Well, except for the part where he lived those twenty years in constant pain and on perpetual life support in the SW equivalent of a bubble-boy suit due to massive internal scarring.
Not to mention living those years consumed with the guilt that his deal with the devil backfired, leading him to kill the person he loved most in the world, as well as his unborn child. Forcing him to live without anyone who remotely loved or cared about him. And ruling the galaxy? He was the Emperor’s lap dog. Heck, in episode 4, he’s taking orders from Tarkin.
True he gets the occasional perk of hunting down surviving Jedi, hoping it will lead him to Obi-Wan and some measure or revenge. And he gets to force choke Imperial officers who piss him off — well, most of the time. But it hardly seems worth the pain, misery and loneliness of his existence up till then. Oh yeah, Anakin was having a ball for the last 20 years.
But being a young looking Force Ghost totally makes up for all that.
Yeah, I don’t buy that. He didn’t reach the point of no return until he joined the Sith and got a new name. If we’re considering Jedi corrupted based on making any bad decisions at all, none of ‘em get into Jedi Heaven.
If it was about point of no return he should still be old since His whole switching of sides pretty well proved he HADN’T reached the point of no return.
Anakin was dead, betrayed and murdered by Darth Vader. So when Darth picks up Palaptine and throws him down the shaft, that’s young, dead Anakin working through Darth Vader’s body. The Force ghost is of the part of Darth Vader that was “the good that remains in him,” which was the part of him that died when he joined the Sith. But he was young back then.
Plus, maybe the Force prefers making a force ghost out of a guy from when he actually had his own legs and wasn’t covered in burns.
See, now, if the Old Anakin ghost were hovering there with no legs and arms, and was just a smiling head on a torso, that would have been awesome.
But as it is, the Old Anakin ghost is just homaging a version of him that didn’t ever exist.
See, this here, no offense because I’m fully aware none of this is your fault-
But this here is the most completely insane fanwank crap I have ever read in my entire life and I used to read Lost forums. This is what George Lucas has done to Star Wars fans.
I think I might be talking crap here, but at one point in NJO didn’t they imply that Ben Skywalker and Anakin Solo were, well, the original Ben and Anakin reborn? And that the force ghost thing was just a sort of stepping stone to reincarnation? I honestly haven’t read anything SW related except the Legacy comics since around halfway through NJO, and I could be mixing franchises up in my head. I would swear I remember a friend of my complaining about that like a decade ago.
Actually, what is said is that Anakin tends to take after the Skywalker side of him rather than the Solo part. In Balance Point, I think Mara mentions that his eyes are similar to Luke’s…Then again, he mostly hung around his aunt and uncle, and thus adopted some of their mannerisms, so that may be what she was actually talking about…Or it was her “I WANNA A KID DAMMIT. BUT NOT WHILE I HAVE SPACE CANCER.”
Ben just seems like his eyes look wise. And it’s only mentioned in Rebirth. Because A) Same book he was born in and B) He got put on a Bus for the rest of the series. Since then, all he’s acted like was a slightly-better adjusted-than-usual for a Jedi teen of two of the most famous Jedi in the GFFA.
Maybe it allowed old Anakin to keep his cyborg legs and arms in ghost form? After all, it does allow for clothing, both Yoda and Obi Wan left their robes on the floor when they “went into the light.” Otherwise, everyone would be standing in front of Luke naked.
Or it’s a (pardon me) Phantom Limb sort of thing. The Spirit/Soul perception of how the body “is,” despite amuptations or falling into god damned molten rock.
I just kinda figured that it was about how they perceived themselves. Yoda and Obiwan had time to get used to getting old and wrinkly. They were ok with it. Anakin, on the other hand… I think he’d want to still be young, all things considered. How often would he have taken the mask off and looked in the mirror?
Honestly, I think he just likes screwing with the original trilogy, and I think that his “rationales” are all created after the fact, to excuse whatever screwy decision he already made.
I find the fact that he’s started tweaking Episode I somewhat disturbing. Not that I really care whether or not he messes with that particular film, it just seems like a symptom of some sort. I’m not certain he can even help himself these days.
“Darn scab. Getoff.”
“No, wait! Don’t pick at that–it’s full of–”
(a hail of laser fire lances from the picked-at scab and puts a dozen smoking holes in the guy’s head)
IDK, that’d really be much less awful than this is.
I mean it’s kind of shitty to Alec Guinness but at least they’re swapping him out with Ewan, who I mean, he wasn’t GREAT, but at least he wasn’t a fucking human rights violation every time he appeared in front of the screen the way Hayden was.
Y’know those tennis balls on a stick they they use so that a performer knows where to look when interacting with CGI?
I’ve always said that Natalie Portman should have done her love scenes with one of those instead of Hayden. The dialog still would’ve sucked (“I love the water…”), but the performances would have been vastly improved.
So here’s something. Yoda basically dies on purpose. He COULD probably do something, but he’s all like “death is natural, it’s a part of the Force” and so on. He felt like he’d lived long enough and that Luke could be trusted with the future at this point. So… why did he bother to do the Force Ghost thing? Why not just be cool with becoming one with the Force like every other Jedi besides Qui-Gon? Obviously Obi felt it important to stay around for Luke’s sake, but what was Yoda doing?
It gets even dumber with the EU, which maintains that the Force Ghosts just fade away anyway… except the SITH Force Ghosts, which stay around for THOUSANDS AND THOUSANDS of years so that they can be nuisances to post Return Jedi.
Well, to be fair, the Sith need an external power focus to stick around in spirit form for any length of time, like Exar Kun’s temple or the Valley of the Sith on Korriban. They’re also pretty much stuck there.
Obviously becoming a Floaty Jedi Ghost was Yoda’s goal all along. The core story of Star Wars is the desperate struggle of Jedi to attain immortality…by living long enough to die in front of Luke . Note Yoda and Ben went out of their way to die in front of Luke, which is the only means of unlocking Floaty Ghost Form.
Star Wars continuity makes Terminator’s continuity look logical. I can’t watch T2 anymore because of the fact that John Connor was born in 1985 and he’s a teenager in 1991. Or that the story just got more and more ridiculous after T3 and Sarah Connor Chronichles.
Star Wars also makes DCnU continuity look like it makes sense. Still trying to figure out how Batman had 4 robins (oh wait, Stephanie Brown doesn’t exist like Ted Kord, Donna Troy or Vic Sage.) in five years.
I think the best thing to do with all this stuff is not think about it too much. It’ll make your head explode.
Parsec is still measured as distance, when Han said “You’ve never heard of the Millennium Falcon? … It’s the ship that made the Kessel run in less than 12 parsecs.” He was talking distance, the reasoning is the Kessel run is blockaded by an ever changing asteroid field, when doing the run is to get in and out of the debris as quickly as possible yes, but also using the least amount of distance in doing so. Space is 3D, imagine it.
I still stand by the idea that Han was actually bullshitting them, just to see how much money he could feasibly bilk them out of, despite EU stuff jossing that.
Bah! A parsec is a unit of distance! It’s about 3.26 lightyears.
*Shakes his fist at George Lucas*
The “Han makes the Kessel run in whatever parsecs” thing was explained away in the expanded universe. The Kessel run involves skirting near a patch of black holes, so the shorter your run, and therefor how close you get to the black holes, the more badass a pilot you are.
I always preferred the interpretation that Han was just full of shit, and trying to convince Luke and Obi-Wan of how awesome he is, so they’d pay his exhorbent fee for what was supposed to be an easy trip.
From this point forward, I’m going to change all my “wait a moment”, “Wait a second”, and “Wait a minute” to “Wait a yard”, “Wait a Mile”, and “Wait an Astronomical Unit” and so forth.
JOIN ME, BROTHERS(and SISTERS)! OUR DISTANCE WILL BE GLORIOUS!
The way I’ve thought about it since Lucas’ official change, your force ghost takes the form you last remember. I don’t think Anakin ever looked at himself (beyond the mask) since donning the Vader garb.
It’s unecessary and sintomatic of how modern audiences are blind to subtleties and need everything spelled out (or screamed out) for them to understand it.
It’s not nearly as bad as people make it seem, but it doesn’t make it any less stupid.
…yeah, I kind of have to stifle a chuckle when I read that audiences today are less sophisticated than they used to be. If anything, they’re smarter and more cynical. Just compare the sitcoms.
Nevertheless, I think it’s like adding a voice over saying “Wow! I’m the only one left in the battle field and I’m not even really part of the clan while the new Lord left! How hideous of them!” in the final scenes of Kagemusha. Or a “Well, will it or won’t it fall,folks, make your bets!” at the ending of Inception. Or, I don’t know, a detailed narration of every light saber battle. “I’ve just used and advancing block to try and mess with your balance, but you managed to block my following attack and now are attacking me with the so-so school of Lightsaber”.
It’s one word. Twice, but it’s still just one word, so it’s nothing at all like any of those. It’s not even expositional. You’d have a point if it was changed to Vader saying, “Enough is enough! I have had it with this motherfucking Sith on this motherfucking Death Star. Everybody strap in. I’m about to pitch the Emperor over this rail.”
Although your last example is pretty close to a scene in The Princess Bride, and that movie is a classic.
Not that this subject needs more discussion, Darth Vader’s “No,” in ROTJ. I would like to know how many people who saw ROTJ in 1983 were confused by what Darth Vader was doing in that scene. I’m sure that everyone got it. Now I don’t think Lucas added the “No” to clear things up. The “No” is there to serve as a bookend to Revenge of the Sith. Nothing more than that.
I love the comic, but I have to throw in my two cents because this is one of the alterations that annoys me most. If Darth Vader actually betrayed and murdered Anakin to the point that it’s the young one who returns, why didn’t he come back as a ghost sooner? He didn’t and couldn’t because Obi-Wan was being metaphorical (in his retcon); Anakin was dead to him, replaced by some monster he didn’t recognize. And if we’re going to use a metaphor as rationale to determine how someone appears as a Force ghost… When Anakin takes the mantle of Darth Vader, his body is mutilated reflecting how the Dark Side has mutilated his soul. Yet, when he finally realizes what he became, who drove him to it, and that he still has a choice he begins to heal himself. Asking Luke to take off the mask is a further rejection of Darth Vader. For his Force ghost to appear as an older man represents how his return to the Light Side made him whole again.
Thank you! That’s been exactly my argument regarding this superfluous change ever since it was introduced on the DVDs.
Yes, yes. We know, Mr. Lucas. Anakin-Hayden was good and Darth Vader/Anakin-David was bad. But, Anakin-Sebastian was good also. And let’s not forget that Anakin starts being called Darth Vader before donning (sp?) the mask. So Hayden Christensen’s face is Anakin’s, but also Vader’s. He was Darth Vader when he murdered the Jedi children, and when he dueled with Obi-Wan; Anakin Skywalker was already gone.
Now, this explanation that Anakin’s force ghost looks young because that’s how he sees himself (kinda like Nea when he reenters The Matrix), is something I haven’t read until now. It’s a better explanation/justification that what George Lucas uses.
I think the reason this change annoyed me the most was because I liked the idea of Anakin returning to himself before he died. The man who died on the Death Star was no longer Darth Vader. And it ruined that neat moment. *sigh*. . .
Before the prequels, one could assume that Darth Vader killed the remaining Jedi in the galaxy. Now it’s mostly clones that kill the Jedi and Darth Vader murders children.
Darth Vader is the most powerful Sith besides the Emperor himself… and Darth Vader’s SEEKRIT apprentice who can toss Star Destroyers around with Force Power because he’s that badass.
so… if Anakin died when he became Vader, and therefore his spirit appears as a young man before that happened… then Vader didn’t get redeemed and that *wasn’t* Anakin who died on the Death Star in Luke’s arms?
If only I could find the original 1990 VHS of Episode VI, then my 1990 series would be complete and I wouldn’t have to see the cruddy CGI bugging the film.
All I know is, my sister and I saved up our proofs of purchase to get the original Anakin figure in the 80s, and that’s how we prefer to remember ghost Anakin.
Yoda and Obi-wan were probably used to their ‘old’ forms. If I grew old and then died, and then came back, I’d probably see myself as the old man, not a young person. Anakin, however, maybe hasn’t felt like himself in a long time.
So maybe you appear in the form you’re most comfortable with? Thus, anakin’s the odd one out because he’s the only one who wasn’t satisfied in his old age?
I was not aware you could force choke a ghost. A FITTING END.
Also (inb4 flame), I have somehow managed to get 3 First Postings in a row. Huh.
However, yes, a fitting end for the person that spent most of their time in said 20 years choking people with their mind.
Kind of reminds me of this Robot Chicken clip:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aMOMlAQmYdk
I think you meant THIS video clip of Robot Chicken:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bb6tpyLINC4&feature=related
Or the most horrifying of all: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EdS2kCUGvfo
Both are awesome! “You special edition mother fucker!”
I dig it, he’s got a point.
Well, except for the part where he lived those twenty years in constant pain and on perpetual life support in the SW equivalent of a bubble-boy suit due to massive internal scarring.
Not to mention living those years consumed with the guilt that his deal with the devil backfired, leading him to kill the person he loved most in the world, as well as his unborn child. Forcing him to live without anyone who remotely loved or cared about him. And ruling the galaxy? He was the Emperor’s lap dog. Heck, in episode 4, he’s taking orders from Tarkin.
True he gets the occasional perk of hunting down surviving Jedi, hoping it will lead him to Obi-Wan and some measure or revenge. And he gets to force choke Imperial officers who piss him off — well, most of the time. But it hardly seems worth the pain, misery and loneliness of his existence up till then. Oh yeah, Anakin was having a ball for the last 20 years.
But being a young looking Force Ghost totally makes up for all that.
+1 For the Force of Justice!
Satisfying.
So, so satisfying.
It used to be an older guy till they made the prequels.
We know. That’s part of the joke/tragedy.
Shhhh! Don’t let George Lucas know about this inconsistency, or he’ll digitally remove Alec Guinness and replace him with Ewan McGregor!
You know that dark day is coming.
I’m not sure it’s an inconsistency. I mean, it’s purposefully there, and the rationale behind it is given in the comic itself.
But he was already corrupt by the time he was Christiansen. Logically, the kid should’ve been there.
Yeah, I don’t buy that. He didn’t reach the point of no return until he joined the Sith and got a new name. If we’re considering Jedi corrupted based on making any bad decisions at all, none of ‘em get into Jedi Heaven.
If it was about point of no return he should still be old since His whole switching of sides pretty well proved he HADN’T reached the point of no return.
Damn, I hate to say it Willis, but you just sorta got owned by that comment. In all actuality he is sorta right.
Anakin was dead, betrayed and murdered by Darth Vader. So when Darth picks up Palaptine and throws him down the shaft, that’s young, dead Anakin working through Darth Vader’s body. The Force ghost is of the part of Darth Vader that was “the good that remains in him,” which was the part of him that died when he joined the Sith. But he was young back then.
Plus, maybe the Force prefers making a force ghost out of a guy from when he actually had his own legs and wasn’t covered in burns.
See, now, if the Old Anakin ghost were hovering there with no legs and arms, and was just a smiling head on a torso, that would have been awesome.
But as it is, the Old Anakin ghost is just homaging a version of him that didn’t ever exist.
See, this here, no offense because I’m fully aware none of this is your fault-
But this here is the most completely insane fanwank crap I have ever read in my entire life and I used to read Lost forums. This is what George Lucas has done to Star Wars fans.
In the books Anakin is dead before Ben Skywalker is born.
Ghost Anakin should have been a quivering baby husk, like Voldemort in that spirit realm thing at the end of the last Harry Potter movie.
I think I might be talking crap here, but at one point in NJO didn’t they imply that Ben Skywalker and Anakin Solo were, well, the original Ben and Anakin reborn? And that the force ghost thing was just a sort of stepping stone to reincarnation? I honestly haven’t read anything SW related except the Legacy comics since around halfway through NJO, and I could be mixing franchises up in my head. I would swear I remember a friend of my complaining about that like a decade ago.
GinzaMary
Actually, what is said is that Anakin tends to take after the Skywalker side of him rather than the Solo part. In Balance Point, I think Mara mentions that his eyes are similar to Luke’s…Then again, he mostly hung around his aunt and uncle, and thus adopted some of their mannerisms, so that may be what she was actually talking about…Or it was her “I WANNA A KID DAMMIT. BUT NOT WHILE I HAVE SPACE CANCER.”
Ben just seems like his eyes look wise. And it’s only mentioned in Rebirth. Because A) Same book he was born in and B) He got put on a Bus for the rest of the series. Since then, all he’s acted like was a slightly-better adjusted-than-usual for a Jedi teen of two of the most famous Jedi in the GFFA.
And I’m such a nerd. Ah well.
He’s a ghost. He can look like anything he wants to.
Maybe it allowed old Anakin to keep his cyborg legs and arms in ghost form? After all, it does allow for clothing, both Yoda and Obi Wan left their robes on the floor when they “went into the light.” Otherwise, everyone would be standing in front of Luke naked.
Or it’s a (pardon me) Phantom Limb sort of thing. The Spirit/Soul perception of how the body “is,” despite amuptations or falling into god damned molten rock.
I just kinda figured that it was about how they perceived themselves. Yoda and Obiwan had time to get used to getting old and wrinkly. They were ok with it. Anakin, on the other hand… I think he’d want to still be young, all things considered. How often would he have taken the mask off and looked in the mirror?
Yeah, but then Darth Vader would have evolved into a creepy ghost kid. Somehow I think that would have been much, much, worse.
Honestly, I think he just likes screwing with the original trilogy, and I think that his “rationales” are all created after the fact, to excuse whatever screwy decision he already made.
I find the fact that he’s started tweaking Episode I somewhat disturbing. Not that I really care whether or not he messes with that particular film, it just seems like a symptom of some sort. I’m not certain he can even help himself these days.
It’s like picking at a scab.
…A scab filled with Greedos all shooting first.
I’ll let you chew on that mental image.
“Darn scab. Getoff.”
“No, wait! Don’t pick at that–it’s full of–”
(a hail of laser fire lances from the picked-at scab and puts a dozen smoking holes in the guy’s head)
Oh, come on, Greedo couldn’t hit the broad side of a barn.
IDK, that’d really be much less awful than this is.
I mean it’s kind of shitty to Alec Guinness but at least they’re swapping him out with Ewan, who I mean, he wasn’t GREAT, but at least he wasn’t a fucking human rights violation every time he appeared in front of the screen the way Hayden was.
Y’know those tennis balls on a stick they they use so that a performer knows where to look when interacting with CGI?
I’ve always said that Natalie Portman should have done her love scenes with one of those instead of Hayden. The dialog still would’ve sucked (“I love the water…”), but the performances would have been vastly improved.
Save some for Sebastian Shaw.
*Sits back and enjoys* Now if only Jar Jar entered the frame.
*noms popcorn*
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EdS2kCUGvfo
Choking on his own smug.
But where’s Charles Barkley? High five!
That’s cold, Obi-won
“Wait just a parsec!”
Oh, Willis.
So what happens to a spirit if it chokes to death?
It wakes up in the real world and slaughters George lucas for causing it undue pain?
Sounds good to me!
he comes back as a naked, black, jazz singing angel named rudolph.
So here’s something. Yoda basically dies on purpose. He COULD probably do something, but he’s all like “death is natural, it’s a part of the Force” and so on. He felt like he’d lived long enough and that Luke could be trusted with the future at this point. So… why did he bother to do the Force Ghost thing? Why not just be cool with becoming one with the Force like every other Jedi besides Qui-Gon? Obviously Obi felt it important to stay around for Luke’s sake, but what was Yoda doing?
It gets even dumber with the EU, which maintains that the Force Ghosts just fade away anyway… except the SITH Force Ghosts, which stay around for THOUSANDS AND THOUSANDS of years so that they can be nuisances to post Return Jedi.
Well, to be fair, the Sith need an external power focus to stick around in spirit form for any length of time, like Exar Kun’s temple or the Valley of the Sith on Korriban. They’re also pretty much stuck there.
Obviously becoming a Floaty Jedi Ghost was Yoda’s goal all along. The core story of Star Wars is the desperate struggle of Jedi to attain immortality…by living long enough to die in front of Luke . Note Yoda and Ben went out of their way to die in front of Luke, which is the only means of unlocking Floaty Ghost Form.
I believe that was pretty deftly explained here :
http://boards.theforce.net/jacksonville_nc/b10441/20294552/p1/
“Achievement Unlocked: Floaty Ghost Form”
he wanted to have a jedi ghost party.
He wanted to see the end of the movie.
I have been annoyed by this ever since I unlocked the ghosts in Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga.
Thank you for putting me at ease, Willis.
Star Wars continuity makes Terminator’s continuity look logical. I can’t watch T2 anymore because of the fact that John Connor was born in 1985 and he’s a teenager in 1991. Or that the story just got more and more ridiculous after T3 and Sarah Connor Chronichles.
Star Wars also makes DCnU continuity look like it makes sense. Still trying to figure out how Batman had 4 robins (oh wait, Stephanie Brown doesn’t exist like Ted Kord, Donna Troy or Vic Sage.) in five years.
I think the best thing to do with all this stuff is not think about it too much. It’ll make your head explode.
Word of God says that T2 is set in 1995. Which would make John the most filthy-mouthed, assholish ten year old ever…
Well, he WAS raised by Sarah Connor and a succession of guys who were all assholes themselves.
Ten years old? He doesn’t look THAT much older; I could see him conceivably be ten years old in the film.
“Wait a parsec”
Priceless.
Willis, I have a question, do you plan your ads? Because the Head Trip ad is very strategically placed, considering Mallory’s angle of gaze.
Or it could be a dumb fluke and I should stop thinking about things.
In fairness they got to spend 20 years having all their arms and legs still attached.
So I mean, had that going for ‘em.
I always thought along the lines of that when you become a spirit, you take on the age/form that feels right for you.
Parsec is still measured as distance, when Han said “You’ve never heard of the Millennium Falcon? … It’s the ship that made the Kessel run in less than 12 parsecs.” He was talking distance, the reasoning is the Kessel run is blockaded by an ever changing asteroid field, when doing the run is to get in and out of the debris as quickly as possible yes, but also using the least amount of distance in doing so. Space is 3D, imagine it.
Damn, beat me to it. Though I’m fairly certain the Kessel run goes by the Maw, a patch of black holes.
Ooh, looked it up. The Kessel run involves the Maw and an asteroid field called the Pit.
http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Kessel_run
Yeah forgot to mention the black holes, but you get the idea
Yep, that certainly is the same ass-pull rationalization I’ve heard many times for that particular screw-up in the first movie, sure enough.
I still stand by the idea that Han was actually bullshitting them, just to see how much money he could feasibly bilk them out of, despite EU stuff jossing that.
Bah! A parsec is a unit of distance! It’s about 3.26 lightyears.
*Shakes his fist at George Lucas*
The “Han makes the Kessel run in whatever parsecs” thing was explained away in the expanded universe. The Kessel run involves skirting near a patch of black holes, so the shorter your run, and therefor how close you get to the black holes, the more badass a pilot you are.
I always preferred the interpretation that Han was just full of shit, and trying to convince Luke and Obi-Wan of how awesome he is, so they’d pay his exhorbent fee for what was supposed to be an easy trip.
This is the midichlorionest thing for people to worry about.
“Oh let me just sit here worrying about the logical consistency of these space-magic ghosts”
Hate Hayden Christiansen’s ghost being there because it’s Hayden Christiansen, not this shit.
Honestly, THIS is what they should have added to the BluRay DVD set.
From this point forward, I’m going to change all my “wait a moment”, “Wait a second”, and “Wait a minute” to “Wait a yard”, “Wait a Mile”, and “Wait an Astronomical Unit” and so forth.
JOIN ME, BROTHERS(and SISTERS)! OUR DISTANCE WILL BE GLORIOUS!
Why does Yoda have 3 fingers and a thumb?
opps Why has.. sorry yoda-grammar
Because 3 thumbs and a finger would look funny and make it hard to eat pickles?
Because Yoda has three fingers and a thumb.
Remember you must, not all Jedi Human are.
Bantor droppings for brains some have
Yes George Lucas, You it is
Am I the only one seeing Yoda’s awesome new ‘stache in that last panel?
Third panel and all I can think of is Anakin sort of getting back at Obi-Wan on his sons account for the ‘certain point of view’ comment…
*TvTropes Nerd and Proud*
The way I’ve thought about it since Lucas’ official change, your force ghost takes the form you last remember. I don’t think Anakin ever looked at himself (beyond the mask) since donning the Vader garb.
So the point here is that even when “good”, Anakin is still an @$$h0le?
You mean… He’s Mike?
Please. Anakin could never hope to be as cool or as much of an @$$h0le as Mike.
Huh. This is funny. Last night my fiance was noting how stupid it was Obi-wan was left old in the change, too.
Sweet, now let’s address Vader yelling “Nooooo” in Jedi
It’s a perfectly logical dialogue addition. I know whining, self-entitled “fans” will never accept that, but it is what it is.
It’s unecessary and sintomatic of how modern audiences are blind to subtleties and need everything spelled out (or screamed out) for them to understand it.
It’s not nearly as bad as people make it seem, but it doesn’t make it any less stupid.
Yes, because audiences were so much more sophisticated in 1983. That explains why Flashdance was such a hit.
…yeah, I kind of have to stifle a chuckle when I read that audiences today are less sophisticated than they used to be. If anything, they’re smarter and more cynical. Just compare the sitcoms.
Ouch, point granted, but it still is unecessary flare.
But then again, what isn’t in Star Wars?
Nevertheless, I think it’s like adding a voice over saying “Wow! I’m the only one left in the battle field and I’m not even really part of the clan while the new Lord left! How hideous of them!” in the final scenes of Kagemusha. Or a “Well, will it or won’t it fall,folks, make your bets!” at the ending of Inception. Or, I don’t know, a detailed narration of every light saber battle. “I’ve just used and advancing block to try and mess with your balance, but you managed to block my following attack and now are attacking me with the so-so school of Lightsaber”.
It would all feel a lot like Saint Seya.
It’s one word. Twice, but it’s still just one word, so it’s nothing at all like any of those. It’s not even expositional. You’d have a point if it was changed to Vader saying, “Enough is enough! I have had it with this motherfucking Sith on this motherfucking Death Star. Everybody strap in. I’m about to pitch the Emperor over this rail.”
Although your last example is pretty close to a scene in The Princess Bride, and that movie is a classic.
Look at the reality shows.
Not that this subject needs more discussion, Darth Vader’s “No,” in ROTJ. I would like to know how many people who saw ROTJ in 1983 were confused by what Darth Vader was doing in that scene. I’m sure that everyone got it. Now I don’t think Lucas added the “No” to clear things up. The “No” is there to serve as a bookend to Revenge of the Sith. Nothing more than that.
Believe it or not, 1980 had reality shows, too. And they were somehow more insipid.
Circus of the Stars doesn’t count.
If anything, that opinion justifies fan outrage over Star Wars being changed…
Flippant sarcasm validates petulant, habitual complaining? Who knew?
I love the comic, but I have to throw in my two cents because this is one of the alterations that annoys me most. If Darth Vader actually betrayed and murdered Anakin to the point that it’s the young one who returns, why didn’t he come back as a ghost sooner? He didn’t and couldn’t because Obi-Wan was being metaphorical (in his retcon); Anakin was dead to him, replaced by some monster he didn’t recognize. And if we’re going to use a metaphor as rationale to determine how someone appears as a Force ghost… When Anakin takes the mantle of Darth Vader, his body is mutilated reflecting how the Dark Side has mutilated his soul. Yet, when he finally realizes what he became, who drove him to it, and that he still has a choice he begins to heal himself. Asking Luke to take off the mask is a further rejection of Darth Vader. For his Force ghost to appear as an older man represents how his return to the Light Side made him whole again.
Thank you! That’s been exactly my argument regarding this superfluous change ever since it was introduced on the DVDs.
Yes, yes. We know, Mr. Lucas. Anakin-Hayden was good and Darth Vader/Anakin-David was bad. But, Anakin-Sebastian was good also. And let’s not forget that Anakin starts being called Darth Vader before donning (sp?) the mask. So Hayden Christensen’s face is Anakin’s, but also Vader’s. He was Darth Vader when he murdered the Jedi children, and when he dueled with Obi-Wan; Anakin Skywalker was already gone.
Now, this explanation that Anakin’s force ghost looks young because that’s how he sees himself (kinda like Nea when he reenters The Matrix), is something I haven’t read until now. It’s a better explanation/justification that what George Lucas uses.
-airfox
Damn typos!
I meant Neo, and “better justification than what George…”
-airfox
Willis you missed the chance to do a second “Ghost Dad” joke. Shame on you!
“Wait a parsec” Nice touch, Willis.
I think the reason this change annoyed me the most was because I liked the idea of Anakin returning to himself before he died. The man who died on the Death Star was no longer Darth Vader. And it ruined that neat moment. *sigh*. . .
Before the prequels, one could assume that Darth Vader killed the remaining Jedi in the galaxy. Now it’s mostly clones that kill the Jedi and Darth Vader murders children.
Darth Vader is the most powerful Sith besides the Emperor himself… and Darth Vader’s SEEKRIT apprentice who can toss Star Destroyers around with Force Power because he’s that badass.
so… if Anakin died when he became Vader, and therefore his spirit appears as a young man before that happened… then Vader didn’t get redeemed and that *wasn’t* Anakin who died on the Death Star in Luke’s arms?
umm…..
If only I could find the original 1990 VHS of Episode VI, then my 1990 series would be complete and I wouldn’t have to see the cruddy CGI bugging the film.
All I know is, my sister and I saved up our proofs of purchase to get the original Anakin figure in the 80s, and that’s how we prefer to remember ghost Anakin.
That, and “Celebrate the love”, bitches.
It has probably been said before, but I’m not looking through the comments to find out…
Parsec is NOT a measurement of time.
This is turbo late, but…
Yoda and Obi-wan were probably used to their ‘old’ forms. If I grew old and then died, and then came back, I’d probably see myself as the old man, not a young person. Anakin, however, maybe hasn’t felt like himself in a long time.
So maybe you appear in the form you’re most comfortable with? Thus, anakin’s the odd one out because he’s the only one who wasn’t satisfied in his old age?
Can ghost’s get dark side points cause force choke is immediate darkside penalty just saying