Other mistake: Widescreen version: When Han calls after Luke and Leia when they leave on the speeder bike, the head of the stormtrooper that attacks him can be seen in the lower right hand corner, as the actor is waiting for his cue. After Han calls after Luke and Leia, the stormtrooper suddenly pops up and attacks him. (00:56:15)
Continuity mistake: The stormtrooper that is chasing Leia on the forest moon of Endor has a symbol looking like IZ on his helmet. It keeps disappearing during the scene.
Continuity mistake: When the droids enter Jabba's throne room, in the shot facing the droids, they are not standing on the same part of the floor as in the previous shot. Also, R2-D2 is facing Jabba, but in the previous shot, he was facing C-3PO. (00:08:15)
Continuity mistake: When the Rancour grabs Luke, as the shot ends, Luke is holding the bone with two hands. In the next shot, he's holding it with only one hand. (00:25:20)
Continuity mistake: When Yoda is lying in bed, the creases in the blanket over him keep changing between shots.
Continuity mistake: When the droids enter Jabba's throne room, a three-legged R2-D2 rolls out on the floor. In the next shot, the droid no longer has his third leg deployed.
Revealing mistake: When the Tydirium shuttle is flying toward the Imperial spaceships, there's a frontal shot of it and a strange thing appears near the shuttle for a few frames. It's not the kind of marks that appears on an old film, or a special effects box. It's like a problem with the matte painting.
Revealing mistake: In the shot where Vader throws the Emperor into the pit, the Emperor is obviously a puppet, because he doesn't move at all. (01:52:15)
Continuity mistake: After Luke leaps up to the catwalk during the lightsaber duel, Vader's left shoulder is more covered by his cloak than in the previous shot of him.
Audio problem: When the group in the shuttle Tyderium is waiting tensely to see if the clearance code is accepted, Han says, "They're not going for it, Chewie." If you look closely, you can see that when he stops talking, his mouth is still moving. (00:54:00)
Continuity mistake: When Han and Leia kiss after the Death Star explodes, after Wicket shows up, Han's hand is on the back of Leia's head. In the next shot, his hand is on her arm, and Leia's thumb is touching his jaw, which it didn't do in the previous shot. (01:59:30)
Continuity mistake: In the Emperor's throne room, the existence and arrangement of several of the canisters on each side of the lift/elevator changes between shots, several times.
Continuity mistake: When the droids are hiding behind a tree before R2-D2 shoots off to help Han and Leia, the background changes twice. (01:35:45)
Continuity mistake: During the final battle, when some moving ships explode, the fire and the debris suddenly stay stationary.
Continuity mistake: When Leia frees Han from the carbonite, the light shining on the walls and floor keeps changing. For example, watch the light on the right side of the carbonite block.
Continuity mistake: During the battle against the Death Star, right before the Emperor gives permission to fire the Death Star, Wedge says, "Red Three, Red Two, pull in." Another pilot answers, "Got it", but it is neither Red Two nor Three, but Green Leader. (01:36:25)
Revealing mistake: If you watch closely (or play it in slow motion) when the scout trooper punches Han, you can see that the troopers hand never actually comes into contact with is face. (00:55:45)
Continuity mistake: When Chewbacca gives Han a hug in his prison cell in Jabba's palace, he initially puts one arm around him, but as the shot changes both Chewbacca's arms are around Han.
Continuity mistake: When Luke throws a scout trooper off of a speeder bike on Endor, the trooper mysteriously hits a tree back first, but he should have hit the tree face-first. He only rotated across his horizontal axis.
Continuity mistake: After the Ewok takes off on the speeder bike, Han says, "You stay here, we'll take care of this." Leia turns and she can be seen with a very large smile, even showing her teeth. When the camera instantly cuts to a different angle of the scene, Leia is no longer smiling, displaying a deadpan look.
Answer: Darth: "Obi-Wan once thought as you do. You don't know the power of the dark side. I must obey my master." It's implied that the dark side is intoxicating, once you totally give in to the dark side it has a hold on you, and appeals to morality and rationalization are useless against your lust for its power. (On a symbolic level, the dark side is a metaphor for vice. Darth Vader is an addict and abusive parent. It's actually funny how many scenes still make sense if you replace "the dark side" with "the bottle" or similar).
TonyPH
If we bring the prequels into it, it's one of the criticisms of those films that they only make the question of how much Anakin is a "true believer" more confusing. But it stands to reason that at first Anakin may feel vindicated in his resentment toward the Jedi. Later on, Vader may not feel that as strongly, but by then his anger has turned toward himself for failing to save Padme. He may feel that a man as terrible as he does not deserve to be "rescued" from the dark side, leading to a feedback loop where he only gets further enamored with its power and does more evil things which causes him to hate himself even more, and so it goes.
TonyPH