Do You Think The Armor Helps Or Hinders Anakins Fighting Skils?

I hear people complain that the armor slows Anakin down. It certainly does, there's no way that Vader could do the same acrobatic movements that he does before the armor. However, people seem to forget that it also provides him with a great deal of protection. In TESB, he takes a shot to the shoulder with the lightsaber that would literally disarm him if he didn't have the armor on, but it merely scratches the suit. Also, he seems do to just fine hunting down and killing the remaining Jedi {who are probably just as athletic as they were in the PT} with the armor on.

What do you think?

 

vader in the suit would get torn to pieces in a duel with the likes of mace windu, yoda or darth maul


he just cant move

 

Against Maul, I think he would loose in a saber battle. But Dooku moved just as slow as Vader in AOTC, and tied that bout. I think Vader could take Yoda in a pure lightsaber battle. Mace is just underimpressive on screen, despite claims he's the best saber fighter in the Republic.

 

He doesn't need to "move". All he has to do is stab. Leave all the twirly, frilly, flippy junk out.

I think Vader could have taken Maul, likely Yoda, and definitely Mace.

 

All armor hinders the movement of the wearer. The question is how effective is armor in light of the mobility the person gives up. If you're good with a saber, your weapon is also your armor. In choreographed fights, all the hits are "predictable" so armor is not ?necessary? unless you want to portray a more realistic battle (i.e. between armored people who use armor to catch those unexpected hits which happen in real life, but never in the movies). That?s the mixed realism/choreography/suspension of belief argument.

If you want the realism argument: No swordsman is so perfect with his attacks, so armor becomes an adjunct defense to catch those imperfect and near hits from his opponent. Armor is an added layer of protection that isn?t supposed to make the person invulnerable, it?s meant to minimize successful weapon attacks so that a counter attack can be made. So instead of a killing thrust from the opponent, it?s a glancing or, at worst, an injuring thrust which still permits the person to deal out an effective counter attack.

Vader has to use different attacks than Anakin in AOTC because Vader?s in armor. Anakin, in his duel with Dooku, often had his lightsaber above his head (it?s called jodan in Japanese). In ESB, Vader brings his lightsaber to the left or right of his helmet because the bulk of his helm prevents him from lifting his arms above his head. Samurai in their large helms also do this.

A bigger problem is vision under Vader?s helmet. An opponent would take advantage of this, moving along the edges of Vader?s vision either to the right or left. But I can also imagine some kind of interior technology like those found in Apache helicopters which allow the gunner to virtually look ?through? the fuselage of his chopper. A similar technology could be used for clone and stromtroopers.

Vader seems pretty mobile in ESB. From the director?s perspective, I don?t know if you could get a real Vader in costume to move well enough that it doesn?t look fake. It?s one thing to show Obi-Wan in clone trooper armor doing huge Force jumps in the Clone War cartoons, but it?s another to achieve that same realism using wires and springboards. ILM would probably be more successful with a digital Vader (as they were with Darth Maul when he does a somersault just before attacking Qui-Gon on Tatooine), but the Anakin on the Shaak is still a work in progress in terms of ILM's technical ability.

 

there was a length discussion about Maul vs Vader in the TPM forum....about a thousand posts or so, i started it and it was very interesting, i may look for it if you guys wanna check it out


most people thought maul would win in a sabre battle while vader was stronger in the force