Star Wars has revealed a great deal about Jedi Force Ghosts - but there are still a lot of mysteries. Force Ghosts have been a part of Star Wars since the beginning, when Darth Vader cut down Obi-Wan Kenobi in George Lucas' first movie. Vader was visibly confused when Obi-Wan's body disappeared, and tie-ins have expanded on this by revealing what Vader sensed through the Force. At the moment of Obi-Wan's death, as the aged Jedi Master became one with the Force, a sense of his presence drowned out everything else around Vader. Little wonder the Sith Lord was so shaken, with tie-in comics confirming he later realized what this really meant about Obi-Wan's fate.
Force Ghosts have become a major part of the franchise's lore, expanded upon in several movies, numerous canon tie-ins, and even the recent Obi-Wan Kenobi Disney+ TV show. Some of the greatest Jedi have become Force Ghosts: Qui-Gon Jinn, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Master Yoda, Anakin Skywalker, Luke Skywalker, and Leia Organa. Force Ghosts maintained the Jedi Order after Luke exiled himself to Ahch-To, with Leia receiving wisdom from Obi-Wan - wisdom she no doubt appreciated all the more given her past with the Jedi Master. Master Yoda's Force Ghost appeared to Luke towards the end of his life, offering typically cryptic teachings and proving at last that Force Ghosts can manipulate the physical world - although that theme hasn't been explored since.
Star Wars may involve elements of science-fiction, but in truth it is better described as science-fantasy - simply because the franchise effortlessly integrates elements of mysticism and the supernatural into its overarching narrative. Force Ghosts are one of the central concepts, but surprisingly it's difficult to put all the pieces together. Here's everything Lucasfilm has revealed about Force Ghosts to date.
Star Wars has hinted at a concept called the "netherworld of the Force," essentially an afterlife in which beings retain their consciousness. Little is known of this netherworld. The ancient Sith planet of Exegol is a Force vergence where the boundary between life and the netherworld is unusually thin, explaining why Palpatine could be resurrected on Exegol and Rey could receive support and encouragement from voices of long-dead Jedi in Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker. In general, those who have died and passed into this netherworld of the Force are unable to affect the material world. It is, however, possible for some individuals to train during their lives so they will be able to become Force Ghosts, retaining the ability to influence the galaxy after death.
The precise nature of this training remains something of a mystery. What has been confirmed, however, is that the heart attitude must be pure. Matt Stover's novelization of Revenge of the Sith contains an extended scene in which Qui-Gon Jinn's Force Ghost speaks to Yoda, written up after consultation with George Lucas himself. According to Qui-Gon's Force Ghost, this power "comes only by the release of self, not the exaltation of self. It comes through compassion, not greed. Love is the answer to the darkness."
Qui-Gon Jinn was a maverick among the Jedi, lacking the arrogance to believe his Order understood all the mysteries of the Force. This meant he was willing to go to other Force cults to learn, and - as revealed in Star Wars: The Clone Wars, where Yoda followed in his footsteps - he sat at the feet of the Force Priestesses. These Force Priestesses are connected to the metaphysical nature of the Force, representing the connection between the Living Force of mortal beings and the Cosmic Force of the universe. They taught Qui-Gon how to become the first Jedi Force Ghost of modern times, although it's possible past Jedi had known the techniques but had become lost over the course of millennia - perhaps as a result of the Jedi-Sith schism. Qui-Gon had yet to complete his training when he was slain by Darth Maul, but he was far enough along to retain his consciousness after death and continue it. By the end of the Clone Wars, he had learned how to manifest physically at certain Force vergences. As seen in Obi-Wan Kenobi episode 6, he discovered how to fully manifest within another decade.
It appears as though a Jedi needs to be fully committed to the light side to fully perceive a Force Ghost. This would explain why Obi-Wan was unable to talk to Qui-Gon's Force Ghost during the first decade of his self-imposed exile to Tatooine; his emotions were too raw, he was too filled with regret, and he had lost trust in the Force. It was only when he learned to trust the Force again that he was able to defeat Darth Vader - and, subsequently, to see his old master. In the same way, there's a parallel between Luke's increasing commitment to the light side of the Force and his interactions with the Jedi Force Ghost. It is only after Return of the Jedi, where he refused to fall to the dark side and instead redeemed his father with his love, that he is able to see three Force Ghosts at his side. This makes Rey's inability to sense Force Ghosts through Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker particularly interesting. She was still divided, torn between the light and the dark, and it is only at the end of the film - when she has fully committed herself to the light - that she sees Luke and Leia, in a scene that parallels Return of the Jedi.
There are, however, some exceptions to this principle - suggesting a Force Ghost can push through to manifest before those who are not devoted to the light. The Star Wars anthology book Stories of Jedi & Sith features a short story in which, immediately after his death, Yoda's Force Ghost manifested in the presence of Palpatine himself. It's essentially a rematch between Yoda and Palpatine, albeit a philosophical one rather than a battle, with Yoda demonstrating that he has achieved what the Sith cannot. Another story in the anthology suggests Qui-Gon Jinn actually appeared to Darth Maul in the hopes of redeeming him.
Timothy Zahn's novel Thrawn Ascendancy: Greater Good offers a tantalizing hint that Force Ghosts serve a crucial role in the balance of the Force. Set before Grand Admiral Thrawn's exile to the Empire, it tells a story in which the Chiss encounter a mysterious race of Force-sensitives who clearly possess the ability to become Force Ghosts. Their world has suffered terribly due to war, and their leader the Magys believes she can best help restore balance by leading her people into killing themselves to become one with the Force (or, as they call it, the Beyond). This is not positioned as an act of surrender but rather as one of hope, for the Magys believed she understood the purpose of Star Wars' Force Ghosts. "Our world has been torn and scarred," she explained, "but perhaps it can be healed. We will join the Beyond and make the attempt." An act of genocide committed on the Magys' world tainted it with the dark side, but she believed the best counter would be to become one with the Force and work to put it right. This would certainly fit with the role taken on by the Jedi Force Ghosts seen in the main Star Wars saga.
Sith cannot become true Force Ghosts; only a person who has aligned their spirit with the light side of the Force can do so. Rather, Sith Spirits can cheat death through a technique known as essence transfer. This allows a Sith to avoid the netherworld of the Force by binding their spirit to an object, a physical location, or even another host body. Luke Skywalker encountered some of these Sith spirits in Adam Christopher's novel Shadow of the Sith, and they are every bit as unnatural as Palpatine would later claim, registering as an absence in the Force rather than a presence in it. Essence transfer was known to ancient Sith, such as Darth Momin, and it was rediscovered by Palpatine's master Darth Plagueis. Crucially, Palpatine learned he could only possess the actual body of a person who was under the influence of the dark side at the moment he died.
This seems to explain some of the scenes in Return of the Jedi, in which Palpatine apparently wanted Luke Skywalker to kill him in anger. Palpatine's body would already have been coming to the end of its natural lifespan, its deterioration accelerated by the corrupting influence of the dark side, and he would have loved the idea of possessing the son of the Chosen One. Luke refused to kill Palpatine in this way. Worse still from Palpatine's viewpoint, Darth Vader betrayed him not out of selfish ambition but out of love for his son, meaning he was restored to the light as Palpatine died - so even his body could not therefore become Palpatine's host. The Emperor was thus banished to the netherworld of the Force, from which he was rescued by the Sith cultists at Exegol, and his spirit then implanted into a clone body. This proved insufficient to contain the Emperor's spirit, and he tried the same essence transfer trick with Rey in Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker - but his granddaughter Rey too refused to kill him out of anger and hatred. This time, there was no coming back from the defeat.
Sith may not be able to become Force Ghosts, but somehow Anakin Skywalker pulled it off. It's unclear exactly how Anakin became a Force Ghost, but in the Return of the Jedi DVD commentary Lucas suggested he accomplished this feat “because of Obi-Wan and Yoda," hinting the two helped him. This matches with Ryder Windham's novel The Rise & Fall of Darth Vader. There, Anakin awoke in the netherworld of the Force after his death, with Obi-Wan offering to teach him one last technique. The novel was branded non-canon after Disney acquired Lucasfilm in 2012, but the principle likely still stands. While some theorize Anakin must have had his own encounter with the Force Priestesses, Lucas clearly intended there to be an unbroken chain between Qui-Gon Jinn and Anakin.
The Star Wars Special Editions edited Hayden Christensen's Anakin Skywalker into the Force Ghost scene at the end of Return of the Jedi. This was actually an important alteration, because in Lucas' view Anakin Skywalker had really died when he fell to the dark side, replaced with Darth Vader. The redemption of Darth Vader saw Anakin reborn. Obi-Wan was more correct (in strictly metaphysical terms) than he knew when he lied about Anakin's fate to Luke, for the Force itself shared his "certain point of view." The return of Christensen's younger Anakin as a Force Ghost is therefore best seen as deeply symbolic.
Ominously, there have been several hints in Star Wars canon that the Sith can trap Force Ghosts. George Mann's Dark Legends is a book of in-universe myths, although Lucasfilm has stressed there's an element of truth to them all. In one of these short stories, "The Gilded Cage," a group of Nightsisters attempt to trick a Sith Lord into confronting a Jedi Force Ghost, hoping he will be destroyed. The Sith sees through their trick and performs a stolen binding ritual to trap the Force Ghost. Adam Christopher's Shadow of the Sith suggests Palpatine did something similar with Anakin Skywalker some years before the sequel trilogy, when Anakin's Force Ghost strayed on to Exegol to help Luke Skywalker escape a vision in which he was assailed by Sith spirits. Presumably, Anakin broke free of these restraints in Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, allowing him to add his voice to the chorus of Jedi encouraging Rey in her final battle against Palpatine. Hopefully, future Star Wars stories will help explain exactly what happened here; namely how Palpatine trapped Anakin Skywalker, and how he escaped whatever imprisonment he was in at this crucial last second.
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