page_title: Darth Vader
section_title: Cultural impact
hierarchical_section_title: Darth Vader / Cultural impact
caption_attribution_description: English: Darth Vader grotesque on the northwest tower of the Washington National Cathedral.
context_page_description: Darth Vader is a fictional character in the Star Wars franchise. Born Anakin Skywalker, the character is a primary antagonist in the original trilogy and a primary protagonist in the prequel trilogy. Star Wars creator George Lucas has collectively referred to the first six episodic films of the franchise as "the tragedy of Darth Vader".
  Originally a slave on Tatooine, Anakin Skywalker is a Jedi prophesied to bring balance to the Force. He is lured to the dark side of the Force by Palpatine and becomes a Sith lord. After a lightsaber battle with his former mentor Obi-Wan Kenobi, in which he is severely injured, Vader is transformed into a cyborg. He then serves the Galactic Empire as its chief enforcer until he ultimately redeems himself by saving his son, Luke Skywalker, and killing Palpatine, sacrificing his own life in the process. He is also the secret husband of Padmé Amidala, father of Princess Leia, and grandfather of Kylo Ren.
context_section_description: Darth Vader's iconic status has made the character a symbol for evil in popular culture. For example, a three part series of episodes of the YouTube series Epic Rap Battles of History has Darth Vader facing off against Adolf Hitler. Psychiatrists have considered Vader to be a useful example for explaining borderline personality disorder to medical students. Anakin's origin story in The Phantom Menace has been compared to signifiers of African American racial identity, and his dissatisfaction with his life has been compared to Siddartha's before he became Gautama Buddha. A Mexican church advised Christians against seeing The Phantom Menace because it portrays Anakin as a Christ figure. The slime-mold beetle Agathidium vaderi is named after Vader, and several buildings across the globe are regularly compared to him. A grotesque of Darth Vader looms over the east face of the Washington National Cathedral's northwest tower. During the 2007–08 NHL season, Ottawa Senators goaltender Martin Gerber performed so well in an all-black mask that fans endearingly termed him "Darth Gerber". In 2015, a statue of Vladimir Lenin in Odessa, Ukraine, was converted into one of Darth Vader due to a law on decommunization.
  Many films and television series have paid homage to Darth Vader. The 1982 compilation movie Cosmic Princess, compiled from parts of Space: 1999 episodes, contains several Star Wars references including a character named "Vader". Marty McFly in Back to the Future (1985), dressed in a radiation suit, calls himself "Darth Vader from the planet Vulcan" to convince the past version of his father to ask his mother to a dance. Rick Moranis plays "Dark Helmet" in the Star Wars parody Spaceballs (1987). In Chasing Amy (1997), Hooper X speaks at a comic convention about Darth Vader being a metaphor for how poorly the science fiction genre treats black people; he is especially offended that Vader, the "blackest brother in the galaxy", reveals himself to be a "feeble, crusty old white man" at the end of Return of the Jedi. The character was also parodied in the Nickelodeon cartoon Rocko's Modern Life in the episode "Teed Off". On another Nickelodeon cartoon, Jimmy Neutron, Darth Vader's infamous line, "I am your father", was interpolated in the mini-episode "New Dog, Old Tricks". The line was also alluded to in Toy Story 2, which also introduces Emperor Zurg (a parody of Vader) to the Disney media franchise. The character of Dark Mayhem in The Thundermans is also a parody of Vader, especially in his original depiction, while his later appearances changed the character to a comical supervillain usually working with incompetent henchmen. The Warner Bros. animated show based on the Looney Tunes, Loonatics Unleashed has a Sylvester the Cat type character named Sylth Vester, a parody and play on the character and name of Darth Vader respectively.
  The Final Fantasy IV the character Golbez, who spends most of the game as the main antagonist, was stated by Takashi Tokita to be based on Vader, with his following a similar character arc.
  In 2010, IGN ranked Darth Vader 25th in the "Top 100 Videogame Villains".
  Many commentators and comedians have also evoked his visage to satirize politicians and other public figures, and several American political figures have been unflatteringly compared to the character. In response to Ronald Reagan's proposed Strategic Defense Initiative (dubbed "Star Wars" by his political opponents), German news magazine Der Spiegel portrayed the president wearing Vader's helmet on its cover in 1984. In 2005, Al Gore referred to Tele-Communications Inc.'s John C. Malone as the "Darth Vader of cable", and political strategist Lee Atwater was known by his political enemies as "the Darth Vader of the Republican Party". Native American artist Bunky Echohawk portrayed General Custer as Vader in his painting Darth Custer.
  In 2006, US Vice President Dick Cheney referenced Darth Vader in an interview with CNN's John King. While discussing the George W. Bush administration's dogma on gathering intelligence, Cheney said, "It means 
caption: The Darth Vader Grotesque sculpted into the Washington National Cathedral
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