Hayden the person? No. But I do hate the idea that Anakin reverts to his younger self upon his death because “that’s when he was good.” Anakin was on the “good side” when he died; that’s the whole point of ROTJ’s ending. He should appear as the version of himself that died saving his son from the Emperor IMO.
I agree that makes complete sense and would’ve probably preferred it kept that way, but to be honest George never told us that is the “idea” behind why he looked younger in the movies, that’s just fans coming up with a (very logical) explanation.
What if you looked at it through the lens that Anakin’s good side was trapped in his deformed, dying, suited body, which is all a result of him being evil. Now he realizes this and regrets it, so by reverting to his younger self, it shows he’s finally back at peace with himself before he destroyed himself. An older Anakin that’s not deformed doesn’t technically “exist” in this universe, as by the time he was old he’d already gone through the Vader transformation. Just ideas. Again, I still agree with you though.
Good points there. Obviously I don’t think his ghost should appear all burnt and mangled. The Shaw ghost in ROTJ is great. It kinda shows what Anakin could’ve looked like had he been a Jedi all along. Now that version of Anakin never physically existed, but it’s a great way to show that he “died a good man.”
To me, Shaw’s appearance is more ‘metaphorical,’ as that Anakin only existed in spirit, not physically. The young Hayden Anakin existed, and is explicitly a “pre-Vader” version, which doesn’t sit as well with me. But I suppose similar arguments could be made for the Hayden ghost as well (“it’s just a metaphor that he’s good again”), so perhaps my argument isn’t that sound 😂
Although I’d really love to see Shaw in the ‘phantom four’ scene, Hayden Christensen being aged up a bit solves my problem with him being “young pre-Vader Anakin.” He’s just another “what could’ve been” version of old Anakin like Shaw in ROTJ. And that’s quite alright with me.
Edit: And apologies for continuing this discussion again, Hal. I should’ve responded elsewhere 😘