Darth Vader, the evil villain we remember or the tragic hero of prequel lore?

[bbbb]

Do you think the prequel movies changed your perceptions of Darth Vader? Or is he still the evil villain we all remember him as?

[TetsuoShima]

Those prequals only made him worse imo, they changed him from 'evil' to pathetic.

[Ulysses]

To be honest I dont see the three newer films actually had darth Vader in it as it was all about anakin, the only characters that came out with any credit was the emporer (brilliantly acted) and Yoda. I did also like Master Windu and Quigon, mainly due to the fact I like Liam Neilson and Samuel L Jackson as actors.

 

 

[maybrick]

I try not to think about the lame prequels when watching the original (unaltered) trilogy.

[Tenebrae]

The intention... actually, I don't think there was any intention... that would mean it wasn't just a mishmash of bad half-baked concepts. They clearly wanted to give him the whole tragedy/fallen hero thing. Which explains why he's ultimately worthy of redemption in Return of the Jedi.

 

It couldn't really have been more botched.

 

First off - they found him too young. He was too young to really be affected by being a slave - in fact, that whole thing seemed to just be a means to separate him from his mother. If he'd been the same age as Luke when they found him, things would have been more interesting. He could have been an embittered youth, angry at being a slave and gagging for some payback.

 

Second - I know Lucas pretty much totally lost it in the prequels but seriously? The virgin birth? That was just idiotic.

 

Third - building C3PO? His technical abilities seemed to play 0 role in the film, they were just filler... but I suppose tinkering with stuff was preferable to more dialogue.

 

Fourth - the Padme thing was pretty awful. Or at least him meeting her when he was about 8. She should have met him later and just rolled with them being tossed together by fate and denied a true chance at love, adding to Anakin's general embitterment toward the Jedi.

 

Fifth - Him going off, finding the sand people that killed his mother... it was just totally out of the blue

 

Sixth - They made him seem like a complete cretin to the point of retardation. Let's see... basically, buys totally into Palpatine's BS until Palpatine pretty much says, "I'm a Sith Lord", he runs off to tell Samuel L. and then when they go to arrest him, he goes "OH NO! BETTER BELIEVE THE EVIL GUY!"

 

Seven - He's supposed to go evil because Palaptine tells him that he can save Padme... who he then kills due to his idiocy.

 

Eight - He goes evil pretty much because he was scared Padme would die... and then pretty much killed her.

 

Nine - at no point does he ever seem evil, just cocky and whiney.

[dBLOOD]

I like especially in Part 3 that I could see anakin in a phase when he just fell through the boundary, and he is struggling against the sith lords power to turn back but he can not. For me it became clear how foolish, how premature  he was. I have felt the same struggling before he threw down the Epmeror in Part 6. Though it is good to see his sad past, I can only feel pity about him, never felt anything else, not even before I have seen Part 1-2-3. It is a pity how a man threw away his possible good future because his rage against a possible bad future. It gives me a lesson that one can not change the future, and trying it brings only a worse future upon one.

[Tenebrae]

I pretty much think Lucas succeeded in undermining utterly one of the most awesome bad guys on screen.

 

To be honest, I thought Vader's last minute redemption was tosh too. Abundantly obvious someone crowbarred a happy ending in there.

[QUEENSPOCK]

I hate vader even more after seeing the last 3 films

 

i mean

 

number 3

were he killed those poor children :(

 

it always gets to me to the extend i can't watch that film

[USWhoFan]

Tenebrae, good post, can't really disagree with any of it.

 

For me, I'd just like to forget the prequels were ever made.

I can still watch the original trilogy over and over again, but I just can't seem to bring myself to watch the prequels anymore, except as a reminder of why I don't want to watch them.

[Tenebrae]

A point I missed... sympathy... I think they make it pretty obvious that Anakin going evil wasn't his fault... He was an idiot who was misled by Palpatine and manipulated by his hidden love of Padme... To be honest, the ONLY reason for any of that rubbish is for the totally laughable last minute turn around in RotJ - which was just there so it could have a nice happy ending.