Star Wars is crying out for a ‘What If…?’ series showing how things might have gone differently in a galaxy far, far away. The closest we’ve gotten is the Star Wars Infinities comic series from the mid-2000s, which saw Leia being turned to the dark side by Vader after A New Hope, Luke dying on Hoth and Han Solo attempting to follow in his Jedi footsteps, and Luke and Leia teaming up to take down the Emperor.
But one of the most popular alt-scenarios is being discussed on r/StarWars right now: what would have happened if Anakin had triumphed over Obi-Wan on Mustafar? Anakin’s conversion into Darth Vader robbed him of a lot of his Force ability, though even then he effortlessly outclassed anyone that came his way. So we can assume an intact Vader would be a true powerhouse of Dark Side energy.
One obvious ripple is that he’d be far more difficult for the Emperor to control. Vader is reliant on Imperial technicians to live, and his life support system is vulnerable to Force Lightning. This essentially keeps him on a leash and makes any kind of insurrection against the Emperor a suicide mission.
But, perhaps uniquely, we can actually see how some of this might have gone down courtesy of the 2005 Revenge of the Sith tie-in game on PlayStation 2 and Xbox. This features an alternative ending in which Obi-Wan’s command of the high ground goes badly for him, with Anakin triumphing. The Emperor officially christens him Darth Vader and hands him a lightsaber, only for Vader to instantly use it to gut him. As the shocked Clone Troopers look on, Anakin yells “The galaxy belongs to me alone!”
We can only imagine how this story might have progressed from this point, though with Obi-Wan dead Vader may have raised Luke and Leia himself and founded a new dynasty of Sith Skywalkers to rule the galaxy under an iron fist.
And yeah, we want to see that as a ‘What If…?’ story!