Darth Vader‘s true identity was actually a closed-guarded secret among the ranks of the Empire. Palpatine quite liked to leave his allies guessing as well as his enemies, and part of Darth Vader’s mystique lay in the fact that he was an enigma whose mere existence sat uncomfortably with the Empire. He stood outside the Empire’s formal hierarchy, and – as we saw in A New Hope – many high-ranking Imperials looked on the Dark Lord of the Sith with a degree of disdain. Darth Vader likely enjoyed putting them in their place.
Leia and Luke decided to keep their relationship with Darth Vader secret, a choice that ultimately cost them a great deal. The galaxy learned the truth in Claudia Gray’s novel “Bloodline,” when a recording Bail Organa had left for his adopted daughter Leia was discovered by her political enemies. The scandal brought an abrupt end to Leia’s political career, and it’s striking that Ben Solo fell to the dark side shortly after, becoming obsessed with his grandfather’s darkness.
But who knew Darth Vader’s true identity ahead of the revelation going public? Here’s a complete list, running through in the order they discovered the truth.
Palpatine
The Sith Lord responsible for seducing Anakin Skywalker to the dark side, Palpatine looked on with delight as the Chosen One was reborn as the Great Unmaker. Darth SIdious had worked hard to orchestrate Anakin’s fall, cultivating a relationship with him while he was just a Padawan, and successfully destroying his trust in the Jedi Council now he was a knight. At Palpatine’s order, the newly-christened Darth Vader was baptized in blood when he led the attack on the Jedi Temple.
Yoda
The aged Jedi Grandmaster, Yoda deduced the truth as soon as he saw the slaughter at the Jedi Temple. The clues to Anakin’s darkness had been there for some time, because Yoda had sensed the Tusken Massacre that Anakin committed three years earlier, but unwisely did nothing about it. The entire Jedi Order paid a terrible price for Yoda’s inaction.
Obi-Wan Kenobi
Like Yoda, Obi-Wan Kenobi sensed the truth when he saw the slaughter at the Jedi Temple. Unlike Yoda, he refused to believe it; he only accepted that Anakin had fallen when he saw the security recordings. Obi-Wan then went head-to-head with the new Darth Vader on Mustafar, one of several battles they’d go through over the next few decades, until Vader finally “killed” his old master on the Death Star.
R2-D2
There’s no evidence R2-D2 ever had a memory wipe after Revenge of the Sith, which presumably means he knew everything when he arrived on Tatooine 19 years later. This does make several scenes in the original trilogy rather ironic, because it means R2-D2 chose not to tell Luke anything – including his true relationship with Leia.
Bail Organa
Bail Organa was present during the dramatic final scenes of Revenge of the Sith, and he adopted the young Leia into his family as a Clone Wars orphan. As revealed in “Bloodline,” Bail wrestled with how to tell Leia, and ultimately chose to record a holographic message in case he died before she learned the truth. It’s reasonable to assume Bail’s wife, Breha, was fully aware of Anakin’s fall as well.
This makes Bail’s Rebel Alliance story quite unusual, because he spent 19 years aware of secrets that could get him killed if he made a single mistake. Little wonder the character was so clearly feeling the pressure in Andor Season 2.
Darth Maul
Star Wars: The Clone Wars Season 7 confirmed that Palpatine’s former apprentice, Darth Maul, had correctly deduced the true nature of the Sith plot. He knew that Palpatine had sunk his hooks into Anakin, and sought to use this knowledge to his own advantage. It’s unknown whether Maul ever figured out Obi-Wan Kenobi was the one who left Vader critically wounded and depending on life-support, but he’d have found the idea delightful.
The Shaman of Diso
Adam Christopher’s “Master of Evil” reveals that a mysterious Force-sensitive who lived on the planet Diso sensed Darth Vader’s true identity when he confronted the Sith Lord shortly after the rise of the Empire. The Shaman had no way of understanding the significance of the insight he’d been given by the Force.
Halland Goth
One of Palpatine’s guards, Halland Goth had something of a head start when it came to figuring out Darth Vader’s true identity. He was positioned nearby during a key scene in Revenge of the Sith, when Palpatine teased Anakin with the story of Darth Plagueis the Wise. As seen in “Master of Evil,” Goth wound up working at crossed purposes with Vader, and deduced the truth.
Jocasta Nu
The Jedi archivist, Jocasta Nu was an Order 66 survivor who worked to rebuild the Jedi Order. Darth Vader tracked her down as she attempted to take secrets from the Jedi Temple, and she sensed his identity pretty much straightaway. Jocasta used that knowledge to her advantage, goading Vader into killing her and destroying the secrets she sought to preserve.
Ferren Barr
A Padawan who survived Order 66, Ferren Barr sought sanctuary on the waterworld of Mon Cala. He hired a slicer to hack the Jedi Temple’s security feeds, where he learned that Anakin Skywalker had led the attack there, and he immediately linked Anakin to Darth Vader. Ferren Barr unwisely tried to reform the Jedi Order on Mon Cala, drawing Darth Vader’s attention. He didn’t survive.
Reva and the Inquisitors
The Obi-Wan Kenobi Disney+ TV show confirmed that Reva, one of the Inquisitors, knew the truth that Anakin was Darth Vader. A survivor of the Youngling massacre at the Jedi Temple, she had sworn revenge on the Dark Lord of the Sith; in reality, Vader enjoyed toying with her. It’s unknown how widely the knowledge was shared among the rest of the Inquisitors.
Grand Moff Tarkin
Wilhuff Tarkin had worked with Anakin Skywalker during the Clone Wars, considering one of the few Jedi he was impressed by. As shown in James Luceno’s novel “Tarkin,” the Grand Moff swiftly realized there was something familiar about Darth Vader. He had the wisdom never to speak of it, but he and Vader became close allies.
Grand Admiral Thrawn
The only alien to ascend to the rank of Grand Admiral, Thrawn had a keen strategic mind. He had also worked briefly with Anakin Skywalker during the Clone Wars, when both of them operated on a planet on the edge of the Unknown Regions, and he already knew Anakin had an unusually close relationship with Palpatine. As seen in Timothy Zahn’s “Thrawn: Alliances,” a brief partnership between Thrawn and Vader was all it took for the Chiss to figure it out.
Ahsoka Tano
Anakin Skywalker’s former Padawan, Ahsoka Tano only realized Anakin had become Darth Vader towards the end of the Dark Times. She’d sensed Anakin’s fall to the dark side, but hadn’t really understood what she experienced until she confronted Vader himself. Ahsoka only survived thanks to Ezra Bridger’s intervention via the World Between Worlds.
Luke Skywalker
Luke Skywalker, of course, learned the truth about Darth Vader in the most dramatic way. Darth Vader was shocked to discover the surname of the man who shot down the Death Star, and the Dark Lord of the Sith swiftly figured out this was his son. All that led to the epic, celebrated scene in The Empire Strikes Back where Vader told Luke his shocking secret.
Sabé
Introduced in The Phantom Menace, Sabé was the Queen’s Shadow – a doppelganger of Padmé Amidala who served to misdirect her opponents. Sabé essentially became Padmé’s top spy in the aftermath of The Phantom Menace, even tasked with scouring Tatooine in the hopes of saving Anakin’s mother, Shmi, from slavery. Padmé’s death changed everything for Sabé, who became a revolutionary – one of the founding members of a group called the Amidalans.
Sabé finally met Darth Vader shortly after the events of The Empire Strikes Back, and learned he was really Anakin Skywalker. The two became unlikely allies for a time, although it naturally didn’t last.
Verla
The last surviving student of Ferren Barr, Verla hid from Darth Vader and his Inquisitors for almost two decades; she had learned Vader’s true identity from her mentor, although it didn’t mean much to her. All that changed when Verla met Luke Skywalker shortly after The Empire Strikes Back, as the Jedi scoured the galaxy looking for secrets of the Jedi. Things got off to a rocky start, because she initially attempted to kill him in order to get revenge on Vader.
Leia Organa
Luke told Leia the truth about their origins in Return of the Jedi. Leia never quite reconciled herself with Anakin Skywalker, given her memories of being tortured by Darth Vader in A New Hope. She unwisely kept it all a secret, initially because she was unwilling to deal with it, and then later because she thought it would harm her political career. Even worse, she made the foolish choice not to tell her son, Ben, about it. He learned the hard way, with the rest of the galaxy.
Han Solo
Leia told Han all her secrets shortly after, as seen in Beth Revis’ “The Princess and the Scoundrel.” Ironically, Han handled it all far better than Leia did herself. It’s possible Leia’s decision to keep this a secret from Ben contributed to the growing distance between them towards the end of their marriage.
C3-PO
Unlike R2-D2, C-3PO did have a memory wipe after Revenge of the Sith. The protocol droid learned that Darth Vader was Luke’s father shortly after the Star Wars original trilogy, but had no idea he’d ever served Anakin Skywalker himself. It’s likely C-3PO only learned the full story in The Rise of Skywalker, when his memories were restored by R2-D2.
Baylan Skoll
In a surprising twist, Ahsoka season 1 revealed that dark Jedi Baylan Skoll knew that Anakin Skywalker became Darth Vader. He used this knowledge to taunt Ahsoka during their duel on Seatos, coming close to killing her. It’s currently unknown how Baylan discovered Darth Vader’s greatest secret, but it’s possible more will be revealed in Ahsoka season 2.