The magic of Star Wars is that, no matter what topic you choose to discuss, someone is bound to have a strong opinion about it. This is especially true of Darth Vader. To some, he’s a terrifying shell that hides the man who was Jedi Knight Anakin Skywalker, entirely disconnected from the heroic figure he once was. To others, Vader and Anakin are two aspects of the same entity, with the Sith Lord being the product of Anakin’s corruption to the Dark Side by Darth Sidious.
However, while there is plenty of room to discuss the ‘identity’ of Darth Vader, there is one thing about the Sith Lord that fans get very wrong: He isn’t invincible.
We can understand why some fans of the character would think as much. Across movies, TV, and spin-offs like comics, novels, and video games, Vader has performed a variety of jaw-dropping feats. He held back a planet-wide ocean from crushing him in Jedi: Fallen Order, and he managed to beat three different Force users in a fight in Star Wars: Maul – Shadow Lord. He’s even been capable of splitting open dimensions. When you look at all that evidence, we’re not surprised that some may see Vader as practically invulnerable.
Despite these feats, Vader still isn’t a god-like entity. Even after holding his own in the finale of Maul – Shadow Lord, some fans felt that the last duel between Vader and Jedi Master Eeko-Dio Daki didn’t make sense, largely because Daki managed to land a blow on Vader. Considering that the story takes place just a year after Revenge of the Sith, Vader is still a young man and, for all intents and purposes, should have been able to defeat a much older Jedi.
That being said, for all of Vader’s skill and power, he has also come close to biting the dust several times. The fateful duel between Obi-Wan and Anakin in Disney’s streaming TV series Obi-Wan Kenobi would have resulted in Anakin’s death if Obi-Wan hadn’t walked away.
Then there’s the fight between Vader and Cere Junda, a wise Jedi Master from Respawn’s Jedi games. Cere is left to fight Vader alone on Jedha, which would have been a death sentence for most (including series protagonist Cal Kestis, who cannot withstand Vader, as shown in Fallen Order). Cere not only takes Vader on alone, but she also manages to wound him repeatedly and even set him on fire. This ultimately isn’t enough, but that doesn’t stop it from being one of the closest attempts on Vader’s life we’ve seen across all the Star Wars media.
Perhaps the most monumental piece of evidence of all that Vader isn’t invincible, however, comes down to Vader’s birth: the destruction of Anakin Skywalker. After the fateful battle between Anakin and Obi-Wan Kenobi on Mustafar in Revenge of the Sith, Anakin is missing his legs and is severely burned. It’s only with Sidious arriving at the scene and building him the infamous suit we all know and love that Anakin even survives.
His body is not the same as it once was, and regardless of the Dark Side’s power, novels like Master of Evil establish that Vader is in constant pain. While Anakin was fast and agile, Vader is slow and lumbering. Vader may be capable of terrible and fearsome things, but ultimately, he’s just a man, and not an invulnerable one at that.