By Dan Brown

It was a turning point in my thinking about pop culture.

I was eight years old when Star Wars came out in 1977. My friends and I lived, breathed, played, talked about that movie all the time in the schoolyard.

Once, when discussing our favourite characters, one friend – who was two years older – mentioned something that rocked my world.

He said his favourite Star Wars character was Darth Vader.

I had trouble wrapping my head around his answer. 

Wait a second, he likes . . . . the villain? 

Did I hear that right?

It had never occurred to boyhood me that you could side with the dark side. It had never entered my mind that you could judge a movie bad guy to be cooler than the good guy.

I mean, Luke Skywalker is the hero, right? So what is this talk about Darth Vader being awesome? I mean, he’s out to get Luke and stop the galactic rebellion.

Vader is the one who strangles people – with his hands or with the Force. He’s the guy who defeats Ben Kenobi. He tries to shoot Luke down in the Death Star trench. He wears black, for crying out loud! 

How could you dig somebody like that?

So you can see how this would have been a revolutionary idea at the time. 

One of the reasons for the success of Star Wars in 1977 was how, in the shadow of Watergate and the Vietnam War, it brought back clearly defined heroes and villains. Even a morally grey figure like Han Solo has a change of heart and forsakes his mercenary ways at the end of the film, revealing his inner goodness.

In 2025, of course, this is not at all a crazy idea.

We long ago gave up expecting our heroes and those who opposed them to be inherently good or evil. 

One of the biggest Star Wars fan groups is the 501st Legion, who dress up as stormtroopers, the foot soldiers who carry out Vader’s diabolical plans. So my childhood friend is not the only person who’s into the Empire. And I can admit my friend is right: Darth Vader is more interesting than Luke, who turns out to be his son.

What my older friend said back then shaped my thinking about villains. 

So when the second movie in the trilogy came out in 1980, I was astounded at how cool the Imperials walkers were. My friend had expanded my horizons. 

He had given me permission to think about all the characters and where they were coming from.

My black-and-white world was now in full colour.

Dan Brown has covered pop culture for more than 33 years as a journalist and also moderates L.A. Mood’s monthly graphic-novel group.