Saga Before the prequels were made, how old were Anakin and Obi-Wan supposed to be?

Before the prequels were made, how old were Anakin and Obi-Wan supposed to be? I always thought they'd be older, Anakin becoming Vader at 23 always seemed much younger than how originally he was imagined. Do you think Anakin was also originally intended to look like this James Dean-esque character?

Mod EDIT: Moved from Lit

 

I feel like this should be for another forum.

And it's also kind of vague... are you asking what age they should have been when Anakin became Vader?
If so, 20s makes sense, as that's when Luke was also tempted, and it's a popular age for protagonists. Obi-wan being about 15 years older also makes sense to me.

 

In ANH, Obi-Wan was 60, Vader was 55, and the Clone Wars ended 35 years ago. Palpatine didn’t rise to power until after the Clone Wars, and the Jedi Purge didn’t happen until the Empire had already been around for a while, but Anakin had already turned to the dark side and been killing Jedi in secret before that.

As for Anakin’s appearance, that comes from the ROTJ novelization: “striking, and grand, with a wry tilt to his brow that hinted of invincibility and took in all of life with a wink.”

 

If I had to say I would also see them as older, that by ANH Obi-Wan was Guiness's actual age 62 (give or take 5 years) and Anakin just 2-5 years younger so they would likely have been early 40s and late 30s for the turning dark 20 years ago. So Obi-Wan's actually seen depiction is pretty in line except with Anakin being much rather than just slightly younger than him.

 

I'd say it was intended to have a much more considerable time gap than that. As much as like 50 years or so. Imperial propaganda or not, people would know that Jedi were a thing literally not even two decades ago

But we have Han, for instance, who's what, in his 30s, saying he doesn't even believe in Jedi or the Force. Even growing up an orphan on the streets of Corellia, I find it hard to believe he wouldn't have heard of the Jedi since he grew up in the middle of the first galaxy-wide war in 1000 years

It's definitely implied (and likely intended by Lucas at the time) that it's been quite some time

 

"Surely he must be dead by now"
"Don't underestimate the Force"

Perhaps a hint that Force-sensitives live longer than regular people and that Obi-Wan is way past the normal human lifespan.

 

But Luke is/looks about 20 and Obi-Wan couldn't have stopped being Jedi, gone into hiding after and due to the falling out *that* much more before Luke was born.

 

You could probably fudge it as "first major Jedi purge takes place a few decades before Luke is born, but Vader eventually clashes with Obi-Wan a few months before Luke is born"

In the RotJ novel, Vader is estranged from his wife and doesn't know she's pregnant, when Obi-Wan sets out to hide her and the children.

 

That still only gives us a period of 9 months. Really less, for Anakin's wife to leave him before he realizes she is pregnant. Which means Anakin becoming Vader couldn't have happed more than 19-20 years before ANH.


I think it makes sense for Obi-wan to be that much older than Anakin, since Anakin was his student.

 

Han never said that he didn't know about the Jedi, just that he didn't believe in the Force. He called it a hokey religion and simple tricks done with luck. Vader snatching his blaster and Luke kicking ass and taking names changed his mind.

 

Han also clearly knew the meaning of "May the Force be with you" in ANH.

 

That's just being pedantic

you can believe in Shaolin monks without believing they have authority of gravity defying martial arts for example, I think it was quite clear what Seagoat meant

 

Believing that they existed and were the guardians of the peace before the war is not the same as witnessing objects moved with a gesture. Much less Han seeing Luke take on a couple of dozen men with just a laser sword and winning.

 

that's what I just said dude

 

I suppose you could say that even if Han heard stories about the Jedi that people were exaggerating, but take into account that ROTS establishes that Palpatine's story was that that Jedi attempted a hostile takeover of the Republic

He's been emperor for less than 20 years. For someone who's been "from one end of this galaxy to the other", even if he doesn't care about politics, doesn't it seem strange that even the official story is that their emperor survived an assassination attempt by space monks who can move things with their minds, and he's still a Force-atheist?

 

Doesn't seem strange at all to me. Han was very far away from that when it happened, and if he even heard of it, likely just dismissed it as exaggeration or assumed that the Jedi messed him up with their lightsabers. However, I doubt he gave it too much thought.

 

yeah...but Chewbacca

"So this dude called Yoda..."

"stop talking bull **** again Chewy"

so yeah it is a bit strange...to me

 

According to A Guide to the Star Wars Universe, Second Edition, it seems that Anakin's original birth year was 55 BBY instead of 41 BBY:



That would make him 37 years old when he became Darth Vader and 59 years old when he died in ROTJ.

Although Sebastian Shaw was 77 when he played Anakin in ROTJ, he could definitely pass as a man in his late fifties or early sixties IMHO. The prequel timeline just screwed everything up.

 

The idea that Anakin was already Vader, secretly, as of the tail-end of the Clone Wars, was certainly what Zahn went with - Vader discovers the Noghri around 35 BBY, very shortly after a Clone Wars warship crashes on their planet and devastates their ecosystem, defeats them, offers them mercy, and brings them into the Empire. Probably Zahn had that "35 BBY was when Clone Wars ended" timeline detail already when writing Dark Force Rising.

Presumably in that version of the pre-ANH period, Vader was able to keep his evilness from his wife for a while before she finally caught on, and left him.

 

Where were you disagreeing, then?

And from Obi-wan and all the Jedi too?

It makes much more sense the way the timeline was changed.

 

It's not that different from Lucas's idea that Sifo-Dyas was a secret Sith, and Maul's predecessor as Sidious's main apprentice, despite being a Jedi Master and on the Jedi Council.

 

I've actually no clue, lol

 

Not really. Between October of 1986 and April of 87, we lived in a haunted house. My stepfather did not believe it because he didn't witness it, due to his being a truck driver. Same with my mom's dad. Until someone sees the impossible, they will deny it.

 

To be fair, Lucas didn't put this idea into practice, so you can't really use that as an argument.

 

nevermind

this seems right to me.