedi Ferren Barr on the planet Mon Cala. After Barr used the Force to turn the Imperial stormtroopers present against them, the Ninth Sister was betrayed by the Sixth Brother, who severed her right foot and left her behind to die so that he could escape, although she managed to survive. She later appeared as an antagonist in the video game Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, where she joined the Second Sister in the hunt for Cal Kestis. The Ninth Sister was ultimately defeated by the Jedi Padawan on Kashyyyk, who severed her right hand. However, she survived to the death once again. She was later killed by Cal Kestis on Coruscant during the events of Star Wars Jedi: Survivor.     The Tenth Brother – Prosset Dibs was a former Miraluka Jedi Master during the Clone Wars who eventually became disillusioned by the Jedi's role as protectors of the galaxy. He first appeared in the comic book Jedi of the Republic - Mace Windu, where he tried to kill Mace Windu during a mission on the planet Hissrich. He was defeated and subsequently expelled from the Jedi Order for his actions. Dibs later became the Tenth Brother Inquisitor in the service of the Empire and appeared in the comic book Darth Vader: Dark Lord of the Sith, where he assisted Darth Vader, the Sixth Brother and the Ninth Sister in hunting the Jedi Ferren Barr on the planet Mon Cala. After Barr used the Force to turn the Imperial stormtroopers present against them, the Tenth Brother was killed in the ensuing fight.     Thirteenth Sister – Iskat Akaris was a red-skinned Inquisitor appeared in the comic book Darth Vader: Dark Lord of the Sith, where she assisted Darth Vader, the Fifth Brother and another black-skinned Twi'lek Inquisitor in hunting Jedi Master Eeth Koth. While Vader dueled and killed Koth, Iskat found his wife and baby daughter, but refused to kill them, instead taking the latter and bringing her to Vader, who then left her in the care of some nursemaids. Later, the Fifth Brother informed Vader of her actions and, believing it to be an act of treason, he tried to kill her in front of the other Inquisitors. She managed to escape with the help of her fellow Twi'lek Inquisitor, but they were both eventually caught following a chase through Coruscant. Vader froze them with the Force and killed them. Iskat is the protagonist of the novel Inquisitor: Rise of the Red Blade, which reveals her backstory as a Jedi who is recruited into the Inquisitorius.     Tualon Yaluna – Tualon Yaluna is a black-skinned Twi'lek Inquisitor who appeared in the comic book Darth Vader: Dark Lord of the Sith, where he assisted Darth Vader, the Fifth Brother and Iskat in hunting Jedi Master Eeth Koth. Later, when Vader tried to kill Iskat for treason, he helped her escape, but they were both eventually caught following a chase through Coruscant. Vader froze them with the Force and killed them. Tualon appears as one of the central characters in the novel Inquisitor: Rise of the Red Blade.     Humanoid Inquisitor - An unnamed humanoid Inquisitor appeared in "T0-B1" episode of Star Wars: Visions, as he received the signal from Mitaka's shuttle who was T0-B1 to call all the Jedi as he heads down to the planet to kill him. Months later, he returned to the planet as he realized that T0-B1 has been hidden as they fight until he was killed by Tobi.     Green-Skinned Inquisitor - An unnamed humanoid Inquisitor appeared in the Star Wars: Visions episode "The Bandits of Golak". He hunted a Force-sensitive girl named Rani until he was killed by the Jedi Rugal. He was voiced by Neeraj Kabi.     Marrok - Marrok was a former humanoid Jedi who lost his faith to the Jedi and became an Inquisitor after the rise of the Empire. Marrok was introduced in Ahsoka, portrayed by Paul Darnell, where he became a mercenary working for the Nightsister Morgan Elsbeth, after the fall of the Empire. During his time with Morgan Elsbeth's forces, Marrok worked with former Jedi General Baylan Skoll, and his apprentice Shin Hati, and aided Elsbeth in her quest to find Grand Admiral Thrawn. He engaged Ahsoka Tano in a lightsaber duel during a mission on Corellia. Later, Marrok confronted Ahsoka once more on Seatos, where the former Jedi hunter was killed by Tano's blade.[51] Snoke Main article: Supreme Leader Snoke Snoke was a Force-sensitive artificial being created by Darth Sidious and his Sith Eternal cult on Exegol, and a major antagonist in the Star Wars sequel trilogy. After Sidious' death and the fall of the Empire, Snoke became the Supreme Leader of the First Order and seduced Ben Solo to the dark side, training him to become his apprentice, Kylo Ren. He was also behind the destruction of Luke Skywalker's Jedi Temple and the deaths of most of his students, in an attempt to wipe out the Jedi Order once and for all. He was ultimately killed by Kylo, after failing to foresee his betrayal. Following Snoke's death, Kylo took over as Supreme Leader of the First Order. Kylo Ren Main article: Kylo Ren Kylo Ren (Ben Solo) was a former Jedi and powerful dark side wielder, and the central antagonist of the Star Wars sequel trilogy. He was born as the son of Leia Organa and Han Solo, and trained under his uncle, Luke Skywalker, to become a Jedi, but was seduced to the dark side by Snoke. Adopting the alias Kylo Ren, he helped eliminate his uncle's new generation of Jedi and became the leader of the Knights of Ren and a high-ranking member of the First Order. He trained under Snoke to become a powerful dark side wielder, and later proved his loyalty by killing his father when he tried to help him get redeemed. However, Kylo eventually betrayed and killed his master after siding with the Jedi Padawan Rey, with whom he shared a unique connection called a "dyad in the Force". However, instead of turning back to the light side, he took over as the new Supreme Leader of the First Order, and invited Rey to join him, but she refused. Later, Kylo had a confrontation with Luke, only to discover that he was a Force projection, meant to distract him and allow the Resistance to escape; nonetheless, Luke died as a result of the effort to create the projection, leaving Rey the only living Jedi. Eventually, Kylo discovered that Darth Sidious was still alive and plotted to kill this potential rival, but instead sided with him after the latter revealed the Final Order, a massive fleet of Xyston-class Star Destroyers built by the Sith Eternal, which he promised to give Kylo control of in exchange for killing Rey, revealed to be his granddaughter. However, Kylo planned to have Rey join him so that they could kill Sidious and take over the galaxy for themselves, but she refused and attacked him. During the duel, Kylo was distracted by his mother reaching out to him through the Force (at the cost of her own life), allowing Rey to defeat him. After a conversation with a memory of his late father, Ben Solo was redeemed and came to Rey's aid in defeating Sidious. After Rey died killing the Sith Lord, Ben revived her using the Force, at the cost of his own life. Knights of Ren The Knights of Ren were an organization of masked Force-wielding warriors, who serve as antagonists in the Star Wars sequel trilogy. The Knights were neither Sith nor Jedi, but a new generation of dark side warriors that emerged to fill the void left by the supposed demise of the last Sith Lords, Darth Sidious and Darth Vader. The Knights of Ren did not adhere to any code, willing to do anything to triumph. Their name came from a lightsaber called the "Ren", which could only be wielded by their leader. The Knights consisted of ten individuals named Marinda, Massif, Fyodor, Bazzra, Ap'lek, Cardo, Kuruk, Trudgen, Ushar, and Vicrul, and were originally led by a man named Ren, who knew Supreme Leader Snoke. After Ben Solo's fall to the dark side, they allowed him to join and demanded that he get one "good death" to prove himself. Ben eventually killed Ren himself and became the new leader of the Knights, Kylo Ren, in addition to knighting fellow former Jedi Padawan Voe. In The Rise of Skywalker, six remaining Knights join Darth Sidious' Sith Eternal following Kylo's redemption, and are killed by the latter on Exegol. Legends Starkiller Starkiller (born Galen Marek) was the informal apprentice of Darth Vader, and the protagonist of the Star Wars: The Force Unleashed video games and literature. Born to a fugitive Jedi Knight after the Clone Wars, he was unnaturally strong in the use of the Force. Vader realized his potential when he came to kill his father, and subsequently raised him as his secret apprentice, giving him the code-name "Starkiller". When he reached adulthood, Starkiller was sent to eliminate several fugitive Jedi, only to then be betrayed by Vader. Eventually, Starkiller turned to the light side and assisted in the formation of the Rebel Alliance, before defeating his former master and sacrificing himself for the Rebellion in a fight against Darth Sidious. Vader later cloned Starkiller in hopes of creating the perfect apprentice, but the clone followed the same path as the original Starkiller: turning to the light side and joining the Rebellion. Tol Skorr Tol Skorr was a human former Jedi Knight that was trained under Darth Tyranus (Count Dooku). He served as Dooku's bodyguard during the Clone Wars, and was very much disliked by Quinlan Vos. When Vos was revealed to have been spying on Dooku, Skorr and Asajj Ventress were sent to kill Vos. Skorr was ultimately killed by Vos, who Force-pushed him into lava. HK-47 Main article: HK-47 HK-47 was a Hunter-Killer-series assassin droid introduced in the video game Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic He was constructed by Darth Revan in the aftermath of the Mandalorian Wars and was sent throughout the galaxy on missions by the Sith Lord and assassinated those deemed by Revan as threats to galactic stability. Bastila Shan Main article: Bastila Shan Bastila Shan was a Jedi Master introduced in the video game Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic. Shan used the force to stabilise Darth Revan, who was near death after his ship had been fired upon in an act of betrayal by his apprentice Darth Malak. This act created a bond between Shan and Revan, and Shan eventually fell in love with Revan while they were tasked with finding the Star Forge shipyard (Revan was retrained as a Jedi after his memories were erased by the Jedi Council). While hunting for the shipyard, Shan and Revan, who were accompanied by Carth Onasi, were captured by Malak. After escaping their cells aboard Malak's flagship, Shan was imprisoned by Malak after a duel to allow Revan and Onasi to escape from the Sith. After a week of torture by Malak, Shan fell to the dark side, and took her place as Malak's apprentice. In time, Shan would duel Revan, Jolee Bindo and Juhani (Star Wars), and, while she was no match for the Jedi, attempted to convince Revan to join her to become the Dark Lord of the Sith. Revan rejected the offer and made the choice of a true Jedi. Later on, after being defeated by Darth Revan in a duel on the Star Forge, Bastila was convinced to return to the path of the light, renouncing the dark side and confessing her love for Revan. Revan went on to defeat Darth Malak, upon the Star Forge, before he and Bastila were married on Coruscant. Sith Eternal The 2019 film Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker depicts thousands of Sith cultists and loyalists known as the Sith Eternal.[52] They are the main antagonistic faction of the Star Wars sequel trilogy. They are located on the Sith planet Exegol, which is described in the film as the "hidden world of the Sith".[1] The film depicts the Sith loyalists as having built the Final Order, a massive fleet of Xyston-class Star Destroyers, at the behest of Darth Sidious. They are also revealed to have artificially created and cloned Snoke,[53] whom a resurrected Sidious uses as a puppet to control the First Order and seduce Kylo Ren to the dark side.[31] At the end of the film, the Sith Eternal cultists are present during Sidious' rejuvenation through the Force and his demise at the hands of Rey, the last Jedi and Sidious' own granddaughter.[52][54] The Sith Eternal cultists are disintegrated in the explosion following Sidious' death.[52][55] The novelization of The Rise of Skywalker goes into more detail about how Sidious transferred his consciousness into the cloned body the Sith Eternal prepared for him.[56] In popular culture See also: Cultural impact of Star Wars Sith Lords Darth Vader and Emperor Palpatine / Darth Sidious have become iconic villains in popular culture. Their personae are frequently used as exemplars of Machiavellianism, authoritarianism, brutality and evil in serious,[57] humorous[58] and satirical[59] settings. Palpatine is archetypal as the "Evil Emperor"—a cunning tyrant who rules through deception, propaganda, fear and oppression.[60] Although usually considered as a villainous "enforcer" of such power, Darth Vader has also been regarded as a tragic figure, a study in the corruption of a hero who loses sight of the greater good and falls from grace out of fear and desperation.[61] A "turn to the Dark Side" has become a popular idiom to describe an (often misguided) individual or institution's embrace of evil out of a desire for power." (wikipedia.org) "Darth Vader is a fictional character in the Star Wars franchise. The character is the secondary antagonist of the original trilogy and, as Anakin Skywalker, is the main protagonist of the prequel trilogy. Star Wars creator George Lucas has collectively referred to the first six episodic films of the franchise as "the tragedy of Darth Vader".[1] Darth Vader has become one of the most iconic villains in popular culture, and has been listed among the greatest villains and fictional characters ever.[2][3] His masked face and helmet, in particular, is considered one of the most iconic character designs of all time. Originally a slave on Tatooine, Anakin Skywalker is a Jedi prophesied to bring balance to the Force. He is lured to the dark side of the Force by Chancellor Palpatine and becomes a Sith Lord, assuming the name of Darth Vader and helping his new master all but destroy the Jedi Order. After a lightsaber battle with his former mentor Obi-Wan Kenobi on Mustafar, in which he is severely injured, Vader is transformed into a cyborg. Now Palpatine's right-hand, he serves the Galactic Empire for over two decades, hunting down the remaining Jedi as well as the Rebel Alliance. Vader ultimately redeems himself by saving his son, Luke Skywalker, and killing Palpatine, sacrificing his own life in the process.[4] He is also the secret husband of Padmé Amidala, the biological father of Princess Leia, and the maternal grandfather of Kylo Ren (Ben Solo). In the non-canonical Star Wars Legends continuity, he is also the grandfather of Luke's son Ben, and Leia's sons Anakin and Jacen and daughter Jaina, and the great-grandfather of Jacen's daughter Allana. The character has been portrayed by numerous actors: David Prowse physically portrayed Vader in the original trilogy, while James Earl Jones has voiced him in all of the films and some television shows. Sebastian Shaw portrayed the unmasked Anakin in Return of the Jedi, as well as the character's spirit in the original release of that film.[f] Jake Lloyd played Anakin Skywalker as a child in The Phantom Menace, the first film of the prequel trilogy, while Hayden Christensen played him as a young adult in the following two films, post-2004 releases of Return of the Jedi,[i] and the television series Obi-Wan Kenobi and Ahsoka. In addition to the first six Star Wars films, the character appears in the anthology film Rogue One. He also appears in television series (most substantially The Clone Wars) and numerous iterations of the Star Wars Expanded Universe, including video games, novels, and comic books. Due to Vader's popularity, various merchandise of the character, such as action figures and replicas of his lightsaber, has been produced. Creation and development Name George Lucas, who created Vader's character According to Star Wars creator George Lucas, he experimented with various combinations of names for the character built upon the phrase "Dark Water". He then "added lots of last names, Vaders and Wilsons and Smiths, and ... just came up with the combination of Darth and Vader". After the release of The Empire Strikes Back (1980), Lucas stated that the name Vader was based upon the German/Dutch-language word vater or vader ('father'), suggesting "Dark Father" and the character's relationship with original-trilogy protagonist Luke Skywalker.[5] Other words which may have inspired the name are "death" and "invader",[6] as well as the name of a high-school upperclassman of Lucas's, Gary Vader.[7][8] As no other character with the title "Darth" was introduced until the release of The Phantom Menace (1999),[v] some viewers interpreted it as the character's first name, in part because Obi-Wan Kenobi addresses him as "Darth" in the original film.[9][w] The moniker is bestowed upon Anakin in Revenge of the Sith (2005) upon his turn to the dark side of the Force. Director Ken Annakin's films Swiss Family Robinson and Battle of the Bulge influenced the original trilogy,[10] leading some to believe that Anakin was named after him. Lucas' publicist denied this following Annakin's death in 2009.[11] Anakin and Luke's original surname "Starkiller" remained in the script until a few months into filming Star Wars, when it was dropped due to what Lucas called "unpleasant connotations" with Charles Manson and replaced with "Skywalker".[12][x] In other countries In France, the character's name was changed to "Dark Vador" starting with the original film. The names of other characters were changed too, but his is the only name that has been maintained even in the most recent films. The title "Dark" was used in place of "Darth" for the other Sith lords as well.[14] In the Italian-language editions, Darth Vader is named "Dart Fener". In 2005, before the release of Episode III, an online survey asked Italian fans whether they would rather maintain the Italian name or switch it to the original: the first option won. In 2015, when Episode VII had to be released, the Italian localisation decided to change the name to the English "Darth Vader".[15] In Iceland his name is "Svarthöfði" (which means "blackhead"). Concept and writing In the first draft of The Star Wars, tall, grim general "Darth Vader" was already close in line with his final depiction, and the protagonist Annikin Starkiller had a role similar to that of his son Luke's as the 16-year-old son of a respected warrior.[16] Originally, Lucas conceived of the Sith as a group that served the Emperor in the same way that the Schutzstaffel served Adolf Hitler. In developing the backstory for The Empire Strikes Back, Lucas condensed this into one character in the form of Vader.[17] After the success of the original Star Wars film, Lucas hired science-fiction author Leigh Brackett to write the sequel with him. They held story conferences and, by late November 1977, Lucas had produced a handwritten treatment. He wrote, "When we kill [Vader] off in the [third film], we'll reveal ... [h]e wants to be human—he's still fighting in his own way the dark side of the Force." Lucas considered introducing a new lair for Vader to replace the Death Star; these included an Imperial City, a cave, "a little castle on a rock in the middle of the ocean", and "a tall, dark tower, very narrow in a lava flow".[18][y] In Brackett's draft, Luke's father appears as a ghost to instruct him.[19] Lucas was disappointed with Brackett's script, but she died of cancer before he could discuss it with her.[20] Amongst other issues, Lucas found Vader's characterization unsatisfactory, e.g. expository dialogue near the beginning.[18][z] With no writer available, Lucas wrote the next draft himself. In this script, dated April 1, 1978, he utilized a new plot twist: Vader claims to be Luke's father.[21] According to Lucas, he found this draft enjoyable to write, as opposed to the year-long struggles writing the first film.[22] Lucas has said that he knew Vader was Luke's father while writing the first film,[23] though the relationship is not explicitly evidenced before said draft of The Empire Strikes Back.[21][24][25] Although Lucas kept Vader's identity secret, even to the cast and crew of The Empire Strikes Back, Vader's physical portrayer, David Prowse, stated to the press in 1978 that in the sequel, "Luke learns that Darth is, in fact, his long-lost father."[26] The new plot element of Luke's parentage had drastic effects on the series. Author Michael Kaminski argues in The Secret History of Star Wars that it is unlikely that the plot point had ever seriously been considered or even conceived of before 1978, and that the first film was clearly operating under a storyline where Vader was a separate character from Luke's father.[27] After writing the second and third drafts in which the plot point was introduced, Lucas reviewed the new backstory he had created: Anakin had been Obi-Wan Kenobi's brilliant student and had a child named Luke, but was swayed to the dark side by Palpatine. Anakin battled Obi-Wan on a volcano and was badly wounded, but was then reborn as Vader. Meanwhile, Obi-Wan hid Luke on Tatooine while the Galactic Republic became the tyrannical Galactic Empire and Vader systematically hunted down and killed the Jedi.[28] An early draft of Return of the Jedi ended with Luke taking Vader's helmet and declaring, "Now I am Vader."[29] After deciding to create the prequel trilogy, Lucas indicated that the story arc would be a tragic one depicting Anakin's fall to the dark side. He also saw that the prequels could form the beginning of one long story that started with Anakin's childhood and ended with his death, in what he has termed "the tragedy of Darth Vader".[1] This was the final step towards turning the film series into a "saga".[30] For the first prequel, Episode I: The Phantom Menace (1999), Lucas made Anakin nine years old[31][aa] to make the character's separation from his mother more poignant.[33] Movie trailers focused on Anakin and a one-sheet poster showing him casting Vader's shadow informed otherwise unknowing audiences of the character's eventual fate.[34] The movie ultimately achieved a primary goal of introducing audiences to Anakin,[30] as well as introducing the concept that he is the Chosen One of an ancient Jedi prophecy, destined to bring balance to the Force. Lucas states in an interview recorded around the time of the third prequel, Revenge of the Sith (2005), that "Anakin is the Chosen One. Even when Anakin turns into Darth Vader, he is still the Chosen One."[35][36] Hayden Christensen spoke about Darth Vader's role in the six-film saga: "He believes that he's the Chosen One. He's not doing wrong things knowing that it's having a negative impact. So there's that sort of naivety to him now that wasn't there before, and it makes him more human in a lot of ways."[36] Michael Kaminski offers evidence that issues in Anakin's fall to the dark side prompted Lucas to make fundamental story changes, first revising the opening sequence of Revenge of the Sith to have Palpatine kidnapped and his apprentice, Count Dooku, killed by Anakin in cold blood as the first act in the latter's turn towards the dark side.[37] After principal photography was complete in 2003, Lucas re-wrote Anakin's turn to the dark side; Anakin's fall from grace would now be motivated by a desire to save his wife, Padmé Amidala, rather than the previous version in which that reason was one of several, including that he genuinely believed that the Jedi were plotting to take over the Republic. This fundamental re-write was accomplished both through editing the principal footage, and new and revised scenes filmed during pick-ups in 2004.[38] During production of the animated The Clone Wars television series, Ahsoka Tano was developed to illustrate how Anakin develops from the brash, undisciplined Padawan apprentice in Attack of the Clones (2002) to the more reserved Jedi Knight in Revenge of the Sith.[39] Clone Wars supervising director and Star Wars Rebels co-creator Dave Filoni said that giving Anakin responsibility for a Padawan was meant to place the character in a role that forced him to become more cautious and responsible. It would also give him insight into his relationship with Obi-Wan and depict how their relationship matured. Ahsoka and Anakin's relationship was seen as an essential story arc spanning both the animated film and Clone Wars television series.[40] Filoni began thinking about the final confrontation between Ahsoka and Vader ever since he created the former;[41] different iterations had different endings,[42] including one in which Vader kills Ahsoka just as she slashes open his helmet to reveal his scarred face.[43] A similar scene is included in an episode of Rebels, in which Ahsoka slashes Vader's helmet open, and the Sith Lord recognizes her.[44] According to Filoni, Ahsoka's presence in the series allows Vader to encounter the show's lead characters without the latter being "destroyed", as Ahsoka can "stand toe-to-toe" with her former master.[45] Design Ralph McQuarrie incorporated samurai armor into his conceptual designs for Vader's costume in 1975. Vader was not initially conceived of as wearing a helmet. The idea that he should wear a breathing apparatus was first proposed by concept artist Ralph McQuarrie during preproduction discussions for Star Wars with Lucas in 1975. According to McQuarrie, Lucas directed him to portray a malevolent figure in a cape with samurai armor, stating, "George just said he would like to have a very tall, dark fluttering figure that had a spooky feeling like it came in on the wind."[46] Because the script indicated that Vader would travel between spaceships and needed to survive in the vacuum of space, McQuarrie proposed that Vader should wear a space suit. Lucas agreed, and McQuarrie combined a full-face breathing mask with a samurai helmet, thus creating one of space-fantasy cinema's most iconic designs.[47][46] McQuarrie's 1975 production painting of Vader engaged in a lightsaber duel with Deak Starkiller (a prototypical Luke Skywalker) depicts the former wearing black armor, a flowing cape and an elongated, skull-like mask and helmet. This initial design by McQuarrie was relatively close to Vader's final depiction.[48] Darth Vader designers Ralph McQuarrie Ralph McQuarrie Brian Muir Brian Muir Working from McQuarrie's designs, costume designer John Mollo devised an outfit that could be worn by an actor onscreen using a combination of clerical robes, a motorcycle suit, a German military helmet and a military gas mask.[49] The prop sculptor Brian Muir created the helmet and armor used in the film.[50] Vader's chest plate includes Hebrew characters, some of which are upside down, and may constitute gibberish or jabber about redemption.[51] The sound of the respirator function of Vader's mask was created by Ben Burtt using modified recordings of scuba breathing apparatus used by divers.[52] The sound effect is trademarked in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office under Trademark #77419252 and is officially described in the documentation as "The sound of rhythmic mechanical human breathing created by breathing through a scuba tank regulator."[53] Commentators have often pointed to the influence of Akira Kurosawa's films such as The Hidden Fortress (1958) on George Lucas, and Vader's samurai-inspired costume design is held up as a significant example of the Japanese influences on Star Wars.[54] It has long been rumored that the warrior on the front cover of Wishbone Ash's 1972 album Argus was the main inspiration behind Darth Vader. Vocalist and guitarist Andy Powell acknowledged this rumor although he himself cannot confirm if it is true as he had nothing to do with the conception of the cover art.[55] Portrayals As Vader David Prowse physically portrayed Vader in the original film trilogy. Darth Vader was portrayed by bodybuilder David Prowse in the original film trilogy, with fencer Bob Anderson performing the character's lightsaber fight scenes.[56][57] George Lucas thought that the 6-foot-6-inch (1.98 m) Prowse "brought a physicality to Darth Vader that was essential for the character ... with an imposing stature and movement performance to match the intensity and undercurrent of Vader's presence."[58] Lucas chose to have a different actor be the voice of Vader, since Prowse had a strong West Country English accent that led the rest of the cast to nickname him "Darth Farmer". Lucas originally intended for Orson Welles to voice Vader, but after deciding that Welles's voice would be too recognizable, he cast the lesser-known James Earl Jones instead.[59][60] Jones initially felt his contributions to the films were too small to warrant recognition and his role was uncredited at his request until the release of Return of the Jedi (1983).[56] When Jones was specifically asked if he had supplied Vader's voice for Revenge of the Sith—either newly or from a previous recording—Jones answered, "You'd have to ask Lucas about that. I don't know."[61] Hayden Christensen and Gene Bryant alternately portray Vader in Revenge of the Sith.[62][63][64][ab] During the production of Revenge of the Sith, Christensen asked Lucas if a special Vader suit could be constructed to fit his own body, rather than have a different actor don one of the original sets of Vader armor worn by Prowse.[65] Brock Peters provided the voice of Darth Vader in the NPR/USC radio series. Both Spencer Wilding[66] and Daniel Naprous portrayed Vader in Rogue One (2016), with Jones reprising his role as the character's voice.[67][68] James Earl Jones voiced Darth Vader for the character's portrayals in film and television. Vader's character has also been portrayed in several video games; in games such as Rebel Assault II: The Hidden Empire and Dark Forces, visual effects artist C. Andrew Nelson appears in short sequences in the Vader costume, voiced by Scott Lawrence. Matt Sloan, who appeared in the YouTube parody Chad Vader, provided the voice of Darth Vader in The Force Unleashed.[69] As a result of his video game appearances, Nelson was cast to appear as Vader in brief sequences inserted into the Special Edition of The Empire Strikes Back, in which Vader is seen boarding his shuttle.[64] In September 2022, it was confirmed that Jones would retire from voicing the character. His voice was digitally recreated by the company Respeecher for use in Obi-Wan Kenobi using artificial intelligence, and Jones later signed over the rights to his performance for future Star Wars productions.[70][71] As Anakin Hayden Christensen portrayed Anakin Skywalker in the latter two episodes of the prequel trilogy and other minor film appearances. In 2022, he took over the portrayal of Vader as well. During production of Return of the Jedi, the casting crew sought an experienced actor for the role of Anakin Skywalker since his death was unquestionably the emotional climax of the film, and Sebastian Shaw was selected for the role.[72][ac] When Shaw arrived at the set for filming, he ran into his friend Ian McDiarmid, the actor playing the Emperor. When McDiarmid asked him what he was doing there, Shaw responded, "I don't know, dear boy, I think it's something to do with science-fiction."[74] His presence during the filming was kept secret from all but the minimum cast and crew, and Shaw was contractually obliged not to discuss any film secrets with anyone, even his family. The unmasking scene, directed by Richard Marquand, was filmed in one day and required only a few takes, with no alteration from the original dialogue.[72] Lucas personally directed Shaw for his appearance in the final scene of the film, in which he plays Anakin's Force spirit. Shaw's likeness in this scene was replaced with that of Christensen in the 2004 DVD release. This attempt to tie the prequel and original trilogies together was one of the most controversial changes in a Star Wars re-release.[75][76][ab] Shaw received more fan mail and autograph requests from Return of the Jedi than he had for any role in the rest of his career. He later reflected that he enjoyed his experience on the film and expressed particular surprise that an action figure was made of his portrayal.[72] When The Phantom Menace was being produced, hundreds of actors were tested for the role of young Anakin[78] before the producers settled on Jake Lloyd, who Lucas considered met his requirements of "a good actor, enthusiastic and very energetic". Producer Rick McCallum said that Lloyd was "smart, mischievous and loves anything mechanical—just like Anakin."[79][80] During production of Attack of the Clones, casting director Robin Gurland reviewed about 1,500 other candidates for the role of the young Anakin before Lucas eventually selected Hayden Christensen for the role,[81] reportedly because he and Natalie Portman (the actress who plays Padmé Amidala) "looked good together".[82] When Revenge of the Sith was being produced, Christensen and Ewan McGregor began rehearsing their climactic lightsaber duel long before Lucas would shoot it. They trained extensively with stunt coordinator Nick Gillard to memorize and perform their duel together. As in the previous prequel film, McGregor and Christensen performed their own lightsaber fighting scenes without the use of stunt doubles.[83] Anakin has also been voiced by Mat Lucas for the 2003 micro-series Clone Wars, and by Matt Lanter in the CGI animated film The Clone Wars, the television series of the same name and for Anakin's small roles in the animated series Rebels and Forces of Destiny.[84] James Earl Jones reprised the voice role for Vader's appearances in Rebels.[85][86] Both Lanter and Jones contributed their voices for the second-season finale of Rebels, at times with identical dialogue spoken by both actors blended together in different ways.[87] Characteristics In Attack of the Clones, Anakin Skywalker feels "smothered" by Obi-Wan Kenobi and is incapable of controlling his own life.[88] By Revenge of the Sith, however, his "father–son" friction with his master has matured into a more equal, brotherly relationship.[89] Once he becomes Darth Vader, each evil act he commits shatters any hope or connection towards his previous life, which makes it harder for him to return to the light,[90] but he ultimately escapes the dark side and redeems himself by sacrificing his life to save his son, Luke Skywalker, and kill the Emperor in Return of the Jedi.[91] Eric Bui, a psychiatrist at University of Toulouse Hospital, argued at the 2007 American Psychiatric Association convention that Anakin Skywalker meets six of the nine diagnostic criteria for borderline personality disorder (BPD), one more than necessary for a diagnosis. He and a colleague, Rachel Rodgers, published their findings in a 2010 letter to the editor of the journal Psychiatry Research. Bui says he found Anakin Skywalker a useful example to explain BPD to medical students.[92] In particular, Bui points to Anakin's abandonment issues and uncertainty over his identity. Anakin's mass murders of the Tusken Raiders in Attack of the Clones and the young Jedi in Revenge of the Sith count as two dissociative episodes, fulfilling another criterion. Bui hoped his paper would help raise awareness of the disorder, especially among teens.[92] Appearances Darth Vader/Anakin Skywalker appears in seven of the live-action Star Wars films, the animated series The Clone Wars (including the film), Rebels, and the micro-series Clone Wars and Forces of Destiny. He also has a main and recurring role in games, comics, books and the non-canon Star Wars Legends material. Skywalker saga Main article: Skywalker saga Original trilogy David Prowse as Darth Vader in The Empire Strikes Back (1980) Darth Vader first appears in Star Wars[w] as a ruthless cyborg Sith Lord serving the Galactic Empire.[56] He is tasked, along with Grand Moff Tarkin (Peter Cushing), with recovering the stolen plans for the Death Star battle station, which were stolen by the Rebel Alliance. Vader captures and tortures Princess Leia (Carrie Fisher), who has hidden the plans inside the droid R2-D2 (Kenny Baker) and sent it to find Vader's former Jedi Master Obi-Wan Kenobi (Alec Guinness) on the planet Tatooine. During Leia's rescue by Obi-Wan's allies Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill) and Han Solo (Harrison Ford), Vader strikes down Obi-Wan in a lightsaber duel. Having placed a tracking device aboard their ship, the Millennium Falcon, Vader is able to track down the Rebel base on the planet Yavin 4.[93] During the Rebel attack on the Death Star, Vader boards his TIE Advanced and shoots down Rebel X-wings, but Solo intervenes and sends Vader's ship spiraling off course, allowing Luke to destroy the Death Star. In The Empire Strikes Back, Vader becomes obsessed with finding the Force-sensitive Luke[93] and leads his stormtroopers to attack on the Rebel base on Hoth, but the Rebels escape. While conversing with the Emperor (Ian McDiarmid) via hologram, Vader convinces him that Luke would be a valuable ally if he could be turned to the dark side of the Force. Vader hires a group of bounty hunters to follow Luke's friends, and negotiates with Bespin administrator Lando Calrissian (Billy Dee Williams) to set a trap for them to bait Luke.[93] After Han, Leia, Chewbacca (Peter Mayhew), and C-3PO (Anthony Daniels) arrive, Vader tortures and freezes Han in carbonite and gives him to the bounty hunter Boba Fett (Jeremy Bulloch).[93] When Luke arrives, Vader overpowers him in a lightsaber duel, severing his hand. Vader tells Luke that he is his father, and tries to persuade him to join the dark side and help him overthrow the Emperor. Horrified, Luke escapes through an air shaft. Vader telepathically tells Luke that it is his destiny to join the dark side.[93] In Return of the Jedi, Vader and the Emperor supervise the final stages of the second Death Star's construction.[93] Thinking that there is still good in his father, Luke surrenders to Vader and tries to convince him to turn from the dark side. Vader takes Luke to the second Death Star to meet the Emperor. While there, the Emperor tempts Luke to give in to his anger, which leads to Vader dueling with Luke once again.[93] Realizing that Leia is Luke's twin sister, Vader threatens to turn her to the dark side if Luke will not submit. Furious, Luke overpowers Vader and severs his father's cybernetic hand. The Emperor entreats Luke to kill Vader and take his place. However, Luke refuses, and the Emperor tortures him with Force lightning. Unwilling to let his son die, Vader seizes the Emperor and throws him down a reactor shaft to his death, but is mortally wounded by his master's lightning in the process.[93][94] The redeemed Anakin Skywalker asks Luke to remove his mask, and admits that there was still good in him after all as he dies peacefully in his son's arms.[94] Luke escapes the second Death Star with his father's body and cremates it in a pyre on Endor. As the Rebels celebrate the second Death Star's destruction and the Empire's defeat, Luke sees the spirits of Anakin, Yoda (Frank Oz), and Obi-Wan watching over him.[94] In the original trilogy, David Prowse physically portrayed Vader, while James Earl Jones provided the character's voice. Sebastian Shaw portrayed the unmasked Anakin in Return of the Jedi, as well as the character's spirit prior to the 2004 re-release, when he was replaced by Hayden Christensen as Anakin's Force spirit. Prequel trilogy A wax sculpture at the Madame Tussauds Star Wars exhibit in London depicting Hayden Christensen as Anakin Skywalker from the prequel trilogy In Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace, which takes place 32 years before A New Hope, Anakin appears as a nine-year-old slave[33] living on Tatooine with his mother Shmi (Pernilla August). In addition to being a gifted pilot and mechanic, Anakin has built his own protocol droid, C-3PO. Jedi Master Qui-Gon Jinn (Liam Neeson) meets Anakin after making an emergency landing on Tatooine with Queen of Naboo Padmé Amidala (Natalie Portman). Qui-Gon learns from Shmi that Anakin was conceived without a father and can foresee the future. Qui-Gon senses Anakin's strong connection to the Force and becomes convinced that he is the "Chosen One" of Jedi prophecy who will bring balance to the Force. After winning his freedom in a podrace wager, Anakin leaves with Qui-Gon to be trained as a Jedi on Coruscant, but is forced to leave his mother behind. During the journey, 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. Eventually, Anakin helps end the corrupt Trade Federation's blockade of Naboo by destroying their control ship. Qui-Gon is mortally wounded in a lightsaber duel with Sith Lord Darth Maul (portrayed by Ray Park, voiced by Peter Serafinowicz), and with his dying breath asks his apprentice Obi-Wan Kenobi (Ewan McGregor) to train Anakin, which he does with the council's reluctant approval.[94] Palpatine, newly elected as the Galactic Republic's Chancellor, befriends Anakin and tells him he will "watch [his] career with great interest". In Episode II: Attack of the Clones, which takes place 10 years after The Phantom Menace, 19-year-old Anakin is still Obi-Wan's Padawan apprentice. Over the years, he has grown powerful but arrogant, and believes that Obi-Wan is holding him back. After rescuing Padmé, now a senator, from an assassination attempt, Anakin travels with her to Naboo as her bodyguard, and they fall in love, which is against the Jedi Code. Sensing that Shmi is in pain, Anakin travels with Padmé to Tatooine to rescue his mother. While there, Anakin learns that Shmi had been freed by and married farmer Cliegg Lars (Jack Thompson) a few years after he left. He then visits Cliegg and learns from him that she was kidnapped by Tusken Raiders. Anakin locates Shmi at a Tusken campsite, where she dies in his arms. Overcome with grief and rage, Anakin massacres the Tusken tribe and returns to the Lars homestead to bury Shmi.[94] Anakin then travels with Padmé to Geonosis to rescue Obi-Wan from Sith Lord Count Dooku (Christopher Lee). Dooku captures the trio and sentences them to death. However, a battalion of Jedi arrives with an army of clone troopers to halt the executions. Obi-Wan and Anakin confront Dooku, but the Sith Lord beats them both in a lightsaber duel and severs Anakin's arm. After being rescued by Yoda, Anakin is fitted with a robotic arm and marries Padmé in a secret ceremony. In Episode III: Revenge of the Sith, set three years after Attack of the Clones, Anakin is now a Jedi Knight and a hero of the Clone Wars. He and Obi-Wan lead a mission to rescue Palpatine from Separatist commander General Grievous (voiced by Matthew Wood). The two Jedi battle Count Dooku, whom Anakin overpowers and decapitates in cold blood at Palpatine's urging. They rescue Palpatine and return to Coruscant. Anakin reunites with Padmé, who tells him that she is pregnant. Although initially excited, Anakin soon begins to have nightmares about Padmé dying in childbirth.[94] Palpatine also appoints Anakin to the Jedi Council as his personal representative. Suspicious of Palpatine, the Council allows Anakin as a member, but declines to grant him the rank of Jedi Master and instead instructs him to spy on Palpatine, shaking Anakin's faith in the Jedi. Later, Palpatine reveals to Anakin that he is the Sith Lord Darth Sidious, the mastermind of the war, and says that only he has the power to save Padmé from dying. Anakin reports Palpatine's treachery to Jedi Master Mace Windu (Samuel L. Jackson), who confronts and subdues the Sith Lord. Desperate to save Padmé, Anakin intervenes on Palpatine's behalf and severs Windu's hand, allowing Palpatine to kill him. Anakin then pledges himself to the Sith, and Palpatine dubs him Darth Vader.[94] On Palpatine's orders, Vader leads the 501st Legion to kill everyone in the Jedi Temple, including the children, and then goes to the volcanic planet Mustafar to assassinate the Separatist Council. After learning what her husband has done, a distraught Padmé goes to Mustafar and pleads with Vader to abandon the dark side, but he refuses. Sensing Obi-Wan's presence, and thinking that they are conspiring to kill him, Vader angrily uses the Force to strangle Padmé to unconsciousness. Obi-Wan engages Vader in a lightsaber duel that ends with Obi-Wan severing Vader's limbs and leaving him for dead on the banks of a lava flow, where Vader catches fire and sustains severe burns. Palpatine finds a barely alive Vader and takes him to Coruscant, where his mutilated body is treated and covered in the black suit first depicted in the original trilogy. When Vader asks if Padmé is safe, Palpatine says that he killed her out of anger, and Vader screams in agony. At the end of the film, Vader supervises the construction of the first Death Star alongside Palpatine and Tarkin (Wayne Pygram). Jake Lloyd played Anakin Skywalker as a child in The Phantom Menace, while Hayden Christensen played him as a young adult in the following two films. James Earl Jones reprised his role as the voice of Vader in Revenge of the Sith. Sequel trilogy Thirty years after the Galactic Civil War, Darth Vader's melted helmet appears in The Force Awakens (2015), in which Vader's grandson Kylo Ren (Adam Driver) – who has followed in his grandfather's footsteps by falling to the dark side and betraying the Jedi – is seen addressing him, though Vader does not appear in the film.[ad] At one point, his helmet was considered as the film's MacGuffin.[95] The helmet appears again in The Rise of Skywalker (2019), when Kylo briefly meditates with it, and during the film's first duel between Kylo and Rey (Daisy Ridley). The helmet is last seen on the planet Kijimi, which is later destroyed by a Sith Star Destroyer. The film also reveals that the voice which Ren perceived coming from Vader's helmet in The Force Awakens was generated by a resurrected Palpatine. In The Rise of Skywalker, Anakin makes a vocal cameo appearance, along with other "voices of Jedi Past", where he encourages Rey to "bring back the balance... as [he] did" before she faces Palpatine and his Sith forces.[96][97] Palpatine uses the voice of Darth Vader to telepathically speak to Ren. He is voiced by James Earl Jones as Vader and Hayden Christensen as Anakin. Other Star Wars films The Clone Wars (film) In the 2008 3D animated film The Clone Wars, Yoda (voiced by Tom Kane) assigns Ahsoka Tano (voiced by Ashley Eckstein) as Anakin's Padawan apprentice, a responsibility Anakin is at first reluctant to accept. Anakin calls her "Snips" for her "snippy" attitude, while Ahsoka calls him "Skyguy" as a pun on his surname.[94] After earning Anakin's respect during a dangerous mission, Ahsoka joins him on a quest to rescue Jabba the Hutt's infant son, Rotta. Her impetuousness both annoys and endears her to her master, and Anakin develops a friendly affection for his apprentice. He is voiced by Matt Lanter. Rogue One In the anthology film Rogue One (2016), Darth Vader makes an appearance in which he summons Orson Krennic (Ben Mendelsohn), the Imperial Director of Advanced Weapons Research, to his castle on Mustafar. He confronts him about his handling of the Death Star project and the destruction of Jedha City, while Krennic asks Vader for an audience with the Emperor regarding the Death Star, which he lost command of to Tarkin. Vader refuses, ordering him to ensure that the Death Star project has not been compromised.[98] When Krennic asks him if he would still regain command of the Death Star, Vader uses the Force to choke him, telling him, "Be careful not to choke on your aspirations, Director."[99] At the end of the film, Vader boards the disabled Rebel flagship, the MC75 Star Cruiser Profundity, with a cadre of 501st Legion troopers and kills several Rebel soldiers as he attempts to recover the plans. However, the docked blockade runner Tantive IV escapes with the plans, setting up the events of A New Hope. Darth Vader had a much different role in early versions of the film's story. Screenwriter Gary Whitta stated that in his initial pitch, Vader would appear on Scarif and slaughter the Rebel blockade there.[100] In an earlier storyline, Vader would also have killed Krennic for his failure to prevent the Rebels from stealing the Death Star plans.[101] An image of a deleted scene featuring Vader was revealed in February 2021 by Industrial Light & Magic visual effects animator Hal Hickel, who added that Vader was supposed to have a conversation with Tarkin in that scene.[102] James Earl Jones also reprises his role from previous films as the voice of Darth Vader, who is physically portrayed by Spencer Wilding during the meeting with Krennic and aboard the Star Destroyer, and by Daniel Naprous for the end scene. Television series Clone Wars (2003–2005) Anakin is a lead character in all three seasons of the Clone Wars micro-series, which takes place shortly after the conclusion of Attack of the Clones. Anakin becomes a Jedi Knight and is quickly promoted to a General of the Republic's Clone Army, due in part to Palpatine's (voiced by Nick Jameson) influence. Among other missions, he fights a duel with Dooku's apprentice Asajj Ventress (voiced by Grey DeLisle), helps Obi-Wan (voiced by James Arnold Taylor) capture a Separatist-controlled fortress and rescues Jedi Master Saesee Tiin (voiced by Dee Bradley Baker) during a space battle. During the third season, Anakin frees a planet's indigenous species from Separatist control and sees a cryptic vision of his future as Darth Vader. In the series finale, Anakin and Obi-Wan go on a mission to rescue Palpatine from General Grievous, leading to the opening of Revenge of the Sith. He is voiced by Mat Lucas as an adult and Frankie Ryan Mariquez as a child. The Clone Wars (2008–2014, 2020) Anakin is a lead character in all seasons of The Clone Wars. As a Jedi Knight, he leads the 501st Legion on missions with both his master Obi-Wan and apprentice Ahsoka Tano throughout the war. Some of Anakin's actions taken out of concern for Ahsoka violate the Jedi code, such as torturing prisoners who may know her location when she goes missing.[103] Throughout the series there are several references to Anakin's eventual fall to the dark side, including visions of his future as Darth Vader in the third season, and disillusion with the Jedi Council after they wrongly accuse Ahsoka of bombing the Jedi Temple in the fifth season. While she is later forgiven after the true culprit is found, she nonetheless chooses to leave the Jedi Order.[104] Anakin appears as Vader in the final scene of the series finale, set some time after Revenge of the Sith. He investigates the crash site of the Venator-class Star Destroyer Tribunal, which was destroyed during Order 66. Finding one of Ahsoka's lightsabers among the wreckage, Vader assumes that his former Padawan has perished and leaves in silence. Matt Lanter reprised his role as Anakin from the movie. Rebels (2014–2018) Darth Vader appears in Star Wars Rebels, which takes place 14 years after The Clone Wars concluded. He makes minor appearances throughout the first season, and serves as the main antagonist for most of the second season.[105] At the beginning of the series, Vader leads a squadron of Force-sensitive Imperial Inquisitors who actively search for and kill any remaining Jedi and Force-sensitive children. In the first season, he dispatches the Grand Inquisitor to hunt a Rebel cell causing trouble for the Empire on Lothal, and personally arrives on Lothal to deal with the Rebel threat after the Inquisitor is killed. In the second-season premiere, Vader orchestrates the murder of Imperial Minister Maketh Tua, who tried to defect to the Rebellion, and confronts the Jedi Kanan Jarrus and Ezra Bridger. When he later attacks the fleet of the Phoenix Squadron, Vader discovers that Ahsoka is still alive and has joined the Rebel Alliance,[106] while Ahsoka is overwhelmed when she recognizes Anakin under "a layer of hate" in Darth Vader. The Emperor orders Vader to dispatch another Inquisitor to capture her.[42] Later in the season, Ahsoka has a vision in which Anakin blames her for allowing him to fall to the dark side. In the season finale, Ahsoka duels with her former master inside a Sith Temple, allowing her friends to escape Vader and the temple's destruction. As the episode concludes, Vader escapes from the temple's ruins while Ahsoka's fate is left unknown. Vader makes a final voiceless cameo in the late fourth-season episode "A World Between Worlds", in which it is revealed that Ahsoka escaped from her previous duel with Vader by entering a Force-realm that exists outside of time and space. Shortly afterward, Vader's voice (archival audio from Return of the Jedi) is heard echoing in the void. Matt Lanter reprised his role from The Clone Wars as Anakin and James Earl Jones as Vader. Both Lanter and Jones contributed their voices for the second-season finale, at times with identical dialogue spoken by both actors blended together in different ways. Forces of Destiny (2017–2018) Anakin Skywalker appears in multiple episodes of the 2D animated online micro-series Forces of Destiny[84] with Matt Lanter reprising his role. Obi-Wan Kenobi (2022) Hayden Christensen returned as Darth Vader, both in and out of armor, in the Disney+ streaming series Obi-Wan Kenobi[107] with Dimitrious Bistrevesky serving as performance artist for the character, while James Earl Jones returns to voice the character. The series reveals that for a decade after their duel on Mustafar, Obi-Wan believed his fallen apprentice to be dead, only for the Imperial Inquisitor Reva (Moses Ingram) to reveal to him that Anakin Skywalker is alive.[108] After Reva draws out Kenobi, Vader begins hunting his former master, seeking to exact revenge on Kenobi for the injuries he inflicted upon him back on Mustafar. Christensen also returns in flashback sequences, both as a newly minted Darth Vader carrying out the massacre at the Jedi Temple, and as Padawan Anakin Skywalker, training with Kenobi in the years preceding the Clone Wars. Ahsoka (2023) In October 2021, The Hollywood Reporter reported that, according to undisclosed sources, Christensen would reprise his role as Anakin in the Ahsoka series, which is set after the original trilogy.[109] Industrial Light and Magic used "de-aging" technology to make the 42-year-old Christensen look the same age as Anakin was in Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith.[110] In Ahsoka, Anakin is a spirit in the Force, appearing to his former apprentice, Ahsoka Tano (Rosario Dawson), in the World Between Worlds, an ethereal realm that exists outside of time and space.[111] He leads her through visions of their shared past together, from training her and fighting alongside her in the Clone Wars to her exile from the Jedi Order and his own fall to the dark side.[112] Video games Darth Vader and Anakin Skywalker have appeared in a number of Star Wars since the earliest days of the franchise, though rarely as a playable character. He plays a central role in the Legends game Star Wars: The Force Unleashed (2008), where he is playable in the first level and later serves as the penultimate boss (and potentially the final boss as well, if the player chooses the Dark Side ending). He also appears in the sequel, Star Wars: The Force Unleashed II (2010), as the final boss. Darth Vader makes a minor appearance at the end of Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order (2019), after the main antagonist, the Second Sister, is defeated. Vader kills the Second Sister for her failure to secure a Jedi Holocron that could lead the Empire to a number of Force-sensitive children, and then attempts to take the Holocron himself from the protagonist, Cal Kestis, who barely manages to escape from him. Vader returns as a boss in the sequel, Star Wars Jedi: Survivor (2023), where he leads an Imperial assault on a Jedi hideout on the planet Jedha and duels Cere Junda, whom he manages to slay after a prolonged battle. Both Darth Vader and Anakin Skywalker have appeared as playable characters in every Lego Star Wars video game to date, most recently in The Skywalker Saga.[113] A bird version of Darth Vader, represented by Red, appears as a playable character and a boss in Angry Birds Star Wars and its sequel. In both games, he can use the Force to attract blocks and other objects, which are then fired out at various angles.[114] Darth Vader is also a playable character and boss in Disney Infinity 3.0,[115] and is available as a playable character to unlock for a limited time in Disney Magic Kingdoms.[116] In video games, Darth Vader is often voiced by Scott Lawrence or Matt Sloan, while Anakin is voiced by Mat Lucas and Matt Lanter.[citation needed] Vader Immortal: A Star Wars VR series Main article: Vader Immortal: A Star Wars VR Series At the 2015 Star Wars Celebration, it was announced David S. Goyer was helping to develop a virtual reality game series based on Darth Vader. As an observer with limited influence, the player is able to walk, pick up, push and open things, and possibly affect the story.[117] The game, titled Vader Immortal, is set between Revenge of the Sith and Rogue One and comprises three episodes, the first of which became available with the launch of the Oculus Quest on May 21, 2019,[118] while the last was released on November 21, 2019.[119] The game was later ported to the Oculus Rift. On August 25, 2020, all three episodes were also released on PlayStation VR.[120] Canon literature Star Wars: Lords of the Sith was one of the first four canon novels to be released in 2014 and 2015.[121] In it, Vader and Palpatine find themselves hunted by revolutionaries on the Twi'lek planet Ryloth.[122][123] Comics See also: Star Wars comics In 2015, Marvel released a 25-issue series called Darth Vader (2015–16),[124] written by Kieron Gillen. It focuses on the Sith lord in the aftermath of the Death Star's destruction, as well as his life after learning about his son's existence,[125] and introduces franchise fan favorite character Doctor Aphra.[126] This series takes place parallel to the comic book series Star Wars, in which Vader and Luke meet;[127] the two series have a crossover titled Vader Down.[128] A continuation set between The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi debuted in 2020, written by Greg Pak.[129] The first few issues deal with Vader carrying out his revenge on those who concealed Luke; he also visits Padmé's tomb on Naboo and encounters her handmaidens.[130] A subsequent story arc depicts Vader being tested by the Emperor and incorporates elements created for The Rise of Skywalker.[131][132] The five-issue limited series Obi-Wan & Anakin (2016), written by Charles Soule, depicts the lives of the titular Jedi between The Phantom Menace and Attack of the Clones. At New York Comic Con 2015, Soule described the story as "pretty unexplored territory".[133] Between 2017 and 2018, Soule wrote a prequel-era series, also called Darth Vader (sometimes subtitled Dark Lord of the Sith). It begins immediately after Vader wakes up in his armor at the end of Revenge of the Sith and explores his emotional transformation upon learning of Padmé's death, his adjustment to his mechanical suit, how he creates his red-bladed lightsaber, and his hunting of Jedi in the Inquisitor program (introduced in Rebels).[134] Its final arc, which deals with the construction of Vader's fortress on Mustafar, implies that Palpatine used the Force to conceive Anakin in utero,[135] as some had theorized that Revenge of the Sith indicates.[136][ae] A Lucasfilm story group member later clarified that "This is all in Anakin's head".[138][af] A five-issue limited series written by Dennis Hopeless, Vader: Dark Visions, was released in 2019. According to Marvel, the series "sheds new light on the many sides of the galaxy's greatest villain".[139] Vader Down writer Jason Aaron wrote part of the upcoming anthology miniseries Darth Vader: Black, White & Red, an extension of a Marvel event highlighting fan-favorite characters.[140] Legends In April 2014, most of the licensed Star Wars novels and comics produced since the originating 1977 film Star Wars were rebranded by Lucasfilm as Legends and declared non-canon to the franchise.[121][141] Books Vader is featured prominently in novels set in the Star Wars universe. In the 1978 novel Splinter of the Mind's Eye by Alan Dean Foster, Vader meets Luke for the first time and engages him in a lightsaber duel that ends with Luke cutting off Vader's arm and Vader falling into a deep pit.[56] Shadows of the Empire (1996) reveals that Vader is conflicted about trying to turn his son to the dark side, and knows deep down that he still has good in him. Vader's supposedly indestructible glove is the MacGuffin of the young-reader's book The Glove of Darth Vader (1992). Anakin Skywalker's redeemed spirit appears in The Truce at Bakura (1993), set a few days after the end of Return of the Jedi. He appears to Leia, imploring her forgiveness. Leia condemns Anakin for his crimes and banishes him from her life. He promises that he will be there for her when she needs him, and disappears. In Tatooine Ghost (2003), Leia learns to forgive her father after learning about his childhood as a slave and his mother's traumatic death. In The Unifying Force (2003), Anakin tells his grandson Jacen Solo to "stand firm" in his battle with the Supreme Overlord of the Yuuzhan Vong. Upon the release of the prequel films, the Expanded Universe grew to include novels about Vader's former life as Anakin. Greg Bear's 2000 novel Rogue Planet and Jude Watson's Jedi Quest series chronicle Anakin's early missions with Obi-Wan, while James Luceno's 2005 novel Labyrinth of Evil, set during the Clone Wars, depicts Anakin battling Separatist commander General Grievous. In Luceno's Dark Lord: The Rise of Darth Vader (2005), set a few months after the events of Revenge of the Sith, Vader disavows his identity as Anakin as he hunts down surviving Jedi and cements his position in the Empire. In the Dark Nest trilogy (2005), Luke and Leia uncover old recordings of their parents in R2-D2's memory drive; for the first time, they see their own birth and their mother's death, as well as their father's corruption to the dark side. In Bloodlines (2006), Han and Leia's son Jacen—who has turned to the dark side—uses the Force to envision Vader slaughtering the children at the Jedi Temple. Vader also appears in a series of tongue-in-cheek children's books by Jeffrey Brown.[142] In Brown's series, a hapless Vader sets out to be a father to a young Luke and Leia, with some scenes portraying light-hearted versions of their darker film counterparts. For example, one scene shows Vader, Luke and Leia at the carbonite freezing chamber on Bespin, with Vader pronouncing the freezer adequate for making ice cream. Comics Vader appears in several comic books such as Marvel Comics' Star Wars (1977–1986). In Dark Empire II, he is revealed to have had a castle on the planet Vjun.[143] Anakin Skywalker is a major character in Dark Horse Comics' Star Wars: Republic series (1998–2006). In Boba Fett: Enemy of the Empire (1999), Vader hires Fett a few years before the events of A New Hope. In Vader's Quest (1999), set soon after A New Hope, the dark lord encounters Luke for the first time.[ag] Star Wars: Empire (2002–2005) spans from about a year before A New Hope to several months afterwards. Anakin and Vader appear in the non-canonical Star Wars Tales (1999–2005); in the story Resurrection, Darth Maul is resurrected and faces Vader in battle.[145] Vader-centric comics released and set just after Revenge of the Sith include Dark Times (2006–2013), Darth Vader and the Lost Command (2011), Darth Vader and the Ghost Prison (2012), and Darth Vader and the Cry of Shadows (2013–14). Other The Star Wars Holiday Special, a television special broadcast by CBS in 1978, features a brief appearance of Darth Vader, who appears on-screen speaking with Imperial officer "Chief Bast" in footage cut from the original 1977 film. The sequence is dubbed with new dialogue, performed by James Earl Jones. In the story, Vader colludes with Boba Fett to entrap the Rebels.[146] The character appears in various Lego Star Wars shorts, voiced by Matt Sloan as Vader and by Kirby Morrow as Anakin. Darth Vader features in the 1981 radio drama adaptation of Star Wars, voiced by the actor Brock Peters. Vader makes his first appearance on the planet Ralltiir, where he treats Princess Leia with suspicion. In later extended scenes, he is heard interrogating and torturing Leia on board his Star Destroyer and aboard the Death Star.[147][148] Vader appears in Star Tours – The Adventures Continue, where he is once again voiced by Jones.[149] Darth Vader has also appeared in non-Star Wars video games as a guest character, for example Soulcalibur IV (2008). An action figure of Vader comes to life alongside RoboCop and Jurassic Park toys in The Indian in the Cupboard (1995).[150] Vader also had a brief cameo in Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian (2009), in which he and Oscar the Grouch try unsuccessfully to join the army formed by Ivan the Terrible, Napoleon and Al Capone.[151][152] Cultural impact See also: Cultural impact of Star Wars In 2003, the American Film Institute listed Vader as the third greatest movie villain in cinema history on AFI's 100 Years...100 Heroes & Villains, behind Hannibal Lecter and Norman Bates.[153] His role as a tragic hero in the saga has also met with positive reviews.[154][155] Contrarily, in 1977, a New Journal and Guide writer criticized the lack of racial diversity in the original Star Wars film, pointing out that "the force of evil ... is dressed in all black and has the voice of a black man."[156] George Lucas felt hurt at such accusations.[157] Psychiatrists have considered Vader to be a useful example for explaining borderline personality disorder to medical students.[92] Anakin's origin story in The Phantom Menace has been compared to signifiers of African American racial identity, particularly his being a slave,[158] and his dissatisfaction with his life has been compared to Siddartha's before he became Gautama Buddha.[159] A Mexican church advised Christians against seeing The Phantom Menace because it portrays Anakin as a Christ figure.[160] Darth Vader grotesque on the northwest tower of the Washington National Cathedral (Episcopal Church) in Washington, D.C. Many films and television series have paid homage to Darth Vader. The 1982 movie Cosmic Princess, compiled from parts of Space: 1999 episodes, contains several Star Wars references including a character named "Vader".[161] Marty McFly in Back to the Future (1985), dressed in a radiation suit, calls himself "Darth Vader from the planet Vulcan" in one scene. Vader is parodied as "Dark Helmet" (Rick Moranis) in the Star Wars parody Spaceballs (1987). A primary antagonist in Final Fantasy IV (1991) was stated by game creator Takashi Tokita to be based on Vader.[162] In Chasing Amy (1997), Hooper X (Dwight Ewell) speaks at a comic book convention about Darth Vader being a metaphor for how poorly the science fiction genre treats Black people; he is especially offended that Vader, the "Blackest brother in the galaxy", reveals himself to be a "feeble, crusty old white man" at the end of Return of the Jedi. Vader, especially his role as a father, is parodied as Emperor Zurg in Toy Story 2.[163] The character of Dark Mayhem in The Thundermans is also a parody of Vader, especially in his original depiction. The Warner Bros. animated show Loonatics Unleashed has a Sylvester the Cat-type character named Sylth Vester, a play on Vader and his name. Chewing lice; the one on the right, with a Vader-esque head, is Ricinus vaderi. The slime-mold beetle Agathidium vaderi is named after Vader,[164] as is the louse Ricinus vaderi.[165] Several buildings across the globe are regularly compared to him.[166][167][168][169][170] A grotesque of Darth Vader looms over the east face of the Washington National Cathedral's northwest tower.[171] During the 2007–08 NHL season, Ottawa Senators goaltender Martin Gerber performed so well in an all-black mask that fans endearingly termed him "Darth Gerber".[172] Many commentators and comedians have also evoked Vader's visage to satirize politicians and other public figures, and several American political figures have been unflatteringly compared to the character. In response to Ronald Reagan's proposed Strategic Defense Initiative (dubbed "Star Wars" by his political opponents), German news magazine Der Spiegel portrayed the president wearing Vader's helmet on its cover in 1984.[173] In 2005, Al Gore referred to Tele-Communications Inc.'s John C. Malone as the "Darth Vader of cable",[174] and political strategist Lee Atwater was known by his political enemies as "the Darth Vader of the Republican Party".[175] Native American artist Bunky Echohawk portrayed General George Armstrong Custer as Vader in his painting Darth Custer.[176] In 2015, a statue of Vladimir Lenin in Odesa, Ukraine, was converted into one of Vader due to a law on decommunization.[177] In 2006, while discussing the war on terror, US Vice President Dick Cheney stated, "I suppose, sometimes, people look at my demeanor and say, 'Well, he's the Darth Vader of the administration.'"[178] In January 2007, Jon Stewart put on a Vader helmet to address Cheney as a "kindred spirit" on The Daily Show.[179] Cheney's wife, Lynne, presented Stewart with a Darth Vader action figure on her October 2007 appearance on the show. Both Stewart and Stephen Colbert have occasionally referred to Cheney as "Darth Cheney". In the satirical cartoon show Lil' Bush, Cheney's father is portrayed as Vader. At a presidential campaign event in September 2007, Hillary Clinton also referred to Cheney as Vader. At the 2008 Washington Radio and Television Correspondents' Association Dinner, Cheney joked that his wife told him that the Vader comparison "humanizes" him. In 2009, George Lucas stated that Cheney is more akin to Palpatine, and that a better stand-in for Vader would be George W. Bush.[180] An issue of Newsweek referenced this quote, and compared Bush and Cheney to Vader and Palpatine, respectively, in a satirical article comparing politicians to various Star Wars and Star Trek characters.[181] An Iraqi Fedayeen Saddam helmet in the Army Flying Museum The Fedayeen Saddam, an Iraqi paramilitary organisation, was issued with fiber glass Darth Vader-style helmets from 1995, apparently at the instigation of their commander, Uday Hussein, who was said to have been an avid Star Wars fan. A number of them were brought to the United States and the United Kingdom as souvenirs following the 2003 invasion of Iraq.[182] In 2010, IGN ranked Darth Vader 25th in the "Top 100 Videogame Villains".[183] In Ukraine, the Internet Party of Ukraine regularly lets people named Darth Vader take part in elections.[184][ah] In 2019, an original Vader helmet from The Empire Strikes Back was sold for $900,000 in an online auction.[192] On December 2, 2020, a figurine of Vader appeared on the plinth where the statue of Edward Colston once stood in Bristol, United Kingdom, in what was seen as a tribute to David Prowse, who died on November 29, 2020." (wikipedia.org) "Sith troopers, also known as Sith stormtroopers, were elite soldiers in the forces of the Sith Eternal, a cult that ruled the dark planet of Exegol in the Unknown Regions. The army comprised the children of the Sith Eternal, a cult that revered the dark side of the Force. While Sith troopers were named after the Jedi Order's fallen ancient rival, the Sith Order, they were not Force-sensitive like their namesake. Nevertheless, they shared the cultists' devotion to the Sith religion. Taking inspiration from the Sith legacy that was built on fear and death, the armor worn by Sith troopers was red like Sith lightsaber blades and the Emperor's Royal Guard. They were the culmination of the Contingency created by Darth Sidious—Dark Lord of the Sith and Galactic Emperor—whose goal was to return the galaxy to a dark age of a thousand years past, under the eternal reign of a new Sith Empire. Sith troopers followed in the tradition of armored infantry units, one of the most enduring symbols of military might in galactic history. This heritage began with the white-armored clone trooper legions that fought in the Clone Wars, representing hope to the citizens of the Galactic Republic. The Galactic Empire and the First Order appropriated the clone army's legacy, in turn, altering it into a symbol of fascist rule. Neither Imperial stormtroopers nor First Order stormtroopers were clones, but both armies were conditioned for absolute loyalty. Building on the success of methods used by Kaminoan scientists, the Sith Eternal succeeded in suppressing the individuality of the Sith troopers. As a result, Sith troopers were even more loyal and obedient than the Empire's recruits and the First Order's child conscripts. While all Sith troopers were dedicated to the Sith cause, only the best in their ranks served as Sovereign Protectors, a cohort of royal guards stationed in the Sith Citadel and the amphitheater housing the Throne of the Sith. The Sith troopers were awaiting deployment during the final days of the First Order-Resistance War. Darth Sidious, having returned long after his demise at Endor, set out to reconquer the galaxy through the Final Order—a vast fleet of Xyston-class Star Destroyers. However, the Sith troopers were defeated in their first battle against the Resistance, leaving Allegiant General Enric Pryde's flagship, the Steadfast, vulnerable to sabotage by the former stormtroopers FN-2187 and TZ-1719. The Final Order was ultimately destroyed in the Unknown Regions along with the Sith troopers and their resurrected Emperor, and with their destruction the rest of the galaxy was inspired to rise up against the First Order's remaining forces. Contents     1 History         1.1 Origin         1.2 New Sith Empire             1.2.1 Out of the shadows             1.2.2 War on Exegol     2 Training     3 Equipment         3.1 Armor         3.2 Weapons     4 Specialized Sith troopers     5 Behind the scenes     6 Appearances         6.1 Non-canon appearances     7 Sources     8 Notes and references History Origin     "Far too often, clones and stormtroopers exhibited unseemly moments of free will. To eliminate such flaws, these fiercely loyal fighters have undergone extreme levels of mental conditioning and flash-imprinting. These processes have rendered them completely susceptible to my commands and have eliminated any chance of rebellion."     ―Darth Sidious, referring to Sith troopers[6] CoruscantCloneTroopers-AOTC The image of armored infantry units was one of the galaxy's most enduring symbol of military might that began with the clone troopers of the Galactic Republic. Though named for the Sith, a sect devoted to the dark side of the Force, Sith troopers were heirs to a military heritage dating back to the final years of the Galactic Republic.[1] When the Confederacy of Independent Systems signaled its intent to secede from the Republic,[7] the clone troopers of Kamino were organized into the Grand Army of the Republic. At the time of their introduction, these armored infantry units represented the future of galactic warfare. They were modeled on the genetic template of Jango Fett, a human bounty hunter, and designed to be superior to battle droids. So symbolic were they of the times, the galaxy-wide conflict that marked their debut came to be known as the Clone Wars.[8] For three years, the Grand Army battled against the Separatist Droid Army across the galaxy. Under the leadership of the Jedi Knights,[8] an order of peacekeepers united by their faith in the light side of the Force,[9] clone troopers became a symbol of honor and defense,[10] representing salvation to the citizens of a war-torn galaxy.[1] The clones were, however, unwitting participants in a Sith conspiracy. Darth Sidious, a Sith Lord who accumulated political power in his guise as Supreme Chancellor Sheev Palpatine, issued Order 66 in the waning hours of the Clone Wars—calling for the immediate liquidation of the Jedi Order. As a result, the clones turned against their Jedi General, executing them as enemies of the state across worlds and inside the Jedi Temple on Coruscant. With the clone troopers under his command and the Jedi all but extinct, Sidious assumed absolute power[8] as Emperor of the First Galactic Empire.[11] Stormtrooper-formation Stormtroopers were primarily non-clone human recruits and conscripts who served as the faceless enforcers of the Galactic Empire. The subsequent Imperial Era witnessed the termination of the Kaminoan cloning facilities[12] overseen by Prime Minister Lama Su.[7] Human volunteers and conscripts supplanted clones in all branches of the Imperial Military, including the elite ranks of the stormtroopers.[13] The image of endless legions of white-armored soldiers that once represented galactic salvation[1] had become a faceless icon of fascism.[10] However, Commandant Brendol Hux was less than impressed by the clones' successors. As a veteran of the Clone Wars and an instructor at the Imperial Academy on Arkanis, Hux admired the discipline and fighting prowess of clone troopers as well as their Jedi officers, deeming both groups as a superior class of soldier than the Imperial stormtroopers. Dissatisfied with the caliber of troops in the Imperial Army, Hux conceived the idea of training stormtrooper cadets from birth, believing that a lifetime of military instruction and indoctrination produced the most excellent and loyal soldiers.[14] Within a generation of the Empire's downfall,[15] the First Order evolved from a remnant of the old regime, creating a smaller yet disciplined and well armed military.[10] Like the Empire, the First Order appropriated the clone troopers' legacy by creating their own version of white-armored soldiers.[1] Utilizing mass conscription and the training regimen pioneered by Brendol Hux, human younglings were taken from their conquered homeworlds in the Unknown Regions and trained as members of the next generation of stormtroopers.[16] Where the Empire opted from numbing routine, the First Order's training simulations and live-fire exercises encouraged improvisation on the battlefield, making their troopers more dangerous than their Imperial predecessors.[17] TFOO-EpisodeGuide The First Order inherited the legacy of white-armored soldiers, having created a new generation of stormtroopers. The First Order's stormtrooper program continued to develop after Hux's death,[1] falling under the supervision of his son General Armitage Hux and Captain Phasma,[10] who had worked together to assassinate the elder Hux.[18] The younger Hux had complete confidence in his father's legacy[10] despite FN-2187's betrayal during the last remaining days of the Cold War. Kylo Ren, the apprentice of Supreme Leader Snoke, believed the deserter's treachery indicated a flaw that was systemic to the entire First Order Army. Having spent his life refining the First Order's training methods, Hux believed the aberrant trooper was an isolated case and therefore rejected the Knight of Ren's suggestion that their master would be better served by an army of clones.[19] New Sith Empire Out of the shadows     "Though they have come to be known as Sith troopers, these soldiers bear no connection to the Force. They are Sith in name only. But the brutality of their wrath may soon suggest otherwise."     ―Darth Sidious[6] SithEternal-DB The Sith trooper army was created by the Sith Eternal cultists on the planet Exegol. Information within the First Order was extremely compartmentalized; even high-ranking First Order officers were unaware of the true scope of their forces. With Ren usurping his master's throne, the veils of secrecy that surrounded Snoke and his plan dissipated, revealing the existence of an invasion fleet developed on the hidden Sith world of Exegol, the Final Order. Having overthrown the New Republic, certain elements within[1] the First Order[4] prepared to deploy a fleet of Xyston-class Star Destroyers along with[1] an army of elite soldiers.[4] The thousands of Sith personnel were raised as the children of the Sith Eternal—cultists devoted to the preservation of the Sith religion—who taught them to revere the power of the dark side.[1] Many thousands of children on Exegol, the offspring of both members of the Sith Eternal cult and former Imperials, were conscripted into the ranks of[1] the crimson armored soldiers who came to be known as "Sith troopers."[6] Many others had originally been conscripted by the First Order as children, but, due to their potential, spies culled and "disappeared" them, allowing them to become soldiers of the Sith Eternal.[20] The Sith troopers served as the most elite members of the Sith Eternal army. Furthermore, the Sith Eternal learned from the supposed "flaws" of the clone troopers and stormtroopers that had come before; to ensure Sidious's new army was totally obedient, Sith troopers endured extreme amounts of flash-imprinting and mental conditioning, ensuring they would obey every order the Dark Lord of the Sith gave them.[6] Sith trooper trio The red-armored Sith stormtroopers were the culmination of Darth Sidious' vision of the perfect soldier: a living extension of the Emperor's will. In its ultimate push toward galactic conquest, the First Order readied the army of Sith troopers, whose existence was unknown even to most within the regime. The structure of the Sith Eternal force was analogous to that of the First Order, both having been patterned on an Imperial template. Sith troopers were therefore organized into legions of five-thousand soldiers; at their most basic level were trooper squads consisting of ten soldiers[1] like the stormtrooper squads of the First Order.[21] However, Sith trooper squads were also divided into a trio or triad of three-trooper fire teams—two corporals and a lance corporal—led by a sergeant. Whereas the variant Sith Jetpack Troopers were organized into their own separate squads, such as the Lanvorak Squad, the Parang Squad and the Warblade Squad,[1] the 105th Battalion was by comprised both Sith infantry units and their jet trooper counterparts.[22] Though Sith troopers resembled the standard troopers of the First Order, their armor and weapons were finished in the striking red colors of the Sith Eternal forces, and were made of denser multi-layered composites providing additional protection from small-arms fire. The crucial difference came in the discipline, ferocity, and loyalty to a resilient cause, which instilled these crimson warriors and their variant counterparts with a fearless aggression.[1] While they were not imbued with powers derived from the Force, Sith troopers nonetheless derived their name from the dark and ancient legacy of the Sith. Most galactic citizens were unaware that two Sith Lords—Darth Sidious and Darth Vader—occupied positions of power and as such they believed that the Empire's extreme militarization and authoritarian rule stemmed from a desire for security. These measures were in fact fueled by a dark agenda over a thousand years old, culminating in an elaborate contingency designed to ensure the perpetual reign of a Sith Empire, returning the galaxy to a time unseen since the fall of the Old Republic.[1] Sith-Troopers-First-Order The Sith Eternal groomed Kylo Ren, the grandson of Darth Vader, to inherit the Sith legacy as the new Galactic Emperor. The Sith Eternal, having secretly groomed Ren as heir apparent to the Sith legacy, prepared their forces for his ascension to ultimate power[1] in 35 ABY,[3] believing the grandson of Vader would fulfill the mandate of returning the galaxy to Sith rule. To ensure that there were no remaining Jedi to oppose Ren's claim as heir to the Force,[1] the Supreme Leader was bidden to destroy the Padawan Rey by her grandfather Sidious. Despite his demise at Endor, the phantom Dark Lord of the Sith returned to oversee the final stage of his contingency plans, which would culminate in Ren's reign over the entire galaxy as the new Emperor. To that end, Sidious offered the young dark side warrior control of the Sith Star Destroyers and the[2] fanatically loyal Sith troopers,[1] both of which were crucial to the First Order's transformation into a true Empire.[2] The discovery of the Sith troopers along with the rest of Exegol's untapped military assets bolstered the Supreme Council's support for Ren's leadership.[1] A secret spy for Palpatine who had been helping establish the coming Sith regime,[20] Allegiant General Enric Pryde was particularly supportive of the alliance between his former Emperor and the Supreme Leader, believing that these additional forces would greatly expand the First Order's range in power, thereby offsetting the disastrous destruction of Starkiller Base. While the Sith Eternal's military forces were created to fight for the First Order, they ultimately remained loyal to Sidious, who threatened to turn them against Ren if he did not succeed in his task to kill Rey.[2] After recruiting Ren to kill Rey, Sidious completed a history of himself by writing a book entitled The Secrets of the Sith, in which he described his new Sith trooper army. Covering how they were more obedient than his previous armies, Sidious marveled at the rage present in each of the soldiers, pondering if that rage could make them worthy of the name "Sith." Next to his writing, an image of three-armed Sith troopers was present, while a Sith Jetpack Trooper and a Sovereign Protector were pictured in his section on the Sith fleet.[6] War on Exegol     "The Resistance is dead. The Sith flame will burn. All worlds surrender or die. The Final Order begins."     ―Darth Sidious[2] In the end, Sidious' plans for Ren floundered due to the death of Princess Leia Organa, who sacrificed herself in hopes of facilitating her fallen son Ben Solo's return to the light side. Pryde, a former Imperial officer who served the Emperor during the Galactic Civil War, pledged fealty to his once-and-future liege.[2] ChesilleSabrond-TROS Sith troopers were present aboard the Derriphan when it destroyed Kijimi. Notwithstanding the simmering tension between the First Order's well-regimented military and the Sith Eternal cultists from the Unknown Regions, their alliance was intended to serve as the basis of a new Sith Empire,[1] with the Final Order to enforce Sith rule across the galaxy.[2] At the Emperor's command, a single Xyston-class Star Destroyer, the Derriphan, was deployed to the occupied world of Kijimi; in addition to its standard complement of nearly 30,000 Sith Eternal officers and fleet technicians,[1] the new warship also carried a force of Sith troopers, who were present on the bridge[2] of the ship when its commanding officer, Captain Chesille Sabrond, commanded Kijimi's annihilation with a single shot from her destroyer's axial superlaser cannon.[1] Despite the Emperor's demonstration of the Sith Eternal's power,[2] the Resistance fleet made a last-ditch attempt to destroy the Sith fleet on Exegol where it was most vulnerable. The Resistance forces faced overwhelming odds in the form of hundreds of warships, guarded by thousands of Sith troopers. The battle of a generation—one that would decide the fate of the galaxy—ensued between the Resistance and the Sith Eternal, during which a contingent of Sith troopers and jet troopers served aboard Allegiant General Pryde's flagship, the Resurgent-class Star Destroyer Steadfast.[1] ExegolLandingTeam During the Battle of Exegol, a Resistance assault team fought against Sith troopers on the hull of the Steadfast. The renegade stormtroopers FN-2187 and TZ-1719 boarded the Steadfast along with the Resistance Army's assault team, attempting to disable the command ship before it could guide the Sith Eternal forces to a safe altitude. The Sith troopers launched an immediate counterattack, engaging the enemy's troops directly on the surface of the Steadfast. Though they killed numerous Resistance troopers in the process, too many Sith troopers perished while defending the Steadfast, leaving the flagship vulnerable to sabotage as thousands of starships from across the galaxy arrived to fight alongside the Resistance. Meanwhile, a cadre of Sovereign Protectors[2]—the best of the Sith troopers, stationed in the Sith Citadel's amphitheater housing the Throne of the Sith[1]—were slain in battle by the combined power of the Jedi Solo and Rey.[2] With the destruction of the Steadfast as well as the deaths of Pryde and Sidious, the Sith fleet was rendered leaderless and unable to save their remaining warships. As word of the battle's results spread throughout the stars, an uprising against the First Order commenced throughout the galaxy, overthrowing its remaining forces on several worlds such as Bespin, Jakku, and Endor.[2] Training     "For the Sith!"     ―A Sith trooper[16] Clone Shock Trooper 05 Sith troopers were programmed to be more loyal and machine-like than clone troopers, whose free will disturbed Sidious. A merciless soldier excelling in speed and advanced weaponry to hunt down and destroy all enemies of the Sith,[16] the Sith trooper was the culmination of generations of work dating back to the last remaining years of the Galactic Republic. Their earliest precursors, the clone troopers,[1] were trained to be the most loyal and efficient soldiers,[8] a process that began soon after their creation and encompassed the first decade of their accelerated lives.[7] However, Darth Sidious was dismayed by the disconcerting amount of free will exhibited by genetically engineered soldiers despite numerous alterations to their template.[1] Doctor Nala Se, the Chief Medical Scientist of the Kaminoan government, concluded that the Jedi were the source of this divergent behavior,[23] because they encouraged the clones to behave as individuals instead of thinking in lockstep.[8] After the Clone Wars, the Galactic Empire spent decades attempting to strip its stormtroopers of their individuality, making them fervently loyal extensions of Emperor Palpatine's will.[1] Though they were not clones, stormtroopers were fanatically loyal to the Empire,[13] yet also an inferior class of soldier according to both clone[24] and non-clone veterans of the Clone Wars.[14] Like the stormtroopers, Sith troopers were not cloned but born. They were natural humans, native to Exegol as children of the Sith Eternal cultists[1] or taken by the First Order as infants;[20] the Sith Eternal had ultimately conscripted thousands as children. They were young, around their early twenties, standing at 1.8 meters tall by the time their training was complete. Like standard stormtroopers in the First Order, Sith troopers were denied individual names. Instead, troopers like ST-I4191 and ST-A1215 were identified by their serial numbers.[1] Sith Eternal insignia Sith troopers were indoctrinated with the core values of the Sith Eternal cult. To ensure the soldiers had no freewill of their own,[6] Sith troopers were subjected to flash-training and loyalty conditioning built upon and advanced beyond the Kaminoan procedures of earlier generations. As a result, Sith troopers were imbued with fanatical loyalty to the Sith Eternal and their cause, becoming more obedient and droid-like than the First Order's trained-from-childhood stormtroopers. The best soldiers in their ranks were elevated beyond the elite status of Sith troopers, becoming a separate class of soldier altogether. Notwithstanding the aesthetic similarities First Order stormtroopers and their Sith Eternal counterparts, the crucial difference was in the latter's fearless aggression as well as their discipline, ferocity, and loyalty to the Sith. In close-quarters combat, Sith troopers operated in fire teams of three units, who were trained to fight in a braced firing stance for covering sixty degrees of forward arc.[1] As children of the Sith Eternal, Sith troopers revered the power of the dark side, having been raised by cultists to embody the beliefs of the ancient Sith religion. In drawing inspiration from the Sith's legacy, each Sith trooper legion adopted the name of an ancient Sith Lord in addition to their numerical identification. Hence, the 3rd Legion was named after Revan, the 5th Legion after Andeddu, and the 17th Legion after Darth Tanis. The 26th Legion, the 39th Legion and the 44th Legion were named after Tenebrous, Phobos and Desolous, respectively. As Sith history was hidden from the rest of the galaxy, only Sith Eternal cultists knew the significance of these otherwise forgotten Lords of the Sith.[1] Equipment Armor Sith-Trooper-Hot-Toys Sith troopers wore red armor that evoked the bloodstained legacy of their ancient namesake. Sith trooper armor consisted of a red gammaplast composite, quadruple-layered to a dense, highly impact-resistant finish worn over a hermetically sealed black body glove. Faceted angular planes on the face and chest plate were designed to redirect glancing blaster bolts. The helmet's T-shaped visor was reminiscent of the clone trooper's Phase I and Phase II versions. Aside from this aesthetic callback to the clone soldiers of generations past, targeting sensors were integrated into the helmet's design, giving Sith troopers an advantage in low light or smoke-obscured conditions.[1] As a result, their helmets constantly broadcasted battlefield data, providing Sith trooper officers with a sweeping overview of combat conditions. A commander's helmet could calculate the outcomes of various tactics in a compressed time via computer models, which in turn provided officers with recommendations based on predefined victory conditions. This information was kept at the command level to avoid distracting the rank-and-file troopers in the midst of combat. Additional technological features included a wireless data antenna and an atmosphere filtration system.[1] The Sith troopers' right shoulder-mounted sensor telemetry pod emitted active signals programmed to bounce and return, providing accurate environmental data to feed back to a command center through encrypted telemetry. The right forearm gauntlet had a built-in data storage module with an access port, the armor's articulated magnatomic plates permitted the troopers' greater range in movement, and the anisotropic bands increased the surface area for radiating excess energy from impacts. The corrugated body glove that was worn under the quad-folded gammaplast armor had an internal atmosphere. The utility belt contained power cell ammunition as well as a detonite explosive charge.[1] Weapons FirstOrderVillains-Sith-Trooper Sith troopers wielded the ST-W48 blaster. The Sith troopers' primary weapon was the ST-W48 blaster. It was a heavy rifle with miniaturized tech built into space-efficient frames. Slung beneath each rifle's barrel were quarrel-bolt launchers, which borrowed and updated the Wookiees' bowcaster technology for an extra explosive punch. The result was a versatile weapon capable of switching between two modes: blaster rifle and blaster carbine. The ST-W48 was strengthened to decrease its recoil; it also possessed a sight-housing and mount for improved accuracy. In its carbine mode, the stock was removed for combat in confined spaces.[1] Aside from the ST-W48, some Sith troopers carried the larger FWMB-10B repeating blaster for additional firepower. Designed by Sonn-Blas Corporation, this repeating blaster had a collapsed monopod that could extend for support, a high-resolution electroscope, and a barrel-cooling shroud.[1] Some Sith troopers also wielded melee weapons, including a vibro-blade baton gripped in a similar fashion to the Z6 riot control baton utilized by First Order riot control stormtroopers, and close combat concussion rams.[25] A SP-B50 blaster rifle was reserved for the best in the Sith trooper ranks, the Sovereign Protectors.[2] It was a ceremonial weapon that functioned as both a blaster and a melee weapon.[26] Specialized Sith troopers SithJetpackTrooper-WIRED The Sith Jetpack Trooper was a variant of the standard Sith trooper. To create a versatile army capable of meeting the various demands of warfare, specialized troopers were trained and equipped to complement the Sith Eternal's infantry units. As with the Sith infantrymen, these variants resembled their counterparts in the First Order; however, their armor was painted in the striking red colors of the Sith Eternal forces.[1]     Sith Jetpack Trooper — Elite airborne troopers, given intense training and advanced gear, such as the NJP-900 integrated jetpack and the F-11ABA heavy blaster cannon.[1]     Sith trooper officer — Officers trained for command, given armor fitted with advanced sensor technology; military ranks included commander, sergeant, lance corporal, and corporal.[1]     Sovereign Protector — The best of the Sith troopers, elevated to the status of elite royal guards, stationed in the Sith Citadel on Exegol.[1] Behind the scenes Sith troopers were created and developed for the 2019 film Star Wars: Episode IX The Rise of Skywalker, the third and final installment of the Star Wars sequel trilogy.[2] They were designed by concept artist Glyn Dillon,[27] and were sculpted by Sam Williams.[28] The Sith trooper costume was designed by costume designer Michael Kaplan.[29] Their design drew from the death trooper and the Elite Praetorian Guard." (starwars.fandom.com) "Star Wars: The Force Awakens (also known as Star Wars: Episode VII – The Force Awakens) is a 2015 American epic space opera film co-produced, co-written, and directed by J. J. Abrams. The sequel to Return of the Jedi (1983), it is the seventh film in the "Skywalker Saga". Set thirty years after Return of the Jedi, The Force Awakens follows Rey, Finn, Poe Dameron, and Han Solo's search for Luke Skywalker and their fight in the Resistance, led by General Leia Organa and veterans of the Rebel Alliance, against Kylo Ren and the First Order, a successor to the Galactic Empire. The ensemble cast includes Harrison Ford, Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher, Adam Driver, Daisy Ridley, John Boyega, Oscar Isaac, Lupita Nyong'o, Andy Serkis, Domhnall Gleeson, Anthony Daniels, Peter Mayhew, and Max von Sydow. The film was announced after The Walt Disney Company's acquisition of Lucasfilm in October 2012. The film is the first Star Wars film to not extensively involve franchise creator George Lucas, who only served as a creative consultant in the early stages of production. The Force Awakens was produced by Abrams, his longtime collaborator Bryan Burk, and Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy. Abrams and Lawrence Kasdan, co-writer of the original trilogy films The Empire Strikes Back (1980) and Return of the Jedi, rewrote an initial script by Michael Arndt. John Williams, composer for the previous episodic films, returned to compose the score. Principal photography began in April 2014 and concluded the following November. Filming took place on sets at Pinewood Studios in England, and on location mainly in Abu Dhabi, Iceland, and Ireland. On a budget of $447 million, it is the most expensive film ever made. The Force Awakens premiered in Hollywood, Los Angeles, on December 14, 2015, and was released in the United States on December 18. It was positively received by critics, who found it an action-packed film with the mix of new and familiar actors capturing the nostalgia of the original trilogy and giving the franchise new energy.[4] The film grossed $2.07 billion worldwide, breaking various box office records and becoming the highest-grossing film in the United States and Canada, the highest-grossing film of 2015, and the third-highest-grossing film at the time of its release. It was nominated for five awards at the 88th Academy Awards and received numerous other accolades. The film was followed by The Last Jedi (2017) and The Rise of Skywalker (2019), rounding out the Star Wars sequel trilogy. Plot Thirty years after the Battle of Endor,[a] the First Order has risen from the fallen Galactic Empire and seeks to end the New Republic. The Resistance, backed by the Republic and led by General Leia Organa, opposes the First Order. Leia searches for her twin brother, Luke Skywalker, who is missing. On the desert planet Jakku, Resistance pilot Poe Dameron receives a map to Luke's location from an old ally. First Order stormtroopers commanded by Kylo Ren arrive and capture Poe. His droid, BB-8, escapes with the map and encounters Rey, a lone scavenger. Kylo tortures Poe using the Force and learns of BB-8. Stormtrooper FN-2187, disillusioned with the First Order, saves Poe, and they escape in a stolen TIE fighter. Upon learning that FN-2187 has no other name, Poe names him "Finn". As they head to Jakku to retrieve BB-8, a First Order Star Destroyer shoots them, and they crash-land. Finn survives and assumes Poe was killed after finding his jacket in the wreck. Finn encounters Rey and BB-8, but the First Order tracks them and launches an airstrike. Rey, Finn, and BB-8 steal the Millennium Falcon and escape Jakku. The Falcon is discovered and boarded by Han Solo and Chewbacca. Gangs seeking to settle debts with Han attack, but the group escape in the Falcon. At the First Order's Starkiller Base, a planet converted into a superweapon, Supreme Leader Snoke approves General Hux's request to use the weapon for the first time on the New Republic. Snoke questions Kylo's ability to deal with emotions surrounding his father, Han Solo, whom Kylo states means nothing to him. Aboard the Falcon, Han determines that BB-8's map is incomplete. He then explains that Luke attempted to rebuild the Jedi Order but exiled himself when an apprentice turned to the dark side, destroyed Luke's temple, and slaughtered the other apprentices. The crew travel to the planet Takodana and meet with cantina owner Maz Kanata, who offers help getting BB-8 to the Resistance. The Force draws Rey to a secluded vault, where she finds Luke's lightsaber. She experiences disturbing visions, including a childhood memory of a ship leaving her on Jakku. Rey denies the lightsaber at Maz's offering and flees into the woods. Maz gives Finn the lightsaber for safekeeping. Starkiller Base destroys the New Republic and its four neighboring planets, leaving the Resistance on their own. The First Order attacks Takodana in search of BB-8. Han, Chewbacca, and Finn are saved by Resistance X-wing fighters led by Poe, who survived the crash. Leia arrives at Takodana with C-3PO and reunites with Han. Meanwhile, Kylo captures Rey, having realized that she had seen the map, and takes her to Starkiller Base, but she resists his mind-reading attempts. Snoke orders Kylo to bring Rey to him. Discovering she can use the Force, Rey escapes using a Jedi mind trick on a stormtrooper guard. At the Resistance base, BB-8 finds R2-D2, who had been in low-power mode since Luke's disappearance. As Starkiller Base prepares to fire once more, the Resistance plans to destroy it by attacking its thermal oscillator. Using the Falcon, Han, Chewbacca, and Finn infiltrate the facility, find Rey, and plant explosives. Han confronts Kylo, calling him by his birth-name Ben, and implores him to abandon the dark side. Kylo seems to consider this, but ultimately kills Han. Chewbacca shoots Kylo, injuring him, and sets off the explosives, allowing Poe to attack and destroy the base's thermal oscillator. Kylo pursues Rey and Finn into the woods and incapacitates Rey. Finn uses the lightsaber to duel Kylo but is quickly defeated. Rey awakens, takes the lightsaber, and defeats Kylo in a duel. Snoke orders Hux to evacuate and bring Kylo to him to complete his training. Chewbacca saves Rey and the injured Finn, and they escape aboard the Falcon. As the Resistance forces flee, Starkiller Base implodes and erupts into a star. R2-D2 awakens and reveals the rest of the map, which points to the oceanic planet Ahch-To. Rey, Chewbacca, and R2-D2 travel to Ahch-To on the Falcon. Rey finds Luke atop a cliff on a remote island and silently presents him with his lightsaber. Cast See also: List of Star Wars characters and List of Star Wars cast members The cast of Star Wars: The Force Awakens at the 2015 San Diego Comic Con International     Harrison Ford as Han Solo: A smuggler and captain of the Millennium Falcon[5][6]     Mark Hamill as Luke Skywalker: The last Jedi, who has gone into hiding[7][8]     Carrie Fisher as General Leia Organa: A leader of the Resistance[9][10]     Adam Driver as Kylo Ren: A leader of the Knights of Ren and a warlord of the First Order, who is the son of Han and Leia[11][12][13] [14]     Daisy Ridley as Rey: A Force-sensitive scavenger[15]         Cailey Fleming as young Rey[16]     John Boyega as Finn: A reformed First Order stormtrooper[15]     Oscar Isaac as Poe Dameron: A high-ranking X-wing fighter pilot of the Resistance[15][17]     Lupita Nyong'o as Maz Kanata: A centuries-old and perceptive alien who owns a castle on the peaceful forest planet Takodana[18][19]     Andy Serkis as Supreme Leader Snoke: An enigmatic, genetically artificial leader of the First Order[15][20]     Domhnall Gleeson as General Hux: The commander of the First Order's Starkiller Base[15]     Anthony Daniels as C-3PO: A humanoid protocol droid[21]     Peter Mayhew as Chewbacca: Han's loyal Wookiee friend and co-pilot[22][23]         Joonas Suotamo and Ian Whyte served as body doubles for Mayhew as he suffered from health problems[24][25]     Max von Sydow as Lor San Tekka: A galactic explorer searching for Luke Skywalker[26][27] Tim Rose and Mike Quinn reprise their respective roles as Admiral Ackbar and Nien Nunb from Return of the Jedi, with Erik Bauersfeld and Kipsang Rotich returning their respective voices.[16] Kenny Baker, originally announced as part of the cast, was credited as "consultant" for R2-D2,[28][16] with Jimmy Vee performing some of the work for R2-D2.[29] Ewan McGregor has an uncredited vocal cameo as Obi-Wan Kenobi in Rey's vision sequence, while archival audio of Frank Oz and Alec Guinness as Yoda and Kenobi, respectively, are also used in the same scene; Oz recorded new dialogue for the film, but it was replaced with preexisting audio from The Empire Strikes Back.[30] Star Wars: The Clone Wars voice actor James Arnold Taylor, who has voiced Obi-Wan Kenobi in different Star Wars media, originally recorded Kenobi's dialogue, but his recordings were replaced with McGregor's.[31] Gwendoline Christie portrays Captain Phasma, the commander of the First Order's legions of stormtroopers.[32][33] Dave Chapman and Brian Herring served as puppeteers for BB-8,[34] with Bill Hader and Ben Schwartz credited as "Vocal Consultants".[35] Ken Leung appears as Statura, an admiral in the Resistance.[36] Simon Pegg appears as Unkar Plutt, the Junk parts dealer on Jakku.[37][38] Greg Grunberg plays Temmin "Snap" Wexley, an X-wing pilot.[39][40] Kiran Shah plays Teedo, a scavenger on Jakku who rides a semi-mechanical Luggabeast.[16][41] Jessica Henwick appears as Jess "Testor" Pava or Jess Testor, an X-wing pilot.[42][43][44] Brian Vernel appears as Bala-Tik, the leader of the Guavian Death Gang.[45] Yayan Ruhian and Iko Uwais appear as Tasu Leech and Razoo Qin-Fee, members of the Kanjiklub Gang, a criminal organization.[16] Warwick Davis appears as Wollivan, a tavern-dweller in Maz Kanata's castle.[46][47] Anna Brewster appears as Bazine Netal, a First Order spy, also at Maz Kanata's castle.[16] Hannah John-Kamen appears as a First Order officer.[16] Thomas Brodie-Sangster and Kate Fleetwood play First Order Petty Officers, Thanisson and Unamo, respectively.[48][49] Billie Lourd, daughter of Carrie Fisher, appears as Connix, a lieutenant in the Resistance.[50][51] Members of the Resistance include Emun Elliott as Brance[52] and Maisie Richardson-Sellers as Korr Sella[53] while Harriet Walter appears as Kalonia, the doctor who tends to Chewbacca.[54][55] Mark Stanley appears as a Knight of Ren.[55] Sebastian Armesto portrays Lieutenant Mitaka and Pip Torrens portrays Colonel Kaplan, both serving the First Order.[16] Daniel Craig, Michael Giacchino, and Nigel Godrich cameo as stormtroopers.[56][57] Abrams' assistant, Morgan Dameron, appears as a Resistance officer,[58] while his father, Gerald W. Abrams, appears as Captain Cypress.[59] Dialect coach Andrew Jack portrays Resistance Major Caluan Ematt.[60] Additionally, Crystal Clarke, Pip Andersen,[61] Christina Chong,[62] Miltos Yerolemou,[63] Amybeth Hargreaves,[64] Leanne Best,[65] Judah Friedlander,[66] and Kevin Smith appear in minor roles.[67] Riot control stormtrooper FN-2199, who calls Finn a traitor during the battle on Takodana, was portrayed by stunt performer Liang Yang and voiced by sound editor David Acord.[68] Production Development Star Wars creator George Lucas discussed ideas for a sequel trilogy several times after the conclusion of the original trilogy, but denied any intent to make it.[69] In October 2012, he sold his production company Lucasfilm to The Walt Disney Company.[70] Speaking alongside Lucasfilm's new president, Kathleen Kennedy, Lucas said: "I always said I wasn't going to do any more and that's true, because I'm not going to do any more, but that doesn't mean I'm unwilling to turn it over to Kathy to do more."[71] As creative consultant on the film, Lucas attended early story meetings and advised on the details of the Star Wars universe.[70] Among the materials he turned over to the production team were his rough story treatments for Episodes VII–IX, which Lucas requested be read only by Kennedy, Bob Iger, Alan F. Horn, and Kevin A. Mayer.[70] Lucas later said Disney had discarded his story ideas and that he had no further involvement with the film.[72][73][74] Lucas' son Jett told The Guardian that his father was "very torn" about having sold the rights to the franchise and that his father was "there to guide" but that "he wants to let it go and become its new generation".[75] From left to right: producer Kathleen Kennedy, writer and director J. J. Abrams, and writer Lawrence Kasdan speaking at 2015 San Diego Comic-Con The Force Awakens' first screenplay was written by Michael Arndt.[76] At the time of his hiring, Arndt was also tapped to pen story treatments for the following installments.[77] Arndt took part in a writers room with Simon Kinberg, Lawrence Kasdan, Pablo Hidalgo, and Kiri Hart to discuss and plan the overall trilogy.[78] Early drafts had Luke Skywalker appear midway through the film, but Arndt found that "every time Luke came in and entered the movie, he just took it over. Suddenly you didn't care about your main character anymore."[79] The writers decided to use Luke as the film's MacGuffin and, as something that the protagonists needed to find, would not appear in person until the final scene.[79] Arndt also developed some backstory elements for the returning characters from the original trilogy, such as how Leia was instrumental in rebuilding the Republic after the fall of the Empire before being discredited when it was publicly revealed that her biological father was Darth Vader (this would go on to become a central plot point in the canonical novel Star Wars: Bloodline).[80] Several directors were considered, including David Fincher,[81] Brad Bird,[82] Jon Favreau,[83] and Guillermo del Toro.[84] Bird was reportedly the "top choice" to helm the film, but his commitments to Tomorrowland forced him to withdraw.[85] Matthew Vaughn was an early candidate for the job, even dropping out of X-Men: Days of Future Past in favor for the film.[86] Colin Trevorrow was also under consideration by the studio, while Ben Affleck and Neill Blomkamp passed on the project.[87][88][89][90] After a suggestion by Steven Spielberg to Kennedy,[91] J. J. Abrams was named director in January 2013,[92] with Lawrence Kasdan and Simon Kinberg as project consultants.[93] Kasdan worked to convince Abrams to direct the film after the filmmaker initially rejected the offer.[94][95] Arndt worked on the script for eight months, but said he needed 18 more, which was more time than Disney or Abrams could give him.[96] The production announced Arndt's exit from the project on October 24, 2013. That same day, Kasdan and Abrams took over script duties,[97] both of whom planned the story while walking in Santa Monica, California, New York City, Paris, and London. The first draft was completed in six weeks.[98] Abrams said the key to the film was that it return to the roots of the first Star Wars films and be based more on emotion than explanation.[99] In January 2014, Abrams confirmed that the script was complete.[100] In April 2014, Lucasfilm clarified that Episodes VII–IX would not feature storylines from the Star Wars expanded universe, though other elements could be included, as with the TV series Star Wars Rebels.[101] Abrams stated that he purposely withheld some plot elements from The Force Awakens, such as Rey and Finn's last names and backgrounds. Kennedy admitted that "we haven't mapped out every single detail [of the sequel trilogy] yet", but said that Abrams was collaborating with The Last Jedi director Rian Johnson, and that Johnson would work with The Rise of Skywalker's then-director Colin Trevorrow to ensure a smooth transition and that "everybody's got a say in how we move forward with this".[102] Daisy Ridley later recounted that J. J. Abrams had written drafts for episodes 8 and 9.[103] A fictional language was developed for use in the film by YouTube star Sara Forsberg, who created the viral video series "What Languages Sound Like To Foreigners"; Forsberg developed the language by studying various languages, such as Hindi and Gujarati.[104] In November 2015, Lucas recorded an hour-long interview with CBS News reporter Charlie Rose in which he said Disney had not been "keen" to involve him and conceded: "If I get in there, I'm just going to cause trouble because they're not going to do what I want them to do, and I don't have the control to do that any more, and all it would do is just muck everything up."[105] He also said, "They wanted to do a retro movie. I don't like that. Every movie, I worked very hard to make them different [...] I made them completely different—different planets, different spaceships to make it new."[106][107] In early December 2015, Kathleen Kennedy told The Hollywood Reporter that Lucas had seen the movie and "liked it".[108] In the same month, at the Kennedy Center Honors, Lucas stated, "I think the fans are going to love it, It's very much the kind of movie they've been looking for."[109] Abrams felt that, as the first in a new trilogy, the film "needed to take a couple of steps backwards into very familiar terrain" and use plot elements from previous Star Wars films.[110] Pre-production In May 2013, it was confirmed that The Force Awakens would be filmed in the United Kingdom. Representatives from Lucasfilm met with Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne to agree to produce The Force Awakens in the UK.[111] Osborne committed £25 million of public money towards the film, claiming it was a boost for British culture and its film industry.[112] According to production company account filings in the United Kingdom, The Force Awakens ultimately received a total of £31.6 million ($47.4 million) from the government.[113][114] Beginning in September 2013, production spaces at the Bad Robot facility were converted for shooting of The Force Awakens for the benefit of shooting a minor portion of the film in the United States.[115] The film's costume designer was Michael Kaplan, who had previously worked with Abrams on the films Star Trek (2009) and Star Trek Into Darkness (2013).[116] Film editors Mary Jo Markey and Maryann Brandon, long-term collaborators with Abrams, were also signed.[117] In August 2013, it was announced that cinematographer Daniel Mindel would be shooting the film on 35 mm film (specifically Kodak 5219).[118] In October 2013, other crew members were confirmed, including sound designer Ben Burtt, director of photography Mindel, production designers Rick Carter and Darren Gilford, costume designer Michael Kaplan, special effects supervisor Chris Corbould, re-recording mixer Gary Rydstrom, supervising sound editor Matthew Wood, visual effects supervisors Roger Guyett, and executive producer Jason McGatlin.[119] Casting Open auditions were held in the United Kingdom and the United States in November 2013 for the roles of "Rachel" and "Thomas".[120] Casting began in earnest in January 2014, because of changes to the script by Kasdan and Abrams.[121] Screen tests with actors continued until at least three weeks before the official announcement in April 2014, with final casting decisions made only a few weeks earlier. Actors testing had strict nondisclosure agreements, preventing them, their agents or their publicists from commenting on their involvement.[122] Though Lucas intimated that previous cast members Carrie Fisher, Harrison Ford, and Mark Hamill would return for the new film as early as March 2013,[70] their casting was not confirmed until over a year later.[28] Abrams set out to have a more diverse cast than previous installments.[123] A very early report claimed the studio wanted Ryan Gosling, Leonardo DiCaprio and Zac Efron for roles.[124][125] In September 2013, Michael B. Jordan, Saoirse Ronan, and David Oyelowo were among the first to meet with the director.[126] In January 2014, The Hollywood Reporter revealed Benedict Cumberbatch, Jack O'Connell, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Alex Pettyfer, Jesse Plemons, Sullivan Stapleton, Tye Sheridan, Hugo Weaving, Michael Fassbender, and Adam Driver all met with Abrams for the film. The role Sheridan met for was ultimately rewritten to be played by a 40 year old actor, while Weaving was in talks for an "Imperial commander".[127] Ronan, Jordan, Frida Gustavsson, and later Miles Teller would go on to confirm their auditions for the film.[128][129][130][131] Industry publications speculated that Plemons could possibly be playing Luke Skywalker's son.[132] In February, Driver was in final negotiations for an unnamed villain, while Gary Oldman revealed he was approached for an undisclosed role.[133][134] In March, John Boyega, Plemons, Ray Fisher, Matthew James Thomas and Ed Speleers were Abrams' top choice for the lead role.[123] Boyega began talks after dropping out of the Jesse Owens biopic Race.[122] That same month, Lupita Nyong'o was said to have met also met with Abrams for the female lead.[135] In April 2014, Plemons and Thomas were no longer in contention for the film.[136] That same month, Maisie Richardson-Sellers, an "unknown Oxford actress", and Dev Patel were up for unknown roles.[137][138] Ronan, Richardson-Sellers, Eiza Gonzalez, Elizabeth Olsen and Jessica Henwick auditioned for Rey.[139][140][141][142] Joseph David-Jones, Tom Holland, and Daryl McCormack were later reported to have auditioned for Finn while McCormack made it to the final round of auditions for the part.[143][144][145] Eddie Redmayne and Joel Kinnaman tested for Kylo Ren.[146][147] Daisy Ridley was cast by February 2014, and by the end of that month a deal had been worked out with Driver, who was able to work around his Girls schedule. Talks with Andy Serkis and Oscar Isaac began by March and continued into April.[122] Denis Lawson, who played Wedge Antilles in the original trilogy, declined to reprise his role, saying it would have "bored" him.[148] In April, Ridley, Boyega, Isaac, Driver, Serkis, Domhnall Gleeson, and Max von Sydow were announced as part of the cast; while Ford, Hamill, Fisher, Anthony Daniels, Peter Mayhew, and Baker reprised their roles from the original trilogy.[28] In June, cast additions Lupita Nyong'o and Gwendoline Christie were announced.[32] To prepare for his role, Hamill was assigned a personal trainer and a nutritionist at the request of the producers, who wanted him to resemble an older Luke.[149] Fisher was also assigned a personal trainer and a nutritionist.[149] Abrams initially considered using Daniels only in a voice role for C-3PO,[150] but Daniels opted to reprise the role physically as well; the production team built a new C-3PO costume to accommodate him.[151] A flashback scene was cut from Rey's vision (following her discovery of Luke's lightsaber), which would have featured Robert Boulter standing in for Luke as he appeared in his duel with Vader in The Empire Strikes Back.[152] In May, Abrams announced a donation contest for UNICEF from the Star Wars set in Abu Dhabi; the winner was allowed to visit the set, meet members of the cast and appear in the film.[153] In October, Warwick Davis, who played Wicket in Return of the Jedi, as well as Wald and Weazle in The Phantom Menace (1999), announced that he would appear in The Force Awakens, but did not reveal his role.[154] In November, Debbie Reynolds confirmed that her granddaughter (Fisher's daughter), Billie Lourd, was in the film.[50] Lourd first auditioned for the role of Rey prior to her casting.[155] Filming The Rub' Al Khali desert around Liwa Oasis in the United Arab Emirates was used as filming location for planet Jakku. In February 2014, Abrams said filming would begin in May and last about three months.[99] The official announcement came in March, when Disney and Lucasfilm announced that principal photography would commence in May and be based at Pinewood Studios in Buckinghamshire, England.[156] That month, it was revealed that pre-production filming would take place in Iceland prior to the start of official filming in May, consisting of landscape shots that would be used for scenery in the film.[157] In April, Walt Disney Studios chairman Alan Horn confirmed that filming had begun,[158] filming in secret in the United Arab Emirates around Liwa Oasis, part of the emirate of Abu Dhabi, by a second unit.[159] Later that month, it was revealed that in addition to 35 mm film, segments of the film were being shot in the 65 mm IMAX format.[160] In July, Bad Robot reported via Twitter that the film would be at least partially shot on IMAX cameras.[161] Principal photography began in Abu Dhabi on May 16, 2014.[162] The budget was initially estimated to be between $259 million and $306 million,[113][163] but in 2023 the actual cost was revealed to be $447 million.[2] Abrams and the cast members went to Abu Dhabi in early May, where large sets were built on location—including a shuttle-like spacecraft, a large tower, and a big market—and where explosives were used to create a "blast crater". Cast members were spotted practicing driving vehicles that would be used during filming.[164] Production moved to Pinewood Studios in June.[165] view over Skellig Michael showing stone beehive structures and Small Skellig island in the distance concrete missile silo covered in grass Skellig Michael in Ireland (top) and former RAF Greenham Common in England served as filming locations. That same month, Harrison Ford fractured his leg while filming at Pinewood after a hydraulic door on the Millennium Falcon set fell on him, and was taken to a hospital. According to Abrams, Ford's ankle "went to a 90-degree angle".[96] Production was suspended for two weeks because of Ford's injury.[166] Ford's son Ben said the ankle would likely need a plate and screws and that filming could be altered slightly, with the crew needing to shoot Ford from the waist up for a short time until he recovered.[167] A month later, Jake Steinfeld, Ford's personal trainer, said Ford was recovering rapidly.[168] Abrams also suffered a fractured vertebra in his back when he was trying to help lift the door after Ford's accident,[96] but he kept this to himself for over a month.[169] In February 2016, it was reported that the Health and Safety Executive brought four criminal charges against Disney subsidiary Foodles Production (UK), Ltd. for alleged health and safety breaches relating to Ford's accident.[170] Foodles Production (UK) Ltd was subsequently fined $1.95 million in October 2016 for two health and safety breaches, after admitting the counts at an earlier hearing.[171] On July 28, 2014, filming took place over three days at Skellig Michael, an island off the coast of County Kerry, Ireland, with a cast including Mark Hamill and Daisy Ridley.[172] Landscape shots for the planet Takodana were shot in July in the Lake District in the northwest of England.[173] Production was halted for two weeks in early August 2014 so Abrams could rework shooting in Ford's absence and resumed with a fully healed Ford in mid-August.[174][175] In September, the former RAF Greenham Common military base in Berkshire was used and featured set constructions of several spaceships.[176][177] Puzzlewood in the Forest of Dean Gloucestershire England was used for some scenes.[178] Principal photography ended on November 3, 2014.[179] Post-production Bad Robot Productions headquarters in Santa Monica, where Abrams supervised post-production of the film Kennedy said The Force Awakens would use real locations and models over computer-generated imagery.[180] Johnson reiterated that Abrams would use little CGI and more practical, traditional special effects, saying: "I think people are coming back around to [practical effects]. It feels like there is sort of that gravity pulling us back toward it. I think that more and more people are hitting kind of a critical mass in terms of the CG-driven action scene lending itself to a very specific type of action scene, where physics go out the window and it becomes so big so quick."[181] Abrams' intention in prioritizing practical special effects was to recreate the visual realism and authenticity of the original Star Wars.[182] To that end, the droid BB-8 was a physical prop developed by Disney Research,[183] created by special effects artist Neal Scanlan and operated live on set with the actors.[184][185] The Holochess sequence was created using stop-motion, which was supervised by Tippett Studio and overseen by Phil Tippett, who also worked on the stop-motion sequence in the original Star Wars film.[186][187] In February 2014, Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) announced plans to open a facility in London, citing Disney's Star Wars films as a catalyst for the expansion. ILM's Vancouver branch also worked on the special effects for the film.[188] Abrams supervised post-production and editing of the film at Bad Robot Productions' headquarters in Santa Monica.[96] In August 2015, he gave the film's estimated running time of 124 minutes.[189] Abrams made changes to the film's plot in the editing process to simplify the film, by removing some sequences shown in trailers: "At one point, Maz used to continue along with the characters back to the Resistance base, but we realised that she really had nothing to do there of value [...] So we ended up leaving those things out."[190] The final cut of the film runs for 138 minutes.[191] On November 6, 2014, the film's title was announced as Star Wars: The Force Awakens.[192] In December 2015, Pablo Hidalgo, the creative executive at the Lucasfilm Story Group which handles all the canonical continuity for the Star Wars universe, revealed that the working title for the film was Shadow of the Empire "for the longest time".[193] Music Main article: Star Wars: The Force Awakens (soundtrack) In July 2013, John Williams was confirmed to return to compose the sequel trilogy, beginning with The Force Awakens.[194] He began working on the film in December 2014, and by June 2015 had been through most of the film reels, working on a daily basis.[195][196] In May 2015, Williams said he would return to themes from the previous films, such as those for Luke, Leia, and Han, in ways that "there are a few that I think are important and will seem very much a part of the fabric of the piece in a positive and constructive way." He said that working with Abrams was similar to the process he went through with Lucas in the earlier films.[197] Recording sessions for The Force Awakens began in June 2015 at the Sony Pictures Studios' Barbra Streisand Scoring Stage in Culver City, with William Ross conducting most of the music.[198] The first day of recording was June 1, 2015.[199] Williams attended the sessions and conducted the remainder of the recordings in Los Angeles.[200] The score was recorded in 12 sessions within a five-month period between June and mid-November. The 90-piece orchestra recorded 175 minutes of music; however, Abrams reedited the film, which discarded, modified, or rerecorded the score's part for nearly an hour. Williams' theme for Snoke was recorded by a 24-voice men's chorus.[201] Gustavo Dudamel conducted the opening and end title music for the film at Williams' behest.[202] Recording of the score was completed on November 14, 2015.[203] The film's soundtrack was released by Walt Disney Records on December 18, 2015.[204] Williams' score is more than two hours long.[196] Lin-Manuel Miranda and Abrams contributed music to the film's cantina scene. Abrams met Miranda at a performance of his Broadway musical Hamilton, where Miranda jokingly offered to compose cantina music, should it be needed. Unknown to Miranda, Williams had previously told Abrams that he did not want to compose the music for that scene, wanting to focus on the orchestral score. Abrams then contacted Miranda, and the two collaborated on the music for the scene over a period of two months.[205] Marketing Promotion Disney backed The Force Awakens with extensive marketing campaigns.[206][207] Deadline Hollywood estimated the media value was $175 million;[208] its costs alongside home media revenues had later risen to $423 million by The Guardian.[209] On November 28, 2014, Lucasfilm released an 88-second teaser trailer. It was screened in selected cinemas across the United States and Canada and in theaters worldwide in December 2014. It was also released on YouTube and the iTunes Store,[210] generating 58.2 million views on YouTube in its first week.[211] Critics compared the brief footage favorably to the production values of the original trilogy. The Hollywood Reporter called the trailer "perfectly potent nostalgia", praising its mix of old and new.[212] Empire was impressed by the continuity with the first films—"the feel of classic Star Wars"—but noted the absence of Hamill, Ford, and Fisher and speculated about the significance of the new characters.[213] The Guardian wrote that the use of the Star Wars fanfare by John Williams reinforced brand loyalty among fans.[214] Large-scale outdoor advertising for Star Wars: The Force Awakens in the city center of Nuremberg, Germany On December 11, 2014, Abrams and Kennedy released a series of eight mock Topps trading cards revealing the names of several characters.[215] On April 16, 2015, a second teaser trailer, this one lasting two minutes, was shown at the opening panel at the Star Wars Celebration in Anaheim, California. Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy said the reaction to the trailer was "staggering [...] the entire room of almost eight thousand people just leapt to their feet and roared, I mean I can't think of anything I've ever been to—other than a rock concert—that felt quite like that".[216] The trailer was viewed over 88 million times within the first 24 hours of release.[217] The trailer shows many of the new characters and the first footage of Chewbacca and Han Solo. The Huffington Post's Graham Milne wrote that the trailer "was an affirmation of something that we'd long been told was never going to happen. This was a gift. This was faith rewarded. About damn time."[218] Vanity Fair was the first magazine to release an exclusive cover issue devoted to The Force Awakens. The magazine, released on May 7, 2015, featured exclusive interviews and photos of the cast photographed by Annie Leibovitz.[219] At the 2015 San Diego Comic-Con International, in addition to a panel with many of the actors, a behind-the-scenes look at the film demonstrated the film's use of practical sets and effects. It was positively received, with Nigel M. Smith of The Guardian writing: "The featurette's angle is a strong one and connects with fans of the original trilogy in an incredibly poignant way. It also does a sly job of teasing Fisher's new look as Leia and Simon Pegg's mysterious involvement as a rumored alien in the movie, without actually showing the actors in action." Smith compared the marketing strategy for the film to that of a previous Abrams film, Super 8, saying "the promos [...] are notable for what they tease, not what they give away."[220] Walt Disney Studios and Lucasfilm presented a look at The Force Awakens at Disney's D23 Expo in August 2015.[221] Drew Struzan—who designed the poster artwork for the previous Star Wars films—produced a commemorative poster given to the event's attendees.[222] In October 2015, Lucasfilm unveiled the theatrical release poster and a third trailer. The poster omitted Luke Skywalker and revealed a Death Star-like "orb".[223] The trailer debuted during the halftime break of Monday Night Football, before being released online.[224] The reaction to the trailer by fans on social media was "frenzied", with Lizo Mzimba of the BBC writing that "perhaps the most significant thing about the final trailer before the film's release is how little of the story it reveals."[225] Robbie Collin of The Daily Telegraph felt the trailer was "a perfect blend of old and new, in keeping with the old-fashioned Star Wars aesthetic".[226] The trailer received 128 million views in 24 hours. 16 million of the views came from its airing on Monday Night Football.[227] At the end of October, Air France announced a "Flight and Cinema" package, providing customers who book select flights to Paris transportation to a theater to see the film, since France was one of the first countries to release the film.[228] On November 23, a partnership with Google was announced, in which Google users could choose to affiliate themselves with either the Dark or Light Side, which would change the appearance of their Google websites. Additionally, Disney teamed up with Verizon to create a virtual-reality experience for Google Cardboard.[229] On December 17, 2015, select theaters across the United States and Canada aired a Star Wars marathon, airing the six previous Star Wars episode films in 2D, followed by The Force Awakens in 3D. Attendees received a special lanyard featuring exclusive marathon art.[230] Tie-in literature and merchandise Disney Publishing Worldwide and Lucasfilm announced a series of at least 20 books and comics, "Journey to Star Wars: The Force Awakens", which were released by multiple publishers starting in late 2015, prior to the film's premiere. The series includes books by Del Rey and Disney-Lucasfilm publishers and comic books from Marvel Comics. All titles under the program are canonical to the Star Wars universe.[231] Alan Dean Foster wrote a novelization of The Force Awakens which was released in e-book form on December 18.[232] In an effort to avoid revealing plot details before the film's release, the print release of the novelization was delayed until January 2016.[232] Marvel Comics published a six-issue comic book adaptation of The Force Awakens between June and November 2016.[233] Disney Consumer Products and Lucasfilm announced that September 4, 2015 would be deemed "Force Friday" and would be the official launch of all the merchandise for The Force Awakens. Beginning at 12:01 am, fans could buy toys, books, clothing and various other products at Disney Stores and other retailers throughout the world.[234] Disney and Maker Studios hosted an 18-hour live-streaming presentation on YouTube, showcasing multiple merchandise products beginning on September 3, 2015.[235][236] Among these products were a remote-controlled BB-8 developed by Sphero.[183] Sphero had participated in a Disney-run startup accelerator in July 2014, where they were invited into a private meeting with Disney CEO Bob Iger, in which they were shown on-set photos and imagery of BB-8 before its public unveiling.[237][238] Many retailers, such as Toys "R" Us, were unable to meet demand for Star Wars products due to the event.[239] Video games Select characters, scenes and/or locations from the film became part of other Star Wars video games: Characters from the film were added to an update to the mobile game Star Wars: Galaxy of Heroes, available for iOS and Android and released by Electronic Arts;[240] free downloadable content for Electronic Arts' Star Wars Battlefront reboot allowed players to battle on the planet Jakku;[241] an update to the mobile game Star Wars Commander, released by Disney Mobile for iOS, Android and the Windows Store, allowed players to battle on the planet Takodana during the Galactic Civil War era;[242] and a condensed version of the film's plot becomes an add-on "playset" in the toys-to-life game Disney Infinity 3.0, with Finn, Rey, Poe Dameron, and Kylo Ren as playable characters.[243] Eventually, the film got a full Lego video game adaptation, titled Lego Star Wars: The Force Awakens, which was released by Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment for Microsoft Windows, Nintendo 3DS, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, PlayStation Vita, Wii U, Xbox 360, and Xbox One on June 28, 2016.[244] Release Theatrical The premiere tent, with the film's poster above Star Wars: The Force Awakens premiered on December 14, 2015, at the TCL Chinese Theatre, El Capitan Theatre, and Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, Los Angeles.[245] A white tent stretched along Hollywood Boulevard from Orange Drive to Highland Avenue, covering the "massive" premiere event that hosted more than five thousand guests.[246] The film was originally scheduled for a mid-2015 release, but in November 2013, it was pushed back to December 18, 2015.[247] It was also released in 3D, RealD 3D and IMAX 3D formats.[248] In the United States and Canada, it had the widest release of December across 4,134 theaters,[249] of which 3,300 were 3D locations, a record 392 IMAX screens (13 of which were 70mm), 451 premium large format screens, 146 D-Box locations,[250][251] as well as releasing in the Dolby Vision format (high-dynamic range, Rec. 2020 color) in Dolby Cinema.[252] Worldwide, it was released across 940 IMAX theaters, a new record.[251] On December 18, 2015, the film began playing on every IMAX screen in the United States and Canada for four straight weeks up to January 14, 2016. This made it the first film since Warner Bros.' The Hobbit trilogy to receive such a release.[253] The film finally shed some of its IMAX screens with the release of The Revenant (2015) and The Finest Hours (2016) in mid-January 2016.[254] Advance ticket sales for the film began on October 19, 2015,[255] and were in strong demand, resulting in online movie ticket sites crashing.[256][257] Vue Cinemas, the United Kingdom's third-largest theater chain, sold 45,000 tickets in 24 hours, 10,000 of which were sold in 90 minutes, a record for the theater.[258] In the United States, the film pre-sold a record-breaking $6.5 million worth of IMAX ticket sales on a single day. IMAX has never previously registered more than $1 million in pre-sales on a single day.[259] In total, it sold over $50 million in pre-sales, breaking the record.[260][261] This number was raised to $100 million including $50–60 million in advance ticket sales by December 14.[261][262] However, not all tickets that were pre-sold were for the film's opening weekend, with Fandango President Paul Yanover saying "people have set aside tickets for screenings in January, weeks after the big opening [...] We have people buying Star Wars [The Force Awakens] into 2016. It's not just an opening-weekend phenomenon."[260] Similarly, the film broke pre-sales records in the UK,[263] Canada,[264] and Germany.[265] The Force Awakens is the first live-action Star Wars film not to be released theatrically by 20th Century Fox; accordingly the film is not introduced with either that company's logo, or its signature fanfare composed by Alfred Newman.[266] Instead, the film is the first in the series to be distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures,[3] and the film is presented with only Lucasfilm's production logo shown silently before the main titles.[267] Disney chairman Bob Iger explained that the decision not to place Disney branding on the film was "for the fans".[268] A poster from mainland China was criticized for being racist due to shrinking the size of the Black character Finn compared to non-Chinese posters.[269][270][271] Home media Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment released Star Wars: The Force Awakens through digital download and Disney Movies Anywhere on April 1, 2016, and on Blu-ray and DVD on April 5. Physical copies include behind-the-scenes featurettes, deleted scenes, interviews,[272] and additional footage with eight bonus features.[273] In its first week, The Force Awakens sold 669,318 DVDs and 3.4 million Blu-rays as the most sold film on both formats in the United States.[274] That same week, The Force Awakens topped the Nielsen VideoScan First Alert chart, which tracks overall disc sales, as well as the dedicated Blu-ray sales chart with 83% of unit sales coming from Blu-ray.[275] Overall, The Force Awakens sold 2.1 million DVDs and 5.9 million Blu-rays, adding them up to get a total of 8 million copies, and made $191 million through home media releases.[274] A Blu-ray 3D "collector's edition" of the film was released on November 15, including all the features of the original home releases, as well as several new bonus features, including new deleted scenes and audio commentary by director J. J. Abrams.[276] The package includes a Blu-ray 3D, regular Blu-ray, DVD, and digital copy of the film, as well as an additional Blu-ray disc for the bonus features.[276] The movie was rereleased on DVD in 2019 as part of the 9-disc "Skywalker Saga" boxed set. It received a 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray release on March 31, 2020. This 4K release was then included in the 27-disc Skywalker Saga box set on April 20, 2020.[277] Broadcast syndication The premium cable network Starz had U.S. broadcast syndication rights for The Force Awakens in January 2016,[278] just before the end of Starz's output deal covering most Disney films through 2015.[279] That September, The Force Awakens began broadcasting on all Starz networks." (wikipedia.org) "A party favor is a small gift given to the guests at a party as a gesture of thanks for their attendance, a memento of the occasion, or simply for fun. Occasions It is traditional in some[which?] Western cultures for the guests at bridal showers and weddings to receive party favors; these vary in price and durability in accordance with the desires and budget of the host or hostess. This practice has spread to many other formal occasions such as baby showers, engagement parties, retirement parties, anniversaries, and holiday gatherings. For small social gatherings such as birthday parties, guests may receive a simple and inexpensive favor such as a small toy. In some cases guests might receive a small "gift bag", or "party bag" with a handful of favors, toys or trinkets, candy, pencils or other small gifts. Occasions such as birthday parties, seasonal parties, unique events such as a Bar/Bat Mitzvah or Christening are a few social gatherings where favors may be appropriate. At weddings A traditional wedding and party favor Wedding favors are small gifts given as a gesture of appreciation or gratitude to guests from the bride and groom during a wedding ceremony or a wedding reception. The tradition of distributing wedding favors is hundreds of years old. It is believed that the first wedding favor, common amongst European aristocrats, was known as a bonbonniere. A bonbonniere is a small trinket box that was made of crystal, porcelain, and/or precious stones. The contents of these precious boxes were generally sugar cubes or delicate confections, which symbolize wealth and royalty. As sugar became more affordable, bonbonnieres were replaced with almonds. For centuries, almonds were commonly distributed to wedding guests to signify well wishes on the bridegroom’s new life. In the thirteenth century, almonds coated with sugar, known as confetti, were introduced. Confetti soon transformed to sugared almonds, which started in ancient Greece and was inspired by the tale of Demophon, the king of Athens whose wife died and reincarnated as an almond tree. This later evolved into a wedding favor for modern day weddings. Traditionally, five Jordan almonds are presented in a confection box or wrapped in elegant fabric to represent fertility, longevity, wealth, health and happiness. The bitterness of the almond and the sweetness of the coated candy are a metaphor for the bitter sweetness of a marriage. Today, gifts to guests are commonly known as wedding favors and are shared in cultures worldwide. Wedding favors have become a part of wedding reception planning, especially in the United States and Canada. Wedding favors are diverse and usually complement the theme or season of the event. Classic favors can range from the classic sugared almonds or individual chocolates to candles and scented soaps. Modern gift trends include: CDs with the favorite music of the bride and groom, shot glasses filled with colored candy or a charitable donation in the name of their guests. Gifts may also be personalized with the couple's or guest's names, initials or the wedding date. Making or buying The choice of favors is personal to the hosts, who might make or buy party favors for their event. The main factors in this decision are budget, the number of guests, the longevity or shelf life of the chosen favor, and the time available for making or shopping for favors. The longevity of the favor depends on whether or not it is edible or would otherwise spoil, such as fresh flowers.[citation needed] Other items considered party favors Party favors may also refer to ephemeral items which help partygoers celebrate, but which are not meant to be lasting souvenirs. Examples include but are not limited to party hats, balloons, noisemakers, party horns (paper tubes that unroll when blown into), Christmas crackers, plastic leis, glow sticks, deely bobbers, and streamers and other kinds of confetti." (wikipedia.org) "A collectable (collectible or collector's item) is any object regarded as being of value or interest to a collector.[1] Collectable items are not necessarily monetarily valuable or uncommon.[2] There are numerous types of collectables and terms to denote those types. An antique is a collectable that is old. A curio is something deemed unique, uncommon, or weird, such as a decorative item.[3] A manufactured collectable is an item made specifically for people to collect.[4] The business of collectables Created to be collected A "manufactured" collectable (often referred to as a contemporary collectable) is an item made specifically for people to collect. Examples of items commonly sold as collectables include plates, figurines, bells, graphics, steins, and dolls. Some companies that produce manufactured collectables are members of The Gift and Collectibles Guild.[4] Special editions, limited editions and variants on these terms fall under the category of manufactured collectables and are used as a marketing incentive for various types of products. They were originally[5] applied to products related to the arts—such as books, prints or recorded music and films—but are now used for cars, fine wine and many other collectables. A special edition typically includes extra material of some kind. A limited edition is restricted in the number of copies produced, although the number may be arbitrarily high. Collectables in commerce Manufacturers and retailers have used collectables in a number of ways to increase sales. One use is in the form of licensed collectables based on intellectual properties, such as images, characters and logos from literature, music, movies, radio, television, and video games. A large subsection of licensing includes advertising, brand name, and character collectibles. Another use of collectables in retail is in the form of prizes (items of nominal value packaged with or included in the price of a retail product at no additional cost) and premiums (items that can be "purchased" by redeeming coupons, boxtops, or proofs of purchase from the product along with a small fee to cover shipping and handling). Also, collectables have played an important role in tourism, in the form of souvenirs.[6] Another important field of collecting that is also big business is memorabilia, which includes collectables related to a person, organization, event or media, including T-shirts, posters, and numerous other collectables marketed to fans; but also includes ephemera from historical, media, or entertainment events, items that were meant to be thrown away but were saved by fans and accumulated by collectors. Collectibles have become a huge market globally coupled with the rise in application of Non-Fungible Tokens (NFT) which are now used as a medium for digital collectibles sales.[7] The collectables market size in 2020 was $360 billion [8] with an estimated increase of 4% by 2028. Digital collectibles may become a reliable revenue stream for creators as NFTs evolve and spread.[7] Collectables as investments Collectables can be items of limited supply that are sought for a variety of reasons, including a possible increase in value. In a financial sense, collectables can be viewed as a hedge against inflation. Over time, their value can also increase as they become rarer due to loss, damage or destruction. One drawback to investing in collectables is the potential lack of liquidity, particularly for very obscure items. There is also a risk for fraud.[9] The 1960s through the early 1990s were major years for the manufacturing of contemporary collectables. While some individuals purchased contemporary collectables to enjoy and use, many purchased them as investments. Speculative markets developed for many of these pieces. Because so many people bought for investment purposes, duplicates are common. And although many collectables were labeled as "limited editions", the actual number of items produced was very large. Consequently, there is very little demand for many (but not all) items produced during this time period, and their market values are often low....History The urge to collect unusual and fascinating objects is primeval and not limited to humans (bowerbird, pack rat). The Renaissance Cabinet of Curiosities was an antecedent both of modern museums and modern collecting. The earliest manufactured collectables were included as incentives with other products, such as cigarette cards in packs of cigarettes. Popular items developed a secondary market and sometimes became the subject of "collectable crazes". Eventually many collectable items came to be sold separately, instead of being used as marketing tools to increase the appeal of other products. To encourage collecting, manufacturers often create an entire series of a given collectable, with each item differentiated in some fashion. Examples include sports cards depicting individual players, or different designs of Beanie Babies. Enthusiasts will often try to assemble a complete set of the available variations. Collector editions are another way of supporting collectables. They typically are produced in limited amount and contain additional content that can be valuable for a collector. This practice is mostly popular in video games. Early versions of a product, manufactured in smaller quantities before its popularity as a collectable developed, sometimes command exorbitant premiums on the secondary market. Dolls and other toys made during an adult collector's childhood can command such premiums. Unless extremely rare or made as a one-of-a-kind in a mature market, collectables rarely prove to be a spectacular investment." (wikipedia.org) "A gift or a present is an item given to someone, without the expectation of payment or anything in return. An item is not a gift if that item is already owned by the one to whom it is given. Although gift-giving might involve an expectation of reciprocity, a gift is meant to be free. In many countries, the act of mutually exchanging money, goods, etc. may sustain social relationship and contribute to social cohesion. Economists have elaborated the economics of gift-giving into the notion of a gift economy. By extension, the term gift can refer to any item or act of service that makes the other happier or less sad, especially as a favour, including forgiveness and kindness. Gifts are often presented on occasions such as birthdays and holidays. History [icon]    This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. (December 2023) Presentation In many cultures gifts are traditionally packaged in some way. For example, in Western cultures, gifts are often wrapped in wrapping paper and accompanied by a gift note which may note the occasion, the recipient's name and the giver's name. In Chinese culture, red wrapping connotes luck. Although inexpensive gifts are common among colleagues, associates and acquaintances, expensive or amorous gifts are considered more appropriate among close friends, romantic interests or relatives.[1] Gift-giving occasions Gift-giving occasions may be:     An expression of love or friendship     An expression of gratitude for a gift received.     An expression of piety, in the form of charity.     An expression of solidarity, in the form of mutual aid.     To share wealth.     To offset misfortune.     Offering travel souvenirs.     Custom, on occasions (often celebrations) such as         A birthday (the person who has his or her birthday gives cake, etc. and/or receives gifts).         A potlatch, in societies where status is associated with gift-giving rather than acquisition.         Christmas (throughout the history of Christmas gift giving, people have given one another gifts, often pretending they are left by Santa Claus, the Christ Child or Saint Nicholas).         Feast of Saint Nicholas (people give each other gifts, often supposedly receiving them from Saint Nicholas).         Easter baskets with chocolate eggs, jelly beans, and chocolate rabbits are gifts given on Easter.         Greek Orthodox Christians in Greece, will give gifts to family and friends on the Feast of Saint Basil.         Muslims give gifts to family and friends, known as Eidi, on Eid al-Fitr (the end of Ramadan) and on Eid al-Adha.         American Jews give Hanukkah gifts to family and friends.         Hindus give Diwali and Pongal gifts to family and friends. Rakhi or Raksha Bandhan is another occasion where brothers give gifts to sisters.         Buddhists give Vesak gifts to family and friends.         Gifts are given to among African American families and friends on Kwanzaa.         A wedding (the couple receives gifts and gives food and/or drinks at the wedding reception).         A wedding anniversary (each spouse receives gifts).         A funeral (visitors bring flowers, the relatives of the deceased give food and/or drinks after the ceremonial part).         A birth (the baby receives gifts, or the mother receives a gift from the father known as a push present).         Passing an examination (the student receives gifts).         Father's Day (the father receives gifts).         Mother's Day (the mother receives gifts).         Siblings Day (the sibling receives gifts)         The exchange of gifts between a guest and a host, is often a traditional practice.         Lagniappe         Retirement Gifts         Congratulations Gifts         Engagement Gifts         Housewarming party Gifts         Women's day Gifts         Valentine's Day Promotional gifts Promotional gifts vary from the normal gifts. The recipients of the gifts may be either employee of a company or the clients. Promotional gifts are mainly used for advertising purposes. They are used to promote the brand name and increase its awareness among the people. In promotional gifting procedures, the quality and presentation of the gifts hold more value than the gifts itself since it will act as a gateway to acquire new clients or associates.[citation needed] As reinforcement and manipulation Giving a gift to someone is not necessarily just an altruistic act. It may be given in the hope that the receiver reciprocates in a particular way. It may take the form of positive reinforcement as a reward for compliance, possibly for an underhand manipulative and abusive purpose.[2] Unwanted gifts Giving the appropriate gift that aligns with the recipient's preferences poses a formidable challenge. Gift givers commonly err in the process of gift selection, either by offering gifts that the recipients' do not wish to receive or by failing to provide gifts that recipients earnestly desired. For example, givers avoid giving the same gifts more than once while recipients are more open to receiving a repeated gift,[3] givers prefer to avoid giving self-improvement products (e.g., self-help books) as gifts while recipients are more open to receiving such gifts,[4] when choosing between giving digital and physical gift cards, givers opt for the latter more often than recipients want,[5] and many receivers prefer a future experience instead of an object, or a practical gift that they have requested over a more expensive, showier gift chosen by the giver.[6] One cause of the mismatch between the giver's and receiver's view is that the giver is focused on the act of giving the gift, while the receiver is more interested in the long-term utilitarian value of the gift.[6] Due to the mismatch between givers' and recipients' gift preferences, a significant fraction of gifts are unwanted, or the giver pays more for the item than the recipient values it, resulting in a misallocation of economic resources known as a deadweight loss. Unwanted gifts are often "regifted", donated to charity, or thrown away.[7] A gift that actually imposes a burden on the recipient, either due to maintenance or storage or disposal costs, is known as a white elephant. One means of reducing the mismatch between the buyer and receivers' tastes is advance coordination, often undertaken in the form of a wedding registry or Christmas list. Wedding registries in particular are often kept at a single store, which can designate the exact items to be purchased (resulting in matching housewares), and to coordinate purchases so the same gift is not purchased by different guests. One study found that wedding guests who departed from the registry typically did so because they wished to signal a closer relationship to the couple by personalizing a gift, and also found that as a result of not abiding by the recipients' preferences, their gifts were appreciated less often.[8] An estimated $3.4 billion was spent on unwanted Christmas gifts in the United States in 2017.[9] The day after Christmas is typically the busiest day for returns in countries with large Christmas gift giving traditions.[9][10] The total unredeemed value of gift cards purchased in the U.S. each year is estimated to be about a billion dollars.[7] In some cases, people know the preferences of recipients very well, and can give highly valued gifts. Some value in gift-giving comes from assisted preference discovery - people receiving gifts they did not know they would like, or which they did not know were available. Behavioral economists propose that the non-material value of gifts lies in strengthening relationships by signalling the giver was thoughtful, or spent time and effort on the gift." (wikipedia.org) "Romance or romantic love is a feeling of love for, or a strong attraction towards another person,[1] and the courtship behaviors undertaken by an individual to express those overall feelings and resultant emotions.[2] The Wiley Blackwell Encyclopedia of Family Studies states that "Romantic love, based on the model of mutual attraction and on a connection between two people that bonds them as a couple, creates the conditions for overturning the model of family and marriage that it engenders."[3] This indicates that romantic love can be the founding of attraction between two people. This term was primarily used by the "western countries after the 1800s were socialized into, love is the necessary prerequisite for starting an intimate relationship and represents the foundation on which to build the next steps in a family." Alternatively, Collins Dictionary describes romantic love as "an intensity and idealization of a love relationship, in which the other is imbued with extraordinary virtue, beauty, etc., so that the relationship overrides all other considerations, including material ones."[4] Although the emotions and sensations of romantic love are widely associated with sexual attraction, they could also exist without sexual attraction. In certain cases, romance could even be interpreted as a normal friendship. Historically, the term romance originates with the medieval ideal of chivalry as set out in the literature of chivalric romance. General definitions Bode & Kushnick[5] undertook a comprehensive review of romantic love from a biological perspective in 2021. They considered the psychology of romantic love, its mechanisms, development across the lifespan, functions, and evolutionary history. Based on the content of that review, they proposed a biological definition of romantic love: "Romantic love is a motivational state typically associated with a desire for long-term mating with a particular individual. It occurs across the lifespan and is associated with distinctive cognitive, emotional, behavioral, social, genetic, neural, and endocrine activity in both sexes. Throughout much of the life course, it serves mate choice, courtship, sex, and pair-bonding functions. It is a suite of adaptations and by-products that arose sometime during the recent evolutionary history of humans." Anthropologist Charles Lindholm defined love as "any intense attraction that involves the idealization of the other, within an erotic context, with expectation of enduring sometime into the future".[6] Romance is a feeling of love and attraction, that people currently like and want to continue in the future. ...The origin of romantic love Boris Shipov hypothesizes that "those psychological mechanisms that give rise to limerence or romantic love between a man and a woman [arise] as a product of the contradiction between sexual desire and the morality of a monogamous society, which impedes the realization of this attraction."[26][dubious – discuss] In F. Engels book, The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State: "monogamy was the only known form of the family under which modern sex love could develop, it does not follow that this love developed, or even predominantly, within it as the mutual love of the spouses. The whole nature of strict monogamian marriage under male domination ruled this out."[27] Sigmund Freud stated, "It can easily be shown that the psychical value of erotic needs is reduced as soon as their satisfaction becomes easy. An obstacle is required in order to heighten libido; and where natural resistances to satisfaction have not been sufficient men have at all times erected conventional ones so as to be able to enjoy love. This is true both of individuals and of nations. In times in which there were no difficulties standing in the way of sexual satisfaction, such as perhaps during the decline of the ancient civilizations, love became worthless and life empty."[28] Popularization of the term "Romance" The conception of romantic love was popularized in Western culture by the concept of courtly love. Chevaliers, or knights in the Middle Ages, engaged in what were usually non-physical and non-marital relationships with women of nobility whom they served. These relations were highly elaborate and ritualized in a complexity that was steeped in a framework of tradition, which stemmed from theories of etiquette derived out of chivalry as a moral code of conduct. Courtly love and the notion of domnei were often the subjects of troubadours, and could be typically found in artistic endeavors such as lyrical narratives and poetic prose of the time. Since marriage was commonly nothing more than a formal arrangement,[29] courtly love sometimes permitted expressions of emotional closeness that may have been lacking from the union between husband and wife.[30] In terms of courtly love, "lovers" did not necessarily refer to those engaging in sexual acts, but rather, to the act of caring and to emotional intimacy. The bond between a knight and his Lady, or the woman of typically high stature of whom he served, may have escalated psychologically but seldom ever physically.[31] For knighthood during the Middle Ages, the intrinsic importance of a code of conduct was in large part as a value system of rules codified as a guide to aid a knight in his capacity as champion of the downtrodden, but especially in his service to the Lord. In the context of dutiful service to a woman of high social standing, ethics designated as a code were effectively established as an institution to provide a firm moral foundation by which to combat the idea that unfit attentions and affections were to ever be tolerated as "a secret game of trysts" behind closed doors. Therefore, a knight trained in the substance of "chivalry" was instructed, with especial emphasis, to serve a lady most honorably, with purity of heart and mind. To that end, he committed himself to the welfare of both Lord and Lady with unwavering discipline and devotion, while at the same time, presuming to uphold core principles set forth in the code by the religion by which he followed.[31] Religious meditations upon the Virgin Mary were partially responsible for the development of chivalry as an ethic and lifestyle: the concept of the honor of a lady and knightly devotion to her, coupled with an obligatory respect for all women, factored prominently as central to the very identity of medieval knighthood. As knights were increasingly emulated, eventual changes were reflected in the inner-workings of feudal society. Members of the aristocracy were schooled in the principles of chivalry, which facilitated important changes in attitudes regarding the value of women.[32] Behaviorally, a knight was to regard himself towards a lady with a transcendence of premeditated thought—his virtue ingrained within his character. A chevalier was to conduct himself always graciously, bestowing upon her the utmost courtesy and attentiveness. He was to echo shades of this to all women, regardless of class, age, or status.[33] Over time, the concept of chivalry and the notion of the courtly gentleman became synonymous with the ideal of how love and romance should exist between the sexes. Through the timeless popularization in art and literature of tales of knights and princesses, kings and queens, a formative and long standing (sub)consciousness helped to shape relationships between men and women. De amore or The Art of Courtly Love, as it is known in English, was written in the 12th century. The text is widely misread as permissive of extramarital affairs. However, it is useful to differentiate the physical from without: romantic love as separate and apart from courtly love when interpreting such topics as: "Marriage is no real excuse for not loving", "He who is not jealous cannot love", "No one can be bound by a double love", and "When made public love rarely endures".[34] Some believe that romantic love evolved independently in multiple cultures. For example, in an article presented by Henry Grunebaum, he argues "therapists mistakenly believe that romantic love is a phenomenon unique to Western cultures and first expressed by the troubadours of the Middle Ages."[35] The more current and Western traditional terminology meaning "court as lover" or the general idea of "romantic love" is believed to have originated in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, primarily from that of the French culture. This idea is what has spurred the connection between the words "romantic" and "lover", thus coining English phrases for romantic love such as "loving like the Romans do". The precise origins of such a connection are unknown, however. Although the word "romance" or the equivalents thereof may not have the same connotation in other cultures, the general idea of "romantic love" appears to have crossed cultures and been accepted as a concept at one point in time or another. Types Romantic love is contrasted with platonic love, which in all usages precludes sexual relations, yet only in the modern usage does it take on a fully nonsexual sense, rather than the classical sense, in which sexual drives are sublimated. Unrequited love can be romantic in different ways: comic, tragic, or in the sense that sublimation itself is comparable to romance, where the spirituality of both art and egalitarian ideals is combined with strong character and emotions. Unrequited love is typical of the period of romanticism, but the term is distinct from any romance that might arise within it.[36] Romantic love may also be classified according to two categories, "popular romance" and "divine or spiritual" romance: Popular romance     Popular romance may include, but is not limited to the following types: idealistic, normal intense (such as the emotional aspect of "falling in love"), predictable as well as unpredictable, consuming (meaning consuming of time, energy and emotional withdrawals and bids), intense but out of control (such as the aspect of "falling out of love") material and commercial (such as societal gain mentioned in a later section of this article), physical and sexual, and finally grand and demonstrative. Divine (or spiritual) romance     Divine (spiritual) romance may include, but is not limited to these following types: realistic, as well as plausible unrealistic, optimistic as well as pessimistic (depending upon the particular beliefs held by each person within the relationship.), abiding (e.g. the theory that each person had a predetermined stance as an agent of choice; such as "choosing a husband" or "choosing a soul mate".), non-abiding (e.g. the theory that each person do not choose their actions, and therefore their romantic love involvement has been drawn from sources outside of themselves), predictable as well as unpredictable, self-control (such as obedience and sacrifice within the context of the relationship) or lack thereof (such as disobedience within the context of the relationship), emotional and personal, soulful (in the theory that the mind, soul, and body, are one connected entity), intimate, and infinite (such as the idea that love itself or the love of a God's "unconditional" love is or could be everlasting)....American views of romantic love Victor C. De Munck and David B. Kronenfeld conducted a study named "Romantic Love in the United States: Applying Cultural Models Theory and Methods".[45] This study was conducted through an investigation of two cultural model cases. It states that in America, "we have a rather and dynamic cultural model that is falsifiable and predictive of successful relationships." Which supports that is popular for American people to successfully share feelings of romanticism with each other's partners. It describes American culture by stating: "The model is unique in that it combines passion with comfort and friendship as properties of romantic love." One of its main contributions is advising the reader that "For successful romantic love relations, a person would feel excited about meeting their beloved; make passionate and intimate love as opposed to only physical love; feel comfortable with the beloved, behaving in a companionable, friendly way with one's partner; listen to the other's concerns, offering to help out in various ways if necessary; and, all the while, keeping a mental ledger of the degree to which altruism and passion are mutual." Literature Archetypal lovers in Romeo and Juliet by Frank Dicksee, 1884 Shakespeare and Søren Kierkegaard share a similar viewpoint that marriage and romance are not harmoniously in tune with each other. In Shakespeare's Measure for Measure, for example, "...there has not been, nor is there at this point, any display of affection between Isabella and the Duke, if by affection we mean something concerned with sexual attraction. The two at the end of the play love each other as they love virtue."[46] In Romeo and Juliet, in saying "all combined, save what thou must combine By holy marriage", Romeo implies that it is not marriage with Juliet that he seeks but simply to be joined with her romantically. Kierkegaard addressed these ideas in works such as Either/Or and Stages on Life's Way:     In the first place, I find it comical that all men are in love and want to be in love, and yet one never can get any illumination upon the question what the lovable, i.e., the proper object of love, really is.[47] In his 2008 book How to Make Good Decisions and Be Right All the Time, British writer Iain King tried to establish rules for romance applicable across most cultures. He concluded on six rules, including:     Do not flirt with someone unless you mean it.     Do not pursue people who you are not interested in, or who are not interested in you.     In general, express your affection or uncertainty clearly, unless there is a special reason not to." (wikipedia.org) "Love encompasses a range of strong and positive emotional and mental states, from the most sublime virtue or good habit, the deepest interpersonal affection, to the simplest pleasure.[1] An example of this range of meanings is that the love of a mother differs from the love of a spouse, which differs from the love for food. Most commonly, love refers to a feeling of strong attraction and emotional attachment.[2] Love is considered to be both positive and negative, with its virtue representing human kindness, compassion, and affection—"the unselfish, loyal and benevolent concern for the good of another"—and its vice representing a human moral flaw akin to vanity, selfishness, amour-propre, and egotism, potentially leading people into a type of mania, obsessiveness, or codependency.[3] It may also describe compassionate and affectionate actions towards other humans, oneself, or animals.[4] In its various forms, love acts as a major facilitator of interpersonal relationships and, owing to its central psychological importance, is one of the most common themes in the creative arts.[5][6] Love has been postulated to be a function that keeps human beings together against menaces and to facilitate the continuation of the species.[7] Ancient Greek philosophers identified six forms of love: familial love (storge), friendly love or platonic love (philia), romantic love (eros), self-love (philautia), guest love (xenia), and divine or unconditional love (agape). Modern authors have distinguished further varieties of love: unrequited love, empty love, companionate love, consummate love, infatuated love, amour de soi, and courtly love. Numerous cultures have also distinguished Ren, Yuanfen, Mamihlapinatapai, Cafuné, Kama, Bhakti, Mettā, Ishq, Chesed, Amore, Charity, Saudade (and other variants or symbioses of these states), as culturally unique words, definitions, or expressions of love in regard to specified "moments" currently lacking in the English language.[8] The color wheel theory of love defines three primary, three secondary, and nine tertiary love styles, describing them in terms of the traditional color wheel. The triangular theory of love suggests intimacy, passion, and commitment are core components of love. Love has additional religious or spiritual meaning. This diversity of uses and meanings, combined with the complexity of the feelings involved, makes love unusually difficult to consistently define, compared to other emotional states." (wikipedia.org) "Galentine's Day is a global[1] holiday that celebrates women's friendship.[2] Galentine's Day is typically marked as February 13, but can be observed any day. Galentine's Day events are typically all-female occasions of mutual "empowerment...a reminder for women to support and uplift one another."[1] While Amy Poehler as Leslie Knope is considered by many to be the patron saint of Galentine's Day, the annual festival of sisterhood was imagined into existence by the Parks and Recreation writing staff led by Michael Schur.[3] Galentine's Day merchandise is now sold at mainstream outlets like Walmart, Party City,[3] Amazon and Etsy.[4] Retailers also use the holiday as a pretext for organizing pop-up shops marketing products to female customers.[4] Many resorts and restaurants offer Galentine's themed package deals.[5] Galentine's Day luncheon in Maryland An advice column in The Sunday Telegraph described the protocol of Galentine's Day:[5]     Just remember that Galentine's Day was born out of rebel spirit, intended as a rebuff to the conventions of Valentine's Day. It's about doing exactly what you want to do, and feeling thankful for having friends that let you do it."[5] Michelle Obama posted a photo on her Instagram and Twitter celebrating Galentine's Day in 2020. The caption read, "This #GalentinesDay, I want to shout out my girlfriends who help me stay sane and grounded through all of life's ups and downs...Whether we're catching up over the phone, venting over a cup of coffee, or laughing it out during an 80s-themed workout, I know I can lean on these ladies—and that's made all the difference." The official Parks & Recreation Twitter replied with a GIF of Leslie Knope expressing approval.[" (wikipedia.org) "Valentine's Day, also called Saint Valentine's Day or the Feast of Saint Valentine,[1] is celebrated annually on February 14.[2] It originated as a Christian feast day honoring a martyr named Valentine, and through later folk traditions it has also become a significant cultural, religious and commercial celebration of romance and love in many regions of the world.[3][4] There are a number of martyrdom stories associated with various Saint Valentines connected to February 14,[5] including an account of the imprisonment of Saint Valentine of Rome for ministering to Christians persecuted under the Roman Empire in the third century.[6][7] According to an early tradition, Saint Valentine restored sight to the blind daughter of his jailer.[8] Numerous later additions to the legend have better related it to the theme of love: tradition maintains that Saint Valentine performed weddings for Christian soldiers who were forbidden to marry by the Roman emperor;[7] an 18th-century embellishment to the legend claims he wrote the jailer's daughter a letter signed "Your Valentine" as a farewell before his execution.[9] The 8th-century Gelasian Sacramentary recorded the celebration of the Feast of Saint Valentine on February 14.[10][11] The day became associated with romantic love in the 14th and 15th centuries, when notions of courtly love flourished, apparently by association with the "lovebirds" of early spring. In 18th-century England, it grew into an occasion for couples to express their love for each other by presenting flowers, offering confectionery, and sending greeting cards (known as "valentines"). Valentine's Day symbols that are used today include the heart-shaped outline, doves, and the figure of the winged Cupid. In the 19th century, handmade cards gave way to mass-produced greetings.[12] In Italy, Saint Valentine's keys are given to lovers "as a romantic symbol and an invitation to unlock the giver's heart", as well as to children to ward off epilepsy (called Saint Valentine's Malady).[13] Saint Valentine's Day is not a public holiday in any country, although it is an official feast day in the Anglican Communion[14] and the Lutheran Church.[15] Many parts of the Eastern Orthodox Church also celebrate Saint Valentine's Day on July 6 in honor of Roman presbyter Saint Valentine, and on July 30 in honor of Hieromartyr Valentine, the Bishop of Interamna (modern Terni).[16] Saint Valentine Main article: Saint Valentine History Shrine of St. Valentine in Whitefriar Street Carmelite Church in Dublin, Ireland Numerous early Christian martyrs were named Valentine.[17] The Valentines honored on February 14 are Valentine of Rome (Valentinus presb. m. Romae) and Valentine of Terni (Valentinus ep. Interamnensis m. Romae).[18] Valentine of Rome was a priest in Rome who was martyred in 269 and was buried on the Via Flaminia. The relics of Saint Valentine were kept in the Church and Catacombs of San Valentino in Rome, which "remained an important pilgrim site throughout the Middle Ages until the relics of Saint Valentine were transferred to the church of Santa Prassede during the pontificate of Nicholas IV [1288–1292]".[19][20] The flower-crowned skull of Saint Valentine is exhibited in the Basilica of Santa Maria in Cosmedin, Rome. Other relics are found at Whitefriar Street Carmelite Church in Dublin, Ireland.[21] Valentine of Terni became bishop of Interamna (now Terni, in central Italy) and is said to have been martyred during the persecution under Emperor Aurelian in 273. He is buried on the Via Flaminia, but in a different location from Valentine of Rome. His relics are at the Basilica of Saint Valentine in Terni (Basilica di San Valentino). Professor Jack B. Oruch of the University of Kansas notes that "abstracts of the acts of the two saints were in nearly every church and monastery of Europe."[22] A relic claimed to be Saint Valentine of Terni's head was preserved in the abbey of New Minster, Winchester, and venerated.[23] The Catholic Encyclopedia speaks of a third saint named Valentine who was mentioned in early martyrologies under date of February 14. He was martyred in Africa with a number of companions, but nothing more is known about him.[24] February 14 is celebrated as Saint Valentine's Day in various Christian denominations; it has, for example, the rank of "commemoration" in the calendar of saints in the Anglican Communion.[14] The feast day of Saint Valentine is given in the calendar of saints of the Lutheran Church.[15] In the 1969 revision of the Roman Catholic Calendar of Saints, the feast day of Saint Valentine on February 14 was relegated from the General Roman Calendar to particular (local or even national) calendars for the following reason: "Though the memorial of Saint Valentine is ancient, it is left to particular calendars, since, apart from his name, nothing is known of Saint Valentine except that he was buried on the Via Flaminia on February 14."[25] Therefore, as he remains within the Roman Martyrology, he may be recognised optionally during mass outside of Christmastide and Eastertide.[26] The feast day is still celebrated in Balzan (Malta), where relics of the saint are claimed to be found, and also throughout the world by Traditionalist Catholics who follow the older, pre-Second Vatican Council calendar (see General Roman Calendar of 1960). In the Eastern Orthodox Church, Saint Valentine is recognized on July 6, on which Saint Valentine, the Roman presbyter, is honoured; in addition, the Eastern Orthodox Church observes the feast of Hieromartyr Valentine, Bishop of Interamna, on July 30.[27][28][29] Legends St Valentine baptizing St Lucilla, Jacopo Bassano. J.C. Cooper, in The Dictionary of Christianity, writes that Saint Valentine was "a priest of Rome who was imprisoned for succouring persecuted Christians."[30] Contemporary records of Saint Valentine were most probably destroyed during this Diocletianic Persecution in the early 4th century.[31] In the 5th or 6th century, a work called Passio Marii et Marthae published a story of martyrdom for Saint Valentine of Rome, perhaps by borrowing tortures that happened to other saints, as was usual in the literature of that period.[31][32] The same events are found in Bede's Martyrology, which was compiled in the 8th century.[31][32] It states that Saint Valentine was persecuted as a Christian and interrogated by Roman Emperor Claudius II in person. Claudius was impressed by Valentine and had a discussion with him, attempting to get him to convert to Roman paganism in order to save his life. Valentine refused and tried to convert Claudius to Christianity instead. Because of this, he was executed. Before his execution, he is reported to have performed a miracle by healing Julia, the blind daughter of his jailer Asterius. The jailer's daughter and his forty-six member household, family members and servants, came to believe in Jesus and were baptized.[33][31] A later Passio repeated the legend, adding that Pope Julius I built a church over his sepulchre (it is a confusion with a 4th-century tribune called Valentino, who donated land to build a church at a time when Julius was a Pope).[32] The legend was picked up as fact by later martyrologies, starting with Bede's martyrology in the 8th century.[32] It was repeated in the 13th century, in The Golden Legend.[34] There is an additional embellishment to The Golden Legend, which according to Henry Ansgar Kelly, was added in the 18th century and widely repeated.[35] On the evening before Valentine was to be executed, he is supposed to have written the first "valentine" card himself, addressed to the daughter of his jailer Asterius, who was no longer blind, signing as "Your Valentine."[35] The expression "From your Valentine" was later adopted by modern Valentine letters.[36] This legend has been published by both American Greetings and The History Channel.[37] Saint Valentine of Terni and his disciples John Foxe, a 16th-century English historian, and the Order of Carmelites state that Saint Valentine was buried in the Church of Saint Praxedes in Rome, located near the cemetery of Saint Hippolytus. This order says that according to legend, "Julia herself planted a pink-blossomed almond tree near his grave. Today, the almond tree remains a symbol of abiding love and friendship."[38][39] Another embellishment suggests that Saint Valentine performed clandestine Christian weddings for soldiers who were forbidden to marry.[40] The Roman Emperor Claudius II supposedly forbade this in order to grow his army, believing that married men did not make for good soldiers.[40][41] However, George Monger writes that this marriage ban was never issued and that Claudius II told his soldiers to take two or three women for themselves after his victory over the Goths.[42] According to legend, in order "to remind these men of their vows and God's love, Saint Valentine is said to have cut hearts from parchment", giving them to these soldiers and persecuted Christians, a possible origin of the widespread use of hearts on Saint Valentine's Day.[43] Saint Valentine supposedly wore a purple amethyst ring, customarily worn on the hands of Christian bishops with an image of Cupid engraved in it, a recognizable symbol associated with love that was legal under the Roman Empire;[41][44] Roman soldiers would recognize the ring and ask him to perform marriage for them.[41] Probably due to the association with Saint Valentine, amethyst has become the birthstone of February, which is thought to attract love.[45] Folk traditions While the European folk traditions connected with Saint Valentine and Saint Valentine's Day have become marginalized by modern customs connecting the day with romantic love, there are still some connections with the advent of spring. While the custom of sending cards, flowers, chocolates and other gifts originated in the UK, Valentine's Day still remains connected with various regional customs in England. In Norfolk, a character called "Jack" Valentine knocks on the rear door of houses, leaving sweets and presents for children. Although he was leaving treats, many children were scared of this mystical person.[46][47] In Slovenia, Saint Valentine or Zdravko was one of the saints of spring, the saint of good health and the patron of beekeepers and pilgrims.[48] A proverb says that "Saint Valentine brings the keys of roots". Plants and flowers start to grow on this day. It has been celebrated as the day when the first work in the vineyards and in the fields commences. It is also said that birds propose to each other or marry on that day. Another proverb says "Valentin – prvi spomladin" ("Valentine – the first spring saint"), as in some places (especially White Carniola), Saint Valentine marks the beginning of spring.[49] Valentine's Day has only recently been celebrated as the day of love. The day of love was traditionally March 12, Saint Gregory's day, or February 22, Saint Vincent's Day. The patron of love was Saint Anthony, whose day has been celebrated on June 13.[48] Connection with romantic love Possible ancient origins The "Feast" (Latin: "in natali", lit.: on the birthday) of Saint Valentine originated in Christendom and has been marked by the Western Church of Christendom in honour of one of the Christian martyrs named Valentine, as recorded in the 8th-century Gelasian Sacramentary.[22][11] In Ancient Rome, Lupercalia was observed February 13–15 on behalf of Pan and Juno, pagan gods of love, marriage and fertility. It was a rite connected to purification and health, and had only slight connection to fertility (as a part of health) and none to love. The celebration of Saint Valentine is not known to have had any romantic connotations until Chaucer's poetry about "Valentine's Day" in the 14th century, some seven hundred years after celebration of Lupercalia is believed to have ceased.[31] Lupercalia was a festival local to the city of Rome. The more general Festival of Juno Februa, meaning "Juno the purifier" or "the chaste Juno", was celebrated on February 13–14. Although the Pope Gelasius I (492–496) article in the Catholic Encyclopedia says that he abolished Lupercalia, theologian and Methodist minister Bruce Forbes wrote that "no evidence" has been demonstrated to link Saint Valentine's Day and the rites of the ancient Roman purification festival of Lupercalia, despite claims by many authors to the contrary.[notes 2][23][50][51] Some researchers have theorized that Gelasius I replaced Lupercalia with the celebration of the Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary and claim a connection to the 14th century's connotations of romantic love, but there is no historical indication that he ever intended such a thing.[notes 3][51][52] Also, the dates do not fit because at the time of Gelasius I, the feast was only celebrated in Jerusalem, and it was on February 14 only because Jerusalem placed the Nativity of Jesus (Christmas) on January 6.[notes 4] Although it was called "Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary", it also dealt with the presentation of Jesus at the temple.[53] Jerusalem's Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary on February 14 became the Presentation of Jesus at the Temple on February 2 as it was introduced to Rome and other places in the sixth century, after Gelasius I's time.[53] Alban Butler in his The Lives of the Fathers, Martyrs, and Other Principal Saints (1756–1759) claimed without proof that boys and girls in Lupercalia drew names from a jar to make couples, and that modern Valentine's letters originated from this custom. In reality, this practice originated in the Middle Ages, with no link to Lupercalia, with boys drawing the names of girls at random to couple with them. This custom was combated by priests, for example by Frances de Sales around 1600, apparently by replacing it with a religious custom of girls drawing the names of apostles from the altar. However, this religious custom is recorded as early as the 13th century in the life of Saint Elizabeth of Hungary, so it could have a different origin.[23] Chaucer's Parliament of Fowls Geoffrey Chaucer by Thomas Hoccleve (1412) The first recorded association of Valentine's Day with romantic love is believed to be in the Parliament of Fowls (1382) by Geoffrey Chaucer, a dream vision portraying a parliament for birds to choose their mates.[31] Honouring the first anniversary of the engagement of fifteen-year-old King Richard II of England to fifteen-year-old Anne of Bohemia,[54] Chaucer wrote (in Middle English):     "For this was on seynt Valentynes day     Whan every foul cometh there to chese his make     Of every kynde that men thynke may     And that so huge a noyse gan they make     That erthe, and eyr, and tre, and every lake     So ful was, that unethe was there space     For me to stonde, so ful was al the place."[55][56] In modern English:     "For this was on Saint Valentine's Day     When every bird comes there to choose his match     Of every kind that men may think of     And that so huge a noise they began to make     That earth and air and tree and every lake     Was so full, that not easily was there space     For me to stand—so full was all the place." Readers have uncritically assumed that Chaucer was referring to February 14 as Valentine's Day. Henry Ansgar Kelly has observed that Chaucer might have had in mind the feast day of St. Valentine of Genoa, an early bishop of Genoa who died around AD 307; it was probably celebrated on 3 May.[54][57][58] A treaty providing for Richard II and Anne's marriage, the subject of the poem, was signed on May 2, 1381.[59] Jack B. Oruch notes that the date on which spring begins has changed since Chaucer's time because of the precession of the equinoxes and the introduction of the more accurate Gregorian calendar only in 1582. On the Julian calendar in use in Chaucer's time, February 14 would have fallen on the date now called February 23, a time when some birds have started mating and nesting in England.[31] Chaucer's Parliament of Fowls refers to a supposedly established tradition, but there is no record of such a tradition before Chaucer. The speculative derivation of sentimental customs from the distant past began with 18th-century antiquaries, notably Alban Butler, the author of Butler's Lives of Saints, and have been perpetuated even by respectable modern scholars. Most notably, "the idea that Valentine's Day customs perpetuated those of the Roman Lupercalia has been accepted uncritically and repeated, in various forms, up to the present".[23][60] Three other authors who made poems about birds mating on St. Valentine's Day around the same years: Otton de Grandson from Savoy, John Gower from England, and a knight called Pardo from Valencia. Chaucer most probably predated all of them; but due to the difficulty of dating medieval works, it is not possible to ascertain which of the four may have influenced the others.[61] Court of love The earliest description of February 14 as an annual celebration of love appears in the Charter of the Court of Love. The charter, allegedly issued by Charles VI of France at Mantes-la-Jolie in 1400, describes lavish festivities to be attended by several members of the royal court, including a feast, amorous song and poetry competitions, jousting and dancing.[62] Amid these festivities, the attending ladies would hear and rule on disputes from lovers.[63] No other record of the court exists, and none of those named in the charter were present at Mantes except Charles's queen, Isabeau of Bavaria, who may well have imagined it all while waiting out a plague.[62] Valentine poetry The earliest surviving valentine is a 15th-century rondeau written by Charles, Duke of Orléans to his wife, which commences.     "Je suis desja d'amour tanné     Ma tres doulce Valentinée..."     — Charles d'Orléans, Rondeau VI, lines 1–2[64] At the time, the duke was being held in the Tower of London following his capture at the Battle of Agincourt, 1415.[65] The earliest surviving valentines in English appear to be those in the Paston Letters, written in 1477 by Margery Brewes to her future husband John Paston "my right well-beloved Valentine".[66] Valentine's Day is mentioned ruefully by Ophelia in William Shakespeare's Hamlet (1600–1601):     "To-morrow is Saint Valentine's day,     All in the morning betime,     And I a maid at your window,     To be your Valentine.     Then up he rose, and donn'd his clothes,     And dupp'd the chamber-door;     Let in the maid, that out a maid     Never departed more."     — William Shakespeare, Hamlet, Act IV, Scene 5 Noted poet John Donne, c. 1595. John Donne used the legend of the marriage of the birds as the starting point for his epithalamion celebrating the marriage of Elizabeth, daughter of James I of England, and Frederick V, Elector Palatine, on Valentine's Day:     "Hayle Bishop Valentine whose day this is     All the Ayre is thy Diocese     And all the chirping Queristers     And other birds ar thy parishioners     Thou marryest every yeare     The Lyrick Lark, and the graue whispering Doue,     The Sparrow that neglects his life for loue,     The houshold bird with the redd stomacher     Thou makst the Blackbird speede as soone,     As doth the Goldfinch, or the Halcyon     The Husband Cock lookes out and soone is spedd     And meets his wife, which brings her feather-bed.     This day more cheerfully than ever shine     This day which might inflame thy selfe old Valentine."     — John Donne, Epithalamion Vpon Frederick Count Palatine and the Lady Elizabeth marryed on St. Valentines day The verse "Roses are red" echoes conventions traceable as far back as Edmund Spenser's epic The Faerie Queene (1590):     "She bath'd with roses red, and violets blew,     And all the sweetest flowres [sic], that in the forrest grew."[67] The modern cliché Valentine's Day poem can be found in Gammer Gurton's Garland (1784), a collection of English nursery rhymes published in London by Joseph Johnson:     "The rose is red, the violet's blue,     The honey's sweet, and so are you.     Thou art my love and I am thine;     I drew thee to my Valentine:     The lot was cast and then I drew,     And Fortune said it shou'd be you."[68][69] Modern times An English Victorian era Valentine card located in the Museum of London In 1797, a British publisher issued The Young Man's Valentine Writer, which contained scores of suggested sentimental verses for the young lover unable to compose his own. Printers had already begun producing a limited number of cards with verses and sketches, called "mechanical valentines". Paper Valentines became so popular in England in the early 19th century that they were assembled in factories. Fancy Valentines were made with real lace and ribbons, with paper lace introduced in the mid-19th century.[70] In 1835, 60,000 Valentine cards were sent by post in the United Kingdom, despite postage being expensive.[71] A reduction in postal rates following Sir Rowland Hill's postal reforms with the 1840 invention of the postage stamp (Penny Black) saw the number of Valentines posted increase, with 400,000 sent just one year after its introduction, and ushered in the less personal but easier practice of mailing Valentines.[72] That made it possible for the first time to exchange cards anonymously, which is taken as the reason for the sudden appearance of racy verse in an era otherwise prudishly Victorian.[73] Production increased, "Cupid's Manufactory" as Charles Dickens termed it, with over 3,000 women employed in manufacturing.[72] The Laura Seddon Greeting Card Collection at Manchester Metropolitan University gathers 450 Valentine's Day cards dating from early 19th century Britain, printed by the major publishers of the day.[74] The collection appears in Seddon's book Victorian Valentines (1996).[75] Flowers, such as red roses (pictured), are often sent on Valentine's Day. In the United States, the first mass-produced Valentines of embossed paper lace were produced and sold shortly after 1847 by Esther Howland (1828–1904) of Worcester, Massachusetts.[76][77] Her father operated a large book and stationery store, but Howland took her inspiration from an English Valentine she had received from a business associate of her father.[78][79] Intrigued with the idea of making similar Valentines, Howland began her business by importing paper lace and floral decorations from England.[79][80] A writer in Graham's American Monthly observed in 1849, "Saint Valentine's Day ... is becoming, nay it has become, a national holyday."[81] The English practice of sending Valentine's cards was established enough to feature as a plot device in Elizabeth Gaskell's Mr. Harrison's Confessions (1851): "I burst in with my explanations: 'The valentine I know nothing about.' 'It is in your handwriting', said he coldly."[82] Since 2001, the Greeting Card Association has been giving an annual "Esther Howland Award for a Greeting Card Visionary".[77] Since the 19th century, handmade cards have given way to mass-produced greeting cards.[12] In the UK, just under half of the population spend money on their Valentines, and around £1.9 billion was spent in 2015 on cards, flowers, chocolates, and other gifts.[83] The mid-19th century Valentine's Day trade was a harbinger of further commercialized holidays in the U.S. to follow.[84] A gift box of chocolates, which is a common gift for Valentine's Day In 1868, the British chocolate company Cadbury created Fancy Boxes – a decorated box of chocolates – in the shape of a heart for Valentine's Day.[85][86] Boxes of filled chocolates quickly became associated with the holiday.[85] In the second half of the 20th century, the practice of exchanging cards was extended to all manner of gifts, such as giving jewelry. The U.S. Greeting Card Association estimates that approximately 190 million valentines are sent each year in the US. Half of those valentines are given to family members other than husband or wife, usually to children. When the valentine-exchange cards made in school activities are included the figure goes up to 1 billion, and teachers become the people receiving the most valentines.[76] The increase in use of the Internet around the turn of the millennium is creating new traditions. Every year, millions of people use digital means of creating and sending Valentine's Day greeting messages such as e-cards, love coupons and printable greeting cards. Valentine's Day is considered by some to be a Hallmark holiday due to its commercialization.[87] In the modern era, the Lutheran Church and Anglican Church each have a service on Saint Valentine's Day (the Feast of Saint Valentine), which includes the optional rite of the renewal of marriage vows.[88][89] In 2016, the Catholic Bishops of England and Wales established a novena prayer "to support single people seeking a spouse ahead of St Valentine's Day."[90] Celebration and status worldwide A Canadian Women's Army Corps member and a man in the Canadian Air Force chalk hearts on a tree on Valentine's Day 1944 Valentine's Day customs—sending greeting cards (known as "valentines"), offering confectionery and presenting flowers—developed in early modern England and spread throughout the English-speaking world in the 19th century. In the later 20th and early 21st centuries, these customs spread to other countries, like those of Halloween, and aspects of Christmas (such as Santa Claus). Valentine's Day is celebrated in many East Asian countries, with Singaporeans, Chinese, and South Koreans spending the most money on Valentine's gifts.[91] Americas Latin America In most Latin American countries—for example, Costa Rica,[92] Mexico,[93] and the U.S. territory of Puerto Rico—Saint Valentine's Day is known as Día de los Enamorados (Lovers' Day)[94] or as Día del Amor y la Amistad (Love and Friendship Day). It is also common to see people perform "acts of appreciation" for their friends.[95] In Guatemala it is known as Día del Cariño (Affection Day).[96] Some countries, in particular the Dominican Republic and El Salvador,[97] have a tradition called Amigo secreto ("secret friend"), which is a game similar to the Christmas tradition of Secret Santa.[95] Brazil Main article: Dia dos Namorados In Brazil, the Dia dos Namorados (Lovers' Day, or Boyfriends/Girlfriends Day) is celebrated on June 12, probably because that is the day before Saint Anthony's day—a saint recognized for blessing young couples with happy and prosperous marriages—when traditionally many single women perform popular rituals called simpatias in order to find a good husband or boyfriend.[98] Couples exchange gifts, chocolates, cards, and flower bouquets. The February 14 Valentine's Day is not celebrated at all because it is usually too close to Brazilian Carnival, which can fall anywhere from early February to early March and lasts almost a week.[99] Colombia Colombia celebrates Día del amor y la amistad (Love and Friendship Day) on the third Saturday in September instead.[100] Amigo Secreto is also popular there.[101] United States Conversation hearts, candies with messages on them, are strongly associated with Valentine's Day in the United States. African American Valentine's school dance, Richmond, Virginia 1956 On the United States mainland, about 190 million Valentine's Day cards are sent each year, not including the hundreds of millions of cards school children exchange.[102] Valentine's Day is a major source of economic activity, with total expenditures topping $18.2 billion in 2017, or over $136 per person.[103] This is an increase from $108 per person in 2010.[104] In 2019, a survey by the National Retail Federation found that over the previous decade, the percentage of people who celebrate Valentine's Day had declined steadily. From their survey results, they found three primary reasons: over-commercialization of the holiday, not having a significant other, and not being interested in celebrating it.[105] Asia Afghanistan In pre-Taliban years, Koch-e-Gul-Faroushi (Flower Street) in downtown Kabul used to be adorned with innovative flower arrangements, to attract the Valentine's Day-celebrating youth.[106] In the Afghan tradition, love is often expressed through poetry. A new generation of budding poets such as Ramin Mazhar and Mahtab Sahel express themselves through poetry, using Valentine's Day as a theme to voice concerns about the erosion of freedoms. In their political commentary, they defy fear by saying Ï kiss you amid the Taliban".[107][108] Bangladesh Main article: Valentine's Day in Bangladesh Valentine's Day was first celebrated in Bangladesh by Shafik Rehman, a journalist and editor of the newspaper Jaijaidin, in 1993. He was acquainted with Western culture from studying in London.[109] He highlighted Valentine's Day to the Bangladeshi people through Jaijaidin. Rehman is called the "father of Valentine's Day in Bangladesh".[110] On this day, people in various types of relationship, including lovers, friends, husbands and wives, mothers and children, students and teachers, express their love for each other with flowers, chocolates, cards and other gifts. On this day, various parks and recreation centers of the country are full of people of love.[111][112] No public holiday, however, is declared on this day in Bangladesh. Some in Bangladesh feel that celebrating this day is not acceptable from a cultural and Islamic point of view.[113] Before the celebration of Valentine's Day, February 14 was celebrated as the anti-authoritarian day in Bangladesh. However, that day has been disregarded by people to celebrate Valentine's Day.[114][115][116] China See also: The Cowherd and the Weaver Girl In Chinese, Valentine's Day is called "lovers' festival" (simplified Chinese: 情人节; traditional Chinese: 情人節; Mandarin: Qīng Rén Jié; Hokkien: Chêng Lîn Chiat; Cantonese: Chìhng Yàhn Jit; Shanghainese Xin Yin Jiq). The "Chinese Valentine's Day" is the Qixi Festival (meaning "The Night of Sevens" (Chinese: 七夕; pinyin: Qi Xi)), celebrated on the seventh day of the seventh month of the lunar calendar. According to the legend, the Cowherd star and the Weaver Maid star are normally separated by the Milky Way (silvery river) but are allowed to meet by crossing it on the seventh day of the seventh month of the Chinese calendar.[117] In recent years, celebrating White Day has also become fashionable among some young people.[118] India Main article: Valentine's Day in India In ancient India, there was a tradition of adoring Kamadeva, the lord of love – exemplified by the erotic carvings in the Khajuraho Group of Monuments and by the writing of the Kamasutra.[119] This tradition was lost around the Middle Ages, when Kamadeva was no longer celebrated, and public displays of sexual affection became frowned upon.[119] This repression of public affections began to loosen in the 1990s.[120] Valentine's Day celebrations did not catch on in India until around 1992. It was spread due to the programs in commercial TV channels, such as MTV, dedicated radio programs, and love letter competitions, in addition to an economical liberalization that allowed the explosion of the valentine card industry.[119][121] The celebration has caused a sharp change on how people have been displaying their affection in public since the Middle Ages.[119] On a 2018 online survey, it was found that 68% of the respondents did not wish to celebrate Valentine's Day.[122] It can be also observed that different religious groups, including Hindu,[123] Muslim[124] and Christian people of India do not support Valentine's Day. In modern times, Hindu and Islamic[125] traditionalists have considered the holiday to be cultural contamination from the West, a result of globalization in India.[119][121] Shiv Sena and the Sangh Parivar have asked their followers to shun the holiday and the "public admission of love" because of them being "alien to Indian culture".[126] Although these protests are organized by political elites, the protesters themselves are middle-class Hindu men who fear that the globalization will destroy the traditions in their society: arranged marriages, Hindu joint families, full-time mothers, etc.[121][125] Despite these obstacles, Valentine's Day is becoming increasingly popular in India.[127] Valentine's Day has been strongly criticized from a postcolonial perspective by intellectuals from the Indian left. The holiday is regarded as a front for "Western imperialism", "neocolonialism", and "the exploitation of working classes through commercialism by multinational corporations".[128] It is claimed that as a result of Valentine's Day, the working classes and rural poor become more disconnected socially, politically, and geographically from the hegemonic capitalist power structure. They also criticize mainstream media attacks on Indians opposed to Valentine's Day as a form of demonization that is designed and derived to further the Valentine's Day agenda.[129][130] Right wing Hindu nationalists are also hostile. In February 2012, Subash Chouhan of the Bajrang Dal warned couples: "They cannot kiss or hug in public places. Our activists will beat them up".[131] He said "We are not against love, but we criticize vulgar exhibition of love at public places".[132] According to The Hindu in February 2023, the Animal Welfare Board of India appealed to Indians to celebrate 14 February as "Cow Hug Day" for "emotional richness" and to increase "individual and collective happiness." The newspaper referenced the sacredness of cows as being equivalent to one's mother in Indian culture, and further rued: ".. Vedic traditions are almost on the verge of extinction due to the progress of Western culture over time. The dazzle of Western civilization has made our physical culture and heritage almost forgotten".[133] According to Rhea Mogul of CNN, a 2017 photo series Indian women sporting cow masks by activist Sujatro Ghosh portrays a society in which cows are more valued than women. Mogul says authorities had advanced the idea to rebrand Valentine's Day as "Cow Hug Day". Mogul says, "But the move seems to have failed and later retracted after it prompted a rush of internet memes, cartoons and jokes by TV hosts about the importance of consent." Media outlets like NDTV mocked the government's plan by underlining the importance of the consent of cows before hugging them. Mogul says critics say cow-worship has been politically manipulated by cow vigilante motivated by conservative BJP's majoritarian politics to harass minorities with allegations of disrespect of cows or cow slaughter.[134] Iran Main article: Valentine's Day in Iran Part of a celebration of Valentine's Day in Tehran. The history of Valentine's Day in Iran dates back to the Qajar era of the latter half of the 19th century. Naser al-Din Shah Qajar did not take his wife with him during his trip to Europe and he sent her a greeting card from distance on Valentine's Day. This greeting card is available in Iranian museums.[135] Since the mid-2000s, Valentine's Day has become increasingly popular in Iran, especially among young people. However, it has also been the subject of heavy criticism from Iranian conservatives, who see it as part of the spread of "decadent" Western culture.[136] Since 2011, authorities have attempted to discourage celebrations and impose restrictions on the sale and production of Valentine's Day-related goods, although the holiday remains popular as of 2018.[137] Additionally, there have been efforts to revive the ancient Persian festival of Sepandārmazgān, which takes place around the same time, to replace Valentine's Day. However, as of 2016, this has also been largely unsuccessful.[138] Israel In Israel, the Jewish tradition of Tu B'Av has been revived and transformed into the Jewish equivalent of Valentine's Day. It is celebrated on the 15th day of the month of Av (usually in late August). In ancient times girls would wear white dresses and dance in the vineyards, where the boys would be waiting for them (Mishna Taanith, end of Chapter 4). Today, Tu B'Av is celebrated as a second holiday of love by secular people (along with Valentine's Day), and it shares many of the customs associated with Saint Valentine's Day in Western societies. In modern Israeli culture Tu B'Av is a popular day to proclaim love, propose marriage, and give gifts like cards or flowers.[139] Japan In Japan, Morozoff Ltd. introduced the holiday for the first time in 1936, when it ran an advertisement aimed at foreigners. Later, in 1953, it began promoting the giving of heart-shaped chocolates; other Japanese confectionery companies followed suit thereafter. In 1958, the Isetan department store ran a "Valentine sale". Further campaigns during the 1960s popularized the custom.[140][141] The custom that only women give chocolates to men may have originated from the translation error of a chocolate-company executive during the initial campaigns.[142] In particular, office ladies give chocolate to their co-workers. Unlike western countries, gifts such as greeting cards,[142] candies, flowers, or dinner dates[143] are uncommon, and most of the gifts-related activity is about giving the right amount of chocolate to each person.[142] Japanese chocolate companies make half their annual sales during this time of the year.[142] Many women feel obliged to give chocolates to all male co-workers, except when the day falls on a Sunday, a holiday. This is known as giri-choko (義理チョコ), from 'giri' ("obligation") and 'choko', ("chocolate"), with unpopular co-workers receiving only "ultra-obligatory" (超義理チョコ 'chō-giri choko') cheap chocolate. This contrasts with honmei-choko (本命チョコ, lit. "true feeling chocolate"), chocolate given to a loved one. Friends, especially girls, may exchange chocolate referred to as tomo-choko (友チョコ, from 'tomo' meaning "friend").[144] In the 1980s, the Japanese National Confectionery Industry Association launched a successful campaign to make March 14 a "reply day", on which men are expected to return the favour to those who gave them chocolates on Valentine's Day, calling it White Day for the color of the chocolates being offered. A previous failed attempt to popularize this celebration had been done by a marshmallow manufacturer who wanted men to return marshmallows to women.[140][141] In Japan, the romantic "date night" associated with Valentine's Day is celebrated on Christmas Eve.[145] Lebanon Valentine's Day themed bouquet of cupcakes Saint Valentine is the patron saint for a large part of the Lebanese population. Couples take the opportunity of Valentine's feast day to exchange sweet words and gifts as proof of love. Such gifts typically include boxes of chocolates, cupcakes, and red roses, which are considered the emblem of sacrifice and passion.[citation needed] Lebanese people celebrate Valentine's Day in a different way in every city. In Beirut, men take women out to dine and may buy them a gift. Many women are asked to marry on that day. In Sidon, Valentine's Day is celebrated with the whole family – it is more about family love than a couple's love.[citation needed] Malaysia Islamic officials in West Malaysia warned Muslims against celebrating Valentine's Day, linking it with vice activities. Deputy Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin said the celebration of romantic love was "not suitable" for Muslims. Wan Mohamad Sheikh Abdul Aziz, head of the Malaysian Islamic Development Department (Jakim), which oversees the country's Islamic policies said that a fatwa (ruling) issued by the country's top clerics in 2005 noted that the day "is associated with elements of Christianity," and "we just cannot get involved with other religions' worshipping rituals." Jakim officials planned to carry out a nationwide campaign called "Awas Jerat Valentine's Day" ("Mind the Valentine's Day Trap"), aimed at preventing Muslims from celebrating the day on February 14, 2011. Activities included conducting raids in hotels to stop young couples from having unlawful sex and distributing leaflets to Muslim university students warning them against the day.[146][147] On Valentine's Day 2011, West Malaysian religious authorities arrested more than 100 Muslim couples concerning the celebration ban. Some of them would be charged in the Shariah Court for defying the department's ban against the celebration of Valentine's Day.[148] In East Malaysia, the celebrations are much more tolerated among young Muslim couples, although some Islamic officials and Muslim activists from the West side have told younger generations to refrain from such celebration by organising da'wah and tried to spread their ban into the East.[149][150] In both the states of Sabah and Sarawak, the celebration is usually common with flowers.[151][152][153] Pakistan Main article: Valentine's Day in Pakistan The concept of Valentine's Day was introduced into Pakistan during the late 1990s with special TV and radio programs. The Jamaat-e-Islami political party has called for the banning of Valentine's Day celebration.[127] Despite this, the celebration is becoming popular among urban youth and the florists expect to sell a great number of flowers, especially red roses. The case is the same with card publishers.[154] In 2016, the local governing body of Peshwar officially banned the celebration of Valentine's Day in the city. The ban was also implemented in other cities such as Kohat by the local governments.[155] In 2017, the Islamabad High Court banned Valentine's Day celebrations in public places in Pakistan.[156] More than 80% of Dawn readers polled on its website agreed with this decision.[113] In 2018, because of a petition by a citizen, Abdul Waheed, the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority advised broadcasters and newspapers against airing any Valentine's Day celebrations.[157][158] Philippines In the Philippines, Valentine's Day is called Araw ng mga Puso in much the same manner as in the West. It is usually marked by a steep increase in the price of flowers, particularly red roses.[159] It is the most popular day for weddings,[160] with some localities offering mass ceremonies for no charge.[161] Saudi Arabia In Saudi Arabia, in 2002 and 2008, religious police banned the sale of all Valentine's Day items, telling shop workers to remove any red items, because the day is considered a Christian holiday.[162][163] This ban has created a black market for roses and wrapping paper.[163][164] In 2012, the religious police arrested more than 140 Muslims for celebrating the holiday, and confiscated all red roses from flower shops.[165] Muslims are not allowed to celebrate the holiday, and non-Muslims can celebrate only behind closed doors.[166] "Saudi cleric Sheikh Muhammad Al-'Arifi said on Valentine's Day Eve that celebrating this holiday constitutes bid'a – a forbidden innovation and deviation from religious law and custom – and mimicry of the West."[167][168] However, in 2017 and 2018, after a fatwa was widely circulated, the religious police did not prevent Muslims from celebrating the day.[169] In 2018, Sheikh Ahmed Qasim Al-Ghamdi, a Saudi cleric and former president of the Committee for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, said that Valentine's Day is not haram and is compatible with Islamic values.[170][171] Singapore According to findings, Singaporeans are among the biggest spenders on Valentine's Day, with 60% of Singaporeans indicating that they would spend between $100 and $500 during the season leading up to the holiday.[91] South Korea In South Korea, women give chocolate to men on February 14, and men give non-chocolate candy to women on March 14 (White Day). On April 14 (Black Day), those who did not receive anything on February or March 14 go to a Chinese-Korean restaurant to eat black noodles (짜장면 jajangmyeon) and lament their "single life".[143] Koreans also celebrate Pepero Day on November 11, when young couples give each other pepero cookies. The date "11/11" is intended to resemble the long shape of the cookie. The 14th of every month marks a love-related day in Korea, although most of them are obscure. From January to December, the sequence of these days is Candle Day, Valentine's Day, White Day, Black Day, Rose Day, Kiss Day, Silver Day, Green Day, Music Day, Wine Day, Movie Day, and Hug Day.[172] Korean women give a much higher amount of chocolate than Japanese women.[143] Taiwan Taipei 101 in Valentine's Day 2006 In Taiwan, traditional Qixi Festival, Valentine's Day and White Day are all celebrated. However, the situation is the reverse of Japan's. Men give gifts to women on Valentine's Day, and women return them on White Day.[143] Europe Estonia and Finland In Finland, Valentine's Day is called ystävänpäivä, which means "Friend's Day". As the name indicates, this day is more about remembering friends, not significant others. In Estonia, Valentine's Day was originally called valentinipäev and later also sõbrapäev ('Friend's Day') as a calque of the Finnish term.[173] France In France, a traditionally Catholic country, Valentine's Day is known simply as "Saint Valentin", and is celebrated in much the same way as other Western countries.[174] The relics of Saint Valentin de Terni, the patron of the St Valentine's Day, are in the Catholic church of Saint-Jean-Baptiste and Saint-Jean-l’Evangéliste, located in the southern France town of Roquemaure, Gard. The celebrations of "Fête des Amoureux" takes place every two years on the Sunday closest to February 14. The village gets dressed in its 19th-century costume and put on the program with over 800 people. Greece Saint Valentine's Day, or Ημέρα του Αγίου Βαλεντίνου in Greek tradition, was not associated with romantic love. In the Eastern Orthodox church there is another saint who protects people who are in love, Hyacinth of Caesarea (feast day July 3); but this was not widely known until the late 1990s.[175] In contemporary Greece, Valentine's Day is generally celebrated as in the common western tradition.[176] Ireland Many Christians make a pilgrimage to Whitefriar Street Carmelite Church in Dublin on Saint Valentine's Day to implore the intercession of Saint Valentine in their prayers, with the hope of finding true love[177] On Saint Valentine's Day in Ireland, many individuals who seek true love make a Christian pilgrimage to the Shrine of St. Valentine in Whitefriar Street Carmelite Church in Dublin, which is said to house relics of Saint Valentine of Rome; they pray at the shrine in hope of finding romance.[177] There lies a book in which foreigners and locals have written their prayer requests for love.[178] Poland Saint Valentine's Day was introduced to Poland together with the cult of Saint Valentine via Bavaria and Tyrol.[179] However, it rose in popularity in the 1990s.[179] The only (and the biggest) public celebration in Poland is held annually from 2002 in Chełmno[179] under the name „Walentynki Chełmińskie” (Chełmno Valentine's). Because Chełmno's parish church of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary has been holding the relic of Saint Valentine since the Middle Ages, local cult of the saint has been combined with the Anglo-Saxon tradition.[179] Portugal In Portugal, the holiday is known as "Dia dos Namorados" (Lovers' Day / Day of the Enamoured). As elsewhere, couples exchange gifts, but in some regions, women give a lenço de namorados ("lovers' handkerchief"), which is usually embroidered with love motifs.[180] Romania In recent years, Romania has also started celebrating Valentine's Day. This has drawn backlash from several groups, institutions,[181] and nationalist organizations like Noua Dreaptă, who condemn Valentine's Day for being superficial, commercialist, and imported Western kitsch. In order to counter the perceived denaturation of national culture, Dragobete, a spring festival celebrated in parts of Southern Romania, has been rekindled after having been ignored during the Communist years as the traditional Romanian holiday for lovers. The holiday is named after a character from Romanian folklore who was supposed to be the son of Baba Dochia.[182] Its date used to vary depending on the geographical area, however nowadays it is commonly observed on February 24.[183] Scandinavia In Denmark and Norway, February 14 is known as Valentinsdag, and is celebrated in much the same manner as in the United Kingdom.[184] In Sweden it is called Alla hjärtans dag ("All Hearts' Day") but is not widely celebrated. A 2016 survey revealed that fewer than 50% of men and women were planning to buy presents for their partners.[185] The holiday has only been observed since the 1960s.[184] Spain The holiday was first introduced in Spain through a 1948 advertisement campaign by the department store chain Galerías Preciados,[186] and had become widespread by the 1970s.[186] Known as "San Valentín", the holiday is celebrated the same way as in the rest of the West. United Kingdom Valentine's Day love notes on display in 2010 for making a charitable donation to the British Heart Foundation In the UK, just under half of the population spends money on their valentines. Around £1.3 billion is spent yearly on cards, flowers, chocolates, and other gifts, with an estimated 25 million cards being sent.[187] In Wales, some people celebrate Dydd Santes Dwynwen (Saint Dwynwen's Day) on January 25 instead of (or as well as) Valentine's Day. The day commemorates St Dwynwen, the Welsh patron saint of love.[188] The Welsh name for Saint Valentine is Sant Ffolant. In a 2016 poll conducted by Channel 4 for Valentine's Day, Jane Austen's line, "My heart is, and always will be, yours", from her novel Sense and Sensibility as said by Edward Ferrars (Hugh Grant) to Elinor Dashwood (Emma Thompson) in the acclaimed 1995 film adaptation, was voted the most romantic line from literature, film, and TV by thousands of women.[189] Restrictions on Valentine's Day in some countries The celebration of Valentine's Day has been banned in Indonesia, Pakistan, and Saudi Arabia due to beliefs the holiday conflicts with Islamic culture.[113] Since 2009, certain practices pertaining to Valentine's Day (such as giving flowers, cards, or other gifts suggestive of Valentine's Day) are banned in Iran.[190] Iran's Law Enforcement Force prosecutes distributors of goods with symbols associated with Valentine's Day.[191] In 2021, the Prosecutor's Office of Qom, Iran, stated that it would prosecute those who disseminate and provide anti-cultural symbols like those of Valentine's Day.[192] Although Valentine's Day is not accepted or approved by any institution in Iran and has no official status, it is highly accepted among a large part of the population.[193] One of the reasons for Valentine's Day acceptance since the 2000s by the general population is the change in relations between the sexes, and because sexual relationships are no longer strictly limited to be within marriage." (wikipedia.org)
  • Condition: Used
  • Condition: New condition but packaging has lots of wear. Please see photos and description.
  • Brand: Galerie
  • Type: Favors
  • Character: Darth Vader
  • Occasion: Valentine's Day
  • Color: Multicolor
  • Theme: TV & Film Characters
  • Style: Pop Art
  • Material: Plastic
  • Features: Limited Edition
  • Time Period Manufactured: 2010-2019
  • Country/Region of Manufacture: China
  • Character Family: Star Wars

PicClick Insights - 2016 STAR WARS 2" MINI HELMETS Valentines Day favors Darth Sith red stormtrooper PicClick Exclusive

  •  Popularity - 1 watcher, 0.0 new watchers per day, 41 days for sale on eBay. Normal amount watching. 0 sold, 5 available.
  •  Best Price -
  •  Seller - 1,180+ items sold. 0% negative feedback. Great seller with very good positive feedback and over 50 ratings.

People Also Loved PicClick Exclusive