When it comes to franchises that have survived over decades, there are likely none quite as well known and beloved as Star Wars.
While other movie franchises like 007 and Halloween have also made it for decades, they certainly have not matched the success of the Star Wars saga. Even with Star Wars: The Last Jedi becoming one of the most hated movies in the franchise, it still managed to become the ninth most successful movie of all time.
Of all of the Star Wars characters, there is probably no one as famous or iconic as Darth Vader, the black-suited, Force-wielding villain from the Original Trilogy.
Vader has become the face of the franchise, with his brief appearances in Rogue One: A Star Wars Story being the highlight of the movie for many audience members.
Whether it was his theme music, his machine-operated breathing, or the incredible vocal performance by James Earl Jones, something really clicked for Darth Vader, making him the most notable villain in Hollywood over 40 years after his first appearance.
Despite having 40 years of development, there are some things about the Dark Lord of the Sith that don’t seem to make sense. While many of these issues arose during the wildly disliked Prequel Trilogy, some issues managed to pop up during the Original Trilogy, and others even arose outside of the movies.
With that said, here are the 15 Star Wars Memes That Show Darth Vader Makes No Sense.
15. What Kind Of Anti-Aging Cream Does She Use?
Natalie Portman is one of the greatest actresses to enter the Star Wars universe, so there’s really no question as to why they chose to bring her back for Star Wars: Attack of the Clones.
However, one issue that was created from this was the fact that Anakin, who was only a small boy when we first met him in The Phantom Menace, had seemingly aged quite a bit, considering that he was recast.
On the other hand, it looked like Padmé had barely aged a day between The Phantom Menace and Attack of the Clones, which was a 10 year gap.
In defense of this illogical aging process, Padmé was a Queen of Naboo in a universe with some rather useful technology. There’s a good chance her political power would’ve given her access to some of the most useful resources to keep her looking young and beautiful.
Regardless, this was a tough thing to look past for many fans who saw Attack of the Clones.
14. Never Challenge The Master Of The High Ground
One of the most hilariously quoted lines from Revenge of the Sith is Obi-Wan’s line, “It’s over Anakin! I have the high ground!” This was the almost fatal moment for Anakin when he foolishly tried to jump over Obi-Wan, and ended up having three of his limbs chopped off.
The problem here is that Obi-Wan acted like this was an impossible feat, when really he had done the same thing to Darth Maul just a couple movies earlier.
While this can be explained by the fact that Anakin was not as skilled as Obi-Wan, in addition to Obi-Wan being able to know how to deflect his own move, it’s still a bit nonsensical that Obi-Wan would have treated the “high ground” as something utterly impenetrable, despite him knowing first hand that it was not.
13. “I Find Your Lack Of Game Play Disturbing”
As everyone knows, Darth Vader is the face of Star Wars, so when the second Star Wars: Battlefront game was announced, fans were anxious to be able to play as Vader.
The Dark Lord of the Sith was sure to have some remarkable features that would make him the game’s most popular character. Unfortunately, as we now know, things did not turn out as expected.
In order to unlock Darth Vader in Battlefront II, you either had to have over 40 hours of game play under your belt or spend over a fortune in dough to unlock his character.
This was the biggest issue people had with Battlefront II, and was frankly the biggest waste of Darth Vader in Star Wars history.
Yes, that is including his cringe-worthy “Noooooo!” at the end of Revenge of the Sith.
12. Just Do It! Don’t Let Your Dreams Be Dreams!
This was a strange moment for Revenge of the Sith. While Chancellor Palpatine was in a high position of power and a personal mentor to Anakin Skywalker, the fact that Anakin would’ve dropped his entire moral code at the sound of the words “Do it” doesn’t make a lot of sense, even if it did come from the Chancellor.
Anakin knew that it would be wrong to take down Dooku. He had over a decade’s worth of training to know it was wrong, but he still did it because of those magical two words.
Furthermore, something that really didn’t make sense about all of this was the fact that Anakin saw absolutely no negative repercussions because of his actions.
Had Anakin brought Dooku in, as he had been ordered to, he would’ve been following the Jedi Code, and the Jedi could’ve possibly used the Sith’s information to win the war.
11. Misquoted For Decades
The most quoted line of the entire Star Wars saga is actually often quoted incorrectly. During The Empire Strikes Back, when Vader reveals his relation to Luke Skywalker, all he says is, “No, I am your father.”
Many people have accidentally squeezed Luke’s name into the quote, either after the word “No,” or replacing the word “No” all together. The fact of the matter is that both of those ways are wrong.
This quote is so commonly misquoted that even James Earl Jones, who did the voice for Darth Vader, sometimes misquotes this iconic line during interviews and meetings with fans.
If the voice of Darth Vader can mess up this line, we can’t really be mad at the common fans who misquote it too. Regardless, this is one thing about Darth Vader’s legacy that has not made sense for some time.
10. “You’re gonna be in so much trouble!”
Revenge of the Sith was the first Star Wars movie to be rated PG-13, which was largely due to the dark tone throughout the film. The darkest moment in the movie was undoubtedly Anakin’s run-in with the Jedi younglings after turning to the Dark Side.
In order to cover up this dark moment for kids, the LEGO comics drastically changed the events of the scene. Since we never actually saw what Anakin did to the young Padawans, LEGO was likely attempting to fill the gap for children who saw the movie and wondered what actually became of the younglings.
While this was a nice attempt at maintaining the innocence of young LEGO fans, we all know that the events featured above were not actually what happened to the Jedi younglings.
9. Is That Really What Happened, Obi-Wan?
The Star Wars prequels created a lot of continuity errors and plot holes for the rest of the trilogy. While many elements of the two trilogies fit together like a puzzle piece, other elements didn’t make a lot of sense when combined.
One particular moment of this was Obi-Wan telling Luke Skywalker that his “deceased” father wanted him to have his lightsaber. As we all know now, what really happened was quite different, and rather brutal.
This is actually more than just a Prequel problem, though, as it doesn’t make much sense when you compare it to The Empire Strikes Back.
The reason for this problem is that, surprisingly, George Lucas was not always planning on Darth Vader being Luke’s father. In fact, the idea didn’t come to him until the original Star Wars was already released. This was just one of those lines that Lucas hoped we would overlook.
8. How Many Vader Spin-Offs Do We Need?
With a great number of Star Wars spin-offs on the horizon, including Solo: A Star Wars Story which releases next month, one of the most asked-for spin-offs is a movie starring Darth Vader.
While these people have good intentions with their recommended spin-off, they overlook the fact that we already have three spin-offs about Darth Vader.
Though the Prequels may not have been exactly what Star Wars fans were hoping for, starring an angsty, young Anakin Skywalker rather than a brutal and powerful Darth Vader, they were still technically Darth Vader spin-offs.
While a movie starring a more violent Vader would be cool, it likely won’t happen considering the amount of development Vader has already received in the first six movies.
Instead, Vader will likely be featured in future spin-offs as an antagonist rather than the protagonist, like his appearance in Rogue One.
7. Was Obi-Wan Blissfully Ignorant, Or Just Stupid?
As the Prequels revealed, Darth Vader became the way that he was due to his love for Padmé and heartbreak. Even though the Jedi Code forbade the Jedi from having any kind of a romantic life, Anakin disobeyed this with his love for Padmé.
The issue, however, was that, despite knowing all about Anakin’s love life, Obi-Wan did nothing.
He had been in the presence of Anakin and Padmé embracing a number of times, and simply ignored it. Obi-Wan only saw the best in his Padawan, and therefore ignored his duties as a Jedi Master.
Had Obi-Wan actually done something about this knowledge, rather than being blissfully ignorant, Anakin may never have turned to the Dark Side, and the Empire may never have risen to power. Way to go, Obi-Wan.
6. Vader Really Should’ve Seen This Coming
Surprisingly, this short LEGO Star Wars movie pointed out a pretty big issue in the Star Wars universe. The Emperor has had a long history of betraying and abandoning his apprentices.
His entire life, Palpatine has been pretty selfish, even destroying his master Darth Plagueis just so he could personally increase his strength.
Knowing the Emperor’s true nature first hand, considering that he destroyed the Emperor’s previous apprentice under his orders, Vader should’ve been preparing to be cast aside by the Emperor.
While some of the books and video game lore of Star Wars went into this, showing Vader coming up with plans to overthrow the Emperor before the Emperor had Vader done away with, this is an element that was never touched on in the movies.
At some point, Vader logically would’ve left the Emperor’s side, and he most certainly would not have hand-delivered the Emperor’s next apprentice (Luke) to him. Vader really should have known that would’ve been it for him.
5. Vader Really Doesn’t Do Much
Though he may be the most feared villain in the galaxy, Vader seems to be more talk than action. During the Original Trilogy, most of his screen time features him standing in a corner with his arms crossed menacingly, or pointing fingers at people.
In fact, throughout the entire Original Trilogy, we only ever see Vader in three lightsaber fights, with one of them (his fight with Obi-Wan) being wildly underwhelming.
Outside of choking random people and altering deals, Vader doesn’t really do much for the Empire. All of the work is done by the technicians and Empire officials. Vader is the equivalent of a guard hound that sits in the corner and growls at people.
Rogue One, fortunately, provided a happy change to this view of Vader, showing the Sith Lord using his lightsaber on non-Jedi opponents for the very first time.
4. Anakin’s Supposed To Be The Bad Guy, Right?
As much as the Prequels show the political side of the Star Wars universe, they have failed to point out the fact that the Jedi were nothing more than a religious group who would often fight for political gain, much like the Crusades.
Taking a step back out of bias toward the Jedi to look at the bigger picture, the true intentions of Anakin Skywalker start to seem justified.
Sure, the Sith had a history of being bad, but the Jedi tried to take down a political leader. Rather than trying to take legal action, as Anakin recommended to Mace Windu, the Jedi stormed into Palpatine’s office and tried to end his life.
When Anakin chopped off Mace Windu’s arm, it wasn’t just because of his allegiance to Palpatine, but also because destroying the Chancellor without trial was completely against the Jedi Code.
The Jedi had betrayed their own rules and started a coup against the government. It’s kind of hard to defend something like that.
3. Run, Padmé, Run!
As charming as the narrative of Attack of the Clones made Anakin out to be, he really wasn’t a great guy. His words that somehow wooed the heart of Padmé were creepy, to say the least, which would’ve led any normal person to run from the Jedi Padawan as quickly as possible.
Lines like “Now that I’m with you again, I’m in agony” and “I’m haunted by the kiss that you should never have given me. My heart is beating, hoping that kiss will not become a scar. You are in my very soul, tormenting me” made Attack of the Clones into a truly uncomfortable experience for everyone watching.
How Anakin, with his poetically creepy dialogue, ever managed to win the heart of a Queen is completely outrageous. Padmé really should’ve run when she had the chance.
2. He Really Likes That Song
One of the most iconic parts about Darth Vader is his menacing theme music. Whenever Vader braced the screen, his Imperial March would thunder, showing the true might and fear-inducing power of the Sith Lord.
However, as useful as this music was at times, some would say that the music was overused. The music would constantly play, even if only the ship that Vader was on was on-screen.
This at times ruined moments that could’ve featured Vader’s presence as a shock or surprise to the people on board.
All in all, Vader’s music was incredibly useful in the Original Trilogy, but at times it became a bit distracting and took away from the visual storytelling. It certainly paid off in Rogue One, though, when the use of his theme music made his brief moments on-screen incredibly more enthusing.
1. A Whole Lot To Process
While this meme is mostly just for fun, it does bring up a valid point from The Empire Strikes Back. When Vader revealed to Luke that he was his father, he didn’t even give his son the chance to ponder on this realization before pushing for him to join the Dark Side.
Vader essentially threw two bombshells at the young Luke Skywalker at once, and then was shocked when Luke decided to just drop into the air vents of Cloud City.
Additionally, Vader had just chopped off his son’s hand, so that certainly didn’t help.
If Vader would’ve gone about it logically, he would’ve asked Luke to have a seat with him at a table in Cloud City, maybe a café if they had one, and calmly present the family-related information, followed by the offer.
However, this wouldn’t have been as cool, so he went with the hand-chopping option instead. Not that we can blame him.
What do you think? Do you agree with these Star Wars plot holes? Are there any other things about Darth Vader that don’t make sense? Sound off in the comments!
