Star Wars Week: The Man In Black

It’s been more than thirty years since the first Star Wars movie hit the big screen.  Since then, there have been a stream of movies, books, tie-in merchandise, animated television shows, video games, parodies, etc.  Everyone knows the basic story by now.  Naive orphan farm-boy takes on giant evil empire with the help of a band of misfits and wins.  Characters like Luke Skywalker have been challenging the establishment in our fiction for centuries.  We identify with this type of protagonist because he is like us.  He works a shitty job, follows orders, lives in a shitty town and wants to be so much more than it looks like he’ll ever be able to become.  The downtrodden boy faces insurmountable odds, overcomes the almost invincible evil, becomes a hero and everybody goes home happy.

Roll Credits.

Except, something happened that wasn’t part of the traditional formula.

Through some magical combination of writing, directing, acting (by both character actor David Prowse and voice actor James Earl Jones), editing, etc., the “bad guy” stole the show.

Seriously.  When you think of the iconic character of the original Star Wars trilogy, who do you think of?

Need help?  Do a google search for Star Wars merchandise.  Take a tally of which character features prominently on the most t-shirts, posters, and other goodies.  Whose origin story is the focus of the second trilogy of feature films (I’ll get to why that didn’t work out as well for the franchise’s die hard fans soon enough)?

That iconic character is Darth Vader.

How did this happen?  Isn’t it supposed to be the good guy who steals the hearts and minds of audiences?

It is, but that didn’t work this time.

Why did the merciless evil antagonist take center stage?  Let’s take a look.

Visual Appeal

"These clothing and hair styles, timeless they are not." - Yoda

Let’s face it.  The original film was released in 1977.  We are now in the middle of 2011.  A lot has changed since then.  Like it or not, when we are deciding whether or not someone is appealing to us, appearance plays a major role.  Take a look at the protagonist and his allies.  Sure, Leia is still hot, Han is still dashing, Luke is still… well, awkward looking, but they all look dated.  Clothing and hairstyles go out of date.  The passage of time can often decrease the visual appeal of even the most beloved film and television characters.

How do you prevent a character from “going out of style” visually?

Johnny Cash - An inspiration for Darth Vader?

Easy.

Give him clothing that does not resemble anything normal people would or ever have worn.

Make that clothing black.  Black never goes out of style.

Slap a full mask over his face.

Add a cape or cloak.

Voila.

Instant timeless cool.

Music To Our Ears

Barry White - An inspiration for Darth Vader?

Ever since the first guy ever successfully seduced someone with his voice (or with Barry White’s), man realized the importance of vocal sonority (aka “sounding cool”).  George Lucas must’ve had some experience with Barry White aided seduction, because he chose to use a different voice actor than David Prowse for the voice of Darth Vader.  Supposedly, Lucas didn’t like Prowse’s British accent, so he chose James Earl Jones to be the voice of the “man in black.”  By now, we are all well familiar with Jones’ rich, sonorous voice.  He is Conan the Barbarian‘s Thulsa Doom, Mufasa of Disney’s Lion King, and narrator of countless movies, tv programs and commercials.  But he will forever be known as the voice of the dark side.

The Power to Destroy Worlds

Power corrupts.  At least, that’s what we’re told.  Still, to the average powerless scruffy nerfherder, the prospect of power is pretty damn alluring.  Sure, power has its drawbacks (like being attacked over and over by the aforementioned scruffy nerfherder and his friends).  But all of us have, even if for just a moment, dreamed of what we would do if given immense power.

Darth Vader had, at his command, the power to destroy entire planets with the flick of a switch.  He could kill insubordinate minions with a simple gesture.  Entire armies of obedient troops were at his command.  He was a master of the lightsaber and possessed superhuman strength and endurance.

We have all, at one time or another, wanted to join the dark side, give in to our base natures, succumb to the offer of ruling the universe and eat cookies with Darth Vader.  Sure, at the end of the day, we know that living in our shitty towns and going back to our shitty jobs is the “right” thing to do.  But we can still dream about what we’d do with that power.  After all, that’s what video games are for, right?

The Essence of Cool

We never saw Darth Vader break a sweat.  Yes, that’s another reason for the mask and cape.  We never had to humanize Vader and watch doubt or insecurity creep into his expression.  Darth Vader is a badass.  He always keeps his cool.

Vlad Tepes/Count Dracula - An inspiration for Darth Vader?

Vader’s calm demeanor no matter the situation is reminiscent of the stories of Vlad Tepes, the basis for Bram Stoker’s Count Dracula.  According to legend, Vlad would have his enemies impaled on long wooden stakes and calmly eat a meal while they screamed in agony and died all around him.  Darth Vader?  He calmly (seductively?) placed his black-gloved hand on captive Princess Leia’s shoulder and instantly destroyed her home planet of Alderaan, relishing the screams of the millions of dying people through his force-heightened senses.

Betrayed by a trusted advisor?  No problem.

The hot princess you captured escaped before you could put the moves on her?  It’s all good.

Pain-in-the-ass kids shooting missiles down your ventilation shaft?  Merely a flesh wound.

Darth Vader, in his black body armor, with his impenetrable mask and flowing cape; the powerful dark lord with the rich, sonorous voice – was always the epitome of cool under pressure.  He could handle anything.  He had the long view.  We’ll crush that damn rebellion next time.  For now, we’ll consolidate our forces and come up with a better plan.

A Disturbance in the Force

Here is the basic problem: Lucas created the ultimate villain who arguably became the star of the first Star Wars film trilogy.  Then he tried to show us how another ordinary kid became that villain.  Sort of the anti-Luke Skywalker story.  I understand what he was going for, but there are a few reasons why it didn’t work.

First, take away all the hype.  No matter what quality the second trilogy was, the hype around the original films was too great.  It had been growing for years as fans craved another Star Wars fix.  Anything would’ve been a disappointment.  The Beatles were smart enough to never reunite and go back on the road or release another album.  Lucas could’ve taken a lesson from them.  Instead, he tried to fill fans’ mythical yearning for “the rest of the story.”

Also, good authors know that they don’t need to start at the beginning of the story.  They just start at the beginning of “the good part.”  Anything before that doesn’t need to be put on display.  Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope started at the beginning of the good part.  Anything before that is just exposition.

Now, we have a compelling villain.  A character who is part Johnny Cash, part Barry White, and part Count Dracula.  He is cool, alluring, inhuman, and badass.  He is faceless and nearly emotionless.  As I said, he is the epitome of “cool under pressure.”

Then, George Lucas decides to show Vader’s origins.  He gives Vader a name and a face.  He gives him weaknesses and an annoyingly whiny juvenile personality.  He shows young Vader/Anakin’s downfall through hubris and naivete.  Lucas shows us how much misery is behind the mask.

The problem is, that is not what we want to see.  We want to remember Vader as the cool, omnipotent supervillain.  We imagine an escape from our troubles and shitty circumstances, not to become Luke Skywalker and throw off the yoke of the oppressive evil empire, but to live, if even for just a moment, as the coolest, most badass villain ever created.  Free from the responsibilities of being the “good guy.”  Free to choke the shit out of anyone who lacks faith in us.  Free to destroy a planet just to prove a point.

Damn you, Lucas.  You took that away from us.  I want to choke the shit out of you.  But I won’t, because you gave me this wonderful universe in the first place.

May the Fourth be with you.