PT How come Yoda has to train Obi Wan to learn how to communicate with Qui Gon...

What I read, at the time I first started being interested in the "Vader's body" question, was:


According to Pabs on hyperspace today, George Lucas insisted that the starwars.com databank and the encylopedia state that Anakin disappear.


Now, whoever posted that, long ago, could have just been trolling, but back then I didn't think so.

It was more "All powerful Jedi -- Masters etc, vanish on death".

The EU was fairly consistent about regular Knights not vanishing.

Such as the Special Edition Screenplays.

 

The Special Edition Screenplays had no changes on this topic. I have the book.

 

This Vader disappearing debate all seems a bit off topic for the discussion of Yoda teaching Obi-Wan to communicate with Qui-Gon.

 

The issue came up back here:

And I did suggest that:

For those interested in where I first saw the claim - after a lot of searching - this appears to be the earliest:


http://starreverence.proboards.com/thread/21/anakin-skywalker-biography

May 7 2005:

Finally, Vader telepathically examines Luke's mind and realizes that Leia is Luke's sister (and thus his daughter), and threatens to turn her to the Dark Side if he should fail with Luke. Realizing the threat to his sister, Luke's rage is finally unleashed, and he attacks Lord Vader with the Dark Side of the Force, driving him back with a whirlwind of blows. Severing Vader's right hand, Luke's fury is suddenly cut short -- as he stares at his own cybernetic hand, he realizes with a visceral horror that he has already begun transforming into Vader's successor. As the Emperor approaches, he throws down his lightsaber, abandoning this path, and his new powers. Gravely disappointed, Palpatine draws on pure darkness, in the form of force lightning, to destroy the unturnable Luke.

As Luke writhes in agony, begging his father for help, Vader finally turns back from the Dark Side to once again become Anakin Skywalker, and, with his remaining hand, lifts the Emperor and throws him into a shaft where he explodes in a fury of dark energies. The shock of this nearly kills Anakin. In his final moments, he pleads with Luke to remove his mask, and in his dying breath, finds redemption in the Light Side of the Force. In his final breaths, he tells Luke that he was right about him, and to tell this to his sister. He later dies and becomes one with the Force. There is some debate as to whether or not Anakin's body disappeared when he died: some argue that the movie would have shown his disappearance explicitly if that were the case. On the other hand, Steve Sansweet and the script for the Return of the Jedi Special Edition states that Anakin did indeed disappear [1] (http://www.starwars.com/community/askjc/steve/askjc20000131.html). In any case, what remained of Anakin/Vader was burned by Luke (in the manner of a Jedi's funeral) on the forest moon of Endor.

Which itself appears to come from here:

http://www.geocities.ws/jedi_vega/darthvader.html

 

This is what the script of the special editions adds to the original script:

And this is what Steve Sansweet said in January 31, 2000:

That Anakin becomes one with the Force is something we all know. Everyone who dies becomes one with the Force. He says that his armor is what's being burned in ROTJ. But that's him saying. What Lucas says is what he cited.

 

And there's nothing added immediately after Vader's death?


So - we have confirmation that Sansweet, the writer of the Star Wars Encyclopedia, thinks that it was the armor and not a corpse, that burned. But the special edition script is unambiguous about there being a body, all the way to the funeral pyre and beyond?

 

because it was a new thing Qui-Gonn had discovered.. by the time of Empire possibly they were able to manifest stronger than Qui Gonn had been able to in ROTS.

 

No.

 

Well, I hate to point it out, but that actually seems to support what @Iron_lord said. The description of the funeral scene has been altered: "[H]is father's body" has been changed to "his father's armor," and "the flames leap higher to consume Darth Vader" has been changed to "the flames leap higher to consume what's left of Vader."

Assuming these really do represent alterations to the script made by Lucas himself, it would seem that I was mistaken. There does seem to have been a deliberate attempt to emphasize that Anakin's body disappeared. I was unaware such evidence existed. Sorry, @Iron_lord.

In light of this evidence, I supposed it can be assumed that Anakin's body did indeed vanish upon the intercession of Ben and Yoda in the Netherworld, which would have taken place a short time after Anakin's death as depicted onscreen.

However, there is still Lucas's reference to Anakin's "body" on the DVD commentary to contend with. It's possible Lucas changed his mind again, or it's possible he just misspoke. I suppose we can't really know.

 

Ha! I guess I just stepped on my own rake.

My bad @Iron_lord, I saw the same block of text being cited and didn't even notice the word change. Always assumed it was for context.

I'll have to listen to the audio commentary again to check the context.

 

It took 7 years, but finally the debate's mostly settled.

As the Hiromi from Marvel Star Wars put it:

 

Not that we need to save the text here, but maybe we should remember that Vader's bionics were part of his body.