Yeah, there was something wrong with that Darth Vader guy, don’t you think?
An official diagnosis was reported in the journal Psychiatry Research. Seems the poor fellow was afflicted with a personality disorder. This is the claim, anyway. There’s a post about it here that’s worth looking at*. The most entertaining bit (for me) is probably the comment stream from the rabid fanboysandgirls (as you might imagine for something about Star Wars).
For me, the best insights into the fellow are to be found in his blog which I remember from a few years back. Still quite brilliant. (Be sure to scroll to the bottom and read the posts in reverse order to get them in the right order.)
Back to the diagnosis post. One of my favourite comments, after all the people coming in and adding to the diagnoses, disputing various facts from the film, discussing the balance between being ill and being manipulated by someone, and so on and so forth, is this one from commenter Laurent:
He is also obsessively compulsively clean. Look at the gleam on that helmet! I think we need to add “OCD” to his list of problems. On the other hand, it could be the fact that he was “under the control” of the stylist holding a bottle of Windex and a roll of paper towels?
Excellent. Now go and listen to a bit of his theme. (Grab something from YouTube. In the meanwhile I must post the video I made of that session some time…)
-cvj
*Thanks O!
After reading and viewing Revenge of the Sith..the idiom that the road to hell is paved with good intentions is reinforced with Darth Vader. His talent and ambition did not fit with the structural arrangement of the Jedi Council. His intentions, however, were good. His lack of experience with the Sith was his undoing, the Jedi Council’s inability to deal with his potential was also at play. Call it a trainwreck of events, serendipitous, etc. He fixed it at the cost of his own life at the end to save his son. Redemption is the golden ticket here with Vader.
Actually, I don’t recall those. Possibly I did not see them. Found one on Youtube (of course): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mqNVTH1AP4I
(Hmm…perhaps he caught the cough from General Grevious…)
-cvj
Actually Darth Vader just had a bad cough! Does anyone remember him in those wonderful adverts for ‘tunes’ cough sweets?
Personality disorder? He was eeeeeeeeeeeeeevil. Isn’t that enough to make you do bad things? Besides, he was corrupted by a mystical force. (Hmm, but I guess the workings of the brain are still sort of a mystical force.)