As the Emperor’s apprentice and right hand man, Darth Vader was given tremendous amounts
of power within the Galactic Empire, serving as the emperor's main enforcer.
But when he wasn’t hunting down Jedi or killing Rebel scum, what did Vader do in his
free time?
First off, despite having so much power within the empire, Vader barely had any time for
himself.
For the first half of the Empire’s reign, Vader was tasked in putting resisting systems
into check by forcing them to comply with Imperial law as well as being tasked in hunting
down surviving Jedi.
When things seemed to settle down and not require his assistance, the galactic civil
war started, which forced Vader into the front lines and to do even more work.
But when Vader did have free time, he typically spent it within one of his many palaces and
castles spread across the galaxy.
One of these palaces was located on Coruscant, and it was known simply as Darth Vader’s
palace.
It was the second tallest building on the planet, only being shorter than Emperor Palpatine’s
Imperial Palace, which actually was only a walking distance away.
But unlike Emperor Palpatine’s palace, which was decorated with expensive treasures, artifacts,
and artwork, Vader’s palace was pretty empty and dull, only containing items that were
necessary for his survival.
And this was purely by choice, as Vader did have the credits to purchase pretty much anything
he wanted.
When at this particular palace, Vader spent most of his time within his meditation chamber,
the only place he could safely be without his mask and helmet, which he hated wearing.
For the first few years of his new life, Vader mourned his wife’s death and hated himself
for the choices he had made within his chamber.
He was pretty much depressed because of it, constantly reminding himself of how much he
messed up and how he failed to protect Padme.
He once even visited her mausoleum on Naboo, paying his respects to his dear wife and wishing
her a final goodbye.
When he wasn’t grieving over his wife’s death, Vader spent his time within his meditation
chamber trying to heal himself, particularly his lungs.
Vader despised the suit he was living in, comparing it to a metal coffin.
By repairing his lungs and making them not rely on his suit’s life support system,
Vader would have been allowed to ditch his mask and to ease his pain.
Despite his effort, he was never able to fully achieve this.
Probably the only thing he enjoyed doing within his meditation chamber was having the ability
to eat food.
Due to his injuries, he was fed through his life support system, which directly pumped
nutrients into his body, but within his meditation chamber he was able to remove his mask and
eat normally, tasting the flavor of his food.
But even that was difficult for him sometimes, so he usually substituted regular food to
liquid food.
However he still prefered that over how his suit sustained him.
Another thing he typically did in his free time was practice with his lightsaber, usually
sparring against training droids.
Vader also owned a fortress retreat on Coruscant, which was located near the only visible body
of water left on the planet, the Great Western Sea.
It acted kind of like a beach resort, though it’s not known if he ever used it.
Another property owned by Vader was Bast castle, which was located on the remote planet Vjun.
There he also had a meditation chamber, where he did the same things we mentioned earlier,
such as consuming liquid food or attempting to heal his lungs.
In this castle, Vader had a workshop which he used to repair and modify his Advanced
TIE fighter.
It was one of the few things he still enjoyed doing outside his meditation chamber, showing
us that a part of his younger self was still within him.
The other thing Vader did on his own time was search for Obi Wan so he could kill him.
For him it was personal, and he wanted the pleasure of killing his former master himself.
It seems Vader went out of his way to occupy himself with tasks as a way to avoid thinking
about his past and his wife.
Perhaps as a way to keep himself from being reminded of her death and the pain her memories
brought him.
Currently in canon we haven't seen much of Vader outside of his work, other than that
he did once go out of his way to slaughter an entire Tusken raider camp during one of
his missions on Tatooine for revenge for what they did to his mother decades prior.
But lets be honest, he probably did it for fun too.
The final portion of his video contains spoilers for Rogue One, so just a heads up if you haven’t
seen it yet.
In Rogue One, we see that Darth Vader has a castle on Mustafar, where it seems he spends
most of his time within a bacta tank without his armor on.
It’s probably the only time he’s not in constant pain, as the bacta eases his burned
body.
Seeing how the castle is on Mustafar, Vader probably also spent time reminding himself
of his failures and fueling himself with anger over his defeat against Obi Wan.