The Four Color Media Monitor

Look, I respect your work in trying to expose the filth that's occurring in comics right now, and I normally agree with you on various aspects. However, could you PLEASE stop ragging on Darth Vader?! I have plenty of things to complain about regarding Star Wars, such as it being a subtle attempt at manipulating children into adhering to left-wing causes such as singing praises for the Vietcong, or how the Jedi were TWICE shown to espouse moral relativism/nihilism via the character Obi-Wan Kenobi (which used to be considered a villainous trait rather than a heroic trait. Case in point Joker's rant in The Killing Joke, or a similar rant by Kefka Palazzo in Final Fantasy VI). However, Vader, if you ask me, is a redemption done RIGHT ultimately (akin to Ebenezzer Scrooge in fact, and that guy almost DIDN'T get redeemed at all by Charles Dickens if The Man Who Invented Christmas is to be believed. His Irish servant actually wished for him to be redeemed due to feeling a lot of sympathy for his background, and literally required a metaphysical fight for him to ultimately consider it.), which is actually one reason he's ultimately worthy of some respect (and if you ask me, I actually hold both Vader AND his son Luke, the actual hero of the Original Trilogy, in very high regard for essentially the same reason). If I do have complaints about the character, it's more that, 1., Vader was serendipitously retconned to be Luke's father purely due to George Lucas feeling like it (and that was less due to Vader himself per-se and more that he ended up ruining Obi-Wan Kenobi by turning him into a manipulative liar not much better than Palpatine and even having HIM espouse moral relativism as a justification), and 2., his DOWNFALL, or rather, the underlying reasons behind it according to George Lucas, seemed to outright demonize the very concept of not just family values, but also the entire POINT behind being a hero (long story short, he basically said Vader, or rather, Anakin was "greedy" for even giving a darn about the well-being of his mom and then-girlfriend and implied he'd be closer to a good guy if he had no regard for them at all. Put another way, what Lucas said essentially implied that ALBERT WESKER or GALENTH DYSLEY of all people match his idea of a Jedi. Revolver Ocelot even.). Besides, the manner in which Vader was redeemed despite doing quite a bit of awful stuff actually DID have a bit of basis in reality. Saint Paul, before he was known as such, was originally known as Saul, and he was a notorious Christian persecutor and very zealotic in trying to destroy Christianity. It literally took Jesus effectively going all SWAT at his heart at Damascus for him to turn a 180. He's definitely not like the Joker from the recent Joker movies, or for that matter Maleficent from the Maleficent movies.

Split into multiple posts due to length.

Even ignoring the whole redemption angle for the character, however, a major reason why I have immense respect for Vader as a character is in fact the fact that he alongside his son Luke Skywalker are pretty much the only characters to actually adhere to black and white morality as a core part of their characters. That's actually saying a lot considering most of the characters, heroic characters especially, generally tended to moral relativism, or at best protagonist-centered morality. Obi-Wan most certainly didn't adhere to black and white morality, as he made clear twice and even implied any adherence to black and white, absolute standards made someone a Sith and thus evil. Going by what Obi-Wan said, that makes the likes of Jesus Christ, not to mention various Golden and Silver Age superheroes like Superman, Batman, and the like. If anything, your complaints ought to be directed more towards how Obi-Wan Kenobi was depicted, who despite being depicted as a hero actually came across more like a villain (including having him robbing people's free will with his Jedi Mind Trick), since having the HEROES engage in more villainous behavior is about as bad as if not even worse than having villains engage in heroic behavior (especially when unlike villains, heroes are SUPPOSED to be rooted for by the audience. Why would I root for a technical hero who behaves a lot more like a villain? I'd rather have a hero behave like an ACTUAL hero, or at the very least a hero that, even if not quite conventional, still at least can be counted on to do the right thing rather than have them only being called a hero because the writers said so even when engaging in extremely awful behavior that doesn't even WORK in establishing them as a hero. It shouldn't be a label, and quite frankly, I blame George Lucas for sullying the whole concept of heroes. Yes, I'll even root for technical villains if they at least conduct behavior most of the time that's more in-line with classical notions of heroics.).

In fact, for this whole problem on Star Wars and how George Lucas quite frankly doesn't even know actual right and wrong beyond his far-left radical politics, I think this rant by TJ Dettweiller from Recess is a pretty good fit for why Star Wars, even back when Lucas was writing it, started falling down the tubes arguably since the very first movie, especially when it's clearly spilled over into DC Comics and Marvel Comics:

TJ: You know, Principal Prickly? This is about the most un-Fusion-like thing I ever saw a Fusion fan do. The great Señor doesn't stand for tricking guys and being sneaky and winning on technicalities; that's what the bad guys do! Fusion stands for honesty and truth and fair-play, stuff that's important to kids like me... and it used to be important to you, too.

*Going by what Obi-Wan said, that makes the likes of Jesus Christ, not to mention various Golden and Silver Age superheroes like Superman, Batman, and the like, basically Sith Lords.

Okay, I'll try not to focus on Star Wars villains like Vader much in the future. There are other comics stories out there that're taking far more questionable paths, and I'll do my best to look for those.

Thanks, and while we're at it, if in the unlikely event that you do end up focusing on Vader again, please don't state he used the Death Star to blow up Alderaan or anything like that. Tarkin was the one who did that act, NOT Vader (heck, the novelization of the movie made it clear that, if anything, Vader attempted to PREVENT Tarkin from doing that action, or at least wait until the Emperor was notified, only for Tarkin to arrogantly blow him off). I'd prefer condemning villains for crimes they actually DID commit and not blame them crimes that another villain did. It's a bit of bad form.