Encyclopedia
Darth Vader is a fictional character in the
Star Wars is a science fantasy [i] [i] and fictional galaxy [i] cr ...
universe, and has a principal role in
,
,
, and
.
Vader is one of the most
iconic villains in movie history and was ranked third on
American Film Institute's top 50 villains of all time list. In
A New Hope and
The Empire Strikes Back, Vader is depicted as an iconic epitome of evil. He is the cunning but brutal enforcer of the Galactic Empire's rule across
the galaxy, and, on a more personal scale, the apparent murderer of
Luke Skywalker's father,
Anakin. A Dark Lord of the Sith, Vader serves at
Emperor Palpatine's right hand, using the
dark side of the Force to mercilessly pursue the
Jedi and the
Rebel Alliance to the ends of the galaxy.
In the Star Wars movies
Original trilogy
In the original
Star Wars trilogy , Darth Vader is the primary antagonist: a dark, ruthless figure out to capture,
torture, or kill the protagonists to prevent them from thwarting the
Empire.
A New Hope
Darth Vader is introduced in
as a dark figure on a mission to retrieve the stolen plans of the
Death Star and locate the hidden base of the
Rebel Alliance. He boards the
Tantive IV, was a Corellian Corvette [i] ...
, capturing
Princess Leia and bringing her to the Death Star. Aboard the Death Star
Admiral Motti ridicules Vader's "sad devotion" to the Force, and Vader responds by nearly choking the officer to death with the Force to prove his power.
An elderly
Obi-Wan Kenobi, along with
Luke Skywalker and
Han Solo, attempts to rescue Leia during their escape from the Death Star. Vader stops Obi-Wan on his way out and engages him in a
lightsaber duel. As Obi-Wan sees that if he escapes with Luke and company it would be too late, he sacrifices himself by leaving himself open to Vader's attack and then becomes a spirit in the Force in order to guide Luke.
By putting a homing beacon on Han's ship, the
Millennium Falcon, Vader traces Luke, Han, and Leia to the rebel base at Yavin IV. During the Rebel attack on the Death Star, Vader pilots a distinctive
TIE/Advanced fighter in pursuit of the Rebel
X-Wing starfighters. Vader gets a lock on Luke's X-wing, noting that "the Force is strong with this one", but is distracted by Han Solo who is piloting the
Millennium Falcon just in time to save Luke. After Vader's remaining wingman collides with his ship, he is sent hurtling into space, ultimately sparing his life, as the Death Star is destroyed moments later.
The Empire Strikes Back
In
, Vader is now at the forefront of the continuing attempt to suppress the Rebellion. He has by now learned that Luke Skywalker is the pilot responsible for the Death Star's destruction, and is determined to find him and turn him into his apprentice. He leads the Imperial troops on a full military assault on the rebel base hidden at the ice world of
Hoth and then pursues the escaping
Millennium Falcon through an
asteroid field. After hiding in the blind spot of a Star Destroyer, the
Falcon sets course to
Cloud City on
Bespin, followed by
Boba Fett, a bounty hunter hired by Vader. While on this pursuit, Palpatine contacts Vader via
hologram, giving him a new mission to kill Luke Skywalker. Vader instead convinces his master that they should attempt to convert him to the dark side before killing him, and he begins to make plans to do just that.
Vader uses his influence to make a deal with
Lando Calrissian to capture Han Solo, Princess Leia, Chewbacca and C3P0, creating a trap for Luke at Cloud City. Luke, who by now has been trained by
Yoda, arrives and finds his way to the carbonite freezing facility, where Vader is planning to freeze him for transport to the Emperor. The two duel and Luke attempts an escape from Cloud City. Vader corners and defeats Luke, cutting off his right hand. Vader then reveals he is, in fact, Luke's father, and tries to persuade Luke to join him so that they can destroy the Emperor and rule the galaxy as father and son. Very shaken by this stunning claim, Luke refuses to join Vader and chooses to face death by throwing himself down a deep shaft. However, fate intervenes to allow him to survive and escape.
Return of the Jedi
In
, Vader is charged with overseeing the completion of the second Death Star, with
Moff Jerjerrod as his direct subordinate. He meets with Palpatine onboard the half-constructed station to plan Luke's turn to the dark side.
By this time, Luke has nearly completed his Jedi training and has learned from a dying
Yoda that Vader is indeed his father and that Leia is his sister. On a mission to the
forest moon of Endor, he surrenders to Imperial troops and is brought to Vader. Aboard the Death Star, Luke resists the Emperor's appeals to his anger and fear for his friends, but snaps when Vader telepathically probes his mind, learns of Leia's existence and threatens to turn her to the dark side instead. Enraged, Luke nearly kills Vader, and at one point during the confrontation, he severs his father's mechanical hand. However, he controls his anger at the last minute as he looks at Vader's mechanical hand and then at his own; he realizes that he is perilously close to suffering his father's fate. As the Emperor approaches, encouraging Luke to finish Vader and take his place, Luke throws down his lightsaber, refusing to perform the killing blow. Seeing that the young Jedi is a lost cause, the Emperor attacks Luke with Force lightning. Luke writhes in agony under the Emperor's assault, begging his father for help. Unable to bear the sight of his son in pain, Vader turns on his master and throws him into a deep shaft, where he explodes in a fury of dark energies. In the process, however, errant bolts of Force lightning strike Vader, shorting out his suit's life support systems.
In his dying breaths, Vader begs Luke to remove the hideous breath-mask that has caged his face for more than half his life. Luke complies and, for the first and only time, sees his father's real face — that of a sad, withered man in his mid-40s, ravaged by the dark side, whose sunken eyes look up at his son and back at a lifetime of regret. In death, Anakin Skywalker is finally at peace, having admitted to his son that the good within him was not destroyed after all. Luke barely escapes the doomed battle station before Rebel forces destroy it. Later that night, Luke burns his father's Sith armor in the manner of a Jedi's funeral. During the victory celebration on the forest moon of Endor, Luke is able to see the redeemed spirit of Anakin Skywalker, standing once again with Yoda and Obi-Wan Kenobi.
Prequel trilogy
Following up on the revelation in
The Empire Strikes Back that Vader was once Anakin Skywalker, the
Star Wars prequel trilogy focus on his life before he became Darth Vader, both his heroic rise and tragic fall.
In
The Phantom Menace, Anakin is introduced as a nine-year-old boy, living on
Tatooine with his mother,
Shmi, as a slave to the trader
Watto. He has no father, and is apparently a virgin birth; it is suggested that he is a creation of the midi-chlorians, but his exact origins are left ambiguous. Even at his young age, he is a gifted pilot and a talented engineer, having built his own protocol droid,
C-3PO. He is discovered by Jedi Master
Qui-Gon Jinn and his apprentice, the young Obi-Wan Kenobi, who are convinced that Anakin is the "Chosen One" foretold by the prophecy to bring balance to the Force. Qui-Gon wins Anakin's freedom to take him on as an apprentice Jedi The
Jedi Council rejects him, however, sensing in him a great deal of fear and anger. Shortly afterward, Qui-Gon is killed in the
Battle of Naboo, and, in his dying breaths, pleads with Obi-Wan to train the boy. The Council reluctantly approves, and Anakin is apprenticed to Obi-Wan. Palpatine, newly elected as the Republic's Supreme Chancellor, befriends the boy, promising to "watch his career with great interest."
Over the next few years, Anakin's ability with the Force increases exponentially, but he develops into an arrogant loner who resents Obi-Wan's strict training. Needing an encouraging father figure, he turns to Palpatine, who feeds the young padawan's ego while subtly undermining his belief in the
Jedi Code.
In
Attack of the Clones, set 10 years after Anakin is initially discovered, he is assigned to protect Senator
Padmé Amidala from the
Confederacy of Independent Systems, aka the Separatists. The two eventually fall in love, even though Jedi are forbidden to form emotional attachments.
After suffering visions of his mother dying in agony, he travels to Tatooine and discovers that his mother has been kidnapped by
Tusken Raiders. He finds her, but it is too late; she dies in his arms. Anakin is seized by a violent rage and he slaughters the entire camp, including the women and children. He confesses to Padmé, who forgives him. They later go to
Geonosis to save Obi-Wan, who has been kidnapped by the Separatists, but are themselves captured and sentenced to death. Moments from execution, they pledge their love to each other. They are saved at the last moment, however, by a cadre of Jedi reinforcements led by
Mace Windu, who do battle with the Separatists in the opening salvo of the Clone Wars. Anakin fights Separatist leader
Count Dooku, but is easily defeated, losing his right forearm. Back on Coruscant, he is fitted with a
prosthetic arm, and marries Padmé in a secret ceremony.
Revenge of the Sith
In
Revenge of the Sith, which is set three years after
Attack of the Clones, Anakin has been made a full-fledged Jedi Knight, and his exploits in the Clone Wars have earned him the moniker "The Hero With No Fear."
During the
Battle of Coruscant, Anakin and Obi-Wan attempt to rescue Palpatine from
General Grievous, a Separatist warlord who has kidnapped him. In the course of this rescue on Grievous' flagship
Invisible Hand, the two confront Count Dooku, a battle which ends with Anakin executing his opponent at Palpatine's urgings. Anakin is instantly
remorseful, but Palpatine reassures Anakin that Dooku "was too dangerous to be kept alive."
Anakin returns to Coruscant, where Padmé tells him she is
pregnant. He is initially overjoyed, but is later tormented by prophetic visions of her death in childbirth — similar to those he had of his mother just before her death. Meanwhile, Palpatine sponsors Anakin to the Jedi Council, but the Council, suspicious of Palpatine, in turn denies Anakin the rank of Jedi Master, and asks him to spy on Palpatine. While Anakin continues to wallow in anger and bitterness due to his feeling increasingly alienated from the Jedi, Palpatine tempts him further with "hidden" secrets of the Force, including the ability to prevent death indefinitely — which could thus save his wife.
These tempations reach a boiling point when Anakin finally realizes that Palpatine is in fact
Darth Sidious, the Sith Lord that the Jedi have been searching for since the beginning of the war. He reports this treachery to Mace Windu, but he then intrudes on Windu's attempt to apprehend an apparently helpless Palpatine. He pleads for his mentor's life, but Windu says the Sith Lord must be immediately destroyed, as he is too politically powerful to receive a fair trial. As Windu is about to kill Palpatine, Anakin cuts off Windu's saber arm, leaving him defenseless for Palpatine's sudden burst of Force lightning which sends Windu plummeting down to the streets of Coruscant, killing him. Anakin then pledges himself to the dark side, and is given the Sith title and name
Darth Vader.
Vader's first task as a Sith Lord is to assault the Jedi Temple with the
501st Legion and to kill everyone inside, even the
youngling children. He does this without question, slaughtering Jedi, young and old, irregardless of their training. He is then sent to
Mustafar to assassinate
Nute Gunray and the other Separatist leaders. After completing this task, he is met by Padmé, who pleads with him to flee Palpatine's grasp with her. He refuses, saying that he can overthrow Palpatine and the two of them can rule the galaxy together. Obi-Wan, who had hidden himself on Padmé's ship, suddenly emerges and confronts Vader. Suspecting betrayal, Vader angrily uses the Force to choke Padmé, leaving her unconscious on the landing platform. The former partners and friends then engage in a ferocious lightsaber duel throughout the mining complex and onto the banks of a lava river. Vader tries to further pursue his master with a Force jump despite Obi-Wan's superior positioning. Obi-Wan severs his remaining organic limbs in midair, and leaves him to die on the hot sands. Anakin then catches fire, sustaining near-fatal burns and
lung damage. He uses his last strength to reach higher ground until he is rescued by Palpatine, who sensed Vader's impending defeat after his own duel with Yoda.
Palpatine revives Vader with extensive cybernetic enhancements, including a respirator, black body armor, and a fearsome breathing mask that alters his weakened voice into an intimidating mechanical
baritone. Palpatine then tells Vader that, in his anger, he had killed his own wife . Overwhelmed with
grief and bitterness by the belief that he had killed his wife , the only thing that remains in his life is his service to his master, the new Emperor of the galaxy.
Becoming Vader
As chronicled in James Luceno's book
, Vader sheds his identity as Anakin Skywalker shortly after incurring his injuries on Mustafar; in the months afterward, he systematically pursues and kills the survivors of the
Great Jedi Purge and, in the process, fully embraces his new identity as a Sith Lord and disavows any connection to his former Jedi self. The novel reveals that Vader detests his new mechanical body, which is cumbersome and awkward. Both he and Palpatine realize that his disastrous defeat on Mustafar robbed him of much of his Force power. Had he not lost to Obi-Wan, Vader would have become twice as powerful as Sidious; after suffering his grotesque injuries, however, Vader has only about 80% of his master's power. In order to test the extent of his new apprentice's diminished abilities, and to keep him from wallowing in self-pity, Palpatine sends Vader on a mission to hunt down a rogue senator. In the course of his search, Vader has several encounters with Jedi who escaped Order 66 and systematically wipes them out. The novel also reveals that Vader plans to eventually overthrow Palpatine and rule the Empire himself, and that his primary motivation for betraying the Jedi was that he resented their supposed failure to recognize his power.
Over the next 19 years, Vader evolves into a dark, terrifying figure within the Empire, a merciless executor of the Emperor's will, infamous for using the dark side to choke people who displease him. Many of his own officers fall victim to this power, including
Admiral Ozzel and
Captain Needa in
Empire Strikes Back. He serves as Palpatine's second-in-command, although his official power is limited somewhat by Palpatine's orders to serve under
Grand Moff Tarkin. Upon Tarkin's death in the destruction of the first Death Star, he becomes the most powerful figure in the Empire next to the Emperor.
His former self is not completely destroyed, however; His contact with his son, Luke, reawakens something of a conscience within him, which ignites an internal conflict that is not resolved until the conclusion of
Return of the Jedi.
Portrayals
During filming of
A New Hope,
David Prowse played the role of Darth Vader. However, to his dismay, when filming was finished,
James Earl Jones was hired to read Vader's lines over Prowse's performance. Prowse was given the choice over the roles of
Chewbacca and Darth Vader. He chose Darth Vader because he said "people would remember him." Prowse wore the Vader suit and Jones provided Vader's voice for both
Empire Strikes Back and
Return of the Jedi as well. Jones has since been closely identified with the role.
The character of Darth Vader was also played by several stunt doubles, most notably fencing instructor Bob Anderson, who handled all of Vader's fight sequences in
The Empire Strikes Back and
Return of the Jedi.
Mark Hamill 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."
In 1978, Jones returned as the voice of Vader in
The Star Wars Holiday Special was a two-hour television [i] special set in the
Star Wars galaxy [i] ...
, as well as to shoot new footage that was released with the
, when it was released in 1996.
Actor and former
Industrial Light & Magic visual effects artist C. Andrew Nelson has also portrayed Vader at a number of events for
Lucasfilm, as well as the videogames
and
Dark Forces is a video game [i] produced by the LucasArts [i] Entertainment Company. ...
, and in new footage filmed for the Special Edition releases of the original three
Star Wars films in 1997. Over the years Nelson has also appeared as Vader on various television shows and in numerous commercials.
For
Revenge of the Sith,
Hayden Christensen wore the Vader suit, instead of Prowse. However, as he is shorter than Prowse, certain perspective trickery was used 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. While the body actor had changed, James Earl Jones still served as the voice of Vader.
Expanded Universe
In the young adult series
The Last of The Jedi, Boba Fett, at the age of 14, is hired by Imperial leader Inquisitor Malorum to investigate Padmé Amidala's death at Vader's request. Vader is expected to at least make
cameo appearances in the upcoming Star Wars live-action TV series, which is slated for either a 2007 or 2008 release and will run 100 episodes.
In the story
Prey, Vader goes head-to-head with Boba Fett in a lightsaber duel, which he ultimately wins, caused by a dispute over who should bring in Imperial deserter Han Solo for the bounty on his head.
The
Cartoon Network microseries
chronicles Anakin's adventures and trials in the many battles of the Clone Wars. The series, which covers the period between just after
Episode II and just before
Episode III, sees Anakin become a Jedi and galaxy-renowned war hero, and foreshadows the temptations to power and fear of loss that would transform him into Darth Vader.
In the comic book
Vader's Quest, he hires bounty hunters to bring him information about the pilot who brought about the destruction of the Death Star, ultimately meeting his son Luke for the very first time. Later on, in the Alan Dean Foster novel
Splinter of the Mind's Eye is a
Star Wars [i] novel written by Alan Dean Foster [i] and original ...
, Vader meets Luke for the second time and combats him in a lightsaber duel on the planet Mimban. On Mimban, in an impressive display of adaptation Luke nearly defeats Vader in a duel, afterwards Vader suffers massive injuries when he falls into a pit. The extent as to which these new injuries may have worsened his condition is somewhat disputed among the
Star Wars fanbase.
In
The Star Wars Holiday Special was a two-hour television [i] special set in the
Star Wars galaxy [i] ...
, Vader searches for the Rebels responsible for the destruction of the Death Star, almost thwarting Han and
Chewbacca's goal of reaching
Kashyyyk in order for Chewie to reach his family for
Life Day.
Vader also has a prominent role in the 1996 novel/comic/video game
, which takes place between
The Empire Strikes Back and
Return of the Jedi. In the story,
Prince Xizor, leader of the crime organization
Black Sun, plots to overthrow Vader and take his place as the Emperor's second in command. The story also gives more insight into Vader's thoughts and ambitions as it reveals that he knows there is some good left in him and that he wishes to heal his body through the Force in an attempt to return his physical appearance to that of his former self, Anakin Skywalker. At one point in the novel, Vader is in his chamber with his suit completely removed as he attempts to heal his body.
Vader also makes occasional appearances in Dark Horse's
Star Wars comic books set between the movies, especially
Star Wars: Empire.
In the
Thrawn trilogy, it is explained that Darth Vader was 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. Later, Vader transferred their services to
Grand Admiral Thrawn.
Leia Organa Solo, who was initially horrified to learn that Vader was her father, eventually forgave him after learning her family's full history, as chronicled in the book
Tatooine Ghost is a novel by Troy Denning [i] set in the fictional
Star Wars [i] universe [i] ...
. She named her youngest son
Anakin in remembrance of her father's redemption.
In the novel
The Unifying Force is the final chapter of the New Jedi Order [i] series of books in the fictional Star Wars [i] ...
of the
New Jedi Order, also known as
New Jedi Order, or by its acronym,
NJO, is a s...
series, set 30 years after the
Battle of Yavin in
A New Hope, originally released as simply
Star Wars, is a 1977 [i] science fantasy [i] ...
, Anakin's voice would speak to his grandson,
Jacen Solo, telling him to "Stand firm" in his battle with the Supreme Overlord of the
Yuuzhan Vong.
Armor and cybernetic enhancements
Even before his transformation into Vader, Anakin was a
cyborg: he had a
prosthetic hand installed after his natural right
forearm was severed while dueling with Count Dooku on Geonosis in
Attack of the Clones. Before the release of
Attack of the Clones, the 1994 Expanded Universe novel
The Last Command by
Timothy Zahn claimed that Vader's hand had been
amputated by Palpatine as punishment for the destruction of the first Death Star. However, in
Splinter of the Mind's Eye, it is declared that Luke Skywalker severed Vaders sword arm. Until
Attack of the Clones, this was the canonical version of why Vader had a prosthetic arm during
Return of the Jedi. As a result of his later disfigurement on Mustafar, Vader was substantially augmented with cybernetic implants: he is depicted as wearing his armor at all times when he is not meditating in his pressurized containment-chamber. A towering figure, the suited Darth Vader is nearly 6
feet 7
inches tall. This transformation is apparently essential to Obi-Wan's judgment, cemented after the fight on Mustafar and expressed to Luke in
Return of the Jedi, that Vader is "more machine now than man, twisted and evil."
According to
Star Wars Technical Commentaries, Vader's armor is built around a plastoid girdle that protects his organic and synthetic internal organs. More visible durasteel plates cover his shoulders, upper body and shins. He wears a suit of quilted, flexible, blast-dampening, multi-ply padding, and a cloak of armor weave. His gloves and hands are made with a unique micronized iron that can deflect anything short of a lightsaber blow. His famous mask and helmet, resembling the head of an ancient Sith droid, contain various vision- and auditory-enhancing equipment, as well as the respirator that causes the Dark Lord's ominous breathing sound.
Vader's life support system includes a chest-worn, computerized control panel unit that regulates his respiratory functions. Three slot-like dataports offered diagnostic checks of his
pulmonary, respiratory and neural systems. Upon closer examination, the chestplate has Hebrew lettering which has been translated as, "His deeds will not be forgiven, until he merits." On his belt, Vader wears two small system function boxes. The one on his right featured a temperature regulation system. On his left, he wears a respiratory sensor matrix. The center buckle features an audio enhancement unit built into the electromagnetic clasp. The armor also enables him to breathe in vacuum while protecting him from the coldness of space. The reason for his cloak is to protect a small oxygen pack he wears on his back.
Behind the scenes
The character of Darth Vader was not originally planned to be a suited cyborg. The current image of Vader was created when concept artist
Ralph McQuarrie drew the opening scene where the
Rebel ship Tantive IV was being boarded. It was initially imagined that Darth Vader would fly through space to enter the ship, necessitating a suit and breathing mask. This was later made permanent and incorporated in the story.
Vader's leitmotif is
The Imperial March. The iconic breathing sound of his respirator was created by sound designer
Ben Burtt, who created the sound by simply recording himself breathing into an old Dacor
scuba regulator.
In a 2005 interview, George Lucas was asked the origins of the name "Darth Vader", and replied: "Darth is a variation of dark. And Vader is a variation of father. So it's basically Dark Father." . "Vader" is the
Dutch word for "father" , and the
German word for "father" is similar . However, in the earliest scripts for
Star Wars, the name "Darth Vader" was given to a human Imperial general.
Some believe that the revelation of Vader as the father of Luke Skywalker in
The Empire Strikes Back is a case of retroactive continuity. As originally depicted in the first film, Vader was a student of Obi-Wan Kenobi's who was seduced by the dark side of the Force, betraying and murdering Luke's father, who seemed at that time to be a separate character from Vader. Much of the criticism from skeptics of Lucas is aimed at the fact that Obi-Wan's story about the death of Luke's father in
A New Hope became an outright lie after the later films were produced. It is unclear when Lucas decided to merge Luke's father and Darth Vader into one character or divert him into two characters . Some accounts have indicated that
Empire screenwriter Leigh Brackett was the first to suggest that Vader was Luke's father during story meetings. As it stands, there is currently no behind-the-scenes evidence that Vader was intended to be Luke's father from the very start. Thus, that concept may very well have originated after the original theatrical release of
A New Hope. Lucas has claimed in recent years that Vader's story arc was planned from the beginning. Certainly the 'motif' of the villain turning out to be the hero's father is present in the 'Star Wars' outline as early as 1974 although the 'hero' and 'villain' of this outline are not neccesarily Vader or Luke in the forms that the audience currently understands them.
Archetypes and role models for Darth Vader
Vader's headgear resembles a
Japanese
kabuto, which is consistent with the
samurai-like order of the Jedi and
kendo-like lightsaber duels. It also resembles a Nazi helmet, and the rise of the empire was similar to how Hitler became dictator of Germany.. An American
Football helmet made by , with a distinctive approx. 3cm wide middle seam elevated by approx 3 millimeters that connected the two shell halves and accommodated air valves, was most likely used as the basis for .
As Vader fits the classic stock character of the Black Knight, some have noted that Vader bears more than a passing resemblance to more recent, fictive villains. One is the classic
Marvel Universe supervillain Doctor Doom . Another is
Sinestro, a former member of the
Green Lantern Corps who was corrupted by his power. Third, the
Superman supervillain
Darkseid from
Jack Kirby's
New Gods storyline resembles Vader in a number of ways; like Vader, his home base is a black, metallic planetoid , and the name
Darkseid itself prefigures
Star Wars terminology. Darkseid is also eventually challenged by his son, who is unaware that he is fighting his father.
Cultural figure
Due to his central role, Vader has entered the public consciousness as the quintessential villain. His powerful baritone voice, coupled with his heavy breathing, is easily recognizable, and the
American Film Institute's list of the greatest movie villains placed him third, after
Hannibal Lecter and
Norman Bates. He has been
parodied by such figures as "
Dark Helmet" from
Spaceballs is a science fiction [i] spoof [i] movie [i] written, directed by, and starr ...
, "Duck Vader" from
Tiny Toon Adventures was an American [i] animated television series [i] ...
, "Girth Plotz" from an episode of
Animaniacs was a popular American [i] animated television series [i] ...
that parodied the first trilogy, "
Darth Koopa" from
The Super Mario Bros. Super Show, "Dark Laser" from
The Fairly Odd Parents is an American [i] animated television series [i] created by Butch Hartman [i] ...
, an episode of
where President Jimmy dressed in black and, now devoted to evil, takes over the school and country singer Darth Brooks in
Late Night With Conan O'Brien is an American [i] late night [i] ...
. Also,
Chef from
South Park became Darth Chef in
The Return of Chef. Another kind of tribute to Darth Vader comes from
Stargate SG-1 is an American [i] television series [i] based upon the 1994 [i] science fiction [i] ...
, in which there are similarities between
Anubis and Vader, played for both dramatic and comic effect , and his name is mentioned when the issue of
Vala's immaculate birth is brought up.
Marty McFly in
Back to the Future is an American [i] adventure [i]-film [i] directed b ...
pretended to be "Darth Vader from the planet
Vulcan" in an effort to get his
science fiction-loving dad to date his mom.
When Episode 1: The Phantom Menace DVD was released, also "Thumb Wars" was released. It’s a parody of Episode 4, only that all the characters in the film are human thumbs with digitally added faces. In this film Darth Vader is represented as Black Helmet Man.
Vader's name has become a synonym for evil; for example, political strategist
Lee Atwater was known by his political enemies as "the Darth Vader of the
Republican Party". Then-Vice President
Al Gore referred to TCI's John Malone as "Darth Vader of
cable." Lucas has pointed to Vader's iconic status as a reason he made the prequel movies, since he felt the icon overshadowed the fact that Vader was intended to be a tragic character.
Martin Kove said that his character John Kreese in
The Karate Kid movies was known by fans as "The Darth Vader of the Martial Arts World." John Thomson said that in the 1980's at Georgetown the press labeled him the Darth Vader of coaches.
Vader's revelation to Luke that he is his father is one of the most famous movie plot twists of all time. An
IMDb poll on 10 November 2003 asked users to choose which one of a set of movie spoilers was too infamous to be considered a spoiler anymore; Vader's true identity was a clear winner, by a 40% margin.
During a major renovation,
Washington National Cathedral held a competition for children to design new
gargoyles for the west towers. One winner was a design featuring Darth Vader.
Two significant office buildings in
Brisbane, California are highly visible landmarks by the
San Francisco Bay. The ominous looking one made of all dark reflective glass has been dubbed the Darth Vader building. The other is the architecturally acclaimed
Dakin Building, a brilliant white futuristic antithesis, and is known in the San Francisco Bay area as the Luke Skywalker building.
In 1990 Roger Taylor's band
The Cross released the album
Mad, Bad and Dangerous to Know, featuring the song "Penetration Guru", which has the line "Contact me, I'm no Darth Vader" in the verse before each chorus.
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 after Darth Vader.
See also
References
Sources
- , 1st edition paperback, 1999. Terry Brooks, George Lucas, ISBN 0-345-43411-0
- , 2003. R. A. Salvatore, ISBN 0-345-42882-X
- , 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
- The Dark Side Sourcebook, Wizards of the Coast, 1st printing, 2001. Bill Slavicsek, J. D. Wiker, ISBN 0-7869-1849-7
- Vader: The Ultimate Guide, 2005.
- Star Wars: The Visual Dictionary, hardcover, 1998. Dr. David West Reynolds, ISBN 0-7894-3481-4
- 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
- Shooting script of as available at
- Shooting script of as available at
- Star Wars Technical Commentaries, Dr. Curtis Saxton, 1995-2005. Available at
- Star Wars Databank. ,
External links
