4 hours ago, Stan Fresh said:

Fighting fire with fire, or gazing too deeply into the abyss? Careful 😁

Oh, I am sure that me being in an abyss, on fire, is completely unrelated.

On 10/24/2019 at 7:28 PM, penpenpen said:

Vader's shoulder pad deflects a lightsaber blow in RoTJ, which has the added benefit of also being canon.

Which suggests that his armor has the Cortosis quality, having been made from Cortosis, Beskar, Phryyk, or some other lightsaber resistant metal.

7 hours ago, Tramp Graphics said:

Which suggests that his armor has the Cortosis quality, having been made from Cortosis, Beskar, Phryyk, or some other lightsaber resistant metal.

Or perhaps simply a defense rating, being able to deflect a glancing blow, but not the full on perpendicular strike that severs his hand.

On 10/26/2019 at 11:46 PM, penpenpen said:

Or perhaps simply a defense rating, being able to deflect a glancing blow, but not the full on perpendicular strike that severs his hand.

From what we see in the movie, no. Luke hit his shoulder pretty dead on. So, I would say the hard plates of his armor are likely made from a lightsaber resistant material.

On 10/29/2019 at 6:22 PM, Tramp Graphics said:

From what we see in the movie, no. Luke hit his shoulder pretty dead on. So, I would say the hard plates of his armor are likely made from a lightsaber resistant material.

If both were equally dead on. Why was the hand severed and not the shoulder?

On 11/6/2019 at 12:29 PM, CloudyLemonade92 said:

If both were equally dead on. Why was the hand severed and not the shoulder?

Simple, Vader's pauldrons, which are hard plates are most likely made up of lightsaber resistant metals. As such, they maintain their Soak/Damage Reduction against a lightsaber, rather than allowing it to cut through like a hot knife through butter. Vader's gloves are just leather , and thus, wouldn't have had any lightsaber resistant material built into it, hence why it was easy for Luke to cut off his hand in RotJ, but it essentially "bounced off" his shoulder in ESB. Even than, it did some damage, given that Vader yelled out in pain from the blow.

What TG said or it might be because it fit the plot of ESB that Luke's lasersaber bounced off Vader's shoulder while it fit the plot of RotJ that Luke's lasersaber cut Vader's hand.