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?

No matter how bad our circumstances are, we all can decide to change at some point. It's not always about how hard it is; it's about how great the pressure is to change, and whether or not we want to.

Darth Vader's pressure to change was immense. So why didn't he? He would have 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'. All this was done in the search for a power he could no longer attain. 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 remaining strength 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, or even come to terms with the death of his wife.

He loved power more than he loved anything else, dare I say even Padme, perhaps even when he was Anakin; nobody Force-chokes their bride because they're doing it out of love, after all. He let his anger control him.

The Dark Side did not change him, it just made his already existing evil nature overcome that which was good---a struggle we all face.

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 in repentance.

This is the true tragedy of Darth Vader.

Not the death of Anakin,

but the choice to be a monster.