Star Wars Turns Its New Darth Vader Replacement Into A Failure… In His First Scene

This article contains spoilers for Star Wars: Skeleton Crew episodes 1 & 2.Star Wars has introduced its latest Darth Vader replacement, and he’s a failure right from his first scene. There’s a sense in which Star Wars has been trying to replace Darth Vader since the original trilogy, when the Dark Lord of the Sith sacrificed himself to save Luke Skywalker. Darth Vader cut an imposing figure, his mask giving him a sense of inhuman evil, and Star Wars has – sometimes desperately – tried to replicate that ever since.

The most famous Darth Vader replacement was Kylo Ren, of course, but he’s not unique. Nor have all the Darth Vader figures been Sith, or even Force-sensitives, as proven by Marchion Ro – leader of a group of space pirates who flourished during the High Republic Era. Star Wars‘ latest Darth Vader replacement is definitely patterned after Marchion Ro, but he’s a lot less successful.

Captain Silvo’s Opening Scene Riffs On Darth Vader

It’s not hard to spot the similarities

Star Wars: Skeleton Crew opens with a scene that brilliantly riffs on the first Star Wars movie (later retitled A New Hope). In this opening scene, a group of pirates attack a New Republic freighter, and they’re led by a masked pirate named Captain Silvo. He strikes some very familiar poses, and even his dialogue follows the pattern of A New Hope; “If this is a bulk freighter, why is your vault magnetically sealed,” he asks (the same sentence structure as “If this is a consular ship, where is the ambassador?“).

Unlike Darth Vader, Captain Silvo… Is A Failure

He just isn’t up to the job

There’s one crucial difference between Darth Vader and Captain Silvo, of course: Silvo is a failure. The opening scenes of Skeleton Crew episode 1 make that abundantly clear, because the attack on a New Republic freighter leads to an underwhelming score – a single New Republic credit. What’s more, dialogue makes it abundantly clear this isn’t the first mission that Captain Silvo has botched. He’s been letting his men down for a long time, and their patience has run out.

It’s not hard to guess Captain Silvo’s true identity after Star Wars: Skeleton Crew episodes 1 and 2. Given this is the case, it will be interesting to see whether the character does indeed follow a Darth Vader pattern – meaning his path will ultimately be one of redemption. If so, though, it will remain different, and no doubt a result of his failures rather than his successes.