Darth Vader, also known by his birth name Anakin Skywalker, is a fictional character in the Star Wars franchise. Vader appears in the original span of the saga going from being Anakin Skywalker, the prophesied child who would bring balance to the Force, to his corruption and transformation into Darth Vader, to being the pivotal antagonist, and eventual redemption and fulfillment of the prophecy.
The character was created by George Lucas and has been portrayed by numerous actors. His appearances span the first six Star Wars films, as well as Rogue One, and his character is referenced in both Star Wars: The Force Awakens and Star Wars: The Last Jedi. He is also an important character in the Star Wars expanded universe of television series, video games, novels, literature and comic books. Originally a Jedi prophesied to bring balance to the Force, he falls to the dark side of the Force and serves the evil Galactic Empire at the right hand of his Sith master, Emperor Palpatine (also known as Darth Sidious). He is also the father of Luke Skywalker and Princess Leia Organa, secret husband of Padmé Amidala and grandfather of Kylo Ren.
Darth Vader has become one of the most iconic villains in popular culture, and has been listed among the greatest villains and fictional characters ever. The American Film Institute listed him as the third greatest movie villain in cinema history on 100 Years... 100 Heroes and Villains, behind Hannibal Lecter and Norman Bates. However, other critics consider him a tragic hero, citing his original motivations for the greater good before his fall to the dark side.
Video Darth Vader
Creation and development
Concept and writing
In the first draft of The Star Wars, tall, grim general "Darth Vader" was already close in line with his final depiction, and the protagonist "Anikin Starkiller" had a role similar to Luke Skywalker's as the 16-year-old son of a respected warrior.
After the success of the original Star Wars (1977), series creator George Lucas hired science fiction author Leigh Brackett to write the sequel with him. They held story conferences and, by late November 1977, Lucas had produced a handwritten treatment. The treatment is similar to the final film, except that Vader does not reveal he is Luke's father. In the first draft that Brackett would write from this, Luke's father appears as a ghost to instruct Luke. Lucas was disappointed with the script, but Brackett died of cancer before he could discuss it with her. With no writer available, Lucas had to write the next draft himself. In this draft, he made use of a new plot twist: Vader claiming to be Luke's father. According to Lucas, he found this draft enjoyable to write, as opposed to the year-long struggles writing the first film.
The new plot element of Luke's parentage had drastic effects on the series. Author Michael Kaminski claims and argues in his book that it is unlikely that the plot point had ever seriously been considered or even conceived of before 1978, and that the first film was clearly operating under an alternate storyline where Vader was a separate character from Luke's father. After writing the second and third drafts in which the plot point was introduced, Lucas reviewed the new backstory he had created: Anakin had been Obi-Wan Kenobi's brilliant student and had a child named Luke, but was swayed to the dark side by Palpatine. Anakin battled Kenobi on the site of a volcano and was badly wounded, but was then reborn as Vader. Meanwhile, Kenobi hid Luke on Tatooine while the Galactic Republic became the tyrannical Galactic Empire and Vader systematically hunted down and killed the Jedi. This change in character would provide a springboard to the "Tragedy of Darth Vader" storyline that underlies the prequel trilogy.
After deciding to create the prequel trilogy, Lucas indicated the series would be a tragic one depicting Anakin's fall to the dark side. He also saw that the prequels could form the beginning of one long story that started with Anakin's childhood and ended with his death. This was the final step towards turning the film series into a "saga".
For the first prequel, Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace (1999), Lucas made Anakin nine years old to make the character's separation from his mother more poignant. Movie trailers focused on Anakin and a one-sheet poster showing him casting Vader's shadow informed otherwise unknowing audiences of the character's eventual fate. The movie ultimately achieved a primary goal of introducing audiences to Anakin.
Author Michael Kaminski, in The Secret History of Star Wars, offers evidence that issues in Anakin's fall to the dark side prompted Lucas to make massive story changes, first revising the opening sequence of the third prequel, Revenge of the Sith (2005), to have Palpatine kidnapped and his apprentice, Count Dooku, killed by Anakin as the first act in the latter's turn towards the dark side. After principal photography was complete in 2003, Lucas made even more massive changes in Anakin's character, re-writing his entire turn to the dark side; Anakin's fall from grace would now be motivated by a desire to save his wife, Padmé Amidala, rather than the previous version in which that reason was one of several, including that he genuinely believed that the Jedi were plotting to take over the Republic. This fundamental re-write was accomplished both through editing the principal footage, and new and revised scenes filmed during pick-ups in 2004.
During production of the Clone Wars TV series, Ahsoka Tano was developed to illustrate how Anakin develops from the brash, undisciplined Padawan apprentice in Attack of the Clones (2002) to the more reserved Jedi Knight in Revenge of the Sith. Clone Wars supervising director and Rebels co-creator Dave Filoni said that giving Anakin responsibility for a Padawan was meant to place the character in a role that forced him to become more cautious and responsible. It would also give him insight into his relationship with Obi-Wan and depict how their relationship matured. Ahsoka and Anakin's relationship was seen as an essential story arc spanning both the animated film and Clone Wars television series. Filoni began thinking about the final confrontation between Ahsoka and Vader ever since he created Ahsoka; different iterations had different endings, including one in which Vader kills Ahsoka just as she slashes open his helmet to reveal Anakin's scarred face.
Ahsoka's presence in Star Wars Rebels was necessary to allow Darth Vader to encounter the show's lead characters without the latter being "destroyed"; Ahsoka can "stand toe-to-toe" with Vader.
In Rebels Recon of the episode The Holocrons of Fate, Filoni reveals that he has always felt that one of the reasons for Anakin's turn to the dark side was the lack of compassion of the Jedi; in their dedication to selflessness, they "almost forgot to care".
Design
The original design of Darth Vader's costume did not originally include a helmet. The idea that Vader should wear a breathing apparatus was first proposed by concept artist Ralph McQuarrie during preproduction discussions for Star Wars with George Lucas in 1975. In an interview with Star Wars Insider Magazine, McQuarrie stated that Lucas's artistic direction was to portray a malevolent figure in a cape with Samurai armour. "For Darth Vader, George [Lucas] just said he would like to have a very tall, dark fluttering figure that had a spooky feeling like it came in on the wind." McQuarrie noted that the script indicated that Vader would travel between spaceships and needed to survive in the vacuum of space, and he proposed that Vader should wear some sort of space suit. Lucas agreed, and McQuarrie combined a full-face breathing mask with a Samurai helmet, thus creating one of the most iconic designs of space fantasy cinema. McQuarrie's 1975 production painting of Darth Vader engaged in a lightsaber duel with Deak Starkiller (a character prototype for Luke Skywalker) depicts Vader wearing black armour, a flowing cape and an elongated, skull-like mask and helmet. Its similarity to the final design of Vader's costume demonstrates that McQuarrie's earliest conception of Vader was so successful that very little needed to be changed for production.
Working from McQuarrie's designs, the prop sculptor Brian Muir created the helmet and armour used in the film.
The sound of the respirator function of Vader's mask was created by Ben Burtt using modified recordings of scuba breathing apparatus used by divers. The sound effect is trademarked in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office under Trademark #77419252 and is officially described in the documentation as "The sound of rhythmic mechanical human breathing created by breathing through a scuba tank regulator."
Commentators have often pointed to the influence of Akira Kurosawa's films such as The Hidden Fortress (1958) on George Lucas, and Vader's Samurai-inspired costume design is held up as a significant example of the Japanese influences on Star Wars.
Portrayals
Darth Vader was portrayed by bodybuilder David Prowse in the original film trilogy, and by stunt performer Bob Anderson during the character's intense lightsaber fight scenes. Lucas originally intended for Orson Welles to voice Vader (after dismissing using Prowse's own voice due to his English West Country accent, leading to the rest of the cast nicknaming him "Darth Farmer"). After deciding that Welles's voice would be too recognizable, he cast the lesser-known James Earl Jones instead. Jones initially felt his contributions to the films were too small to warrant recognition and his role was uncredited at his request until the release of Return of the Jedi (1983). When Jones was specifically asked if he had supplied Vader's voice for Revenge of the Sith--either newly or from a previous recording--Jones answered, "You'd have to ask Lucas about that. I don't know". Hayden Christensen and Gene Bryant alternately portray Vader in Revenge of the Sith. During the production of Revenge of the Sith, Christensen asked Lucas if a special Vader suit could be constructed to fit his own body, rather than have a different actor don one of the original sets of Vader armor worn by Prowse. Brock Peters provided the voice of Darth Vader in the NPR/USC radio series. Both Spencer Wilding and Daniel Naprous portrayed Vader in Rogue One (2016), with Jones reprising his role as the character's voice.
Vader's character has also been portrayed in several video games; in games such as Star Wars: Rebel Assault II: The Hidden Empire and Star Wars: Dark Forces, visual effects artist C. Andrew Nelson appears in short sequences in the Vader costume, voiced by Scott Lawrence. Matt Sloan, who appeared in the YouTube parody Chad Vader, provided the voice of Darth Vader in The Force Unleashed . As a result of his video game appearances, Nelson was cast to appear as Vader in brief sequences inserted into the 1998 special edition of The Empire Strikes Back, in which Vader is seen boarding his shuttle.
During production of Return of the Jedi, the casting crew sought an experienced actor for the role of Anakin Skywalker since his death was unquestionably the emotional climax of the film, and Sebastian Shaw was selected for the role. When Shaw arrived at the set for filming, he ran into his friend Ian McDiarmid, the actor playing the Emperor. When McDiarmid asked him what he was doing there, Shaw responded, "I don't know, dear boy, I think it's something to do with science-fiction." His presence during the filming was kept secret from all but the minimum cast and crew, and Shaw was contractually obliged not to discuss any film secrets with anyone, even his family. The unmasking scene, directed by Richard Marquand, was filmed in one day and required only a few takes, with no alteration from the original dialogue. Lucas personally directed Shaw for his appearance in the final scene of the film, in which he is a Force Ghost of Anakin. Shaw's image in this scene was replaced with that of Christensen in the 2004 DVD release. This last attempt to tie the prequel and original trilogies together proved to be possibly the most controversial change in the Star Wars re-releases. Shaw received more fan mail and autograph requests from Return of the Jedi than he had for any role in the rest of his career. He later reflected that he very much enjoyed his experience filming for Return of the Jedi and expressed particular surprise that an action figure was made of him from the film.
When The Phantom Menace was being produced, hundreds of actors were tested for the role of young Anakin before the producers settled on Jake Lloyd, who Lucas considered met his requirements of "a good actor, enthusiastic and very energetic". Producer Rick McCallum said that Lloyd was "smart, mischievous and loves anything mechanical--just like Anakin." During production of Attack of the Clones, casting director Robin Gurland reviewed about 1,500 other candidates for the role of the young Anakin before Lucas eventually selected Hayden Christensen for the role. When Revenge of the Sith was being produced, Christensen and Ewan McGregor began rehearsing their climactic lightsaber duel long before Lucas would shoot it. They trained extensively with stunt coordinator Nick Gillard to memorize and perform their duel together. As in the previous two prequel films, McGregor and Christensen performed their own lightsaber fighting scenes without the use of stunt doubles.
Anakin has also been voiced by Mat Lucas for the 2003 micro-series Star Wars: Clone Wars, and by Matt Lanter in the CGI animated film Star Wars: The Clone Wars, the television series of the same name and for Anakin's cameos in Star Wars Rebels. For Vader's appearances in the Star Wars Rebels animated series, James Earl Jones has reprised the voice role. Both Lanter and Jones contributed their voices for the second-season finale of Rebels, at times with identical dialogue spoken by both actors blended together in different ways.
Maps Darth Vader
Appearances
Darth Vader appears in seven of the nine live-action Star Wars films and The Clone Wars animated film and spinoff series. He has a recurring role in Star Wars expanded universe material.
Featured films
Original trilogy
Darth Vader first appears in Star Wars as a ruthless cyborg serving the Galactic Empire. He is tasked, along with Imperial commander Grand Moff Tarkin, with recovering the secret technical plans for the Death Star, which were stolen by the Rebel Alliance. Vader captures and tortures Princess Leia Organa, who has hidden the plans inside the droid R2-D2 and sent it to find Vader's former Jedi Master Obi-Wan Kenobi on the planet Tatooine. During Leia's rescue, Vader kills Obi-Wan in a lightsaber duel. Having placed a tracking device aboard the Millennium Falcon, Vader is able to track down the Rebels' base on the planet Yavin 4. During the Rebels' attack on the Death Star, Vader attempts to shoot down Luke Skywalker's X-wing fighter, but Han Solo intervenes and sends Vader's ship spiraling off course, allowing Luke to destroy the Death Star.
In The Empire Strikes Back, Vader becomes obsessed with finding Luke and leads the Imperial attack on the Rebel base on Hoth, but the Rebels escape. While conversing with the Emperor, Vader convinces him that Luke would be valuable to the Empire if he could be turned to the dark side of the Force. Vader hires a group of bounty hunters to follow Luke and his friends, and negotiates with Bespin administrator Lando Calrissian to set a trap for them so that Luke will follow them. After Han, Leia, Chewbacca, and C-3PO arrive, Vader tortures Han, freezes him in carbonite and gives him to bounty hunter Boba Fett. When Luke arrives, Vader defeats Luke in a lightsaber duel, severing his opponent's hand. Vader then tells Luke that he is his father and asks Luke to help him overthrow the Emperor so they can rule the galaxy together. Horrified, Luke escapes through an air shaft. Vader telepathically tells Luke that it is his destiny to join the dark side.
In Return of the Jedi, Vader and the Emperor are supervising the second Death Star's construction. Unknown to Vader, the Emperor intends to replace him with Luke as his apprentice. Thinking that there is still good in his father, Luke surrenders to Vader in hopes that he can be redeemed. Vader brings Luke to the Emperor on board the Death Star. While there, the Emperor tempts Luke to join the dark side by appealing to the young Jedi's fear for his friends, which leads to Vader dueling with Luke once again. Realizing that Leia is Luke's twin sister, Vader threatens to turn her to the dark side if Luke will not submit. Furious, Luke overpowers Vader and severs his father's robotic hand. The Emperor orders Luke to kill Vader and take his place. Luke refuses, however, and the Emperor tortures him with Force lightning. Moved by Luke's pleas for help, Vader throws the Emperor down the Death Star's reactor core to his death; he is mortally wounded by the Emperor's lightning in the process. After asking Luke to remove his mask, the redeemed Anakin Skywalker tells his son that there was good in him after all before he dies. Luke escapes the Death Star with his father's remains, and ceremonially burns them in a pyre. Anakin's spirit reunites with those of Obi-Wan and Yoda to watch over Luke and his friends as the Rebels celebrate the Death Star's destruction and the fall of the Empire.
Prequel trilogy
Anakin first appears in the prequel trilogy in Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace, which takes place 32 years before the original Star Wars, as a young slave living on the planet Tatooine with his mother Shmi. Anakin was conceived without a father and he can foresee the future. Also a gifted pilot and mechanic, Anakin has built his own protocol droid, C-3PO. Jedi Master Qui-Gon Jinn meets Anakin after making an emergency landing on Tatooine. Qui-Gon senses Anakin's strong connection to the Force and becomes convinced that the boy is the "Chosen One" of Jedi prophecy who will bring balance to the Force. After winning his freedom in a podrace, Anakin leaves for Coruscant to be trained as a Jedi, but is forced to leave Shmi behind. During the journey, Anakin forms a bond with Padmé Amidala, the young queen of Naboo. Qui-Gon asks the Jedi Council for permission to train Anakin, but they sense fear in the boy and refuse. Eventually, Anakin helps thwart the Trade Federation's invasion of Naboo by destroying their command ship. After Qui-Gon is killed in a lightsaber duel with Sith Lord Darth Maul, Obi-Wan promises to train Anakin, with the Council's reluctant approval. Palpatine later befriends Anakin and tells him that he will watch the boy's career "with great interest".
Anakin is Obi-Wan's Padawan apprentice in Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones, which takes place 10 years after The Phantom Menace. Having rescued Padmé, who is now a senator, from an assassination attempt, Anakin travels with her to Naboo, where they fall in love. Sensing that Shmi is in pain, Anakin travels to Tatooine to rescue her. While there, Anakin learns she was kidnapped by Tusken Raiders. Anakin locates Shmi at the Tusken campsite, where she dies in his arms. Anakin, enraged, massacres the Tuskens and returns to the Lars homestead to bury Shmi. Anakin travels with Padmé to Geonosis to rescue Obi-Wan from Sith Lord Count Dooku, Qui-Gon's old master and leader of the Separatists, a conspiracy of star systems bent on seceding from the Galactic Republic. Dooku captures them, however, and sentences them to death. However, a cadre of Jedi arrives with the Kaminoan clone army to halt their executions. Obi-Wan and Anakin confront Dooku during the ensuing battle, but the Sith Lord beats them both in a lightsaber duel and severs Anakin's arm. Yoda intervenes and rescues the Jedi. By the end of the film, Anakin is fitted with a robotic arm and marries Padmé in secret.
In Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith, set three years after Attack of the Clones, Anakin is now a Jedi Knight and a hero of the Clone Wars. He and Obi-Wan lead a mission to rescue Palpatine from Separatist commander General Grievous on board his starship. The Jedi battle Dooku, whom Anakin eventually executes on Palpatine's command. They rescue Palpatine and return to Coruscant. Anakin reunites with Padmé, who tells him she is pregnant. Anakin has visions of Padmé dying in childbirth and becomes determined to prevent them from coming true. Palpatine tells Anakin that the dark side holds the power to cheat death, and eventually reveals that he is the Sith Lord Darth Sidious, the mastermind of the war. Although Anakin informs Jedi Master Mace Windu of Palpatine's treachery, he follows Windu to make sure Palpatine is captured alive. When he realizes that Windu is going to kill Palpatine, Anakin intervenes on the Sith Lord's behalf, allowing Palpatine to kill Windu. Desperate to save Padmé, Anakin pledges himself to the dark side and becomes Palpatine's Sith apprentice, Darth Vader. On Palpatine's command, Vader leads a legion of clones to kill everyone at the Jedi Temple and massacres the remaining Separatist leaders hiding on the volcanic planet Mustafar. Padmé confronts Vader and implores him to abandon the dark side, but Vader refuses and abandons her instead. Upon witnessing Obi-Wan invited to intervene, Vader accuses his wife of conspiring against him and uses the Force to choke her into unconsciousness. Obi-Wan duels and defeats Vader, severing both of his legs, and leaving him at the bank of a lava river, where he is horribly burned. Palpatine later finds Vader still alive and takes him back to Coruscant, where his apprentice's mutilated body is covered in the black armored suit first depicted in the original trilogy. Palpatine explains to Vader that he killed Padmé in his rage; Vader screams in agony, his spirit broken. As the film concludes, Vader supervises the construction of the first Death Star alongside Palpatine and Wilhuff Tarkin.
The Clone Wars (film)
In the 2008 film The Clone Wars, Yoda assigns Ahsoka Tano as Anakin's Padawan apprentice to teach him a greater sense of responsibility, and Anakin is initially frustrated by this decision. Their early interactions are "playfully contentious", with Anakin calling her "Snips" for her "snippy" attitude and Ahsoka calling him "Skyguy" as a pun on his surname. After earning Anakin's respect during a dangerous mission, Ahsoka joins him on a quest to rescue Jabba the Hutt's infant son. Her impetuousness both annoys and endears her to her master, and, by the end of the film, Anakin reveals a newfound affection for his apprentice.
Anthology films
Vader appears in the first anthology film Rogue One, played by Spencer Wilding and Daniel Naprous, with James Earl Jones once again voicing the character. In this film, Vader meets with Imperial weapons engineer Orson Krennic, who asks him for an audience with the Emperor regarding the Death Star which Krennic lost command of to Tarkin. Vader refuses, however, and uses the Force to choke him as a way of putting him in his place and orders him to ensure the Death Star project has not been compromised. At the end of the film, Vader boards the disabled Rebel flagship Profundity with a cadre of Imperial stormtroopers and kills several Rebel soldiers as he attempts to recover the plans. However, the Alderaanian blockade runner Tantive IV (which was docked with the Profundity) escapes with the plans, setting the stage for the events of A New Hope.
Prior to the hallway scene being filmed, during the finale for Rogue One it was planned that Orson Krennic would survive the Death Star's assault on Scariff and Vader would then murder him for failing to stop the theft of the Death Star plans. However this scene was cut from Rogue One due to the difficulty of explaining how Krennic survived the explosion the Death Star caused.
Television series
The Clone Wars (2008-2014)
Anakin is a lead character in all seasons of The Clone Wars. As a Jedi Knight, he goes on several missions with both Obi-Wan and Ahsoka throughout the war. While continuing to teach Ahsoka the ways of the Jedi, Anakin has developed a close bond with her and they take risks to protect or save one another. Some of Anakin's actions taken out of concern for Ahsoka violate the Jedi code, such as torturing prisoners who may know her location when she goes missing. During the third season, Anakin experiences a vision of his future as Darth Vader.
Rebels (2014)
Darth Vader is a recurring character in the first season of Star Wars Rebels, which takes place 14 years after The Clone Wars concludes. Vader leads a squadron of Force-sensitive Imperial Inquisitors who are actively searching for and killing any remaining Jedi and Force-sensitive children. In the second-season premiere, Vader discovers that Ahsoka has joined the Rebel Alliance, and the Emperor orders him to hunt her down.
During their first confrontation in which Vader wipes out most of Phoenix Squadron's troops, Ahsoka is overwhelmed when she recognizes Anakin under "a layer of hate" in Darth Vader. Later in the season, Ahsoka has a vision in which Anakin blames her for allowing him to fall to the dark side. Vader makes a brief cameo at the end of "Shroud of Darkness" in which he is brought to the Jedi temple on Lothal. In the season finale, Ahsoka duels with her former master inside a Sith Temple, allowing her friends to escape Vader and the temple's destruction. As the episode concludes, Vader escapes from the temple's ruins. Filoni said that it was "an elected decision" not to feature Vader for the third season. Vader makes a final voiceless cameo in the late fourth season episode "A World Between Worlds", as Ezra looks back in time to see the conclusion of his duel with Ahsoka before rescuing her from him. Shortly afterward, quotes from Vader are heard echoing in the void after Ezra says his name.
Forces of Destiny (2017)
Anakin appears in the episode The Padawan Path. He is voiced again by Matt Lanter.
In The Padawan Path, Anakin is waiting along with Yoda in the Jedi temple for Ahsoka, for her ceremony.
Comics
In 2015, Marvel released a 25-issue series called Darth Vader (2015), which focused on the title character in the aftermath of the destruction of the Death Star, as well as his life after learning about the existence of his son, the series happens parallel to the comic series Star Wars (2015) and has a cross-over with it titled Vader Down.
The Obi-Wan & Anakin 5-issue mini-series written by Charles Soule, depicts the lives of both Jedi between The Phantom Menace and Attack of the Clones. At New York Comic Con 2015, Dan Brooks of StarWars.com held an interview with Soule, who described the story as "pretty unexplored territory."
A second series named exactly as the previous series Darth Vader (2017), is also written by Charles Soule. It begins moments after Vader wakes up for the first time in his black suit at the end of the film Episode III: Revenge of the Sith. The series will focus on exploring the title character's reaction to Padme's death, his adjustment to his mechanical suit, how he creates his red lightsaber, as well as how he hunts Jedi, and the beginning of the Inquisitor program shown in the animated series Star Wars Rebels.
Star Wars canon literature
Star Wars: Lords of the Sith was one of the first four canon novels to be released in 2014 and 2015. In Lords of the Sith, Vader and Palpatine find themselves hunted by revolutionaries on the Twi'lek planet Ryloth.
Virtual reality game
In the 2015 Star Wars Celebration, it was announced David S. Goyer is helping to develop a virtual reality game based on Darth Vader. It is said that the audience as "visitor" will be able to walk, pick up, push and open things, and might even have some effect in the story.
Legends
In April 2014, most of the licensed Star Wars novels and comics produced since the originating 1977 film Star Wars were rebranded by Lucasfilm as "Star Wars: Legends" and declared non-canon to the franchise.
Clone Wars (2003-2005)
Anakin is a lead character in all three seasons of the Clone Wars microseries, which takes place four months after the conclusion of Attack of the Clones. Anakin becomes a Jedi Knight and is quickly promoted to a General of the Republic's Clone Army, due in part to Palpatine's influence. Among other missions, he fights a duel with Dark Jedi Asajj Ventress, helps Obi-Wan capture a Separatist-controlled fortress and rescues Jedi Master Saesee Tiin during a space battle. During the third season, Anakin frees the planet Nelvaan from Separatist control and sees a cryptic vision of his future as Darth Vader. In the season finale, Anakin and Obi-Wan go on a mission to rescue Palpatine from General Grievous, leading to the opening of Revenge of the Sith. Series creator and director Genndy Tartakovsky admitted that he was bothered that Lucasfilm declared Clone Wars non-canon, but said that he was proud of what he did and how much the microseries and the characters influenced later works.
Literature
Vader is featured prominently in novels set in the Star Wars universe. In the 1978 novel Splinter of the Mind's Eye by Alan Dean Foster, Vader meets Luke Skywalker for the first time and engages him in a lightsaber duel that ends with Luke cutting off Vader's arm and Vader falling into a deep pit. (In 1999's Vader's Quest, however, Vader encounters Luke for the first time after hiring a bounty hunter to find the pilot who destroyed the Death Star.) Shadows of the Empire (1996) reveals that Vader is conflicted about trying to turn his son to the dark side of the Force, and knows deep down that there is still some good in him.
Anakin Skywalker's redeemed spirit appears in The Truce at Bakura (1993), set a few days after the end of Return of the Jedi. He appears to Leia, imploring her forgiveness. Leia condemns him for his crimes and exiles him from her life. He promises that he will be there for her when she needs him, and disappears. In Tatooine Ghost (2003), Leia learns to forgive her father after learning about his childhood as a slave and his mother's traumatic death. In The Unifying Force (2003), Anakin tells his grandson Jacen Solo to "stand firm" in his battle with the Supreme Overlord of the Yuuzhan Vong.
Upon the release of the prequel films, the Expanded Universe grew to include novels about Vader's former life as Anakin Skywalker. Greg Bear's 2000 novel Rogue Planet and Jude Watson's Jedi Apprentice and Jedi Quest series chronicle Anakin's early missions with Obi-Wan, while James Luceno's 2005 novel Labyrinth of Evil, set during the Clone Wars, depicts Anakin battling Separatist commander General Grievous. In Luceno's Dark Lord: The Rise of Darth Vader (2005), set a few months after the events of Revenge of the Sith, Vader disavows his identity as Anakin Skywalker as he systematically pursues and kills the surviving Jedi and cements his position in the Empire. The novel reveals that Vader plans to eventually overthrow Palpatine and that he betrayed the Jedi because he resented their supposed failure to recognize his power.
In The Dark Nest trilogy (2005), Luke and Leia uncover old recordings of their parents in R2-D2's memory drive; for the first time, they see their own birth and their mother's death, as well as their father's corruption to the dark side. In Bloodlines (2006), Han and Leia's son Jacen - who has himself turned to the dark side - uses the Force to "watch" Darth Vader slaughter the children at the Jedi Temple.
Vader also appears in a series of tongue-in-cheek children's books by Jeffrey Brown. In Brown's series, a somewhat hapless Vader sets out to be a father to a young Luke and Leia, with some scenes directly based on their darker film counterparts (for example, one scene shows Vader, Luke and Leia at the carbonite freezing chamber on Bespin, with Vader pronouncing the freezer adequate for making ice cream).
Comics
Vader appears in several comic books such as Dark Horse Comics' Star Wars Tales and Marvel Comics' Star Wars (1977-1986) series.
Anakin Skywalker is a major character in Dark Horse's Star Wars: Republic series (1998-2006).
Video games
Darth Vader and Anakin Skywalker appear in a variety of video games such as the Lego Star Wars series and the Battlefront series. Vader plays a central role in Star Wars: The Force Unleashed (2008). He is a playable character in the first level of the game, where he and his armies invade Kashyyyk to hunt down a Jedi who had survived the Order's destruction. Vader kills the Jedi and kidnaps the man's young Force-sensitive son, whom he raises as his secret apprentice, Starkiller. Vader sends Starkiller on various missions throughout the galaxy, with an ultimate goal to assassinate Palpatine so that Vader can rule the galaxy himself. Toward the end of the game, however, it is revealed that Vader isn't planning to overthrow Palpatine at all; he is merely using his apprentice to expose the Empire's enemies. At the game's climax, the player chooses between attacking Palpatine to help his Rebel friends escape the Death Star or killing Vader to become the Emperor's new apprentice. He also appears in the sequel Star Wars: The Force Unleashed II as the final boss.
Other
Darth Vader features in the 1981 radio drama adaptation of Star Wars, voiced by the actor Brock Peters. Vader makes his first appearance on the planet Ralltiir, where he treats Princess Leia Organa with suspicion. In later extended scenes, he is heard interrogating and torturing Leia on board his Star Destroyer and aboard the Death Star.
Vader appears in Star Tours - The Adventures Continue, where he is voiced by Jones. Vader is featured as a combatant in the popular series Death Battle, in which he is pitted against Marvel Comics villain Doctor Doom. He loses the fight due to Doom's superior weaponry and abilities.
Characteristics
In Attack of the Clones, Anakin Skywalker feels "smothered" by Obi-Wan Kenobi and is incapable of controlling his own life. By Revenge of the Sith, however, his "father-son" friction with his master has matured into a more equal, brotherly relationship. Once he becomes Darth Vader, each evil act he commits shatters any hope or connection towards his previous life, which makes it harder for him to return to the light, but he ultimately escapes the dark side and redeems himself by sacrificing his life to save his son, Luke Skywalker, and kill the Emperor in Return of the Jedi.
Eric Bui, a psychiatrist at University of Toulouse Hospital, argued at the 2007 American Psychiatric Association convention that Anakin Skywalker meets six of the nine diagnostic criteria for borderline personality disorder (BPD), one more than necessary for a diagnosis. He and a colleague, Rachel Rodgers, published their findings in a 2010 letter to the editor of the journal Psychiatry Research. Bui says he found Anakin Skywalker a useful example to explain BPD to medical students. In particular, Bui points to Anakin's abandonment issues and uncertainty over his identity. Anakin's mass murders of the Tusken Raiders in Attack of the Clones and the young Jedi in Revenge of the Sith count as two dissociative episodes, fulfilling another criterion. Bui hoped his paper would help raise awareness of the disorder, especially among teens.
Cultural impact
Darth Vader's iconic status has made the character a synonym for evil in popular culture. For example, a three part series of episodes of the YouTube series Epic Rap Battles of History has Darth Vader facing off against Adolf Hitler. Psychiatrists have considered Vader to be a useful example for explaining borderline personality disorder to medical students. Anakin's origin story in The Phantom Menace has been compared to signifiers of African American racial identity, and his dissatisfaction with his life has been compared to Siddartha's before he became Gautama Buddha. A Mexican church advised Christians against seeing The Phantom Menace because it portrays Anakin as a Christ figure. The slime-mold beetle Agathidium vaderi is named after Vader, and several buildings across the globe are regularly compared to him. A grotesque of Darth Vader looms over the east face of the Washington National Cathedral's northwest tower. During the 2007-08 NHL season, Ottawa Senators goaltender Martin Gerber performed so well in an all-black mask that fans endearingly termed him "Darth Gerber". In 2015, a statue of Vladimir Lenin in Odessa, Ukraine, was converted into one of Darth Vader due to a law on decommunization.
Many commentators and comedians have also evoked his visage to satirize politicians and other public figures, and several American political figures have been unflatteringly compared to the character, including General George Custer, the subject of the acrylic painting Darth Custer by Native American artist Bunky Echohawk. In 2005, Al Gore referred to Tele-Communications Inc.'s John C. Malone as the "Darth Vader of cable", and political strategist Lee Atwater was known by his political enemies as "the Darth Vader of the Republican Party".
On June 22, 2006, US Vice President Dick Cheney referred to himself as the Darth Vader of the Bush administration. Discussing the administration's philosophy on gathering intelligence, he said to CNN's John King, "It means we need to be able to go after and capture or kill those people who are trying to kill Americans. That's not a pleasant business. It's a very serious business. And I suppose, sometimes, people look at my demeanor and say, 'Well, he's the Darth Vader of the administration.'" Jon Stewart put on a Darth Vader helmet to address Dick Cheney as a "kindred spirit" on The Daily Show on January 25, 2007. Cheney's wife, Lynne, presented Stewart with a Darth Vader action figure on her appearance on the show on October 10, 2007. Both Stewart and Stephen Colbert have occasionally referred to Cheney as "Darth Cheney". In the satirical cartoon show Lil' Bush, Dick Cheney's father is portrayed as being Darth Vader. At her presidential campaign event on September 19, 2007, Hillary Clinton also referred to Cheney as Darth Vader. At the 2008 Washington Radio and Television Correspondents' Association Dinner, Cheney joked that his wife Lynne told him that the Vader comparison "humanizes" him. George Lucas told The New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd, however, that Cheney is more akin to Emperor Palpatine, and that a better stand-in for Vader would be George W. Bush. An issue of Newsweek referenced this quote, and compared Bush and Cheney to Vader and Palpatine, respectively, in a satirical article comparing politicians to various Star Wars and Star Trek characters.
Many films and television series have paid homage to Darth Vader. Marty McFly in Back to the Future (1985), dressed in a radiation suit, calls himself "Darth Vader from the planet Vulcan" to convince the past version of his father to ask his mother to a dance. Rick Moranis plays "Dark Helmet" in the Star Wars parody Spaceballs (1987). In Chasing Amy (1997), Hooper X speaks at a comic convention about Darth Vader being a metaphor for how poorly the science fiction genre treats black people; he is especially offended that Vader, the "blackest brother in the galaxy", reveals himself to be a "feeble, crusty old white man" at the end of Return of the Jedi. The character was also parodied in the Nickelodeon cartoon Rocko's Modern Life in the episode "Teed Off". On another Nickelodeon cartoon, Jimmy Neutron, Darth Vader's infamous line, "I am your father", was interpolated in the mini-episode "New Dog, Old Tricks". The line was also alluded to in Toy Story, a film franchise also owned by Disney.
The character has gained much positive reception as a classic film villain. Darth Vader ranked number two on Empire magazine's 2008 list of The 100 Greatest Movie Characters. Premiere magazine also ranked Vader on their list of The 100 Greatest Movie Characters of All Time. On their list of the 100 Greatest Fictional Characters, Fandomania.com ranked Vader at number 6. Darth Vader was also the No. 1 supervillain on the Bravo series Ultimate Super Heroes, Vixens and Villains. Darth Vader was also ranked as No. 1 in IGN's list of top 100 Star Wars characters. Furthermore, Darth Vader's quote in The Empire Strikes Back - "No, I am your father" (often misquoted as "Luke, I am your father"), - is one of the most well known quotes in cinema history. The line was selected as one of the 400 nominees for the American Film Institute's 100 Years... 100 Movie Quotes, a list of the greatest American movie quotes. Vader received the Ultimate Villain recognition at the 2011 Scream Awards.
In 2009, Vader (or, more precisely, a reproduction of him conserved at the Smithsonian Institution) had a brief cameo in Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian, as he, along with an Oscar the Grouch prop replica, tries to join the army formed by (the reproductions of) Ivan the Terrible, Napoleon, Al Capone and the fictional Pharaoh Kahmunrah, but they judge him only a futile robot, as he does not speak, but tries to Force-choke them, with a gesture they interpret as a sort of salute.
In 2010, IGN ranked Darth Vader 25th in the "Top 100 Videogames Villains".
In Ukraine, the Internet Party of Ukraine regularly lets people named Darth Vader take part in elections.
Family tree
Notes
References
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Bortolin, Matthew (2005). The Dharma of Star Wars. Wisdom Publications. ISBN 978-0-86171-497-1.
- Bowen, Jonathan L. (2005). Anticipation: The Real Life Story of Star Wars: Episode I-The Phantom Menace. iUniverse. ISBN 978-0-595-34732-2.
- Kaminski, Michael (2008). The Secret History of Star Wars. Legacy Works Press. ISBN 0-9784652-3-7.
- Further reading
- Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace Novelization, 1st edition paperback, 1999. Terry Brooks, George Lucas
- Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones Novelization, 2003. R. A. Salvatore, ISBN 0-345-42882-X
- Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith Novelization, 1st edition hardcover, 2005. Matthew Woodring Stover, George Lucas, ISBN 0-7126-8427-1
- The New Essential Guide to Characters, 1st edition, 2002. Daniel Wallace, Michael Sutfin, ISBN 0-345-44900-2
- Vader: The Ultimate Guide, 2005.
- Star Wars: The Visual Dictionary, hardcover, 1998. Dr. David West Reynolds, ISBN 0-7894-3481-4
- Star Wars: The Phantom Menace: The Visual Dictionary, hardcover, 1999. Dr. David West Reynolds, ISBN 0-7894-4701-0
- Star Wars: Attack of the Clones: The Visual Dictionary, hardcover, 2002. Dr. David West Reynolds, ISBN 0-7894-8588-5
- Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith: The Visual Dictionary, hardcover, 2005. James Luceno, ISBN 0-7566-1128-8
- "Darth Vader in Games: A Visual History". IGN. October 28, 2010.
External links
- Darth Vader in the StarWars.com Databank
- Anakin Skywalker in the StarWars.com Databank
- Anakin Skywalker / Darth Vader on Wookieepedia, a Star Wars wiki
- Darth Vader on IMDb
- Darth Vader on Encyclopædia Britannica
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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