Hi again, first chance to chime in about Vader again despite the topic having kind of shifted from that. So if that’s an issue I apologize.
In regards to the Bespin duel in ESB, comparing that to Vader going apeshit isn’t really the same. There’s so much context to that duel, so much feeling, so much shifting motivations, how Vader just toys with Luke for awhile and then goes all out by the end that it’s not even a fair comparison. In the new one, he just goes apeshit to a level only seen in something like The Force Unleashed, not something I personally want to see films borrow from. There’s no context, no real meaning to it, and it’s the only time he pulls out a lightsaber for anyone not wielding the same, calling to question numerous times he could have done so in the original films.
Forgive me, but I can’t honestly think of even one time.
The end of ESB shows Vader does have limitations, Luke was still incredibly inexperienced, why couldn’t Vader just lift him up at any point like he does the Rebels?
Well Vader was trying to seduce him/bring him with him. Luke was inexperienced but still had “impressive” knowledge of the Force. If you mean lift him up at the end when he drops away, I’ve always assumed Vader was just caught off guard. We know from ESB that Force users have the power to levitate so Rogue One shouldn’t be anything new in this regard.
Why would he be okay with sending in the troops onto the Tantive later on when he could just deal with them himself much more effectively?
In Rogue One, Vader was part of a boarding party (came onto the ship via shuttle). In SW, the ship that had the plans was captured by the Star Destroyer. They weren’t going anywhere this time. So Vader let his soldiers do the dirty work. Makes sense to me.
Why wouldn’t he use more effective means to torture the rebel commander on the ship, instead of accidentally kill him clumsily?
This seems like a question for SW that has nothing to do with Rogue One. We don’t have anymore reason to believe based on RO that he’d have some different and better method of torture (but we do have from SW - the mind probe).