Why Darth Vader wasn’t the evil guy we all thought he was

Manipulations

Yes, Anakin’s life was one misfortune after another, but most of these were manipulated. If Vader had looked back at his life and realized that Palpatine was behind almost everything that happened, than he wouldn’t have been so focused on trying to find the pilot who destroyed the Death Star.

Palpatine wanted a servant that wouldn’t question his orders. By corrupting Anakin and creating ‘Darth Vader’, he broke the young man to the point of no return by taking away the people he loved most. Qui-Gon. Shmi. Ahsoka. Obi-Wan. Padmé. By losing everyone closest to him was the best way the Sith Lord could break his would-be apprentice. By achieving this, it would give him unofficial permission to continue breaking him.

Sidious knew how Anakin’s mind operated better than Skywalker probably realized. Furthermore, there’s a theory floating around that Palpatine placed the visions of Padmé’s death in the young Jedi’s mind to get him to fall to the dark side quicker. However, that also brings into question whether he knew about the senator’s pregnancy with Luke and Leia.

It’s likely he did as there’s a now Legends deleted scene from Revenge of the Sith where Padmé meets with him and Anakin happens to be present as his ‘protection’. Also, she was serval months pregnant by the time the scene takes place. However, it’s unknown if they met in Canon during these events.

What isn’t made clear is if Palpatine planted the visions of Shmi’s kidnapping and later death and ordered the Tusken Raiders to do his bidding. It’s likely he had Dooku do this, but we have no proof either way.