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How did Vader deflect those shots?

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Before the awkward refreshments at Cloud City, Han attempted to deal with Vader like he would against a Cairo Swordsman. Another one of Vaders finest moments, as a kid I remember thinking "Wow, this guy really is unstoppable!"

How was he able to deflect the shots? I always used to think it was just a force power, but were they just thumping into his cybernetics? Surely he would have still felt them? I can't believe his gloves to have been made of some kind of laser-proof kevlar?

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are they deflected or absorbed? i can't remember.

 

control. sense. alter.

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Sorry, I should have said absorbed, they do not bounce off him, he kind of just takes them.

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I think absorbed... not sure.

oh and by the way since I couldn't link it, here's my 2 favourite quotes from the corresponding Robot Chicken spoof:

VADER -"Kapoooowww... Big lazaaar..CHHHHHH Alderaan chunks everywhere!!"

LANDO -"..Who's got two thumbs, and betrayed his best friend?.......This guy!! hahahaahhh!"

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I always assumed it was a combination of the force and his roboticness...   He used the force to be able to "catch" the blasts, both controlling his movements/reaction time (much like Luke with the training probe or death star shot) and possibly altering the trajectory of the laserbolts away from his center of mass (can the force do that? I don't see why not if you're good enough...).  Then he used his glove & robot hand to actually absorb the energy of the blast.  I assumed hsi glove was like his body suit, which was always supposed to be somewhat protective based on the EU stuff available (this is going on the stuff from when I was a kid, back when EU was still fairly sporadic & actually interesting)

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I always thought it was the Force.  Sort of a Neo moment for Vader there.  Like you said Stampede, I think it's supposed to show how unstoppable this guy is.  Sure, Luke can block blaster fire with a lightsabre, but Vader can do it with his hand!

(The script says they're deflected into the walls, BTW)

IT'S MY TRILOGY, AND I WANT IT NOW!

"[George Lucas] rebooted the franchise in 1997 without telling anyone." -skyjedi2005

"Yeah, well, George says a lot of things..." a young 1997 xhonzi on RASSM

"They're my movies." -George Lucas. 19 people won oscars for their work on Star Wars (1977) and George Lucas wasn't one of them.

Rewrite the Prequels!

 

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In ESB what the Force could do was still faily unclear. I just figured it was The Force.

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The hands are robotic. I think that even if they would have been made from common steel, they would have absorbed the bolts from a simple hand blaster. The bolts would probably have damaged the hands beyond repair, but I find it likely that Vader has spares of his robotic parts on board the Executor, in any case.

He used the Force to help catch the bolts, that for certain.

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His hands seem to be okay after that. he catches the gun. or was that with the other hand? anyway i don't get the impression that it damaged anything.

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fishmanlee said:

he had lazer proof oven mitts thats how

 

He probably also uses them to pick up hot casserole dishes. That's why he was so eager to sit down for lunch.

"We would be honoured if you would join us. I spent all morning making this."

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I don't think Darth Vader would ever say something like that.  Chad Vader- yes.  Darth Vader- no.

IT'S MY TRILOGY, AND I WANT IT NOW!

"[George Lucas] rebooted the franchise in 1997 without telling anyone." -skyjedi2005

"Yeah, well, George says a lot of things..." a young 1997 xhonzi on RASSM

"They're my movies." -George Lucas. 19 people won oscars for their work on Star Wars (1977) and George Lucas wasn't one of them.

Rewrite the Prequels!

 

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I know Robot Chicken parodied it, but heck, wouldn't you want to know just how awkward that meal was and how Vader ingested his food?

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This is from I-Mockery (incidentally Protoclown is a big fan of the original trilogy and cares little for prequels or EU.)

http://www.i-mockery.com/minimocks/empirestrikesback/

Dinner with Vader

Han Solo finds out that Lando Calrissian has betrayed him when, thinking they're going to have dinner and catch up on old times, Lando opens the door to the dining room, only to reveal Darth Vader and a battalion of Imperial Stormtroopers waiting for them. Han fires a couple shots at Vader, but then Vader force pulls the gun out of his hand, sits back down, and says "We would be honored if you would join us". As a kid, I couldn't help but imagine that they actually sat down and shared an extremely awkward meal together, with Han Solo begrudgingly asking Vader to pass the potatoes, and with a wave of Vader's hand, the potatoes mystically float over next to Han's plate. I mean, there's food already set on the table and everything. There's just such a big unknown gap in the story here, where we don't know what the hell happened between our heroes and villains from the time that door closed to the next time we seen Han as a prisoner.

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I assumed that Vader used the Force to somehow absord the bolts as he knew what a fast draw Han was. He had the drop on the galaxy's biggest badass-thus was prepared to take away the blaster. Han gets off quite a few shots though. I don't really think Vader was expecting quite that speed.

I do love the fact that Vader just toys with Han-he could easily have taken away the blaster earlier.

"Does anyone have a straw so I could eat? I'm kinda hungry..."

"What if he chokes on the brussel sprouts? He's worth a lot to me." "The Empire will not compensate you if he dies of natural causes."

If the scene existed, I envision a sligtly awkward meal that is reminiscent of Dr. No. "Tell me Vader, does the crushing of all freedoms really compensate for having a computerized James Earl Jones in your vocoder?"

VADER!? WHERE THE HELL IS MY MOCHA LATTE? -Palpy on a very bad day.
“George didn’t think there was any future in dead Han toys.”-Harrison Ford
YT channel:
https://www.youtube.com/c/DamnFoolIdealisticCrusader

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I've always liked the scene because "We would be honored, if you would join us." isn't just evil... it's SARCASTIC. It's the only time we see Vader just straight be a dick.

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TheBoost said:

I've always liked the scene because "We would be honored, if you would join us." isn't just evil... it's SARCASTIC. It's the only time we see Vader just straight be a dick.

 "[Admiral Ozzel] is as clumsy as he is stupid."

"Perhaps you think you're being treated unfairly?"

Probably some others too.

As for the laser bolts, I figure Vader just borrowed a variation on Yoda's "lightning catch" trick from AOTC and ROTS.

All I really want is each film as it was originally seen and heard in theaters; no fixes, corrections, "improvements" or modifications necessary.

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Look carefully, and you'll see there is a shower of sparks on the doorframe next to Han, suggesting the blaster shots were originally meant to be deflected. It's a quick cut though, so perhaps they decided against it in editing.

DE

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Vader obviously dealt with the shots with the force. Without special explanation, it's not reasonable to think his hand is going to stand up to laser blasts without using the force. So I think force use is clearly the original intention. But the eu has to go and muck it up. I think they explain that Vader's gloves were indestructible or something. They also say his gloves give him super-grip, so no that's not bionic streength that's allowing him to crush the rebel officers throat, it's his gloves. What a load of bull. Sometimes I think they set out to give explanations for things in the eu just to see how they can ruin the story. The eu is full of this bull. 

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Vaderisnothayden said:

Vader obviously dealt with the shots with the force. Without special explanation, it's not reasonable to think his hand is going to stand up to laser blasts without using the force. So I think force use is clearly the original intention. But the eu has to go and muck it up. I think they explain that Vader's gloves were indestructible or something. They also say his gloves give him super-grip, so no that's not bionic streength that's allowing him to crush the rebel officers throat, it's his gloves. What a load of bull. Sometimes I think they set out to give explanations for things in the eu just to see how they can ruin the story. The eu is full of this bull. 

 

Good Lord that sucks!

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Wasn't the name of that EU story actually called The Glove of Darth Vader, or am I remembering a different one?

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Yes, one of the books in the series was called The Glove of Darth Vader. They were written for children and contradicted other SW EU from the very start (started coming out around the same time Timothy Zahn's first SW books were being released). Though perhaps other EU stories borrowed from this or also tried to turn Darth Vader's glove into a mythical Sith artifact.

When those books first came out, I was under the impression they were not meant to be taken as a serious part of the EU (after the battle of Endor, Lando goes on to buy a themepark), but rather part of some subcategory.

"Every time Warb sighs, an angel falls into a vat of mapel syrup." - Gaffer Tape

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Yeah, and the glue on the bindings of those books were terrible.  I'm generally an EU fan, but I am embarrassed by the attempts to bring these into canon.

IT'S MY TRILOGY, AND I WANT IT NOW!

"[George Lucas] rebooted the franchise in 1997 without telling anyone." -skyjedi2005

"Yeah, well, George says a lot of things..." a young 1997 xhonzi on RASSM

"They're my movies." -George Lucas. 19 people won oscars for their work on Star Wars (1977) and George Lucas wasn't one of them.

Rewrite the Prequels!

 

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xhonzi said:

I am embarrassed by the attempts to bring these into canon.

Because of the bad glue?

"Every time Warb sighs, an angel falls into a vat of mapel syrup." - Gaffer Tape

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Erm... yes.

IT'S MY TRILOGY, AND I WANT IT NOW!

"[George Lucas] rebooted the franchise in 1997 without telling anyone." -skyjedi2005

"Yeah, well, George says a lot of things..." a young 1997 xhonzi on RASSM

"They're my movies." -George Lucas. 19 people won oscars for their work on Star Wars (1977) and George Lucas wasn't one of them.

Rewrite the Prequels!