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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Celebrim" data-source="post: 7001374" data-attributes="member: 4937">This requires you to believe that the writers consciously and deliberately created as their central villain a character that is an oafish buffoon.  Was he supposed to have a laugh track and they forgot to put it in?I would argue that this is the result of trope decay itself.  At the time Vader was presented, he was one of the most awesome powerful villainous flamboyant figures that had ever been shown on the screen.   Every villain since Vader has been trying to either be Vader, or one up Vader, to the point that Vader's demeanor in the original film seems to a modern audience to be calm by comparison.The same thing happens with Gandalf.  We write articles in retrospect about Gandalf being 'a 6th level wizard', because every wizard since Gandalf has been trying to either be Gandalf or one up him.  But at the time of Gandalf's original conception, he was one of the most overtly powerful wizards in fiction - especially as it relates to what in D&D we'd now call 'evocation magic' (fireball!).  Only in the context of what has come afterwards does he seem extremely reserved and limited in his magical ability.</blockquote>