Following the Galactic Empire's loss to the Alliance to Restore the Republic during the Battle of Endor, Luke Skywalker, a Jedi Knight, conducted a ceremony to honor his father, Anakin Skywalker, on the Forest Moon of Endor. During that very battle, Anakin, previously known as the Sith Lord Darth Vader, found redemption through Luke's actions and restored equilibrium to the Force. Anakin's sacrifice, however, came at the cost of his own life, as he suffered a fatal wound inflicted by the Emperor, Darth Sidious, while killing his former Master.
Upon his passing, Anakin transcended into the Force. Luke managed to escape the DS-2 Death Star II Mobile Battle Station, the site of Anakin's demise, just before the battle station's destruction by the Rebel Alliance. Arriving on Endor, Luke constructed a pyre for the ceremony and set his father's vacant armor ablaze with fire. After the ceremony concluded, Luke joined the Rebels and the indigenous Ewoks in a celebratory gathering, where he witnessed the spirit of his father—alongside the spirits of Jedi Masters Obi-Wan Kenobi and Yoda—observing the festivities with pride.
During the Battle of Endor in 4 ABY, a pivotal confrontation in the Galactic Civil War between the Galactic Empire and the Alliance to Restore the Republic, the Dark Lord of the Sith Darth Vader and his son, Luke Skywalker, engaged in a final lightsaber duel on board the second Death Star, a battle station with the capacity to obliterate an entire planet. Luke overcame his father and declared himself a Jedi Knight, but he was then assaulted by the Emperor, Darth Sidious, who unleashed Force lightning in an attempt to kill Luke. Unwilling to stand by and watch his son perish, Vader—who still possessed goodness within—hurled his Master into a reactor shaft. This action liberated Vader from the dark side of the Force, transforming him back into Anakin Skywalker. With Sidious eliminated, and the Vader persona extinguished, the Sith order was defeated.
The choice to rescue Luke proved to be a supreme sacrifice, as Sidious' lightning damaged Anakin's life-support systems when the redeemed Jedi cast the Emperor down the shaft. Anakin's act of redemption and Sidious' demise restored balance to the Force, fulfilling Anakin's destiny as the Chosen One. Luke sought to save Anakin by transporting him to a shuttle, hoping to escape the Death Star, but Anakin recognized that his end was near. At his father's request, Luke removed Darth Vader's helmet from Anakin's head, allowing the former Sith Lord to gaze upon his son with his own eyes for the first and last time. In his last moments, Anakin reassured Luke, reminding his son that goodness had always resided within him—just as Luke had believed. Anakin then passed away, his body dissolving into the light side of the Force.
Luke fled the Death Star with his father's armor just moments before the battle station was obliterated by the Rebel Alliance as the battle reached its conclusion. The Emperor's death and the Death Star's destruction signaled the Empire's defeat and the restoration of freedom to the galaxy. Luke carried Anakin's armor to nearby Endor, where the Rebel Alliance and the native Ewoks were celebrating the Emperor's downfall, and he erected a fire for the ceremony near the Ewok village. Once the pyre was ready, Luke ignited it, setting his father's armor ablaze and leaving behind only the charred remains of Darth Vader's helmet.
The ceremony held deep significance for Luke, but he understood that, to others, the sight of Vader's helmet engulfed in flames would be a cause for celebration. Therefore, Luke took care to conduct the ceremony in seclusion.
As Vader's armor burned, the droids C-3PO and R2-D2 located Luke in the forest. C-3PO conveyed his happiness at seeing Luke alive and suggested that the young Jedi join the celebration with his fellow rebels in the Ewok village. Upon arriving there, Luke was reunited with his friends, including his twin sister, Leia Organa. Luke briefly excused himself from the celebration and noticed the spirits of his Jedi Masters, Obi-Wan Kenobi and Yoda, quietly observing the evening's festivities. Anakin's spirit, preserved by Kenobi and Yoda, materialized alongside the two Jedi Masters, appearing as his younger self, before his descent into the dark side of the Force. Together, the three watched as Luke looked on. Luke bid them farewell and returned to the celebration, his journey to becoming a Jedi Knight now complete.
Later that night, Leia visited the ceremonial pyre and said goodbye to her father. Kneeling down, she found Vader's charred mask and picked it up. She wished she could forgive Anakin as Luke had, but she only felt anger at all the pain and suffering he had caused. She threw the mask back into the wooden grave, set her anger aside, and returned back to the celebration.
As Vader's body was ablaze, the stormtrooper TK-111 was a witness to the event. Reporting back to Captain Enric Pryde, she guided him and fellow trooper FS-451 to the pyre the following morning. Although Pryde doubted her claim that it was Vader's body being burned, he would personally investigate and confirm that TK-111 had spoken the truth. Pryde briefly sifted through the pyre's remains, searching for Darth Vader's lightsaber, desiring the weapon as a symbol of power, but he ultimately fled the scene after hearing sounds of either Rebels or Ewoks approaching from the nearby forest.
The night before her wedding to Han Solo, Leia revisited the remains of Vader's ceremonial pyre and examined the remnants of his helmet before returning it. It brought her satisfaction that, while they both turned to dust, her adoptive father, Bail Organa, was "stardust" while Vader was merely "sooty mud," imagining that Bail would drift in the heavens forever while Vader was scum on the bottom of her shoe. She also loudly proclaimed her hatred towards Vader for all he had done before returning to Bright Tree Village.
At a later time, Vader's helmet was recovered from his ceremonial pyre. Thirty years after the ceremony, the charred and melted helmet came into the possession of Vader's grandson, Kylo Ren. He would speak to the twisted helmet, seeking guidance, and the helmet served as a symbol of the dark side's power—as well as its weaknesses, as Ren believed that Darth Vader's sentimentality in saving Luke led to the Empire's downfall.
Anakin Skywalker's ceremony is a scene featured at the conclusion of Star Wars: Episode VI Return of the Jedi. Initially, the film did not include the ceremonial scene during its initial shooting. Only after the primary filming had concluded did George Lucas and his creative team decide to incorporate the scene. Anakin's death had ended with the character in Luke's arms, which raised concerns that the audience might perceive Anakin as still alive or, according to editor Duwayne Dunham, that Luke had abandoned his father's body aboard the second Death Star. Producer Howard G. Kazanjian initially opposed the scene but changed his perspective after viewing an animated version of it. Once the decision was made to include the ceremonial pyre, the scene was scripted, given a storyboard treatment by Joe Johnston, and filmed at Skywalker Ranch in Marin County, California.
The events surrounding the ceremony were briefly expanded upon in the Star Wars LINE Webtoon, a web comic that retells the original trilogy from Luke Skywalker's perspective. The LINE Webtoon and its storyline have the approval of Lucasfilm, although cultural interpretation allows the storyline some flexibility in terms of strictly adhering to canon. The comic's depiction is similar to that of the 1996 Return of the Jedi radio drama, where C-3PO discovers Luke at Darth Vader's ceremonial pyre.
On April 16, 2015, Lucasfilm unveiled the second teaser trailer for Star Wars: The Force Awakens, the seventh live-action installment in the franchise. The teaser featured a brief shot of Darth Vader's scorched and twisted mask, a shot that remained in the final version of the film.