It is no secret that Darth Vader is at the top of everyone’s list for being one of the greatest villains in any movie franchise, and deservedly so. He’s at the top of mine. I absolutely love the character of not only Darth Vader but Anakin Skywalker as well.
As well as being a fan-favorite character, Darth Vader is also a highly-requested character to have a solo series or a movie focused purely on him. I am one of those who want to see this happen as the only other major stories we’ve seen of Vader have been in games and comics.
But why is this character so iconic when in the original trilogy, he was only in the 3 films a mere 34 minutes?
I’ll give you 3 reasons as to why I believe he is so iconic.
3. His appearance
Darth Vader’s appearance is so universally known and recognizable in any form of entertainment from games, comics, live-action, and more. His suit is very unique as it’s essentially a suit that is keeping him alive. Back in the Return of the Jedi at the end of the movie we got to see Darth Vader unmasked in front of Luke and you could see just how badly his body was. It was an ashy gray as well have very visibly scarred.
We wouldn’t get to see what exactly happened to him until many years later when the creator of Star Wars decided to expand the story of Darth Vader and explore his early life as Anakin Skywalker the slave, the Jedi Padawan, Jedi Knight, and eventually Lord Vader.
We got to see just how he ended up in this suit which kept him alive for many years. It was the duel with Obi-Wan. When Anakin fell to the Darkside of the force, his anger towards Obi-Wan allowed Anakin to be over-confident in his duel and make a mistake allowing Obi-Wan to capitalize on his mistake and ended up limbless and eventually set on fire by the lava on Mustafar.
2. His complex life
Any Star Wars fan knows the young slave from Episode 1 The Phantom Menace who was owned by Watto along with Anakin’s mother. Qui-Gon Jinn eventually freed Anakin from slavery believing him to be “the Chosen One”. You might think, “ahh, a happy ending”, no, you are completely wrong.
While Anakin was taken to the Jedi Temple to train as a Jedi, his mother was eventually sold by Watto and stayed in slavery until her death. Anakin while at the Jedi Temple also was bullied and an “outcast” who would often out-perform other Padawans in his classes.
While he was training, he also didn’t see Padme for around 10 years either. Along the way, he fought in many battles and even lost his arm at the hands of Count Dooku. Anakin would later go on to see hints of his future as Darth Vader in The Clone Wars.
Eventually, Anakin would be manipulated by Palpatine which caused Anakin to fall to the Darkside believing that was the only way to save Padme from dying. Ultimately, he was led to believe he killed Padme in a fit of rage. He would often be tasked by Palpatine to do missions and eventually take control of the galaxy, all the long Palpatine would put Vader through some horrible torture of sorts to keep him at bay and to never overthrow Palpatine.
1. His ruthlessness
Even as Anakin Skywalker, he would often showcase feats of brutality and ruthlessness while in combat. He would tease using the Darkside if any of his friends, mainly Obi-Wan and Ahsoka Tano were in trouble. As shown countless times throughout The Clone Wars series, Anakin wouldn’t hesitate to kill.
Darth Vader was ultimately more ruthless and brutal while in combat. In the comics, Vader has shown many times that he doesn’t care and that he truly is fueled by hate, rage, and anger. He watched over a hologram while Stormtroopers literally burned some members of the Skywalker family alive.
Not to mention that while committing Order 66 he killed Padawans and Younglings. I’m pretty sure in one comic panel, he killed innocent women and children while an original Clonetrooper tried to stop Vader from doing so. Vader would ruthlessly walk into any battle and instantly change the tide. In one of the comics, Vader literally went up against a battalion of Rebels while he was surrounded and walked away unharmed.
These are just three unique ways that make Darth Vader iconic. Over the years we’ve seen many versions of the character from comics, games, animated, and live-action. With Hayden Christensen returning as the iconic character in the Kenobi series, as well as the Ahsoka series, I truly hope this leads into a Darth Vader-focused product in the near future.
