Could Vader use Force lightning?

[XRogue]

We never see him use it at all. Any thoughts on why?

I'm thinking Vader technically *can* but it might short the suit's circuits. That seems to be what happened to cause his suit to stop working. Yes, he lost a mechanical hand to Luke shortly before that, but Vader didn't start wheezing for real till he threw Palp down the shaft and got a big dose of lightning. Seemed to be breathing alright (well, at least alright for him) up till then.

Thoughts?

[The Telcontarion]

I got the impression that after the defeat of the jedi, the emporer withheld knowledge from Vader; he never did teach him how to keep people alive -which I he didn't know anyway, which to me is just an illustration of all his intentions towards his new apprentice.

Remember how he said that powerful sith lord died, he died because he taught his apprentice everything he knew and was betrayed, killed in his sleep by his apprentice. I donot doubt this made an impression on Lord sidious.

Besides, I have never seen Obi Wan use force lightning.

[Curubethion]

Originally Posted by The Telcontarion

I got the impression that after the defeat of the jedi, the emporer withheld knowledge from Vader; he never did teach him how to keep people alive -which I he didn't know anyway, which to me is just an illustration of all his intentions towards his new apprentice.

Remember how he said that powerful sith lord died, he died because he taught his apprentice everything he knew and was betrayed, killed in his sleep by his apprentice. I do not doubt this made an impression on Lord sidious.

Excellent answer! I also agree with the "short-circuiting" hypothesis, but this also covers it well.

And of course we all know who the apprentice of that "powerful Sith Lord" was...Mr. Palpatine himself. And traitors are ever mistrustful.

[The Telcontarion]

Originally Posted by Curubethion

Excellent answer! I also agree with the "short-circuiting" hypothesis, but this also covers it well.

And of course we all know who the apprentice of that "powerful Sith Lord" was...Mr. Palpatine himself. And traitors are ever mistrustful.

Yep, I always believed as well that the apprentice inquestion was palpatine himself.

[XRogue]

I agree, Plagueis' apprentice was most likely Palpatine. And given the "only 2 sith" rule, I would expect treachery if I was the Sith Master......after all, if there can only be a master and an apprentice, then the apprentice basically has to do away with his master somehow.

Therefore Palpatine has a motivation to leave Vader ignorant on many matters. Good point there.

[hectorberlioz]

Originally Posted by XRogue

I agree, Plagueis' apprentice was most likely Palpatine. And given the "only 2 sith" rule, I would expect treachery if I was the Sith Master......after all, if there can only be a master and an apprentice, then the apprentice basically has to do away with his master somehow.

Therefore Palpatine has a motivation to leave Vader ignorant on many matters. Good point there.

I have to agree as well, on the suit hypothesis as well as the Palpatine/mistrust one.

Another good question is, Yoda obviously knew about force lighning, because he deflected Dooku's. So the questions comes to my mind, did Yoda know how to use force lightning himself if he'd wanted to?

[Lief Erikson]

Originally Posted by XRogue

We never see him use it at all. Any thoughts on why?

I'm thinking Vader technically *can* but it might short the suit's circuits. That seems to be what happened to cause his suit to stop working. Yes, he lost a mechanical hand to Luke shortly before that, but Vader didn't start wheezing for real till he threw Palp down the shaft and got a big dose of lightning. Seemed to be breathing alright (well, at least alright for him) up till then.

Thoughts?

That's always been my feeling. My family members used to wonder why Vader died when his hand got cut off, and my thought always was that it was that his suit got busted by the Emperor's lightning. Using lightning himself would have been impossible for the same reason.

So yeah, I agree with you.