u/OpethAreAGoodBand

Let the record show that I actually don’t consider Anakin one of my favorite Star Wars characters and I actually love suited Vader way more, who is one of my top favorites. The point of this post is try and contest suited Vader being considered stronger in the new canon.

With Maul: Shadow Lord (which I thought was awesome), there seems to be a lot of people talking like suited Vader is way stronger than Anakin, and would solo pretty much anyone ever, including Sidious if he actually tried. I don’t think makes any sense because of the following logic:

Knightfall/Mustafar Vader is the peak of Darth Vader’s power. Turning to the dark side and relying on his intense emotions for strength made Anakin close to OP. As Yoda told Luke, the dark side is “easier and quicker” in regards to building power, so it bolstered Anakin tenfold.

However, the Force resides in all living things (midi-chlorian count). Suited Vader is “more machine than man,” as Obi-Wan told us. Lucas himself stated that pre-suit Vader is only 80% as strong as Sidious, and that he is permanently nerfed by his defeat on Mustafar, needing a life support system outside of a bacta tank just to live.

So even if Vader doesn’t lose any more limbs on Mustafar, he would still need some more time to be able to overthrow Sidious. And now that he is in the suit, he’s lost significant Force potential relative to where he was. So yes, suited Vader is still crazy powerful, but will never reach the heights he would have had Anakin became a Jedi Master, or at least never lost on Mustafar as Vader.

Most importantly, Anakin being better than suited Vader is what sort of drives the Star Wars story:

- First, it makes his defeat on Mustafar so much more devastating and his story even more tragic. Why should his defeat on Mustafar matter if he just became significantly stronger afterward anyway? That’s not how the story was written.

- Secondly, it explains why Sidious never fears being overthrown (as Sith tend to do) and keeps his eyes out for a new apprentice. Sidious was fine with pre-suit Vader overthrowing him (as he told Yoda in ROTS), but considers suited Vader a pathetic weakling defined by defeat, only a shadow of his former self. This is one reason he sees how far Luke has come by Return of the Jedi and recognizes that he is much stronger than suited Vader.

- Thirdly, how can suited Vader ever overthrow Sidious? Apparently it was in one of the new novels that he can if he wants to but doesn’t because of (?) I don’t know. Doesn’t make sense because Sidious would zap his life support system with lightning within seconds and kill him (as he literally does in Return of the Jedi). Vader being unable to ever overthrow Sidious is why he is permanently locked into the apprentice role.

So while suited Vader is extremely powerful, and would probably destroy more than 95% of Force users who ever lived, I think the glaze should be relaxed a little bit and hero of the Republic Anakin and Knightfall/Mustafar Vader is a stronger Force user.

Curious to hear your thoughts on all this.

Sorry if this has been addressed before but I’m watching back the episode with Commander Mayday and felt like I’d finally ask: does anybody else notice DBB changing the voices of the regs to something gruffer and low-pitched compare for the classic TCW portrayal? I wonder why.

My idea was that it’s to reflect the clones aging, but I don’t think that explanation works because the clones we see in Rebels don’t sound gruff and low-pitched, as well as the Tales of the Jedi having Rex speak in this same low voice (and this was in the middle of the war).

I was looking to buy just the DVD/Blu-Ray announced today for Kerry’s solo stuff but I only see it as part of that huge bundle with the shirt and vinyls. Does anyone know if it’s sold on its own somewhere? Don’t see an option on the website and just wanted to double-check.