Is there one definitve reason why Vader dies after killing the Emperor?

I always thought that he died because he was old, weak and injured from the duel. Because of that, his resistence to the lightning was weak and it finished him off.

In certain threads however, I get the sense that people have alternate explantions that are more abstract like:

The power of the dark side was the only thing keeping him alive (for some reason) and once he turned back, he phyically deteriorated quickly. hmmm

His weakened condition needed to feed off the Emperor and with him gone, he started dying...like his "oxygen" was cut off.

I'm not interested in people's vivid imaginations or self-fabricated hunches...ANNOYING!!!

Is there any written or documented explanation by Lucas or in the EU?

thanks...

 

From the OS databank:

Palpatine unleashed a deadly barrage of dark side energy on the young Jedi. Lightning bolts spawned from pure evil tore into Luke's body with searing pain. Vader stood helplessly, watching his son writhe in agony from torture delivered by his master. Unable to watch anymore, Vader turned against his master. He grabbed a surprised Palpatine from behind, hoisted him above his head, and tossed his evil master down a bottomless reactor shaft. Vader was bombarded by the Emperor's Force lightning, mortally wounding him.

As he lay dying, Vader ceased to be. Anakin Skywalker returned. He asked his son to remove the cumbersome, fearsome mask that had concealed his face for decades. His mask and life support removed, Anakin looked upon Luke for the first and last time. He then died, his body disappearing into the light side of the Force. Luke burned the dark armor that had encased Anakin's crippled body in a quiet funeral pyre on the forest moon of Endor that night.

 

so my original instincts that I've carried since 1983 were right. It was the lightning and not some kooky bizarro explanation. thanks.

I ask because vader says about dying: "Nothing can stop that now" hinting that he was dying and even if his mask stayed on he was about to die anyway.

I notice though that this passage differs from movie in that vader didn't vanish like yoda and ob wan did.

This is an inconsistency. But I think the movie makes more sense with him not vanishing.

 

He then died, his body disappearing into the light side of the Force

I see what your saying about this, but it is possible that he disappeared after he dies, nothing we see would contradict this, it may just happen off screen.

 

NOPE. I don't buy it. If Lucas were to say otherwise, I'd say he's just winging it and making things up and changing them as he goes along. he has admitted "painting himself into corners" at times. Vader was not like yoda and ob wan. he may have turned back before dying but there was obviously something more at play if ob and yoda vanish and vader didn't. Otherwise Lucas would have had him vanish too waaay back in 83.

 

How do you know he doesn't vanish, at the end all you see is the suit.

How do you know if his body is/is not still in it!

 

Obi Wan and Yoda vanished instantly. There is no plausible or real explanation to prove Anakin also vanished OFFSCREEN. that's farfetched if you ask me. The idea that vader vanished LATER is an improvisation and a cover up. Otherwise Lucas would have showed him vanish...he did for yoda in the same movie.

Besides, it seems pretty obvious to me that anakin is in the suit when it's burning. It just seems obvious for many reasons.

 

plus, no jedis vanish in the PT and Lucas threw in that scene about qui gon discovering the path to immortality at the end PRECISELY to make sense of why yoda and ob wan vanish and NO ONE ELSE.

 

Well the OS site says it happens so..........

Maybe he disappears on the way to Endor, because he was a Sith and then returns to being a Jedi it may take longer for him to disappear

 

He fulfilled his destiny. Once he did that he had no reason to go on.

 

Umm... Anakin Skywalker was the Chosen One.... a Child of the Force, whom fulfilled his prophecy after restoring balance to the force, I think he deserved eternal life as a force ghost...and whatnot... No other Jedi was like him ever and no Jedi would ever be, it makes sense for him to go back to the form from which he was created. IMHO, they should add a burnt Hayden Christensen in ROTJ, and have him disappear on-screen.

Back on topic, I guess the mortal wounds thingie makes sense, but could that also go along with the theory that the lightning shortcirtuited Anakin's suit?

To the sarcastic smartass in the post-below. You could easily make Christensen look 44 with makeup. If you can make a movie from 77 look as good as ANH looks now, you don't think that they can make someone look just a 20 years older on TV? And what does burns not healing have to do with anything? Of course Christensen would still be burnt, I never gave the impression in my orginal message that he wouldn't be.

 

Yeah, because as everyone knows, people look exactly the same at twenty and fifty.
And burns don't ever heal. Ever.
Good thinking.

 

Anakin becomes a force ghost, that much is obvious from the end of ROTJ. However, does he become one all by himself or is he helped along by Obi-wan and Yoda, that hasn't been made clear to me. I can accept that his body doesn't disappear instantly, but has disappeared by the time they reach the pyre on Endor if the latter is true.

 

IMO it was the power of the dark side that kept him alive. Once he became one with the force again he was able to let go which was something he could not do before. And after having seen the prequels it makes sense. He should have died on Mustafar, but the Emperor kept him alive both mentally and physically. He was able to let go of his pain, let go of his attachments and become one with the force.