About those Anakin Skywalker appearance rumors for Episode 7

Alright, so this SHOULD go without saying, but this post is going to have Episode 7 spoilers....and educated guesses that might spoil episode 8 or 9 as well.

Ok so in the real world there was a rumor going around that Hayden Christensen AKA Anakin Skywalker was going to appear in Episode 7. Now a lot of fans instantly dismissed that and moved on.

Well it turns out, at some point there might have been some truth to that. The Art of Star Wars: The Force Awaken has a comment by the concept artist for the series Iain McCaig that proves the idea of Anakin in Episode 7 made it as least as far as the concept art stage as there are multiple sketches for Anakins force ghost.

Which raises an interesting question, where exactly would Anakin have shown up?

My guess, the scene where we see Darth Vader's helmet.

See theres an interesting and easy to miss line in that scene, in which Kylo Ren ask's Vader's Helmet to "show me again the power of the dark side."

The key word there is AGAIN. Which implies that Vader's helmet has shown him something before.

Thing is, its a helmet. Its an inanimate object with no inherent force ability at all.  (remember both other trilogies stated that only living things can touch the force)

A force ghost on the other hand, well now this line makes perfect sense.

So maybe Ren wasnt talking to Vader's helmet.....maybe he was talking to Vader, just as his uncle did with Obi Wan in the original trilogy.  The force ghost doesnt have to be visible to interact with another force user (as seen during the death star run)

Of course this would raise another problem. If Vader exists this would basically erase the entire freaking point of Episode VI.

Which I assume is likely the reason they didnt have Anakin appear in the movie and went with the Helmet instead. People would have seen Anakin on the dark side again and flipped shit.

Now why didnt they just change that line then? Because the people who flipped shit would have been wrong, and the writers need the line to make Ren's character arc work, and in fact will still explain this in later movies.

Ok so heres what I mean by that:

Episode 7 strongly implies the details of what happened on the Second Death Star, specifically Vader's betrayal of the emperor arnt widely known. Yet there are at least 3 people in the galaxy who know. Luke, Leia and Han, all of whom would have seen Anakins Ghost on Endor.

So it stands to reason that the child of 2 of those people, and the padawan and nephew of the third, would also likely have been told the truth. In otherwords, Ben Solo should know Vader was redeemed, so why would he join the Dark Side to honor his grandfather's legacy as appears to be his motivation in episode 7?

Because his grandfather's ghost told him his parents and uncle had lied to him and that he had survived death. This would be the implied show of power of the dark side that Kylo references in the movie

And here of course is the part where we seemingly undo Episode 6....but only if we take things at face value.

By which I mean, only if we accept that it was actually Anakin's ghost that appeared to Ben Solo and drew him to the dark side.

I think at some point in episode 8 they are going to get around to addressing this, possibly even by having  Hayden Christensen appear as Anakin, but then I think they are going to also reveal the truth at the same time (which the pacing of Episode  wouldnt have allowed for), that it was not in fact Anakin's ghost talking to Ben solo, he was just led to believe it was.

Ok so, lets pause for a second and consider what we know about Kylo Ren/Ben Solo. He appears to be one of the most powerful Jedi ever, at least if his "pausing" of the laser blast at the start of Episode 7 is any indication.

So clearly he's going to be able to detect a force presence if it appears to him.

But he's also very clearly (and even mentioned as) fairly untrained. So its not at all unbelievable he cant focus on whose force presence he feels (also explaining how he missed his father being feet away from him on the Starkiller base, he could feel his father but wasnt skilled enough in the force to focus, and how he seemingly missed the strength of Rey's abilities despite possibly knowing her, given his tantrum when he found out about "the girl" on Jakku ).

Also worth noting that he's pretty massively insecure and seemingly obsessed with appearing to be powerful, and believes he really isnt despite the evidence to the contrary.

So, what I'm getting at is that at some point a force presence appears to Ben Solo, and claims to be Anakin Skywalker. Solo has enough training to tell it is in fact a force presence, and knows his grandfather has appeared as a ghost before so has no reason to doubt him. At which point over the course of several appearances "Skywalker" reveals the "truth" to Ben Solo, he was never redeemed, his parents and uncle lied to him to stop Ben from achieving his true potential and power....power that his "grandfather" can lead him too.  The final act of winning over Ben's trust is leading him to Vader's helmet, something's that's location should be know only to Luke and Vader. Hence explaining how Kylo got the helmet.

Now fully believing his "Grandfather", Ben turns on his family for holding him back and lying to him (slaughtering Luke's jedi order in the process)  and falls to the dark side.

Which brings us nicely to Episode 7. But I've been implying for a while things arnt what they seem, hence what I believe will be the big revelation of Episode 8, the truth of who actually corrupted Ben Solo.

Ok so, if it wasnt Anakin who appears to Ben, who else could it be? It has to have been a force sensitive person who just took on Anakin's form. But again that should be a short list, after all Luke's the last Jedi and the Sith are gone, right?

Maybe not. Consider what we know. Some Jedi seem to have the ability to cheat death....hence the whole Force Ghost thing in the first place.


Now when Disney bought star wars, they DID throw out the Expanded Universe, but with one exception, the Clone Wars TV show.

Now the Clone Wars revealed that  Qui Gon Jinn was actually the FIRST Jedi to ever learn this technique. (and for the record, he actually appears in Episode II as a disembodied voice if you listen carefully so this episode was actually building off the movies).

At some point after his death he was able to teach this ability to Yoda and Obi Wan, hence their appearances as Ghosts in the original trilogy.

But then we go to Episode 4 in which Obi Wan taunts Vader with the famous "Strike me down and I shall become more powerful than you ever imagined" which Vader doesnt really seem to believe, and also appears surprised when Obi Wan's body disappears. So it doesnt seem like he knew anything about this trick.

Yet, there's his force ghost at the end of Episode 6. So who taught him that trick?

Well remember when Anakin first fell to the dark side? it was after learning the story of Darth Plagueis, from then Chancellor Palpatine AKA Darth Sidous, Plagueis' apprentice

According to Palpatine, Plagueis "was a Dark Lord of the Sith so powerful and so wise, he could use the Force to influence the midi-chlorians to create life. He had such a knowledge of the dark side, he could even keep the ones he cared about from dying[...]Unfortunately, he taught his apprentice everything he knew. Then his apprentice killed him in his sleep. Ironic. He could save others from death, but not himself." followed by a promise this skill could be taught to Anakin.

In otherwords, cheating death seems to be the very skill that cause Anakin to fall in the first place....and given his force ghost in Episode 6, it seems likely he eventually learned it from Palpatine. (who it should be noted appears as a disembodies voice in episode 7)

Or part of it at least. See its implied in Episode 3 that Plagueis' skill was more akin to outright Resurrection. Just that, according to Palpatine, Plagueis couldnt work the skill on himself.

But what if Palpatine was wrong? He's a very arrogant person, and in some respects his belief in his own superiority and control got him killed (he tortures Luke in Ep 6 to show his control over Vader instead of killing Luke outright, leading to Vader breaking the control), and its likely not the only time he was wrong.

And Sith are pretty well shown to be more than willing to stab each other in the back, what with Palpatine allowing Dooku to die at Anakins hand, Vader attempting to convert Luke to overthrow Palpatine, Palpatine trying to get Luke to kill Vader for him ect.

So youd have to be pretty stupid to actually teach your apprentice EVERYTHING you know. Meaning perhaps Plagueis escaped death/resurrected himself after all unbeknowst to Palpatine, and has been plotting revenge ever since.

Consider as well, at the end of Episode 3 Vader is told by Palpatine he killed a pregnant Padme on Mustafar. Yet in episode 4 he seems well aware of the fact he has a son and isnt the slightest bit surprised.

 How'd he find out? Its never yet been stated. We can assume it wasnt the force, cause he clearly didnt know about Leia. And I doubt Palpatine told him as it was to Palpatines advantage he never know, otherwise he would be distracted from Palpatines goals.

Palpatines' master on the other hand? He might have done it.

Consider, its actually implied that Plagueis is Anakin's "father" (having the power to create life out of the force itself and Anakin apparently being an immaculate conception). And Plagueis would have a reason to want to get back at Palpatine, and what better revenge than creating a being so powerful Palpatine would be sure to seek him out and make him his apprentice, only to turn the apprentice against him? (as it happens by revealing the truth of his family, or enough of it anyways).

By the way, did you know there are actually 3 other "out of sequence" star wars movies (Star Wars Anthology Series) coming out? I ask because they are set during the time period between episodes 3 and 4, so all of the above could actually play out there.

Not to mention, its possible it wouldnt have been Plagueis' first attempt either, as Darth Maul actually survived Ep 1(per the clone wars),  albeit with only half a body and kept trying to kill Palpatine. Plagueis certainly would have had the power to keep Maul alive.

So now, stage fully set, we final getting back to how all this relates to Kylo Ren and Anakin Skywalker being in the new trilogy:

The "Anakin" Ghost that turned Solo would have actually been a manifestation of Plagueis masquerading as Anakin....because he needs an apprentice. And again who better than the even more powerful descendant of the being he himself created years before?

Which of course would bring us to Plagueis' true identity......the only other surviving dark side user known: Supreme Leader Snoke.

 Ep 7 clearly states Snoke's got some kind of Dark Side power, and would also explain why he hasnt yet fully trained Ren or made him into a Sith (doesnt want him to either get too powerful or even powerful enough to discover the truth unless absolutely needed (say by the reemergence of the Jedi in the form of Rey).

Also having Snoke be Plagueis gives the character enough power to make it believable he could use the force to just make people not notice/pay attention to the freaking death planet he built (the starkiller base).

It also fits the series over arching theme of having a second more powerful villain behind the "lead" villain (palpatine behind Maul, Dooku and Vader) and the manipulations and slight of hands used to conceal the truth used thought the series.

Also, the music used for the story of Plagueis in Ep 3 and for Snoke in 7 are extremely similar, maybe a hint maybe coincidence.

So now to bring us full Circle, I believe had Hayden Christensen actually shown, he would have actually been playing Snoke pretending to be Anakin. It just got dropped cause they couldnt fit the explanation in the movie and didnt want the audience to riot.

Hence why, even without Christensen in 7 they kept the odd line about needing to "AGAIN" see the power of the dark side.

Also might be worth mentioning that its also rumored Hayden Christensen is training to get in shape for Episode 8 as we speak.

And honestly, as much as most star wars fans hate the idea of anything from the prequels tainting the sequels....I think under this circumstance I'd actually be ok with Hayden Christensen. mostly because it makes sense of a lot of things so far unanswered possible problems with Episode 7.