Welcome to Day 2 of my NaBloPoMo (National Blog Posting Month) challenge, in which I pick a card from the Star Wars Chat Pack.
This time the card I picked asks, “Who is your favorite Star Wars villain?” A pretty basic Star Wars question, but I do have to think about it a bit.
My first thought would be Kylo Ren. He’s a fascinating character to me, and of course, Adam Driver’s performance is flawless. But is he truly a villain? Well, yes, he does do some evil stuff. But throughout the whole sequel trilogy, he seems to be trying so hard to be a villain. He’s not necessarily embracing the darkness as much as fighting the light inside him. So to me, Kylo’s a bit too complex to be an easy answer to this one.
Recently, Royce Hemlock, the super-creepy doctor from The Bad Batch, has fit that bill. Everything from his weird whispery voice, the way he holds his black-gloved hand, and his sheer coldness and calculation, make him a perfect villain. Frankly, he scares me, and I worry about our boys from Clone Force 99 encountering him (and Crosshair, who’s already at Mt. Tantiss and has suffered at his hands). But he’s new to the villain scene, and I don’t know enough about him to say he’s my favorite one.
Palpatine? Seems the obvious answer; he’s the over-arching villain of the entire franchise. He is evil incarnate. There are no redeeming qualities to this being–the glee he experiences in his depraved acts makes that clear (cue evil cackling). But because of this, he’s not boring, exactly, but not particularly interesting.
So I think my answer has to be Darth Vader. Who else? Here is a man who has fallen from the light and has embraced the darkness, but he takes no real pleasure in that darkness. He is a man in pain who lashes out. His evil is undisputable–from choking the woman he went to the dark side for in the first place, to killing the babies, to murdering pretty much anyone who displeases him, to blindly following the orders of Palpatine–he’s terrifying. But what really punches you in the gut is that he was once a good person. Anakin Skywalker was a hero, an amazing Jedi, a loving husband, a friend and ally to Obi-Wan. He was also impatient, arrogant, and fearful. Terribly flawed. Just like we all are. And so his fall is our fall, and it terrifies us. He’s an extreme example, but he is what we all could be, given the right circumstances. Which makes his eventual redemption that much more satisfying.
There’s a lot of villains to choose from in Star Wars. From those above, to Thrawn, General Grievous, Darth Maul, Jabba the Hutt, Admiral Tarkin, Snoke and any number of Sith Lords and Imperial baddies, villains abound. Which one is your favorite? Let me know in the comments and we’ll talk about it!
Star Wars and Other Obsessions 
Vader seems the obvious choice here so I’ll go Maul. Vader and Kylo clearly have tragic stories, but Maul’s is really no less tragic when you look at the whole thing, and he doesn’t get the peace of returning to the light before he dies
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So true. When he meets Kenobi for the last time, he hasn’t learned a thing. Vengeance burns in his veins to the very last; he even says, “He will avenge us.” Sad.
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Perhaps it’s too early to tell, because his story has yet to be completed, but based on Rebels and the first season of Ahsoka, my pick would be Grant Admiral Thrawn, because he’s one of the few Imperials who really seems to know what he’s doing. I don’t know if he’s necessarily the insanely brilliant strategic genius that some make him out to be, but he’s clearly very intelligent & clear-headed.
Thrawn also commands the genuine loyalty of the forces serving under him, rather than practically everyone else in the Empire, who are driven by fear of punishment or death. The troops serving under Vadar or any other Imperial commander are just going to do the bare minimum that they think is necessary to survive, and they aren’t going to ever take the initiative or try to think creatively, because there’s no motivation to stick their necks out. But Thrawn’s troops would probably follow him straight into Hell itself without a single complaint.
And it’s clear that, even when Thrawn sends them his troops out on what’s going to be suicide missions, he doesn’t just see them as disposable cannon fodder. That’s especially apparent when he orders Morgan Elsbeth to delay Ahsoka from reaching his ship, something that will, at best, leave her stranded in the other galaxy, and at worst result in her death. Thrawn is clearly reluctant to have to ask that of one of his most devoted followers, and when he later hears that Elsbeth has died he’s it’s clear he feels a certain sense of loss.
Thrawn could actually be an admirable character if he wasn’t fighting for the wrong side.
Plus, that voice that Lars Mikkelsen gives Thrans is just soooo spooky!
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Thrawn is one of the most compelling villains in Star Wars, that’s for sure. I can’t wait to see more of him in future projects. And Lars is the best!
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