CT Pre-PT information on how anakin became vader

But she was 19 when the film was shot and Hamill was 24.

Nope. In the original movie Anakin and Obi-Wan were probably supposed to be contemporaries (never clearly stated) but Vader is clearly the apprentice (and a "young" Jedi, as opposed to the "old man" Ben). When both characters became one in Empire, OBVIOUSLY Anakin had to be younger than Obi-Wan.

There's no "romance" in TPM. And the most important part of Anakin's story in the movie is leaving his mother behind. Which wouldn't have been as emotional as it is if Anakin was a teenager. Besides, Anakin being a sweet and inocent child is the whole point of the PT.

 

Maybe we're getting off topic - but how old was Leia in ANH? I have a vague recollection of her being younger than 20 and that's why Luke's age was retconned by the time of ROTJ.

I actually found an old post from user "Zombie" (of somewhat Star Wars fame with his Secret History) regarding a plausible age comparison of Obi-Wan, Anakin and Vader, from the time of the release of the OT/CT. And at the same time highlighting the problems with Vader and Anakin being merged in ESB.

TLJ actually got me thinking about the dynamic of Anakin/Vader, Obi-Wan and the mother of Luke (and Leia)... I mean, Rey actually attempts to turn Kylo Ren back to the light side in TLJ - when Kylo presumably has been an apprentice of Snoke/the dark side for some years.

With that in mind - why has Anakin's turn always been considered so final when he became Vader? Maybe he left the Jedi and Obi-Wan at some point, served the Empire/the Emperor for a number of years, and then almost had a "change of mind" in some kind of encounter with Luke's mother. What if George Lucas had implemented that for the PT, that could've been another classic Star Wars-"twist"!

Or maybe that'll screw up some other continuity...

 

July 1981:
Lucas: "Anakin Skywalker starting hanging out with the Emperor, who at this point nobody knew was that bad, because he was an elected official."
[...]
Lucas: "Well, anyway, Luke's father gets subverted by the Emperor. He gets a little weird at home and his wife begins to figure out that things are going wrong and she confides in Ben, who is his mentor. On his missions through the galaxies, Anakin has been going off doing his Jedi thing and a lot of Jedi have been getting killed — and it's because they turn their back on him and he cuts them down. The president is turning into an Emperor and Luke's mother suspects that something has happened to her husband. She is pregnant. Anakin gets worse and worse, and finally Ben has to fight him and he throws him down into a volcano and Vader is all beat up. Now, when he falls into the pit, his other arm goes and his leg and there is hardly anything left of him by the time the Emperor's troops fish him out of the drink."[/QUOTE]

wow, that's basically the basic structure of ROTS, already in 1981

 

Anakin Epi 1 - 9 years old
Anakin Epi 2 - set 10 years later age 19
Anakin Epi 3 - 22 , as the Clone wars lasted 3 years

Since Luke and Leia were 19 in ANH Vader would be 41 years old at the start of the OT

So in ROTJ Vader would be about 44 years old when he died.

 

Yeah, that's the current PT-version of Vader/Anakin's age. I was more thinking along the lines of Lucas' original version of events back when ANH first came out, and then ESB-ROTJ.

I'm actually kind of answering my own question now after I did a bit more research and found an old post from user "zombie" (who wrote the Secret History of SW). http://boards.theforce.net/threads/darth-vaders-original-age.21589075/

Perhaps a bigger issue with the original story is Lucas' idea that Anakin's turn to the dark coincides with the rise of the Empire/the Emperor - it doesn't leave much of room for "before the dark times, before the Empire" if Luke is barely 20 in ANH. (I guess a real-world-equivalent would be Germany approx. 1933-1945, but then other problems occur in the OT-timeline with the talk of "ancient religions" and so on...)

I know the "PT vs. OT debate" regarding continuity has been raging since 1999 - I just think one can look at it with a different vision or interpretation now after TFA and TLJ - which is the official version of Lucasfilm, courtesy of primarily Kennedy, Kasdan, Abrams and Johnson.

 

This thread makes me yearn for a different version of the PT...

 

If you go through what Lucas says about the PT in the 70's and 80's you can see that what he had in mind was basically what he did do in overall terms of the story, characters and themes.

It'd still be largely the same though.

Have you read the overview of TPM's first draft? That is the closest thing to being based on Lucas' original notes:

http://fd.noneinc.com/secrethistoryofstarwarscom/secrethistoryofstarwars.com/thebeginning.html