Man, one characterization of Vader that I love but rarely see is: Vader as deeply religious.Ā
Because from an in-universe perspective, thatās so weird! Vader and the viewer know that the Force is not a matter of faith, and that it does in fact give him powers up to and including the ability to accurately see the future, but the galaxy at large doesnāt know that and his fellow Imperials definitely donāt. I think the point of Motti, besides introducing Vaderās ruthlessness toward even his own faction, is to demonstrate that Force use is not just a known factor of the Star Wars universe.Ā
In that context, Vader is inexplicable. Not only does he have uncanny and inscrutable powers, like those the murdered Jedi are rumored to have had, but he is the only figure in the Imperial military who seems to talk about his religion. At least among the military leadership, heās not secretive about it; if heās got to leave a conversation to hunt down Obi-wan, heāll just come right out and say that he has supernatural knowledge which he needs to go address now. He wields a banned, antique Jedi weapon. He has several times invoked the Force while speaking to his officers.Ā
In-universe, the general public doesnāt know why heās like this! The Empire isnāt a theocracy; besides banning the Jedi religion, Emperor Palpatine doesnāt really seem to make a lot of overtly religious policy choices, and I donāt think the general public knows if he subscribes to any specific faith. Except for people who know what the Sith are, Vader just seems like an extremely devout sole adherent to a religion that is all but dead, its other practitioners hunted for treason. Heās like if the president had a weird murder pet who was a Catholic nun, only Catholicism was banned and all other church officials had been murdered by the government.Ā
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