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enter image description here

Of Anakin Skywalker, Obi-Wan's Force Ghost had the following to offer:

He’s more machine now than man. Twisted and evil.

Obi-Wan may have been remarking upon Vader's lost humanity more than anything else, but it got me thinking about Vader's physical being anyway. Exactly how much machine and how much man are we talking about?

We get some idea from the surgery scene in Revenge of the Sith:

enter image description here

But things may have changed for Vader in the years between Revenge of the Sith and Return of the Jedi, such as organs failing and needing to be replaced, as well as improvements to his technological components.

The question is:

At the time that Obi-Wan made his comment (which was in Return of the Jedi ), what was the ratio of man to machine in Vader?

Well-reasoned estimates are welcome. Ratio by volume is preferable, but weight is fine too, so long as this is made clear in the answer.

Praxis
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    "More machine than man" honestly seems like an exaggeration. He seems to be over 50% man. – Rogue Jedi Sep 25 '15 at 15:01
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    I took that statement to mean he had been augmented for so long, he had lost touch with his humanity, which, having regained it during the Emperor's final battle, proved there was more man than machine no matter what the ratio of meat to metal. – Major Stackings Sep 25 '15 at 15:10
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    Do you want this by weight or by volume? By weight, he could easily be much more machine than man, but by volume will be another story. – PipperChip Sep 25 '15 at 17:01
  • Still Vader is more of a living being than Grievous. – Mindwin Remember Monica Sep 25 '15 at 17:08
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    Technically, wasn't he more midi-chlorians than man in the first place? – Raystafarian Sep 25 '15 at 17:40
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    Obi-Wan's comment about "twisted and evil" makes sense only is either 1) Obi-Wan is an eco-hippy who considers technology to be inherently evil, or 2) Obi-Wan speaks metaphorically, the "more machine than man" really meaning that Anakin's humanity was trampled down by the Dark Side and turned him into a construct of the Emperor with little or no remnant trace of morality (and therefore completely unrelated to Vader's prostheses). – Tom Leek Sep 25 '15 at 19:43
  • @PipperChip: I meant volume, but either is fine so long as it is explained. I've put this in the question. – Praxis Sep 25 '15 at 20:13
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    @TomLeek from a certain point of view, he was more machine now than man? –  Sep 25 '15 at 20:13
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    He's more "a tool of the dark side/Emperor" now than "a noble and kind spirit", perhaps. – Nick T Sep 26 '15 at 03:21
  • Seven. He was seven man. – CHEESE Nov 10 '16 at 02:21

3 Answers3

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We can calculate, roughly, how much of his body was replaced by machine.

Right arm, above the elbow, cut off by Dooku:

enter image description here

Left arm, above the elbow, cut off by Obi-Wan:

enter image description here

Both legs, above the knees, cut off by Obi-Wan:

enter image description here

Data on relative volumes of limbs is hard to come by, but I'll assume that all body parts are roughly the same density and use this data for body part weight percentages. Let's assume he lost ~75% of each of those limbs (he may have lost more during the surgery, but it's clear that Star Wars medical technology is more advanced than ours), so a conservative estimate for the amount of his body that was replaced by machine is:

2*(leg & foot) + 2*(1/2)*thigh + 2*(forearm & hand) + 2*(1/2)*upper arm

= (2 * 6.18) + 10.5 + (2 * 2.52) + 3.25

= only 31.15% machine (i.e. 68.85% man).

There's also reasonable sounding evidence that Vader's spine was partially or completely artificial:

enter image description here

(This screenshot is while the Emperor is shocking him at the conclusion of Return of the Jedi.) It's supported by his difficulties breathing and speaking without his suit. If this is true, it could maybe put him to about 35 or 40%, but even with that I'm not confident he's "more machine than man" in a literal sense.

Plutor
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    This answer is good but doesn't including anything about his burnt skin, From the two pictures in the OP, it looks like the only thing not completely burnt looks to be his face. If you were to include the robotics from needing his skin and related tissues replaced, I'd expect him to be over 50%. I'm only commenting on this because I don't remember it ever being shown that Vader has any human skin besides on his face, but I could be wrong. – Iankill Sep 25 '15 at 16:20
  • Hes no Robo Cop, but looks like there isn't much human left.. – EricSSH Sep 25 '15 at 17:02
  • I seem to remember something from the EU about him losing his remaining organic arm as punishment for losing the Death Star, too. – Chris B. Behrens Sep 25 '15 at 17:03
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    @ChrisB.Behrens Remaining arm? – Rawling Sep 25 '15 at 17:08
  • @isanae Fixed "left legs" -> "both legs". And made it clear I'm saying he's ~31% machine. – Plutor Sep 25 '15 at 18:06
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    @Iankill It's not clear any of his skin was "replaced". He does wear a suit that protects him, but I wear pants and I don't think anyone considers my legs to be partially non-human because of that. – Plutor Sep 25 '15 at 18:06
  • @ChrisB.Behrens That comes from Heir To The Empire, which is no longer canon. – Plutor Sep 25 '15 at 18:06
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    I wonder if this also means he lost 35-40% of his midichlorians. – jmbertucci Sep 25 '15 at 19:00
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    If you're going by mass rather than volume, then the replacement limbs would "only" need to be (um...) 2.25 times as heavy as the originals in order for a 31% replacement to leave him "more machine than man". Which is plausible albeit not currently-accepted medical practice. Do we know what Vader weighed? Did Obi-Wan, when he made whatever back-of-the-envelope calculation led to this pronouncement? ;-) – Steve Jessop Sep 25 '15 at 20:14
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    @Plutor: This answer is great. Ratio by weight is fine, but so we are saying that about 30-35% of his body weight was replaced with machinery? Given that the replacement components probably have a different weight than the original body parts, his machine:man weight ratio at the time of ROTJ may not have been 30:70 etc. – Praxis Sep 25 '15 at 20:15
  • @jmbertucci There's another question all about that possibility. – Ixrec Sep 25 '15 at 21:18
  • @jmbertucci there are some questions in regard to this here. Before the obi wan incident he was stronger (potentially) than the emperor...afterwards he only had 70% of the strength of the emperor (at max) – Thomas Sep 26 '15 at 18:32
  • I do think by volume is probably the best way to do this, but I went with weight simply as a proxy for volume. I couldn't find data on relative volumes for an average adult, and I'm assuming large portions of the human body can be assumed to be very roughly the same density. – Plutor Sep 28 '15 at 12:11
  • @Plutor You are correct, according to the wiki, he wears a modified body glove over his burnt skin, to make it more comfortable. It mentions portions were replaced with synthskin but that's still basically skin. – Iankill Oct 05 '15 at 12:47
  • @Plutor : I just saw your edits (from Sept 28) now. I'm going to go ahead and accept this. You might want to make it clear in the answer, though, that your final statement is one about volume (which I agree makes more sense, since we don't have canonical data on the mass of the replacement components). – Praxis Oct 06 '15 at 02:37
  • I have a problem with the argument that the spine is adding only 4-9%. Notwithstanding that it seems completely impractical, implausible and unlikely to somehow replace the spine and nothing else surrounding, given how integral and embedded the spine is, you can even see in the screenshot that components in the torso are replaced as well. And for that reason, I think it's obvious that much more than 50% -- probably some level closer the Robocop levels -- is the right answer. – ThePopMachine Nov 10 '16 at 06:06
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It was said that, due to the extent of his injuries, he was 80% machine (prosthetics), and a mere 20% human. His legs were severed at both knees, his right arm at the elbow, and the left at nearly the shoulder. His torso is completely human. The graphic novel, 'Darth Vader and the Lost Command' states so explicitly in one of its pictures. Wikipedia also provides this information.

wyvern
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With evidence, 68.85% of him is man with JUST the limbs gone, and don't forget, most of his spine needed to be replaced to hold his weight with the suit on, AND BOTH of his lungs are rotted out, so he needs a replacement for that, AND Most to all of his skin needs replaced, PLUS many smaller injuries and changes, such as the fact that he asked for his body to be rewired so he didn't need to eat or use the restroom. So with logic, ONLY Roughly probably less than 37.85% of him is human, meaning roughly probably more than 62.15% of him is machine.

Joybug
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    Hi, welcome to the site. This answer would be much better, though, if you were to [edit] it to include supporting evidence. Some of what you've said lines up with the figures and evidence provided in Plutor's answer, but your answer should include all the necessary evidence to support its own assertions, rather than requiring us to look at someone else's answer to find that evidence. – LogicDictates Mar 24 '22 at 17:05
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    The limbs being replaced is pretty obvious, but what's your source for his lungs and skin? And the part about his digestive system being rebuilt? Also, please don't use ridiculous precision in your numbers. Just because the accepted answer uses bogus precision doesn't mean we all have to. – DavidW Mar 24 '22 at 17:21