Do we like Darth Vader?
A character from Star Wars (1977)
Our score: 2 out of 10. Iconic and magnetic, but he spends most of the story terrorising a galaxy for an Emperor. We'd admire the entrance and still run from him.
Darth Vader is the black-clad, helmeted villain of Star Wars. Britannica describes him in the original trilogy as the right-hand man of Emperor Palpatine, tasked with crushing the Rebel Alliance. He enters the first film as a looming figure, and his mechanical breathing and deep voice make him one of cinema's most recognisable villains.
He scores low because of what he does on screen. He is a ruthless enforcer who serves an empire and hunts the heroes without mercy. He is also tragic, since Lucas called the first six films 'the tragedy of Darth Vader'. That gives him depth, but it doesn't excuse the damage. We'd love him as a character and not back him as a leader.
The story reveals that Vader was once Anakin Skywalker, a gifted young Jedi, and that he is Luke Skywalker's father. The prequels follow his fall to the dark side. In the final film of the original trilogy, he turns on the Emperor to save his son, and he is fatally wounded doing so. That act earns him a little redemption, though it doesn't wipe out decades of harm.