The Emperor Didn't Kill Vader.

I wanna start this off by saying I don't think any of this was the intention of the film makers of the original trilogy, but it's something that fits remarkably well with all the lore we've been given since then.I've always been bothered by the fact that Vader, one of the most powerful Sith Lord to ever live, was defeated so easily and almost by accident. It's also bothered me that he looks totally different than he did in the clone wars. I have a weird wacky theory as to why his appearance has changed so drastically in such a short amount of time and why Luke was able to beat him so easily in their final battle. My Theory is that Vader has stopped fully embracing the dark side sometime after Episode V.The sith are know to withstand a great deal of punishment(e.g. Darth Maul), so why is it that after one zap of Palpatines lightning Vader crumbles to the floor. Sure, his breathing machine was fired, that's the obvious reason, but we've seen Vader function with a damaged suit before. Not to mention he had survived quite a while without any aid after his battle with Obi-Wan. So why then did the force lightning have such an effect on him? There's, what I believe to be, an unintentional clue in when his mask is removed in Return of the Jedi. Look at his eyes from this scene compared to the last time we saw him outside of the suit. He no longer has the trademarked Sith eyes.If you compare the Vader we see in Rogue one or Rebels to the one in Episode V or VI, there is a drastic difference, he's no longer blood thirsty and ruthless but rather cold and calculated. It makes sense, in recent comics he learns that his son lived. I think this was the catalyst for his downfall. He had spent years believing every one he loved was dead or had betrayed him. Think how confusing it must have been for his living son to not only show up, but directly oppose him. It seems like Vader honestly thought what he was doing was what a good father should have done. He had been clouded by the dark side for so long up until this point, having his son join the family business seemed like the best life for him.Whether he thought he was or wasn't, Luke's defiance put things into perspective for him and by the beginning of Episode VI Vader is no longer a Sith but he's in more of a grey area. By the end of the movie he had embraced the light side once more and because of that, he succumbed to Palpatines attack. I think if he had been hit by the exact same attack when he was fully embracing the dark side he would have survived. Also as a side effect of no longer being fueled by pure hatred, his injuries were taking their toll on him. The ghostly white skin he has at the end is a sign of his body shutting down, even in ESB his skin has color to it, so this was a recent change. Not to mention he's obviously slower in his final fight with Luke, and I don't believe it's because Luke had managed to get that much stronger than him in such a short amount of time.To summarize, Lukes defiance at the end of Empire Strikes Back sets Vader on his path away from being a Sith. This caused all the injuries he had sustained since falling to the darkside to catch up to him and is ultimately what kills him in the end. Depending on when exactly this started, Vader could have been dying for the entirety of Return of the Jedi(he had to learn the force ghost thing at some point), and Palpatines attack was just he final nail in the coffin for him. via /r/StarWars http://ift.tt/2jmLAst