As Bad As I Wanna Be

A Look at the villains of Star Wars and what makes them so bad.

Ok I have to be honest here, this wasn't what I planned to do for my second article but since the main problem everyone had with my first article "My Top 30 Movie Villains" was with the placement of the Star Wars villains, Boba Fett epically, I decided, hey I like villains and Star Wars, why not write some more on them? So here it is.

This is a look at eight villains from the Star Wars Saga, in alphabetical order no playing favorites or giving no bias on this one, and why they are so bad or well not so much. Also I'm only using the villains from the original movies, no Darth Maul no Count Dukoo no Jango Fett, just the old timers. However despite not using the villains of the new series I will still cover the exploits of the original villains in the new movies.

Boba Fett:
Why hes not so bad: Most everyone hated the fact that I placed poor 'ol Boba Fett here as the #1 worst movie villain of all time (In my opinion) and to be truthful, yeah he sucked, I was judging by what the evil doers accomplished in the movies they starred.

With that said all Fett did was whine to Darth Vader "Hes no good to be dead", transport the slab of Carbonite Han Solo back to Jabba the Hutt and get knocked into the sarlaac pit by a still blind Han Solo, I mean it yeah it was Han Solo but he was STILL blind! If not for the fact that he looked so cool, he would of been nothing more then a punch line like Gredo.

Why hes as bad as he wants to be: It all comes down to one thing. He looks awesome! If he didn't look as bad ass as he did he would of never caught the imagination of Star Wars fanboys. So because he looks as great as he did he caused Star Wars fanboys out there everywhere to nearly cream there pants in excitement of what he might do. I know I was one of them. At this point I would like to say that I didn't see the movies until they were re released in theaters. I lived in a small town with one video store and no Star Wars to be seen in it. Blasphemy I know. So despite the big nerd in me always wanting to see them I didn't get to see them until they were indeed re-released into theaters and finally on VHS once more and THEN that crappy video store got the Star Wars movies and I could finally see them. I had heard about Boba Fett quite a bit so when I actually saw what he did in the movies I was supremely disappointed as he only did what I stated above. I never got the attraction aside from the fact that he looked cool. It was that awesome look that he captured the imagination of Star Wars fans like no one else in the series.

Thus the expanded universe would then fix all the wrongs that were done to Mr. Fett in the movies. Turns out he wasn't killed in the sarlaac pit, no not at all, Boba Fett used his rocket launcher and propelled himself out of the sarlaac pit into safety where he is eventually found by fellow bounty hunter who he becomes friends with. That is about all I know about Boba Fett in the expanded universe. In all honesty I should admit now that although I loved Star Wars even though I didn't see when everyone else did and maybe I didn't grow up on it like many of you reading this now, but I still loved Star Wars and I love it as much as alot of people reading this. Despite this love though I never really cared for the expanded universe. I thought why should I read about these things when the movies are good enough for me.

So I think we can all come to a fair compromise here. In the movies the best thing Boba Fett did was look cool, but in the expanded universe he became a total bad ass that everyone knew he could be and love him for it.

How bad was he: In the movies He gets the 0 out of 5, in the expanded universe, well I don't really know, I'm sure some of you will tell me....

"Where for art thou Romeo"

Darth Vader:
Why hes not so bad: I got more backlash from Vader not being in the top ten in my favorite villains list. He didn't make it and heres why. In Episodes I-III he was nothing but a big cry baby "They won't let me do this, they won't let me do that", but I can see people looking over that, Lord knows I like too, so fast forward to Episode VI, Vader redeems himself by turning on the Emperor and killing him in favor of his goody two shoes son and brings balance to the force. Once again remember I never cared to read anything in the expanded universe but assume in that the Sith still runs rampant afterwards, I don't care.

Why hes as bad as he wants to be: For everything else he did in the entire Star Wars saga. In Episode II he lost it and killed a whole village of Tusken Raiders. In Episode III he did the best thing he ever did by killing all the Younglings (worst name ever by the way they deserved to die just for being called Younglings.) in the Jedi Temple along with everyone else.He force chokes his beloved Padme to unconsciousness for thinking she was conspiring with Obi-Wan against him, then gets in a big 'ol fight with his best buddy and master Obi-Wan which saw him looking the worse for wear afterwards. In Episode IV he uses his force choke again on one of his own men for besmirching him, captures and Leia, finally kills Obi-Wan, and takes out a bunch of rebels who are attacking the Death Star while piloting a Tie Fighter. In Episode V he captures Han Solo freezes him in carbonite, despite Boba Fett's complaints, maybe because Fett looked cooler, before handing him over to him, he then slices off Luke's hand, and tells him he is his father and suggests they team up to kill the emperor and rule the galaxy together then seems to not really mind when Luke lets himself fall off the weather platform, perhaps to his death. (Seriously he could of use the force to lift him back up to prevent to fall) In Episode VI He uses the force to find out Liea is his sister and he is now twice the dead-beat dad he originally thought, but after that its not so bad again.

How bad was he: A 4 out of 5

Emperor Palpatine
Why hes not so bad: Ummmm..... He "befriends" Anakin?

Why hes as bad as he wants to be: Lets face it, weather you like the guy more or less then other villains in Star Wars he is the biggest baddie that there is in the series.In Episode I he rises through the ranks of government by deception the entire time, and makes sure at the end of the movie to put his first mark on a young Anakin Skywalker by telling him that he will be watching his career with great interest. In Episode II he continues to rise though the ranks of government and begins the Clone Wars. In Episode III he does his most evil actions, getting Anakin to give into the dark side by having him kill Count Dooku, then lies to him saying that he he continued to give into the dark side that he could save Padme, then gets him to save his life by slicing off Mace Windu's hand allowing The Emperor to blast Mace with some force lighting out of the window and to his death. He then finally promotes Anakin to Darth Vader and sends him out to destroy the Jedi Temple killing a bunch of kids and other Jedi in the process. Meanwhile Palpatine executes Order 66 which commands all the Clone Troopers to kill the Jedi, transforming the Republic into the Galactic Empire and naming himself Emperor for life. He then battles it out with Yoda and wins causing the wrinkly green Muppet to go into exile. He then recovers the just as well be dead Anakin gives him cyborg limbs and black armor turning him into the Darth Vader we all know and love. After going an entire Episode with no action he returns in Episode V to tell Vader to kill Luke, so yeah not much in that Episode either but then in Episode VI where he tries to convert Luke to the dark side and tries to convince him to kill Darth Vader and take his place by his side Luke refuses getting some Force Lighting for his troubles before being thrown into The Death Stars generation shaft to his death.

How bad was he: A whopping 5 out of 5

Grand Moff Tarkin
Why hes not so bad: He saves the life of another guy on the Empires side by telling Vader to stop with the force chocking already.

Why hes as bas as he wants to be: First off the guy runs the Death Star, you gotta be pretty bad ass to get that promotion. He threatens to destroy Princess Leia's home planet of Alderaan if she does not give up the location of the rebels base. When she does as shes told Tarkin scores major villain points by destroying the planet anyways just for the hell of it.Unfortunately his end comes far to soon in the series when the Death Star is destroyed at the end of the movie.

How bad was he: A nice 4.5 out of 5

Greedo
Why hes not so bad: Do I even have to say why? He gets shot by Han Solo from under the table before he knew what was coming. Like many others I choose to ignore the load of Greedo shoots first crap. Seriously what kind of crappy Bounty Hunter misses a shot from TWO FEET AWAY. Hell I have never shot a laser gun in my life but I bet I wouldn't miss when I'm only two feet away.

Why hes as bad as he wants to be: Aside from being taken out with ease before he knew it, Greedo did manage to find Han Solo and demand the money for Jabba. Thats about it.

How bad was he: Much like the movie version of Boba Fett he gets the beautiful 0 out of 5, geez Jabba's Bounty Hunters suck.

Jabba The Hutt
Why hes not so bad: I would like to argue that Jabba isn't a villain at all! Lets just look at the cold hard facts. He wanted Han Solo because Solo owed him money. If in the same situation who wouldn't be upset about some jerk owing you money for such a long time. In addition to this if not for Mr. The Hutt then Star Wars geeks the world over would never of had Slave girl Leia to fantasize about. On top of all of this wouldn't you want to kill Luke he he killed your beloved pet in front of your eyes? I know if he killed my dog in front of me I wouldn't take it lying down!

Why hes as bad as he wants to be: Ok so maybe he is a villain. He DID go a little bit far with the Han Solo thing. He did refuse to have the guy unfrozen from the carobinite with him in it, and he did try to feed Luke to the Rancor and then he did sentence Luke, Han and Chewbacca to death at the Sarlaac pit. His main offense however his the fact that hes a big ugly slug looking thing.

How bad was he: Ok so I'll give him a 3 out of 5 on the evil scale, but thats only because he was pushed to it by the Rebels, Han Solo epically.

The Rancor
Why hes not so bad: The Rancor was simply a big monstrous creature that was always hungry.

Why hes as bad as he wants to be: He tried to eat Luke but was killed for his troubles. He did however get to eat a big pig guy, can't really blame him for that though pig is tasty, humans, well not so much at least I would assume as much anyways not being a cannibal and all.

How bad was he: Another 0 out of 5. He was just the pet of Jabba The Hutt who was always hungry, meaning he might of been starved by Jabba, no food plus instinct equals not evil at all.

Storm Troopers
Why there not so bad: They were just an army following orders from the higher ups.

Why they are as bad as they want to be: The higher ups just so happened to be very evil, thus they did some pretty bad things. Worst of all was Order 66 which just so happened to pretty much wipe out all of the Jedi that was left after Anakin's Jedi Temple rampage. Granted they were Clone Troopers when they did this but its the same thing just with a name change just like, the Sand, Snow or any other countless variety of Trooper. They didn't do a whole lot aside from that though. Sure they tried to kill the rebels at every turn but they always failed and were nothing more but a thorn in the rebels side.

How bad where they: 2.5 out of 5. Like I said they just followed orders, but evil orders.

And thats my article on the evil doers of Star Wars. Hopefully you liked it. I gotta get away from all this evil though, I don't want people to start think all I'm going to do is write articles on villains.

Comments

didnt really bother to read the rest of the article after the entrry of bobba fett but i feel you, he only had one or two lines through his entire appearance in the movie and during like the first 30mins of return of the jedi he falls into a pit all thanks to the blind han solo......and everyone loves him.... i think they should have just cut his character outta the entire movie, atleast his father killed 5 jedi's in that battle arena before getting his head cut off by mace wendu.

ok prophetsword just a couple things to consider in your argument

Grand Moff is not a name but a RANK (some type of Military Governor). one that places him above Vader apparently because if you were paying attention to the movie you see that Wilhuff Tarkin ( thats his name, very Nazi like if you ask me much like the Empire itself) was actually holding Vaders Leash. who else besides the Emperor could have called off Vader from one of his Force Chokeings. hell even Leia said that Tarkins was holding the Leash on Vader.

Great Star Wars article to read.
You get thumbs up.

Oh no, don't get me wrong, I wasn't saying that Tarkin beats Vader. Not by a long shot. I was just saying that while Tarkin didn't do as much evil stuff as Vader did, he probably would've if he'd lived longer. The guy was a scumbag. At least I can love to hate Vader. I just plain hate Tarkin.

If you want to think Boba Fett is a weak villain, then that's okay, but I have to fight tooth-and-nail for Vader vs. Tarkin.

Grand Moff Tarkin...even his name makes him sound like a wuss. He probably has Vader around to keep him from being beaten up by the other officers.

Let's compare:

TARKIN:
Ran the Death Star
Gave the order to destroy Alderaan
Ordered Princess Leia to be terminated
Foolishly didn't flee in his moment of triumph and got wasted

VADER:
Threw the Emperor down a shaft like he was a rag doll
Choked everyone who irritated him even the slightest
Ordered Han to be frozen alive in carbonite as a "test"
Tortured Han, Chewbacca and Princess Leia (twice)
Went back on his deal with Lando Calrissian just because he could
Lead a successful assault against a rebel base hidden in the snow
Shot down several X-Wing and Y-Wing pilots over the Death Star
Cut off Luke's hand (though, to be fair, Luke later returned the favor)
Is a FREAKING MASTER OF THE FORCE! (What's Tarkin master of?)

Yeah, Vader beats Tarkin every time. Hands down.

i agree with prophetsord
vader is the definition of badass
and tarkin was killedwithin the 1st movie
probably the main reason as 2 y vader didnt run the death star
he had way more shit on his plate
i mean id go crazy if i had 2 deal with all total idiots vader had 2
and besides vader could totally own tarkin if he wanted 2
he just cant be bothered

i beleive boba fett said " hes no good to ME dead"
other then tht it was an awesome article
im glad im not the only 1 who thinks tht the new starwars movies(if u can even call them tht) suck

Uh...there haven't been THAT many Star Wars articles lately.

I'm getting sick of Star Wars articles, but thumbs up anyway. These villains are all from the golden age of Star Wars, and you didn't do it in Top 10 form so much. Well-researched too, I might add.

yes Tarkin was mor ebadass than Vader, after all Tarkin was holding Vaders Leash, not the other way around.

and Vaders "No Disentrigations" line came off as more of a "Dont screw up again" line. VAder was just reprimanding him for incompetence

as to Fett outsmarting Solo? get real, Fett was sso pathetic he was literly thrown out with the trash. just by chance did happen to be in teh right spot to find Solo, couse that was after teh Falcon turned on its engines. gee how hard is that to miss.

Well...maybe some of you guys have a point about Boba Fett, but I still don't think he's all that and a bag of chips.

As for Tarkin, though...that guy was just plain nasty. I mean, Vader wasn't the one who wanted Leia executed; that was Tarkin's order. He also didn't give the order to blow up Alderaan. Again, that was all Tarkin. I'd say that makes him prime "evil bastard" material.

Boba Fett did something that no other bounty hunter, no one else, not even the dreaded Darth Vader could do... outwit and outsmart Han Solo. He was the one that figured out Han's "Velcro Spaceship/Space Debris" tactic to get away and beat him at his own game.

Oh and when Darth Vader, the guy that likes to routinely force choke people for messing up or even showing a lack of faith, has to single YOU out from all the other bounty hunters to cool it down a little... you KNOW he must be a nasty mamajamma.

Vader: "And no Disintegrations."

Boba: "As you wish." (in an annoyed voice no less)

And yes a blind Han (with an assist from Chewie mind you), defeated him. But to be fair, Boba was preoccupied by Luke Skywalker leaping from sailship to sail ship slicing and dicing with his lightsaber.

Okay, this will be a little long, but I feel there's a few points to make here:

BOBA FETT:
You overlook the most important thing that Boba Fett did, which is outsmart Han Solo. None of the other bounty hunters figured out Han Solo tricked them and floated away in the garbage. And none of the highly ranked Imperial Officers figured it out either.

He even figured out where he was going and beat him there.

Outsmarting Han Solo isn't easy.

DARTH VADER:
You can't complain about Vader being a crybaby in the first few movies; because Darth Vader *wasn't* in the first few movies. That was Anakin Skywalker. When Darth Vader is born, Anakin Skywalker ceases to be. Darth Vader is awesomely bad. Anakin was kind of a dweeb. But, you can't fault Vader; because all that weak stuff happens before he falls to the dark side.

GRAND MOFF TARKIN:
Seriously, you rated this guy higher than Vader just because he ran the Death Star? Really? He's more evil than Vader?

He's a nobody. He's in command, and Vader respects that when it suits him because the Emperor probably told him to play nice.

The power to destroy a planet is insignificant next to the power of the Force.

nice article. i totally agree, Jabba's bounty hunters did suck ass. i mean, collectively they missed from 2 feet away AND got beat by a blind han solo. talk about terrible.
I still think Eddie Izzard's take on the Star Wars villains is hilarious. "It's the rebels sir.....they're here." "MY GOD MAN....do they want tea?"

Got to give greedo at least half a point just for getting a lot closer to getting Han than Boba did. Boba looses points because Vader had to do the work for him

Not bad, yeah Fett's "evilness" isn't even why he's a popular Star Wars character, you're right about his appearance being badass though. I think what it really comes down to why Fett is so popular other than the look is the overall enigmatic presence he conveys of himself. Something Lucas just had to ruin with Episode II, we didn't need a backstory, especially one so, well, lame. Oh well, thumbs up on your article anyway.

Have to disagree Velcrohead, its not a 180 on the last article. The last article was my complete bias view on my favorite villains, this one is about just how bad the Star Wars villains are.

YOU KILLED YOUNGLINGS!

hey, i liked this article!dont be rought on it! i agree with you tbondrage, the star wars villians are pretty wimpy. but they still are evil enough to be called evil.

Bad grammar plus complete 180 on your previous article. Sorry.