It’s kinda funny that for all the revolutionary things the very first Star Wars introduced—celibate space monks, sounds in space, gay robot butlers—it also included something perfectly at home in both contemporary 1970s America and today: the conference room. Because even when plotting intergalactic genocide, there’s a proper way to do things.

The conference room scene in A New Hope is memorable mostly because it’s the first time we really see what Darth Vader can do. Up until the meeting, he just broods and menaces. In fact—that’s also his initial posture at the meeting. While all the Imperial muckety-mucks are seated around the table, discussing politics and their shiny, planet-killing toy, Vader stands to the side and is just, like, there. Breathing. Literally! 

It’s like Grand Moff Tarkin brought Vader for ‘Bring Your Henchman To Work Day’ but doesn’t trust him enough to leave him alone while he’s working, and nobody thought to bring an extra chair. I get it, Tark—when I brought my kids to work, I had to keep them quiet with vending machine trips and targeted raids of the office supplies. Otherwise they’d start making inappropriate statements like, “Daddy, do you just sit on your butt all day,” and, “You don’t seem to be working very hard,” and, “What is this Reddit you keep looking at?”

When Vader finally stirs, it’s to engage in a philosophical disagreement, one he wins by choking out a dude using only his mind and a gesture that frankly seems more performative than necessary. Then again, Vader does walk around wearing a floor-length cape for no good reason other than vibes. Maybe 80% of the Force is showmanship. That would certainly explain this move, which baffles and delights me to this day: 

Vader initially breaks his silence with a project update—“The plans you refer to will soon be back in our hands”—because they are in a conference room and that’s how things are done. We can only assume there’s a projector displaying a Gantt chart on the wall, and a side table just off-camera with bagels and carafes of coffee (or ‘caf,’ if you spent your forgone youth reading Star Wars fiction). Then he starts preaching from the gospel of hokey religions.

Vader: Don’t be too proud of this technological terror you’ve constructed. The ability to destroy a planet is insignificant next to the power of the Force. 

There’s a lot happening here. I’m going to unpack it briefly.