“We have hope. Rebellions are built on hope.” So says Jyn Erso in Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. On December 16th we get to see the early days of the Rebellion, formed to fight Darth Sidious, who has transformed the Republic into an empire with him at the head.
As much as I loved A Force Awakens, I am very excited to see Rogue One because it brings back one of the all-time great Hollywood villains: Darth Vader (Kylo Ren is for the young kids). And this should be Vader at his most evil, before his son softened him up. This Vader, after all, is not too far removed from the angry Anakin who slaughtered the younglings in the Jedi temple (a mass murder/potential hate crime, although Anakin may claim insanity).
As Lord Vader, he’s still settling into his workplace management style. This may be our chance to see just how evil he was in his early days as a “manager.” We know, of course, that by the time of A New Hope he’s willing to choke (but not kill, thanks to Grand Moff Tarkin) a commander who mocks the Force…
Not only could this be viewed as creating a hostile workplace (it could be argued that Vader is choking the commander because they have different religious beliefs), but assault is always a criminal offense and no more permitted in the workplace than it would be anywhere else.
By the time of The Empire Strikes Back, Vader isn’t holding back anymore. This time, he has no qualms about killing an admiral who has displeased him:
While some employee errors can be so serious as to warrant immediate termination, that means termination of the employment, not of the employee’s life.
Needless to say, Vader will not be held accountable for any of these crimes because his leader has taken the Republic (which presumably had laws that were suppose to apply equally to all) and transformed it into a dictatorship, under which the Emperor’s people may disregard the law and abuse or kill others with impunity. It makes for a great movie but this kind of disregard for basic laws and individual rights is not what any of us would want to experience in real life.
So I’m excited to see my favorite bad guy this December (I’m also excited to run into him at Comic Con), but I prefer that he stays in a galaxy far, far away.
