The regular, everyday citizens who lived under Imperial rule. Did they know he was an evil Dark Lord of the Sith? At the very least they were all probably terrified of him simply because his suit looked intimidating, but did they realize that he was a Sith? Or was he mostly hidden from the public eye, rarely seen and basically a myth among citizens where they all heard stories of this man dressed in black with a robotic-looking mask on? "I heard he's a robot!" says one citizen. "Yeah well I'm sure he doesn't even exist and is just an urban legend created by the Empire to strike terror into the hearts of anyone who dare opposes them" replies another.
If you were a good "law-abiding" citizen of the empire, I doubt you would ever be exposed to the full extent of the Emperor's power or have reason to know of the existence of Vader.
It's safe to say almost no one knew Vader was a Sith Lord. Almost no one knew what a Sith was anyway. A lot of the Imperial population didn't even know who Vader was. Those that knew of him would see him as a strange cyborg or sorceror who enforced the Emperor's will. He was very respected, and very feared.
In a some the rcent novels, he seems to have been seen as the Emperor's personal enforcer. No real idea about his relationship to the Force. If people knew of him at all, that's probably how they'd see him. Probably 99% of the population wouldn't have ever heard of a Sith Lord, much less know he was one.
in bloodline it seemed the entire galaxy knew about him and would have loved to execute him had he survived endor. leia's career was almost completely ruined when everyone discovered vader was her father. so i think he was widely known. and he had powers people didn't understand.
In both Legends and Canon, Vader was fairly well known, especially in the Core worlds and mid rim. He was seen as the. Emperor's enforcer, and would definitely have been seen in public often as the highest rank in the Imperial military, aside from a few others. The average citizen would probably not know Vader was a Sith, much less a former Jedi, but they may have been aware that he had powers.
This, and I'd like to add, at least in Rebels, Vader isn't well-known at the start of the show. Kanan hadn't even heard of him before their Season 2 encounter, and that was only 4 years before ANH. I imagine he was well-known among Alliance high command, but that they didn't tell everyone to keep their information networks from being tracked to their sources by the Empire.
Bloodline's was after the fact however. At some point after the Battle of Endor, word that Luke and Leia were the offspring of Vadar were bound to circulate.
yes, but the main point is that the mass hatred for vader is because a lot of people knew of him because he'd affected a lot of people's lives.
Its a fair to point to argue, that Vader was known by a lot of people because of the carnage that he wrought across the galaxy. However, those affected populations would probably direct the anger at the Empire as a whole and not a single man, no matter how destructive he was.
and my point is bloodline says otherwise. the mass outcry against leia when it comes out that vader is her father is because they already all know about vader and they all hate him.
Most citizens wouldn't have the knowledge of what a "Sith Lord" is. If they saw he had a lightsaber, they probably assumed he was just a Jedi (as the Jedi were seen as evil in the Empire) or a "Dark Jedi." Darth Vader was the face of the Empire's enforcement, he would be in the holo's and most people knew of his existence but I think an EU novel once said most spoke about him in whispers and his acts were greatly exaggerated to instill even more fear in the citizens to ensure they followed the laws at all times. Most people would know who he was and what he was capable of, but the everyday citizen would most likely never interact with him. The bigger villain in their mind, the one they would interact with mostly, would be the Grand Moff's, Admirals and Generals of the Imperial Army that would be stationed on their planets.
Let's not forget that it's a big galaxy with a million inhabited worlds and thousands of species, not to mention, droids, cyborgs, and genetically engineered mutants. In that setting, Vader isn't so shockingly extraordinary as he would be in a world like ours. So to most normal people in the GFFA, he'd be impressive, sure, but they'd probably be able to come up with dozens of theories about who and what he is and how he does what he does.
I imagine that those who were aware of him would react in the same manner as enemies of classical General Grievous would. They would be more frightened, however.
I imagine that if they were aware that Vader existed (and to be honest, how could they not if he's in the front lines of every combat) they would think two things: • Vader is securing the Empire from those who would do us harm. • I hate Vader, but I don't want him to hurt me and/or my family, so I'll just keep quite and not give him any reason to focus his attention on me.
In the old EU, there was a lot of official Imperial propaganda (Holonet broadcasts and the like) painting Vader as the Empire's enforcer, and as a crusher of Separatist holdouts and "terrorists" - the newcanon has tended to portray Imperial propaganda that references Vader as unofficial though.
