ST Who's The Baddie?

Sure, you can say that about anything. For the sake of discussion, anything can happen, let's not discuss it anymore.

But, if we are to have a villain who presents an existential threat to our heroes, who we know are going to win in the end, then the villain who creates the greatest suspension of disbelief follows. For example, I choose an ancient evil steeped in the dark side, the Master of Sidious, rather than an older person discovering his latent force powers for the first time. But I do agree, anything can happen.

Yes, but we're talking about a former Imperial Officer, right?

 

That guy in ANH who says to Vader "Holding her is dangerous" and "She'll die before she tells you anything".

 

I think Plagueis, named as Sidious master, is far more memorable than any random unnamed imperial.

Audiences know a heck of a lot more about Plagueis than they do about Veers or any imperial thanks to the little speech from Palpatine.

 

I would go with General Veers as only "one" of the villains, since the actor is still active this days. He would make a good Imperial leader — one who's still loyal and believes that the Empire should be restored. But nothing more than that, though.

 

The EU has him survive the Battle of Hoth, and end up in Palpatine's service when he comes back after the Battle of Endor.

"Lucas's take on Dark Empire" would go very well with a returned Veers.

Obviously the story itself would be original though.

 

I must say some of these ideas are rather concerning. Admiral Veers? Really? I mean, he could be a badass but in the grand scheme of things he's like a nobody. Besides, those dudes were all hunted down and locked up after the Empire fell. Veers will be sharing a cell with "Bubba" while Luke Skywalker is in his Jedi Temple in a hottub smoking some cigars with some freaky women on his lap.

 

That's the thing- will the Empire Fall, or simply Saunter Vaguely Downward?

 

At least he's not a dead man.

 

Dead Muun you mean?

 

No matter who they come up with as the main antagonist, it will still feel contrived. The sooner we come to terms with it the better.

 

Interesting idea, as he could be the last Imperial Leader standing (until the real villain appears). He could be the one-shot villain of VII, with lots of emphasis on the fact that he led the all-too-successful Battle of Hoth.

 

Well they'd seriously have to re-cast him then. Julian isn't as spritely as he was...

 

There's an older villain I'd like to see. Julian Glover's awesome.

 

I really liked General Veers, I rank him towards the top of SW baddies, but yeah, he isn't exactly a spring chicken anymore. So instead of recasting the role, why not pass the torch onto his son, maybe an up and coming younger Imperial officer at the time the Emperor died and is trying to restore the Empire to its former glory.

 

He doesn't have to be. Portray him as a Thrawn-like character, sitting on the bridge on his Star Destroyer, ordering his troops to out-maneuver and crush rebel ships.

 

I thought that dude like drank out of the wrong cup or something and turned into a corpse and blew up. How can he be the villain?

 

That's Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.

 

You know, I never knew that the guy from The Last Crusade and Game of Thrones was the same actor that played Veers until I came here. And I must have seen TLC a ton of times, too.

 

It's in the storytelling. Where does Lucas decide to drop the name of Darth Plagueis the Wise? Of all places at a Space Opera. We're watching the characters set within a Space Opera sit as spectators at a Space Opera. LOL. It's as if they're not as much a part of the action as the absent Plagueis, whose legend, for all we know, is being played out at the Opera House before them. The invocation begins with the word "Legend", which suggests the primordial past and while the introduction of the name "Darth Plagueis the Wise" hints at the future. Who is this other Sith? All this occurs in a pivotal moment in the narrative, which incidentally, provides the central point for Anakin's turn to the Dark Side of the Force. All enclosed neatly within the setting of a fictional Space Opera within THEE Space Opera known as STAR WARS. The main characters share a POV with the audience, while Plagueis becomes the essence of the story. That my friends, is great storytelling.

 

Very good analysis. Maybe this scene tells us something of what's to come.

 

Hahaha, more insanity surrounding Plagueis.

 

While I really like Glover and could certainly see him as a the military mastermind, I still think the best route to mesh the ST with the other T's would be Plagueis, for reasons mentioned a countless times and again in this thread. What would be REALLY cool would be if rumors of a surviving Palpatine reached the BIG3 who go investigating them. They venture deep into the core (Byss, Thython) or to Korriban and find a cowering, half mad, shriveled Palpatine. When they confront him, he is ripped to shreds through the force by Plagueis, who reveals himself and mind controls one of the Skywalker offspring to his side, explaining that he has created the Anakin and has power over their midichlorians, Luke is only able to resist through his training, or maybe he lets go of his body ,like Ben did, to escape Plagueis power...

 

This is a great post. Love how you point out the self-conscious reference to space opera in Sith.

I also want to point out that there's a soap opera aspect to space opera, which I love. It's not just the serial aspect, but also pulpy qualities like villains who keep coming back. This is a cliche for some, but for others, it's an essential part of these genres. The key question isn't whether or not it's realistic for someone presumed dead to return -- that they will return is a given -- the important thing is how interesting or fun the return is.

 

Plagueis is mentioned as much as Luke's "father" and his "betrayer and murderer" in ANH, and in a similar manner. We all know how that random off-hand remark turned out.