What does Darth Vader symbolize to you?

OB1Shinobi, awesome. also i really enjoy reading about the parts of the epic i have yet to see or read.

I tended to view the armor to protect others from the firestorm within, not to protect him.... and all good battlesuits try to keep the wearer alive when in duress, even if it is just old age. He tends to represent the pinnacle of our current paradigm of power, while the jedi where the new manifestation of martial powers - sort of like the emergence of the professional soldier revolutionized warfighting centuries ago. Power in the future mghthave to shift back to the people and become 'soft' again in terms of organization while being 'hard' in new ways due to tranformations in mind and technology.

I think of Vader as being the father figure that the son/daughter does not want to be, does that make sense? Like the father did things when he was younger that no person should ever really go through, and tries to bring that upon his children. Child services takes the kids away while the father gets intoxicated (or in Anakin's case he gets baked hahaha), and the children grow up in a better environment until they finally meet their father and try to bring him back to the light.

I'm not saying that that's what my experience is, my dad is like Owen Lars so I don't complain haha

He names means 'Dark Father".

He is the "hero" of the story.

He is who we will become if we surrender to the Dark Side

He is an angry hurt little boy that is screaming out for help.

He is a lesson of why the Jedi path is some challenging and important.

he is why we need to embrace our emotions and not surrender to them.