Registered: Sep 2000
Location: Chelmsford, Essex, UK
Moderator
Good question. It was absurdly lax of Vader to allow that opening on an otherwise beaten opponent.
It has been suggested that Vader's armour is sabre resistant... but I don't buy that, especially when words like 'cortosis' start being spread around.
Actually, if you look at the move in slow-mo, it wouldn't have sliced him open, the angle wasn't like that, but it should have fair skinned his arm!
I actually think the blow connected more in shooting than it was meant to; they weren't as meticiulous then as they are now. I really think it was only meant to be a very glancing blow.
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"We've got maybe seconds before Darth Rosenberg grinds everybody into Jawa burgers and not one of you buds has the midi-chlorians to stop her!"
Or perhaps Luke didn't expect to hit vader and therefor allready had started to reverse the blade.
If u ever train fighting/sword fighting u may experience the same. U start a blow but u asume that the other one is going to manage to deflect it, so u don't put all your strength in it and u are allready thinking about your next move. So when u suddenly manages to get past someone guard when not expecting to, the blow gets very weak and u've lost your chance. Got it?
I was under teh impression that his upper plate (Much bigger in ESB than in ANH) was saber-resistant, because that held the primary faculties of his life support system. That is right where his lungs would be.
Well, Vader was being lax with Luke, he wasn't on his toes. We all know Vader is arrogant in his abilities, and it's been a while since anyone remotely challenged him physically. He was surprised.
And, they didn't practice their choreography half as much as nowadays, so that shot was probably clumisiness on Mr. Hamills part, being a bit too rough.
Another explanation is that Vaders suit is made from a very strong material, stronger than most metals, but not invincible. Like we saw how a lightsaber actually has resistance when put into metal, as seen in Ep1 when Qui Gonn was opening those doors. Maybe Vaders suit is made of uber-tough metal, and therefore, a quick, glancing slice like Luke's swipe would have only caused a small nick.
Also, in Dooku vs Obi-Wan, Dooku cut down Obi-Wan in a similar fashion before going for the final blow.
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Registered: Nov 2004
Location: The Unknown Regions
I think the blow did actually cause him pain. In Shadows of the Empire (the novel) Vader is practicing with his lightsaber on a droid and it mentions the fact that his shoulder is still bothering him from his duel with Luke.
I always believed that Darth Vader's armor is made of a nearly indestructable material, which would help protect him. He is also the Star Wars jesus, which means he could probably make new force powers or use the force in ways never thought of before.
And he felt the pain from it, causing him to get extremely angry and remove Luke's arm.
__________________ "The ability to destroy a planet is insignificant, next to the power of the force."
Registered: Sep 2004
Location: United Kingdom of Great Britain
I've got to admit, if you watch ESB again, on that particular scene Vader gets very angry when Luke touches him.
Vader increases his speed so Luke can't hack it then does that curly shurly thing and takes of his arm.
Exactly, Vader didn't think Luke had enough talent to strike him, so when he did, it infuriated Vader into slicing his hand off. He could feel the anger swelling inside Luke and then decided to tell him the truth about his father.
__________________ "The ability to destroy a planet is insignificant, next to the power of the force."
well in ESB, Han solo shoots a blaster against Vader which he deflects with the palm of his hand. if he used the force to do that, i dont know. But what i know is that Cortosis Ore
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Nov 12th, 2004 06:26 PM
