Burned Stepbrothers
In Episode III and Episode IV, two stepbrothers – both sons of Shmi Skywalker – are burned.
At the ending of Revenge of the Sith, Anakin Skywalker – Shmi's biological son – is burned on Mustafar after Obi-Wan Kenobi defeats him in a lightsaber duel. Anakin's maimed and charred body is subsequently kept alive inside Darth Vader's mechanical suit, but Obi-Wan nonetheless sees this as a kind of death for Anakin, telling Luke Skywalker: "He ceased to be Anakin Skywalker and became Darth Vader. When that happened, the good man who was your father was destroyed."
At the beginning of A New Hope, the burned corpse of Owen Lars – Shmi's stepson and Anakin's stepbrother through his mother's marriage to Cliegg Lars – is found by Luke, his foster son, after the Empire raids the Lars homestead on Tatooine. The image of Owen's charred dead body directly recalls Anakin's "death" on Mustafar.
If the first six episodes of the Skywalker Saga are considered as a ring composition, with the third and fourth episodes mirroring each other to form the center of the ring, it is unsurprising that these two episodes parallel the fiery fates of Anakin (Shmi's biological son, Luke's biological father) and Owen (Shmi's stepson, Luke's foster father). These two burnings at the center of the ring foreshadow its ending, when Luke cremates his father's body at the conclusion of Return of the Jedi.
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Characters: Anakin Skywalker / Luke Skywalker / Owen Lars / Shmi Skywalker
Films: Episode III: Revenge of the Sith / Episode IV: A New Hope
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Interpretive Tools: Ring Theory
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