Why Darth Vader Never Runs In Star Wars

Darth Vader is not only one of the most despicable villains in "Star Wars" (though at least he didn't use the dying screams of Dizonite children to torture people), but also one of the most iconic baddies in all of cinema. He's a character that's instantly recognizable from his silhouette alone; his stiff, expressionless "face" nevertheless offers a rather intense perpetual frown. The guy is just fear incarnated, someone you take a single look at and immediately know they're bad news.

Designing the character wasn't easy, and for "Star Wars" creator George Lucas, the key was how Darth Vader moved and behaved. Sure, the costume did a lot of the work, as did James Earl Jones' fantastic vocal performance. Be that as it may, David Prowse's physical performance was also essential to making the character a huge and scary presence even when he's barely moving.

Indeed, when you think about it, Vader barely moves at all in any of his appearances. Sure, he swings his lightsaber around a bunch, and he does some heavy walking, but Vader never really runs. Even a lot of "Star Wars" video games have him slow walk, and at most have him Force dash to get places more quickly. Why is that? Well, we have some thoughts. 

Mind you, walking rather than running is a pretty classic villain trait. It shows confidence and, as such, immediately makes the antagonist more menacing. You rarely, if ever, see Jason Voorhees, Michael Myers, or the T-1000 in "The Terminator" (which is by far the scariest "Terminator" movie) run, so why should Vader be any different? He should't be chasing after his enemies, they should cower at the mere sight of him and give in to the inevitability of Vader cutting them down. After all, Anakin's last name was Skywalker, not Skyrunner.

Then there are the practical reasons. Much like Batman's costume, the big Vader suit isn't very comfortable or practical. Prowse could barely lift his arms high in the air because of his Vader suit, so running would definitely look quite silly in that outfit — not to mention the very real possibility of Vader tripping on that long cape of his. The Vader suit is meant to look cool, not necessarily to move all that well.

The likeliest reason, however, is also quite simple — lung issues. We all know Vader needs assistance breathing, so doing physically draining activities like running could feasibly pose a major health risk for a middle aged Sith Lord whose body was severely burnt after his mentor and friend left him to die. Then there's the fact that Vader has not one but two prosthetic legs, which may not allow for all that much mobility.

There's a longstanding theory among certain fans that Vader's suit is actually not state of the art medical technology, but that it is purposefully designed to keep the Sith Lord in constant excruciating pain so that he can never be more powerful than Darth Sidious. According to this theory, Palpatine ensured that his apprentice wound't kill him and take over as the ultimate Dark Lord, despite that being the Sith's whole style (see also that whole "Rule of Two" thing).

In the non-canonical Extended Universe aka Star Wars Legends, particularly the novel "Dark Lord: The Rise of Darth Vader," Vader himself points out that his mechanical limbs are less advanced than the then-current technology. This implies his own master gave him a painful suit so that he'd be more in tune with the dark side of the Force thanks to his anger. (As we all know, fear leads to anger, anger leads to hate, and hate leads to suffering.)

That's no longer the case in the current canon, though. Now, Vader's suit is explicitly the single most advanced piece of machinery in the galaxy, although it does have to straight up inject painkillers into Vader constantly to dull his pain (from, again, burning in lava). Vader also comes to embrace the suit and how it isolates him from the rest of the galaxy, allowing him to concentrate on his anger and hate to become a stronger instrument of the dark side.

The new "Star Wars" canon has done a lot to expand upon and explain Darth Vader, including how his lightsaber came to be and how his suit was made, but never whether or not there's a way for him to run more easily. Perhaps that's a matter for another unnecessary Disney+ show.