Sluggish Vader

In ROTJ, Vader looks very sluggish in his duel with Luke. This could be because he is a machine, or because of age or whatever. Could it be possible that Palpatine was somehow slowing him down? Or could it be that Vader wanted Luke to strike him down? Any other theories? Thoughts?

 

I think it's a combination of the will of the Force, Anakin's age, the suit, and Luke's rage.

 

Darth Vader's internal conflict is weakening his control of the Force. He is, therefore, unable to command his crippled body as he normally would.

 

Vader's control of the Dark Side was slipping, so he was no longer able to use the Force effectively when fighting.

 

I personally don't think he was fighting as hard as he could have. The idea was for Luke to turn to the darkside, not to kill him. Vader wasn't supposed to win the fight, he was supposed to draw Luke to the darkside.

 

The last thing Vader wanted was to win, cause he had to defeat his own son.

All the other possibilties were fine:
- draw Luke to the darkside, rule as father and son
- Luke defeats Vader: He will finally rest as a Jedi turned good. I think Vader was returning to the light side for some time....

 

Me too. Probably since the ending of TESB. Notice how after the Falcon escapes, he quietly walks away.

 

Part Luke's rage, part internal conflict. I don't think it has anything to do with the suit.

 

he had to take a crap really bad.

 

But wouldn't that make you go faster?

I'd say it's his internal conflict and his age and injuries starting to catch up with him.

 

Luke´s rage? He wasn´t in any rage until the very end of the duel.

 

He was getting overwhelmed by Lukes rage.

 

Nah, I don't think it has anything to do with his age, suit, or Luke's rage, at least not directly.

More-so for his connection with Luke. No one wants to strike down their own son. He was conflicted by this, and was just confused and lost his grip of control over his emotions. So naturally, he was battling himself, and Luke's rage hacked him down as he was contemplating his position.

If Vader were focused on the match he probably would have deflected Luke's hacks and continued to parry, instead he stood there, fell back on the railing, had his hand cut off, and Luke backed down, and was fried by the Emperor.