Easterhay said:
Spare a thought for my boy. Since watching ROTJ the other day and questioning why Anakin's spirit was wearing clothes he never wore in life, last night he saw a picture from the original ROTJ with Sebastian Shaw as the ghost.
Questions such as "Why has he got hair? Where are his scars? Why has he got both arms? Why has he got both legs?" What could I do but shrug and say - once again - "They messed up."
They didn't "mess up". It is pretty standard in mythology and religion that people are "made whole" in the afterlife. The only precedent I know of for the idea of people retaining infirmities and/or wounds in the afterlife is from works of fiction in the "horror" or "thriller" genre.
The main reason that the concept of an afterlife has had such a long-term and widespead appeal is the hope that things will be better there, which obviously includes getting back lost limbs or otherwise rectifying other forms of disfigurement/impairment/infirmities. Who would dream up an afterlife for "good" or "redeemed" people where things suck just as bad as they did during the natural life, you know, other than people like Stephen King? That would be great for people who e.g. died in a fire or a high-speed car accident; they'd get to spend eternity looking like a charred corpse or a piece of hamburger.
Easterhay said:
45-ish with no hair, no arms or legs. Just a floating torso, really.
See above.
Also, why should he look "45-ish"? I never got the impression from SW, TESB, or ROTJ that he was supposed to be a generation younger than Obi-Wan Kenobi. Kenobi described him as having been a "good friend", and people's good friends tend to be in the same age range as they are. Darth Vader does say to Obi-Wan Kenobi, "Your powers are weak, old man," but "old man" is often used ironically/sarcastically, and if I had a dollar for every time I've heard an old man call another old man "old man", I'd be rich.