Abstract
Darth Vader is one of the most iconic supervillains in popular culture. As an evil archetype, Vader’s unequivocal villainy is predicated upon the enigma of his origin and the good versus evil polarity that arguably underpins the Star Wars franchise. However, the Star Wars prequel trilogy complicates the oversimplified dualism of this thematic premise by revealing Vader’s past as Anakin Skywalker: the once heroic “Chosen One” turned corrupted Jedi Knight then Sith Lord. Considering Vader’s various depictions across movies, comic books, and television, this chapter examines the sequential complexity of Vader’s villainy with a focus on how the prequel trilogy complicates notions of temporality, memory, and continuity. In occupying both the before and after, the prequel trilogy presents Vader as a liminal villain who is simultaneously Jedi and Sith, thus contributing a temporal perspective to Vader’s role as villain to re-work the themes of heroism, villainy, and ‘destiny’ in the Star Wars franchise.
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