Darth Vader's armor, also known as Darth Vader's suit, was a suit of armor worn by the cyborg Sith Lord Darth Vader. Designed with life support technology, the armor ensured Vader's survival following the lightsaber and burn injuries that he sustained in a duel with Jedi Master Obi-Wan Kenobi on Mustafar. In addition to its practical use, Vader's armor inspired fear and terror across the galaxy during the era of the Galactic Empire. With Vader's death in the Battle of Endor, the armor was destroyed. However, the helmet remained and eventually fell into the possession of Vader's grandson, the First Order warlord Kylo Ren.

Description[]

Darth Vader's armor^[14] was made of materials including obsidian, plasteel, durasteel,^[8] and plastoid;^[9] although its design inspired fear and symbolized the strength of the Galactic Empire, it was also critical to Vader's survival after his defeat on Mustafar.^[7]

The armor's belt and chest plate held the controls for the life support system, ensuring that Vader's body received enough oxygen, nutrients, and medicine; through this system, Vader could endure nearly any environment, including the vacuum of space^[1] and the depths of the sea, although the suit's on board oxygen reserves wouldn't last for long and the suit was prone to rupturing if exposed to a strong enough external pressure. Vader could however use the Force to manipulate external conditions around him to form an environment he could comfortably operate in^[15] and even deactivate his breathing apparatus to approach a target stealthily, although the process greatly weakened him if prolonged.^[16] The suit could also withstand technopathy from Eternal Rur. In addition to its life-support functions, the Sith Lord's helmet contributed to giving him a frightening appearance, and could be removed to use a feeding tube in his private chamber due to his inability to eat normally.^[17] The high pressure and hyper-oxygen supplied^[18] while the private chamber was closed around him^[19] gave Vader a chance to safely live without his armor.^[18]

The helmet, which was created using an alloy of durasteel, plasteel, and obsidian,^[8] had a sloped design for its sides and back^[11] similar to that of the helmets on ancient Sith armor.^[20] The helmet created Vader's menacing growl due to his natural voice being very weak from vocal-cord damage. It contained neural needles that painfully connected with the top of Vader's skull and spine to form one interconnected unit. Without these, Vader could not use his cybernetics.^[1] The suit's functions were linked to doctor Cylo's personal controller which he kept in his person at all times as a last-ditch contingency; with the click of a button, all of the armor's cybernetics could be deactivated, bringing Vader to his knees under their sheer weight. Vader was, however, able to overcome this restriction through the Force.^[21] The armor had ten protective layers, each made of very strong alloy that could protect Vader from some explosions and weapons. Vader had four artificial limbs as a result of his injuries on Mustafar and at the hand of Dooku on Geonosis.^[22]

The armor's boots featured magnetic clamps, which could magnetically adhere the suit to a metallic surface,^[23] while the legs were heavily armored and able to withstand at least glancing blows from a lightsaber.^[24] He weighed 120 kilograms in his armor,^[10] leaving deep, tank-like tracks in the mud wherever he walked,^[16] and was 2.03 meters tall in it.^[10] The armor also featured a remote to prep Vader's interceptor for combat.^[1] In the event of damage to one set of armor, Vader had a backup set which he kept in his quarters on-board whatever vessel he happened to be traveling in at the time. This proved useful when he was attacked by unusual insects on Batuu, which encased much of his armor in stone.^[25]

Although Vader at first considered his armor acceptable,^[26] he later modified it to his liking after its first bout of damage.^[27] The suit was described as "junk" by the leader of the Droid Crush Pirates of Bestoon, who had been promised it contained advanced technology by Ochi of Bestoon. Despite Vader's reputation as the Galactic Empire's greatest weapon, a scan of his armor revealed to the droid captain that Vader was made of standard components, such as life support, a fusion furnace and a respirator. A further scan revealed the suit's components were no more advanced than the droids' own parts.^[28] The suit was also vulnerable to hacking, as a skilled operator could interface with Vader's central suit computer to send a holomessage on his behalf, manipulating his vocabulator to speak and his mechanic limbs to move.^[29]

History[]

Anakin Skywalker's vision[]

During the Clone Wars, Anakin Skywalker, Obi-Wan Kenobi, and Ahsoka Tano accidentally discovered the Mortis monolith, a gateway to another planet, while answering an ancient Jedi distress code. The trio then entered the world of Mortis, where they met a family of Force wielders:^[31] the Father, the Daughter, and the Son. The Father had called Skywalker to the planet, believing him to be the prophesied Chosen One. The family then put Skywalker through a series of trials, to test whether or not he was the Chosen One.^[32]

During a confrontation between Skywalker and the Son, the Son offered to show Skywalker a vision of the future. Through the Force Skywalker saw his wife in distress, the deaths of many Jedi, the evasive Darth Sidious unleashing his full power, his duel with Kenobi, and the destruction of Alderaan. The vision concluded with a ghostly image of Skywalker's future cybernetic helmet. While the Father would soon wipe Skywalker's memory of the extrapolations of his future,^[30] each of these apparitions would prove to come true.^[12]

Darth Vader's reconstruction[]

After his fall to the dark side of the Force and new beginning as Darth Vader, Skywalker was sent to the planet Mustafar, where he assassinated the entire Executive Separatist Council, ending the Clone Wars. In the aftermath of the slaughter, Vader dueled his former Jedi Master, Obi-Wan Kenobi. Vader lost the fight after having both legs and his left arm severed by Kenobi. Vader then tumbled down the volcanic planet's surface, near a river of lava, where his robes burst into flames, consuming his entire body. Kenobi left his former apprentice for dead.^[12]

Unbeknownst to Kenobi, Vader's new Sith Master, Darth Sidious, would soon arrive to his Sith apprentice's aid. Sidious ordered the scientist Cylo to create Vader's armor, which he did obediently in a long night of reconstructive surgery.^[2] Vader was shuttled to the Grand Republic Medical Facility on the planet Coruscant,^[33] capital of the newly formed Galactic Empire. A DD-13 medical assistant droid fitted him with cybernetic implants^[34] while a 2-1B-series medical droid picked away any remaining chars of clothing and flesh from the Dark Lord's body. An FX-9 medical droid supplied Vader with blood transfusions during the surgery.^[31] Vader required a permanent breathing apparatus, a result of his encounter with the flames, with the vocabulator altering his voice into a deep growl.^[12]

Life in the armor[]

After being equipped with the suit, Vader described the armor as acceptable when asked about it by his master.^[26] Darth Vader wore the armor for over two decades, until his redemption and death. He initially hated the armor, but after living with it for five years, he embraced how it isolated him from the rest of the galaxy, allowing him to concentrate on becoming a pure instrument of the dark side.^[1] Almost immediately after recovering from his operation, Vader was sent by Sidious to collect a lightsaber for himself; to do so, Vader searched for takers of the Barash Vow who, having willingly isolated themselves from the Jedi Order, were more likely to have survived the Great Jedi Purge.^[35] Eventually, Vader located and attacked Master Kirak Infil'a, a Jedi solely dedicated to combat training, on the moon of Al'doleem. During their fight, Vader's armor sustained severe damage, leaving him crippled without his left leg and without his central computer.^[24]

To repair himself, Vader manipulated parts from Infil'a's droid Arex into usable parts to cover the gaps in his armor, successfully upgrading it to defeat the Jedi by endangering Al'doleem civilians.^[36] After killing Infil'a and bleeding his lightsaber's kyber crystal on Mustafar,^[37] Vader returned to Coruscant where he was allowed by Sidious to repair his armor as he saw fit, upgrading the unit to his liking. As a test of his new armor systems, Vader engaged the Grand Inquisitor in a duel Sidious manipulated into being, temporarily allowing himself to be challenged until he was certain all the suit's mechanic components worked as expected; he then swiftly disarmed the Inquisitor.^[27] At least one of Arex's parts, a knee piece, would continue to be part of Vader's armor for years to come.^[38]

Nine years prior to the Battle of Yavin, Vader engaged in a duel against his former master, Obi-Wan Kenobi on a small rocky moon. At the end of the duel, Obi-Wan damaged Vader's chest plate and cut open half his helmet, revealing the left side of his scarred face. Kenobi recognized it as he had last seen him after their duel on Mustafar,^[12] and addressed him as "Anakin," but Vader told him that he killed Anakin and he was all who remained. Kenobi accepted him no longer taking that name, and referred to him as "Darth" before leaving him.^[39] They would not see each other again until their final rematch on the Death Star, right before the Battle of Yavin.^[11] Vader later returned to his castle on Mustafar. After his armor was repaired, he spoke to his master, Sidious, whom he vowed to remain as his Sith apprentice, and never Kenobi's Jedi apprentice again.^[39]

Three years prior to the Battle of Yavin, Vader engaged in a duel against his former apprentice, Ahsoka Tano, inside the Malachor Sith temple. During the duel, Vader's helmet suffered considerable damage, disabling his vocal modulator and exposing his right eye. Vader eventually stumbled out of the temple alive, albeit exhausted and short of breath.^[40]

Vader had at least one backup suit of armor, which was onboard the Chimaera when Vader and Grand Admiral Thrawn went on a mission to Batuu.^[25]

Prior to the Battle of Scarif, he spent some time in a bacta tank in his castle on Mustafar before donning the suit again to meet Director Orson Krennic.^[41]

Shortly after the Battle of Hoth, Vader dueled his son, Luke Skywalker, aboard Cloud City, a mining city floating within the clouds of Bespin. Skywalker caused minor damage to his father's suit after slashing him on the shoulder. Vader retaliated by severing his son's right hand.^[19]

Legend versus reality[]

Vader's encounter with his son motivated his investigation into Luke Skywalker's childhood,^[42] which in turn led him to uncover details about the death of Padmé Amidala.^[43] Aware of Vader's actions and the grief that he experienced due to the memory of his late wife, Darth Sidious re-trained his apprentice in the ways of the Sith by inflicting pain on him. Through the Force the Emperor destroyed Vader's cybernetics and caused extensive damage to his armor, returning Vader to the limbless state that he was in after his duel with Obi-Wan Kenobi on Mustafar. Sidious then left Vader on Mustafar and ordered him to survive on his own, but without the use of the Force.^[44]

Hunted by the Emperor's assassin, Ochi and a group of droid pirates,^[28] Vader crawled to the abandoned facility where he executed the members of the Separatist Council. There he scavenged various battle droid parts to use as replacements for the cybernetic limbs that his master destroyed.^[45] The droids that aided Ochi did so for the opportunity to scavenge Vader's artificial components, believing that the cyborg Sith possessed advanced technology by virtue of his reputation as the Emperor's enforcer. However, a scan of the Sith Lord revealed to the droid captain that Vader's cybernetics were obsolete and not state of the art as he had been led to believe.^[28]

Following his journey to Exegol, Vader regained his place at Sidious' side and the two Sith Lords returned to Coruscant. Vader was then rebuilt at^[46] the same facility where he was first reconstructed as an armored cyborg.^[12] As a result, Vader gained new cybernetics and his armor was fully repaired. He allowed himself to experience the physical pain of undergoing surgical reconstruction, having elected to remain conscious throughout the procedure. After his restoration, Vader undertook a mission to hunt and kill his son in order to keep his place at Sidious' side.^[46]

After an encounter with the Handmaidens, Vader was unable to control the Force as the Force Wave returned, resulting in his out of control powers beginning to tear apart the Executor, thereby presenting another threat to the Empire: himself. Sabé, who quickly understood something had gone wrong with Vader's Force powers, took him to an astronomical object as it would give the Sith Lord a place to practice and rediscover control over his powers. However Vader threw her out into the sea in his next blast of power. Vader then lifted the wreckage of his Lambda-class T-4a shuttle and made repairs to his armor. Shortly after, Vader was attacked by a group of rebels. Using his modified suit Vader used a staff and personal energy shield to defeat them.^[47]

Death and funeral pyre[]

Aboard the second Death Star, Vader dueled Skywalker for the last time while in the presence of the Galactic Emperor, Darth Sidious. Towards the end of the duel, Skywalker retreated to a hiding spot and refused to fight anymore. To bring Skywalker out of hiding, Vader taunted him by threatening to corrupt Skywalker's sister, Leia Organa. Succumbing to his rage, Skywalker burst from his hiding place and viciously attacked Vader, beating him down and, in the final blow of the duel, cutting off Vader's right hand. Satisfied, the Emperor exhorted Luke to complete his acceptance of the dark side by killing the defenseless Darth Vader and taking his place, thus betraying his apprentice. Despite his fury, Skywalker had an epiphany when he saw the damaged stump of Vader's right forearm, reminding him of his own mechanical right hand. Realizing he had already begun his fall to the dark side, Skywalker chose to ignore his rage and relented, showing Darth Vader mercy.^[48]

Angered at the loss of a potential Sith, the Emperor tortured Skywalker with Force lightning, before eventually deciding to kill him. Unable to bear the sight of his son suffering, Vader returned to the light side and subsequently turned on his master, by throwing him down a reactor shaft, effectively killing Sidious. During the conflict, the suit was critically damaged by the lightning. No longer Darth Vader, the redeemed Jedi re-embraced his former identity, Anakin Skywalker. Realizing that his life was coming to an end, Anakin requested Luke to remove his helmet so he could see his face once, which the young Jedi Knight obliged to. A content Anakin acknowledged to his son that he was right about him, before peacefully dying^[48] and his body disappeared into the light side of the Force.^[49]

Luke escaped the destruction of the second Death Star with his father's empty armor. Upon landing on the forest moon of Endor, Luke burned the armor in a funeral pyre.^[48] Shortly before her wedding ceremony on Endor, Leia Organa came across Vader's funeral pyre. Realizing what it was, Leia started to become emotional but resolved not to cry for him. After gently tapping his helmet with her toe, Leia picked up the helmet, recalling the torture she had been forced to face at his hands on the Death Star. Leia then made her feelings known, angered at Vader's pride and letting him know that she was glad he was dead. She then hurled the helmet back into the ash of his funeral pyre, screaming that Vader would never be her father.^[50]

Post-destruction[]

The disfigured helmet of the infamous suit was scavenged from the funeral pyre,^[6] and eventually found its way into the possession of Vader's grandson, Kylo Ren, a Force-sensitive dark side practitioner of the First Order.^[13] Ren kept the helmet in his private quarters aboard the Resurgent-class Star Destroyer Finalizer,^[6] where he spoke with it whenever he felt the "pull to the light."^[13] Ren was unable to hear anything from the helmet itself, though he did hear a voice when meditating near it. The entity with whom he communicated was not Vader, but rather the revived Sith Master Darth Sidious.^[51] Following the Battle of Starkiller Base in 34 ABY,^[52] the mask remained on the Finalizer, although Ren was reluctant to visit the mask until after he was certain he matched up to Vader upon Snoke's reprimand of him shortly after Starkiller Base's destruction.^[53]

By 35 ABY,^[54] the helmet was transferred to the Star Destroyer Steadfast. It was found by the Jedi Rey while she searched for the Wookiee Chewbacca's belongings, which had been confiscated by First Order stormtroopers. Vader's charred helmet rested upon an obsidian pillar^[55] within Ren's suite on board the vessel in orbit of Kijimi, and was disturbed when the pillar was shattered by Rey's lightsaber during her duel with Ren. It was transported from the Steadfast to Ren's location in Kijimi City due to their bond as a dyad in the Force, revealing Rey's physical location to Ren.^[51]

Behind the scenes[]

The original trilogy[]

With Vader lacking a mask in George Lucas's early drafts for Star Wars,^[56] Darth Vader's armor was designed by Ralph McQuarrie, who deemed it necessary for Vader to wear a breathing mask after reading the portion of the Star Wars script stating he would cross through space between ships. Lucas subsequently created the backstory that Vader needed the suit and mask after falling into a volcanic pit during his duel with Kenobi.^[57] The resemblance between Vader's mask and a human skull was an intentional part of McQuarrie's design.^[56]

Costume designer John Mollo made one suit for actor David Prowse to wear, which was produced on a budget of $1,173. Brian Muir sculpted the mask. Mollo was inspired by McQuarrie's artwork, but was also influenced by samurai armor, as well as the World War I–era trench armor and Stahlhelm helmet. The suit's voice was provided by James Earl Jones, while Ben Burtt provided its infamous breathing sound by recording himself using a scuba-diving apparatus. Burtt also worked to make sure Jones's voice sounded like it was reverberating out of a helmet.^[57]

For The Empire Strikes Back, the suit was redesigned to be more comfortable, with spares for looser parts of the costumes. The helmet had minor changes to fix the domed top more securely, and the triangular chin vent was made larger so Prowse could breathe and see more easily. A helmet made of tinted acrylic was made for Prowse's stunt double Bob Anderson to see through more than just the eyepieces. The costume was barely altered for Return of the Jedi, although Fred Hole and Brian Archer designed and built a new helmet for the unmasking scene.^[57] Return of the Jedi did feature a new costume for Luke Skywalker, whose new black outfit was designed to invoke Vader's design.^[58]

The prequel trilogy and Rogue One[]

Anakin Skywalker's portrayer Hayden Christensen wore the suit for the conclusion of Revenge of the Sith: molds of him were used to create the latest version of the armor by Don Bies and his team. Ryan Church designed the interior of Vader's helmet, which was shown in the film for the first time.^[57] The mask was digitally printed and so became the first symmetrical version.^[59]

For Vader's appearance in Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, the production design team under Doug Chiang studied each version of Vader's costume in the original trilogy, ensuring the appearance in Rogue One was a hybrid but still familiar to what was seen before. Costume designers visited the Lucasfilm Archives to study the cape of the original Vader suit. Their hope was to ensure, for his appearance in Rogue One, Vader's struts caused the cape to move in the exact same way as the original films.^[56]

Star Wars Rebels[]

Star Wars Rebels art director Kilian Plunkett said they could not experiment too much with Darth Vader's appearance, and that even the helmet hearkened back to McQuarrie's version.^[60] Dave Filoni said Vader "has to have the cape," a costly stipulation that meant other characters had to be redesigned with form-fitting outfits.^[61]

Obi-Wan Kenobi television series[]

In the Obi-Wan Kenobi television series, Vader was once again played by Hayden Christensen, Dmitrious Bistrevsky, and Tom O'Connell.^[63] Christensen wore a Vader costume that was very hot and heavy, but there was an under-layer with cooling liquid in it. Between takes, Christensen was plugged into a device that circulated the liquid and helped him cool down. Christensen said that the mechanical element made him feel more like Vader.^[62] The costume also had tinted helmet lenses.^[64] Olga Sokolova, a choreographer and "Vader movement specialist," made sure that Christensen moved and walked correctly in the suit. This was done because the actor wanted to stay true to how Vader moves and how he is perceived by fans.^[65] It took Christensen nine months to gain 25-30 pounds to fit in the suit.^[66] Bistrevsky wore the suit during full body shots with the helmet on while O'Connell wore the suit during fighting scenes. Bistrevsky said that it was dark and heavy in the suit. Some scenes required switching back and forth between multiple actors.^[63]

Established lore[]

Despite having been established in Star Wars Legends, in 2021, Lucasfilm Story Group member, Emily Shkoukani stated in an Inside Intel article on StarWars.com the functions of Vader's buttons remained a mystery.^[67]

Appearances[]

Non-canon appearances[]

Sources[]

Non-canon sources[]

• LEGO Star Wars: Choose Your Side: Doodle Activity Book
• Obi-Wan Wednesdays: LEGO Star Wars Obi-Wan Vs. Darth Vader and More! on StarWars.com (backup link) (Picture only)
• LEGO Star Wars Summer Vacation | Official Trailer | Disney+ on the official Star Wars YouTube channel (backup link) (Posted on StarWars.com)
• 5 Things We Love About the LEGO Star Wars Summer Vacation Trailer on StarWars.com (backup link) (Picture only)

Notes and references[]