You May Have Been a Headache...But You Were Never a Bore
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| Title: | You May Have Been a Headache...But You Were Never a Bore |
| Creator: | Nikki White |
| Date(s): | May 1979 |
| Medium: | |
| Fandom: | Star Wars |
| Topic: | |
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You May Have Been a Headache...But You Were Never a Bore is a 1979 Star Wars essay by Nikki White.
It was printed in The Mos Eisley Tribune #3. The essay has a single illo by Beckey Aulenbach.
The topic was the character Darth Vader.
Some Topics Discussed
- the character of Vader is interesting because of the eternal fascination of evil, his mask, his clothing and uniform, his choice of black in a sea of white stormtroopers
- Vader is appealing in the same way that Dracula is
- he does not really seem to have much in common with the Imperials, who neither understand him and the Force: "They do not believe in the Force and think he is peculiar for his faith."
- "Another point in his favour is his belief in the Force, which gives him a certain integrity and spirituality."
- "If he is cruel, it is for a good reason. He torches both rebel captain and Leia specifically to get information from them and it was a kind of impersonal cruelty."
- "Yet another appealing quality of his is his loyalty and sense of duty"
Introduction
A number of character analyses of the Dark Lord have already appeared in print and that is not what I propose to do here. Rather, I am asking why such things are written in the first place. In other words, why this fascination with STAR WARS' big villain; why does he appeal to so many fans so much? Naturally, since I can really only speak for myself, the reasons I advance will be largely my own but I assume I am typical enough for a wider application of them.
Excerpts
The black cloak also suggests another perennially popular and fascinating villain - Count Dracula. The resemblance goes beyond the cloak. In the novel, at least, Dracula is described as being very tall, having the strength of 20 men and endowed with super natural powers, including the ability to control his victims' minds (in a way similar to some uses of the Force). Like Vader, he is an aristocrat and a soldier. Like Vader, he inspires awe, if not fear in those he encounters. Like Vader, he operates as one alone, as one unique, in the society he finds himself in. Neither man has any friends nor any one to call an equal. The nemesis of each was an older man of eccentric manner, sometimes thought crazy even by his associates. Even the names have a certain similarity - Vlad Dracula and Darth Vader. Reverse the initials. But, before we start having the Rebels lay in stocks of garlic and crucifixes or checking out Vader's quarters for earth-filled coffins, we should remember the differences, too. Vader, to date, has not shown any inclination to turn into a bat or a wolf, though it is possible that he might be able to control the weather to a limited extent.
One reason Vader (and Dracula, too) is so popular is the great power he wields physically, temporally, and spiritually. Power always fascinates, especially great power as witness the multitude of books about long dead absolute rulers like Caesar, Napolean, Mussolini, Hitler, and Stalin. Vader is strong physically, easily able to lift a man and hold him a good foot above the floor for interrogation, and then to toss him casually against a bulkhead. He is powerful politically as he is an aristocrat with a high rank within the Empire's forces, second only to Governor Tarkin on the Death Star. In the script, he is described as the right hand of the Emperor. And thirdly, he has psionic abilities, able to choke someone without even touching him and from a distance, simply by thinking about it. Other powers can be implied or inferred from that other adept in the Force, Obi-wan, viz. healing someone knocked unconscious, confusing or placing a false impression or command in the mind of another, being able to centre unerringly on a target without even seeing it and being able to sense things, such as another's presence.
We all have our antisocial moments where we would like simply to sweep aside or ride rough-shod over those who oppose us or who stand in our way. However, the conventions of society and our own upbringing usually prevent most of us from doing so. Not so with Vader. He has the power, in all senses of the word, to do all that and to get away with it. Thus our darker side identifies with him and envies him when he casually tosses some unfortunate aside like a rag doll, chokes another by remote control or slices through an opponent with a lightsabre.
He is a knight—albeit a Black Knight—with the associations the term has with far- off times, brave deeds, chivalry, beings endowed with weird powers, magic weapons and the like and strange (to us modems) codes of honour and combat. His use of a sword, which provides the film with one of its highlights, namely the lightsabre duel between him and Kenobi, underlines the above-mentioned old-fashionedness and eccentricity.
There is something of Kipling's "cat who walked by himself" about him. He is very much his own man and self-sufficient with it. He seems to have almost as little regard for the Imperials as he does the Rebels. He only barely tolerates Tarkin's authority over him. He speaks to him as an equal and when he does take orders from him, it is almost as if he were doing Tarkin a favour. "As you wish," he says nonchalantly when Tarkin tells him to stop choking General Tagge. He is also willing to tell Tarkin when the Governor is wrong or say "I told you so" when he has been proved right over some point such as the likelihood of Leia's actually revealing the whereabouts of the Rebel base.
His contempt for the other Imperial leaders is fairly evident in the conference room when he demonstrates the Force on Tagge. It is not so much anything he says but the biting, acid tone he employs when speaking.
All this serves to set him apart from the Imperials--his appearance, his strange powers, his indifference to the others and his aloofness. And because he doesn't give a damn about them, anymore than we do, we can sympathize with him. And we can see why this might be so. They are all rather grey, faceless men (and not just the masked stormtroopers), all much alike whereas he is most definitely an individual. He is the only one who displays any real intelligence and sense among them, the real brains on the Death Star. His refreshing contempt for the technology with which the Imperials have surround ed themselves and which limits their thinking, also strikes a responsive chord, especially in the light of increasing automation in our own lives. It is something of a relief to find at least one person in a SF film who thinks we can do just as well, if not better, without "technological marvels", even if he does postulate some mystical energy field instead.
His undoubted personal courage, initiative, and intelligence would also win admiration, especially when contrasted with the rest of the Imperials. Tarkin is always sur rounded by many troopers and subordinate officers, indeed never seems to go anywhere without them. Vader, on the other hand, is often seen moving about the Death Star on his own and is readily approachable by any officer, or trooper. They seem to report to him rather than to Tarkin anyway, as if finding him more amenable and more identifiable - with as an active soldier and not a desk-bound bureaucrat. He goes to face Obi-wan alone and he takes the field himself in his one-man fighter to defend the Death Star. He also took the initiative in chasing after Leia and capturing her, in the first place. Only he would have been capable of such a bold action, as Leia herself points out.
For some people, there is about him the appeal of a 'fallen angel', the Lucifer-syndrome. He was once one of the legendary Jedi, an upholder of peace, law, order, and the Republic, a shining heroic figure of noble blood. Now he serves the Emperor, having betrayed his fellow Jedi and killed one of them to complete his fall from grace. What could have caused such a drastic change in him to cause him to work for the very things he was once opposed to? And yet, even though he has fallen, he still has a dark splendour about him, a superiority so that he is no common criminal. He is still above and beyond the Imperials, though sunk from his former status.
However, what possibly most makes his character interesting and appealing is his very ambivalence. He is not just the traditional black-clad, one-dimensional villain many critics claim. Nor is he even simply the personification of evil that the STAR WARS publicity sheets insist on. In fact, many do not find him to be evil incarnate at all, nor, it would seem, do most of the other characters, or else how would the troopers dare approach him as frequently and as imconcernedly as they do, much less question his orders as some did, or come to him for advice. In fact, if viewed objectively, he does • nothing in the film which particularly sets him out as being so utterly vile a villain at all.
He is an incredible mixture of many things, most particularly the practical and the mystical. He uses his galaxy's technology as he needs it but does not trust it nor rely on it totally, to the exclusion of anything else, unlike his fellows. He has a con tempt for it but where it suits him, he takes advantage of it. He uses, either in his daily life or in the line of duty, a respirator; a life-support system; a TIE fighter, and a targeting computer. In fact, the despised technology surrounds him every day and in everything he does, so long as he is aboard any space vehicle, including the Death Star. However, he seems to have minimised his dependence on it to the unavoidable, such as life-support and transport. He does not have or make any use of any droids, seldom uses a computer, and carries a lightsabre rather than a blaster.
The same ambiguity exists in his mentality. He has a mystical faith in the Force and its superiority to everything else. Yet, he can be very practical and down-to-earth. He keeps Leia alive, especially in the face of Tarkin's opposition, so he can make the most use of her. He takes positive and decisive action to solve problems as they arise, such as dispatching troops after the jettisoned escape pod or sending fighters to deal with the attacking rebels rather than relying on the Death Star's guns alone. He concentrates on the main goal and is not distracted by lessor considerations like vengeance, e.g. he does not bother about the damaged x-wing, Luke's wing-man, but goes after the one remaining intact, namely Luke's, as that presents the most threat to the Death Star.
A character who seems as mixed up as Vader has a number of ways he can be developed and thus is not predictable, which makes for interesting viewing. One hopes that in the sequels this ambiguity will be developed and the complexities of his character further explored so that he is not reduced to a one-dimensional villain with only vengeance and the pursuit of Luke and Leia on his mind; like a sort of interstellar Lt. Gerard of THE FUGITIVE.
Finally, an interesting note to remember. "Sith" is an alternate spelling of "Siddhe", the name of the Irish faeries, who were by no means the nice little things at the bottom of the garden as in storybooks but strange, wild, mysterious creatures of the night, whom no one would care to cross. On the subject of names, much has been made of "Darth Vader" because of its resemblance, aurally, to "dark father" or "dark invader". I do not think too much should be made of this as it also sounds just as much like "Ralph Nader"!