Darth Vader lived a life of torment, both emotionally and physically.

But why? Why would he allow himself to continue? Why did he choose that life? His life was a world of pain. Why stay there?

Often times, with people who have serious problems or addictions, they don't help themselves until they hit rock-bottom. A man I know was a drunk since he was 16 years old. He eventually got to the point where his entire family left him, his wife died, and his friends wanted nothing to do with him. He was broke because of his addiction.

And he was also able to decide, one day, that he would never drink again, and hasn't to this day. The point is that he would have never changed if the pressure hadn't been great enough.

Darth Vader's pressure to change was immense. So why didn't he? He had nothing to lose; his love had died, the order he once belonged to crushed by his own hands, his children supposedly dead, and the man who drove him to it all was the closest thing he had to a 'friend'. Such a life would drive any weaker person to the brink of suicide. Darth Vader had nothing to live for.

The answer: even though Darth Vader made every attempt to alienate himself from Anakin Skywalker, even though he did everything in his power to make them seem as two different people, they both had one thing in common; an incredible lust for power.

Darth Vader's only drive to continue on was his desire to be the most powerful; a need that wasn't fufilled even after he turned to the Dark Side. This lust to be the ultimate tyrant ultimately outdrove his sputtering desires to rectify his wrongs, to make his beloved Padme proud.

He loved power more than he loved his wife, even when he was Anakin. The Dark Side did not change him- it just made his already existing evil nature overcome his good nature.
And this is why Darth Vader chose a life of death over a death to preserve life. Darth Vader- Anakin- chose his life of torment. And never escaped it, even as he died a death of repentance.

This is the true tragedy of Darth Vader.

Not the death of Anakin,

but the choice to be a monster.