Darth Vader has changed over the years.
But if your first Star Wars was a New Hope, then remembering Darth Vader’s evil origins can still make you shudder.
Remembering Darth Vader’s Evil Origins
It’s hard to remember a world in which only A New Hope existed. The rest of the original trilogy and the sequel trilogy change our perceptions of Vader. We grow to have feelings for Vader and want him to be redeemed. This is amazing when you consider how he was evil absolute in the first film.
There is nothing sympathetic about Vader in A New Hope. His, as Vader, only backstory is that he killed Luke’s father. His every action in A New Hope is evil.
Yes, some of it is done in heavy-handed symbolism (he is in all black, Leia is all white), but his actions help prove it. He chokes his own general that dared disagree with him. He aides in the destroying of an entire planet. He strikes down the beloved character who has given us all the information we know about the backstory of the Star Wars.
Vader owned the room that he walked into. Even though Tarkin seems to control Vader (Leia points this out with the leash comment), you realize it is an useasy truce. Vader begrudgingly respects Tarkin, and that is why he follows his commands. We all know, and so does Tarkin, that Darth Vader can destroy Tarkin with a snap of a finger.
Plus, Vader doesn’t have to physically engage. He just has to pinch his fingers. That may be the most terrifying scene in A New Hope. Lucas writes the scene brilliantly. The character that seems to be on Vader’s side at the beginning ends up being the one that Vader is willing to destroy. Vader doesn’t care about feeling or even loyalty. He, at this point, seems to have no attachments whatsoever in the galaxy.
While we loved seeing the Vader that struck the damage he did in Rogue One or Vader Down, deep down we didn’t need to see it. We knew that Vader existed all along. Like the Joker in The Dark Knight, he is an absolute evil character.
The actors that portrayed him did a fantastic job bringing him to life. James Earl Jones voice over work is as iconic as you can get. The authority in his voice more than matches his physical presence. David Prowse doesn’t get enough credit for his physical side. The suit had to limit his movements quite a bit, but he found a way to make Vader’s movements operatic without being hokey.
Looking at Him in Hindsight
Yes, Vader is redeemed, but that doesn’t undermine how evil he was in the first film. The fact that we become sympathetic to him midway through Jedi is a testament to Lucas’s vision.
Can we forgive Vader for his evilness? That is a personal choice. Anakin has to atone for a lot of his actions as Vader, a persona he chose.
Does he deserve redepmtion? Yes.
Just like his grandson he has a lot to answer for. Just like his grandson, he should have people believe in him. To be human is to believe that we are not all doomed. We have to believe we can be good again.
Still, Vader was an absolute monster in the first movie. Because of the rise of Palptine, we often forget how scary the original villain of the saga was.
Also, we have to give him credit in that Lucas was able to do in a way that wasn’t R-rated. He was the boogeyman. But then, over the next two films, we find out that there is someone Vader is scared of.
And that’s the true nightmare: the boogeyman has something he is terrified of.
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