Why has no one thought of shooting/slashing Vader's control panel?

You know that box panel thing Vader has on his chest? Apparently it's the only thing keeping him alive, so why has no one thought to shoot/slash at that? When I first saw ANH 10 years ago (Yes, I was that late, sorry) and witnessed Ben's duel with Vader, I thought "C'mon! Just cut that box thingy on his chest! That's a big "Aim here to kill me" sign right there!"

So, why?

 

According to Dark Lord, Roan Shryne did think of it, but Vader's lightsaber style involves protection of this area.

 

this exactly... before i even opened the post i was gonna say "and how are they gonna do that?" lol as you know it is very hard to hit a jedi/sith especially in a small area that is being protected.. the fact that someone would even get to vader if he didnt want them to aka luke or another jedi would be amazing lol, getting through the 501st first

 

Yeah, first you'd have to get past stormtroopers. Then you've got his lightsaber to contend with, and then you've got his use of the Force; if nothing else, you'd find yourself choking before you got anywhere near close enough to him to get to that control box.

 

If he let?s you get close enough?..

 

Ask Han Solo what happens if you try to hit him with a blaster..

 

Same reason no one cuts off Vader's head. He doesn't want you to, so it ain't gonna happen.

 

Vader has to know that he is vulnerable. Attacking that area on his body is not as easy as it seems.

 

Yea, i don't think shooting him there would be any better than shooting him in the chest or the face, if you managed to hit him. But him being Darth Vader and all, no one's gonna land a shot. The only people i can think of that have beaten him in combat (Luke, Galen Marek) weren't seeking to kill him and both realized that fighting wasn't really the means to the end they wished anyway.

 

Yeah... people can try, but he can still block the shots/lightsaber. Same end result, attacker still dies. (With a few notable exceptions, such as Luke)

 

At least according to the films, isn't Luke the only exception? And even he doesn't get a hit on the control panel... his big victory strike is cutting off Vader's hand. Of course Luke could have hit the control panel after that point, but that's where he stopped himself. Regarding lightsaber fighting styles, it seems that any lightsaber fighting style would make it pretty easy to defend an area between your own arms, right on the front of your own chest. The more impressive thing is really Vader's ability to block a blaster bolt, like Solo's, and of course his ability to Force choke anyone who tries anything in the first place.

 

Obi-Wan didn't intend to kill Vader. He was distracting him. You actually see Luke thinking about shooting Vader's chest plate on film, right after Vader chops down Ben.

 

All you need to do is watch ESB. When Solo attempts to shoot Vader he simply deflects the shots with his hand.

 

Yep, it´s probably a lot harder to do then it sounds. Vader protects the area well.

 

The same reasons no Force-users use the Force to crush the inner workings of their opponents lightsabers : none of the writers took it into consideration.

 

Vader is one smart cookie. He'd never allow something like that do happen to himself.

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Luke was pretty good with a light saber.

When he got close enough to vader, he should've just reached out with his other hand and hit the "off" switch on Vader's chest.

 

I never got why the control panel is thought as a weakness. It lies in the area the heart and lung lie, an area any swordfighter would protect because a hit would be lethal (because, you know, a stab in that area is a pretty dire injury). Also, his panel is hard to reach. His arms are in the way.

Any swordfighter would protect that particular region.

 

It had an uber-strong force field surrounding it. I'm almost sure of it.