Previously, we looked at the moment when Darth Vader discovered that Palpatine had lied to him about the death of Padmé Amidala. It’s one of the most important revelations in Vader’s life, because it reframes everything he has believed since the end of the Clone Wars.
This time, we are focusing on what comes after that realization. Once Vader understands that his Sith Master deceived him for nearly twenty years, does he actually do anything about it? Does he act against Palpatine, change his behavior, or begin pushing back in any meaningful way? This is what the story shows Vader doing after he learns the truth.
In other words, this is everything Darth Vader does after realizing he has been lied to for two decades.
Vader Tried to Find Luke and Build a New Sith Master–Apprentice Pair
After learning the truth about Padmé, Vader finally understands the depth of Palpatine’s deception. In Darth Vader (2015) #6, Vader discovers that Padmé did not die because of him, and that Palpatine had lied about her fate from the very beginning. For nearly twenty years, Vader believed he was responsible for her death. That belief shaped everything he became.
What follows comes later, in the canon Marvel series Darth Vader (2020). By this point, Vader already knows that Luke Skywalker is his son. After the destruction of the Death Star, Vader’s focus turns toward Luke. Rather than confronting Palpatine directly, Vader begins searching for Luke’s location, believing that training his son would allow them to form a new Sith Master–apprentice pair and eventually challenge the Emperor together.
Destroying Palpatine’s Sith Army
After Vader’s search for Luke and the truth about Padmé went too far, Palpatine punished him on Mustafar. He broke Vader down, damaged his mechanical body, and left him crawling across the same lava world where Anakin Skywalker had first become Darth Vader.
But Palpatine did not stop there. He also sent Ochi of Bestoon to hunt him down. Ochi was an assassin loyal to the Sith, and his job was to finish Vader if Vader could not survive the test.
Vader survived anyway.
He rebuilt himself from broken parts, fought his way through Mustafar, defeated Ochi, and eventually forced him to lead the way to Exegol. This was the hidden Sith world Palpatine had kept secret from Vader, and it was where Sidious had been building some of his darkest projects.
When Vader arrived on Exegol, Palpatine was already waiting for him. Instead of hiding what he had been doing, Sidious let Vader see it. Vader was brought inside the Sith Citadel, where he saw cloning tanks, strange experiments, Sith cultists, and the early pieces of the massive fleet Palpatine had been preparing in secret.
Then Palpatine released four armored creatures from the tanks. These beings were called Tankers, and they attacked Vader with electropoles. Palpatine made it clear that they were not just random guards. Any one of them could replace Vader if they were strong enough to kill him.
So Vader killed them.
The fight continued when the floor broke beneath him and Vader fell deeper into the fortress. There, he landed among Sith cultists armed with daggers. They surrounded him and rushed in, trying to prove themselves worthy in front of Sidious.
Vader used the Force to rip the daggers out of their hands. Then he turned the weapons back on them, sending the blades flying through the cultists and killing them with their own weapons.
After that, Palpatine led Vader deeper into Exegol and showed him the giant kyber crystal being used to power the weapons of his hidden fleet. The crystal was being tortured, and its pain was being turned into energy for Palpatine’s plan.
