10 Reasons Rogue One Is The Smartest Star Wars Movie Ever

4. Darth Vader Takes On A Truly Terrifying Persona

Star Wars Rogue One Darth Vader

Good. Lord. Darth Vader. Where do I even begin?

Speaking as a twenty-something adult millennial, his final appearance properly messed me up. Genuinely, I've not been this scared of old bucket-head since watching A New Hope way back when I was three; Vader's malice, at least then, was only ever implicit. Of course, he force choked his way to victory on many an occasion, but you got the sense that this was Darth restrained, that an evil hidden behind the suit had the potential to be unleashed, but never was. Rogue One, in all its darkness, finally offers a window into this unbridled horror, and it's, well, horrific.

From the very first moment we encounter Vader in Rogue One he is made to look like a thing of horror, locked in a bacta tank with a Frankensteinien tinge that imbues Star Wars' fantastical strain of sci-fi with a ferocious shot of Gothic nightmare-fuel. It only gets worse from there however, as Vader leaves his Mustafar fortress to confront the rebels themselves above Scarif. What follows is an indescribably brutal massacre against a group of rebels desperately trying to abscond with the Death Star plans in tow. Vader makes short work of the rebels, trapping them in an air lock before brutalising them with an array of swings, jabs, and force slams.

It is, to say the least, slightly terrifying. But I guess that's kind of the point; Vader is meant to be a symbol of terror for the Rebellion, not a fierce critic of sand, lovelorn at the loss of a childhood sweetheart. In correcting that mistake, Rogue One's contribution to the saga is invaluable.

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WhatCulture's very own resident movie guy, Ewan has been working in the content creation biz for over 10 years now, having started as a freelance contributor to WhatCulture Gaming all the way back in 2015. After graduating with a First-Class Honours in History from Northumbria University in 2017 (where he won a prize for a totally killer dissertation on the Watergate years), Ewan took on the role of Comics Editor at WhatCulture and quickly developed WhatCulture Comics into one of the biggest superhero-focused channels on YouTube. He followed this with a brief hiatus at Screen Rant in 2021, where he worked across the Gaming and Film sections as a writer and editor, before returning to WhatCulture as a Senior Content Producer / Presenter in 2023. He started his own podcast, We Love Dad Movies, in 2022, and has contributed several written pieces to the Eisner-nominated comics website Shelfdust as well. In his current role, Ewan incorporates his love of cinema, comic books, and history into written pieces and video essays for WhatCulture's Film & TV channel, as well as WhatCulture Gaming and WhatCulture Horror, with a particular focus on nineties-era Dad Movies, old school Westerns, and Golden Age Hollywood Noir. John Carpenter is his fave, and he thinks Batman Beyond should never have been cancelled. If that's your vibe, you'll probably like his stuff.