Two Jedi Funerals

I watched Return of the Jedi a few days ago, and as I stared at Anakin's funeral pyre, I reflected how both the first and last movies (nearly) end with that image. In The Phantom Menace, it's Qui-Gon's funeral. A Sith killed him, and in a way his death is the end of an era: the Jedi have lost their maverick master of the Living Force, and after that, the Sith take over and the inflexible Order falls. With Anakin, it's reversed: he destroyed the Sith, and all the old Jedi and Sith hangups die with him, leaving the unconventional Luke (who won by using the good side of emotions instead of "burying them deep down") to start over.

I also thought of Obi-Wan's memorable statement to Anakin at Qui-Gon's funeral: "You will be a Jedi. I promise." Anakin spends the rest of the movies trying to become a Jedi, but he's always torn between being a Jedi and being something else (son, husband, father, Sith). At the second funeral, he still has other roles - especially that of father - but they are no longer in conflict. He finally has become a Jedi.





In other news, I've been sorting through my memories. Yikes, I have hundreds! I'm trying to weed out the broken links and things I saved only so I wouldn't forget to read them.