Kenya Starflight's Reborn trilogy is a set of Star Wars fanfics in which Vader, crash-lands on Yavin 4 after the destruction of the first Death Star. Injured and suffering from amnesia as a result, he finds himself joining the Alliance. It is complete, with four installments.
In in-universe chronological order, they are:
- Innocence
: The first in the series, covering the weeks after the Battle of Yavin. - Experience: Three years later, Vader struggles with some of his darker memories as he and Luke begin their training under Yoda.
- Recompense: A year after Experience, the Skywalkers must rescue Han from Jabba the Hutt and then face the Sith and Empire in a final showdown.
- O My Father: Missing scene from Recompense, in which the late Boba Fett meets with the spirit of his father in the afterlife, following Anakin's trial with the Jedi.
The series contains examples of:
- Acceptable Breaks from Canon: The three main stories were all completed before Revenge of the Sith was released, meaning that certain revelations from that film were not included in the series. Differing details include Vader having only three prosthetic limbs instead of four, Padme living for a few years after giving birth (raising her children on Naboo until she and Obi-Wan took Luke to Tatooine, then Padme alone taking Leia to Alderaan before returning to Naboo and dying), and Palpatine's master being a woman, Darth M'Kbeth, instead of Darth Plagueis.
- The Alleged Car: Experience features a case of The Alleged Droid — Rusty, an R-4 unit that Luke and Vader are forced to use in their fighters (they take turns, with the other getting Artoo). He's a piece of junk who breaks down half the time and is in such bad shape when they arrive in Cloud City that he essentially self-destructs after they get out of their fighters.
- Amnesiac Dissonance: With his original memories, Vader was a monster. Without them, he is a good man, seeking redemption for the crimes he knows he committed. When he gets them back... he's already horrified by what he did, and is even more so when Palpatine forcibly restores his old memories.
- Amnesiacs are Innocent: Mon Mothma's view toward Vader, and part of why she wants him in the Alliance.
- Artificial Limbs:
- Vader has three droid limbs (unlike canon, his left arm is still flesh-and-blood — justified in that all but O My Father were released before Revenge of the Sith, which confirmed Vader had lost his other arm against Obi-Wan Kenobi). They're all replaced with newer bionic prosthetics during Innocence.
- Per canon, Luke loses a hand (at the hands of Darth Kain this time, in retaliation for Luke cutting off part of his arm) and gets a bionic hand to replace it.
- Kain gets a cybernetic prosthetic to replace the hand Luke cut off in their duel.
- The Atoner: After suffering from amnesia, Vader was horrified when he discovered he was a mass murderer, and swore to make up for his crimes. When he gets his memories back, he's even more dedicated to the path of redemption. In the climax of the series, he's given the chance to make up for destroying the Jedi by training one new Jedi for each of the eight thousand that he killed.
- Blood Knight: Darth Kain shows signs of enjoying causing pain to his victims in battle, and laughs cruelly upon wounding Luke.
- Cool Ship: The Desert Angel, Vader's N-1 starfighter that he starts using after repairing and repainting it in Innocence.
- Destroy the Villain's Weapon: Fett's dying request is for Luke to destroy Kain's lightsaber, so he can die as Fett and not a Sith.
- Disproportionate Retribution: The spirits of the Jedi seek to punish Anakin not only for his actions as Vader, but want to punish he and Luke for altering the Jedi Code to suit themselves, by letting him live out the rest of his life either paralyzed or without access to the Force.
- Dying as Yourself: Fett rejects his Sith identity and asks Luke to destroy his lightsaber, allowing him to die as Boba Fett rather than as Darth Kain.
- Even Evil Has Standards: Bounty hunters hate the Sith, and consider Fett, a former hunter, to be "real low" for becoming one.
- Everyone Can See It: Han and Leia's attraction to one another. Likewise, Luke teases Vader about his relationship with Forenze, but Vader insists they're Just Friends. Come the end of the series, and the two wind up engaged on Leia's wedding day.
- Evil Costume Switch: Fett was relatively neutral before, but changes from a battered green and red armor to a slick black one, with the addition of a black cloak, upon becoming a Sith. It's undone when he dies, as his spirit is back in his original armor.
- Evil Tower of Ominousness: The Sith fortress on Byss, where the final battle takes place between the Skywalkers and the Sith.
- Good Costume Switch: Vader desperately wants one to distance himself from his Imperial past, and achieves most of it early on when he's able to shed most of his armor. Unfortunately, he's stuck with the mask for quite some time since it's keeping him alive. He's finally rid of it when, after being tried by the spirits of the Jedi, he's completely healed of his old injuries.
- Grail in the Garbage: A surviving N-1 starfighter from Naboo is discovered in a pile of junk donated by a parts dealer from Nar Shadda, theorized to be the one that was stolen from a Corellian museum years ago. Vader repairs and repaints her into his personal ship, the Desert Angel.
- Heel–Face Turn:
- Vader does this, unintentionally at first due to his amnesia. It sticks when he gets his memories back.
- Admiral Piett secretly defects to the Alliance when he sees Palpatine taking pleasure in the suffering from Han's being carbon-frozen. His first act upon deciding this is to warn Luke and Vader when they land. The pair respond by welcoming him to the Alliance and giving him a code to call for Alliance reinforcements.
- Commander Jerjerrod is accused of treason by the Empire, and changes sides to the Alliance when a group of rebels, including his old friend Piett, rescue him.
- Identity Amnesia: Vader suffers from this, though he does get flashes of his past self.
- Insecure Love Interest: Han essentially feels this way once he learns Luke and Vader are Jedi, and Leia is their sister and daughter (respectively), whereas he's just a nobody. They bring him around rather quickly, and Vader gives Han and Leia his blessing to marry.
- Interspecies Adoption: Vader agreed to be essentially adopted into a Tusken tribe and learn their ways for nine months, making restitution for murdering members of their tribe — the same ones who caused his mother's death in Attack of the Clones — years before.
- Interspecies Romance: Vader and Dr. Forenze's relationship evolves into this after he returns to being Anakin.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Dr. Forenze is cranky most of the time and has a tendency to snap and snark at her patients, but she's a good person at heart.
- Luke, I Am Your Father: Vader discovers early in Innocence that Threepio is the droid he built as a child. Experience has a case of "Luke, he is your father" when Yoda reveals the truth on Dagobah.
- Meaningful Rename: Boba Fett is given the name Darth Kain upon becoming a Sith Apprentice. He changes it back in his dying moments.
- The Medic: Dr. Vlask Forenze, a cranky Fosh and member of the Alliance.
- Name of Cain: Boba Fett takes on the name Darth Kain when he becomes a Sith.
- Not Even Bothering with an Excuse: When their friends find out about Vader being Anakin, Luke being his son and Leia being Luke's twin, they give the trio space to talk. Han, Chewie and Forenze come up with reasons to leave. Lando's is just "I have to... uh... I'll go."
- Original Character: Innocence introduces certain members of Rogue Squadron (including Ghede Ironmoon and Bekme Olie), and most notably, Doctor Vlask Forenze. Experience includes a handful of original bounty hunters (since Kain calls on many more than the five who were present with him in canon), and also introduces the droids Rusty (an R4 unit) and Midnight (a feminine R2 unit who debuts in the last chapter).
- Psychological Torment Zone: The Sith fortress on Byss conjures up images meant to torment non-Sith who enter.
- Redemption Equals Death: Fett, realizing Palpatine was just using him, turns on the other man and is fatally wounded. In retaliation, he gives Luke the code to the Sith fortress's self-destruct, along with a Jedi Holocron that proves the key to Palpatine's final defeat.
- Second Love: Forenze for Anakin.
- Shout-Out:Leia: "Well, how would you describe [Yoda]?"
- Superhuman Transfusion: Boba Fett is given the ability to use the Force through repeated transfusions of midichlorian-rich blood, though he needs more of it to keep the power up (since his body isn't producing more midichlorians on its own).
- Take Up My Sword: Thirty-five years after its original owner's death, Vader inherits the lightsaber of Qui-Gon Jinn.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech:
- Vader does a small one in Experience, remarking to Yoda that of the Jedi's attitude toward emotion, believing all kinds to be a risk, is probably why the galaxy stood by and did nothing when the Emperor destroyed the Jedi — they had nothing in common with the Order anymore.
- During the Jedi Order's trial of Anakin Skywalker, Boba Fett speaks on his behalf and gives one of these toward the Order.
- Wrecked Weapon: Yoda's lightsaber is destroyed in battle with Darth Kain.
