This Is Darth Vader's Worst Line Ever

Darth Vader is widely considered one of the greatest movie characters of all time. He's scary, he looks awesome, and he is iconic beyond measure. He also has one of the most memorable lines in film history: "I am your father." But not all of the character's utterances have been so quotable, and one is even deserving of the title of Darth Vader's worst line ever. 

Any discussion of Star Wars' worst lines has to start with the prequels. The Phantom Menace, Attack of the Clones, and Revenge of the Sith have all been criticized ad nauseam for their dialogue — and with good reason. A lot of the lines in that trio of films are absolute clunkers, and one of their biggest offenders is one from Anakin Skywalker. The boy who would become Vader was portrayed as a little kid by Jake Lloyd in Episode I, and as a teenager and young adult by Hayden Christensen in Episodes II and III, respectively. Many fans were not pleased with Lloyd and Christensen's portrayals, with many complaints thrown at how the two actors made Anakin come across. 

Whereas Vader was imposing, using the Force to choke his underlings when they displeased him, Anakin was whiny, complaining about how much he dislikes sand. This version of the Skywalker patriarch spawned a number of dreadful lines, and any one of them could conceivably be in the running for the character's worst line. In The Phantom Menace, young Skywalker has such gems as, "Mom, you say the biggest problem in this universe is nobody helps each other"; I'll try spinning, that's a good trick"; and the legendary, "I'm a person and my name is Anakin." 

Despite the change in actors, Anakin didn't fare any better in Attack of the Clones. He was still saddled with slinging duds like, "I'm haunted by the kiss that you should never have given me"; "Excuse me, I'm in charge of security here, m'lady"; and the aforementioned sand diatribe: "I don't like sand. It's coarse, and rough, and irritating, and it gets everywhere." Even Revenge of the Sith, widely considered to be the strongest of the prequel films, still struggled to give Anakin good dialogue. That flick forced him to utter lines like, "Love won't save you, Padmé. Only my new powers can do that." 

But we're not here to talk about Anakin Skywalker's worst line. We're focused on the worst line from Darth Vader. Though the two are technically the same character, they share precious little in common. Star Wars creator George Lucas has claimed to have had Vader's origins in mind from the beginning of his saga, but the evidence doesn't really support that assertion. While everyone knows that the twist in The Empire Strikes Back is that Darth Vader is Luke Skywalker's father, Anakin, that wasn't always the plan. An early draft of the script featured no such twist, and even included an entirely different character as Luke's dad (Luke meets his ghost while going through his Jedi training). So even though we now think of Anakin Skywalker and Darth Vader as one and the same, it would appear as though they were initially conceived as two separate characters.

Walt Disney Pictures/Lucasfilm

Since we're treating Anakin and Vader as two distinct people, that takes the bulk of the prequels out of contention for Darth Vader's worst line, as he only has a handful at the very end of Revenge of the Sith. Granted, they are pretty bad, with his reaction to the news of Padmé's death being particularly dreadful: "I... I couldn't have. She was alive. I felt it. Nooo!" But we can't let the prequels have all the fun. The original trilogy, great as it is, is also known for having some pretty terrible dialogue at times. Star Harrison Ford famously told director George Lucas during the filming of the first Star Wars film, "You can type this s***, but you can't say it!"

Despite the franchise's propensity for poor dialogue, Vader mostly comes away unscathed. Nearly all of his lines are great, or at least good, and part of that is probably due to the fact that they were spoken by James Earl Jones, owner of one of the greatest voices in show business. Lines like, "I find your lack of faith disturbing"; "You have failed me for the last time, admiral"; and "When I left you, I was but the learner. Now I am the master" are all legendary in their own right, and while they may not have reached "I am your father" status, they're still imminently quotable. 

But one Vader line from the original trilogy just doesn't feel quite right. In the original film, just prior to his "lack of faith line," Vader lays this egg: "Don't be too proud of this technological terror you've constructed. The ability to destroy a planet is insignificant next to the power of the Force." 

So what's so bad about this line? A couple things. 

First of all, we could do without the sing-songy alliteration of "technological terror." It sounds silly, especially coming from someone like Vader, and if he can't make alliteration intimidating, then no one can. Then there's the bit about how the ability to destroy a planet is insignificant compared to the Force. Uh, what? That's an absurd statement. The entire plots of both A New Hope and Return of the Jedi revolve around Death Stars because they're such devastating weapons. The original Death Star destroyed Alderaan, for goodness sake. That is a massive deal, and a much greater display of power than, as Luke described the Force in The Last Jedi, "lifting rocks." The Force may be a big deal when it comes to personal power, but it can't compete with the Death Star in terms of sheer levels of destruction, making Vader's quote ridiculous. 

For those reasons, A New Hope's quote about technological terrors being weaker than the Force has to be the worst Darth Vader line ever.