Star Wars

I've been a devoted Star Wars fan for quite a while. Recently, I picked up a Star Wars book to read and found it quite satisfying. I picked up another, by a different author, and reached the same conclusion. At the moment, there are about 10 Star Wars books from the library sitting on a table waiting for me to read them.

While trying to sleep, I realized one of the drastic differences between the Sequel and Prequel Trilogy. Nothing to do with the difference in colors, effects, or aliens - no, something much deeper and more important.

The Prequel Trilogy is the rise and fall of Anakin Skywalker to the Dark Side, his becoming Darth Vader. It's also the rise of Palpatine to being emperor of the galaxy (the known reaches) and the destruction of the Jedi Order. All three of these ends are more or less a heroic tragedy (from the standard perspective). Note the fact that almost all main characters, except for the villains are dead at the end.

In contrast, the Prequel Trilogy is about the return of the Jedi, the defeat of Darth Vader and Palpatine (Darth Sidious), and the supposed end of the Empire (although in the expanded universe the Empire is still kicking for quite a while). It's a heroic adventure that is not in the least bit tragic.

I also realized that the entire saga can be thought of not only as the story of Anakin Skywalker (and by extension, the Skywalker family) but as the story of Darth Sidious. In fact, Darth Sidious is more key to the story than any character other than Anakin Skywalker himself. He doesn't appear as often as, say, Obi-Wan, but he is the true mover and shaker in galactic events and the true evil that has to be defeated. While Darth Vader, General Grievous, Count Dooku, and others were all quite formidable, none so much as Darth Sidious.

I also noticed that in some old list of top movie villains of all time Darth Vader was only third place. I read about the other characters and they didn't seem nearly as interesting or cool as Darth Vader. I also noticed that on the same list Harrison Ford's characters appeared twice - Indiana Jones was in second place (after Atticus Finch) and Han Solo somewhere down along the lines. The point of this paragraph is that Darth Vader should be considered the epitome of movie villains (in my opinion). Everything about him is simply awesome.