When TIME recently ranked Darth Vader #3 on their "Top 10 Worst Fictional Fathers" (what we call link bait, since people love numbered lists and you have to scroll through each one and see an ad each time) they did so because he was the ultimate deadbeat dad.   Not only was he never there for a single "Life Day" celebration (1), but when he does finally show up, he expects some kind of relationship and then cuts the kid's hand off.

But family situations are often complex and the Galactic Empire felt like he, and they, were not getting a fair shake, so they dutifully put Death Star PR ("Sure, the Death Star is a giant superlaser that can blow up planets. But over 1,000,000 of our employees just like to call it "home"") on the case.
For almost 20 years, Darth Vader didn't even know he had children. Did you know that, TIME Magazine? Did you uncover that in your research? But unlike so many other deadbeat dads, the moment he found out, he took responsibility for his son, even saying on camera, "Luke, I am your father." He didn't even ask for a paternity test. Would the third worst father ever really do that, TIME Magazine?
And they don't miss the opportunity to slam TIME for its persistent left-wing skew when it comes to Empire events.
Now let's clear the air of planetary debris and discuss the Alderaan issue. To the uneducated, kidnapping Princess Leia and blowing up her home planet while she watched might seem like a bit of a dick move, but it taught Leia a valuable life lesson: "Don't get kidnapped." It seems to us that if Princesses like Leia, Daisy and Zelda could just learn this one fundamental rule, a LOT of supervillains would be forced to channel their energy into more productive avenues of work.
TIME lists need to be taken with a grain of Kessel glitterstim anyway.  They designated Hitler as Man of The Year in the 1930s and he killed nowhere near as many people as Moff Tarkin did, but people still think Vader blew up Alderaan.

I'm siding with Vader on this one.  His kid was an annoying little brat whining about power converters at Toshi station when he should have been cleaning up the Droids.   And the Empire makes a terrific cup of coffee.




NOTE:

(1) Clips from among the worst Christmas specials ever: