By Chris Snellgrove
| Published
For the most part, Star Wars fans assume that Darth Vader was pretty smart. After all, he went from being a technical prodigy to a trained Jedi and was a Chosen One with a special destiny all his own. However, the blunt truth is that Darth Vader is astoundingly dumb, something confirmed by Revenge of the Sith. That film showed Palpatine offering to save Padme’s life before revealing that he couldn’t do it minutes later, and yet the fallen Anakin Skywalker still threw in with the Dark Side and murdered almost everyone he knew.
Darth Vader Is Dumb
If you don’t believe Darth Vader is dumb, you simply need to revisit the famous Revenge of the Sith scene in which Anakin Skywalker and Mace Windu go to confront Palpatine about being a Sith Lord. To sway Anakin against his Jedi colleague, Palpatine tells the young man, “I have the power to save the one you love,” and that he “must choose.” Anakin complies and cuts off Windu’s hand, but after Palpatine kills the Jedi Master, he admits that he isn’t actually capable of saving Padme.
Specifically, the future Emperor circles back to their earlier discussion of Darth Plagueis, the mysterious Sith who learned the secrets of immortality. “To cheat death is a power only one has achieved,” Palpatine said, “but if we work together, I know we can discover the secret.” Simply put, the future Darth Vader is revealed to be completely dumb when he continues to go along with Palpatine’s plans after the older man reveals that he can’t save Padme, which is the whole reason Anakin was willing to become a mass murderer in the first place.
Now, there are some Darth Vader defenders who say he isn’t really dumb in this film. Instead, he is falling victim to old-school manipulation techniques. And it’s true that real-life cult leaders and other similar figures often end up stringing their followers along in order to get the things they want. The problem with this logic, though, is that it threatens to undercut the dramatic tension that makes the prequels worth watching in the first place.
Whether you love them or hate them, the prequels play an important role in Star Wars mythology because they explain how Anakin Skywalker, Chosen One and one of the most gifted Jedi in galactic history, was seduced by the Dark Side. We are meant to see how the prodigal Jedi’s deep attachment to Padme is ultimately enough to get him to betray everything and everyone he knows. In short, the temptation has to be this emotionally powerful in order to lure him away, and we get to witness the tragedy of this gifted Jedi hero becoming a villain.
If you accept that Anakin could be persuaded by a cult leader technique even a Stormtrooper could see through, then you have to accept that this future Darth Vader is dumb as a box of rocks–er, kyber crystals, removing all tension from the prequels. Like, the Emperor makes an offer that his dark protege can’t refuse, and after the arch villain reveals he can’t make good on that offer five minutes later, Anakin still throws in with him. This would be the real-world equivalent of becoming Ted Bundy’s sidekick in exchange for a check that you’ll be getting any day now.
Newsflash: you’re never going to get that check and Anakin was never going to get what Palpatine promised. Everything from his prodigious talents in the Force to his basic intelligence should have told him that, but he still goes on to become Space Hitler based on the galaxy’s most obvious lie. Sure, Darth Vader may be the scariest guy in Star Wars, but make no mistake: he’s also dumb enough to make Jar-Jar Binks look like a rocket scientist.