Why Darth Vader is the Best Villain Ever
“You have failed me for the last time…”
Happy May the Fourth, Star Wars fans!
I still remember going to the movies with my dad when Star Wars came out. I was seven years old. And I was captivated. Blown away. Hooked. Right then and there, I became a lifelong Star Wars fan.
The moment that hooked me more than any other was when Darth Vader made his grand entrance into the captured rebel ship. Oh my! From that point forward, Vader stole the screen in every scene he was in.
I knew then. Deep down in my bones. Darth Vader was, quite simply, the best. To steal a phrase from Tina Turner, he was “better than all the rest.”
Best. Villain. Ever.
In A New Hope, Vader was awesome. In The Empire Strikes Back, he was beyond awesome. He really came into his own in that film — smoothly giving orders, striding into the captured rebel base on Hoth, catching Han Solo’s blaster shots with the palm of his hand, killing two high-ranking Imperial officers who failed to meet his standards — even force-choking one of them over a Zoom call. Incredible.
In Return of the Jedi, we see a more complex and conflicted Vader. I didn’t like him as much in this one. I thought Luke bested him too easily in their saber duel, but I…
