Here’s How Darth Vader Was Able to Eat & Drink

It has always been known that Darth Vader wore a suit that kept his face and entire body hidden throughout the entire time that he was known for his Sith Lord name. While that may be true, we do know that Vader was still human even though he was a cybernetic creature that felt no remorse when it came to killing people. That means that he still needed to eat and drink, as those have always been important functions of a human being. So, how did Vader eat and drink while wearing his suit?

Darth Vader’s suit was meant to be a full life-support suit that provided everything his bodily functions needed to stay alive. This included intravenously providing him with the nutrients he needed to survive while wearing the suit. The suit also took care of waste disposal.

Of course, we’ve never seen Darth Vader eating or drinking throughout the entire Star Wars storyline. It also goes without saying that he never excreted any of his waste onscreen. It’s all because he must’ve been doing it subconsciously while wearing his suit, which took care of everything his body needed. That said, let’s look at how Vader could eat and drink.

Why does Vader need to wear his suit?

If there’s one thing that has made the Darth Vader character so special and intimidating, it’s the all-black suit of armor he wears. This suit allows him to look like a cybernetic monster that’s emotionless and remorseless in his approach. But we also know that Vader is human because he started out as a human Jedi named Anakin Skywalker. But why did Anakin even need to wear the suit after he fell to the dark side and became Darth Vader?

It all started during the Duel on Mustafar between Anakin Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi. At that time, Anakin’s powers as a Jedi were still growing. Emperor Palpatine was so excited about the possibility of Anakin becoming the strongest Force wielder in existence. But while Anakin was overpowering Obi-Wan in their duel, it came to a point where his hubris got the best of him.

Obi-Wan, who was on the defensive the entire fight, could retreat to the high ground, which was always an advantage for any fighter. Anakin thought that his powers would be enough to minimize the high-ground advantage that Obi-Wan had. But Kenobi proved his prowess by slicing Anakin’s limbs off with a quick attack while Anakin was still up in the air after a quick jump.

After that, Anakin couldn’t pull himself out of harm’s way as his clothes caught fire in the lava of Mustafar. Obi-Wan left him to burn immediately as his entire body was on fire. Normally, anyone would have died right then and there. But Anakin was fueled by his rage and hatred. Palpatine sensed his apprentice was in trouble, so he rushed in to help him on Mustafar.

The emperor was disappointed with what he saw because he realized that Anakin’s body had been badly damaged and was no longer viable for him to take over in the future. Nevertheless, he still decided to save his apprentice by giving him cybernetic limbs and putting him inside a life-support suit that soon became synonymous with Darth Vader.

Vader needed to be in that suit because his body had been scorched to the point that it could no longer sustain his life. In that regard, the suit was there to provide the necessary functions that his body needed. This included providing him with a breathing apparatus that allowed air to enter his scorched lungs. 

The pressurized mask changed his voice into a deeper and more authoritative one. On top of that, Vader started moving and walking like a cyborg due to the cybernetic parts that made up most of his body. And he needed to stay in that suit to survive because his entire body was burnt, and he could no longer function properly without the aid of the suit.

Darth Vader’s only time away from his suit was when he was in a Bacta Tank or in his Hyperbaric Meditation Chamber. In all other cases, he needed to stay in his suit as this was the only thing keeping him alive while actively pursuing the Rebels.

The suit itself also had other features that allowed Darth Vader to become versatile. He was able to survive in most atmospheres due to the pressurized nature of his mask. There were also neural needles connected to Vader’s spine to ensure he could control the suit using his mind. But there were also pitfalls to his suit.

Of course, the suit was powered by electrical systems. That meant that Darth Vader could not use Force Lightning as doing so would force the lightning to channel through his electrical systems. On top of that, he was also weak to Force Lightning, which was one reason why he could never overthrow Emperor Palpatine, no matter how mighty he had become as a Sith Lord.

Another thing that needs to be considered is that Vader’s suit was supposed to be painful and uncomfortable. This was because the constant pain would force Vader into a never-ending state of agony that would fuel his rage and hatred. The second reason is that the pain would ensure he relied on the Empire for maintenance. As such, he would never be able to rebel against Palpatine as he knew that he needed the Empire to survive.

How did Vader eat and drink?

Of course, as mentioned, Darth Vader was still very much human even though he had cybernetic limbs and was housed inside a life-support suit throughout his entire life as a Sith Lord. Being human meant he still needed to eat and drink, as the body still needed nutrients to survive.

In Darth Vader’s case, he did not need to eat and drink in a conventional way because the suit did all the work for him. Vader was capable of controlling his suit without the need for him to press buttons because it was attached to his spine. In that regard, whenever he needed nutrients, the suit provided him with the nutrients that he needed.

Vader’s suit was quite sophisticated because it gave him the nutrients he needed intravenously. Tubes from the suit were connected to his body so that the suit would give him the food and water that his body needed whenever he was running short of nutrients. In that regard, Vader no longer had to eat food or drink water. And the fact that he could no longer experience the joy of eating good food was probably one of the reasons why he was so darn angry the entire time.

Then again, there were cases wherein he actually ate and drank food without using his suit. In his Hyperbaric Chamber, he often ate and drank through the use of a horrible-tasting concoction that was paste-like in terms of its consistency.

This substance was fed to him through feeding tubes because he could no longer eat or drink in the conventional matter. And his suit might have also had the same feeding tubes that allowed him to consume this paste whenever he needed to.

Of course, he probably didn’t like the taste of this paste, and that’s why he most likely relied on the intravenous intake of his nutrients. In that regard, we do believe that most of his nutrients were provided by his suit intravenously instead of him taking food through feeding tubes.

Where did Vader’s waste go?

Again, Vader was still human for all intents and purposes. That meant that his body still had to process his food and water. This also means that his body needed to excrete waste products at the end of the process. So, where did Vader’s waste go?

In ‘Dark Lord: The Rise of Darth Vader,’ a non-canon novel about Darth Vader, it was explained that he urinated through a catheter. Of course, because this book is non-canon, we can’t say that the canon storyline followed the same system. But it does make sense that he still urinated through a catheter in canon.

Meanwhile, in terms of his solid waste, his suit had a recycling system that collected the waste he excreted from his body. While this was never depicted in canon, it still makes sense that Vader excreted his waste this way because of the fact that there is no other way to explain where his waste went. As such, we are inclined to believe that his suit had everything he needed in terms of his bodily functions, including getting rid of his body’s waste.

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