I recently watched the original trilogy on Blu-Ray complete with George Lucas’ commentaries, and I have to admit that it made me feel slightly better (like this much better —>.<—) about the prequels. [fasten your seatbelts for “revelations” you’ve probably already heard if you’re more actively involved in the Star Wars fandom than I am] I did not benefit from seeing Darth Vader as a little kid, but Lucas summarized, in the original trilogy commentaries, a lot of what was presented in the prequels, and a couple things he pointed out made me believe that there may have been a modicum of useful information in Episodes II and III — that basically, Anakin Skywalker made a deal with the devil, got royally screwed, and now has to deal with the miserable consequences of his poor decision for every remaining moment of his life.
Vader didn’t want Luke to join the Dark Side because he still thought the Dark Side was so awesome. He just wanted one more chance to destroy the Emperor. He knew that he couldn’t take out the Emperor by himself, because he didn’t have much of his original body left and so could not channel the Force effectively. Only with Luke’s help could he accomplish this task, and so Luke joining the Dark Side was just the means to an end. (Doesn’t make him look like any better of a parent, just a different kind of shitty parent.)
Perhaps it’s better that a great many of us spent decades having the fairly one-dimensional view of Vader that is presented in the original trilogy, and enjoy it for the simplified good-versus-evil space opera that it is…And then, speaking for myself, when I forgot the hours of tedium that made up the prequels and just took that little bit of backstory with me, it refreshed my enthusiasm for the originals.
I wonder: if we all knew from the beginning that Darth Vader was just a poor sad bastard who carried on being evil because he had no other options…would his place in the Star Wars fandom be more like Loki’s in the MCU?
Oh my God. That is so fucking good.
WHY THE HELL WOULD I HAVE TO WATCH THE DAMN BLURAY COMMENTARIES TO LEARN THAT