vanishing instead of decomposing

Kenobi, Yoda, and Vader all disappear instead of dying, so that they could reappear as spirits. How come Qui Gon Jinn did not? (no spoilers, please)

 

The secret has yet to be revealed.

 

Kenobi vanished BEFORE the blade stroke him.


Makes you wonder if they can vanish at any time. "It's a great trick, but I can only do it once."

 

We don't know yet why Qui-Gon didn't disappear, but we may find out in May 2005.

 

Yes, we very well may.

 

Well, the exact specifics have yet to be officially revealed but we can read between the lines and piece together things.

Basically, as i understand it, Qui Gon was a firm believer in the Living Force--while Yoda and the Jedi Council focused more on the Unifying Force, which ultimately was caused by their arrogance, having been out of touch with nature, and led to their downfall. Qui Gon had such a connection with the force that he was able to do what no jedi had ever done before--hold on to his identity after death. This may have something to do with Anakin--perhaps his profound belief and attachment to the Chosen One. The reason i say this is because of the event where Qui Gon first makes a breakthrough to the physical world: Anakin's Tusken slaughter. While Anakin surrenders to the dark side and massacres an entire Tusken Raider tribe, we hear Qui Gon's voice--"Anakin! Anakin! No!!". Pehaps because of his abrupt death he wasnt able to retain a physical presence, but he is able to manage a disembodied voice.

While this is going on, Yoda is in deep meditation--because he was in such a state of connection to the force, Yoda was able to hear Qui Gon's voice while others (i.e. Mace Windu, beside him in the same room) could not. Qui Gon wasnt strong enough to physically manifest himself as a ghost, but he could at least communicate with the physical world. When Yoda hears Qui Gon's voice he has the epiphany--it is possible to retain you're identity after death!

The rest of the details are a little sketchy (because Episode III is not out) but based on hints by Lucas, it seems Yoda attempts to perfect this technique after learning about it from Qui Gon's breakthrough in AOTC. Imagine what a powerful weapon it could be--if fallen into the wrong hands, the Sith could potentially be invincible! Yoda therefore keeps it a secret. When Palpatine and Vader then begin the Jedi Purge and begin the Empire, Yoda knows that this secret technique may be the last ace up the jedi's sleeve--Yoda tells the last jedi still alive, Obi Wan Kenobi, of the secret, in the hopes that one day they can use it to defeat the Empire.

While living as a hermit on Tatooine for some 20 years, Obi Wan was able to use that time to keep a watch on Luke and learn the secret technique of retaining his identity after death. By the time he faces Vader in ANH, he has achieved it, and knows that he can best guide Luke--the galaxy's last hope--from beyond the grave.

As for Anakin appearing as a ghost--the explaination i guess is that he is the Chosen One, so he is special and can retain his identity after fulfulling his destiny (balancing the force by destroying the Emperor).

So there it is. To the best of my understanding anyway.

 

So, what happened to the matter of their bodies when they disappeared? (my sweet lord, I can't believe I'm writing this!) Straight energy conversion?



Kinda selfish for these guys who talk about life and all that to deprive the microbes of the galaxy their dead flesh and keep it from reentering circulation. If everyone knew how to do it, we'd run out of matter eventually!

(Note: I have been working too long)

 

The "real" reason:
I think is that Lucas didn't want Ben to be sliced in half. This would have been too graphic. I don't mean graphic as in gore, I mean graphic as in Ben was a character that the audience loved. I know that Maul was sliced in half, but Maul was a villian. Lucas wasn't thinking of the character of Qui-Gon back in 1977. So he didn't want Qui-Gon to disappear because while Qui-Gon scene of him disappearing wouldn't have looked stupid, it would have looked great just like Yoda's death scene did. But imagine if every Jedi disappeared? Just think of how stupid it would have looked if every Jedi who died at Geonosis disappeared. It wouldn't have looked good at all.

The "movie" reason:
We don't know yet. But we will in May 2005.

 

I sure'd like to disappear. Saves a lot on funeral costs and such!

 

Here's my(and a lot of others) theory. Only the Jedi who have a straight tie to the destiny of the chosen one disappear. It started with Qui-Gon, but his voice was the only thing that "stayed behind". A bit of Qui-Gons will, I guess, to see Anakin through. The others disappear so they can come back and help Luke turn Vader back. We'll see in EP3 hopefully.


If that's the case, then Jedi disappearing isn't learned and has nothing to do with the living force or whatever. That would also mean Jedi disappearing in EU is contradictory to the movie.

 

I think that if the Jedi are fighting and die they don't dissapear. Obi-Wan wasn't fighting. He let Vader strike him down. Yoda was just laying there and died. Qui-Gon died in a fight so he didn't dissapear. That's why the Jedi at the arena didn't dissapear. They were fighting.

 

Yes... And fighting is a pretty agressive behaviour. Agression leads to the Dark Side. So Jedi who fight are moving to the Dark Side. Ben knew this, that's why he let Vader strike him down. So Dark Siders don't vanish. They just fall down long, seemingly endless shafts...

 

Kenobi vanished BEFORE the blade stroke him.

Negative. Kenobi was indeed struck by Vader's blade.

This misconception is as ridiculous as the "How can Vader breathe and talk at the same time." idea.

Look, Kenobi spells it out for everyone in plain, simple english.

"IF YOU STRIKE ME DOWN I shall become more powerful than you can possibly imagine.".

In order to become one with the force, you must die. Still don't think Yoda died? Well, allow me to present more evidence.

LUKE: Master Yoda, you can't die.

YODA: Strong am I with the force....but not that strong.

Don't think Vader/Anakin died?

VADER: ...Help me take this mask off...

LUKE: But you'll die if I do.

VADER: Nothing...can stop that now.

The prosecution rests, your honor.

 

DarthStinkyBritches: If that's the case, then Jedi disappearing isn't learned and has nothing to do with the living force or whatever. That would also mean Jedi disappearing in EU is contradictory to the movie.

Lucas states in interviews that the whole dissapearing thing is "a trick that yoda learned and tought to Obi Wan [peraphrasing]"--i thik he states something like this in the Annotated Screenplays as well. So whatever, Living and Unifying Force is sorta the complicated way of explaining it (and may not be necessary) but my explaination seems to me to be the only one that makes sense.

Of course GL may just say screw it and not explain it--he's changed his mind about stuff like this before.

 

No spoilers, please.

It's odd that Vader would be the chosen one. I mean, why would the jedi want to bring balance by slaughtering lots of jedi, even if he destroys the sith lord?