Anakin's Redemption Arc

[Starrius]

In Anakin's defense, Tusken raiders are pretty much dickwads. .

Hell yeah....they captured and enslaved her mother
she died from being beatened by them
so it was natural that somebody highly emotionally attached to his mother like Anakin would go off the deep end

I don't know what I would have done in that situation.

Anakin's examination and confrontation by the Jedi Council definitely foreshadowed his mother's tragic death that would be catalyst for his path to the dark .

[ChrisIII]

It was generally assumed before the PT I think, that pretty much every Jedi who died faded away and became a force ghost-and this also extended to the Sith/Dark side guys as well. A good chunk of Kevin J. Anderson's Star Wars work has Sith spirits luring Jedi to the dark side.

However, this sort of became complicated I think when Qui-Gonn didn't fade away at the end of TPM but was cremated instead. (It's unclear what happened with Vader's body). However, in a weird sort of way apparentally he still became a force ghost I guess, and sort of could reach out from beyond the grave to talk to Yoda at least, although most of that was cut from ROTS (although sort of explaiend via Clone Wars). Basically a Jedi has to do something completely selfless in order to attain it, such as Obi-Wan dropping his defense and leaving himself wide open in the original film, Anakin killing the Emperor to save his son, and Luke's distraction of Ren. As for Yoda, he passed on his teachings of course so that probably counts too.

[David Walton]

Watching the OT, I had always assumed that Jedi always became Force-ghosts when they died.

That said, Vader does seem surprised by Obi-Wan de-materializing in ANH, like it's something he's never seen before. So you could make an argument from his reaction that it was set up as something rare even then.

As far as Vader's redemption arc goes, I think the Force pretty much met him where he was. I don't think he suddenly became what we'd call a good person, but his actions are courageous in the sense that he'd been beaten down by the Emperor for so long.

I take it that by doing so, the darkness which had clouded his mind was lifted, and he was able to manifest as the Anakin he was originally meant to be.

The Thrawn trilogy dealt with the idea that Leia wasn't able to forgive Vader as Luke had and still held him accountable for Alderaan's destruction.

[ChrisIII]

I think that was more "Truce At Bakura", mainly, which came out shortly thereafter, but took place earlier in the timeline.

Released much later, the novel "Tatooine Ghost" has her discovering a lot of Anakin's past on the planet and forgiving him, and ultimately led to her decision to name her second son after him.

[David Walton]

I think that was more "Truce At Bakura", mainly, which came out shortly thereafter, but took place earlier in the timeline.

Released much later, the novel "Tatooine Ghost" has her discovering a lot of Anakin's past on the planet and forgiving him, and ultimately led to her decision to name her second son after him.

I do recall Leia briefly thinking about how she couldn't forgive Vader in HEIR TO THE EMPIRE.

I never read TATOOINE GHOST, so that's interesting. Was it written before or after the prequels?

[Scott Taylor]

Either way I don't think we will ever see the Vader force ghost again. Tossing aside canon and story for a second, the reason Anakin appeared as a force ghost at the end of RotJ was just to provide a happy ending for everyone. I always figured it was a one time thing, tbh.

[SuperiorIronman]

I can't remember why it was cut but Anakin as a ghost was going to appear in Episode 7 and even then he did manifest as Vader. There was also a Sith ghost potentially for Episode 8, but Sith ghosts as they are now have to either be summoned or bound to objects or places.

[ChrisIII]

http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Tatooine_Ghost

It was written in 2003 by Troy Denning, a writer who in particular liked to tie in the prequels to the OT characters and their post-ROTJ circumstances. (His "Swarm War" trilogy has a subplot where R2 reveals information about the prequel events to Luke & Leia) It took place between The Courtship of Princess Leia and Heir to The Empire, with Leia initially worrying about having kids due to her anxiety about her father's legacy (Funny thing is, in both continuities, this anxiety kind of was justified!). The novel also features a bit of Thrawn and sets up a small part of Denning's Swarm War.

[BeastieRunner]

I can't remember why it was cut but Anakin as a ghost was going to appear in Episode 7 and even then he did manifest as Vader. There was also a Sith ghost potentially for Episode 8, but Sith ghosts as they are now have to either be summoned or bound to objects or places.

I rather like that.

[Godzilla2099]

I thought about redemption for Anakin. What I thought would have been a nice scene from The Last Jedi...

During Luke's self exile, he encounters a village about to get struck down by an avalanche. Before Luke can act, the rubble is pushed aside by the village elders who use the force. He learns these Elders were the children from the Jedi Temple. The new Sith Lord Darth Vader, spared the children and warned them if they were to ever use the force, they will be executed. The elders had no choice but to reveal their secret in order to save their families.

Learning this gives Luke renewed hope.

Luke should have been the one trying to save his nephew. Not overpowered Rey.

We never saw the children slaughtered. There is room for the writers to address it.