Darth Vader lives in an alternative universe. He is a figment of George Lucas’s imagination, an “alternative fact.” As an imaginary figure, we can manipulate his image to make any point we want to make, just like Donald Trump lives in an alternative universe and manipulates his image to make his own reality, i.e bigger inauguration crowds than Obama and higher town-hall ratings than Joe Biden’s.

Who is Darth Vader? As we learn in “The Empire Strikes Back,” he is Luke’s father. But why would George Lucas make the villain of “Star Wars” the hero’s father? I’m not smart enough to get into Lucas’s mind, but I’m guessing that the message he wanted to convey is that Vader represents the dark side, the evil side of all beings in any universe. The duality of the universe. The ying and the yang, the male and the female, the good and the evil.

As humans, we don’t want to believe that we have an evil side. We are all heroes of our own story. We are Luke and Leia, not Darth Vader. But why is it, then, that of all the characters in the “Star Wars” story Darth Vader is the most popular, the most lasting, the most recognizable? Do we yearn for the power of Darth Vader? Do we secretly, subconsciously want to choke all of our enemies? Is this why we elected an orange-masked, clearly evil Donald Trump as our power-mad leader?

When we was running for president in 2016, everyone knew Trump was evil, that he lived in an alternative, totally unrealistic universe and that he rose to power by verbally killing his adversaries. Was he our Darth Vader?

No. Trump is worse, more evil. One of the reasons we like Darth Vader is because even though we know he is our evil side, in the story’s climax being Luke’s father is a more important value than being evil or having power. Vader saves his son’s life, and we forgive his evilness.

We forgive Vader because we want to believe our evil side is really not that bad. We believe that if Vader’s alternative universe were infected with the coronavirus, he’d wear a mask to protect his children and colleagues.

In Trump’s alternative universe, he doesn’t care about others. He doesn’t wear a protective mask over his orange makeup mask. He’s pure evil. However, just like in the final “Star Wars” episode, “The Return of Skywalker,” the uncompromisingly evil Palpatine is eliminated by Rey turning his evil force back on him, in this election women will turn Trump’s evil back on him and give him what he deserves — defeat.

The world will know he’s a loser.