CT Did Darth Vader show any compassion before Luke?

What the title say's really, was there any point before he knew Luke was his son and he was fully committed to the dark side, vader just thought "No I don't want to kill them", or even a small thing like disapproving of the actions of the Empire. I know he disapproved heavily of the slave trade, and also disliked the Death Star, but was there any signs of good in him at all between Episode 3 and prior to finding Luke and wanting to be his Daddy?

 

I really doubt it. In the films, we don't see any mercy from him before he finds out about Luke. In Legends and the New Canon (non-film material) I would struggle to find any compassion he exhibited. However, he did once say "I'm not the Emperor. I don't kill for amusement; only when it serves my purposes".

 

Yes I liked that line, it was very powerful and really showed us that Vader in my eyes is not the big bad wolf, but it is the Emperor.

I also noticed in Rebels Season 2 finale it seemed like he was stunned by Ashoka not wanting to leave him. I think at that moment Anikan came to the surface ever so slightly, but was quickly squashed by Vader.

 

Didn't he not force choke one of his subordinate officers to death and let him go after the officer made a mistake or didn't quite complete something? He might have already known Luke by then. And while not exactly compassion, I think that's one instance where Vader realizes he doesn't have to kill this guy. Same with the guy in ROTJ who greets him on the second Death Star and says "we shall double our efforts" when Vader demands they speed up progress on building. I think Vader gave that officer a break that didn't really have anything to do with knowing about Luke.

 

He showed mercy to Wedge: "Stay on the leader."

 

In lords of the Sith, he stopped the emperor from killing a little girl. Her village paid the price later though.

 

In the now non-canon game 'The Force Unleashed', he slaughtered his own men upon discovering that the three-year-old child before him had a huge Force potential within him.

In a twisted sense of mercy, he kills his officers quickly. There's a reason he told Jerjerrod, "The Emperor is not as forgiving as I am." When Vader kills, he does it swiftly. When the Emperor kills, he drags it out and makes it as painful as possible for his own amusement.

 

Interesting. Was it because Vader felt guilty for killing younglings in ROTS?

 

Possibly, I think it's implied in the novel. During that era, he was struggling to get rid of the little bit of Anakin still in him, much like Kylo decades later. Vader didn't become pure darkness overnight after the Mustafar battle, it took some time.

 

I recall a story in the EU before everything was made non-cannon where Vader freed some slaves because it brought back some Anakin memories and he hated the thought of slavery even as Vader. That one always touched my mind as compassionate and somewhat sweet.

As DarthLink mentioned, he also quickly killed a squad of Stormtroopers to protect a toddler Starkiller... however, I don't know if that's compassion or because he knew the child could be of use to him.

My memory also always tricks me into thinking that when Leia witnesses Alderaan being destroyed, Vader seems slightly sad to see Leia hurt. I think he even puts a hand on her shoulder, but I think that's to stop her from going towards Tarkin before the shot from the Death Star is fired...

 

That's pretty much it. I think he struggled with it until some time before Rebels.

 

I thought that Vader showed compassion in small ways that he probably wouldn't recognize as he operates under the belief that he does what must be done. It's just that he doesn't always do what "must be done" for the Dark Side. It's just close enough to not appear otherwise, even to himself.

People he might have some feeling for tend to escape him, I suspect. Or rather than killing them directly, he leaves them to die (but that is their choice as he sees it... If they were foremost concerned with their lives rather than their resistance of the Empire, there might be a way out for them). Vader is also "forgiving" and he gives some people a couple chances out of his distorted sense of fairness.

In ANH, I thought the interrogation of Leia could have been far worse. The Empire had those awful interrogation droids capable of basically mutilating prisoners to get information from them, and probably its share of inquisitors that were just as bad. Vader, however, barely used any of the droid's functions. Naturally he'd probably see the droid as crude compared to what he could do with the Force so he probably wouldn't use it that much regardless (he is more efficient), but it seemed to me that he preferred to get his information inflicting as little pain as possible, because some buried part of him had a slight sense of concern for the Princess. He also seemed to basically want to run the entire interrogation himself and even seemed rather alarmed at first when Tarkin said he had an alternate plan of getting information from her. Although Vader personally wants to destroy the Rebels and so would personally want to get the information himself, I think he was kind of using himself as a shield against interrogation methods he would not approve of (though he would think he didn't approve perhaps because he didn't think said methods would work).

Tarkin, angry that he was lied to, wanted Leia terminated at once, but Vader didn't seem to share in this desire. Of course, it seemed like a waste to kill a prisoner who knew important Rebel secrets, and Vader really wanted to find and destroy the Rebel base. But I'm not sure that was the sole reason.

Letting the Millennium Falcon go *with the Death Star plans* was, I suspect, Vader's idea. Tarkin had misgivings and was concerned about the risk he was taking, so it looked like Vader had persuaded him despite his many reservations. I suppose Tarkin trusted Vader in his way, not seeming to understand that when a Sith wants something, it tends to go to dangerous extremes (willing to sacrifice basically everything).

In a way Vader was pitting himself against the Princess in the Battle of Yavin as much as he was pitting the Empire against the Rebellion: in essence, pitting Dark against Light for a "proper battle" between the two. But in orchestrating it like this he gave the Rebels a chance and kind of left the outcome up to "the will of the Force." The plan to let the Falcon go and lead them to the Rebels was a compromise between what Tarkin wanted (to throw away a chance of discovering where the Rebel base was) and what Vader wanted (to find/destroy the Rebel base); but it was also a compromise between killing the Princess and leaving her alive. This doesn't mean that Vader wouldn't have eventually killed Leia; but it may indicate that there was a part of him that didn't wish to and I think it was because he felt a bit of compassion.

When there is compassion involved, Vader delays killing. There is always a rational Dark Side explanation. But it also seems to fall short of the most extreme measures possible. The Emperor is willing to go to any lengths (though he will do so strategically) and is not blocked by any compassion. Vader on the other hand has some limits because the good in him blocks him from being quite as terrible as the Emperor.

 

Given that the movie cuts away, we don't actually know how much physical damage was done to Leia. The novelization hinted that even Tarkin was a little creeped out by the "quaint" methods Vader was using on Leia, and the ROTJ novelization also referenced her being tortured, and not just injected with truth serum.

The newcanon, however, seems to have gone with just the injection - but it does mention that resisting the urge to tell the truth is an agonising experience.

 

From what books I read (I don't think I've read the novelization since I was a kid), it seemed there were possibly two functions he employed: the injection arm and some pain inducing feature that didn't really leave any damage (though he could use the Force to do that too, so it doesn't really matter if it was the droid or not). In any case what he did left no apparent damage and Leia seemed to completely recover by the time she met with Tarkin for his "ceremony." And so... It could have been far worse.

I thought the serum might have been a torture in itself; that resisting it caused pain. But still it doesn't matter because Vader could do the same thing with the Force. And it was definitely torture.

Mainly a drug was used as well as excruciating pain. The droid's cutting arm(s) and other implements of mutilation were not used.

 

ROTJ novel:

"Don't stray too far, my lovely. Soon you will begin to appreciate me." He pulled her very near and forced her to drink from his glass.
Leia opened her mouth and she closed her mind. It was disgusting, of course; but there were worse things, and in any case, this wouldn't last.
The worse things she knew well. Her standard of comparison was the night she'd been tortured by Darth Vader. She had almost broken. The Dark Lord never knew how close he'd come to extracting the information he wanted from her, the location of the Rebel base. He had captured her just after she'd managed to send Artoo and Threepio for help - captured her, taken her to the Death Star, injected her with mind-weakening chemicals ... and tortured her.
Tortured her body first, with his efficient pain-droids. Needles, pressure points, fire-knives, electrojabbers. She'd endured these pains, as she now endured Jabba's loathsome touch - with a natural, inner strength.​

 

Remember that Anakin was crying as he killed the Separatist leaders. He knew what he was doing was wrong and he was anguished over the fact that he was doing it anyways.

 

And that feeling lasted into the suit, and it took a while for him to get rid of it. He obviously had by ANH though.

 

Yeah after two decades he'd pretty much embraced the Dark Side and buried Anakin Skywalker in the darkest depths of his soul.

 

That's not mercy!

He had found someone very strong in the Force he could use to crush the Emperor one day.

But he couldn't let the boy to be known by the empire, for the Emperor would kill the boy or take him as a second disciple, in order to substitute Vader someday.

That's why Vader killed his officers. Not for mercy. It was just the way he could hide his plans. Strategy!!

 

I'm out of ideas, then.

 

i think there was always a little bit of Anakin but he just kind of became resigned to his fate.

 

I call it the Star Wars equivalent of the 'thousand yard stare'. I'm sure what Palpatine asked of Anakin/Vader shocked him initially, but after many years of laying down the law he's become more or less numb to it.

 

I don't think so.

 

This post is similar to why he did not sense his daughter post. For me the explanation is clear. Vader has suppressed his feelings of morality being the servant of the Emperor. Not only does he not know about his heirs he is also unaware of the whereabouts of his closet kin, the Lars family. Yoda & Kenobi told Luke that Vader was completely brainwashed by the Emperor. A Jedi transformed by years of fighting and executing rebels. So seeing Luke for the first time he was indistinguishable from the same rabble that made up the Rebel Alliance. It was only after his encounter with him at Yavin IV and subsequently doing research after that catastrophe could he put it all together. He quite possible visited the home of the Lars on Tatooine now gone and deducted that Luke was his son and on his way to becoming a powerful Jedi King.

PS i was gonna say Jedi Knight i accidentally said King and it would have been cool had Luke been called a King instead.

 

i remember reading a book in the old eu about a soldier who served vader who was loyal and got injured and vader made him a template for the new 501st and looked after the soldiers family. im probably getting some of it wrong but yeah