Fanfic / Darth Vader: Hero of Naboo

Cover art

The Force often works in strange ways. That was never truer when Darth Vader, not Anakin Skywalker, found himself on Naboo during the Trade Federation occupation. How is the Republic to react to a Sith Lord that has committed no crime and is aiding Queen Amidala? And did I mention Vader wasn't the only one brought along the ride? No, it's not Luke or Leia.

—Summary

Darth Vader: Hero of Naboo (also on Wattpad and AO3^note For reasons unclear, this mirror stops at chapter 4) is a Star Wars Time Travel fanfic by AkumaKami64.

Beginning with Darth Vader preparing to set a trap for Luke Skywalker on Bespin, the Dark Lord suddenly finds himself on Naboo during the Trade Federation blockade. Confused, but ever adaptable, Vader fights his way through the battle droids and convinces Qui-Gon and company to give him a ride off the planet. From there, things change drastically, as Vader is determined not to make the same mistakes he did the first time around.

The fic is now complete, and is planned to be the first in a series of fanfics that follow the prequel trilogy's events, heavily altered by the time displaced Vader's presence. The first sequel of the aptly named "Vaderline Trilogy", Darth Vader: Shattered Galaxy, has been posted.

Compare The Desert Storm, another Star Wars fanfic that involves an Original Trilogy character accidentally traveling back in time.

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This fanfic contains examples of:

• Accidental Truth: After getting a look at Vader, Plagueis makes several educated guesses on whom he might be, with one of them being that Vader is a time traveler.
• Actually a Doombot:
  • When Darth Sidious seemingly kills Darth Plagueis, it turns out to be an illusion.
  • Done again when Plagueis is fighting Sidious and notices that his apprentice isn't reacting like he should; he quickly discovers a squad of Doombot Sidiouses.
• Actually Pretty Funny: Plagueis admits to Vader that he'd be more upset at how Vader is deliberately riling up Sidious if he wasn't so impressed, and is laughing as he says that.
• Adaptational Early Appearance: Two so far:
  • Qui Gon and Obi Wan end up meeting Dooku before he left the order, who quickly helps them in calming down the situation during Vader's faux attack.
  • While waiting to find out the results of his meeting with the Council Anakin meets toddler Ahsoka who quickly latches onto him.
• Adaptational Heroism: Darth Vader himself is the most obvious example, but there are a few other notable individuals:
  • Dooku. While he is still clearly disillusioned with the Jedi Order, he hasn't actually left, and thanks to Vader's alterations to the timeline, he never joins Darth Sidious as a Sith Lord and indeed is one of the Jedi who leave to confront him alongside the other masters, even if his role means he doesn't directly take part in the battle himself.
  • Rune Haako. After Nute Gunray flies off the deep end, Rune Haako ultimately decides that enough is enough and shoots him in self-defense. He also attempted to save some of Gunray's prisoners prior to killing Gunray, and makes it abundantly clear that he hated Darth Sidious even if he has to respect the now-dead Sith Lord’s intelligence.
• Affably Evil: Darth Plagueis flip-flops between this and Faux Affably Evil, depending on whom he's speaking to. Vader is caught off-guard by just how likable the guy is.
• The Alliance: On advice from Vader, Padme seeks out and allies with various anti-Trade Federation groups (including the Mere Resistance, the Vulptereen, and the Lok Revenants) who are more than willing to liberate Naboo by force while the Senate blusters and wastes time.
• Anti-Hero/Anti-Villain: Vader is generally the former, though he doesn’t mind being the latter when the situation calls for it.
• Arch-Enemy:
  • Obviously, Sidious is this to Vader. Maul comes to hate him too, and later finishes him.
  • Vader implies to Yaddle that he sees himself as this.
• Armor-Piercing Question:
  • In a Jedi Council meeting, Vader vaguely alludes to the events of his fall. Yoda muses that he'd taken the easy path, infuriating Vader, who sneers that it was the hardest choice he'd ever taken. Unfazed, Yoda admits that the choice was insanely hard... but asks if so was the path. Grudgingly, Vader lets go of his wrath.
  • Shmi comes very close to discovering Vader's true identity, something that shocks him to the core, even if she didn't quite get it right.
    Shmi: He's you, isn't he? You see... who you used to be, in Ani, don't you?
• Awful Truth:
  • The reveal of Sidious and Plagueis to the Jedi Council is basically a big slap in the face to the Order in its entirety. In less than a minute, Vader reveals to the Jedi that the Sith have not only been under their noses for a thousand years, but members of their order have long inserted themselves into the highest echelons of the Republic without them knowing. After spending so long denying their existence, the confirmation is almost too much for the Jedi to bear.
  • Yoda takes it a step forward, wondering how many disguised Sith in hiding he had unknowingly met during his lifetime, and even fears the possibility of them having infiltrated the Jedi at one point. We found out from dialogue between Plagueis and Sidious that they did; past members of the Order of Bane had been masters serving on the Jedi Council. Not to mention in the Darth Bane trilogy, Darth Zannah was able to waltz right into the temple with the Jedi none the wiser.
• Backstab Backfire: This time around, Plagueis is prepared for Sidious's attempt to off him, which leads to a fight.
• Bad Boss:
  • Sidious brutally tortures Maul for failing to kill Vader, then outright kills him when Maul delivers Vader's message to him. Plagueis resurrects the Zabrak immediately afterward, but damn...
  • Zigzagged with Plagueis. On the one hand, the Sith Lord gives Vader his express permission to butcher any and all Sith agents (or Unwitting Pawns) within the Trade Federation if they do anything detrimental to the Sith cause in the future. On the other hand, under his public persona of Hego Damask, he generally treats his employees well and makes sure they are happy and well-paid...all in the interest of keeping up appearances, of course.
  • Sidious' death sets off a bad chain of events for Nute Gunray, making his actions during the Battle of Naboo very erratic to the point where it begins to endanger his own underlings. It gets to the point where he puts a kill order on his own men in case of a mutiny.
• Bad Guys Do the Dirty Work: Vader's killing of Sebulba. When confronted by Padme, he makes it clear that, though he definitely enjoyed the act, it was very much necessary for a very long list of reasons, the most salient of which is the simple fact that if he hadn't done so, Anakin would have (being cornered in a perfect position to lash out), and he judged it more pressing to remove the threat and prevent Anakin from having blood on his hands rather than worrying for his own or expending unnecessary effort in keeping Sebulba alive.
• Batman Gambit:
  • Just by repeatedly trolling Sidious with his mere existence, Vader is able to goad him into attacking Plagueis and thereby putting himself in position to be killed by him. Sidious admits upon realizing this that if he weren't so pissed at being manipulated, he'd be impressed.
  • Vader's ultimate long-term goal regarding the Republic is to basically just sit back and let events unfold on their own before he makes a move. As far as he's concerned, the whole system is so corrupt it will inevitably collapse on its own even without the Sith having to pull any strings, and this way the majority of people will be disillusioned with the idea of the Republic, presumably curtailing anything like the Rebel Alliance from forming when Vader eventually comes to establish the Empire on his terms.
• Betrayal Insurance: During the Battle of Naboo, it's revealed that an increasingly paranoid Gunray gave orders to his droid commanders to kill his underlings if they try to surrender to the anti-Federation forces without his permission.
• Beware the Nice Ones: Upon capturing him, Padme comes dangerously close to shooting Gunray in cold blood for everything he's done to her planet.
• Be Yourself: Vader tells Anakin that, should the boy join the Jedi Order, he should strive to become the Jedi he wants to be, not what the Council wants him to be.
• Big Damn Heroes: Darth Maul of all people gets one of these, as he is the one to deliver the finishing blow against Palpatine.
• Blue-and-Orange Morality: According to Qui-Gon, Force users tend not to take it too personally when they point lightsabers at one another if the one doing the pointing isn't a threat. It's why Obi-Wan isn't surprised that he got let off with being thrown out of the spaceship into a dune when he accused Vader of killing Anakin and Qui-Gon. Obi-Wan is honestly confused as to why Padme seems concerned.
• Blunt "Yes": Vader gives one when questioned if he thinks he can handle a few thousand battle droids by himself.
• Boring, but Practical: During his fight against the Jedi Order, Sidious is fooled at a critical moment by a simple Jedi Mind Trick.
• Both Sides Have a Point: Vader admits this about the Empire. On the one hand, the Emperor's obsession with superweapons, his humanocentrism, and his tendency towards big, dramatic gestures are doing horrible things to the Empire and its citizens. On the other, for the most part the Empire is run just fine when it's not being authoritative, and that a good deal of the Rebellion got started even before the atrocities. He accuses them of having rose-tinted glasses about a Republic that was severely flawed even before Palpatine took power.
• Break the Haughty:
  • The entire fic from the point Vader arrives on Coruscant and onward is basically dedicated to Vader showing the Jedi just how greatly out of their depth they have become in regards to the Sith threat.
  • The Dark Woman, as per her Legends counterpart, is very prideful and sure of her ability to face down any dark Force user... and is incapacitated by Darth Plagueis before she even has a chance to attack. At the end, she defies the truce set up by Vader to hunt down the Sith, though it is clear that her choice to do so is mainly out of pride rather than altruism.
• Break Them by Talking: Vader mercilessly rubs it in Maul's face that the latter is not a true Sith, and that his master also has a living master.
• Broken Pedestal: A very mild example with Obi-Wan. He is a firm believer in the Jedi Order, its code, and what it stands for. But since meeting Vader, he has come to learn about a number of faults and horrendous paths the Jedi have taken throughout its history, including the Jedi Lords and the true backstory of the original Sith Lords. He still believes in the Jedi, but his newfound discoveries have him rethinking certain aspects.
• Brutal Honesty: Vader is blunt with what he tells.
• Can't Kill You, Still Need You: When Vader and Sidious have a mental battle, it ends with Sidious holding his lightsaber to Padme's neck. Vader calls his bluff because he knows Padme is too valuable a pawn to sacrifice at the moment, so Sidious backs off.
• Crazy-Prepared: Sidious.
  • He has a failsafe built into his lightsabers that prevent others from using them, which explains why Plagueis didn't kill him immediately.
  • He created dozens of droids skilled in lighsaber combat, each with both a hologram projector and a Sith artifact, making it nearly impossible to identify whether they're Sidious or not.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: Vader mops the floor with everyone he's come across thus far. To wit:
  • He mows the Trade Federation battle droids down like grass.
  • He bests Maul without even needing to draw his lightsaber.
  • When making a staged attack on the Jedi Temple, he is an unstoppable juggernaut.
• Dark Is Not Evil: While Vader has no intention of giving up the Dark Side or even being a Sith, he doesn't plan to turn the Republic into a totalitarian empire nor exterminate the Jedi, and in fact plans to reform the Sith Order so it'll be less villainous.
• Dead Man's Switch: During the Final Battle on Naboo, Gunray arms himself with one, programming the battle droids to indiscriminately open fire on the citizens of Naboo if he doesn't periodically check-in with them. Then the droids all get shut down remotely, rendering this moot.
• Death by Adaptation: Sebulba. In canon, he would go on to survive past both the Clone Wars and the Galactic Empire. Here, he is killed by Vader, after trying to kill Anakin.
• Democracy Is Flawed: While certain Wide-Eyed Idealists (like Padme and Windu) would strongly disagree, the Republic is a clear and utter mess. Its bureaucracy has become bloated to the point of being insufferable and it's become ineffective at resolving minor disputes. Compounded with the damage that the Order of Bane has done to it over the years, corruption and dissention amongst its premier politicians and figureheads has essentially rotted the Republic from the inside-out. In other words, it's no longer functional. Vader expresses his belief that, once it gets out that a Sith Lord had been manipulating their government, the Republic will collapse into an already inevitable interstellar war.
• Dies Differently in Adaptation:
  • Darth Sidious is killed by Maul and Vader respectively. In Legends, he was brought into Chaos by Empatojayos Brand and the spirits of deceased Jedi after unsuccessfully attempting to possess Han and Leia's child Anakin. In Disney canon, Palpatine's granddaughter Rey used her powers to deflect his Force lightning to kill him.
  • Nute Gunray is shot in self-defense by Rune Haako, rather than being cut down by Vader.
• Disc-One Final Boss: Interestingly, Darth Sidious. He is the main villain and adversary faced by the main cast during the first half of the Naboo arc. After his death, the significantly less powerful and cowardly Nute Gunray is the final villain to be faced in Naboo's liberation.
• The Dog Bites Back: Maul is the one to deliver the last blow to Sidious, stabbing his abusive master In the Back to finish him off.
• Don't Make Me Destroy You: At the conclusion of his staged attack on the Jedi Temple, Vader bluntly tells the Jedi that he won't start any further conflicts with the Jedi, but he'll sure as hell finish them.
• Drunk on the Dark Side: Vader actively strives not to be this, no matter how tempting, because he knows it will make him reckless. Sidious has a much harder time resisting it because he's just that evil.
• Dual Wielding: Both Plagueis and Sidious engage in dual-blade fencing during their fight.
• Enemy Civil War: While outright infighting hasn't started yet, aside from a couple of failed desertions and mutinies, there are schisms within the time-displaced Death Squadron — while the Stormtroopers are completely loyal to Vader and the technical staff are willing to go with the flow, many officers are angry about him killing Palpatine and preventing the rise of the Empire as they knew it, and are silently plotting against him for it. Vader is aware of this, but not overly concerned.
• Enemy Mine:
  • Every Dark Side user in the galaxy lends Vader their strength during his staged attack on the Jedi Temple because, as Plagueis states, it's forcing the Jedi to acknowledge that the Dark Side is still around and will not be ignored.
  • Plagueis later aids the Jedi against Sidious, although he emphasizes his reason is solely to defeat Sidious.
  • Padme seeks out others who hate the Trade Federation for help in driving them from her planet. One such individual rules what is functionally a planet-wide casino and whom she finds remarkably distasteful.
  • According to a beat cop on Coruscant, some of the really nasty stuff in the lower levels is so bad that the gangs and police will work together to take them out.
• Enraged by Idiocy:
  • Vader hates the Trade Federation and the CIS, but he's so offended at how stupid the Battle Droids are he contemplates joining them to at least make them into something not an insult to craftsmen everywhere.
  • Sideous and Vader both facepalm in exasperation when Padme addresses Vader as "Darth," thinking it's his first name. This in the middle of a giant mental battle between the two Sith.
• Evil Is Petty: Darth Sidious. Plagueis even says that his apprentice has a habit of savoring even the smallest victories a little too much.
• Face Palm: Both Vader and Sidious mentally do this when Padme assumes that "Darth" is the former's actual name rather than a title.
• Faking the Dead: During the battle to reclaim Theed Palace, Vader plays possum, lying down and turning off his breathing to trick a large contingent of droids into thinking they've killed him, so that he can investigate the seemingly random area they were protecting after they leave him behind.
• Fatal Flaw: Sidious has three.
  • Pride: he's too egotistical to consider the idea of forming an equal partnership with anyone, no matter how beneficial it might be. In fact, he'd rather have Vader as a Worthy Opponent to have something akin to Kaggath^note A "duel" in which two Sith Lords pit all their assets against one another in an all-out war with.
  • Impatience: this is a flaw he can suppress, but while he can wait to get what he wants, he hates it.
  • Pettiness: he's too much of a sadistic bully to let even the slightest offenses go unpunished, and he savors every victory he obtains no matter how small or how little it matters in the long run.
• Flawed Prototype: The Anti-Federationists managed to get their hands on the Clamator, a prototype from Kuat Drive Yards. She's a dedicated warship larger and better armed than anything that had been built in a thousand years, but as she's the largest and best armed warship built in a thousand years the designers had failed to make her as powerful as they could have - as they fully expected, since this was just the first step in the eventual development of the Acclamator class.
• For Science!: Plagueis considers himself a scientist first and foremost, which is why he decides not to directly interfere with Vader's unilateral declaration of a truce between the Jedi and Sith — as a sociological experiment, Plagueis is curious to see how long it'll last.
• For Want Of A Nail: Vader's presence rapidly causes many changes to events:
  • Shimi is freed alongside Anakin.
  • His interest being piqued by what's happened makes Dooku stay with the Jedi for the time being.
  • Palpatine/Sidious is exposed as a Sith and dies long before he could ever become Emperor.
  • Rather than the Jedi helping a small team headed by Padme retake Naboo from the Trade Federation, Vader convinces her to forge an alliance with other anti-Federation factions that launch a full-scale counter-invasion.
  • Anakin is officially made Qui-Gon's Padawan, while Obi-Wan is shuffled off to Dooku to complete his own training.
• Foregone Conclusion: Plagueis does not believe that the truce between the Jedi and the Sith will last. Not because of the Sith's hatred of the Jedi, however. But rather because of the Jedi's unending bias towards the dark side. We see in the final chapter that his prediction may have some merit.
• Friendly Enemy: Darth Plagueis ends up developing this rapport with Yarael Poof, of all Jedi.
• Good Cannot Comprehend Evil:
  • Obi-Wan's experiences with Vader change his views on the dark side and the Sith as whole, but when he senses Sidious for the first time and gets a taste on just how much of an irrevocable monster he is, he is traumatized and shocked that such an embodiment of unimaginable rage and hatred could even exist and still be a sentient being.
  • Padme is utterly repulsed and disbelieving by the lengths Gunray is willing to go to make sure the invasion of Naboo is made legal, including going as far to burn the entirety of Theed.
• Heel–Face Turn: Vader. He's still a Sith, though.
• Hourglass Plot: Darth Vader, one of the most feared Sith Lords, for all his power, was nothing more than a puppet to Palpatine and only freeing himself moments before his own sacrifice to save his son. Yet in this new timeline, the puppeteer has become the puppet, with Vader anticipating and exploiting the weakness of the one he used to call master and led him to his demise. On another note, for the first time ever, Darth Vader is finally free, chained to nothing and no one and free to act out of his own accord. It's a good thing that, for all his desire to stay to the Dark Side and even freely admit that he's a Sith, he's more dedicated to legitimately doing good and righting the wrongs of the past, even if he himself doesn't necessarily get to experience he once had.
• A House Divided: The epilogue makes it clear that many Jedi are not happy about the Order's newfound truce with the Sith. The Dark Woman in particular is already making plans to seek out and eliminate Vader and Plagueis, and Windu has no intention of stopping her.
• Hypocrite: Averted. While Vader is busy verbally tearing the Jedi a new one for their complacency, he also isn’t afraid to admit that the Sith also have some problems that need to be solved such as infighting and destructive competition.
• Improperly Paranoid: Sidious with regards to Vader. He's so paranoid about the other Sith's existence that he prematurely betrays Plagueis.
• Internal Reveal: In Chapter 21, Vader spells out to the Jedi that a Sith Lord has been living on Coruscant right under their noses all along.
• In Spite of a Nail:
  • Vader believes that even with Sidious dead, the Clone Wars (or an equivalent) will still end up happening as the culmination of centuries of systematic problems within the Republic.
  • Jar Jar still manges to somehow survive ridiculous circumstances to the point that Vader questions whether he was born with a blessing from the Force.
  • Despite meeting well over a decade earlier, when young Anakin runs into Ahsoka Tano for the first time, he still nicknames her "Snips."
• In-Universe Catharsis: After Anakin's slave chip has been disabled, Vader gives him the now-useless remote. For an instant, Qui-Gon detects a great amount of anger and sadness... which bursts into a small star of calm and peace when Anakin destroys the thing.
• Irony: Darth Vader and Boba Fett, two people who are supposed to be the Jedi's greatest enemies by virtue of being a Sith and Mandalorian respectively, are the galaxy's only hope from plunging into all-out war.
• Ironic Hell: Plagueis reveals to Vader that he's infected Sidious with a virus that will completely sever him from the Force. Vader himself notes that it might be the worst possible fate for the man.
• It Amused Me: Plagueis decides to honor Vader’s declaration of peace between the Jedi and the Sith just because he wants to see how long it will last. If it collapses because of his scheming, that would be boring.
• Just Toying with Them: Sidious eventually realizes to his horror that Plagueis has been tricking him with illusions during their entire fight.
• Karmic Death: Sidious is killed by his apprentices, Vader and Maul. Plagueis, though only aware of the latter's connection to Sidious, notes how fitting this is.
• Knight Templar: Vader labels the Jedi as this in general, and he's not entirely wrong.
• Know When to Fold 'Em: When the Anti-Federation forces start overwhelming the Federation blockade over Naboo, the captain of one of the Lurcehulks decides to surrender, and tries to convince the other captain to do likewise. Unfortunately for him, the ship's droids kill him and his crew to keep fighting.
• The Last Dance: After being infected with a virus that will sever his connection to the Force by Plagueis and exposed to the Jedi by Vader, Sidious knows he won’t survive the night. He takes the opportunity to let loose with everything he has in order to sell his life dearly.
• Late to the Realization: It's only after he attempts to kill Plagueis that Sidious realizes that his master never intended to replace him. Plagueis agrees but warns him that it's "too late to deactivate his lightsaber".
• Let's Get Dangerous!: Vader has been holding back much of his resources while helping the Naboo... Up until Gunray's precautions leave a Droid Control Ship impossible to destroy for the Anti-Federationists and hides, at which point a Star destroyer from Death Squadron finishes the job.
• Light Is Not Good: Vader makes a frighteningly cogent case for this when comparing the two sides of the Force: if the Dark Side is a stimulant, power and emotion, motion and chaos, the Light Side is a sedative, stillness and emptiness, silence and order, comparing the use of each to a different addiction.
• Master of Illusion:
  • Plagueis is so skilled at Force illusions that he makes Sidious wonder if their entire duel even occurred.
  • Master Poof is this, which is how he gets Plageuis to actually talk to him- shared interest over illusion techniques.
• Mêlée à Trois: Vader is convinced that when civil war inevitably comes to the Republic, there will be numerous factions, not just the two of his timeline.
• Mistreatment-Induced Betrayal: Gunray's increasingly erratic behavior begins to unnerve and endanger the other Federation officials under his command. It all comes to a head when he issues a kill order on any Trade Federation individuals if a mutiny or unauthorized surrender is ever attempted. Rune Haako promptly betrays him and then fatally shoots him in self-defense.
• Not So Above It All:
  • As the others get roped into a card game, Obi-Wan initially disapproves before admitting he's rather fond of the particular game.
  • Vader admits that having to explain to everyone in the early years of the Empire that his name is not, in fact, "Darth," was one of the few times that he actually felt awkward after his transformation.
  • When Padme thought that Vader's first name was "Darth", even Sidious facepalmed alongside Vader and this is in the midst of a mental battle between him and Vader.
• Oh, Crap!: The Jedi Council's reaction when Vader tells them about Sidious and then tears open the Veil of the Dark Side so that they can sense him.
• Only Sane Man: Rune Haako, who is the only neimoidian in the Trade Federation that hasn't totally lost his shit after Sidious' death. The author acknowledges that any good decision Gunray ever made in canon was because of this guy, so him keeping his head together during the chaos caused by Vader makes sense.
• Outside-Context Problem:
  • Vader is this to the Jedi. In their view, he’s an immensely powerful Sith Lord who appeared out of nowhere despite the Sith having been thought to be extinct. He has decided to aid the Republic planet of Naboo for seemingly no personal gain. And the most baffling to the Jedi, is that he shows no outward hostility to them aside from defending himself if needed, and is perfectly capable of holding a cordial conversation with them.
    • Both Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon pull this card when the Jedi question them about their reactions regarding Vader — "Why did you let them on the ship, near the queen," "Why did you not try to fight him," "Why did you let him come to Coruscant," for example. They cite that "Sith Lord acting friendly after showing up after a thousand years of no sign that they exist," was so far out of their realm of what they expected, not even including the invasion that they were in the middle of, that the best they could do is roll with the punches.
  • Vader is also this to Sidious. As far as Palpatine knows, Vader is either a rival apprentice to Plagueis or an outsider from another Sith Order, yet in either case is not operating like a Sith Lord should. More to the point, he knows more about Sidious than anyone should, and is powerful enough to not be threatened by him, all of which completely upends Sidious' plans.
  • Darth Sidious was this for the Jedi in canon, but there, they did not even realize his existence nor the extent of his power until it was too late. Here, the entire order becomes of aware of his existence prematurely thanks to Vader, and are completely thrown off and near-traumatized by the sheer level of dark side power the man radiates, with some even gobsmacked that he is even a sentient being at all.
  • To a small degree played up for amusement, Anakin is this to the creche masters and younglings of the temple — a child powerful in the Force who is not a Jedi Youngling, but was just brought to the temple. The younger students were so fascinated at him that Anakin compared it to "A ship surrounded by Jawas," and Master Phara admitted that it was an accurate comparison.
  • During the battle for Naboo, the Clamator catches the Trade Federation completely by surprise, as not only she's a dedicated warship but the largest and most powerful built in a thousand years. Then, when even the Clamator proves not enough against three Droid Control Ship, the last one explodes and nobody has any idea of what happened beyond Padme's guess that Vader was responsible - and he confirms without elaborating. It was the Thunderflare, a Star Destroyer from Death Squadron that had traveled with Vader back in time.
• Paranoia Gambit: The Sith in general operate against each other by making them overly paranoid about what other Sith are up to. Vader and Plagueis in particular weaponize Sidious's paranoia against him, Vader by simply being a complete unknown and Plagueis by using his status as a Master of Illusion to make Sidious question whether their entire battle had even happened. The former causes Sidious to betray Plagueis prematurely, while the latter makes it easier for Plagueis to kill his treasonous apprentice.
• Playing with Fire: Sidious unleashes some Sith Magic during his fight with the Jedi Council to conjure animated blue flames.
• The Power of Hate: Vader's hatred of Sidious is so great that it enables him to power through Sidious' Force Storm and forcibly close the tear in reality fueling it.
• Pragmatic Hero:
  • Vader urges Padme to be this, suggesting that she should engage in backdoor dealings with less than savory - but powerful – groups that share her contempt for the Trade Federation in order to oppose the Naboo blockade.
  • Darth Vader himself. He's still a Sith Lord and Dark Side user who despises the Jedi Order, but he helps Padme, saves his mother and his younger self from slavery, and tries to make the Jedi (and later Sith) better.
  • Coruscant gangs help the police fend off Cthons, Corridor Ghouls, and other monsters found in the lower levels of Coruscant. When a rookie asks his partner whether the gangs would just attack the police, he's told the last group to do so was murdered by their rivals, because "dead levels don't help anyone".
• Psychopathic Manchild: Sidious is an entitled, short-tempered brat underneath his superficially charming facade.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Vader gives one to the Jedi Council regarding the many failures of the Jedi Order. That said, he does preface it by saying that the Sith's failings are "Many and obvious."
• A Rare Sentence:
  • When Sod Gert greets Vader by saying it's nice to meet him, Vader internally notes that that's probably the first time anyone's said that to him and meant it.
  • Yoda finds himself saying the Jedi usual farewell to Vader, noting how strange it is for a Jedi Master to earnestly mean a proper farewell to a Sith Lord.
  • Vader finds himself saying "I am sorry" for the first time since becoming a Sith Lord when he finds Padme's sister Sola standing guard over their seriously wounded parents and acknowledges that he can't help them.
• Realpolitik: Having been inspired by Vader's actions, Yarael Poof cuts a secret truce with Plagueis to ensure a proper peace between Jedi and Sith.
• Repressive, but Efficient: Vader believes that the empire was this initially, but admits that Palpatine's pettiness, insanity, racism, and growing love for superweapons caused it to go in the other direction.
• The Reveal:
  • Chapter 27 finally shows us who the mystery tagalong is that accompanied Vader from the future. It's Boba Fett.
  • An even bigger one comes in Chapter 38: the entire Death Squadron fleet time traveled with Vader and Boba. So not only does Vader have a Mandalorian bounty hunter on his side, but his entire loyal Imperial fleet. Though some of the ships, most notably the Executor, are still unaccounted for.
• Right for the Wrong Reasons: Shmi assumes Vader cares for Anakin because the boy reminds Vader of a younger version of himself, unaware that Anakin is a younger version of Vader.
• Role Called: The title refers to not just Darth Vader himself but his role in defeating the Trade Federation at the Battle of Naboo.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here:
  • When Sidious realizes he can't beat Plagueis, he attempts to flee Coruscant, though Plagueis cuts him off before he can do so.
  • Many of Gunray's officials in the Trade Federation also do this after the invasion of Naboo escalates out of their favor in the wake of Sidious' death.
• Secret-Keeper: By the end of the story, Darth Plagueis is the only person in the present who knows that Vader is from the future.
• Shout-Out:
  • At one point, when Obi-Wan asks Vader about the origins of the enmity between Jedi and Sith, their conversation resembles the one held between Magnus and Kitten about the nature of the Warp.
  • When Padme, Vader, and Sidious meet in the latter's office, the two Sith Lords have a mental battle that is similar to the theoretical fight scene between Holmes and Moriarty in A Game of Shadows.
  • When Plagueis reveals the depths of his illusions during his battle with Sidious, he asks "When, exactly, Sidious, did you believe I wasn't using my illusions on you?"
• Sore Loser: Sebulba tries to kill Anakin after losing the podrace to him. Vader is having none of that.
• Spanner in the Works:
  • Vader is this to all of Sidious' plans, working hard to prevent his rise to power and expose him as a Sith.
  • Then Vader himself is hit with this, when Plagueis defeats Sidious in their duel, only to spare him and make no further moves, which is an outcome Vader didn't see coming.
• Spared by the Adaptation:
  • Darth Plagueis ends up outliving Darth Sidious thanks to Vader's meddling, and is still alive and scheming after the entire Naboo mess is resolved.
  • Qui-Gon never fights Maul, and is thus still alive by the end of the story.
  • For that matter, Maul himself escapes after killing his former master and disappears.
• Stealth Insult: Young Anakin teaches Padme a card game which Vader explains has no victory condition and is merely designed for a group of people to waste a lot of time. The name of the game? Republic-Senate.
• Taking You with Me: Sidious' final act is to create a Force Storm with intent to have it kill the entirety of Coruscant.
• Title Drop: Not of the fic itself, but the movie it’s based on. Sidious, when contemplating the way Vader uses the unknown as a weapon, thinks that the most dangerous thing about him is the unknown of what he could be. “A true phantom menace, if you will.”
• Troll: Vader takes every opportunity to rile up Darth Sidious.
• Trojan Prisoner: Boba Fett, under an alias, lets himself be captured by the Trade Federation so that he can then break free and help the other prisoners escape as well in order to fight back from within their command ship.
• Ultimate Showdown of Ultimate Destiny: Darth Sidious vs. Darth Plagueis.
• Vader Breath: Well, it's the Trope Namer himself. It's mitigated though by Vader revealing that he can turn this off and breathe quietly, but it's way less efficient to do it this way. It does allow for stealth and some quiet, though.
• Villain Respect: After Sidious' death, Maul hands his lightsaber over to Vader and departs with a nod of respect.
• Villain Takes an Interest: Darth Plagueis is intrigued by Darth Vader, and quickly puts Anakin on his "recruit later" list when he senses the boy's potential.
• Villain Team-Up: In the first epilogue, Plagueis and Vader come to an agreement, wherein Vader provides Plagueis with the locations of lost Sith artifacts that he and Sidious found over the years, in exchange for Plagueis providing Vader the resources needed to keep Death Squadron maintained and hidden until the Republic inevitably self-destructs and he can make his move.
• Villainous Breakdown: With Sidious dead, Vader believes that Viceroy Nute Gunray is on the verge of one of these; without Sidious to guide them, the Trade Federation begins to fragment, with many ships in the blockade abandoning Naboo. Come chapter 29, we find out he's not too far off. We see that he has become increasingly paranoid and irrational after having lost contact with Sidious. He outright refuses to believe that Sidious is dead and even with the odds stacked against him, refuses to back out when Vader and Padme threaten him. It seems even his own underlings have grown weary of both him and the occupation.
• We Can Rule Together: Darth Plagueis sees no problem in making an alliance with Darth Vader. Unlike most villains who do this, it's not just words—he doesn't like the Rule of Two and is genuinely interested in making alliances. Vader agrees in the epilogue.
• Why Don't You Just Shoot Him?:
  • Plagueis manages to fool Sidious with an illusion so thoroughly that he's able to swipe one of Sidious' lightsabers without his apprentice noticing. Instead of just killing Sidious while the latter's guard is down, he ops for a duel to the death. Though it is revealed that Sidious modified his lightsabers to explode if anyone else uses them.
  • And then Plagueis reveals all of the above was yet ANOTHER illusion and that he has been toying with him the entire time.
• Wise Beyond Their Years: When Vader makes a staged attack on the Jedi Temple, Anakin is the first one to notice that none of the Jedi he cuts down are dead or even seriously injured.
• Worf Had the Flu: Both Plagueis and Sidious have their ability to use the Force temporarily ruined by the Dark Side flowing out of Vader and returning to the galaxy at large, causing them to sometimes have too much or too little power to work with.
• Worthy Opponent: Though Sidious is very infuriated when he realized how he was played by Vader, he is also impressed by his actions.
• Would Hurt a Child: The first thing Sidious does when Vader exposes him to the Jedi is mentally torture the younglings at the temple with nightmarish visions.
• Would You Like to Hear How They Died?: When Sidious is exposed to the Jedi, he decides to indulge in some Evil Gloating about his actions, including sharing the exact details of how he recently killed Ronhar Kim.
• Wretched Hive: A senior police officer on Coruscant makes clear to his rookie partner that everything below level 2,000 (out of 5,127) is considered a lost cause so far as law and order go. Any level in the triple digits and under is just plain lost.

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