TwoDog

When Anakin gets his legs/arm cut off... What happens to his Mitichlorian count (do they go down as a result of missing extremities)?

chess

Worst. Thread. Title. Ever.

Blake

DO NOT POST SPOILERS IN THREAD TITLES!

bboisvert

In answer to your question... yes, it does go down. At least according to the books and stuff (and Lucas's own comments). How much of that is clear in the final film, I don't know.

That's the thing that I don't think people were expecting. They have always thought of Vader (in the suit) as a complete bad-ass. But when you watch the films I-VI in a row now, it's going to be clear that Anakin/Vader was a bad-ass *before* the suit. Now he has just has a fraction of his former powers, and is simply being kept alive by life support machines.

chess

Yes, and hence his inability to use "lightning"...or at least that's Lucas' story and he's sticking to it. It may have been his reason for bringing up midichlorians in the first place.

Fok

Speaking of which in ESB Vader stopped Han Solo's blaster shots, why didn't the Jedi use that skill in the prequels?

Drop

Vader can't use lightning because he is mostly a machine, it would only hurt himself. He is also able to stop the blaster fire because he has robotic arms.

dick_grayson

I think the original point of this thread was to spoiler all the people who didn't know about Anakin and thus ruin or whatever it for the fans by putting the spoiler in the original heading. I doubt the OP will post again and is probably laughing that no one was suspicious of a "cool new member" posting a spoiler-subject thread just before the movie is released.

Josh H

He joined in June 2000, so it's not like he signed up just to post that.

He probably just didn't think about it, and it's not a huge spoiler anyway as everyone knows that Vader was "more machine than man" and thus has to get seriously fucked up in ROTS.

dick_grayson

yeah ,that makes sense. I didn't check his sign up date. well, I didn't know he lost his legs too, though.....

bboisvert

Vader is deflecting the bolts with his robot arms -- not with the Force. It's a "suit thing" not a "Jedi thing". At least, that's my take on it.

Josh H

Mine as well, just uses the force to guide his robot arms in front of the blaster bolts. i.e. a robot couldn't do it due to not having force reflexes/senses.

TwoDog

Sorry to the forum readers for the Uninentional spoiler i put in the title - my mistake but not done on purpose I promise.

Mopower

That's what happens when you are waste deep in lava.

chess

Yeah, I hate when that happens.

Giantrobo

I heard it explained in the latest "Star Wars: ROTS Encyclopedia" book that Vader can't do lightning specifically because he lost part of his arms.

Josh H

That's actually not how he loses his legs though...

Mopower

Eh? Close enough.

BassDude

Agreed. I think Vader has a very short "bad-ass" window...

Superboy

I always thought that Lucas was just making up everything as he was going along, and that more or less fits with my observations.

With regard to force lightning, I just presumed that only a high-level force wielder (sounds very DDish, I know) could use it, but then become less and less physically adept - which is probably why in the OT we never see Yoda or Sidious use lightsabers. Darth Tyranus using it really surprised me, and Maul never used it so perhaps I was right.

Yes, Vader's suit is made out of Mandalorian armor, hence it is impervious to blaster shots. Also, when Luke "nicks" him in ESB with his saber, he doesn't penetrate his armor, it just bounces right off.

The concept of the lightsaber has also changed over time as well. In the behind the scenes supplement with the OT DVDs, Hamill says that the original idea for the lightsabers were for them to actually have weight, as opposed to be totally weightless as they are now.

BassDude

Found it! See 'Data File'.

Flynn

BassDude,
Is this from the new Episode III Visual Dictionary??? Thanks!

Giantrobo

Yeah, that's the book I was talking about in an earlier post.

Superboy

That reminds me of another little factoid: the whole concept of the "Sith" and their Red lightsabers was kind of made up as they went along. The original duel between Obi-wan and Vader was supposed to have lightsabers of the same color, but they wanted the audience to distinguish between them easier, so they changed Vader's to red.

Giantrobo

Also, in one of extras on one of the Star Wars dvds, I can't remember which one right now, Lucas was saying that he orignally wanted to give the impression that OWK's and Vader's Lightsabers and lightsabers in general were heavy two-handed weapons like huge broadswords. Broadswords take a lot of strength and two hands to wield. This whole thing of Jedis and others using Lightsabers with lightning speed as if the sabers were light weight well balanced Samurai swords obviously came along later on.