CT What would've happened to Vader had he lived after ROTJ?

I've always wondered this. Would he have turned himself in so he could stand trial for his numerous war crimes? Would the Rebellion have then used him to help them defeat the imperial remnants?

Or, what if the Rebellion, in their eyes, decided that there was no redeeming Vader for all of the evil he has committed, and sentences him for execution? Would Luke have gone along with that, or would he and Vader have gone into hiding so that they could live the rest of their lives as father and son somewhere peacefully?

What do you think would've happened?

 

Best case scenario: he's kept under strict lock and key, being used only as a military asset to help them bring down the rest of the Empire.

Worst case scenario: he stands trial and is executed.

If Luke had the senses, he wouldn't do anything to piss off the Rebels by trying to defend who, to them, is the second most evilest man in the galaxy.

 

Does Luke say "come away with me" or "run away with me" ? Oh, hang on...is that to Vader or Leia??

 

Seriously, Luke would have had to secret his crippled father away to protect him, and the two would have become fugitives. Half the Galaxy would be seeking to exact justice on Vader.

Luke might even have become regarded by a wide group of people as a collaborator and been assassinated like Ghandi or Michael Collins. Not joking.

 

Return of the Jedi: Infinities shows Vader offering to help hunt down Palpatine - and the Rebel leadership seem to be willing to go along with this, rather than insist Vader be locked up.

 

Yes, that Infinities story is bad ass. In it, because Han's carbonite sickness makes him blind for longer Leia and Han are not with ground forces on Endor. This leads to Leia being in the throne room with Palpatine, Vader and Luke.

The altered sequence of events leads to Palpatine escaping before getting a chance to mortally wound Vader. Vader returns with Luke and Leia and a white costume (so cool, though some dislike) and says he will help find and bring Palpatine to justice. The implication to me was that Vader would probably die in such a final confrontation along with Palpatine which I found to be a satisfying idea.

The rebellion was able to accept it because in the story they see Leia get a holo message from Luke that explains their family history (briefly).

 

I think some hotheads would want to kill him, understandably so... But he would've lived his life out as a refugee. Luke would've protected him.

 

I'm thinking he would have been treated like any other high-ranking defector. As long as he proved sufficiently useful, he probably could have cut a deal.

Now that I think about it, weren't several of the Rebel leaders former Imperials? I'm guessing that they probably also had some bad stuff on their records, but probably not to the level of Vader.

I'm not at all convinced that Luke would try to shield his father from the consequences of his acts, other than simply advocating for him. If Vader spent the rest of his life in a small cell, it certainly wouldn't be a miscarriage of justice, and Luke would have to concede that.

 

I'm thinking Vader and some higher up officers in the empire would have their version of the Nurnberg trials.

I think the rebels as a whole would be far less forgiving of Vader than Luke was.

 

I enjoyed reading those.

In the films themselves, had Vader survived, I imagine that the Rebels would have appreciated any help they could get against surviving Imperial officers from Vader. Although some might not trust him and fear him, the fact that he had turned on Palpatine to save Luke would help many to forgive and trust him.

 

I think he would have been kept under lock and key, but used for useful intelligence before that ran out and he was thrown into a deep hole somewhere

 

In the hands of New Republic authorities, his cybernetic limbs would have been stripped from him except for an external iron lung, and he would have been wheeled around by Death Star droids while lying flat on a gurney inside of a breathing chamber. That way his classic raspy breath would have still announced his presence, but he would lack any Force powers except for precognition... which the Republic would use to their extreme advantage, as he envisioned and revealed the location of Imperial sympathizers.

 

You really think Luke would've allowed them to do that to him? I think he would've stressed humane treatment for Vader, no matter how monstrous he had been.

 

Well, I was mostly kidding. Just an exercise in imagination.

But I mean... why not? There are people in iron lungs today, or there were until very recently. The stripping of his robot limbs would be for protection against the chance of a slip back into the Dark Side. This is a murderer of children and beloved colleagues, after all.

 

If you like fanfiction. I recommend it.

The Trial of Darth Vader

 

I think we can all agree it's a good thing Anakin passed when he did. It would've been a terrible and boring life after ROTJ and the fall of the Empire. He would've been so isolated

 

It's a little Silence of the Lambs. Vader locked away in a remote facility, occasionally visited by Special Agents looking for hints on dealing with some new Dark Force psychopath on the loose. Half a Maul in a neighboring cell.

"Keep alert. He'll get into your head."
And of course he manages to start Force controlling Clarise, and guards have to pull her out before it goes too far.

 

He probably wouldn't have been executed if he had helped dismebering the Empire remanants, but i have a hard time imagining him locked up in a cell, or in contact with other inmates.

If i had to guess, i'd say i would have been exiled on some "island" like what hapened to Napoleon.
(in his case, replace island by some isolated planet/moon/asteroid)

 

I'm not sure the Rebellion would waste Vader by locking him up forever. If Luke managed to convince everyone that Vader really was good now, he would easily have become the Rebels' most valuable asset, considering his power with the Force, his knowledge of the inner workings of the Empire, and the reputation and influence he'd built up over the years.

Odds are he'd have gotten a new set of armor, though, one that didn't absolutely scream "evil monster".

 

Or just repaint the old suit, a la ROTJ: Infinities:

 

There would be droves of people, out to get him, once he did not have the Empire to back him up.

The survivors of both Alderaan, and Prince Xisor's homeworld, for example.

Be like those folks who hunted down the Butcher of Renatasia, from the Lando Calrissian trilogy.

 

Though I know this was mostly written in the spirit of humor, I actually quite love this idea. As you say later, it would be wise to remove all but the life support systems, maybe leave him with limited mobility... Allow him to assist in whatever fashion he can given these limitations (or just exile somewhere with supervision/security measures).

I think that, or the obvious military-trial-followed-by-execution would be most likely.

Now that I'm rambling about it, though, it'd be interesting to see Luke tempted to go
"too far" to protect his father (perhaps, having passed his major trial, he lowers his guard a bit only to be put to the test once more...)

I donno. I just love Star Wars lol

 

Also: I'm not against the white armor, aesthetically, but I think Anakin would be wiser to go in a different direction. I don't think the victims of the empire would be comfortable with Darth Stormtrooper gallivanting around. Better to make himself look less imposing.

At least put a yellow smiley face on the chest plate or something...

 

Personally, I think we never would have seen Luke and Anakin again. Luke would've piloted the Imperial Shuttle away from Endor. I was thinking perhaps to Tatooine. The 2 of them living like hermits like Kenobi. Luke learning even more from the Force from his father, and training the occasional Padawan who managed to find them through the Force.

 

I like the idea that Vader and Luke escape and they remake Anakin's apperance, give him a new identity and such, the reintroduce him into society.