Tuesday, September 30, 2008

Dark

Many of you know, from reading my hot lady's blog, that my son Sam turned 5 last week. In celebration of said occasion, I decided to let him watch Star Wars (Episode 4, which will always just be Star Wars to me) for the first time. Staci and I weren't sure about this decision, as it represented Sam's first foray into semi-mature cinematic viewing. We are admittedly pretty protective of his little brain and heart (because, you know, God has commanded us to be so), but many of his friends from church had already seen it, and he has been getting interested in the toys and the folklore and what-not, and I just figured that, worst case scenario, I'd turn it off in the middle and at least he'd finally know which one was Obi-Wan and which one was Han, etc.

He got a little scared at one point, and we paused the movie for about 10 minutes, during which time we refilled our popcorn and had a quick light-saber fight.

Anyway, after the movie was over, he was pretty geeked up. He went to bed talking about all the characters and generally wanting more of everything.

This brings me to the point of this post. Sam is absolutely convinced that grown-up, evil Anakin is actually named Dark Vader. And you know what? The more I think about it, he may be right. I mean, the dude is totally dark. From an esoteric perspective, he totally sends out a dark vibe. His past and history? Dark. Which side of the force does he lean into? Dark. Color of his threads, head to toe? Dark. Color of the skin of the iconic actor dude who does his voice? Dark.

So here's my theory: Lucas originally named this guy Dark Vader. But that was too simplistic, so he thought he ought to change it. Only he had too much other crap to think about, like putting light bulbs in the skulls of those little robot-smuggling dwarves, or trying to figure out how to work Billy Dee Williams into the sequel, or choreographing the fight moves between the alien chess pieces on the Millenium Falcon. Stuff like that was in his brain, plus he was already working on the nuances of the Jar Jar character. That had to take him like, I don't know, 25 years to perfect that.

So he tells his personal assistant to get a pen and paper and help him brainstorm a less-obvious name for Dark AzmaBreether (which was the originaloriginal name), and he spent so much time coming up with "Vader" (short for "invader," because he was, like, always invading stuff and what have you) that he was just too darn tired of thinking and his personal assistant, Garth, finally says, what about "Garth Invader? I like how that sounds." And Lucas is like, "no that's ridiculous. Besides, we got rid of the 'in' part like 10 minutes ago. Weren't you by the catering table when i decided this?It's just 'Vader' now. You know what? You're fired, Garth."

But then right after Garth leaves, Lucas is like "that kid was kind of onto something, cuz I could combine 'Garth' and 'Dark' and I'd have a totally sweet name for this guy."

Only problem was that 'Gark Vader' was aleady copyrighted by somebody at Universal. So they switched it and got 'Darth Vader.'

And we haven't even begun to talk about Chewie Tobacca and Yoga.

13 comments:

Johnny! said...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=utGXF5orynk

Unknown said...

The More You Know.

Lindele said...

My question is (and has been ever since the awful Episode 1 came out), when did "Darth" stop being a first name and turn into some kind of title? In Star Wars (as you so rightly point out, it's just Star Wars, NOT A New Hope, a perpetual argument I have with my kids), Obi Wan says, "Only a master of evil, Darth," and it's clear he's calling him by his name. Mr. Darth Vader. Not like Count Vader. Then all of a sudden we have Darth Maul and Darth Sidious and I don't know who else Darth. And he's called Lord Vader, too - so are we supposed to think that "Lord" is just a translation of "Darth"? I don't think so.
These are the questions that keep me awake at night.

Daniel said...

Darth Vader (Pronounced Darth Vahder) means Dark Father in norwegian.

Lucas is not that creative. ;)

Kevin Sturm said...

I so cannot wait for the day that Brody gets to watch Star Wars with me...CAN NOT WAIT!

rk said...

OK, so Star Wars is obviously still a huge deal. I don't think i've ever gotten 5 comments in 3 hours.

thad said...

I have finally convinced Aiden (6) that they are using light sabers and not light savers. However, upon relenting to my insistence he says, "Okay, I believe you, Dad. But I just like to call him light savers." And he was immediately back to a light saver fight between two Lego Star Wars characters.

All of this astounds me. If you had told me in high school (well after the 80's peak of the popularity of these things) that my son's primary interests in 2008 would be Star Wars, Legos, and Indiana Jones, I would have called you a fool. A damn fool. And it turns out I would have been the fool. Now we're onto E.T. I'm not kidding. E. freakin' T.

thad said...

Also, before I set off the Wookie brigade, I am aware the technical term is lightsaber and not light saber. I separated them for emphasis.

Unknown said...

I believe the term 'Darth' is like a rank for the dark side, 'Darth' being beneath 'Lord'. Kinda like Anakin going from a padawan(apprentice) to Jedi Night. With 'Lord' being the equivalent to a Jedi 'Master'.

I could be looking WAY too into this but in the specific quote mentioned from Obi Wan of "Only a Master of evil, Darth.", Obi Wan, Vader's original mentor, would not recognize Vader's title/position of 'Lord' as to not give credibility to what he as become.


I'm such a Star Wars nerd. Is my ruse of being a 'cool musician' ruined?

Johnny! said...

Maybe Obi Wan was mocking him: Only a master of evil, "Darth."

rk said...

OK, if we start setting up theoretical death matches between Darth Vader and Gandalf, I'm removing this post.

Johnny! said...

Can't kill an angel.

josh said...

I think you're funny, too.