By the time you’ve read the title, you probably already know where this is going, right? Yes — when Anakin was still just a young boy, he had a dream about Darth Vader… and it’s canon.
It’s a small moment tucked away in the Star Wars comics, easy to miss if you’re not looking for it. But it’s such an intriguing detail that it’s worth breaking down. So let me walk you through exactly what happens in the comic and how the scene plays out.
To be specific, you can find it in Darth Vader (2017) by Charles Soule, issue #25.
In this comic series, we see Vader after being rewarded by his master with the planet Mustafar and an ancient Sith helmet. Using the power of the helmet, Vader opens a portal into a strange Force realm — a place where past, present, and future all seem to merge.
In issue #25, Vader steps into this Force realm and begins to wander. He sees visions of his own past, starting with his mother, Shmi, and then himself as a young Anakin Skywalker back on Tatooine.
It’s here that the moment happens. Young Anakin is walking back toward his home when his shadow catches his attention. The shape on the ground isn’t that of a boy — it’s the towering silhouette of Darth Vader. Puzzled, Anakin steps back and stares at it. “That’s not right…” he says. Suddenly, the shadow shifts, clearly revealing Vader’s form, hand reaching out toward him.
Terrified, Anakin shouts “NO!” — and wakes up. It was a dream. Shmi Skywalker is at his side, gently telling him, “Don’t be afraid, little Ani. Only a dream… only a dream.”
And that’s the thing — Anakin, as a child, once dreamed of Darth Vader. And in this comic, we can clearly see it’s not just any nightmare — it’s the future trying to reach him.
The comic continues as Vader walks deeper through the Force realm, watching more pieces of his past unfold: podracing on Tatooine, building C-3PO, training with the Jedi Order, meeting and falling in love with Padmé, and later taking on his first Padawan, Ahsoka Tano. It even leads up to the moment on Malachor when Vader faces Ahsoka years later.
Which means that when Vader sees young Anakin dreaming about him, it confirms Anakin really did see Darth Vader as a boy — because everything in the realm is pulled from Vader’s own past.
The scene shifts, and he’s surrounded by fallen Jedi: Eeth Koth, Shaak Ti, Mace Windu, Yoda. They ignite their blades, but he cuts through them without hesitation, their forms dissolving into nothing.
Then, in a jarring turn, he sees Palpatine standing beside Obi-Wan in a ruined temple. Without warning, Sidious strikes Kenobi down. Rage boils up inside Vader, and he unleashes a storm of crimson Force lightning that kills his master on the spot.
Then Padmé appears, fragile and beautiful, a vision of what might have been. Vader (as Anakin) pleads with her to come with him to the light. She responds, “I don’t know you. Anakin Skywalker is dead.” She falls, dying again, shattered in the dark tide of his own despair.
Finally, he sees his son: Luke. A blue glow, a lightsaber, flares in the vision. Vader wakes to find himself standing among charred bodies. He drives his saber into the ground, and a storm of Force energy erupts, hurling him out of the realm and back into the cold reality of the present.