The premiere of ‘Obi-Wan Kenobi’ has brought back Darth Vader, one of the most emblematic villains in the history of cinema. For some even the best, and that there are not a few contenders for the title, but that idea is due to the original Star Wars trilogy directed by george lucas. Overcoming that is practically impossible and what is happening is that your image runs the risk of devaluing yourself for wanting to bring him back on too many occasions.
Disney already played the Vader card with a brief but imposing appearance in ‘Rogue One: A Star Wars Story’. Like it more or less, it made sense given the proximity between the events that were told there and those of ‘A new hope’, also leaving the additional incentive of going many years without an appearance of his. They were also just a few minutes, but enough for it to be perhaps the most talked about of the entire film.
This article contains spoilers for ‘Obi-Wan Kenobi’ up to its fifth episode
an inevitable return
That we were going to see him again sooner or later seemed inevitable. Darth Vader sells a lot – I myself have more than one merch item of his – and Disney was exploring those years between ‘Revenge of the Sith’ and ‘A New Hope’ It didn’t take a genius to connect the dots. The funny thing is that initially the idea with ‘Obi-Wan Kenobi’ was to have Darth Maul as the main villain instead of him, but in LucasFilm they changed their focus at the last moment, in part because everything was going to be darker initially. Everything more accessible and with Vader, the most beloved villain in this universe. To the simple.
With the additional incentive of the return of Hayden Christensen, whose performance as Anakin Skywalker was heavily criticized at the time, especially in ‘Attack of the Clones’. The truth is that there what failed above all else were the dialogues written by Lucas for the romantic scenes, but hey, here he hardly had to say anything, because as Darth Vader he has counted again on james earl jones, the original voice of the character. An all in one that in the end has condemned Christensen to absolute irrelevance beyond that flashback included in the fifth episode.
It is also true that his appearances have been reduced so far, but that has not prevented him from also ending up being a victim of the incomprehensible production work – pity, that deborah chow It seemed like a very good choice after passing through ‘The Mandalorian’- and assembly that the series has shown at various times. Of the absurd persecution of the first chapter, it is better not to say anything more here due to the null relevance of Vader, but that confrontation against Obi-Wan in the third episode borders on the unfortunate.
For this better not to have brought him back
Before anyone draws the card that the character played by Ewan McGregor, by far the best of a series that otherwise has little to offer beyond the strength that nostalgia has to catch you, it goes through low hours, I will tell you that it is perfect, but that the mere idea that it recovers the Jedi spirit precisely before his most fearsome villain it was already a tricky decision. And then doing it with that fight almost more typical of a bad series z is the straw that breaks the camel’s back.
But let’s just focus on Vader at that point. Showing off his great power, he defeats his former master without difficulty. Expectable, but also boring. The fact that he then basically allows him to escape does not say anything in his favor either, since he could very well have used force to stop Tala’s puzzling plan that otherwise ends up with Leia imprisoned. Yet another example that ‘Obi-Wan Kenobi’ deserved better scripts than he has.
Otherwise, Vader has just been there to be that big threat with little to contribute. Yes, he has shown that he was not a fool and that he knew Reva’s plans, but everything seems headed for another great battle with an already recovered Obi-Wan destined to be another disappointment. be because there can be no really definitive result -We already have that in ‘A New Hope’-, another irrelevant victory for the Jedi -we already had that in ‘Revenge of the Sith’- or some kind of trick so that Vader leaves Tatooine alone when he has to smell that his former master was there for a reason.
It’s not like I want to cast ‘Obi-Wan Kenobi’ as mere filler when it comes to Vader, but I can’t think of any contribution of his in relation to this legendary character with any kind of relevance. And it is that the mere existence of the Disney + series is based on filling a void that for the most part the series has created to justify its existence. And I have no doubt that there will be those who will be delighted simply by meeting these characters again, hence many more series will come to us from now on, but if with the cinema it was already clear with ‘Han Solo: A Star Story Wars’ that the public was not going to accept anything, I have no doubt that the same thing will happen with the series sooner or later.
It already
And as for Vader, the same could very well happen. I have no doubt that we will see him in some way in ‘Ahsoka’ and that Disney will take advantage of any opportunity to return to the character. They may even take Christensen at his word and make a series focused exclusively on him, but this is how they are turning someone who was the best quality sirloin into a rubbery steak with a lot of fat. It is still meat and its proteins are there, but in no case can it be said to be the same.
If it were up to me, they would retire him already. At best it is impossible for it to go and all the signs we have indicate that just the opposite is happening. The future of Star Wars should be new characters and explore that galaxy far, far away instead of always coming back to the same. And Darth Vader is not exempt from that.