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Darth Vader
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Darth Vader is the central antagonist in George Lucas's first three Star Wars films and Revenge of the Sith, voiced by James Earl Jones and portrayed physically by David Prowse in the original Star Wars trilogy and by Canadian actor Hayden Christensen in Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith. Vader is one of the most iconic villains of all time, and was listed as the third greatest movie villain of all time on a list by AFI.
The original trilogy depicts Darth Vader as a fearsome cyborg and Sith Lord who serves at the right hand of Emperor Palpatine (Ian McDiarmid), leading the brutal Galactic Empire in oppressing the galaxy and hunting down the Rebel Alliance.
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Darth Vader is the central antagonist in George Lucas's first three Star Wars films and Revenge of the Sith, voiced by James Earl Jones and portrayed physically by David Prowse in the original Star Wars trilogy and by Canadian actor Hayden Christensen in Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith. Vader is one of the most iconic villains of all time, and was listed as the third greatest movie villain of all time on a list by AFI.
The original trilogy depicts Darth Vader as a fearsome cyborg and Sith Lord who serves at the right hand of Emperor Palpatine (Ian McDiarmid), leading the brutal Galactic Empire in oppressing the galaxy and hunting down the Rebel Alliance. The prequel trilogy depicts him as Anakin Skywalker, a slave boy who becomes a heroic Jedi Knight and hero of the Clone Wars. He then falls to the "dark side" of the mystical Force after Palpatine manipulates him into betraying the Jedi and destroying the Galactic Republic. In Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi, the series' final chronological installment, Vader redeems himself by killing Emperor Palpatine, sacrificing himself in the process.
Depiction
Original trilogy
In the original Star Wars trilogy, Darth Vader is the primary antagonist: a dark, foreboding, and ruthless figure. One of the pivotal rulers of the Empire, he mercilessly attempts to destroy the Rebel Alliance, which is waging a long and desperate war to free the galaxy from the Empire's evil clutches. Beginning with Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back, Vader's leitmotif is composer John Williams' The Imperial March, which heralds the character's entrances in the mise en scène.
A New Hope
Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, the first movie in the narrative chronology, features the character's first screen appearance. Vader is charged with recovering the stolen plans of the Death Star and finding the Rebel Alliance's secret base. He captures and tortures Princess Leia Organa (Carrie Fisher) and is present when Death Star commander Grand Moff Tarkin (Peter Cushing) destroys her home world of Alderaan. Shortly afterward, Vader fights a lightsaber duel against his former master, Obi-Wan Kenobi (Alec Guinness); Vader kills Kenobi, turning him into a spirit in the Force. He then encounters Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill) during a battle over the Death Star, and senses in him a great strength in the Force shortly before the boy destroys the battle station. Just as Vader is about to shoot down Luke's ship, the Millennium Falcon, piloted by Han Solo (Harrison Ford), destroys Vader's wingman and sends Vader's ship spinning into space.
Early in the film, Kenobi tells Luke that Vader was a former Jedi who betrayed and murdered Luke's father.
The Empire Strikes Back
In Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back, Vader captures Leia, Han, Chewbacca (Peter Mayhew), and C-3PO (Anthony Daniels) on the cloud city of Bespin to lure Luke into a confrontation. Luke, who has been partially trained by Yoda (Frank Oz), duels Vader, but is eventually defeated when Vader severs Luke's right hand. Vader reveals his true identity as Luke's father and offers Luke the chance to overthrow Palpatine and "rule the galaxy as father and son". Luke refuses and throws himself from a weather platform into a reactor chasm. He is sucked into a garbage chute and rescued by Leia, Chewbacca, C-3PO and Lando Calrissian (Billy Dee Williams).
Return of the Jedi
In Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi, Luke has nearly completed his Jedi training and learns from Yoda that Vader is indeed his father. Luke learns about his father's past from Obi-Wan's spirit, and also learns that Leia is his twin sister. On a mission to the forest moon of Endor, he surrenders to Imperial stormtroopers and is delivered to Vader and the Emperor. Aboard the second Death Star, which is being constructed in orbit, Palpatine tries to seduce Luke to the dark side. Luke resists the Emperor's appeals to his anger and threats to his friends, but snaps when Vader threatens to turn Leia to the dark side. Luke brutally overpowers Vader, severing his father's right hand; however, he controls his anger at the last minute, realizing that he is perilously close to suffering his father's fate.
The Emperor urges Luke to kill Vader and "fulfill his destiny" by becoming Palpatine's new apprentice. Luke refuses and throws down his lightsaber. Enraged, Palpatine unleashes a torrent of Force lightning upon Luke. In agony, Luke begs his father for help. Unable to stand the sight of his son's suffering, Vader turns on his master, throwing him into the Death Star's reactor core, killing him. In the process, however, he is mortally wounded by the Emperor's lightning. Moments from death, he begs his son to take off his breath-mask so he can look at Luke with his own eyes; Luke complies and, for the first time, father and son truly see each other. In his last words, Anakin Skywalker admits that there is some good left in him, and dies redeemed. Luke escapes on a shuttle with his father's body as the Death Star explodes, destroyed by the Rebel Alliance. That night, Luke cremates his father's armor and, during the victory celebration on Endor's forest moon, Luke sees the redeemed spirit of Anakin Skywalker standing alongside the spirits of Obi-Wan Kenobi and Yoda.
Prequel trilogy
Revenge of the Sith
Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith portrays Anakin Skywalker's fall to the dark side of the Force. In the closing days of the Clone Wars between the Republic and the villainous Separatists, Palpatine — then the Republic's Chancellor — reveals himself to Anakin as the Sith Lord Darth Sidious and tempts him to join the dark side by promising that it will enable him to save his pregnant wife, Padmé Amidala (Natalie Portman), from dying in childbirth. At first Skywalker informs Mace Windu (Samuel L. Jackson) of Palpatine's identity, who goes to his office to arrest him. Anakin begins to feel the need to save Palpatine and severs Windu's right arm, allowing the emperor to kill him, and becomes the Dark Lord's Sith apprentice, Darth Vader. His first assignment is to assault the Jedi Temple and kill everyone inside, even the younglings, paving the way for Palpatine to destroy the Jedi and form the Empire from the Republic's ashes.
Vader then travels to the lava planet Mustafar, where Separatist leaders have gathered, and mercilessly slaughters them. There, Vader is surprised by the sudden appearance of Padmé, who has learned what her husband has done and begs him to go into hiding with her. Vader, mad with power, suspects her of betraying him. The appearance of Anakin's former mentor and friend, Obi-Wan Kenobi (Ewan McGregor), confirms in Vader's mind his suspicions about Padmé. In his anger, he uses the Force to choke her into unconsciousness. Kenobi and Vader engage in a fierce lightsaber duel, at the end of which Kenobi severs Vader's limbs; Vader then slips too close to the lava, and nearly burns to death. Palpatine arrives in time to rescue his apprentice and transports him to Coruscant, where medical droids encase him in the black armored suit, mask, and respirator first seen in the original films.
When Vader regains consciousness and asks for Padmé, Palpatine tells him that she was killed in the heat of Vader's anger. (She had in fact died after giving birth to Luke and Leia.) This revelation breaks what remains of Anakin's spirit; he screams in torment, destroying the objects around him with the Force. He is last seen at Palpatine's side, watching the construction of the first Death Star.
Expanded Universe
Literature
Vader appears numerous times in Marvel Comics' Star Wars series.
As chronicled in James Luceno's book Dark Lord: The Rise of Darth Vader, Vader sheds his identity as Anakin Skywalker shortly after the events of Episode III. In the months afterward, he systematically pursues and kills survivors of the Great Jedi Purge; in the process, he fully embraces his new identity as a Sith and disavows any connection to his former Jedi self. The novel also reveals Vader's plan to eventually overthrow Palpatine and rule the Empire himself, and that his primary motivation for betraying the Jedi Order was that he resented their supposed failure to recognize his power. He initialy hates his new, mechanical body, but adapts to it after accepting his new life.
In the comic book Vader's Quest, he hires bounty hunters to bring him information about the pilot who destroyed the Death Star, ultimately meeting his son Luke for the first time. Later, in the Alan Dean Foster novel Splinter of the Mind's Eye (which takes place shortly after the events in A New Hope), Vader meets Luke for the second time and fights him in a lightsaber duel on Mimban. On Mimban, Vader is nearly defeated by Luke, who severs his right arm.
In The Star Wars Holiday Special, Vader searches for the Rebels responsible for the Death Star's destruction, almost thwarting Han and Chewbacca's goal of reaching Kashyyyk in order for Chewie to reach his family for Life Day.
Timothy Zahn's Thrawn trilogy explains that Darth Vader is the first representative of the Empire to find the Noghri, a race with exceptional combat skills, whom he manipulated into serving as his personal commandos and revering him as their master. Vader later transferred their services to Grand Admiral Thrawn.
Video games
Vader appears in many Star Wars video games.
He has a prominent role in the 1996 Shadows of the Empire multimedia project, including the video game, which takes place between The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi. In the story, Prince Xizor plots to overthrow Vader and take his place as the Emperor's second in command. The story also reveals that Vader knows there is some good left in him, and that he wishes to use the Force to return his physical appearance to that of his former self.
Darth Vader plays a central role in The Force Unleashed. He is playable in the first level of the game, where he and his armies invade the planet Kashyyyk to hunt down a rogue Jedi. Vader kills the Jedi and kidnaps the man's young son Galen Marek, who is gifted in the Force, to secretly raise as his apprentice. Vader sends his apprentice (the game's protagonist) on various missions to planets throughout the galaxy, with an ultimate goal to assassinate Palpatine so that he and his apprentice can rule the galaxy themselves. Towards the end of the game, however, it is revealed that Vader wasn't planning to overthrow Palpatine at all, and that he was just using his apprentice to expose the Empire's enemies; in the game's climax, Vader and Palpatine kill Marek. In the game's alternate non-canon ending, however, Marek kills Vader instead. In the Wii version of The Force Unleashed, Vader is also playable in the game's Duel Mode.
Vader is an unlockable playable character in Lego Star Wars: The Video Game and its sequel Lego Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy.
Vader is also featured as a playable character in the Playstation 3 version of Soulcalibur IV and the Xbox 360 version as a download from Namco, as one of three Star Wars guest characters. In various videos, comics, artwork and other media related to the game, he is most often depicted fighting the samurai Heishiro Mitsurugi, one of the Soulcalibur franchise's most recognizable characters.
Darth Vader is a playable hero in Star Wars: Battlefront II. He is also a non-playable character in its predecessor Star Wars: Battlefront.
In Star Wars: Empire at War and its expansion Forces of Corruption, Darth Vader is a controllable character on land. His Super Star Destroyer Executor and his personal TIE Fighter squadron are playable as well.
In Star Wars: Galactic Battlegrounds and its expansion Star Wars: Galactic Battlegrounds: Clone Campaigns, Darth Vader is a Hero character under the Galactic Empire civilization. He also has his own campaign, narrated by the Emperor's Hand Mara Jade.
Production and publication
Creation and concepts
The character's image was created when concept artist Ralph McQuarrie drew the opening scene where Vader and his stormtroopers board a Rebel ship. It was initially imagined that Darth Vader would fly through space to enter the ship, necessitating a suit and breathing mask. This equipment was later made permanent and incorporated in the story.
The iconic sound of the character's respirator breathing was created by sound designer Ben Burtt, who created the sound by recording himself breathing into a scuba regulator.
Darth Vader's costume is one of the areas in which Lucas' interest in feudal Japan — in particular samurai warriors — is most clearly manifested. According to Star Wars wardrobe master John Mollo, "Darth Vader's helmet started as a World War I German helmet".
Portrayals
David Prowse played Darth Vader during filming of A New Hope. Prowse was originally given the choice between the roles of Chewbacca and Darth Vader, and chose the latter because he said "people would remember him." After filming, James Earl Jones was hired to read Vader's lines over Prowse's performance, in part due to Prowse's strong West Country accent. Lucas eventually chose Jones to provide Vader's voice for all the original trilogy films; Jones has since been closely identified with the role. In 1978, Jones returned as the voice of Darth Vader in The Star Wars Holiday Special, which used A New Hope footage of Prowse in the character's costume. When National Public Radio commissioned writer Brian Daley to adapt Star Wars as a radio series, actor Brock Peters was hired to provide the voice of Darth Vader when Jones was not available. For the scene in which Luke unmasks Vader at the end of Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi, Lucas turned to Sebastian Shaw to portray the newly reformed Sith Lord.
Vader was also played by several stunt doubles, most notably fencing instructor Bob Anderson. Anderson handled all of Vader's fight sequences in The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi. Mark Hamill, who portrayed Luke Skywalker in the original trilogy, noted in a 1983 interview in Starlog #72: "Bob Anderson was the man who actually did Vader's fighting. It was always supposed to be a secret, but I finally told George I didn't think it was fair any more. Bob worked so hard that he deserves some recognition. It's ridiculous to preserve the myth that it’s all done by one man."
For Revenge of the Sith, Hayden Christensen, who played Anakin Skywalker in the preceding film, Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones, wore the Vader armor rather than Prowse. However, as Christensen is shorter than Prowse, Lucas employed certain perspective trickery to make him seem as physically large as Prowse: a slightly scaled-down costume was created for him; the costume had extensions built into the boots and helmet; and some of the shots of Vader standing next to Palpatine were filmed using forced perspective. No one was credited for the briefly heard voice of Darth Vader at the film's end. When asked if he had supplied the voice, either newly or from a previous recording, James Earl Jones told Newsday, "You'd have to ask Lucas about that. I don't know".
Actor and former Industrial Light & Magic visual effects artist C. Andrew Nelson has also portrayed Vader at Lucasfilm events, in the Rebel Assault II and Dark Forces video games (both of them were voiced by Scott Lawrence), and in footage filmed for the 1997 Special Edition releases of the original three Star Wars films. Nelson has also appeared as Vader on various television shows and in numerous commercials. Matt Sloan appeared as Darth Vader various times, such as Soulcalibur IV, The Force Unleashed video game and one episode of Deal or No Deal.
Darth Vader was voiced by a number of notable seiyu in the Japanese language versions of the franchise. One of the most well known is Toru Ohira, who voiced the character in Episode III and the video and DVD editions of the original trilogy as well as Soulcalibur IV, a Japanese video game. Ohira also voiced Boss Nass in Episode I. Other seiyu from the various Japanese versions of the films include Mahito Tsujimura (who also voiced Yoda), Mizuho Suzuki, Koji Nanbara, Yoshisada Sakaguchi and Taro Ishida. In video games, he is voiced by Ryuzaburo Otomo in the Japanese version of Star Wars: Galactic Battlegrounds and by Banjo Ginga in the Japanese version of Star Wars Rogue Squadron II: Rogue Leader.
Cultural figure
Due to his central role in the Star Wars films, the character of Darth Vader has entered the public consciousness as the quintessential villain. His powerful bass voice and imposing image, coupled with his heavy mechanized breathing, is easily recognizable. The American Film Institute's list of the greatest movie villains placed him third, beating the Wicked Witch of the West and the Terminator and coming just after Hannibal Lecter and Norman Bates. He has been parodied by such figures as "Duck Vader" from Tiny Toon Adventures, "Darth Benkyou" in an episode of Doraemon, "Dearth Nadir" as played by Gonzo for The Muppet Show's "Pigs in Space" sketch, "Girth Plotz" (Thaddeus Plotz) in the Animaniacs episode "Star Warners", Bowser's alter-ego "Darth Koopa" from The Super Mario Bros. Super Show, "Dark Laser" and another unnamed Vader-like character portrayed by Cosmo from The Fairly OddParents, an episode of Codename: Kids Next Door where President Jimmy dresses in black and takes over the school, and Chef from South Park as Darth Chef in the episode "The Return of Chef".
Marty McFly in Back to the Future (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.
At the beginning of Kevin Smith's Chasing Amy, the character Hooper X gives a speech at a comic convention on how Darth Vader is a metaphor for how poorly sci-fi 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".
In 1982, rock band Queen incorporated Vader into some of their live perfomances, including songs like We Will Rock You.
In Mel Brooks' 1987 Star Wars parody Spaceballs, Darth Vader is parodied as Lord Dark Helmet (Rick Moranis), a short man with an oversize Darth Vader-like helmet who occasionally opens it to reveal his face, which ironically hinders his breathing. Instead of using a lightsaber, he has a ring that gives him abilities similar to The Force (called the "Schwartz"). The Schwartz ring allows Dark Helmet to produce a lightsaber-like projection from the ring. He is given to making double entendres about his helmet and his lightsaber-like weapon emanating from his Schwartz ring("I see your Schwartz is as big as mine"). The film also pokes fun at Darth Vader's revelation to Luke Skywalker in The Empire Strikes Back; during their climactic battle, Dark Helmet declares himself to be Lone Starr's (the protagonist)"father's nephew's cousin's former roommate," summing it up as "absolutely nothing". Dark Helmet also appears in the animated spin-off series.
The character Evil Emperor Zurg from Pixar's Toy Story films appears to draw from Vader, with a similar voice, appearance and set of mannerisms. In Toy Story 2, Zurg reveals to his enemy Buzz Lightyear that he is his father, spoofing the dialogue between Luke and Vader in Episode V.
The character of the Huntsman from American Dragon: Jake Long was inspired by Darth Vader and a scene from the episode "Act 4 Scene 15" parodies the scene in The Empire Strikes Back when the back of Vader's head is briefly exposed before he dons his helmet.
In 2006, Blame Society Productions created a series of short videos featuring Chad Vader - Day Shift Manager. Chad Vader, ostensibly Darth Vader's younger brother, uses a red lightsaber, wears the same armor and cape, sent to him by his "famous brother" after he had a biking accident that flipped him into a volcano, and uses phrases and concepts associated with Darth Vader in the context of a modern grocery store. Matt Sloan, the voice of Chad Vader in the videos, would later voice Darth Vader himself in various video games and other appearances.
"The Knife," a brother/sister electronica duo from Sweden, released a love song, titled "A Lung," styled on Darth Vader's story, on their 2006 self-titled album.
Family Guy has parodied Darth Vader multiple times. In the episode "Blue Harvest" that parodied Episode IV, Stewie Griffin appeared as Darth Vader. He will reprise the role in "Something, Something, Something Dark Side," a parody of Episode V which is scheduled to air in 2009. In another episode, Darth Vader is shown attempting to take out a loan. When asked what the loan is for, Vader replies, "To build a space station that can destroy a planet"; when the accountant voices concern over his choice, Vader changes his answer to, "I want to open a sports bar." Another episode contains a scene in which Meg Griffin goes to her brother Chris' room to see his hat and hair being put on like Darth Vader's helmet in Episode V.
Darth Vader as a cultural metaphor
Darth Vader's image and name have both become synonyms for evil in the public consciousness. Lucas has pointed to Vader's iconic status as a reason for making the prequel movies, since he felt the icon overshadowed the fact that Vader was intended to be a tragic character.
Several American political figures have been unflatteringly compared to the character. On June 22, 2006, U.S. 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 satiric cartoon show Lil' Bush, Dick Cheney's father is portrayed as being Darth Vader. At her presidential campaign event on September 19, 2007, Hillary Rodham 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.
Then-Vice President Al Gore referred to Tele-Communications Inc.'s John Malone as the "Darth Vader of cable." Political strategist Lee Atwater was known by his political enemies as "the Darth Vader of the Republican Party."
In 2005, former Cornell University entomologists Quentin Wheeler and Kelly Miller named 65 new species of slime-mold beetle of the genus Agathidium, with one named Agathidium vaderi after Darth Vader.
In the last years of construction, Washington National Cathedral held a competition for children to design new grotesques for the western towers. The third-place winner was a design featuring Darth Vader, which looms over the southern side of the northwest tower. Brisbane, California, has an ominous-looking building made of dark reflective glass and the architecturally acclaimed Dakin Building, a white futuristic antithesis -- these buildings are known as the "Darth Vader building" and "Luke Skywalker building", respectively.
The Fourth and Blanchard Building in Seattle, WA is informally dubbed the 'Darth Vader building'.
The BNZ Centre (now State Insurance Tower) in Wellington, New Zealand, was once nicknamed "Darth Vader's pencil box."
See also
Further reading
Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace Novelization, 1st edition paperback, 1999. Terry Brooks, George Lucas, ISBN 0-345-43411-0Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones Novelization, 2003. R. A. Salvatore, ISBN 0-345-42882-XStar Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith Novelization, 1st edition hardcover, 2005. Matthew Woodring Stover, George Lucas, ISBN 0-7126-8427-1The New Essential Guide to Characters, 1st edition, 2002. Daniel Wallace, Michael Sutfin, ISBN 0-345-44900-2The Dark Side Sourcebook, Wizards of the Coast, 1st printing, 2001. Bill Slavicsek, J. D. Wiker, ISBN 0-7869-1849-7Vader: The Ultimate Guide, 2005.Star Wars: The Visual Dictionary, hardcover, 1998. Dr. David West Reynolds, ISBN 0-7894-3481-4Star Wars: The Phantom Menace: The Visual Dictionary, hardcover, 1999. Dr. David West Reynolds, ISBN 0-7894-4701-0Star Wars: Attack of the Clones: The Visual Dictionary, hardcover, 2002. Dr. David West Reynolds, ISBN 0-7894-8588-5Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith: The Visual Dictionary, hardcover, 2005. James Luceno, ISBN 0-7566-1128-8Shooting script of Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi as available at Shooting script of Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith as available at Star Wars Technical Commentaries, Dr. Curtis Saxton, 1995-2005. Available at Star Wars Databank. ,
External links
- at The World of Star Wars
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