![]() ![]() Their actions unfurl in an existing franchise framework: Darth Vader operates at Emperor Palpatine’s behest, the Death Star will be a world-destroyer, and the Force endures as a philosophy - nearly a religion - that provides guidance to believers. Rogue One, which Andor creator and showrunner Tony Gilroy co-wrote, started this trend with a ragtag group of scientists, defectors, convicts, and mercenaries who came together to steal Death Star schematics. And by crafting in Luthen a baddie who resembles Vader but uses the tools of the enemy to fight the Empire instead of serving it, Andor reconfigured not just the obstacles faced by heroes in a galaxy far, far away but what defines heroism in a world without the black-and-white morality and superpowers of the Jedi. If killing many is acceptable if you also save one person, how does killing a few dozen to save hundreds more compare? What kind of humanistic calculus does that require? How much rebellion is enough? When are ruthless deeds required for the greater good?Īndor transformed the Star Wars hero’s journey, previously centered on Luke Skywalker and his relationship with the Force, into a radicalization narrative focused on thief, spy, and killer Cassian Andor (Diego Luna) and how the subjugation he experienced on planets like Ferrix, Aldhani, and Narkina 5 inspired him to join the Rebellion. Instead of the man who was once Anakin, Andor gives us Luthen Rael (Stellan Skarsgård), Vader’s analog in styling (all those black capes and hoods), weaponry (his ship’s red lightsaber-esque laser beams), and complicated morality (that whole “responsible for people’s deaths” thing).īy taking the accoutrements of an Imperial agent, Sith Lord, and many-times-over murderer who fans forgave because of his one act of mercy toward their special boy and giving them to Luthen, a Rebel mastermind willing to burn allies and eager for the Empire to amp up its oppression in order to inspire more “pockets of fomenting,” Andor challenges this series’ longheld considerations of right and wrong. But it is praise for the way Andor, while mostly turning away from the Skywalker saga, intermittently echoes some of its touchstones to build a sense of simultaneous familiarity and discovery. This is not a slight against James Earl Jones, Hayden Christensen, David Prowse, or the other actors who have embodied Emperor Palpatine’s right hand. And one of the best things about Andor is that Darth Vader isn’t in it. Whenever a villain is needed, he’s there: in Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, the Clone Wars film and series, and Obi-Wan Kenobi, and he’s rumored to appear in the upcoming Ahsoka. The prequel films explored what made Anakin go to the dark side, and the sequel films turned him into an enduring symbol via his grandson Kylo Ren. Over the past 45 years of franchise content since A New Hope, Darth Vader has become a kind of narrative shortcut, a way to reassure viewers that the Star Wars they’re watching is the Star Wars they remember - new but fundamentally unchanged. He was pitiless, his Force power a means of domination and a tool of violence, until his final redemptive act of saving his son Luke in Return of the Jedi. In a story about good and evil, Darth Vader - his face covered by a Samurai-inspired mask of matte black, his body enrobed in a billowing cape of midnight fabric - was clearly the latter. The pew-pew of laser guns gave way to a foreboding barrage of horns and then that hoarse, rhythmic breathing. When Darth Vader first appeared in Star Wars, you heard him before you saw him. ![]()
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