Dominic, I see what you mean; of course his presence is not necessary. But you said in your earlier post that he “does not belong in this movie.” That’s a bit hyperbole, I think, and implies that his presence is damaging. I just wonder in what way you think his presence is damaging to the film.
I know I said that but I guess I didn’t really mean it in such a definitive way as “there’s no scenario in which Vader should be in this film.” I more meant “in this movie, as it is (not how it could be), Vader doesn’t belong.”
I don’t think the mere presence of him is damaging, I just don’t think they really do anything with it. His first scene with Krennic is completely perfunctory and takes away valuable time from the film that could have been used on any number of other things. His second scene, in the hallway, is worthwhile from a general SW lore perspective, but really, when looking at this film by itself, it really is kind of tacked on lip service, no matter how well done.
When you look at bringing back a character, you should ask what they bring to the film by being there. Now with a character like Dodonna or Red Leader, they’re bit roles in the original and bit roles here, that’s fine, nothing wrong with that. But Vader is such a big deal. Bringing him in, you should be asking “what is his purpose in this story?” He’s up at the tippy top with the Emperor, so on the one hand he didn’t really need to be in the film, just as the Emperor wasn’t. But of course Vader is also the closer, the guy you bring in to get shit done. So yeah, from the perspective of the character’s function in universe, what he does at Scarif makes perfect sense. When you look at the story of this film, however, this isn’t some sort of The Longest Day docu-drama type movie where we’re jumping around to different people throughout. This is the story of a very specific band of Rebels on a mission. So you need to look at Vader from the Rebels’ perspective. To them, he’s an unstoppable force of terror, much like the Death Star in many ways. He’s the embodiment of despair and the loss of hope against the war with the Empire. So there’s definitely a way to weave him into this story if they wanted to. The issue is, the Rebels never so much as mention Vader. He’s not a looming presence or anything. He certainly strikes terror when they go up against him, but that’s just one scene almost completely divorced from the narrative of the film beyond the simple “this is what happened next.” Because, by the time Vader shows up, the Rogue One team has already transmitted the plans, completed their mission, and all died. And the plans do make it on to the Tantive just fine. Vader’s just one last issue, a conflict for a group of red shirts we haven’t met until this scene. I wasn’t surprised when I heard that they added this scene late in the game, because if it was conceived during the initial development of the story I’m sure it would have been integrated better.
To be clear, I don’t hate the scene; it’s very badass and very well done, and from a lore perspective it’s totally awesome to finally see. Just, in terms of this film and this story, it’s not necessary.