The first time, I could understand because they were just flesh, so Duku was a surprise. But when Obi chopped off his arm he should have ordered a stronger alloy or something.
I never saw the last Star Wars movie, or is was that the third Star Wars movie? I’ve read very few books and saw all the other movies so I know what happens. I’ve lost count of how many times each limb was cut off and by whom. Does anybody know?
In Attack of the Clones, his right arm is cut off around the elbow by Count Dooku, and replaced with a mechanical-looking replacement.
In Revenge of the Sith, both arms and legs are cut off by Obi Wan Kenobi. The mechanical arm is cut off above the elbow, so some flesh is cut off too. They’re all replaced by the Darth suit and mechanical replacements.
In Return of the Jedi, his right arm is cut off by Luke around the area of the first cut (so some of the mechanical is left). No replacements.
However, the question remains: If arms and pieces of him keep getting replaced, when does he stop being Darth and instead become something entirely new? You can never piss off the same dark lord twice, it seems.
WAG: as long as his head stays intact, he’ll always be Vader.
Off-topic: When the Batman cartoon in the 90s changed to The New Adventures of Batman and Superman, Mr. Freeze appeared, but was only a head in a mechanical suit. His character changed from someone trying to save his stricken wife (who had been cured in the Subzero movie) to a hideous monster who wanted to make others suffer like he did (first, losing his wife to a horrible disease and then not being able to be with her after she was cured).
That there takes care of all my chopped limbs needs for quite some time.
Palpatine chops Vadar too, in a book. Seriously, better alloys!
Better alloys are no match for the POWER OF THE FORCE!!!
That’s what duct tape is for. 
Replace enough pieces and he becomes the ship of Theseus. Or maybe George Washington’s axe – it’s tricky to tell them apart.
Um, both arms weren’t cut off by Obi-Wan. When he’s crawling back up the bank away from the lava, the camera zooms in on his prosthetic hand digging into the ash as he crawls up.
…Yep, you’re right. :smack: I abandon to you the Throne of Nerd.
Heh, in my opinion, that’s one of the best scenes in the movie-where you see the artificial fingers flexing into the dust.
A very similar question came up in the finale of the second Marvel comics Micronauts series.* The evil Baron Karza created the body banks, both new techniques for preserving and transplanting organs and a huge repository of spare parts. He used his control of the body banks to gain control of the nobles and the wealthy. Eventually, he took over the planet. He ruled for centuries, using the body banks to stay young and healthy. Eventually, our heroes kill him. But, they need his power armor in order to stop a doomsday device triggered after his death. Arcturus Rann, the hero who actually puts on the armor, wonders ‘He lived for centuries. Every bit of him must have been replaced a dozen times. But, he always wore this armor. I wonder, did we bury Karza when we buried those bones. Or, is his soul still here in this armor?’
Re Mister Freeze
The moment when Freeze reveals that he’s now just a head was marvellous. He was such a tragic character to begin with. Why has he started destroying people’s lives? Because he has finally given life back to his wife, but now they can never be together.
Please. If you’re going to bring up this topic at least get the names right. There are nerds in attendance here!
As has been astutely pointed out by Guinistasia, Darth Vader’s mechanical forearm was the only one of his four limbs to come out of the climactic Episode III lightsaber battle intact. However, Luke Skywalker (Anakin/Darth Vader’s son) does chop off Vader’s mechanical hand near the end of Episode VI: Return of the Jedi. Which is, chronologically, the last Star Wars movie…from a certain point of view. As for the “better alloys,” there are few, if any, materials that are lightsaber-proof. However, prosthetic-limb mechanics seem to be fairly impervious to blaster-fire. Luke takes a hit to his mechanical right hand at the beginning of Return of the Jedi. Aside from a cosmetically inconvenient hole in the skin, the hand works just fine for the remainder of the film.
I’ll just go back to my videogames & comic books now…
Obi is fine-plenty of us refer to Obi-Wan as Obi.
As for “Darth”, it’s his title, but Obi-Wan used it in ANH. “Only a master of evil, Darth.” I think that would be sarcastic, though, much like Palpatine’s “So be it, Jedi!” in ROTJ (one of the best lines of the movie, I might add. Ian McDiamid is god).
Cortosis ore and Phrik alloy being a couple of them, IIRC.
OK, I’ll grant a pass on that one. 
I forgot about that. It reinforces my suspicion that “Darth Vader” was originally supposed to be a full name, and GL decided later that “Darth” would designate Sith. Or did this come from the EU? I never got into the books or anything. I never liked the idea of “Darth” being a title, personally. I think it’s such a cool name I’d like it to be Vader’s alone. But I didn’t write the damn thing.
Agreed!
That’s been my suspicion for a while. I read the novelizations of the original three movies when I got into them in the early '90s, and I remember “Darth Sidious” being in there. Amazon says the novel of Star Wars came out in 1986, almost a decade after the movie.
I think there’s a tiny hint of subtle foreshadowing in RotS with the creation of General Grievous as a main villain. Maybe it was the constant coughing coming from what seems to be a droid? I dunno. He’s apparently schooled in the ‘Jedi arts’ (by Palpatine?) and he is certainly “more machine than man (or whatever) now…” I think Lucas is trying to hint that this may have been the path of Vader if he wasn’t redeemed at the end of the whole saga. This of course implies that Grievous has been around for a while, even though that would ruin the line about there’s only 2 Sith at any given time. Of course, Count Dooku’s existence ruins that line anyway…
None of this explains why Grievous annoyingly shouts “ROGER ROGER ROGER!!!” in Star Wars: Battlefront II.
It’s also said that the emperor desired Luke because he’s more intact than Vader & would become a more powerful Sith Lord. Vader was something of ruined potential.
Oooh! That’s also why Vader can’t shoot force lightning like Palpatine & Dooku! He needs natural hands to channel the Sithy energy through!
I’ll be over here playing video games if you need me.