You’ve probably seen the image of Darth Vader in a white suit instead of his usual black. It looks like some secret upgrade—so naturally the next question is: what’s the story behind it? How did Vader survive, and how did he end up in white?
The twist is that “white Vader” isn’t from the main canon timeline. It comes from Star Wars Infinities: Return of the Jedi, a non-canon “what if?” story that rewrites the movie by changing one key moment and following the alternate outcome from there.
The Story Starts at Jabba’s Palace
Everything in this “white suit” timeline starts with the rescue of Han on Tatooine. Leia comes in as Boushh, trying to do the same quiet negotiation play from the movie—Chewbacca as the “prisoner,” C-3PO translating, keep the mask on until Han is safely out.
Infinities breaks the whole plan with one stupid little accident: Jabba knocks C-3PO over and he gets damaged, which means Leia suddenly doesn’t have a translator anymore.
Once Threepio is out, Leia can’t keep doing the “Boushh negotiation” anymore. She drops the act, shows Jabba who she really is, and tries to force the deal with the thermal detonator.
But it doesn’t cleanly intimidate the room the way it does in the movie. In this version, Leia gets hit in the chaos and the detonator slips—still live. That’s the moment everything breaks. Jabba’s throne room turns into a disaster zone, and the palace gets wrecked in the blast.
And while that’s happening, Fett doesn’t just stand there and watch it burn. He uses the confusion to get what he actually cares about: he escapes with Han’s carbonite block. By the time the smoke clears, Han is gone with Boba, Leia ends up taking control of Jabba’s sail barge, and the whole rescue has basically split into multiple emergencies at once.
The Domino Effect: Han’s Blindness and Leia Going to the Death Star
After that Jabba disaster, the problem isn’t just “we failed the rescue.” It turns into a chase. Fett gets away with Han still frozen, so Leia, Chewie, and Lando have to track him down and get the carbonite back the hard way.
They eventually recover Han, but it’s not a clean win. When the Rebels thaw him out, the damage from the carbonite setup leaves him permanently blind. That changes everything going into Endor, because now the Rebel team is heading into the biggest battle of the war with Han compromised from the start.
Then the next hit lands on Leia. Back on the Rebel flagship, she hears Luke’s recorded message—the one that reveals the twin truth and that Vader is their father. And right after that, she gets another transmission explaining Luke has been captured and that no rescue attempt should be made. Leia doesn’t accept that. She takes Slave I (which they have after dealing with Fett) and heads straight for the Death Star to go after Luke herself.
Meanwhile the war still moves forward. Lando takes the Falcon into the space battle, and even with Han blind, Han insists on being part of it—he ends up taking a role on the Falcon while Chewie is injured. The Endor ground fight also goes sideways in this version, because the Ewoks get disturbed and start attacking both sides, turning the battlefield into even more of a mess.
Luke and Leia Get Vader Off the Death Star
Leia makes it to the Death Star, but she doesn’t get anywhere near Luke on her own terms. She’s captured and brought in front of Palpatine, and that’s when the situation turns into a trap for all three of them Luke, Leia, and Vader.
Palpatine orders Vader to kill Leia. Luke snaps, ignites his saber, and goes straight at Vader. It becomes the throne room duel from the movie, but with Leia right there in the middle of it, and Palpatine using her as the pressure point instead of just standing back and watching.
The fight keeps escalating until Luke finally forces the truth out loud: Leia is his sister, and they’re Vader’s children. Vader still overpowers Luke (and Luke still loses an arm in this version), but when it’s time to finish them, he can’t do it. Instead of following Palpatine’s order, Vader stops. He surrenders. That’s the moment the story treats as him turning back—Anakin coming back to the surface.
The fight keeps escalating until Luke finally forces the truth out loud: Leia is his sister, and they’re Vader’s children. Vader still overpowers Luke, but when it’s time to finish them, Vader can’t do it. Instead of following Palpatine’s order, Vader stops. He surrenders. That’s the moment the story treats as him turning back—Anakin coming back to the surface.
Then it turns into a rescue. With the battle collapsing around the station, Luke and Leia get their wounded father to the docking bay where the Falcon is waiting, and they get off the Death Star before it explodes. Palpatine escapes too, which is why the story doesn’t end with “the Emperor’s dead”—it ends with the idea that the war’s still on, just with Vader now on a different side.
After that, we get the visual payoff. Vader doesn’t suddenly “heal” and walk away as normal Anakin—he’s still wrecked and he still needs the life-support system. The difference is what it represents now. Once he’s with the Rebels, he shows up as Anakin again, but still wearing the same basic survival gear—just redesigned into a white version of the life-support armor instead of the black Vader suit.
