How old seem to be the characters? (gaps between the movies)

First of all, I know what the official chronology says about how old the characters are meant to be, and how many years go between the movies. But since I believe that you don't have to read/watch anything outside the movies to understand them, I started thinking that the "official chronology" is not perhaps entirely accurate. (Furthermore, there have been complaints by some about Lucas' changing chronology: for example, Obi-Wan is now supposed to be in his late 50s in ANH).

So, I'd like to focus just on the movies and how old the characters look like. The only known fact is that there are 10 years between TPM and AOTC. Everything else is up to interpretation.

I prefer to wait for a few replies before posting my own ideas (just to make sure that this topic makes any sense lol), but here are a few thoughs.

-Luke and Leia seem way older than 23 in ROTJ in my opinion. Leia looks like she is in her late twenties,but Luke really looks that he is 30 at least.

-Also, in ANH Luke looks older than 19 IMO (whereas Anakin in AOTC looks just that age, for example). And Obi-Wan seems to be at least in his sixties, and seems to have aged at least 20 years, if not more. In my opinion, is seems that there went more than 19 years between ROTS and ANH. That would also help to understand why Luke and Leia look so old in Return.

-Also, how old is Palpatine supposed to be in TPM, AOTC and ROTS. I'm really curious about this.

 

Palpatine was born in 82 BBY, so he's about 50 in TPM and then 60 in AOTC and 63 in ROTS.

You can see that he looks older in Ep II though than in Ep III which I believe is mainly due to the direction the story took. GL was going to have him age gradually over the PT building up to his more severely aged look in the OT. When making Ep III though he decided that Palpatine should look like the Emperor everyone was familiar with by the end of the film. So he had him age all in one go as a result of the damage caused by his Force lightning. So the gradual ageing was abandoned with the result that Palpatine looks normal again in Ep III and has no old-age makeup on, unlike Ep II where he looks much older. Of course, it's easy to explain away the difference in-universe though so it doesn't matter too much.

 

This is mine:

TPM

10 years

AOTC

10 years again

ROTS - Suddenly Kenobi has gone from having bright yellow hair in AOTC, to having dark brown hair with white stripes in it. In Lucas world that means he is getting old IMHO.

25 Years

ANH - The people of the universe (Han Solo) have forgotten the Jedi, 19 years seams a bit too short to me.

1 year

ESB- Seams obvious to me that Vader has just begun his pursuit of Luke.

2 years

ROTJ - Luke has grown immensely as a Jedi, even 2 years seams short, but anything more seams unlikely because of everything else in the story.

 

IMO...

Palpatine is centuries old, ancient enough to master the Dark Arts under the mysterous Plagueis, accumulate knowledge of politics and finance, adopt a kind of fake I.D. as a Naboo citizen, formulate his plan for takeover, consider every permutation, and train Maul. His ROTS "scarring" is in actuality his true form, reflective of his age.

Luke is thirty years old in ROTJ. Ten years have passed since the events of TESB. He has trained arduously, and undergone a vision quest which allowed him to become his mother's son. At last, Luke Amidala emerges from his isolation to rescue his friend and redeem his evil father.

 

I am not too sure about that, people tend to see gray hairs by their late thirties and early 40's. And least not forget the amount of stress Obi-Wan was under.

 

Agreed. And the Force does make it a bit trickier to determine age, because of the increased vigour that it can provide the user.

IMO Palpatine can be just about any age in ROTJ. Ben, to me, looks about late 60s or early 70s in ANH. I always pegged Luke and Leia in their early 20s (tops) in ANH, Han in his mid or early 30s maybe. Vader's age in ANH is obviously interdeterminable in ANH, but we know that he's been Ben's apprentice, so certainly younger, but he'd have to have been old enough to father Luke and Leia about 20 years earlier, so he could be anywhere from 40 to 60 in ANH, I'd go with mid-50s or so...

 

ANH - The people of the universe (Han Solo) have forgotten the Jedi, 19 years seams a bit too short to me.

The thing is though there was always a certain amount of incredulity in the galaxy concerning the Jedi's abilities and distrust of their organisation. So after Ep III that simply came to be the prevailing view. There may have been many people who still believed in the Jedi and the Force yet during the Imperial era they didn't mention such things out loud. So for a large number of people who had no opinion about such things, or a negative opinion anyway, Imperial propaganda would have shaped their views againt the Jedi. Also, since the Jedi were effectively extinct, believing in their abilities became irrelevant, giving people even more reason to not go against the standard Imperial line on such matters.

So someone like Han, may not have had a high opinion of the Jedi to begin with (assuming he knew much about them at all). Then they were all gone anyway and people either didn't speak of them any more, or held negative views. So he has no reason to think any different.

Think of it from the perspective of the average person in the galaxy and you may see that who or what the Jedi and the Force actually are is not especially relevant to them - even before the Empire. Such things don't have much of an impact on their lives and if they have opinions about such things, they could be coloured either way by a range of factors. So I would say that for an awful lot of people, it was not a seismic shift for them to begin believing that the Jedi were traitors who had followed a hokey religion. In essence, people didn't stop believing in the Jedi, just that they had been good guys and that the Force could do all it was said to do. That was a relatively simple thing to accomplish for the Empire, because one of the major feelings people had about the Jedi was indifference. In the Republic era, they didn't mean much to many people and so in the Imperial era there's no reason for anyone to be more positive, and every reason for them to hate and fear such things, or forget about them entirely.

 

TPM

10 years

AOTC

3 years

ROTS

20-25 years

ANH

1 year

ESB

2-3 years

ROTJ

That's how I see it.

 

Glad to see that other fans have different chronologies

Thanks for the replies. Here are my thoughs at the moment:

TMP

Anakin is supposed to be 9 , and I think he looks that age. Plus, he really seems to be around 19 ten years later (as opposed to ROTS, where he looks more mature).

Padmé... I think it's hard to determine her age. She surely looks young when she is Padmé (she could be anywhere between 12-16 in my opinion). But 12 is too young to be a queen. ON the other hand, she seems to be in her early twenties in AOTC (again,as opposed to ROTS), so again, 14 seems to be apropriate.

Obi-Wan. If I'm not mistaken, he is supposed to be 25. I think he looks AT LEAST that, so no problem.

Palpatine. I also believe that Palpatine is centuries old or has some sort of extremely extended life thanks to the Dark Side. Anyway, he looks like he is in his fifties to me, although seems to be much older ten years later.

Other characters are not that significant to determine the gaps between the movies. Anyway, I don't know how old is Qui-Gonn supposed to be (in the script he is supposed to be in his sixties) but he looks around 45.

AOTC.

This is the only movie in which is specifically stated that 10 years have gone since TPM. That seems logical, the only "problem" being Ewan McGregor's and Natalie Portman's age.

Anakin is definately in his very late teens. The last time I saw the movies I was actually surprised that he looks much younger than in ROTS (I guess this is because I'm 22 now, so I see myself as the Anakin of ROTS).

Padmé is 24 at the very most. She cannot be younger because of her age in TPM.

Obi-Wan should be in his mid-thirties now. Sure, Ewan does look young, but the beard makes him older, so I can buy it.

Palpatine. Now, he really seems to be at least 20 years older, but we can assume he is in his late sixties (if he was in his late fifties in TPM) and has aged pretty bad. Of course, the "real" explanation would be the Dark Side (and the fact that Lucas changed his plans about that).

ROTS.

It seems that some of you think that more than 3 years went between these movies. I understand that, although I think that a 3-4 year gap seems to be acceptable.

Anakin is in his early twenties. He looks young (younger than Luke in ANH anyway), but more mature than in AOTC. 22-23 seems appropriate to me.

Padmé cannot be older than 27 or 28, although she looks older than before.

Obi-Wan. Yes, he seems to have aged because of his hair, but I cannot believe that he is 40 already. Ewan was just too young. So, late thirties IMO.

Palpatine. Lucas changed his plans, and for some reason he decided to make Palpatine look younger (probably to make him more grandfatherly and kind). However, his white hair suggests that he is in his (late?) sixties.

ANH.

I'm glad to see that I'm not the only one who thinks that a 19 year gap is not what the movies show. The Jedi have been forgotten (and, from what the movies tell us, they WERE well known in the Galaxy).

Luke/leia. I know that Lucas intended them to be in his late teens, but they don't look like that IMO (btw, I hate when they have twenty-something actors playing 16-year-old teenagers; even in American Graffiti, which I love, Ronnie Howard is the only one who appears to be 17). Yes, Luke was rised in Tatooine, but he definately does look older than Anakin in AOTC. I'd say that both Luke and Leia are somewhere between 22-24 (probably the later).

Also, Owen and Beru have aged significantly.

Obi-Wan. According to the "new" official chronology he is supposed to be in his late fifties right? Well, I definately don't believe this. If it has been 24 years since ROTS, he should be in his early sixties, which seems right. He doesn't look really old (look at his skin), but not younger than that.

TESB.

I actually didn't think about that, but I think some of you are right. It seems that less than 3 years went by. The Empire started to hunt down the Rebels right after ANH. Han still hasn't paid his debt to Jabba, which seems s

 

TPM

10 years

AOTC

5 years

ROTS

20 years

ANH

1 year

TESB

10 years

ROTJ

 

According to Wookieepedia, Padme was born 46 BBY and died 19 BBY. WP also states she was Queen from 33 BBY to 25 BBY, which means she became Queen at the age of 13, and was no longer queen at the age of 21. This means she died at the age of 27. Wow, that sucks lol.

 

I watched Episode III again yesterday, and what you say seems like a good theory. I have thought about this many times as well. Somehow when he finally release the darkness within himself again, the concealed form begin to falter, and he is transformed back to his true form. Its not just his face you know, you can see his hands, nails and teeth change as well, not to mention his voice.. Strange indeed..

Anyway here is my list..

TPM - AOTC = 10 Years

AOTC - ROTS = 3/4 Years

ROTS - ANH = 21/24 Years

ANH - TESB = 3/4 Years

TESB - ROTJ = 2/3 Years

 

Wait so Luke, Leia and the rest of them just let Han spend TEN years in Jabba's vile hands before they could be bothered to save him? Sorry, very much disagree. Chewie and Lando was going to Tatooine at the end of ESB and Luke said he meet them there. After that it would just be a matter of finding Jabba's palace and infiltrate it.

I would say that 2-3 weeks or at most 1-2 months have passed between ESB and RotJ.

Regards
Nordom

 

At least one year passes between ESB and ROTJ, that's a fact.

 

You mean the kind of fact that the OP asked us to disregard? Or does the opening scroll, or anyone in ROTJ, actually expliticly say or do anything that indicates that one year has passed?

 

This is the official timeline, and I see no need to doubt it:

Episode I

10 years

Episode II

3 Years

Episode III

20 years

Episode IV

3 years

Episode V

1 year

Episode VI

 

Yes, but what I wanted to discuss here is how old do the characters look like and how long seems each gap to be, based solely on the movies. (and see if there are different opinions). You don't have to search for an official timeline to understand a movie.

 

Is it? Where in RotJ is a timeline ever established? Did any of the characters give a date or how much time had passed? I go just by what is IN the films. And I have a hard time seeing Leia, Lando and the others just sit around for a whole year and doing nothing about Han. They knew where he was, with Jabba, and they knew where Jabba was, Tatooine. And that is where they were going at the end of ESB. Given the travel times in SW, they would have been there in a day or two. So what did they do, stop for take-out at every resturant in the galaxy?

The impression the movie gives is that RotJ picks up almost imideatly after ESB ended.

Regards
Nordom

 

You'd be surprised how side-tracked the characters could get during the year between ESB and ROTJ.

[image=http://i39.tinypic.com/10zd11f.jpg]

Anyway, as for the characters' ages, according to Wookieepedia there's exactly 19 years between Episode 3 and episode 4. Luke and Leia are 19, Han is 29, Vader is 42, and Obi Wan is 57. Those ages sound about right (and with Obi-Wan, Alec Guinnes was only 4 years older than the character he was playing). Canologically Luke and Leia would be 22 during Empire Strikes Back with Han being 32, since ESB takes place 3 years after the battle of Yavin.

 

Totally agree... and I only go by what is in the films too. The only thing that indicates any amount of time having passed is Luke's appearance and growth in Force ability. But given his potential already shown, he could have grown that way in a few months. So I always see it that he trained like crazy for a few months, while they formulated their plan, and then they were off to Tatooine. I don't buy a year or more at all.

I see it like this:

Episode I

10 years

Episode II

3 Years

Episode III

23 years

Episode IV

1 year

Episode V

3 months

Episode VI

 

Do you really think that Luke and Leia look 22-23 during Empire and Return???

 

I like this one
Yes, Return of the Jedi is a bit tricky. Obviously, they wouldn't wait long to go and rescue Han, but on the other hand, Luke has grown up and looks much older (and wiser).

Anyway, it is very possible that the last scene of Empire happened later than the rest of the movie. I guess they had to find the Rebels, create a new hand for Luke and decide what to do about Han.

 

There are 19 years between Episodes III and IV, 3 years between IV and V, and one year between V and VI. These are canological facts, not speculation. I think there'd have to be a year between V and VI anyway, since Luke has become much more proficient in the force. He went from having very limited skill to being about where Obi-Wan was in Episode I, and I wager it'd take at least a year for him to get that far in his training.

 

Again, does Luke seem to be 23 in Return of the Jedi?

This thread is not to discuss the official chronology. Personally, there is no "canon" for me, just movies. And I go with what the movies tell me. And it seems that there are other people who think differently about the gaps between the movies, just based on the movies.

After all,why should I rely on what's canonical? The official canon has changed over the time. And besides, we are talking about movies, fictional movies, so there are no "facts".

 

What "proficiency" in the Force do we really see with Luke, though? Granted, he seems a lot more patient and less reckless, but that's from learning the lessons of ESB. Skill-wise, he hardly seems different. To my thinking, there are only two factors that extend the amount of time between ESB and ROTJ: Luke building his new lightsaber (which is possibly a weekend project, for all we know in-movie), and Lando infiltrating Jabba's guard. I would say to accomplish these goals, three months would be generous.