Age difference Padme, Anakin

It's given in the novel, I think. Or in the AOTC novel, and we're able to extrapolate from there.

What's so shocking about a 14 year old queen on Naboo? These people are highly educated, involved at politics at an increasingly younger age. Just look how mature Padme makes herself to be despite the hindrance of her youth. Hardly an unstable government if they've prepared these young girls for the task at hand.

Hell, America's had 50+ year old presidents who have done worse.

 

It was just like having Anne Hathaway, Elisha Cuthbert, Jessica Biel, Leelee Sobieski, Kirsten Dunst or Kristin Kreuk as your girlfriend if you were at my age.

 

Anakin's 9 and Padmé's 14.

From Weird Al's "The Saga Begins":

"Though he's just nine and she's fourteen
Yah, he's probably gonna marry her someday

And, Weird Al's a stickler for detail, just look at his "Eat It" music video; I bet he checked out the details in the song with someone who knew what they were talking about.

a 14 year old is running the government of Naboo, ... and not to mention, has a very extensive vocabulary

She probably took an SAT prep course, those things can really increase the size your vocabulary.

 

Wasn't Han 15 years older than Leia or something?

- O_F

 

Leia is about 18 in ANH, Han is 29.

 

I always thought that Anakin was 19 and Padme is 24 when they get married.

 

The ptoblem is that Natalie Portman looks at least 16, and Jake Lloyd has trouble pulling off a decent 6. Simply put, its bad casting. It doesn't matter if she's supposed to be 14, and he's supposed to be 9. The audience at large is never told this.


Simply put, the age gap between Lloyd and Portman is too wide. This is bad casting at its best.

 

They were not lovers in TPM. Simply put.

 

Simply put, the age gap between Lloyd and Portman is too wide. This is bad casting at its best.

Why? Anakin and Padme are not a love interest in TPM. Anakin clearly has a boyhood crush on Padme, but Padme just treats Anakin as a friend. The age difference works for me.

 

Five years is nothing. Some people are 10 years difference.

Good Stuff

 

The problem with such a significant age difference is that in AOTC, Anakin (played by Christensen) looks older than Padme. The fact that Natalie Portman actually looks young for her age certainly doesn't help the situation. It makes the transition between Episodes I & II feel awkward to many viewers. Padme hasn't aged, while Anakin has grown ten years older!


In fact, this dramatic change in Anakin's age and his personality makes the transition between Episode I and II feel greatly disjointed. We simply never see him grow from an innocent child into the most arrogant teen in the universe! This is made more awkward by the fact that Padme seems almost identical to her former self. We never understand why she loves Anakin. Heck, she seems more confused by Anakin's dramatic transformation than I do! It is easily my biggest problem with the PT.

 

Why Padme loves Anakin is not put forth in dialogue in the movie. ( And why would it be? )

Reading the novelization explains alot towards this, however otherwise worthless it may have been.

 

For the fact that a 14 year old is running a country.

1.) Like someone said previouly. Highly educated.
2.) She has advisors does she not, to help her in the times she needs help?
3.) Woman mature faster.

The fact that Aniken looks older than Padme could be all of the training he's undergone and some people just nautrally look older than they are. Now the fact that Natalie Portman looks exactly the same was a bad decision.

 

Yeah, but Natalie has hardly changed in real life from age 15 to now.

 

No one else thought Padme was a little boy in TPM?

 

I can swallow Padme being 14 and then 24 in AOTC. Why? Because I have a friend who looked 20 at age 14 and really hasn't changed since.


The problem with such a significant age difference is that in AOTC, Anakin (played by Christensen) looks older than Padme. The fact that Natalie Portman actually looks young for her age certainly doesn't help the situation. It makes the transition between Episodes I & II feel awkward to many viewers. Padme hasn't aged, while Anakin has grown ten years older!

She's 24. He's 20. By that point, you've more or less gone through all of your growing. If he looks older than her, it's a matter of his personal looks, not anything having to do with their actual ages. How they look in ROTS/AOTC is how they're going to look for the next 15 years or so.

 

Yea, tut was young, the last emperor of china was....2ish?

 

The Phantom Menace

Anakin=9
Padme=14

Attack of The Clones

Anakin=19
Padme=24

Revenge of The Sith

Anakin=22
Padme=27



No biggie.

 

No, Anakin is 20 in episode II. It's stated in the novel and was later confirmed by Lucas. Early publicity had assumed him at 19 because of the 10 year gap between TPM and AOTC.

 

This is true. His birthday happens shortly before the events of AotC, according to the novel.

 

I missed Padmé being that young in TMP. I automatically thought early twenties when seeing her... Ooops. That said, I don't have a problem with Padmé being older. My problem is that she doesn't look old enough when compared to him.

 

Padmé's age is a side effect of Lucas having decided to start the trilogy with Anakin as a boy. Had the gap between films been more or less the same as the actual time between shoots, we'd have little problem with it. You do have to either suspend your disbelief a little bit or come up with a plausible rationale for Padmé's ageless beauty.

It would have been more immediately believable to recast Natalie's part for II and III, as well. Alternatively, the time difference between I and II could have simply been set at only 5 years. I mean there's no actual story point that requires it to have been 10 years; we really have only the title crawl to tell us it was 10 years. You could even leave all the lines about when the clone army was commissioned at 10 years; it makes no real difference that the Clone Army might have been started well before the events on Naboo--in some ways, it's even a little cooler.

As it is, though, there's not really such a big problem. Natalie apparently ages slower because she's a pampered politician. Wouldn't you look young if you had freakin' handmaidens to cater to your every beauty need?

 

The gap between TPM and AOTC couldn't really be less than ten years, or Anakin wouldn't've had time to age enough. That could of course have been solved by either casting three different actors as Anakin, or by casting someone else as Padmé in AOTC and ROTS.

 

Wow! Am I the only one who thought the age difference was clear in AOTC? IMO Padme looked older than Hayden most of the time (exception would be the picnic scene). In the "sand is rough" scene, I thought Padme looked downright 30ish. Whereas Anakin spent most of his time a skinny teenager lookalike. My sister thought he looked too young, actually...more like 16.
Anyway, like alot of posters have said, 5 years isn't that much at all. Especially when they've both reached the 20 yr mark and are their semifinal adult selves.

 

The gap between TPM and AOTC couldn't really be less than ten years, or Anakin wouldn't've had time to age enough

Could you develop this point a bit, please? I'm very much interested in your line of thought on this.