10 Movie Mysteries That Should NEVER Have Been Answered

The Star Wars prequels are packed with explanations and convenient coincidences that clumsily unravel the Original Trilogy, including Vader's seduction.

In A New Hope, Anakin's conversion is covered in one sentence - "Vader was seduced by the dark side of the force... " The fact that he is Luke's father is irrelevant at this point, the link makes little difference to how he was turned. A 'seduction' is also quite specific - this implies that Anakin was tempted. Temptation requires a caveat; pleasure. People aren't tempted to eat rice cakes, they do it for the health benefits. Chocolate is tempting precisely as it is bad for us but we chose to do it anyway because it feels good.

This is where Lucas' grand plan fell apart, attempting something in between a Greek tragedy and Citizen Kane but failing to understand the nature of temptation. Anakin agrees to turn to the dark side because he is tricked by Palpatine; convert and I will save Padmé. Upon his submission, Palpatine reveals the truth: "To cheat death is the power only one has achieved. But if we work together, I know we can discover the secret."

Palatine admits his ignorance, there is no seduction and no secret is revealed so why go along with it? After 28 years of believing that Anakin had been enthralled by the power of the dark side, the whole conversion is based on a lie - and not even a good one at that.