I don’t know how I missed the fact that padawan’s braid have beads of colours affiliated to their area of study but just learnt that Anakin had both a red and a blue one for piloting and mechanics. Even when he grew up, he still was most attuned to what he knew best from his childhood. And I think it becomes something quite sad when looking at Darth Vader because it’s such a split from what Anakin enjoyed as an infant and until he was a master… it made me quite sad to think on that

- skyguythings

if it helps, DV does still get to pilot things he prefers it actually. in the movies he has his personal ship he goes after luke with. in rebels he goes after hera in his ship :) the man is always like “prepare my ship i will go after them myself”

he also got to redesign his suit. (in the comics). after his palps gave him his mark 1 suit which was too weak for vader’s power and disrupted what was left of his agility. so after vader came back from obtaining his new saber, his suit and limbs were pretty banged up. so while he was in his bacta tank, palps was like “i laid out all the shit for you, i know you want to redesign it your way, so here you go.” and vader got to remake everything using the force while inside his tank. it was sick af.

he maintains his hobbies and is still very skilled at them even during his time as darth vader.

being darth vader, he’s simply anakin skywalker uninhibited. sure palps keeps him on a leash, but vader accomplishes what anakin could not. vader is how anakin’s evolved. he’s not that much different, traumatized beyond belief and more finely tuned and such. he detaches himself from his past because its easier to excuse his behaviors, and to let people know he’ll never devolve back into who anakin was trying to be. anakin was the mask. vader is the being in the basement. he keeps palps around cos hes useful, and he cant defeat him without help. which is why any chance he got to overthrow palps he fucking took lmao. his sworn loyalty to palps is a mask.

i didnt know about the beads though, that’s so fucking cute! i love that sm. i didn’t think the beads had any meaning, that they were just part of the culture. to serve a diff purpose is so fascinating to me