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Mark wrote:He lost the ability for acrobatic moves and such, but he also gained alot in physical size and strength. We know that he continued to hunt down and kill Jedi knights, so he still displayed SOME skill. We just didn't get to see much of it.

The book Dark Lord goes into this a bit. It's set shortly after Order 66, and Vader apparently lost a good deal of his skill to a combination of injury and his heavy armour.

On the plus side, he can block blaster bolts with his hands.

Mark wrote:He lost the ability for acrobatic moves and such, but he also gained alot in physical size and strength. We know that he continued to hunt down and kill Jedi knights, so he still displayed SOME skill. We just didn't get to see much of it.

True enough, though I don't recall it being stated anywhere that he engaged them in single combat - he may well have just sent in the Stormtroopers. (When did the Empire stop using clones btw?)

kostmayer wrote:True enough, though I don't recall it being stated anywhere that he engaged them in single combat - he may well have just sent in the Stormtroopers.

The impression given is that Vader was involved personally, and there are a few examples of him taking on and defeating Jedi after he got the suit - Kenobi being the most prominent example.

When did the Empire stop using clones btw?

They didn't. They diversified from the Fett series, including the GeNodes who weren't even aware they were clones, and started recruiting, but they never stopped using them. They simply became a lot rarer.

Almost like the Romans using a base force of actual Roman troops, then as the empire expanded, they employed a huge variety of foreign nationals into their ranks,

Tsukiyumi wrote:On the plus side, he can block blaster bolts with his hands.

though I had no idea how that could happen when I first saw it, it was AWESOME!

It is.

The piman wrote:

Tsukiyumi wrote:On the plus side, he can block blaster bolts with his hands.

though I had no idea how that could happen when I first saw it, it was AWESOME!

If you go by the EU explanation, he uses the force to absorb the energy from the bolt. So shooting him only makes him stronger...

Lighthawk wrote:...So shooting him only makes him stronger...

Just like Deepcrush. Interesting.

Tsukiyumi wrote:

Lighthawk wrote:...So shooting him only makes him stronger...

Just like Deepcrush. Interesting.

OT Vader kicked so much ass.

Too bad they turned him into a whiny bitch.

Captain Seafort wrote:

Praeothmin wrote:I've alwasy been under the impression that Windu had gathered the only available guys he had, "ordinary" Jedi, quite powerful enough to defeat the "standard" soldier or scoundrel, but not up to par on the "Sith Lord Hunting" level...

On the contrary - Kolar, Fisto and Tiin were all Council Masters, and among the best swordsmen in the Order. They simply weren't up to taking on Sidious who, along with Windu, Kenobi, Dooku, Yoda and Skywalker was one of the top half dozen swordsmen in the galaxy.

Well, does the novel say that Sidious used some sort of paralyzing Force shout?
Because they really just stood there, and didn't even try to move, and franckly, Sidious wasn't that fast...

Praeothmin wrote:Well, does the novel say that Sidious used some sort of paralyzing Force shout?

I don't have the novel, but I assume that's what happened.

After watching the scene again (or, to be more precise, the Rifftraxed version of that scene) it certainly seems something is up. Palpatine yells, does his little spinning jump, and lands in front of him. He then pauses and raises his saber to attack. The other Jedi have sufficient time to react to this, and raise their own weapons in defence. There's about two seconds where Palpatine is just standing in front of them doing nothing, then suddenly lunges forwards, skewers one Jedi, spins around and slashes another Jedi and then goes on to fight Windu and Fisto, who put up some real resistance. The two Jedi killed initialy seem to put up damn all of a defence.

Deepcrush wrote:Vader wasn't looking to beat Luke though. He wanted to turn him because he thought that was the only way to save his life. Vader could have killed Luke with little effort if that was his intent.

While I would agree with that one in their first fight, but perhaps not the second one. Neither of them were fighting to win. Vader was distracted and Luke was pretty much playing with Vader to get to Anakin. It wasn't until Luke went emo on Vader that Luke used his full skill... I mean power on Vader.

This is IMO, but I think Luke was using an entirely different light saber fighting technique. Perhaps using Force Waves while battling Vader. Sort of like running into the wind that's going 150 MPH or something. You could debate how powerful Vader is and Luke is relative to Anakin, but Luke was and still is considered to be very powerful. A running theory is that Luke has some sort of natural instinct that allows him to pick up fighting techniques pretty fast.

But that is just me.