At the end of Star Wars Episode VI: The Return of the Jedi, Darth Vader died at the hands of Emperor Palpatine and his Magical Electric Fingers of Death. But according to The Rise of Skywalker, Palpatine survived being chucked down a huge deep hole that he’d had built in the middle of his throne room for some reason by using the power of the Dark Side to transfer his consciousness… somewhere for safekeeping.
So a member of the Star Wars subreddit imagined what Darth Vader would have looked like if he had also survived, and also he decided to ditch the all-black ensemble in favor of something that looks like the uniform of the Swiss Guard at the Vatican or perhaps a clown.
In user Jman5520’s conception, Vader wears a flowing red-and-purple ensemble with a matching lightsaber that flows red-to-purple like a Rocket Pop popsicle. He still retains his lower face covering his respiratory mask, and his eyes now glow red in his scar-set face.
Most interesting is the idea that the recovery process would have allowed Vader, last seen in Jedi completely bald, to recover some of the lush locks of hair that he had in Hayden Christensen’s portrayal of the then-Anakin Skywalker. In Jman’s artistic rendering, Vader has a small but thick wave of grey hair that’s combed right down the middle.
Reaction from fellow Redditors has been mostly positive, with several expressing doubt that Vader will ever regain his head of hair:
And another user pointed out that Vader now resembles a Spongebob Squarepants character:
And Jman came in to defend his gradient saber concept:
