Being an artist myself, I'm well aware of the challenges of putting everything into a singular image. These examples, however, seem to have forgotten that challenge or even ignored it, by focusing everything no one object inside a single frame.

Carl Sagan, Richard Feynman and Niel deGrasse Tyson, in no particular order.

They're brilliant to say the least, but i think the first one captures him the best. Just the sheer insanity of nonchalantly stopping a laser blast with one's hand, and the implied power such a thing states, perfectly capture how Vader would enter a battle field.

Thank you. ^_^

Tarkin is scary in his own respect, evoking such imagery as cold-hearted Nazism/fascism and the stereotype of someone with little interest in mercy.

That's part of what makes him so damn scary...

Well, that's the awesomeness of art, isn't it. We can all look at the same thing and see something very different. ^_^

Well put! And this is in fact why i don't like the submissions to this competition, as they all wanna make him look bad-ass, but none of bothered to actually make him a force of nature.

About friggin' time! Last time we heard anything from them, we got the vague "December 2014 at the latest," followed by almost 5 months of silence.

No no, there's a huge gap of possibilities between" intentional" and "accidental", some of which include design bleed-over, artist's sneaking in elements, artist's following the meaning instead of word from their client(s), degrading from "obvious" to "subtext", and so on.

Good point, though i would argue that for an "other" to be scary, it has to remain mysterious for as long as possible. If Vader just walked with with mechanical parts hanging out, then he'd "just" be a robot or cyborg, making him a known quantity.

I think that might be a interpretation too far, as Lucas was obsesses with classical literary models and -storytelling. A "black knight" in those is someone who goes against the "Knight's Errant" a "White Knight" would follow, making it a character who'd simply oppose the act of good for the sake of good.

In-dept and thoughtful analysis!? It's like sweet music to my ears. ^_^

Well, I'm not disagreeing with you, so that makes 2 of us. But i do disagree that it was as intentional as you might think, which neither of us could settle without a time machine.

That the skill of Ralph McQuarrie, the designer in charge. In his worlds it's all clean lines, minimalist design that invite inspection and a reliance on function over form.

I agree with your reaction, your observations and how he's imposing from the first minute, but his clothing isn't what does it. Sure, his clothing is meant to not look like a good guy and it definitely invoke various evil imagery, but it's the unknown quantity underneath that makes him so scary. It's the fact that a…

Helmet screams "random henchman #5" and that cape is over the top...

No, it's still way over the top. It's closer that most, but only close enough to clip the target.

Not anymore than gas masks usually do, which i agree they do to a fair degree.

My pleasure. ^_^