Dave Filoni Reveals Why Vader Is So Silent And Deadly In Maul – Shadow Lord
An unspoken Star Wars rule rears its head again.
Anakin Skywalker is the consummate protagonist of the entire Star Wars saga, the Chosen One designed to keep the forces of good and evil in check. Pretty much every Star Wars story circles back to him in some way, working to complicate his origins or emphasize his status as Space Jesus. But where does his evil alter ego, Darth Vader, come into play? According to Lucasfilm president Dave Filoni, both sides of the character work together to form the “backbone” of the Star Wars saga — but Anakin and Vader are used in totally different ways.
According to some canon works, the Sith Lord is akin to an alternate persona for Anakin. When he becomes Vader, his original identity is suppressed almost beyond retrieval. It’s essentially the only way he can fulfill his duties to Emperor Palpatine without truly losing his mind. That separation has long been an unspoken rule in the dichotomy between Anakin and Vader, but it wasn’t until the latter appeared in this week’s episodes of Maul – Shadow Lord that the distinction became clear.
Though they share a vessel, Darth Vader is “not Anakin,” and Anakin is not Vader.
Most post-prequel Star Wars story that uses Vader do so in the same way. He’s essentially a bogeyman, a non-verbal wraith that emerges from the shadows to massacre a bunch of people before disappearing again. He laid waste to a gaggle of rebels in Rogue One. He terrorized his own Inquisitors in Obi-Wan Kenobi. He toyed with his former padawan, Ahsoka Tano, in Rebels. And he’s a similarly unstoppable force in Maul, plowing through crumbling buildings and eerie jungle terrain to slay any adversary foolish enough to raise a lightsaber against him.
Save for his iconic breathing, Vader doesn’t make a sound. That’s because he’s buried any trace of a personality in his efforts to suppress his trauma.
“He’s not Anakin,” Filoni explained at a recent event celebrating the finale of Maul. “He doesn’t recognize that. He can’t. Anything that reminds him of Anakin, he’s going to destroy. When he sees a Jedi, he’s going to destroy the Jedi, because the Jedi would remind him unconsciously or consciously that he betrayed all of his friends and everything he knew and the life he grew up with... for nothing.”
Even if Maul is giving us new insight into Vader’s life, he remains an undefeated Sith Lord.
Per Filoni, Anakin is “trapped” somewhere within Vader, “and Darth Vader won’t let him surface.” What replaces Anakin is essentially a void, especially in the years that directly follow his painful transition in Revenge of the Sith. Since Maul takes place only a year after Anakin became Vader, this version of the villain is arguably his most ruthless, least “human” incarnation.
“The key is not to actually give him a character,” Filoni explained. “It’s like the same feeling you got in Rogue One when he comes down the hallway. He doesn’t talk to those guys. He’s going to destroy them. He has one mission, and all of his remorse and all of his anger and all of his hate is in every swing that he does. That’s how it’s resolved.”
Filoni is also careful not to use Vader too much because his arc was already set in stone by Star Wars creator George Lucas. “He’s a powerful character,” Filoni continued. “This is George’s character. This is the backbone of the whole thing, and you don’t want to do anything that interrupts that.”
That said, tales like Obi-Wan and Rebels do still get creative with Vader’s evolution. He might be a blunt instrument in Maul, but we do get different versions of the villain as he matures and evolves into a more cunning adversary. As long as more recent Star Wars stories don’t undermine the emotional payoff of Return, then Vader is fair game. Ideally, more Vader only deepens our understanding of such an enigmatic character — so long as, like Maul, filmmakers follow that unspoken rule.
