Why didn't Anakin disappear?

Has this been discussed? I searched but couldn't find anything...

When Vader turns away from the Dark Side, and dies, why didn't he fade away? Surely he should have since he joins Obi-Wan and Yoda's spirits?

Could this be connected to Qui-Gon, since he never disappeared either and they were both cremated?


- LRM

 

I think this had come up before. According to the official site he did disappear, we just don't get to see it happen.

As he lay dying, Vader ceased to be. Anakin Skywalker returned. He asked his son to remove the cumbersome, fearsome mask that had concealed his face for decades. His mask and life support removed, Anakin looked upon Luke for the first and last time. He then died, his body disappearing into the light side of the Force. Luke burned the dark armor that had encased Anakin's crippled body in a quiet funeral pyre on the forest moon of Endor that night.

 

I think that was also mentioned on the novelization of ROTJ, but I am not sure...

 

I think in the RoTJ novel it says Luke burned his father's body.

In the SE Annoted Screenplays it says Luke burned his father's armour.

Also, I noticed last week the book that comes with the Star Wars Soundtrack Anthology (which pre-dates the SE's) also says that Luke burnt his father's armour

 

I'm pretty sure that Lucas' commentary for Return of the Jedi says that Luke burned Anakin's body.

 

But couldn't the armor count as the body? I mean without the armor there was no way Vader could've lived, his armor pretty much became a surrogate body.

 

>>I'm pretty sure that Lucas' commentary for Return of the Jedi says that Luke burned Anakin's body.


He does, but then again in ESB he calls the Imperials......."Nazis". So I think "body" in this particular case was just a poor choice of words.

 

Yes, everything that Lucas says in the commentaries shouldn't be taken literally.

 

That's probably were I read it then, MatZ...

 

He did disappear. Luke burned the body of Vader, which was the suit.

 

Anakin does disappear. I've noticed before that it takes Yoda a full 30 seconds or so to disappear after he dies. We don't see a dead, de-masked Vader for that long.

 

If Lucas wanted Anakin to disapear he could of done it in the DVD's. It's simple enough.

 

Would you take the time to drag an empty suit out of a burning building...

...just so you could...burn it?

On the DVD, Lucas says that Luke burns his father's body. That's good enough for me.

It's what I believed in 1983...

...and Lucas confirmed in 2004.

 

Honestly, though...do you really think that Anakin deserved to be in Jedi Heaven? Yes, he killed the emperor, but that doesn't make up for the millioins of lives he extinguished throughout most of his life. If Himmler suddenly killed Hitler back in the 40's because Himmler's son, an anti-Nazi revolutionary, wanted him to....would that admonish him of his crimes against humanity? Is there a Jedi Hell (aside from being a character in the PT)?

 

Is there a Jedi Hell (aside from being a character in the PT

That was a low blow.

 

"Would you take the time to drag an empty suit out of a burning building...

...just so you could...burn it?"

Because he disappeared on the shuttle? You asked this very same question in the last topic of this & you got the same answer.

 

You asked this very same question in the last topic of this & you got the same answer.

Yes, a make-belief answer made up by a fan.

I don't know about you, but I prefer the answer right out of the mouth of George Lucas...

...to answers made up by fans.

 

But why do you keep asking the question of why Luke would bring an empty suit, when no one is suggesting that? (they are suggesting that Anakin disappeared while he was in the shuttle).

 

I think the Vader suit is pretty symbollic, and Luke may feel that even though most of what was Anakin is replaced by machine, he's still Luke's father...possibly a final statement on Luke's part. The spirit may have departed to another plane, but the body remains, thus a Jedi's funeral ceremony is in order. It's Luke's time to be alone with his thoughts on the matter and to find peace...it's not like he invited others over to roast up some s'mores.

 

I don't know about you, but I prefer the answer right out of the mouth of George Lucas...

...to answers made up by fans.

Absolutely.

 

But why do you keep asking the question of why Luke would bring an empty suit, when no one is suggesting that? (they are suggesting that Anakin disappeared while he was in the shuttle).

Anonx, a better question might be...

...why do people want to pretend and make up stories about Anakin's body disappearing on the shuttle after Lucas has already told them that Luke burns it on Endor?

The originator of this thread asked WHY Anakin's body didn't disappear,and then suggested a connection between the cremation of Qui-Gon and the cremation of Anakin (which we see on the screen when we watch the movie.) That's an interesting and possibly relevant connection to make, seeing as Qui-Gon's voice is heard from the afterlife in AOTC.

Making up stories about bodies disappearing on shuttles only confuses the original question and contradicts what Lucas has said.

 

It really is quite a problem, trying to figure out why two Jedi dissappeared while two others didn't. I'm not sure there really is an explanation.

I certainly can't. Maybe the dissappearing is what's unusual. I don't have AotC with me at the moment, but do the Jedi killed in the big battle dissappear?






The Cleric 007

 

Why assume that it's NECESSARY for Anakin's body to disappear in order for him join his friends in the afterlife?

In the DVD commentary, Lucas specifies that it's Obi-Wan and Yoda who enable Anakin to reappear in his original form.

George Lucas (from the DVD commentary): "This little scene where he burns his father's body, it wasn't originally in the script, but I decided it gave more closure in terms of Luke's relationship with his father and letting go of his father, even though later on, as we get to the end of the movie, as he joins with the force, he is able to retain his original 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..."

Going by Lucas' own words and description, I would say that Anakin never vanishes.

He dies. Luke burns his body. Later, Obi-Wan and Yoda enable him to appear with them.

That seems simple and logical to me...

...and it's from Lucas.

 

This may be PT material but....Yoda and Anakin don't seem to be very close. Don't you think Yoda'd prefer some other dead Jedi's (Deadi?) force ghost to be there with him?

"Only for your son do I do this, Skywalker. After this, unfinished business have we."

 

This may be PT material but....Yoda and Anakin don't seem to be very close. Don't you think Yoda'd prefer some other dead Jedi's (Deadi?) force ghost to be there with him?

Maybe if they were going to a dead Jedi convention...but they're not.

They're appearing with a very personal message for Luke.