Support for Hayden Christensen at the End of Return of the Jedi

A strange thing happened over the weekend while my wife and I were watching Star Wars VI: Return of the Jedi.

First you need to understand my wife is more of a fan of Star Trek then Star Wars, so while she's seen the movies before her memories of them were mostly bits and pieces.

So over the past few months we have been re-watching all the movies in a row from I-VI.

So we come to the end of the movie, which again my wife really doesn't remember all that well.

The alliance on Endor is celebrating the destruction of the second Death Star, Luke turns to see the force ghosts of Obi-Wan and Yoda, and we all know what happens next.

The force ghost of Anakin Skywalker appears.

Originally this was played by Sebastian Shaw, but my wife and I were watching the Blu-Ray version so instead it was Hayden Christensen.

Here's where it got interesting.

My wife sitting next to me gasped when it happened.

I looked over at her, and she was starting to tear up, "OK, that one got me a little," she said.

Again my wife didn't remember the end of ROTJ, and her only real connection to Anakin had been played by Hayden.

To her this was a true redemptive moment.

The young man she last saw in Star Wars III burned and broken was now standing before his own son, whole and healed.

It was the first time I thought, "Hey, maybe Lucas was on to something when he made this change."

There are people young and old whose first introduction to Darth Vader was as that little boy on Tatooine or maybe even the young Jedi fighting in the Clone Wars.

The truth is the six films are supposed to be about the redemption of Anakin, and the change to add Hayden, while lambasted by purists, is actually the right thing to do.

I realize I could get many negative comments on this, and I myself am shocked to hear myself admit it.

We talk so much about George Lucas ruining our childhoods by making changes to the movies, but maybe it's we who are ruining the special moments in rediscovering Star Wars by criticizing every little edit.

It's this negativity the original fans must put aside if we truly want to enjoy what is turning out to be a bright future for the franchise.