MANCHESTER, N.H. — Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., says he isn't sure if he still hates Darth Vader, the infamous villian in the "Star Wars" franchise of movies.

"I used to hate Darth Vader, but now I kind of feel a little bit sorry for him knowing what he went through to get to that point," Rubio said when asked a question related to upcoming Star Wars movie during a campaign stop at Saint Anselm College. "And he's probably the most fascinating character in the whole movie, because he started out as this individual with a lot of talent and promise, then something went wrong, something went really bad, he went dark, he went nasty."

Before commenting on Vader, Rubio made an erroneous statement about the franchise that is sure to make fans cringe.

"I think I had the Death Star," referring to the toy version of the war machine built by the Empire, "but it kept breaking, just like it did in part two — 'Empire Strikes Back,' where it blew up because the guy got that rocket to go into that hole. Remember that?"

In reality, "Empire Strikes Back" was the one original Star Wars film that did not feature the Death Star. The "guy" Rubio referred to was in fact jedi Luke Skywalker, and it was in the first movie that Luke, then still in training, used the force to fire through the weak spot of the Death Star without the aid of a view finder, drawing on his experience bulls-eying womp rats in his T-16 back home.