r/StarWars • u/VillainM Anakin Skywalker • Mar 23 '21

I’ve recently been made aware that a lot of younger Star Wars fans (understandably) aren’t aware that Sebastian Shaw was the original ghost of Anakin, and that Hayden was edited onto Sebastian’s body in 2004. So this is for those who might not know! Meta

Post image
46.1k Upvotes

93% Upvoted

View all comments

Show parent comments

961

u/VillainM Anakin Skywalker Mar 23 '21

George’s reasoning was that Anakin died as a Jedi at age 22, which is why he appears that age as a ghost.

In plenty of media since then, it’s been heavily implied that force ghosts can choose how they appear, which would explain why Obi-wan and Yoda choose to appear in a form that Luke would recognize them in. I like to think that Anakin chose to appear as a young Jedi knight to show Luke that he was right about him; that Anakin was still trapped somewhere in the suit for all those years.

243

u/Sirliftalot35 Mar 23 '21

This. It also goes well with Obi-Wan’s “from a certain point of view” bit well I’d say.

46

u/Roller_ball Mar 23 '21

Wasn't he redeemed right before dying? I think he was more in touch with the Anakin self at that point than he was when rocking the killin' younglings haircut.

40

u/Sirliftalot35 Mar 23 '21

When he killed the younglings, Vader symbolically killed Anakin. Anakin wasn’t symbolically dead at the start of Episode 3. Or in the Clone Wars.

8

u/AnonymousDratini Mar 23 '21

Arguably he was the most “Anakin” when he was first stoked to find put he was going to be a dad, but before his paranoia over the possibility of Padmé dying from complications/who knows what really started ruling his decision making.

4

u/[deleted] Mar 23 '21

This. He even says it is the happiest moment of his life.

3

u/AnonymousDratini Mar 23 '21

Man RIP Anakin’s opportunity to be the dad he never had.

That’s the thing that gets me every time I watch episode 3. He was so exited to be a parent and the next time he meets one he’s there to watch Tarkin blow up her home planet😭

3

u/mrmgl Luke Skywalker Mar 23 '21

He was already Vader when he killed the younglings.

9

u/[deleted] Mar 23 '21

[removed] — view removed comment

1

u/jjesh Mar 23 '21

I think it was supposed to be a mix, Luke realized there was still some of his father left, but it was buried under years of vader. Anakin broke through at the end, but in a way it was still vader's body.

1

u/CrunchyCondom Mar 23 '21

Yeah, no. You’re literally giving it more thought than Lucas did. The dude was obsessed with CGI and wanted to permanently stitch the prequels into the OT. It makes zero sense from a storytelling perspective.

1

u/Sirliftalot35 Mar 23 '21

And Mace had a purple lightsaber because SLJ liked purple. That doesn’t mean that there aren’t fitting explanations for it that came after to help explain it and make it work.

0

u/CrunchyCondom Mar 23 '21

Ah so you admit that that 99% of Star Wars canon is masturbatory bullshit made up by fans to make sense of blunders in production and to Frankenstein a bunch of different creative endeavors that are connected in name only. Neat!

3

u/Sirliftalot35 Mar 23 '21

Why are you even here if you hate Star Wars so much?

76

u/darthpepsi24 Mar 23 '21

Interesting. Thank you. If I was like though I would have been like “who’s that?” As he only seen his fathers face when he took off Vaders helmet.

77

u/KnightGamer724 Jedi Mar 23 '21

Unless, of course, he saw Clone Wars footage of his father, which can easily be put into any Star Wars comic for some reason.

58

u/VillainM Anakin Skywalker Mar 23 '21

That’s entirely possible that they’ll do that, especially if Luke meets Ahsoka. She has that training holocron of him that she showed Ezra in Rebels. I think even if Luke didn’t know what Anakin looked like before, he immediately sensed that it was his father standing alongside Obi-wan and Yoda.

29

u/scrodytheroadie Mar 23 '21

What if Luke completed his Jedi training using the holocron of Anakin?

22

u/VillainM Anakin Skywalker Mar 23 '21

That would be a really cool connection

1

u/jakethedumbmistake Mar 23 '21

The general audience doesn’t want to be there

5

u/[deleted] Mar 23 '21

I now want to see an edit where Anakin comes back as the blocky animated version of himself from TCW.

0

u/Fox-Fireheart-66 Mar 23 '21

In Rebels, Ezra finds a holocron with a younger Anakin, Ezra might have met Luke between Empire Strikes Back and ROTJ, and maybe Ezra described Anakin to Luke... that would make an interesting story

10

u/SchnazzButNot Mar 23 '21

How would he meet him? Wasn't Ezra stranded in the Unknown Regions?

-3

u/Fox-Fireheart-66 Mar 23 '21

That we know of...

3

u/SchnazzButNot Mar 23 '21

Well... if he met Luke, that means he most likely met Ahsoka, and if he met Ahsoka, they most likely wouldn't be making a show about her since it's about finding Ezra and Thrawn

4

u/Mitchel11 Mar 23 '21

Ezra is missing or dead during the whole OT period dude.

4

u/cutler_joseph Jedi Mar 23 '21

Probably just missing. If he died I think at the end of Rebels they’d say he was found dead instead of the two going to look for him.

1

u/DryTransportation Ezra Bridger Mar 23 '21

It was confirmed he survived the jump, and it's basically confirmed he's still alive in 10ABY as well.

1

u/cutler_joseph Jedi Mar 23 '21

Yeah and with Thrawn’s name being mentioned in other media post-empire it wouldn’t make sense for Ezra to not be around too.

1

u/DryTransportation Ezra Bridger Mar 23 '21

and plus, it'd be silly for them to have sabine wren say at the end of rebels "ezra is still out there, and it's time to bring him home" or whatever if when they found him, he was just an old rusty skeleton that's been dead for 10 long years. it'd make sense from an in-universe point-of-view but makes zero sense for a tv show. he's most definitely alive, I assume he'll be found in the ahsoka series and then they'll have him appear more often in the future

1

u/cutler_joseph Jedi Mar 23 '21

Yeah exactly. I honestly think that the Ahsoka episode of the Mandalorian was hinting at her looking for him without saying it directly. It just makes sense that she’d ask for the location of Thrawn since I doubt imperials would know where Ezra is but they would more than likely know where Thrawn is and I would assume they would be at the same place or at least know where each other is. So she could have been looking for him indirectly in that episode.

1

u/DryTransportation Ezra Bridger Mar 23 '21

It was confirmed he survived the jump, and it's basically confirmed he's still alive in 10ABY as well.

14

u/Murkle-Man Mar 23 '21

Perhaps luke can sense that anakins force ghost is his father much like he can sense that darth Vader is his father, and wouldn’t need to know what he looked like when he was younger

5

u/VillainM Anakin Skywalker Mar 23 '21

That’s my theory as well

1

u/-Listening Mar 23 '21

That one extra line in the bottom of!”

63

u/jmhbb3267 Mar 23 '21

i am comfortable with the “choosing how they appear” aspect.

my main issue with using images of hayden over sebastian, however, is the entire saga up until that point was the story of anakin’s fall and subsequent redemption - he died as anakin skywalker; he didn’t die as darth vader.

43

u/mac6uffin Mar 23 '21

however, is the entire saga up until that point was the story of anakin’s fall and subsequent redemption

This is a retcon after the prequels came along. The entire saga in the OT was Luke's journey from naive farmboy, to avenger of his father's death, to Jedi and redeemer of his father.

21

u/DamNamesTaken11 Mar 23 '21

Exactly. It was never originally meant to be a complete story about the rise, fall, redemption of Anakin. OT was Luke’s story as you described, PT was Anakin’s fall that Lucas then shoehorned to claim OT was then his redemption.

2

u/CrunchyCondom Mar 23 '21

It’s depressing to me how many “fans” don’t understand this. They make excuses and inject their fantasy into Lucas’ actions, which have been nothing but disrespectful to the original cast and crew of the OT. Lucas gets way more credit than he deserves because he “created” Star Wars, even though it’s pretty well-known that the success of the original film was made in the cutting room.

1

u/jmhbb3267 Mar 23 '21

good point, well made. thank you.

16

u/Reddit_Roit Mar 23 '21

Except that if you have the chance to look like Ewan McGregor, you look like Ewan McGregor. As an older man I very much identify with my younger self. But I get why they made those choices.

13

u/jmhbb3267 Mar 23 '21

yeah, the “choose your own appearance” certainly makes it a bit more palatable.

would love to see a “force ghost spinoff” where it’s just yoda, luke, obi-wan, anakin and qui-gon sitting around drinking and talking shit as their younger selves.

watching them all double-take as anakin says “oh yeah then i cut off mace’s fucking hand. it was epic.” i’d pay to watch that tbh.

1

u/[deleted] Mar 23 '21

We need stuff like that, and maybe the office but it's the death star.

1

u/jmhbb3267 Mar 23 '21

curb your enthusiasm, only it’s vader as larry david and he just ends any awkward situation by force choking everyone.

3

u/br0b1wan The Child Mar 23 '21

The residual self-image approach.

I agree. I'm 39, but if I had the choice to portray myself outward, I'd choose the early-20s me.

1

u/thwip62 Mar 23 '21

Really? I'm 38, and for the most part, I'd pick now me over early 20s me.

1

u/thwip62 Mar 23 '21

Obi-Wan knew exactly what he looked like, so naturally his ghost image reflected how he was in life. Vader had probably spent the last 25 years actively avoiding his own reaction. Upon becoming Anakin again, his spirit reflected the Anakin he remembered being. When I shave after long periods having a full beard, I still half-expect my reflection to have a beard. Same thing.

2

u/Mr_Will Mar 23 '21

I see it a bit like The Matrix and "residual self-image" - they aren't choosing how they appear, they are appearing as they see themselves. Post-redemption Anakin never got chance to get used to his aged body and still sees himself as the person he was before his fall to the dark side. In his own mind, this is what Anakin looked like. He only ever saw Shaw's face as the face of Vader.

3

u/BSchultz_42 Grievous Mar 23 '21

This is beautiful.

2

u/unique-name-9035768 Jedi Mar 23 '21

If he redeemed himself when killing Vader, then Anakin died on the Death Star.

2

u/gingerbenji Mar 23 '21

Age 22 is likely also the last time Anakin looked in a mirror without his suit on so has no idea what his older face looks like so chose his young face.

2

u/l0r1_4774k Mar 23 '21

loved this explanation, thanks

3

u/lkodl Mar 23 '21

coming to Disney+...

Following the success of the season three finale of the Mandalorian, comes a new show set in the Star Wars universe post-Episode IX, about a new young Jedi on a hero's quest, who is guided by the Force Ghost of Luke Skywalker, only this time, Luke chooses to appear as a baby. in the season finale, the New Jedi and Baby Luke are rescued by Teenage Grogu.

1

u/UnknownQTY Mar 23 '21

I would have appreciated Obi-Wan showing up as a force ghost to Rey and Luke, and then being a deep fake of Old Ben when it showed Luke’s framing and Ewan when it showed Rey’s.

1

u/wyolars Imperial Mar 23 '21

It would have been received allot better if they would have reshot this scene while shooting ROTS instead of the photoshop mess we got..

1

u/ElGato-TheCat Mar 23 '21

heavily implied that force ghosts can choose how they appear

I would choose to appear as Padme in Leia's slave outfit.

1

u/Pizzaplanet420 Mar 23 '21

I like that reasoning more than what others said. Like the change was unnecessary and a bit disrespectful to the actor but it’s at least something to think about from a lore perspective.

1

u/lowtierdeity Mar 23 '21

It’s really complete nonsense.

1

u/[deleted] Mar 23 '21

Bullshit reasoning on Lucas' part, just trying to justify his idiotic edits.

1

u/OprahOprah Mar 23 '21

White person murders countless men, women and children: "That's not who I am."

1

u/Thenadamgoes Mar 23 '21

But Luke had only seen Anakin as an old man. He’s probably wondering who this young guy is appearing to him as a ghost.

1

u/StuckAtWaterTemple Mar 23 '21

Only that Anakin "resurrected" at the end. And Luke only knew his older face.