Why Did Darth Vader LOSE to Luke Skywalker?

In Return of the Jedi, we witnessed Darth Vader lose to his own son and get his hand chopped off by him... but how does somebody like him lose this fight after just defeating him a year ago on Cloud City?

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[BCCSquidward]

Luke: "I feel the conflict within you, let go of your hate."
Darth Vader: "There is no conflict."
Luke: "Nuh uh."

[edoardomulli]

~ I am a jedi, like my father before me ~
One of the best Star Wars quote ever 🔥🔥

[mhaj]

One aspect of the fight is that Luke first fought as his masters, combining Obi Wan defense with Yoda acrobatics. However, when Vader threatens Leia, Luke channels his father’s power. Vader had seen Anakin Skywalker coming back from the dead to strike him down. He was so shocked by the vision that he could barely muster the awareness to block Luke’s attack. By the time he regained his composure, he was already on the floor, defeated.

[Nobodysurvivesevenonebit]

Simple he didn't wanna kill his own son and wanted to redeem himself.

[decades]

Dude I'm so proud of your progress. You make great content and I have watched since 12-15 thousand subs and you've grown to this. Excellent work, my friend.

[IasonasKlapakis]

With all his power Luke saying to you "Nuh Uh!" (from the memes) might be the most terrifying thing that can happen to you.

[TheForbiddenLean]

Vader farted in his suit, temporarily weakening his knees, resulting in Luke being able to take the high ground and cut off his hand.

[Rickiltrollencio]

The problem is when vader taunted luke, he overwhelmed him so didn't have time to fight using his full power, also realise he also had a daugther only worsened his conflict.

[kmglrut]

At this point in Vader's ummm... 'Career'... He had already figured out that he was Palpatine's puppet all along. He came to that conclusion years before this duel(in the books anyway) In the film, he was only doing his master's bidding, but in the end he could not bring himself to kill his own Son. In one last attempt to lure Luke to the Emperors will, he threatened to train Leia as a Sith. Luke snapped and basically started pounding Vader. In that moment, Vader saw in Luke exactly what made Vader turn to the dark side in the first place. Raw hatred and anger against those who threatened his loved one's. Vader never truly wanted to destroy Luke. He only wanted to teach him how to destroy Evil and take total control against it. I think when Luke snapped on him, it snapped Vader out of it. He remembered his own rage once upon a time. He did not want Luke to suffer the same fate. He yielded to Luke for these reasons before Luke could finish him off. The Emperor would have none of that! And so the rest is history.

[JohnLopez-to]

I have a theory why Darth Vader lost because of his son he no longer had hate Vader realized he has his son and daughter and because of that he was able to let go his hate there for lost some power

[jenniferbrewer]

Vader didn't lose. He CHOSE not to win. Because he loved his son that much.

[radiofacecomedy]

It amazes me how many people in these comments don't seem to understand the film, and buy into all this extraneous stuff about lightsaber forms and holding back, etc. No. Luke wins by tapping into his anger and fear when Vader threatens Leia. He gets a boost from the dark side, then realises that this is how his father fell, and throws aside his lightsaber. That is his character arc. All these others suggestions undermine that simple, thematic arc intended by Lucas.

[allenniumfalcon]

Because Vince McMahon told him to lose

[marveloussoftware]

Luke tapped into the dark side. It was all over for vader.

[abankse]

Great vid. NGL the Vader breathing at the end possesses a creepy factor, lol

[echamp]

He held back and Palpatine was trying test Luke Skywalker’s vigor to see if he was a worthy apprentice to succeed Vader.

[marcusisgod]

Seeing that in the comics luke was losing to luminiya and other lesser adepts not equal to vader it is true vader held back as throughout the fight he was defensive even passive in his approach.

[ambarcraft]

The actual question is how did Luke learn to fight this much better. When he goes back to Yoda it is strongly implied Luke didnt see neither Yoda nor Obi-Wan since Episode 5, so who tought him the light saber style you mention? Did he meet Ahsoka?

[goatkiller]

Recall also: Ani + Obi vs. Dooku. Coincidentally with Palpatine in a nearly identical chair. Dooku also was not trying to win. He was trying to humiliate Anekin so bad he’d go dark. He didn’t lose, he let Ani win, then Palp said to kill him.

Same events happened to Luke.

And how much do you want to bet that Luke tried to plan a better way to defeat Palp, and he taught it to Kylo, who used it against Snoke? Big bad dark-sider, has your saber in his cup holder, what do you do? Shoot the hostage.

Just like I’ve already worked out passwords, so if someone is in a Groundhog Day scenario, and has to convince me quickly, we can skip all that “how many fingers am I holding up?” crap. Also, I’m teaching myself how to make steel from rock, how an engine works, how to make penicillin, the names and dates of important moments in time (so I can prove I’m from the future), and the winning horses and power ball numbers for the larger payouts. Time vortexes gotta happen at some point, right?

[TheVCRTimeMachine]

Because that was the whole point of the Star Wars trilogy...for Luke Skywalker to defeat Darth Vader. I can't believe how much time Star Wars fans spend speculating on minutiae when the answer is almost always, "Because that's what the story needed to have happen"