Age of Darth Vader?

[barondave]

Star Wars Ep III ranges from hideously bad to okay, with the best parts coming in the last third, rescuing the movie. Ep II also saved the best for last, obscuring another awful movie. At the moment, I give it about an 18 (on the Shockwave scale from 9 to 23). But I'll write a more formal review later.

The question I have for the LJers: How old is Darth Vader at the end of Return of the Jedi?

I always assumed (without any real data) that the kids in Star Wars (Luke, Leia) were the age of the characters in George Lucas' previous film American Graffiti. That puts them roughly High School age. In Ep II, Anakin is clearly (to me) a teenager, and in Ep III he's a bit older but still "Young Skywalker". If Anakin is still a teen/young adult in III, that makes him in his late 30s in VI.

Did Darth Vader reach his 40th Birthday?

Comments

[laurel]

I'm no expert and it's been too long since I read any of the books or anything that might give more data.

I would guess that Luke and Leia were 17 or 18 at the beginning of episode IV. (I'd guess Anakin was about that same age for Revenge of the Jedi). Leia was a senator, though, so sometimes I thought maybe she was closer to 20. I'm using my Earthly assumptions that Luke would have to be under a certain age to still be stuck on the farm with his aunt and uncle. And lord knows Padme didn't have to be very old to rule her world.

Keep in mind that Empire Strikes Back definitely didn't occur right after Star Wars, some time had passed (years, even?).

The guy under the mask in Return of the Jedi sure looked to be in his 40s or 50s at least and not in the best shape, but then he'd been through a lot and could've prematurely aged.

In the DVD edition of Return of the Jedi, Lucas changed it so we see Hayden Christiansen as Anakin. (When Kevin and I got to the end of Jedi, we weren't aware of this and you should've heard us scream and curse a bit when we saw that).