did yoda and obi wan actaully die?

new to the board, so i dont know if this has been a thread. did obi-wan actually die when vadar swung at him. i have tended to think that he became one with the force a brief moment before the saber would have hit him. yoda the same. he says that this time is coming to an end, so maybe he became one with the force before he could actually die. that may explain why they can appear as the spiritual self. just a thought.

 

According to George Lucas on the ANH DVD Commentary, Obi-Wan didn't actually die but became one with the Force before Vader could kill him.

That's what official word I can give you as of now. I think Yoda died...

-sj loves kevin spacey

 

Well, I think that they did end up actually dying. There spirit lived on and that's the Force ghost part. So, really they didn't end up dying.

 

thanks.

 

I suppose you could say that physically they were dead, but not spirtually.

And to me death is when the phyiscal body no longer functions, heart stops beating, brain activity ends, etc. so I don't see how Lucas said Kenobi didn't die physically. But if he did then he probably meant spirtually or something.

 

All I know is that's what he said. I didn't say it made any sense

-sj loves kevin spacey

 

Physically dead, spiritually...still floating around

 

We might have to wait for RotS to know for sure. The way I've always seen it is that Obi-Wan and Yoda kind of faded into the Force, rather than dying and having their spirits appear - that's why they appear as ghosts the way they were when they died. Anakin is different, as he never learned how to do this, but according to GL on the commentary, he appeared as a ghost at the end "because of Obi-Wan and Yoda" - so in a sense, it seems Obi-Wan and Yoda brought Anakin into the Force with them, but with the physical identity he had before he turned to the Dark Side.

 

I always thought that scene with Vader swinging at Obi-Wan was funny because it looks to me like Ol' Ben's saber was in the way and should have blocked it half way through.

 

Hm, can't say I've ever noticed that.
I also didn't know about Obi-Wan and Yoda bringing Anakin into the force-ghost thing. Unfortunatly, I don't think I like the idea too much.

 

This is what George Lucas says about Anakin joining the Force:

"Later on (when he dies) he's able to join the Force and retain his identity - it's because of Obi-Wan and Yoda, who learned how to do that, how to join the Force at will and retain your identity. But it was his identity as he was when he died as Anakin Skywalker"

I like the idea. It shows a forgiveness on the part of Obi-Wan and Yoda.

 

At first I didn't like the idea, but I like the forgiveness part.

 

'there is no death, only the force.'

Hand

 

True.

 

They technically did die, but they lived on through the Force.

 

Of course they died. Obi-Wan died, Yoda died, Anakin died, and the Emperor died. It seems to me that when they die and become one with the Force, it is very similar to when we die and go to heaven (if you believe in that).

This raises other interesting questions:

What happens to Sith when they die? Do they become one with the Dark Side of the Force?

What happens to non-Jedi when they die? Do they become one with the Force too? It seems silly to think that there is a separate afterlife for them or even worse that there is no afterlife for them.

 

There is never any indication about what happens to Sith or Dark Jedi when they die. My guess is they are just simply die in SW, just nothing else for them.

In expanded universe, Palpatine's spirit remains. Eventually it finally dies.

 

You're only dead when you stop caring...