A to Z Blogging Challenge 2024 - Villains! D Is For Darth Vader and Dolores Umbridge

Two villains today, Darth Vader(Star Wars) and Dolores Umbridge(Harry Potter).  I probably should keep them for V and U, but it’s nice to be able to have them together.

One main difference between them is that Darth Vader had a redemption arc, due to his love for his son. Dolores had no redemption whatsoever. She was plain evil - and she is very real as a person. She has powers, as she is, after all, a witch, but nothing special. But she is real in that she is someone you might actually meet in real life. And I have - the real-life Dolores was someone I had to work with, and a nasty piece of work she was.

Let’s start with Vader. He was born Anakin Skywalker, son of a slave woman. As a child, he was very sweet. He built C3PO to help his mother. We do eventually find out why C3PO doesn’t remember his early days. Not his maker’s fault! 

When presented as a potential Jedi, the council says he is too old, but his mentor, Qui Gon Jinn, has faith in him and then, dying, asks his own “padawan”(apprentice) Obi Wan Kenobi, to train him, even if he isn’t admitted to Jedi school. Poor Obi Wan. I can’t help wondering if things might have been different if Qui Gon had survived. 

He falls in love with Senator Padme Amidala and they marry at the end of the second prequel movie. But it doesn’t take long for him to go to the Dark Side, and not only because he is tempted by Palpatine, the future Emperor. His first evil deed is when he wipes out an entire tribe who have captured his mother. He could have simply rescued her, he has the power for that, but this is revenge.

And then he kills a lot of children studying to be Jedi, the “younglings”. The consequences of this show up in the TV series Obi Wan Kenobi. Dear, dear! Anakin has really gone dark. He is then persuaded by Palpatine to do certain things to save his pregnant wife. She dies anyway, in childbirth.

We meet him again in Obi Wan Kenobi. He hasn’t changed for the better.

But if, like me, you saw the original trilogy, you know that he will reform, even if at the last minute. And he isn’t as bad as you might think. He still believes in the Force. He might throttle those who irritate him, but his underlings don’t seem afraid to ask him questions - which he answers! 

 When I saw the original Return Of The Jedi, before Hayden Christensen took the role of the young Anakin, his Force Ghost was shown as a smiling, pleasant faced middle aged man instead of young Hayden. I really hated the change of image! 

It does make it a bit odd when his grandson, Ben Solo aka Kylo Ren, becomes obsessed with Anakin’s evil self and wears dark clothes and a mask at the start of the sequel trilogy(he did take off the mask, looking like a young Severus Snape). I kept waiting for the Force Ghost to turn up and tell him he was being stupid. It didn’t happen, but that young villain did repent, for love of Rey, the female Luke Skywalker of this series.

Now for Dolores. She first appears in Harry Potter And The Order Of The Phoenix. Something I have always wondered is why wizarding school teachers don’t seem to have to get qualifications. Either they are naturally good or they are dreadful. Ironically, the villainous Barty Crouch Junior, posing as Madeye Moody in the fourth novel/movie, is one of the naturally good teachers! Even after the students know the truth, they still say they learned a lot from him.

Dolores is dreadful, but it doesn’t matter to her, because she has the support of the Ministry of Magic. She even gets the job of Headmistress when Dumbledore escapes. She is, after all, working for Fudge, that totally useless Minister of Magic. 

She makes her first appearance when Harry is on trial for having done magic outside of school. It was she who sent those Dementors that made Harry do what he did, to protect himself and Dudley. She doesn’t even deny it. 

When she arrives at the school, she literally tortures students, including Harry, who is forced to write “I must not tell lies” while it appears - painfully - on his hand. All this in her pink office filled with pictures of cute cats and kittens. 

She has her own squad of supporters led by Draco Malfoy. She boots out Sybil Trelawney, the Divination teacher. Trelawney is pretty hopeless as a teacher, but generally harmless and the act is cruel. Considering what a poor job Dolores does in her own class, this is ironic. 

She later gets a job in the Ministry and abuses the Muggleborn wizards and witches. Something really odd is the scene where she has a Patronus(cat shaped, of course) in the court room, walking back and forth, protecting her. A Patronus is supposed to be created using a really happy memory. You do have to wonder what a happy memory would be for her! It’s scary even to think of it.

In the play, Harry Potter And The Cursed Child, she appears as Hogwarts Headmistress in an alternative universe where the Death Eaters won, Harry was killed and his son Albus was never born, the result of Albus and his friend Scorpius Malfoy trying to save that gentle boy Cedric Diggory from dying in the Triwizard Tournament. The school is celebrating Voldemort Day. Dementors are permanently surrounding the school. Snape has been hiding Ron and Hermione from her. 

Magic apart, Dolores is very real, which makes her worse than Voldemort, who is a fantasy Dark Lord. My real life Dolores bullied students and staff alike. I remember some students who went on a school bus trip telling me that they couldn’t believe the things she did on the ride. No, I won’t go into detail here. Mainly, she was a bully. When I read the book, I wondered how J.K Rowling had known about her! I guess she just wasn’t unique. 

Which makes the character truly scary! You can escape a Dark Lord - you can’t escape someone you might actually meet.