Obi-Wan Kenobi's age

Everywhere I go I read that Obi-Wan Kenobi was 25 duringf TPM. This is repeated over and over again, but to me it's insane. That would mean that in ANH, he is only 55 years old. Furthermore, George Lucas has stated that Obi-Wan was in his thirties during the events of TPM.

Here's my question: doesn't that mean, by G-Canon, Obi-Wan is much older than he is consistently made out to be? Yet everywhere I look, I find the same story: Obi-Wan born 57 BBY.

 

Er... what? Where did you get that Lucas said Obi-Wan was in his thirties in TPM?

edit: And in the Databank at Starwars.com it says he was 25 when TPM started

http://www.starwars.com/databank/character/obiwankenobi/

 

Its mentioned in the Technical Commentaries on theforce.net. I'll look for the primary source later today, but the Tech Commentaries page is here. I've read a quote from Lucas somewhere, but I don't remember where right off the bat.

 

57 at Yavin

 

Good point. I guess I haven't done arithmetic in a while. Let's see, what's 57 minus zero? Well, 55 of course!

 

that wizard's just a crazy old man

 

I think the whole age thing is pretty insane too, since despite the "hard living" he might have been doing on Tatooine, according to the EU 60=40. I mean, Qui-Gon Jinn is nearing sixty in TPM...

Lucas could have made things much better by saying that TPM was set in 42BBY, then having AotC set in 31BBY and RotS in 19 BBY.

1) This would have meant that the clone wars would have lasted for twelve years. Which would have been *excellent* in terms of what could be explored in the EU.
2) This would bring Obi-Wan's age to 67 instead of 57 - which even then seems to be pushing it when you consider the "60=40" stuff, but I can buy it since he's been living on Tatooine.

Yes, this would possibly conflict with Obi-wan's "A young Jedi named Darth Vader" remarks, since at 32/33, Anakin wasn't exactly "young" - but since he's speaking from a "certain point of view", it would be quite easy to say that since Darth Vader "had only just been born", Darth Vader *was* a very young Jedi/Sith.

Of course, he could have just stuck more closely to the backstory we were presented with in the OT and had Obi-Wan as the older "father figure" in TPM as originally intended. It's not like Obi and Anakin couldn't become "good friends" even with a forty year age gap.

 

For the record, Alec Guiness was only 62 when ANH was filmed.

 

He looked quite old, however. I could go with 65, but not 57.

 

Ulicus, people age differently. Here too; I've seen 80yo and much higher waltz around like 50s.

 

I know, but in the context of this whole "60=40" thing, he looks much older than a "62 year old GFFAian".

In fact, the biggest problems with Kenobi's age arise purely out of this "60=40" thing.

As far as I'm aware, the main reason for this was as an explanation as to why he Big Three were still in the thick of the Legacy EU stories.

Had Bantham not essentially wasted the characters "EU youth", this wouldn't have been necessary. Luke would have established a Jedi Academy earlier, Han and Leia would have married and had kids earlier, the big "galaxy changing" events would have happened earlier and Luke would have had his own son/daughter much earlier.

Now, whilst I can imagine Luke being pretty active all the way into his old age - being a Jedi and all, Han Solo aged 65 and "= 45" seems really stupid. If that's only middle aged, why was Obi-Wan Kenobi considered an "old man" at 57?

Yeah, you're right of course, it's just that I'll look at my mum - who's 57 - then at Obi-Wan and be like "No friggin way."

 

In the DVD editions of the OT, couldn't they have changed Obi-Wan's hair from grey-white to brown with some grey areas? This would have made him look younger. I don't know if that's even possible, I'm ignorant as to the technology that would be needed for this.

 

I'd rather that they just remade the original trilogy.

*avoids blaster shots*

Hey, I don't care if it's crap - as long as I have my Original Original Trilogy on DVD, I'll be happy. Luke and Leia should be better looking with the parents they've got anyway... and I'll go with anything that could get Nathan Fillion in the Han Solo role. (though it will of course, always be Harrison Ford...)

 

Why would they do that? That's an absolutely absurd idea, I would be angry if they changed Obi-Wan's hair color for DVD releases (though probably not surprised). If any trilogy needs to be changed more it's the prequels, not the OT. Don't get me wrong, I liked the Special Editions, but some of the things on the new DVD's=ugh.

Anyway, The whole 60-40 thing is largely irrelevant, in my opinion, but Obi-Wan being over 60 is basically G-canon, since Lucas stated that he was over thirty in TPM. The 60-40 thing is just another illustration of how messed up the post ROTJ EU is, IMO.

 

Okay, now you've done it Ulicus. You seriously are going to be avoiding blaster bolts. Again, if anything needs to be "redone," it's the prequels, not the OT. The OT is like my bible.

 

Again, where did Lucas say that Obi-Wan was in his thirties in TPM?

 

In interviews before TPM came out, though many ignored or forgot this and went by Ewan McGregor's age, the actor. Which has nothing to do with the character's age; same is true for Padme, for instance.

 

Do you have links to those interviews? I'd like to read them. It would be interesting if it's true.

 

A G-canon Civil War. Could be interesting indeed.

 

My thoughts exactly

 

Yeah, I do somewhere, but it'll take me a bit to look for. All I can give you now is the thing on the Tech commentaries which I linked to above.

 

Sidious: If Obi-Wan's age is not resolved, there will be civil war without end!

Let battle commence! Bwahahahahahaha *cough*

(incidentally, Darth Gloom, I agree that in a perfect world it would be the prequels that were remade and that they would be made more in line with the backstory as presented in the OT... I just think that that is *far* more unlikely than the OT being done)

 

No more absurd than your suggestion of remaking the prequels. Maybe we want it to happen- but it isn't going to happen, so why suggest it? A change to hair colour would be far more likely, and why is that a big deal anyway? It would have immediately solved the age problem.

 

If you pretend there are 10 years between AOTC and ROTS for your own personal canon, those problems all disappear. It also makes the Clone Wars that much more epic and Anakin's apprenticeship more like Obi-Wans. Invent whatever stories you want to inflate the 3-year clone wars arc into a 10 year one. At the very least turn certain months/quarters into years...