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The 'Death Star Canteen' joke by Eddie Izzard rang a bell for me and I remembered this from the novelisation of A New Hope:

A huge metal-clad hand gestured slightly, and one of the filled cups on the table drifted responsively into it. With a slightly admonishing tone the Dark Lord continued. 'Don't become too proud of this technological terror you've spawned, Tarkin. The ability to destroy a city, a world, a whole system is still insignificant when set against the force.' (sic)
p.36 Star Wars

Bold emphasis mine.

This seems to me significant, because immediately after the events of Episode III, as told in Dark Lord, we read:

He could take food through his mouth, as well, but only when he wasi inside a hyperbaric chamber, since he had to remove the triangular respiratory vent that was the mask's prominent feature. So it was easier to receive nourishment through liquids, intravenous and otherwise, and to rely on catheters, collection pouches and recyclers to deal with liquid and solid waste.
p.62, Dark Lord

So, is this apparent example of Vader drinking from a cup 20-odd years later simply a 'nourishment through liquids' incident (does the mask extrude a straw?) or is it a result of an improvement in Anakin's condition or an improvement in the armour or both?

Vader never drank from the cup. I believe he just picks it up using the Force and later crushes it in his hand.

The ANH novelization's got a bunch of wacky things going for it. Best to just not take it too seriously.

Actually, Spanky, I could find no reference to him doing anything with the cup later. But if you can post something that my copy doesn't have, I'll concede that.

As for 'not taking it too seriously', there are lots of interesting things in the novelisation which aren't inculded in the film, including (for example) the mention of lightsabres being 'widely used' in some places even though the Jedi are all but extinct. These have been frequently referenced. Should we just disregard them simply because they're not in the film? I'm aware that the films have a slightly higher canon status thatn the novelisations, but surely where something isn't directly contradicted it must stand?

Spanky The Dolphin wrote:Vader never drank from the cup. I believe he just picks it up using the Force and later crushes it in his hand.

I believe he was just making a point that the force is stronger than any non-force being could ever build. I mean its kind of like saying, well until you can lift a 2LB glass with your mind, my force is better than yours

Shannon wrote:Actually, Spanky, I could find no reference to him doing anything with the cup later. But if you can post something that my copy doesn't have, I'll concede that.

You're right, he doesn't crush it in the novelisation. In fact he doesn't seem to do anything with it by the time the scene ends.

Actually, I just remembered that the crushing the cup thing came from a few drafts of the screenplay over time, until it was eventually dropped.

Shannon wrote:As for 'not taking it too seriously', there are lots of interesting things in the novelisation which aren't inculded in the film, including (for example) the mention of lightsabres being 'widely used' in some places even though the Jedi are all but extinct. These have been frequently referenced. Should we just disregard them simply because they're not in the film? I'm aware that the films have a slightly higher canon status thatn the novelisations, but surely where something isn't directly contradicted it must stand?

In the novelization, Jabba is a human, Luke is Blue 6, makes two trench runs, Vader is one of many Dark Lords in the Emperor's service. Those are all that come to me at the moment, but there are other things.

And of course, the single greatest line in Star Wars: "What's a duck?"

Technically, (even though it wasn't) Lucas wrote the book so it is G-canon. Still, the book is written in such a goofy prose that it's more of a light-hearted joke than anything. I'll accept it as a cited source and such, but it's best not to bother trying to rationalize some of the oddities of the novel. One certainly wouldn't try with Glove of Darth Vader.

On the select points where there's a clear contradiction yes, the novelization is wrong. That does not give us grounds to question every point within it because there are a few areas of contention. Seeming contradictions are often reconsiled or retonned, of course you know this already.

The scene in the novelization where Vader has the cup is also in the movie, only without the cup. Scenes from the novelizations that are directly contradicted by the movies are non-canon. Vader never had a cup.

I can just see it now...Vader, in the Death Star canteen, picks up his mug of ah'ranj juice...and a curly straw extrudes from his faceplate.

Molyneux wrote:I can just see it now...Vader, in the Death Star canteen, picks up his mug of ah'ranj juice...and a curly straw extrudes from his faceplate.

That is an awesome visual.

All this brings up the image of Dark Helmet drinking a cup of coffee through the vent in his faceplate in Spaceballs.