Obi Wan's ridiculous aging?

Likely this has already been discussed, but I was curious: So Obi-Wan was born in 57 BBY, and so when Anakin turned to the Dark Side he was around 36 or something right? And then 19 years later, when ANH happens, he should be 57... I think, realistically, it seems like in the prequel trilogy he was somewhat younger than he was supposed to be, and then somehow he aged rather drastically in 19 years- old Obi-Wan appears to be in his 70s. So I'm guessing this was a mistake on Lucas' part, but why wouldn't he have had Obi-Wan born earlier and been older in the prequels?

 

Maybe the harsh desert conditions of Tatooine aged his skin prematurely...

(

 

The shock of his entire world being destroyed by Anakin and the harsh conditions on Tatooine clearly played a role.

However, jumping to Karen Miller's recent Clone Wars books, I think they're setting up a medical reason for Obi-Wan based on Zigoola - the "deleterious effects" of that Sith planet, to quote what the head healer said:

Your body is different now. You must find a way to work with those differences, not against them.

Differences forced upon him by the Sith. By the dark side. Differences whose deleterious effects Vokara Che believed would accumulate over time. That he would find a way to conquer if it took him the rest of his life.

 

I don't think Obi-Wan looks too old in the OT. Besides, aging isn't predictable. I've known 20-year-olds who look 40 and so on. Just look at the US Presidents before and after photos.
Now Old Ben's lightsaber skills, talk about rusty. Didn't he get ANY practice?

 

If you think that is a 25 year gap between episodes III and IV it works much better

 

Yep, that works - however, I'll have to start a thread titled "Luke's unnaturally youthful appearance & rank immaturity for a 25-year-old".

First point - why doesn't he have a job already?

And when is that boy going to get a girlfriend? Not talking about those sleazy encounters with that nasty Camie girl when Fixer's in jail, she's no good, he needs to find a nice girl, settle down & stop messing around with those skyhoppers, that Biggs Darklighter was just a bad influence, I heard he got involved with some very bad sorts...

 

Alec Guinness was 62 when he filmed ANH. Not that much of a difference from his character's age of 57.

 

20 years living in a hut in the middle of a desert wasteland clearly isn't good for maintaining a youthful complexion

 

Inmaturity yes.... but youthful appearence? Mark Hamill was 24 and he looks like that! (he looks much older than Anakin in Episode II )

 

Noob question - Luke was 25 in ANH? I thought he was, at most, 18-20 years old.

 

No. Somebody earlier in the thread was suggesting that Obi-Wan's more-advanced-than-is-plausible age could be explained away by increasing the number of years presumed to pass between ROTS and ANH. Thus, Luke would be 25. Of course, this doesn't correspond with Luke's age as it "feels" on screen.

In the actual ANH scripts Luke is 18-20, precisely as you've guessed. However, Mark Hamill was 24 when he filmed ANH.

And really, the issue of Obi-Wan's age issue is only a problem when you factor in the prequels. In 1977 there wasn't any discrepancy. I should point out that in the ANH third draft, Obi-Wan is described as "at least seventy".

(Not to mention that in the shooting script, Leia is 16, while Luke is 18-20... but that's a whole different issue. )

 

All that heat on Tatooine and living the night life in the cantina really wore on the old man.

 

I don't find Obi-Wan's aging that difficult to understand- some people just show certain signs of age sooner than others. I mean, I found my first white hair at 19, and now at 25 I've got a sizeable patch of them on the top of my head. I just take after my maternal grandfather- he went totally white by his late twenties, but at least he never went BALD!

 

Spend 20 years living in an un-air conditioned adobe hut and look as good you will not, hmmm?

 

Yep. While I would acknowledge the Obi-Wan we see in ANH looks like he's aged slightly more than the 20 years we know is meant to occur between ROTS and ANH, there's little difference between Sir Alec's age and the characters age at that point. Yes, Obi-Wan was probably conceived as being late-sixties/early-seventies when ANH was made, but as retcon's go, considering the PT and concluding his character is late fifties when we know the actor who portrayed him was only a few years older is no big deal. As I always understood it, Obi-Wan in TPM is about 25 and Qui-Gon is in his early-to-mid fifties. In AOTC that makes Obi-Wan 35 and, in ROTS, about 38. Add 20 years to that figure and by the time we see him portrayed by Sir Alec, we should conclude he's 58, give or take a year.

 

Likely this has already been discussed, but I was curious: So Obi-Wan was born in 57 BBY, and so when Anakin turned to the Dark Side he was around 36 or something right? And then 19 years later, when ANH happens, he should be 57... I think, realistically, it seems like in the prequel trilogy he was somewhat younger than he was supposed to be, and then somehow he aged rather drastically in 19 years- old Obi-Wan appears to be in his 70s. So I'm guessing this was a mistake on Lucas' part, but why wouldn't he have had Obi-Wan born earlier and been older in the prequels?


As others have pointed out, Alec Guiness was 62 when he filmed ANH, which would make him as a very credible 57 year-old Obi-Wan.

However, Anakin was 22 years old when he turned in ROTS. Where did you get the idea he was 36?

 

I think he meant Obi-Wan was 36 when Anakin turned

If Obi-Wan is 57 in ANH though, that would make him 38 at the time of Anakin's fall and Luke's birth, which isn't at all out of whack with how Ewan McGregor looks as Obi-Wan in RotS.

 

It's all that jawa juice. Ages a person worse than deathsticks

 

Anyway, the truth is that in my opinion Obi-Wan looks like he's in his (early) sixties in ANH.

 

You could also consider that Obi-Wan's age was brought down a bit for TPM to provide a young idealized Jedi character for the film audience to follow. With Anakin being so young and Qui-Gonn filling in a more stoic role, I think a character around Obi-Wan's age was quite necessary.

 

I totally agree. I am sure in the 70s Lucas hadn't had the story mapped out enough to predict what exactly would happen in the prequels. And when it came time to produce them he had a certain story in mind - Anakin at age 9. To do this I am sure he had to tweak some things. It has always stood out to me that Obi-Wan was mostly trained by Qui-Gon when ESB gives the sense that his training came from Yoda. The way it was addressed in TPM can still fit with this concept, but definitely feels that it was not the original intention.

 

Well in AOTC we do clearly see Yoda taking the very young Padawans up to a certain age. So the period Obi-Wan ambiguously refers to in ESB - "was I any different when you taught me" and "Jedi Master who instructed me" can apply to this.

But you're right. I'm sure the original thought was that Obi-Wan had been entirely Yoda's pupil. When you watch it 1-6 though, I don't think it stands out all that much.