"The Force Awakens" (with SPOILERS)

Couldn't Vader have used his mind to grab that Death Star plans disc? I mean he was tossing dudes around and whatnot...what's one more small task like getting the plans that were a mere 10-15 feet away from him?

 

For people who like to use "mind tricks" on the "weak-minded," the Jedi don't have a lot of room to talk.

 

Haven't watched it yet, but this entire conversation leads to another issue. If Vader is so bad ass at the end of Rogue one, how come he fights Obi Wan like he has a giant stick up his ass? Did he have a hernia surgery in between the two movies?

 

That's a good point, although I suppose that in the moment, he might not have known that they were actually the plans. i.e. They could be a decoy copy. So ideally, I think Vader just wanted to fuck everyone's shit up. (I also thought when I saw the ship flying away, "Does he have enough power to just make it crash?")

 

Obi Wan lets Vader strike him, but he also never seems like Vader's match in that duel either. You kind of get the feeling that Vader is toying with him, because Obi Wan has resurfaced out of the blue, and Vader probably is curious about / needs to know why.

(Also, the only tiny praise I would give to the prequels - they sometimes have echoes / comparisons between the trilogys, if you squint. In III, Obi Wan seems much more Vader's equal, but they're both slowed down by IV. Definitely not planned, but still. Luke also actively resist the Emperor's suggestion to decapitate Vader, whereas in II or III, we see that Anakin just does it with the Count.)

 

I just saw Rogue One last night and enjoyed the crap out of it. Liked it better than the Force Awakens and I liked that one very much too.

I'm one of the few out there that didn't mind the prequels, especially as the story progressed. Definitely not the hate as most big fans. But I always hated the CGI. Hated it. So cartoonish and made it all seem so unrealistic compared to the others. Then I watch these last two movies and think, this is really along the lines of how the prequels should have gone and what people were really expecting/wanting with them. I still don't think I mind the prequels, but I actually like them much less after watching the most recent additions. Can only imagine how the people who really despised them feel!

 

The stock explanation in the wake of Revenge of the Sith, when Anakin and Obi-Wan faced off in a 20-minute, leaping somersaulting rope swinging duel, was that in ANH they weee both 20 years older, creakier, weighed down by life, etc etc. Vader was in a balky mechanical suit; Obi-Wan an old man who had spent 20 years as a desert hermit.

Thus they were both stiff, slow and mechanical.

Although now, Vader appears to be moving pretty good in Rogue One so that explanation is pretty much out the window.

I think the new explanation will be that Vader holds back in the fight against Obi-Wan -- he wants to keep him alive to extract information from him (and probably gloat too) so essentially he toys with him. But Obi-Wan knows it's more important that the Falcon get away, so he gives himself up so they can escape.

 

Vader wasn't THAT limber in the Rogue One scene.

 

Well, more limber than the fight against Obi-Wan in ANH, in which they both look like Franklin D. Roosevelt could take them down.

 

That's a good point. He's basically just using the Force to throw shit around.

 

Can we just acknowledge the real reason why Vader and Obi-Wan are slower in Episode IV: because it was filmed in the mid-70's with the actual actors doing the swordfighting (or rather, swinging prop sticks at each other).

 

Where's the fun in that?