# What made Vader a Sith Lord? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 15, 2026, 10:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-made-vader-a-sith-lord/1030922 "2026-06-15T22:37:23Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2026, 10:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-made-vader-a-sith-lord/1030922/41 "2026-06-16T22:56:28Z")
Or Solo! ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2026, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-made-vader-a-sith-lord/1030922/42 "2026-06-16T22:58:00Z")
Jack “Luke” Starkiller! ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2026, 11:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-made-vader-a-sith-lord/1030922/43 "2026-06-16T23:26:09Z")
Just to bring this back around: my headcanon was that Vader declared himself to be a Sith Lord, and then waited for someone to challenge him on it. What’s that? You’re instead going to challenge me on trying to frighten you with my sorcerer’s ways, and criticize my devotion to an ancient religion? Yeah, I can work with that. ---
**Author:** ![ParallelLines](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/parallellines/32/3575_2.png) [@ParallelLines](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ParallelLines)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2026, 12:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-made-vader-a-sith-lord/1030922/44 "2026-06-17T00:19:28Z")
> [@Atamasama](#): > > No question. The Sith Lords all have names that are “EVIL”. It’s actually pretty rare to find examples of neutral names among them, and a lot (if not all of them) are in the old Expanded Universe/Legends non-canon stories. > > Back when I played Star Wars: The Old Republic (the MMORPG from Bioware), one of my main characters that I played through all of the content with was a Sith Sorcerer who eventually earned the “Darth” title, and he went by Darth Venomuss. I knew what Lucas was doing and leaned into the concept. Minor disagreement - I too played SWTOR, and your title as Darth and your new name were in part based on your chosen morality. For I became a Darth with a _Light Side_ Sith Sorcerer (well, among many characters). According to my memory (and some websites) while the Darth was universal in game, there were only three formal names depending on alignment: Darth Nox (darkside) - almost certainly Noxious Darth Occulus (neutral) Darth Imperius (lightside) (note, and back to @Atamasama’s point, afterword you were just addressed as “Darth [Charactername]” not by the secondary names listed above) Not that either of the other two are particularly subtle either, and not saying you’re particularly a “good” person even if you’re light-side sith. But emphasizing in the pre-Mouse Star Wars Universe, things got very complicated. In some ways a consistent, workable retcon would be nice… but heck, I have 3 generations of Star Wars TT-RPGs that aren’t fully compatible, much less the D20 based star wars CRPGS, SWTOR online, the old movies, the OG movies, the newer movies, and countless series, comics et al. Oh, and the SW comic series Vader was very good, and very interesting about his desire to secure his position in the early Empire while battling Moffs for funding and official authority. To the point of (minor spoiler for ONE comic) robbing another Imperial ship to build up his personal wealth and influence. ---
**Author:** ![fiddlesticks](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fiddlesticks/32/18129_2.png) [@fiddlesticks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fiddlesticks)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2026, 1:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-made-vader-a-sith-lord/1030922/45 "2026-06-17T01:02:31Z")
I remember “Dark Lord of the Sith” being in the 1978 Star Wars Storybook ([The Star Wars Storybook: George Lucas: 9780394837857: Amazon.com: Books](https://www.amazon.com/Star-Wars-Storybook-George-Lucas/dp/0394837851)). It was at the start of the book where the major characters were all listed with their “headshots” and that was included with Darth’s. Biggs meeting Luke on Tatooine was also in the story book. I didn’t see Star Wars [A New Hope] film until the re-release around Empire so that book was my introduction to the franchise. ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2026, 1:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-made-vader-a-sith-lord/1030922/46 "2026-06-17T01:09:50Z")
> [@Alessan](#): > > George Lucas has never been accused of being subtle. I mean, he named a loner “Solo”, a nonsense-talking alien “Jabba”, a damsel in distress “Leia Organa”, his major villains “Vader”, “Sidious”, “Maul”, and “Tyranus”, a legendary monster a “mythosaur”, an unethical bounty hunter “Cad Bane”, a despicable tyrant “Tarkin”, and a fat guy “Porkins”. Character names were not his strong suit. ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2026, 1:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-made-vader-a-sith-lord/1030922/47 "2026-06-17T01:11:47Z")
> [@sciurophobic](#): > > Obi-Wan does call Vader “Darth” (“You can’t win, Darth.”) I liked how _Kenobi_ dealt with that, when, after their duel in the series finale, Vader tells Obi-Wan that the name Anakin means nothing to him anymore. Obi-Wan responds “Then my old friend _is_ dead. Goodbye, Darth.” ---
**Author:** ![Galactus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/galactus/32/3581_2.png) [@Galactus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Galactus)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2026, 1:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-made-vader-a-sith-lord/1030922/48 "2026-06-17T01:15:45Z")
> [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](#): > > Vader declared himself to be a Sith Lord, and then waited for someone to challenge him on it Legend has it he originally wanted to call himself Taser Face! ---
**Author:** ![leahcim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/b4bc9f/32.png) [@leahcim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/leahcim)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2026, 1:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-made-vader-a-sith-lord/1030922/49 "2026-06-17T01:59:22Z")
> [@Smapti](#): > > Character names were not his strong suit. But apparently “Elan Sleazebaggano” was a bridge too far, so they gave him a [real name](https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Elan_Sel%27Sabagno). ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2026, 2:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-made-vader-a-sith-lord/1030922/50 "2026-06-17T02:03:25Z")
> [@Smapti](#): > > Obi-Wan responds “Then my old friend _is_ dead. Goodbye, Darth.” Anakin also says, “You did not kill Anakin Skywalker. I did.” ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2026, 2:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-made-vader-a-sith-lord/1030922/51 "2026-06-17T02:39:59Z")
> [@Smapti](#): > > Character names were not his strong suit. He did fine with Curt, Steve, Laurie, Terry “Toad”, and Jon, but Bob Falfa does sound like a rejected Star Wars name. ---
**Author:** ![fachverwirrt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/94ad74/32.png) [@fachverwirrt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fachverwirrt)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2026, 2:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-made-vader-a-sith-lord/1030922/52 "2026-06-17T02:54:31Z")
When a mommy Sith Lord and a daddy Sith Lord love each other very much… [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-made-vader-a-sith-lord/1030922.md?page=2)