Ever since Sir Arthur Conan Doyle introduced the modern supervillain with Sherlock Holmes’s nemesis Professor Moriarty, pop culture has been home to countless larger-than-life figures exhibiting wicked inclinations. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the movies, which have provided us with numerous classic evildoers. From Bela Lugosi’s Dracula to Anthony Hopkins’ Hannibal Lecter right on through to Heath Ledger’s Joker, film has been a showcase for some of the most memorable bad guys in all of fiction.

But who is the greatest cinematic supervillain of all time? While there are plenty of worthy candidates to consider, for me, there’s really only one valid answer: Darth Vader. Why? Because this iconic Star Wars baddie is one of the few screen villains who evolves.

Of course, to the casual movie lover, Darth Vader is a pretty simple character. He wears a black suit of armour and a swirly cape, and he kills people on a whim. Not exactly the most sophisticated villain getting around. But to pigeonhole Vader like this is to ignore how much his characterisation changes over the course of the original Star Wars trilogy, and how our understanding of him develops after viewing the newer prequel trilogy. It’s this continued evolution that puts the Sith Lord ahead of any other contenders for best big screen supervillain of all time, even the many colourful adversaries in the James Bond franchise.

When we first meet Darth Vader in Star Wars – Episode IV: A New Hope, he’s essentially a sci-fi samurai take on the black knight from Arthurian legend. He stalks about starship corridors, barking commands and acting as the enforcer for the film’s primary antagonist Governor Tarkin. That’s right: in his first appearance in the series, Vader isn’t even pulling down big bad status. Sure, he’s clearly a high-ranking member of the Empire, and his status as a fallen Jedi makes him an interesting foil for our heroes. But ultimately, he’s a glorified henchman (albeit one with his own sinister agenda).

Fortunately, there’s still a lot to love about the character even at this early stage, including his acerbic wit.

Vader’s dark sense of humour is often overlooked, but it’s actually one of his most appealing traits, and it’s a credit to Star Wars creator George Lucas (and uncredited co-writers Gloria Katz and Willard Huyck) that this element of Vader’s characterisation works right from the off. It’s hard to make a villain fully and still remain a credible threat (look no further than Avengers: Age of Ultron for a recent example of this). However, by keeping the Sith Lord’s jokes macabre in tone – his punchlines usually involve a fresh corpse – and restrained in frequency, Lucas is able to have Vader elicit the odd chuckle without sacrificing his menace.

Unfortunately for Vader, not even his trash talk is enough to prevent him from being sent packing during the finale of A New Hope, but this ultimately proves to be a minor setback. By the time Star Wars – Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back rolls around, he’s re-introduced as the baddest boss around. Sure, when we last saw him, Vader was hurtling through space after being blindsided by Han Solo, but that’s quickly forgotten in the wake of the sheer villainous swagger on display here.

Whether it’s the dank chat he continually dishes out to his subordinates (“Apology accepted, Captain Needa” after he strangles Needa to death? Priceless) or him just generally being scary as hell (there’s a jump scare during the climatic duel that’s straight-up terrifying), it’s Vader’s galaxy and we’re just living it. Yet before we can fully absorb this new, more confident identity, we’re provided with clues hinting at further transformation still to come. And indeed, unexpected chinks in Vader’s metaphorical armour slowly manifest themselves over the course of The Empire Strikes Back‘s 124-minute runtime.

For starters, although Vader now seems to be the top dog running the show, at one point we witness him kneeling before a hologram of the Emperor. This makes it abundantly clear that while the Sith Lord is the one calling the shots out on the factory floor, someone else is still paying his wages. The Empire Strikes Back also allows us our first glimpse at Vader without his helmet on. The partial view we get of his scarred, bald head doesn’t just prove his humanity in a literal sense – providing useful clarity for those unsure if he was really a robot – but figuratively as well, intimating a painful past.

Yet these revelations ultimately pale in comparison to the bombshell dropped during The Empire Strikes Back‘s finale. Here, we find out that Star Wars protagonist Luke Skywalker is Vader’s kid – and what could be more humanising than that? Yes, our is unrepentant murdered, but he’s also someone’s dad. What’s more, Vader even seems to care for the boy! You can spot this not only in Vader’s suggestion that he and Luke rule the galaxy together (cute) but also by closely re-watching the earlier scene between Vader and the Emperor. In this scene, Vader convinces his master that it’d be better to convert Luke to their cause rather than just off him and be done with it – and while this can be attributed to classic Sith scheming, it also betrays the love Vader feels (very) deep down for his child.

Darth Vader’s newly unearthed vulnerability comes to a head during the final instalment in the original trilogy, Star Wars – Episode VI: Return of the Jedi. Indeed, while the prequels are frequently accused of robbing Vader of his mystery and his intimidating air, in truth, both vanished as soon as Return of the Jedi landed in 1983. Once Yoda assures Luke (and us) that Vader wasn’t lying to Luke about being his father, a large chunk of Vader’s backstory is filled in, and – combined with subsequent comments by Obi-Wan – a basic origin story for Vader quickly comes into focus. We now know that Anakin started out as Obi-Wan’s prize pupil, Anakin Skywalker, before being seduced to the Dark Side and entering the Emperor’s service as Vader. In short: he’s just a person, like anyone else.

With the enigma surrounding Vader’s past rapidly vanishing, the next thing to go is the aura of fear that surrounds him. It begins early, when the Emperor arrives in person and starts bossing the mighty Sith Lord around, really hammering home once and for all who the big kahuna is over on the Dark Side. But what really does it is Vader’s first encounter with Luke since their duel at the end of The Empire Strikes Back. There’s a generally dejected vibe to Vader’s interactions with his son in this scene, which comes to a head when Skywalker Junior asks Skywalker Senior to give up his hateful life and leave with him. In response, Vader quietly laments, “It is too late for me, son”.

And at last, the mystique of Vader’s dark lord persona is shattered and we see him for what he truly is: a sad old man who keeps making terrible, hurtful choices because he doesn’t believe he has the strength to change. As if to underscore this new step in Vader’s evolution, the Sith Lord’s body language in private, after Luke bitterly states that his father is “truly dead”, spotlights a surprising capacity to be wounded on an emotional level (and why not? Words can hurt, Luke).

All this isn’t to say that Vader has completely lost his ability to frighten in Return of the Jedi. When he and Luke finally come to blows, there are several moments – such as his slow, threatening ascent up the throne room staircase – that rate up there with any of Vader’s intimidating efforts from the previous two films. Even so, for the most part, it’s evident that Vader is physically outmatched by Luke, and his sharp dialogue and vicious swordplay come across as less majestic than petty. These are not the actions of an indestructible monster, but rather a pathetic, aging junkie strung out on the metaphorical hate drug that’s already ruined the best years of his life.

On the plus side, now that Vader’s villainy has been so thoroughly undermined, his redemption when he saves Luke from death at the Emperor’s hands (literally!) is far easier to swallow. It’s a moving scene, trumped only by the emotional impact of Vader’s dying moments. When we see the former Sith Lord unmasked and at his most feeble, his sheepish smile towards Luke makes the newly restored Anakin hard not to forgive. Anakin’s last words to Luke are for him to tell his sister Leia that he was right about their father: that the man who was Darth Vader always contained a spark of goodness within his soul.

This affirmation that someone as ruthless as Vader is still capable of feeling love and acting upon it is a powerful one, and it plays an important part in how the character evolves in the three remaining films in the Star Wars saga.

Vader’s evolution continues next in Star Wars – Episode I: The Phantom Menace, set a generation before the events of A New Hope. So, ironically, we end up going backward to move our understanding of Darth Vader forward. For any of The Phantom Menace’s faults (and it has many), it’s undeniably fascinating to meet Vader as a child. Indeed, witnessing a time when Anakin Skywalker was a nine-year-old boy, full of love for his mother and the desire to be heroic and kind is a low-key revelatory experience.

Focusing on Vader’s childhood reminds us of how things can all go wrong despite the best efforts and intentions, and we begin to see the seeds for Vader’s downfall being planted: like many of us, the kid just cannot face the prospect of losing the people he loves. This becomes a greater concern in Star Wars – Episode II: Attack of the Clones, where Anakin’s romance with Padmé Amidala takes centre stage. The young Vader-to-be of this instalment certainly has his flaws – he’s often whiny, reckless, and short-tempered. But he’s also brave and kind-hearted, and many of his more questionable decisions are motivated by his love for Padmé, Obi-Wan, or his mum.

Even Vader’s most horrific act – the murder of a whole village of Sand People after their tribe murdered his dear ol’ ma – was driven by heartbreak, rather than his lust for power. At this stage in his life, Vader’s deepest motivation is the very human urge to protect those he cares about. By exploring this, Attack of the Clones asks us to consider whether evil in the form of someone like Vader can love, and if evil can love, then what does being evil even mean?

Star Wars – Episode III: Revenge of the Sith builds upon these questions, as well as our understanding of how a good person like Anakin could become a villain like Darth Vader. It reinforces Anakin’s love for Padmé and reconfigures his troubled, father-son relationship with Obi-Wan to that of affectionate brothers. It also shows us how his obsession with protecting one of these people ultimately drives them both away. And so, ultimately, what Lucas calls the “Tragedy of Darth Vader” boils down to a simple yet inescapable truth: no matter how noble or sympathetic a person’s reasons for seeking power might be, this power will inevitably corrupt them.

Before too long, Anakin has forgotten his initial motivation for turning to the Dark Side – preventing his pregnant wife from dying – and shortly after being christened Darth Vader, starts plotting to overthrow the Emperor and reign in his place. As is so often the case, he also becomes addicted to abusing his newfound power, getting sucked further and further down with each misdeed, becoming the Dark Side junkie we saw earlier in Return of the Jedi.

It gets to the point where he even murders Jedi younglings, which may have been a storytelling misstep (seriously: killing kids is pretty hardcore, even for a Sith Lord), but is nonetheless effective at demonstrating the depths of Vader’s villainy previously hinted at rather than explicitly shown. After all, this heinous crime further fleshes out how Luke’s dad became the second most horrible guy in the galaxy, even if it does risk undermining his overall redemption arc.

Still, it’s enough to leave you wondering how a guy this rotten could ever possibly come back to the light. Luckily, Lucas takes a decent stab at righting the course of Vader’s redemption arc during Revenge of the Sith‘s extended epilogue, shortly after Vader has suffered the severe injuries he carries with him in the original trilogy.

Here, mere moments after being fitted with his life-sustaining armour, Vader completely flips out after Palpatine blames him for Padmé’s recent death. He trashes his hospital room, before letting out a pitiful (and much parodied) cry of “No” – and it not only confirms everything we learned about him in Return of the Jedi was true but also offers us one last shift in how we view the character overall. From now on, whenever we watch Vader in the original trilogy, we’ll know that inside that suit is a man who ruined his life at a young age and who has now resigned himself to an existence both terrifying and wretched.

But more importantly, we’ll also know that the engine driving Vader’s villainy is fuelled by the ever-present heartache of losing the woman he loved. This will, in turn, allow us to accept that a positive reminder of this love – in the form of his child with Padmé – really could be enough to push him toward redemption and pay off a clearly defined character arc that spans six whole movies. And that’s why Darth Vader is cinema’s greatest supervillain.

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