As I read Star Wars: Darth Vader Vol. 2 Into the Fire, I realized that, number one, it was my favorite Star Wars comic and one of my favorite additions to Star Wars canon of all time, and number two, I had to write something about it. In short, this comic is about Darth Vader’s reality as a Sith and as a slave to Palpatine. It shows how he felt and what he endured in those years. For this paper, I would like to give an analysis on what we observe through some of this comic, and more specifically, look at Darth Vader’s psychology.
The first scene we observe is Palpatine interrogating Vader regarding why he let Luke escape on Bespin, and why he let some rebels, who had close association with Padme, go free instead of “slaughtering” them. It is important to note that as we see Palpatine’s words to Vader, we notice the red tinted pictures of the scenes he is referring to.
After this brief confrontation, Palpatine sets his royal guards on Vader who he bests without the use of his lightsaber. He then proceeds to choke the pair of them as well as the Grand Viser. Palpatine, wanting to test Vader’s power and will, intervenes and begins to choke Vader, himself. This is the start of something very interesting which has partially inspired me to write this paper: the symbolism.
Though this is a cut off view, we see in this scene some of the people who Vader has choked. Now, what I have concluded from occurrences such as this is that, whenever it shows a red tint on a picture, we are getting a glimpse into whatever Darth Vader is picturing in his mind. I will provide further proof of this later, however, strong evidence for this is that Vader has red tinted eye pieces. Therefore, this could allude to his POV or point of view. Coming back to this scene, it fascinates me that Vader, while being choked, pictures the people he has choked. I take this as him saying “ So this is what it felt like.” Then Palpatine says to Vader “You were the Chosen One, were you not? [...] But who chooses the Chosen one? And why could they not choose another?” Through this issue, there is an obvious theme of choosing. The title “The Chosen One” means the one who has been chosen, but I never stopped to think about that. Anakin was not chosen by anyone to be the chosen one, but Sidious chose to make Vader his apprentice. Once more, I will be referring back to this subject. The Emperor destroys three limbs of Vader’s and breaks his mask over Vader’s right eye, notably, the same eye that Ahsoka damaged in their duel on Malachor, but this time, we don’t see rage in his pupil. Instead we see submission and distress.
Next, Palpatine travels to Mustafar in order to bring Vader back to his origins. He then leaves Vader where he found him before, next to the lava. As Sidious leaves, we get a comparison as well as what Vader feels: abandonment.
Vader is once more left alone, and he remembers when Obi-Wan left him the first time. Then, we see him remember killing Obi-Wan, and the following image is what makes me believe we are seeing his thoughts and not a flashback for the reader.
We see Vader remembering killing Obi-Wan, but then we see him imagining killing Palpatine instead. If this was a flashback, we wouldn’t not see Vader killing Palpatine. What are we witnessing? We are getting a glimpse into his thoughts. This is something I’ve never seen before. Vader suddenly becomes much more real to me. His thoughts are not how I thought they would be. I imagined him imagining slaughtering rebels or choking an enemy until their death, instead his coming thoughts are surprisingly of remorse and regret. I believe regret is one of the worst things a human can experience. Knowing you cannot go back, knowing what you have done will be permanent forever. It's painful to look at things you regret, and it would be even more painful if you regret killing your best friend. There are many occurrences of Vader remembering Obi-Wan. It shows how much he thought about what he had done. He did not forget. It seems like he does care. Sometime after, we get one of Vader’s readable thoughts. He remembers Palpatine telling him to bring peace to the Empire back when he was Anakin. This time we read Vader’s response during his current situation. “Peace, master? You will never know peace again. And neither will I. No peace for anyone, ever again. Only focus… and fury.” It is interesting to me that he says this because I can relate to them very closely. Whenever I get super angry, I tell myself similar things. “I am going to be angry forever.” or “I’m never going to be happy again.” However, that is never the case and I have always smiled, and laughed after the fact. Whenever I was super sad growing up, I would tell myself that I would smile again one day, and younger me was consistently correct. Similarly to my experience, Vader says extreme things when in his anger, and we know that he was at peace later when he was saved. I think Vader, during the Galactic Civil War, was filled with an everlasting hate which he had not let go of since Revenge of the Sith. The second he learns of Padme’s death, I think he never stops being filled with hate. He is firstly sad, but like some people in our world, Vader douces his sadness and replaces it with anger. Padme’s death fuels his rage, and his rage dictates his actions. It is only when he saw Luke, when he lost his anger for a second and felt his love for his son. That is at the center of all which is occurring in this comic. One of Vader’s most frequent thoughts that we see are of Luke, specifically him telling Luke that he is his father. I will get more into this a bit later. For now, lets dive into the theme of choosing.
When Vader goes into the cave ofThe Eye of Webbish Bogg, Vader says that he feels the Eye’s pull. However, the Eye indicates that that is not the case. It seems like Vader is so used to not having any say in whatever he does, that he assumes that the Eye chose him like everyone else has. The Eye then goes on to ask whether Vader has decided who he is. Whether his choice has been chosen for him, or if he has been chosen.
Interestingly, this does not allow Vader to respond that he has been able to choose. As we’ve seen, he has not chosen much throughout this particular story, nor much of his life. I know that what I say next you might not agree with but It didn’t seem like it was his choice to go to the Jedi temple and become a Jedi. In fact, he was very reluctant to go, but his mother insisted along with Qui-Gon. He chose, in a way, to be Darth Vader, but he was deceived and wanted, no matter the cost, to save Padme. As for when he is Darth Vader, he has ended up where he started, as a slave, and nothing more. He intimidates everyone he encounters, but he fails to do the same with the Emperor. The Emperor always bests Vader and gets him to bend to his wishes. This aspect shows very blatantly in this comic. Vader has no free will. Palpatine controls him like he would control a RC car. If Vader disobeys like he does in this comic, well, he gets set on fire, choked, electrocuted, and gets his limbs crushed. As I read the first pages, I took particular note of Vader’s screams of pain when he was getting tortured by the Emperor. I had never seen him like that. He is the one causing pain, but behind the scenes, he is the one who is in pain. It is a very sad reality. He lost everything that he did not want to lose. His best friend died, his padawan is gone, and his wife is dead. He is alone. He has no companion. That is probably part of the reason he remained with Sidious. Palpatine was the only one who actually valued him, even if Sidious only cared for his abilities, at least he means something to someone. But where he seemed to find an escape of all of the pain was when he saw his son, Luke. He realizes that he can have a different purpose after confronting Luke. In this comic, Vader has visions of Luke in the red mist when attempting to enter Exegol. While witnessing these scenes, we see that his thoughts read “ My son… my son…” In the same scene, we also see Vader telling Luke that he is his father, but this time, Vader is the one who is injured.
It’s a really sad picture. There is something about these two pages that is very emotional for me. Vader, who we've seen do incredible things, is pleading with Luke. It doesn’t seem like he is saying it as he said it in the film, (with confidence). I think it's more heartfelt and sincere. I think he wants to have a relationship with his son. But then, Luke heartlessly kills him. The painful hate on Luke’s face is very telling. On the closing pages we see Vader on Bespin once more, but now he is enacting what Luke did. This time, Luke is telling Vader that he will destroy the emperor.
I think that this is a dream sequence in Vader’s mind. In context of the previous page, he would be unconscious from what he was shown when he was on the planet. You can feel the silence of Vader’s dream. I don’t know how else to describe it. You can tell the tone of Luke’s voice, confident and reassuring. What this shows us, and what the whole comic is showing us, is that for the first time, he is having doubts about his loyalty to Sidious. Knowing that Padme’s child is out there, tears Vader apart, piece by piece. Until, his last act alive is sacrificing himself for his son. But perhaps you are confused about what I am communicating to you because I have been telling you that Vader is turning to the light, and that what he thinks isn’t bad. So here is the question. Why can’t he set himself free? My answer to you is that he is unable to. He is so broken that, even though thinking about Luke makes him more whole, he can’t do it on his own. He knows how to exploit Vader’s weaknesses, and make him blaze with hate again. It’s Palpatine’s greatest talent. He even did it with Luke briefly. However unlike Luke, while Vader’s force was powerful, his emotions were not. Anakin was easily malleable, and Palpatine got him when he was at his weakest. He waited for the perfect moment to engulf Vader in his own pain.
I loved this comic so much because it showed what was going on between movies, but what really grabbed my attention was the sorrow that this comic added. It’s awful that Darth Vader had to endure the suffering Palpatine put him through, and it’s painful to see Vader’s love for his son. He wants to go to the light, but Sidious has trapped Vader beyond escape. There was a scene in the comic where Vader’s thoughts are read once more during the Eye’s cave sequence, and in this scene Vader says “What I need” and it shows Palpatine wanting Vader to turn Luke to the dark side. Wait. A. Dang. Second. What Palpatine wants is what Vader says he needs… very interesting. Continuing on, Vader then says “Or what I want.” and it shows a picture of Luke with Vader saying “Join me and together we can rule the galaxy as father and son.” What he wants vs what he is forced to do. Darth Vader is the most tragic character I’ve ever witnessed, and its because of this comic that I really believe that. His fall from being destined to vanquish the sith, to murdering hundreds of thousands of beings and people without a second thought. From wanting to save everyone from harm, to unleashing his uncontrollable pain on the galaxy.
I hope you all understood what I am trying to say. I didn’t want it to sound like Vader was already saved or that he was pretty much completely good because I believe he was far from it. I do however think there was a certain tone to the text that was way less intense compared to the Vader I’ve read before. If you have not already you should definitely check this comic out. As I said, It’s one of my favorite Star Wars media that I’ve ever read or watched 10/10. With that, I will conclude this paper. I thank all of you for taking the time out of your day to listen to my thoughts and feelings. It means a lot to me.I love you guys, and I pray you all have an awesome weekend. I look forward to reading your thoughts in the comments. May the Force be Forever with You, my friend.
I dedicate this work to
@Aragorn Skywalker Of House Stark and @Ajjviolin96
for being an inspiration as I wrote this. Thank you both. :)
