The scene of Vader using the Force to fetch a drinking cup was in the third & fourth script drafts. In the third draft it’s during Vader’s first meeting with Leia aboard her ship, and Vader drinks from the cup (!). In the fourth draft it’s during the conference with the admirals on the Death Star, and he uses the Force to crush it instead.
As for how Vader could drink from the cup… well, in the third draft Ben Kenobi has a prosthetic right arm, so apparently the idea of including a cyborg character hadn’t fully merged with Darth Vader’s character yet.
Interesting, thanks for letting me know. I really have to get around to reading the old drafts one day.
Now I always figured Roy Thomas had the 4th draft script when writing the comic, but its interesting that they omitted Vader crushing it. Could that be due to the “Marvel Way” of writing/drawing that the crushing cup part got cut? I always forget exactly how the Marvel Way worked, but I know it often lead to inconsistencies and even contradictions between what was written and what was drawn.
Anyway, I like to imagine Vader with a built in cup-holder and straw for these occasions.
