Are there any sources that talk about about Darth Vader's visual acuity?
His life-supporting armour is quite advanced but does it provide any useful augmentation to his visual abilities?
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1Remember Geordi from Star Trek?– Dr. DoomCommented Oct 10, 2014 at 12:41
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Is there anyone on this site who thinks that my question doesn't need to be edited? Edit on edit of edit...– dllhellCommented Jan 13, 2015 at 18:22
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What and how does Darth Vader see? Stuff and very well, thank you.– ThePopMachineCommented Feb 12, 2020 at 2:28
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4 Answers
The novel Allegiance establishes that Darth Vader's vision is, in several ways, actually worse than a normal human's. Mara Jade describes his visual interface as "having both the benefits and drawbacks of that technology." He is depicted as taking longer than a normal human to adjust to changes in ambient light; in other words, his vision blanks out if someone switches the lights on or off, just as would be the case with modern night-vision goggles.
Mara also acknowledges that this would not be the case with more modern visual interfaces; Vader's General Grievous-type interface is old, and not up to the standard of modern devices. You see a similar issue with the differences between Anakin Skywalker's artificial hand and his son Luke's. The design was meant to preserve his life, not to preserve it comfortably; in Shadows of the Empire, Vader himself mentions that even the act of breathing is extremely painful.
I do not know of any other sources on Vader's visual abilities. I would assume that, unlike a stormtrooper or Mandalorian combat helmet, Vader's helmet does not allow him a full 360 degree view of his surroundings, merely because that ability is never mentioned in any sources on Vader, whereas it is mentioned in multiple sources about Boba Fett and stormtroopers. Similarly, infrared and ultraviolet spectrum vision is never mentioned. For all intents and purposes, it seems that Vader has a fairly slapped-together system, which cannot be upgraded without killing him.
answered Oct 9, 2014 at 13:19
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21There's a brief shot from Vader's point-of-view at the end of Episode 3, as the mask is lowered onto his face. He seems to have a head-up display to show text information (presumably status indicators for his suit), but a rather restricted field of vision. Commented Oct 9, 2014 at 14:44
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47For what it's worth, I assume Vader's mastery of the Force would more than compensate for any limitations in his visual systems. Commented Oct 9, 2014 at 14:51
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3Yes this is very much in keeping with the idea of the force being able to compensate for impaired vision. Commented Oct 9, 2014 at 23:58
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10So let me get this straight: they can travel at lightspeed and make sentient robots, but their night vision tech is worse than ours?– GaiusCommented Oct 10, 2014 at 13:25
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There is a lot of detail about Vader's amor in the Wookieepedia.
It includes the following about the vision:
The eye lens acted as optical filters, allowing for Vader to expand the limits of human vision by detecting infrared and ultraviolet wavelengths, while also blocking out excess light, due to the inability to repair Vader's damaged retinas. In addition, the lens also came equipped with a HUD that supplied critical data automatically as an overlay if Vader entered new environments, including information about atmospheric composition, nearby bio-signatures, and others, which could also be selected via the mouth controls. The lens, likewise, came equipped with secondary eyeshields that activate within 5 milliseconds and automatically sliding over the optical blisters to prevent blindness when approaching intense light.
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Man this really begs the question... if he can detect infrared how come he couldn't see Luke hiding under the broken bridge on the Deathstar 2.0 in Return of the Jedi?!– JaredCommented Oct 10, 2014 at 7:41
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8@Jared, see him? why would he need to see Luke to spot him when he can sense him with the Force? Why didn't he sense Luke either? Maybe Luke can hide his heat and Force signature using the Force as well...– KreannCommented Oct 10, 2014 at 12:04
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1@Deion: The ability to hide oneself using the Force is an ability practiced by Luke in the EU. Palpatine also practices it before he proclaims himself Emperor, but by far the greatest practitioner of the art is Vergere, who is able to disguise her Force presence from Jedi Grand Master Luke Skywalker despite sitting directly in front of him. So you might have that right. Commented Oct 11, 2014 at 1:27
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4"Maybe Luke can hide his heat and Force signature using the Force as well..." And here we have the essential problem with trying to reason about magic. Commented Oct 11, 2014 at 16:40
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@Deion - he didn't need to sense him he already knew he was there, hence the taunts etc.– JaredCommented Oct 12, 2014 at 11:06
The Lucasfilm licensed sourcebook "Darth Vader : A 3-D Reconstruction" contains a wealth of detail about Darth's suit, transformation and an entire section about his visual capacity.
As you can see from the image below, his retinas were permanently injured. The suit augments his vision while protecting his eyes from excessive light and expanding his ability to view ultra-violet and infra-red wavelengths. There is also a mocked-up version to show how he views the Emperor.
This ties in very nicely with the in-helmet view of his vision that we get at the end of Episode III.
In a role-playing game for starwars, there was an entire force-sensitive race that was blind, but the only thing they could use the force for is see. Darth Vader could do that.
