Does age effect force ability?

A question I thought that would make a semi-interesting topic. Obviously, in real life, as we age, we often lose physical strength, endurance and agility. From what I have gathered about Jedi, it seems that their strength does not come from their physical being, but from the force. From that, I would assume that age barely effects, if it effects it at all, a Jedi's fighting ability. Obviously, the two prime examples would be Palpatine and Yoda, particularly the latter, which I've never been under the impression that he was any weaker during the time of the movies than he was a few centuries earlier.

However, there have been other cases where I've seen that age may (or may not) effect it. The examples that I can think of; Odan Urr being killed by Exar Kun while whispering "I'm too old". This could be a special case, however, since he wasn't just old, but on his deathbed. The next example I can think of would be Ben Kenobi. Most seem to say that he was much weaker on the Death Star than he was in ROTS, though I'm not so sure. If he were to follow Yoda's lead, would he not be stronger than he was? Vader was stronger as well, and they seemed to match up fairly well. Of course, you could argue that he was out of practice, though I'm not sure lightsaber usage is really something you can get out of practice with for a Jedi.

Shatterpoint also mentions Mace Windu is getting older a few times, though I can't remember it saying he was ever weaker for it, except for perhaps when he fought Kar Vastor, who was described as "half his age".

 

I can't see why age would have anything to do with Force strength & or abilities. Look at Yoda. His fight with Dooku was very energetic. And Yoda was already 800+ years old.

Isn't the Force strong enuff to allow a user to accomplish stunning feats...no matter their physical limitations? Again, I have to point to Yoda with this. & if this is the case, then Vader should be way more agile..prosthetics or not. Just use the Force.

 

Those are my thoughts as well, but like I said, I've seen tons of people say that Obi-Wan was a great deal weaker in ANH than in ROTS, while I've never viewed it that way.

 

Yoda might not have lost had he been a bit younger and Dooku might have survived his fight with Anakin on Grievous' ship in ROTS had he been 10 years younger. Just sayin'.

I don't think that your power in the Force diminishes with age but the body does. That has to have and effect on your ability to use any kind of fighting skills whether imbued by the Force or not.

 

The Jedi Path reveals that, yes, it does. At least if Yoda can be taken as representative of all Force users in general.

 

When would Yoda have reached his peak, then? I know in The Courtship of Princess Leia, Yoda is one of the jedi repelled by the nightsisters, but I can't imagine the Yoda we know losing to even dozens of nightsisters.

 

Age does not effect Force ability. Midi-chlorians effect Force ability.

 

I dunno. Yoda simply notes that he can no longer lift all six of the /immense/ meditation rock things at once and can only manage five, now. Of course, given the fact that being able to manage to lift one counts as a massive achievement... we have to keep things in perspective.

 

Hm, guess it depends, partially on how powerful they were, on the species (in Yoda's case), and what kind of skills they focus on. Haven't finished reading Jedi Path yet, unfortunately (not enough time right now and there's just so much inside that wonderful book). Most of this is just speculation on my part of course.

For instance, a Jedi's power level might hit a certain plateau, but as they get older, they have to spend more power on enhancing their body to keep up with opponents, which weakens their fighting strength. Obviously you have very powerful old Jedi, like Dooku and even C'baoth, but in RotS Anakin was just too much for Dooku, but Dooku was able to hold off both Obi-wan and Anakin for a while. And C'baoth (the clone) was just insane, which may or may not have improved his darkside power, but that's another topic.

Then there's Palpatine and Yoda. Yoda was very powerful, probably the most powerful Force-user during the Clone Wars except for Palpatine, yet he dies a few decades later. Maybe that was simply the limit of his species' lifespan, or he had already lived past the normal lifespan of his species (whatever that is), and with Luke's training mostly complete, he let go. There was one Dathomir witch who lived for centuries, though she was mostly senile (or lost in visions) by the end of her life (although not sure if they'll change the species of the Dathomir witches soon, as another symptom of the Clone Wars continuity headache). Although its hard to say when Yoda peaked in power. He easily outfought Dooku at Geonosis and probably could've handled anyone except for Palpatine. Although if he had been a century younger, maybe he could've stopped Dooku at Geonosis instead of just outfighting him.

Also, Yoda was part of the group that tried to recover the Chu'unthor on Dathomir, but was repelled by the witches. Now, maybe he was too young then, or there were just that many witches with very unusual spells/powers, or the witches were too resistant and it was too much trouble to recover the ship itself, as long as they recovered the survivors and made sure no one on Dathomir could read the Jedi records left behind. Heck, if you really want to speculate, maybe Yoda sub-consciously left the Chu'unthor and its records on Dathomir for Luke to find eventually. Not that Yoda was ever expecting a Jedi purge, but Mother Rell I think mentioned Yoda had told her someone would eventually free Dathomir of the Nightsisters so there was some prophecy involved.

Force ability is also supposed to keep people younger, or at least more physically fit, at least in humans. Mostly this comes up in the novels, for how Luke and Leia are still at the forefront of most galactic conflicts, at their age, and still fighting. Sadly, the same doesn't to Han, so it seems really contrived when he has to keep saving the day since the novels haven't really come up with that many more protagonists (or killed them off already).

Also, not entirely sure how old Palpatine was. In Dark Empire he claims he's so powerful that he has to keep changing bodies, as they keep deteriorating and aging so fast (the Emperor's physician might've also been bribed to sabotage the clone bodies too though, so its hard to tell after subsequent retcons/series). Although that's darkside energy, but can't really think of any other Sith Lords who needed extra bodies like that (we'll see about TOR's Emperor). Not to mention Palpatine was also more powerful than most Sith could ever hope to be.

Hm, not sure I ever saw Obi-wan as that much weaker during his last duel on the Death Star. He had aged fast on Tatooine, but its really hard to gauge since unlike Mustafar, Obi-wan and Vader were sparring with words just as much as lightsabers. At Mustafar they were mostly equal, but Anakin had lost several limbs since then, although he had spent several decades as the Emperor's apprentice, whereas Obi-wan was still holding Vader back, or at least Vader wasn't trying that hard to kill Obi-wan immediately. But Obi-wan definitely couldn't fight Vader off, a

 

He probably lost his power back in 1 BBY after Starkiller, ya know, beat him up.

(Note: I still haven't read any spoilers, so just going with what I assume to be the most likely outcome. )

 

I can guarantee you that age in no way effects Force ability. In fact, nothing effects Force ability. Of course, age very well might affect Force ability, but that's a different issue all together.

Yes, I know that I'm a Grammar Nazi.

 

Aww, Rev... I'd been waiting for Uli to make that joke.

 

I have no affection for grammar nazi's

 

This, absolutely.

***

Zannah proved that age means nothing in the GFFA.
She was snapping Jedi-necks before she even knew the importance of wearing shoes.

 

Why would Uli do it? I already did.

 

It might not be a matter of age. For instance, he may simply be out of practice, using time he previously devoted to training to handle the increased workload of being a Jedi Council member, Padawan instructor, and Jedi-at-large.

 

it does seem to affect some jedi, in the phantom menace novelization it is eluded to that qui gon was too old to keep up with Maul in that fight.

 

This.

Fair point. I recall it being in the context of age... but I'd need to double check.

 

I used to think so with that Episode IV lightsaber duel. Then Dooku came along...

 

In a word, no.

Obi-wan was limited by guilt and depression, not age.

 

Ah, well, then I owe you an apology... I'd read your post as perpetuating the error further.

 

It might not be a question of losing power but simply finding it harder to hold your concentration the older you get?

Yoda may have had alzheimers and forgotten how many stones he had really lifted

 

i think it is simply that in 1977 obi wan was weak. in 1999, qui gon was too weak. maybe it took them till the year 2004 or 5 to decide that age does not dull the force

 

Experience and stamina affect force ability...but as one increases with age while the other declines...it's likely that age is not a significant factor to force use.

 

I think not. Again, look at the Yoda example. Also Dooku was still no slouch at his age. Qui-Gonn held his own, but Maul was just simply a better swordsman and technical fighter. If you look to the EU age doesn't seem to have played too much a factor either. Vergere for instance, or the Kaminoan Jedi in Republic Commando novel, Darth Krayt, Master H'rukh (I'm sure I spelled that wrong) and a couple of others but thats all I can pull off the top of my head at oh dark thirty in the morning