Scott109 said:
In A New Hope, Vader is a former pupil of Obi-Wan’s who turned to evil and hunted down and destroyed the Jedi Knights, is a great and powerful warrior, is a religious mystic, and is a TIE-Fighter pilot.
Darth Vader is a traitor, a warrior, a mystic, a pilot, and a cyborg. That is hardly one dimensional.
Imagine if Darth Vader took off his mask, spoke of his struggle between the light and the dark sides of the Force, and struggled to kill Obi-Wan, who was a father figure to him. He would have been a much weaker villain. Villains should not have to struggle to commit villainy. Villains should be naturally villainous.
The scene in which Kylo Ren struggles to murder Han Solo was supposed to be poignant. In reality, it was pathetic.
Darth Vader, while being a great villain is still arguably very flat in ANH. The argument that the main villain has to be strictly evil is complete fodder, a good villain exists when he is well rounded and the audience understands their decisions even if we don’t agree with them. Much like how the protagonist will have a struggle with doing evil things but they are still a good person. Villains are still people, they should be understood.
One thing that I’d like to see in Star Wars is a villain that’s completely insane. Like Joker/Hannibal level insane, we haven’t seen that in TCW, Rebels or any of the films but I think it would be a fresh take on a villain in Star Wars and would leave some really cool opportunities.
