Darth Vader

For info on this character's appearance in the Star Wars prequel trilogy, see the article on Anakin Skywalker.

Darth Vader is a fictional character in the Star Wars universe. He is the pivotal character in the original Star Wars trilogy and Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith. In the original trilogy, he was portrayed by David Prowse and a series of stunt doubles, most notably Bob Anderson, while his voice was supplied by James Earl Jones. Vader is one of the most iconic villains in film history and was ranked third on American Film Institute's 100 Heroes and Villains list.

In Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope and Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back, Vader is depicted as the cunning, brutal enforcer of the Galactic Empire's rule across the galaxy. Vader serves as the apprentice of Emperor Palpatine (Ian McDiarmid), using the dark side of the Force to mercilessly pursue the Jedi and the Rebel Alliance to the ends of the galaxy. The prequel trilogy recounts the heroic rise and tragic fall of Vader's former self, Anakin Skywalker. Anakin was portrayed by Jake Lloyd and Hayden Christensen in the prequel trilogy, while Sebastian Shaw played the role in Return of the Jedi.

Appearance

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 films' heroes to prevent them from thwarting the Empire.

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Darth Vader in Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope

Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope

Events in this section occur in the films A New Hope and The Empire Strikes Back.

In A New Hope, 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 (Carrie Fisher) and, along with Death Star commander Grand Moff Tarkin (Peter Cushing), destroys her home world of Alderaan. Shortly afterward, he duels his former master, Obi-Wan Kenobi (Alec Guinness), who has arrived at the Death Star to rescue Leia, and cuts him down, 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; this is confirmed moments later when the boy destroys the battle station. He was about to shoot Luke down using his TIE fighter, but Han Solo (Harrison Ford) disables his ship using the guns on the Millennium Falcon, and sends Vader spinning into space...

Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back

In The Empire Strikes Back, Vader captures Leia, Han, Chewbacca (Peter Mayhew), and C-3PO (Anthony Daniels) on the planet Bespin to lure Luke into a confrontation. He strikes a deal with the administrator of Cloud City, Lando Calrissian (Billy Dee Williams) to give Han over to the bounty hunter Boba Fett (Jeremy Bulloch), and has Solo frozen in carbonite. Luke, who has been partially trained by Yoda (Frank Oz), duels Vader, but is eventually defeated, losing his right hand to Vader's lightsaber. Vader then 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, throwing himself down a mine shaft. He is sucked into a garbage chute and rescued by Leia, Chewbacca, Lando and C-3PO. He is fitted with a robotic hand to replace the one Vader had cut off.

Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi

Events described in this section occur in the film Return of the Jedi. More information is available in the plot.

In Return of the Jedi, Vader is charged with overseeing the completion of the second Death Star. He meets with Palpatine on board the half-constructed station to plan Luke's turn to the dark side.

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Darth Vader escorting Luke Skywalker to Palpatine in an attempt to turn him 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. He learns about his father's past from Obi-Wan's spirit, and also learns 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 uses the force to probe into his mind, and learns of Leia's existence, and threatens to turn her instead. Enraged, Luke nearly kills Vader, severing his father's right hand. He controls his anger at the last minute, however, as he looks at Vader's cybernetic 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 kill Vader and take his place, Luke throws down his lightsaber, refusing to perform the killing blow. Angered, the Emperor attacks Luke with Force lightning. Luke writhes in agony under the Emperor's torture, begging his father for help. Unable to bear the sight of his son in pain, Vader turns on his master and throws him into the very core of the Death Star, where the evil emperor explodes in a fury of dark energies. However, Vader is mortally wounded by the Force lightning.

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Anakin Skywalker in his last few moments of life

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 (and as it turns out, the only) time, father and son truly see each other. In his dying breaths, Anakin Skywalker is redeemed, finally admitting to Luke that the good within him was not destroyed after all. Luke escapes with his father's body as the Death Star explodes, destroyed by the Rebel Alliance.

That night, Luke cremates his father in his armor in the manner of a Jedi's funeral. During the victory celebration on the forest moon of Endor, Luke sees the redeemed spirit of Anakin Skywalker, standing once again with Obi-Wan and Yoda.

Expanded universe

The Cartoon Network micro series Star Wars: Clone Wars chronicles Anakin's adventures and trials in the many battles of the Clone Wars. The series, which covers the period between just after Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones and just before Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith, 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. Among his most noted moments in the series are a battle with Dark Jedi Asajj Ventress (Grey DeLisle) in Chapters 6 and 7, which leaves him with a scar on his right temple. In Chapter 22, he singlehandedly liberates the Nelvaanians from the Techno Union. During the latter mission, he goes on a spiritual journey which gives him a cryptic glimpse of his future. The ordeal costs Anakin his prosthetic arm, though he later creates a modified version.

Vader may make a cameo appearances in the upcoming Star Wars live-action TV series, which is slated for a 2009 release, and will run approximately 100 episodes.

As chronicled in James Luceno's book Dark Lord: The Rise of Darth Vader, Vader sheds his identity as Anakin Skywalker shortly after after the events of Episode III. In the months afterward, he systematically pursues and kills the survivors of the Great Jedi Purge (save Obi-Wan and Yoda); in the process, he fully embraces his new identity as a Sith Lord and disavows any connection to his former Jedi self. 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.

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 (which takes place shortly after the events in A New Hope), Vader meets Luke for the second time and combats him in a lightsaber duel on the planet Mimban. On Mimban, Vader is nearly defeated by Luke, who severed his right arm. After falling into a pit, Vader is left with massive injuries.

In The Star Wars Holiday Special, 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 Shadows of the Empire, 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 reveals that he 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.

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 by Timothy Zahn, it is explained that Darth Vader is the first representative of the Empire to find the Noghri, a race with exceptional combat skills, whom he manipulates into serving as his personal commandos and revering him as their master. Later, Vader transfers their services to Grand Admiral Thrawn.

Music

Beginning with The Empire Strikes Back, Vader's leitmotif has been John Williams' The Imperial March, which heralded the character's entrances in the mise en scène, underlining his powerful influence and strength.

This leitmotif is evoked in the prequel trilogy, especially in Episode II when Anakin kills his mother's kidnappers, to show his gliding to the dark side.

Behind the scenes

Portrayals

During filming of A New Hope, David Prowse played the role of Darth Vader. Prowse was originally given the choice between the roles of Chewbacca and Darth Vader, but chose Darth Vader because he said "people would remember him." To his dismay, after filming, James Earl Jones was hired to read Vader's lines over Prowse's performance. Series creator George Lucas eventually chose Jones to provide Vader's voice for all of the films in the original trilogy. Prowse was chosen to voice-over the teaser trailer for A New Hope. 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. 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."

In 1978, Jones returned as the voice of Darth Vader (footage of Prowse in the suit is actually unused footage from A New Hope) in The Star Wars Holiday Special, as well as to shoot new footage that was released with the Star Wars: The Interactive Video Board Game, 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 video games Rebel Assault II and Dark Forces, 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 (who had played Anakin Skywalker since Attack of the Clones) 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. James Earl Jones again supplied Vader's voice.

Character creation and concepts

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An early conceptual drawing of Darth Vader vs. Deak Starkiller (a character later dropped from the film)

The character of Darth Vader was not originally planned to be a suited cyborg. The current image of the character 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 was later made permanent and incorporated in the story.

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. Vader's musical leitmotif is "The Imperial March".

In a 2005 interview, Lucas was asked the origins of the name "Darth Vader", and replied: "Darth is a contraction of Dark Lord of the Sith. And Vader is a variation of father. So it's basically Dark Father." (Rolling Stone, June 2, 2005). "Vader" is the Dutch word for "father", which featured in some explanatory theories of Darth Vader's (the Dutch word is instead pronounced as IPA: [ˈfɑdər]) name. However, in J.W. Rinzler's 2007 book, The Making of Star Wars, a vintage quote from Lucas states that the name came "out of thin air", and may have been a corruption of "dark water". In the earliest scripts for Star Wars, the name "Darth Vader" was given to a human Imperial general.

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.

Vader is called "Dart Fener" and "Dark Vador" in Italy and France respectively. In a China-produced subtitled DVD version of Episode III known as Star War The Third Gathers: The Backstroke of the West, his name was displayed as "Reaching the west reaches". This was translated from "Daxi Weida", a Chinese phonetic rendering of Vader's name.

Cultural figure

Due to his central role, Vader has entered the public consciousness as the quintessential villain. His powerful bass voice, coupled with his heavy breathing, is easily recognizable, and the American Film Institute's list of the greatest movie villains placed him third, beating the Wicked Witch of the West 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 on The Muppet Show's "Pigs in Space" sketch, "Girth Plotz" from an episode of Animaniacs that parodied the first trilogy, "Darth Koopa" from The Super Mario Bros. Super Show, "Dark Laser" from The Fairly OddParents, an episode of Codename: Kids Next Door where President Jimmy dressed in black and, now devoted to evil, takes over the school, country singer Darth Brooks in Late Night With Conan O'Brien, and Chef from South Park as Darth Chef in the episode The Return of Chef. Another kind of tribute to Darth Vader comes from Stargate SG-1, in which there are similarities between Anubis and Vader, played for both dramatic and comic effect (complete with Death Star-esque spaceship and superweapon), and his name is mentioned when the issue of Vala's immaculate birth is brought up. Marty McFly in Back to the Future (dressed up in a radiation suit) pretended to be "Darth Vader from the planet Vulcan" in an effort to get his science fiction-loving father to date his mother. The character 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 Empire Strikes Back where the back of Vader's head is exposed briefly before he redons his helmet.

In Mel Brooks' 1986 Star Wars parody Spaceballs, Darth Vader is parodied as Lord Dark Helmet (as played by Rick Moranis), a short man with an over-sized Darth Vader-like helmet, who occasionally opens it to reveal his face. 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 at the tip of the ring. He is given to making double entendres about his helmet and his ring sword. In Spaceballs, one of his lines is an allusion to a quote from Darth Vader in Return of the Jedi: "I see that your Schwartz is as big as mine. Now— let's see how well you can handle it." The film also parodies Darth Vader's revelation to Luke Skywalker in Empire Strikes Back; during their climactic battle, Dark Helmet declares himself to be main character Lone Starr's "father's brother's nephew's cousin's former roommate," before admitting that this means that they have no familial ties whatsoever.

In 2006, Blame Society Productions created a series of short videos featuring Chad Vader: Day Shift Manager. Chad Vader is ostensibly the younger brother of Darth Vader, who wears the same armor and cape, and uses phrases and concepts associated with Darth Vader in the context of a modern-day grocery store.

More recently, Family Guy parodied Star Wars Episode IV, with Stewie Griffin appearing as Darth Vader.

The name Darth Vader as a cultural metaphor

Vader's name has become a synonym for evil. 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.

• On June 22, 2006 U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney called himself the Darth Vader of the Bush administration. Discussing the need to vigorously pursue 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 'talk' to 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 Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert have referred to Cheney as 'Darth Cheney' on occasion. In the satiric cartoon show Lil' Bush, Dick Cheney's father is portrayed as being Darth Vader. At her presidential campaign event on 19 September 2007, Hillary Rodham Clinton also referred to Cheney as Darth Vader.
• 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.
• During a major renovation, Washington National Cathedral held a competition for children to design new gargoyles for the western 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.
• Then-Vice President Al Gore referred to TCI's John Malone as "Darth Vader of cable."
• Political strategist Lee Atwater was known by his political enemies as "the Darth Vader of the Republican Party".

See also

• Skywalker family
• Naberrie family
• Hasbro Darth Vader Voice Changer

Sources

• Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace Novelization, 1st edition paperback, 1999. Terry Brooks, George Lucas, ISBN 0-345-43411-0
• Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones Novelization, 2003. R. A. Salvatore, ISBN 0-345-42882-X
• Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith Novelization, 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: The Phantom Menace: The Visual Dictionary, hardcover, 1999. Dr. David West Reynolds, ISBN 0-7894-4701-0
• 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 Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi as available at Internet Movie Script Database
• Shooting script of Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith as available at Internet Movie Script Database
• Star Wars Technical Commentaries, Dr. Curtis Saxton, 1995-2005. Available at TheForce.net
• Star Wars Databank. Skywalker, Anakin, Vader, Darth

External links

• Darth Vader in the StarWars.com Databank
• Anakin Skywalker on Wookieepedia, a Star Wars wiki
• Darth Vader Costumes
• The Vader Project Platform Show