User:Solus/WIP

"This was solitary confinement. Prison of the worst sort. Continual torture. He was nothing more than wreckage. Power without clear purpose..."

- Darth Vader's thoughts on his suit.

Darth Vader's suit, which was essentially a mobile life-support system, was a suit of armor donned by Anakin Skywalker after his duel with Obi-Wan Kenobi on Mustafar because of his serious injuries accumulated there. It was designed to maintain and protect the young ex-Jedi's charred body. His suit followed an ancient Sith tradition, in which the warriors of the dark side would adorn themselves in heavy armor. The suit was constructed using various methods of Sith alchemy which served to augment Vader's severely diminished physical strength and vitality.

The armor encased Vader completely, leaving no burned flesh exposed. Vader slowly learned to live in this kind of isolation and anonymity as he off and on tinkered with it and had to repair its functions. Though he became used to it, Vader longed for the ability to be truly Human again, and though he tried to slowly work himself up to it, he labored in vain.

Design
"A magnificent jewel box, created both to protect and to exhibit the greatest treasure of the Sith. Terrifying. Mesmerizing. Perfect."

- Palpatine's thoughts upon seeing Darth Vader's armor for the first time.

Like traditional Sith armor and formed after the ancient Sith droids, Darth Vader's suit was made to be both intimidating and fearsome. His helmet was a highly polished black upside-down rounded cone to fit around his head with the front thereof sliced out so that it would show his 'face.' This helmet had a raised ridge that ran from between his eyes to the back of his head, where it merged into the durasteel, obsidian, and plasteel of the helmet itself. Two less jagged ridges swept, curving, over the eyes of Vader's mask proper and served to accent them. This helmet locked into the mask.

The mask itself went halfway around Vader's head. The top of this mask was crowned with a curcular interface dotted with myriad squares in a kind of pattern around a disc of silver. this diesk had several holes punched into it, and seemed to serve, alone with its squares surrounding it, as a kind of interface connection between the mask and the helmet. Around the unseen part of the mask, the part covered by the helmet, were designs engraved in the mask and created by wires. Also hidden beneath his mask were four grill-like squares of red, accented by ridged criss-crosses of yellow wire. The face of the mask was somewhat exaggerated and angular, with two ridges above his eyes that fit in with those of his helmet. The eyes were large and goggling, like those of a fish. This front part of the mask was of a more highly polished black material than that of the back, which seemed more rubbery, as seen when Luke removed it when Vader was dying. The ridged bridge of the nose seemed lost in the largeness of the eyes, but suddenly jetted out into a harsh caricature of a nose. The mask's cheekbones were boxy and angular until they curved slightly to join the nose at its base. The base of the nose offers the only splash of color - silver - on the mask. This silver is in the shape of a half-oval, with a triangular grill growing out from beneath it that served as an air filter, giving him a skull-like appearance.

A hermetic collar wrapped around Vader's neck, and was fairly normally shaped around the back, but slanted upward in the front to meet the mask at the bottom of its triangular grill. The back, which sloped upwards a bit at the base of his neck, was speckled with metal studs and interfaces. The two sides of the front were edged by two tubes that followed the edge until it reached the place at the base of the triangular grill when worn. At the end of these tubes were two silver studs. On top of slanted front of this collar were several interfaces, with wires running back from it to the back of the collar. From the sides of the collar came two metal sideways-facing stems with a horseshoe-like fixture to their heads. These, when worn, touched the outer corners of Vader's mouth.

Vader's shoulder armor appeared to be one piece that protected his whole shoulder area. The durasteel material was of a grey color with several black vertical stripes. Around the neck of the full-shoulder pauldron was a black chain, and to the upper 'seam' of the armor was connected Vader's black, flowing, nearly floor-length armorweave cape. Coming from beneath this armor was a black tabard open in the front. It reached down to his knees, and though it was not as hardy and more flimsy, it somewhat resembled the kama of some of the higher-ranking Phase-II armored clonetroopers.

Vader wore a ribbed, padded, multi-ply body glove that covered everything below his neck. This flexible, quilted suit was blast-dampening. On his hands he wore black gloves. Around his entire abdominal area, he wore a plastoid girdle that protected his organic and synthetic internal organs, and on his back, hidden by his cloak, he wore a flat black backpack. Over his solar plexus, he wore a chest unit that served to regulate many of the life-support functions of the suit. It had three slots and several rectangular buttons adorning the unusually vulnerable piece of machinery. His belt, which went over his tabard, and also was mostly black, had three metal boxes around the front. The middle one had a silver mechanism adorning it, and the other two were symmetrical blocks decorated with several green, yellow, and grey buttons. Vader's shiny black all-terrain combat boots contained shin armor of durasteel that hinged on the sides of the foot of the boot to allow him to walk.

Functionality
"He's more machine now than man..."

- Obi-Wan Kenobi, speaking of Darth Vader

Though the extent of Vader’s injuries remained concealed by his foreboding armor, it is known that he required an advanced life-support system to keep him alive. This life-support system in practice also worked as armor and as a suit for Vader to wear, thus getting rid of the need to drag some kind of life-support with him wherever he went and being terribly limited in what he could do. Though he was limited in areas, as a suit it gave Vader a much larger window of opportunity. Circuitry throughout the suit monitored pulmonary, respiratory, and neural systems, and three slotlike dataports located on Vader's chest unit allowed access to collected diagnostic information. Like stormtrooper armor, the suit was equipped with a sensitive temperature-regulation system, which could be controlled by a function box on his belt, a unit powerful enough to allow Vader to walk the surface of icy Hoth without any additional protection. Impulse generators lacing the armor provided electrical impulses to stimulate Vader’s muscles, providing him with great mobility and strength despite his destroyed muscles and nerves. To amplify this even more, Vader's strength and constitution were boosted by chemicals formed by Sith alchemy. These were provided by the life-support apparatus in his armor, and were constantly injected into him.

Vader's mask was one of the most important pieces of Vader's armor, and was vital to his survival. Without it, he would die unless in the pressurized, controlled atmosphere of one of his specially made meditation spheres. Inside the mask were many needles with which to poke into and interface with him. The pressurized helmet monitored and regulated Vader’s body temperature and contained radiators to diffuse heat generated by the suit’s electrical systems and a primary environmental sensor within the helmet continually evaluated Vader’s surroundings for potential hazards.

For when he needed to pilot something, such as his personal TIE fighter, he could slide a second layer of eye shields across the mask's 'goggles.'

On his belt, Vader wore two small system function boxes: the one on his right featured a temperature regulation system and the one on his left, he wore a respiratory sensor matrix. The center buckle featured an audio enhancement unit built into the electromagnetic clasp of the system status belt. As well, included in the belt buckle was an audio-enhancement unit, small tool kit, spare energy cell, and backup comlink.

As the suit doubled as armor, the life-support system was made to be somewhat tough, though the electrical systems themselves were delicate. Vader's armor was built around a plastoid girdle that protected his organic and synthetic internal organs in his abdomen. More visible durasteel armor plates covered his shoulders, upper body and shins. His gloves and the padding on his chest and arms consisted of blast-dampening armor, and were made to be impervious to fire and well-protected against explosions, piercing, and had defenses against poisoning. In addition, his helmet and mask kept light from blinding him.

Though Vader's heart still functioned, Vader’s pulse was machine-regulated so that it could not quicken unless told to by the suit.

Once sealed, Lord Vader's mask and armoured suit could serve as an airtight spacesuit for at least a short time. He apparently relied on an internal oxygen supply when he flew his TIE fighter in the Battle of Yavin, and he has survived surprise exposure to space in an assassination attempt by mutinous Imperial officers.

When damaged, Vader’s pressure suit self-sealed above wounds and burns. When Vader's right hand was chopped off during his duel with Luke Skywalker aboard the Death Star II, the wrecked wrist hurt Vader initially when Luke chopped it off, but apparently not the continual pain that a man would suffer from the amputation of a natural limb. Once the initial damage was registered, Vader appeared to be free of continuing pain. However, in 19 BBY, Anakin's right mechanical hand was not equipped with pain sensors, so the reason as to why he had it later equipped with them when his arm was later cut off&mdash;such as after his encounter with Luke on Mimban&mdash;remained a mystery.

All of the armor’s functions and Vader’s prosthetic limbs were powered by dozens of rechargeable energy cells located throughout the suit that allowed Vader to travel along for long stretches without recharging his armor. Even when the energy cells were depleted, he could maintain basic life-support functions through backup, replaceable power cells, though Vader typically recharged his suit within a meditation sphere, such as the one located aboard his personal Super Star Destroyer, the Executor, although he could access any standard fusion furnace for this purpose.

Senses
Because of his injuries, most of Vader's senses were irreparably damaged, and thus were replaced and performed by his armor. The dark hemispherical goggles that covered his eyes filtered out light that might have caused further injury to his damaged corneas and retinas and enhanced his vision; however, in enhanced mode the optical sensors in the half globes reddened the light and prevented him from being able to see the toes of his boots without inclining his head almost ninety degrees. The mask's eyes were tinted red, thus why at times they seemed red in certain lighting.

Various displays inside Vader’s helmet supplied the Sith Lord with a steady stream of data, amplifying his already formidable connection to the Force. His helmet’s eye coverings provided infrared and ultraviolet vision, allowing Vader to see clearly even in complete darkness, and dampeners offered limited defense against sonic attacks.

As for his hearing, the med droids had rebuilt the cartilage of his outer ears, but his eardrums, having melted in Mustafar's heat, had been beyond repair. Sound waves had to be transmitted directly to implants in his inner ear. Also, Vader could still smell naturally, but the mask he wore amplified his olfactory senses.

Vader could take food through his mouth, but only when he was inside a hyperbaric chamber, since he had to remove the triangular respiratory vent that was the mask's prominent feature. Thus resulting, 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. Though liquids were preferable, he still had the capacity to chew and use his teeth should he want to. However, he need not eat in this way unless he so desired, as a nutrient feed provided Vader with all the nourishment he required. To most it appeared that he could partake of no outside nutrition, while others did not seem to think that Vader’s mask inhibited him from eating normally in any way.

Limbs
What remained of his real limbs ended in bulbs of grafted flesh, inserted into machines that triggered movement through the use of modules that interfaced with his damaged nerve endings. His mechanical appendages provided him with more strength than that of an ordinary man. Vader could adjust the servodrivers and pistons in his forearms to provide his hands with strength enough to crush most anything that would fit into it. With the power of his arms alone, he had the ability to lift an adult being off the ground - though the Force had always given him the ability to do that, especially in moments of rage, as he had demonstrated on Tatooine and elsewhere. When put to use, his mechanical legs would allow him to leap a considerable distance, and kept his knees fit enough to kneel and get up without the normal slowness of a man of his age. His gloves were made with a unique micronized iron that could deflect anything short of a lightsaber blow.

When Vader first had to walk with his new legs, had to walk with slow, deliberate, thudding steps before he got used to it. When he did, though, he still retained the gait, though more natural, as it ‘announced’ his coming. Vader's alloy lower legs were bulked by strips of armor similar to those that filled and gave form to the long glove Anakin had worn over his right-arm prosthesis; this prosthesis was protected by Vader's shin armor. Vader's boots adhered to his artificial limbs, as well, during an assassination attempt on his life via the opening of an airlock, his boots remained planet to the floor while his companions were sucked out of the breach. Later, however, he jumped into the void, making this adhesion manually controllable.

As to the status of his limbs, by 4 ABY, Vader's left shoulder was completely artificial, and in 3 ABY, after encountering Luke on Bespin, he remarked that his right shoulder had healed well - as Luke had cut into it with his blade. Since a bionic shoulder cannot heal, Vader's right shoulder must still consist of his original flesh, though this contradicts with what transpired on Mimban when Vader's right arm from the shoulder was removed.

Breathing
Vader’s helmet was the center of the life-support system. The helmet was fitted with an air pump, which was connected to a flat filter system worn on Vader’s back. Together, the backpack and the air pump continuously cycled purified air through Vader’s ravaged lungs. A small, back-up air-processing filter was located in his distinctive mouth grill, which also doubled as a respiratory intake system. Vader's lfe-support system also included a chest-worn, computerized control panel unit that regulated his respiratory functions. From this chest panel, a thick cable entered his torso, linked to a breathing apparatus and heartbeat regulator. The ventilator was implanted in his hideously scarred chest, along with tubes that ran directly into his damaged lungs, and others that entered his throat, so that should the chest plate or belt control panels develop a glitch, he could breathe unassisted air for a limited time.

A belt-mounted function box housed the respiratory sensor matrix responsible for controlling Vader’s breathing. , and using it, Vader could easily adjust the controls on his armor to increase or decrease his supply of oxygen.

Vader's breathing is machine-regulated, however, his pace of breathing quickened during physical exertion and could be overridden by involuntary emotional reactions. These observations imply that his original lungs and vital organs are present, but require assistance.

The respirator slowed down or sped up in response to changes in his remaining body’s functions, but Vader was unable to stop it or 'hold his breath,' not could he slow it. However, he must have used some kind of dampener or otherwise tinkered with the suit by 3 ABY, as after Luke fell into the air-shaft and reentering the carbonite freezing facilities on Bespin, Luke was surprised by Vader in a dark passage. Vader's ambush was only possible because he could temporarily quiet his loud breathing.

Vader's breather seemed to have an automatic mode which could be more thoroughly independent of Vader's will or mind than the unconscious breathing reflex of a healthy human. This mode was most peculiarly manifest on occasions when Vader spoke and breathed at the same time, such as when he first met Moff Jerjerrod aboard the Death Star II. There were moments when the breather inhaled or exhaled at the same time as Vader was pronouncing his syllables.

Lord Vader's breather was seriously damaged by lightning during his struggle with the Emperor. Although it continued to operate to some extent, the sound of the mechanism was reduced to a strained rasp, implying that the respirator was broken. The laboured breathing sound persisted until his final unmasking.

His signature, labored mechanical breathing was the sound of the iron lung Vader was forced to wear. The med droids that had made the suit had at least inserted the redundant breathing tubes low enough so that, with the aid of an enunciator, his scorched vocal cords could still form sounds and words through a voice synthesizer in the mask. Absent the enunciator in Vader's mouth grill, which imparted a synthetic bass tone, his own voice was little more than a whisper.

Though limited by what the respirator could do, Vader could still make his respirator’s exhale approximate a laugh or a sigh.

Vader was able to speak even when unmasked shortly before the destruction of the second Death Star. The weakness of his voice was probably partly due to his breathing difficulty and the internal mortal wounds and damage to his cybernetic systems inflicted by the Emperor.

Spine
Vader’s back, specifically his spine, was not whole. Vader at some time had suffered serious spinal injury in the upper neck by 18 BBY, as his injuries on Mustafar did not affect the spine. The first few vertebrae of his neck are not natural and their sharp-edged regularity suggests that they are cybernetic replacements. As a break in any of the first three vertebrae of a Human leads to complete paralysis from neck to toe, this could explain his immobility after the Emperor's lightning attack damaged his cybernetic systems. Without his spinal bionics, Lord Vader became a helpless paralytic. Vader's spinal injury would also have left him unable to breathe unaided as it would sever the connection between the lungs and the medula oblongata&mdash;the part of the brain which controls the muscular movements for breathing. A person would require a respirator if the spinal cord was severed at any of the first three cervical vertebrae. At the fourth vertebra, a respirator would be beneficial, but not needful.

Vader could breathe shallowly and talk in a low and laboured voice with his mask off just before his death. If he had injury at the first or second vertebra, he might have been unable to speak that clearly for that long because the nerves that activated the diaphragm left the spinal cord at these levels and below. It came from several levels, beginning at nerve within the first vertebra and going down to the forth or fifth vertebra. The farther up the spinal cord the severance occurred, the fewer systems that could operate. Once neurons in the central nervous system were severed, they never grew back by natural means. Vader must have had some circuits that bypassed the damage in his spinal cord, because he was very agile. If he had not, he would have been bed-ridden. Bone was broken at the second and third vertebra, and possibly the first, and fourth too. The spinal cord itself is not broken until the third or fourth vertebra. The severance must be nearly but not totally complete, as he retained the ability to breathe weakly for at least a few seconds unaided. There could have been other breaks lower on the spine, but they wouldn't make his condition any worse than it already was.

Height
Anakin Skywalker had the torso of an exceptionally tall man. When he was penetrated by the lighting that caused his skeleton to glow, you could see that his torso was essentially original and sized in proportion to his armor. In his late teen years, Anakin exceeded his master's height and he was still growing. As Darth Vader he was riddled with prosthetics, but his body was in excellent proportion. His limbs were not out of scale with his head and torso; he did not undergo any cosmetic ad hoc limb extension. Thus Anakin Skywalker, as an unharmed adult and via his natural genetic potential, was destined to be an exceptionally tall man, over two meters in height.

History
"He lives."

- A medical droid to Palpatine

Origin
Shortly before the Second Battle of Coruscant, Obi-Wan and Anakin were sent to the icy planet of Nelvaan to seek out Grievous. The Nelvaanians hailed Anakin as "Ghost Hand", and the shaman of Rokrul village sent him on a quest to save their people from a threat that had vanquished all their champions. Anakin agreed, and entered a cave where he experienced visions of a great hunter, who lost his arm in battle. However, he fought back, and continued to slay monsters with a new black, spiky arm. As he slew the monsters, his power grew until it was out of control, the spiky black arm turning into a spiky black labyrinth that encompassed and destroyed everything the warrior held dear. Padmé's voice was screaming as the sinister black labyrinth of evil that had once been the great warrior's arm turned back upon the source and morphed what remained of the great hunter into an eerie face—the face of Darth Vader, whom Anakin would soon become.

Upon his return to Coruscant after the Second Battle of Coruscant, Anakin was reunited with his wife where she informed him of her pregnancy, which he was overjoyed to hear. However, he was later troubled by visions of Padmé dying in childbirth. To save his wife, Anakin became desperate, and was easy prey for Palpatine so slowly deceive with tales of saving someone's life through the dark side. Later, when Palpatine finally revealed himself to be Darth Sidious, Anakin was torn, and in his desperation to save the only one who bore the knowledge of saving his wife's life, he caused the death of Mace Windu. While still dazed by what he had just done, and in a weak state of mind, Anakin gave in to Palpatine's temptation to turn to the dark side and was christened Darth Vader.

Having gained this apprentice, Sidious commanded him to go to the Jedi Temple and kill all within, and, when that was finished, to go to the nearby planet of Mustafar and kill the Separatist Council - and supposedly bring peace to the new Galactic Empire. On Mustafar, the corrupted Vader then began his massacre of the Separatist Council. Not long after, Padmé's ship landed outside the bunker, and he ran to meet her. However, she had gone to Mustafar to try to reason with her husband. She told him she wanted to leave public life to live together and raise their child. When he heard this, Vader told Padmé that he could remove Palpatine as Galactic Emperor and that they could rule the galaxy together.

Unbeknownst to her, Obi-Wan had stowed away on her ship to find Vader, and at that moment appeared from the ship. Upon seeing Obi-Wan, Vader thought that Padmé had betrayed him and brought Obi-Wan along to kill him. Overwhelmed by his anger and rage, he used the Force to choke Padmé into unconsciousness. Obi-Wan tried to reason with his former pupil, but Vader refused to listen. Vader and Obi-Wan fought an intense battle throughout the mining complex and down the river of lava outside. The battle ended on the banks of a lava river, where Vader was severely maimed and immobilized by Obi-Wan's blade, which severed his legs and his left arm.

With his body maimed and his ability to use the Force grievously reduced, Vader tried to claw his way up the bank, using only his remaining prosthetic limb. Shortly after, the heat of the lava ignited Vader's clothing, burning his body severely. He fell onto a slope of volcanic sand, and slid helplessly to the edge of a lava river. His body ignited due to heat radiated off that flow. His lungs were scorched by the hot gases he inhaled. As the flames started to subside, Vader kept himself to stay alive with the dark side of the Force, his rage, and his unbreakable will, clawing his way back up the bank with his still intact mechanical arm, struggling against his extreme injuries.

Darth Sidious, newly declared Emperor of the Galactic Empire, soon arrived and snatched what remained of Vader's body from the bank of the lava river, placing him on a medical capsule, willing him to live. He then took Vader back to Coruscant, repairing the damage to Vader's body through intensive cybernetic enhancements with help from arcane Sith healing techniques at the newly renamed Emperor Palpatine Surgical Reconstruction Center. He was repaired and rebuilt by a hypersophisticated prototype Ubrikkian DD-13 surgical droid and an enhanced FX-6. They had spent many days remaking him, the Ubrikkian "Galactic Chopper" DD-13 oversaw the installation of his cybernetic implants, prosthetic limbs, and synthetic organs. The FX-9 performed numerous blood transfusions and stabilized the terrible damage done to Vader's eyes, vocal cords, scalp, face, arms, legs, and especially his lungs, which had been scarred, and were now mostly dead alveoli and constricted passages. Both droids spent much time connecting Vader’s severed nerve endings to new robotic parts

His injuries were severe, with the lower half of his body being more extensively affected. Though he sustained other injuries afterwards, the worst of Vader's injuries result from what happened to him when he fell into the lava river on Mustafar.

Upon his revival as a cyborg, Vader questioned his Master about Padmé. Sidious told him that he had killed his wife in his anger. Overwhelmed by his despair in the belief he had killed his wife and unborn child, which was seemingly a self-fulfilled prophecy, Vader destroyed the medical droids and severely damaged the facility through the Force. The only thing that remained in Anakin's life was his service to the new Emperor.

Life and death
During the first few months of living in the suit, Vader felt trapped by the suit, but after a short while he had learned to use it for both intimidation and isolation. It allowed him to feel separate from all the beings around him. At times he enjoyed having his black suit, as it gave him a menacing presence that garnered respect and fear. Also because of his suit, Vader felt a kind of kinship with the clones because they, too, were seemingly ‘dependent’ on their armor, and were almost never seen without it. To compensate for his lack of facial and eye expressions, Vader learned to use simple body language. However, Palpatine on at least one occasion threatened to use Force lightning against Vader as a way of showing how much more powerful the Emperor was in comparison and how easy it would be to dispose of him.

Not long after his reconstruction, Bol Chatak, a Jedi, fought Vader on Kashyyyk, and because of Vader having to suddenly readjust his style due to his injuries, the Zabrak managed to injure him before the Jedi was killed. He had cut Vader’s left forearm through the shielding that bulked his glove and had melted some of the artificial ligaments that allowed his hand to pronate. He was able to fix some of it himself with a fine-point laser cutter to remove flaps of armorweave fabric that had been fused by the heat to the alloy beneath, and it was later completely fixed at the EmpPalSuRecon center; giving rise to the fact that perhaps all of his repairs were done there.

Vader’s right hand was again cut off during his fight at the Conclave on Kessel when he was searching for Obi-Wan Kenobi. The mechanical hand, still grasping its cortosis blade, was picked up via the Force and used to kill Koffi Arana. During the ensuing fight, Vader’s suit was damaged and torn open at the left shoulder, and lower arm, and both of his upper legs as well as his back, yet he did not seem terribly weakened, soon afterwards he could stand and function well. When all except Tsui Choi was killed, the desperate Jedi threw his ligthsaber at Vader. As the Sith Lord deflected it back to kill the Jedi, it sliced a bit into his mask, but he afterwards seemed to have no trouble breathing. This could be because it was relatively shallow and not near the mouth and was still pressurized in that area, that it damaged no vital functions or that if it did, or that there was sufficient backup.

Later, Darth Vader hired Boba Fett to capture an Imperial named Abal Karda and, more importantly, the box he would be found carrying. Upon learning what the box contained—directly violating Vader's instructions—Fett contemplated keeping it for himself. Vader had followed Fett to Maryx Minor and the two engaged in battle over control of the box. Boba Fett shot Darth Vader in the forehead during this duel, but it merely scraped his helmet, not penetrating.

While an uprising of several Falleen tried to assassinate Vader for what he had done to their homeworld Xora stabbed Vader in the torso, probably intentionally missing his chest plate to go for the softer material beside it. The injury did not seem to faze him in the least. Also during his fight, he was shot in the left shoulder, which as well did not slow him.

After being forced to crash-land on Vaal after the destruction of the first Death Star, Vader was attacked by several of the native creatures, who ripped his cape and his right glove, showing the metallic arm beneath.

Abroad the second Death Star, Vader confronted and fought his son, Luke, losing to him with the youth sliced off his right hand. However, seeing what he had done, Luke forfeited the fight, throwing away his ligthsaber and refusing to go on. Upon seeing this, Palpatine began to pelt Luke with Force lightning, until his father was so overcome with emotion that he picked up the Emperor and threw him into a deep pit, getting jolted with intense amounts of Force lightning in the process and short-circuiting his life-support. Although the most probable immediate cause of death was lack of oxygen to the brain and possibly some degree of depressurization shock when the breath-mask was removed, Vader claimed that he could not avoid dying anyhow. This is generally taken to mean that he was already mortally wounded, or else he suffered critical damage to an irreplaceable life-support system. Vader's mortal injury was inflicted by the Emperor's lightning. The lightning which lashed Vader was of a lethal intensity. The energies which Palpatine had previously used to strike Luke were less powerful, intended merely to cause agony and torment. When Vader seized him, Palpatine intensified his output, with the intention of finishing Luke. These discharges were absorbed by Vader rather than his son. The remarkable intensity of these final energetic bursts&mdash;exceeding the shocks that had tormented Luke&mdash;was evident in the way they heated Vader's bones enough for to glow visibly through his flesh and clothing. The outbursts were brief enough not to roast him totally, but the instantaneous peak power is remarkable. Luke's skeleton never reached this incandescence, even for an instant.

Luke Skywalker suffered lingering effects from the milder Force lightning he had experienced a few days after the encounter. His medical droid identified some bone damage, and prescribed rest and recuperation. The nature of the damage isn't made clear, but it was specific to the bones. It seems possible that the effect of Palpatine's lighting on Vader's bones was similar but orders of magnitude greater in severity.

The glove of Darth Vader
However, the right glove of his suit remained intact when the Death Star II exploded, having been ensnared within a piece of the wreckage that landed on the watery world of Dac; having been pulled through a wormhole created by the explosion of the hypermatter in the Death Star's core. This glove was a Mandalorian crushgaunt fitted around one of Lord Kaan's indestructible Sith Amulets. In 5 ABY, Kadann, a Prophet of the Dark Side, foretold that a new Emperor would soon arise, and on his hand he would wear the glove of Darth Vader. Unlike the left-hand glove, the right glove was made to be indestructible, a symbol of evil that would survive forever. After Luke cut off Darth Vader's right hand in their lightsaber duel, the glove was believed to have been hurled out into space when the Death Star exploded.

When a humanoid mutant named Trioculus tried to gain control of what remained of the Empire, The Prophets of the Dark Side would not let him take control because had not the glove. Thus, he set out to find it. Though he already had loyalty from much of the Grand Moffs, he sought the glove to quiet any remaining doubts about him. Trioculus determined to find Vader's glove before any other contender for the throne did, and in doing so win the support of the false Kadann. He ordered the Moffs to begin a galaxy-wide search for the glove using probe droids; first he sent droids to the forest moon of Endor to scan the area, as that was the place the glove was most likely to rest&mdash;if anywhere at all. As faith in Trioculus began to diminish amongst his supporters, the warlord grew desperate. However, he had a stroke of luck when an Imperial agent, Captain Dunwell, discovered several pieces of the Death Star's debris near the Seascape Mountains, in the Valley of the Giant Oysters on Mon Calamari, one of which had revealed the outline of a glove when scanned.

Trioculus and Hissa immediately set out for Mon Calamari, where they were greeted by Dunwell at his Whaladon Processing Center, a poaching operation for the native sentient Whaladon species. In his Whaladon-hunting submarine, Dunwell took Trioculus and Hissa to the site of the wreckage. Secretly followed by Luke Skywalker and Admiral Ackbar in a Calamarian minisub, Trioculus retrieved the glove. When Skywalker and Ackbar's minisub was accidentally captured by one of Dunwell's Whaladon-capturing devices, Luke infiltrated the vessel and triggered its self-destruct. Trioculus and Hissa narrowly escaped, the warlord vowing to have his vengeance on Skywalker.

The gauntlet's value as a symbol was of little use to the three-eyed mutant, but its potential for use as a weapon was considered to be incalculable. It was his belief that the glove was actually a mystical relic that provided its wearer with the ability to telekinetically attack others from a distance, as Trioculus was ignorant of the fact that this ability was an aspect of Darth Vader's aptitude with the Force, and had nothing at all to do with his glove - something he later found out. So, he had his droid, Emdee, outfit the glove with technology that could simulate Vader's Force Choke, by making whomever it was pointed at gasp and fall to their knees, after this, their eardrums would explode and their brains disintegrate. However, he soon abandoned its use after discovering that utilizing it too often resulted in periods of blindness&mdash;as well as withering his hand. Trioculus commanded that his servants create an exact replica of the glove, the fate of Vader's actual gauntlet remains unknown, although the Bimm merchant Glah Ubooki later claimed he had recovered it.

Discomfort and limitations
"You are so far less now than what you were, you are more than half machine, you are like a painter gone blind, a composer gone deaf, you can remember where the power was but the power you can touch is only a memory…"

- Darth Vader's thoughts

He was dismayed by the incompetence of the medical droids responsible for his resurrection in Sidious's lofty laboratory on Coruscant.

While he retained his knowledge of the Jedi arts, he felt uncertain about his place in the Force; and while he had taken his first steps toward awakening the power of the dark side, he felt uncertain about his ability to sustain that power. How far he might have been now had fate not intervened to strip him of almost everything he possessed, as a means of remaking him!

Where Darth Sidious had gained everything, Vader had lost everything, including-for the moment, at least-the self-confidence and unbridled skill he had demonstrated as Anakin Skywalker.

Vader was hampered by his injuries, and he knew he never could achieve his full potential because of it.

The synthskin that substituted for what was seared from his bones itched incessantly, and his body needed to be periodically cleansed and scrubbed of necrotic flesh.

His electrical systems were delicate.

The incessant rasp of his breathing interfered with his ability to rest, let alone sleep. And sleep, in the rare moments it came to him, was a nightmarish jumble of twisted, recurrent memories that unfolded to excruciating sounds.

Vader’s breathing hinders him from sleeping, and his cybernetic limbs strain against his ruined flesh, as if they resented inactivity even more than action.

Sounds registered as if issuing from underwater. Worse, the implanted sensors lacked sufficient discrimination, so that too many ambient sounds were picked up, and their distance and direction were difficult to determine. Sometimes the sensors needled him with feedback, or attached echo or vibrato effects to even the faintest noise.

The pectoral armor that protected the artificial lung weighed him down, as did the electrode-studded collar that supported the outsize helmet, the delicate systems of the mask, and the ragged scars in his hairless head, which owed as much to what he had endured on Mustafar as to attempts at emergency trephination during the trip back to Coruscant aboard Sidious's shuttle.

The weighty cloak and pectoral plating so restricted his movement that he could scarcely lift his arms over his head.

After Boba Fett set off the smoke detonator that nearly blew Vader off the edge, Vader is shown to be holding onto the ledge with his hands – held above his head.

Vader could shrug.

The sleeves of the bodysuit didn't hug the prostheses as they should, and the elbow-length gloves sagged and bunched at his wrists.

Only the right arm prosthesis felt natural to him-though it, too, was artificial&mdash;and the pneumatic mechanisms that supplied articulation and support were sometimes slow to respond.

As a result of having artificial arms, Darth Vader would never be able to conjure Sith lightning&mdash;nor be invulnerable to it.

The monitoring panel beeped frequently and for no reason, and the constellation of lights served only as steady reminders of his vulnerability.

Antinnis Tremayne once deactivated Vader’s suit by pressing the chest control panel.

Instead of using durasteel [for his boots], the medical droids had substituted an inferior alloy, and had failed to inspect the strips that protected the electromotive lines. As a result, the inner lining of the pressurized bodysuit was continually snagging on places where the strips were anchored to knee and ankle joints.

The tall boots were a poor fit for his artificial feet, whose claw-like toes lacked the electrostatic sensitivity of his equally false fingertips. These devices made it even more difficult for him to move with ease, much less with any grace. Raised in the heel, the cumbersome footgear canted him slightly forward, forcing him to move with exaggerated caution lest he stumble or topple over. Worse, they were so heavy that he often felt rooted to the ground, or as if he were moving in high gravity.

What good was motion of this sort, if he was going to have to call on the Force even to walk from place to place! He may as well have resigned himself to using a repulsor chair and abandoned any hope of movement.

Vader had a custom airspeeder made for him to fit into and drive comfortably.

Notes and references
Darth Vaders Rüstung