Ronster said:

I think it's probably the most Fatal error to make three films about a bloke who should have remained mysterious and a folklore legend in war time.

We never needed to know who he was what he did or where he went only what he became from vague recollections about him previously.

It fails on so many levels how they handled this aspect.

The question should really be... How did you picture Darth Vader before the mask came off revealing Sebastian Shaw?

And within that question you have a definitive conclusive answer contained within a question.

We should never have known who he really was but only we got to finally see what he looked like eventually. And even then we really know very little about him.

My thoughts exactly, for the past 30 years. Vader was weakened as a character by the Father alteration to the story, damaged by the unmasking, and made laughable by the PT. He should have remained a complete mystery.