Now I’ve struggled with Vader’s mask in Wells for a while now, just trying to make sense of how it works in absence of the full helmet, with how it’s been shown to function. I know in your reply to my comment on Wells that at the time, you were inspired by Bucky from the MCU, but I wanna share my current headcanon for Vader’s mask!
That being, Ralph McQuarrie’s concept art of Deak Starkiller! I feel like it fits super well with how the mask is implied to be somewhat bulky, fitting both the vocabulator and respiratory systems inside, while also allowing Vader and Palpatine to remove it, and also falling off when Obi-Wan slices at it. It’s also just cool on a meta level; Starkiller being a woman in an early draft of ANH, Vader being a woman👀
It’s not a complete rip though! I do think the tubes go down to the chest control panel like in the Clone pilot’s outfits (I know the air-filtration system is on the back in canon, but I don’t see how tubes can work with the cloak without it looking clunky in a bad way, plus it fits with Vader wheezing whenever the control panel is damaged!). It’s also fitting with Vader’s suit being made up of relatively common cybernetics, I can just imagine Palpatine having a dead clone pilot scavenged for the chest piece.
“But how is this mask sealed? How does it stay on?” I hear you cry! The answer is needles. The edges of the mask has tiny needles that dig into her skin and seal up the skin to prevent any contamination from the outside, or oxygen leaking. Normally when she takes the mask off, she’ll just press a button or something to cause the needles to retract back into the mask. Palpatine didn’t really do that the first time. Plus during that one fight with Obi-Wan, I imagine when he was flinging rocks at her, the retraction mechanism was damaged so when the mask fell off, the needles stayed embedded into her skin.
And Vader’s helmet already has needles sticking into his head, why not bring those back!
Okay first off. I don't think I've ever seen that breakdown page of Vader's suit before (or if I have it was along time ago) and jesus fucking christ that man is literally trapped in a living hell. Like I KNEW the Vader suit was a medical horror, and Vader quite literally could not survive without it, but I hadn't considered that he's quite actively rotting away in there because as far as his body is concerned, he's basically dead. No cell growth happening, no healing, there would not be breathing or heart activity if it wasn't for the machines. There is actively necrotizing flesh inside that suit! he's gotta get his blood scrubbed clean of infection because he'd got no fuckin immune system! He's literally rotting.
Awful, terrible existence. 10/10 conses of his quences but jfc i wouldn't wish that on my worst enemy.
Now onto Wells-Vader's mask. Lacking the full-body 3rd degree burns, she thankfully doesn't need to be in a hermetically sealed life support suit to keep her rotting corpse shambling around for another 20 years. Vader's major injuries were the burns that scarred her face and torso (likely needing grafts to heal), her missing limbs, and the damage to her lungs from the toxic volcanic gasses.
I've always envisioned it as sort of a half-suit kind of get up. Vader is still Vader and being Big and Strong and Imposing does at least 50% of the work for him. And I think the necessary life-support functions she still needs to keep breathing are included in that. In that way the chest apparatus with all the buttons and lights and tech that keeps her diaphragm moving and that consistent mechanical breathing remains. Depending on how close to medical death she got, she may even have the pacemaker installed to keep her heart functioning as well. Not to mention the other alterations Palpatine could have made while she was under surgery. But hey, at least Vader gets to keep her skin this time. So that's one less thing to suffer through.
But the mask, in my head it still closely resembles the iconic Darth Vader mask from about the cheek down. Obviously without the full helmet for every day use (though I think there's definitely a version of the full helmet out there for when the full protection is needed). And there's probably a neck piece that goes with it that can help house the vocabulator (as well as serve as protective armor) or it could be nestled in the mouth of the mask as well. Generally, I picture it as having similar bulk and mass to the canon design, with like a built in cannula that rests under the nose (like folks on oxygen wear) to deliver the necessary oxygen and other stuff to Vader.
Again, not being confined to the completely sealed suit, Vader doesn't need a contained source of oxygen, but I imagine there's some cocktail of medications that she does need to have to keep breathing properly. Something to relax the scarred tissue in her lungs, something to assist with the gas exchange, possibly pain medications to make sure every breath is not excruciating. Probably all that and more along with a richer flow of oxygen to keep her functioning. She can breathe without the mask, but not for long, not easily, and not without pain.
But I did kinda forget that Star Wars loves it's chunky tech, and it does love giving people Tubes TM. So she very well could have a mask more like the tubed kind that resembles the pilots and such.
Hell, Vader could have a mask for various occasions. I do think there is a potential weakness in having external, and fragile tubing flapping around your face and neck when you're fighting in close combat. And Vader, who ostensibly has the resources for alternatives for different occasions, could have a combat mask that's got the internal tubing/cannula and fewer flappy bits to get snagged or cut. But there could be a piloting mask, that has the wider tubing for increased oxygen needs in high altitude and/or low oxygen environments. The enclosed helmet for times when Vader's may be going into no-atmosphere situations, or just needs full-coverage protection.
As for sealing the mask - you can get an airtight seal between skin and a soft rubber seal (see common respirators) when worn correctly. Add some straps to keep in in place and your average person has breathing protection. Vader, however, might need a little more insurance, so she's probably got some magnetic implants, because Palpatine really leaned into the whole 'cyborg' thing and it's likely not going anywhere. (And Star Wars also likes magnets or similar when normal straps or arms wouldn't work for a different non-human anatomy). But also, I wouldn't put it past Palpatine to build stabilizing pins into the mask to really help it stay in place (and hurt Vader if her face makes an expression that would press into them - like smiling) because he built Vader's suit as much as a means to keep his apprentice alive as he did to keep Vader in misery for the rest of his life. And oh god the visual of the pins either cutting Vader's face when the mask gets cut away or staying behind despite the damage. *shudders* Nope. Great whump, but of god at what cost.
