Star Wars characters- Do they age?

[JediKnightButler]

I am working my way through the LOTF series and one thing that has been gnawing at me is, do these characters *ever* age??? The way the characters are written and how they act it's hard to imagine that they are (or should be) chronologically in their late 50's and early 60's. The only time *age* or the effects thereof on our characters was ever mentioned was in regards to Lando walking with a cane ("Exile") but otherwise Luke, Han, Leia, et. al don't seem to have lost much spring out of their step or seem to have difficulty really doing anything- and this after literally decades (nearly a half century) of battling the remnants of the Empire and the Yuuzhan Vong, etc.!!!
Lucas has always treated the Star Wars universe strangely in regards to age, particularly in the PT where we see Padme as a Queen of a planet at age 14. Initially, I thought that she had inherited the throne and, historically speaking, that wouldn't be anything unusual. Children were seated as heads of state in many monarchies throughout the world in the past. Of course, later we learn in AOTC that she was actually ELECTED to the position. WHO would elect a 14-year old Queen of a planet??? Also, how did Leia get to be a Galactic Senator at age 19? Of course she's smart and talented but still????
I know it's all fiction but when are these characters going to be old enough to actually not be able to do anything anymore? They're almost ready, I understand, to kick off a post-LOTF series as well ("Fate of the Jedi"). Which reminds me, how old is Daala??? Wasn't she around PRE-ANH (Tarkin's lover)

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Of course, later we learn in AOTC that she was actually ELECTED to the position. WHO would elect a 14-year old Queen of a planet???

And who the hell "elects" Queens anyway? That doesn't even make sense.

 

[Capt_Piett]

If u look at the cover art of the books, the characters DEFINITELY age. The characterization might not change much, but that's just who they are. But they're definitely older than they used to be.

 

[captcalhoun]

well, when they've all been through bacta treatments a few times, they've probably been rejuvenated a bit. i mean, it does cure anything from a scrape to a major blaster wound...

 

[hyzmarca]

Of course, later we learn in AOTC that she was actually ELECTED to the position. WHO would elect a 14-year old Queen of a planet???

And who the hell "elects" Queens anyway? That doesn't even make sense.

Queen and King are just titles held over from the peaceful switch between hereditary monarchy and constitutional democratic republic. It's also apt because Naboo appears to have a unified single-branch government. The elected monarch serves as lawmaker, chief executive, and chief justice, essentially an absolute authority chosen by popular vote.

What are you going to call an absolute ruler? Queen certainly sounds less militaristic than "supreme leader".

 

[Hermiod]

^To be fair to Padme, she does say in Attack of the Clones that she thought she was too young to be elected Queen. Anakin counters that by saying the people of Naboo tried to change the law so she could stay on beyond their term limits.

I don't suppose her personally being involved in ending the Trade Federation occupation of Naboo hurt her popularity at all.

 

[matthunter]

In Luke and Leia's case, they can draw upon the Force to restore any lost youthful agility, in the same way Yoda and Dooku could.

As for Han, well he's just that fucking awesome age doesn't bother him.

 

[JediKnightButler]

I just thought of another thing: Did Luke ever get any kind of medical treatment after being pumped full of force lightning after his confrontation with the Emperor in ROTJ? I would think that that would cause some problems immediately thereafter and/or down the road- and we all know how badly it damaged Palpatine himself in ROTS.

 

[Mr Light]

^^ The novel "Truce at Bakura" takes place right after ROTJ and directly deals with the damage Luke took from the Emperor. ... I don't have a problem with the age issue. A) This is a sci-fi future-tech universe with amazing medicine. B) Luke and Leia are Jedi Masters. C) Han has been shown to be a slower pilot/shot now.

 

[Takeru]

And who the hell "elects" Queens anyway? That doesn't even make sense.

Of course it makes sense, monarchys don't have to be hereditary, Germany (well, the "Holy Roman Empire", but that was just a fancy name ) was an elective monarchy for hundreds of years.

 

[Jono]

I just thought of another thing: Did Luke ever get any kind of medical treatment after being pumped full of force lightning after his confrontation with the Emperor in ROTJ? I would think that that would cause some problems immediately thereafter and/or down the road- and we all know how badly it damaged Palpatine himself in ROTS.

Did it damage Palpatine? He seemed more then okay enough to get up walk around immediately after, promote a new Lord of the Sith and hand out orders to kill all Jedi.

Of course Star Wars characters age. Anakin turned into a young man. Obi Wan got old. Vader got old. Yoda aged as well between the PT and ESB. Clearly characters age.

As others have said the Star Wars universe is more advanced then us and you can't compare a 50 or 60 year old here with on there thanks to their medical technology. Pellaeon was probably in his 50s a few years after RotJ, so he would have been in his 90s when he was killed. He was still serving as a fleet commander up to his death.

Add a Star Trek example, Picard was in his seventy's when he got into a fight with his much younger clone.

 

[DaleC76]

Of course, later we learn in AOTC that she was actually ELECTED to the position. WHO would elect a 14-year old Queen of a planet???

And who the hell "elects" Queens anyway? That doesn't even make sense.

The government of Naboo seems to be made up entirely of teenage girls and old white dudes.

 

[cb31]

I know several people in their late fifties and early sixties who are still just as spry (even without force assistance) as many people in their forties.

 

[Trekker4747]

Another question is that how one's career path takes them from being ruler of a world to being a Senator in one? That's like a big demotion!

Also, if Padme was 15 when she became a Queen she was, what, 10 when she was in the earlier stage of her political rise?

 

[Praetor]

The way people are depicted in the SW universe, nine year olds don't seem that different in personality from forty year olds - all of them seem at about the same level of maturity and awareness to me. I don't know that this was necessarily intentional, but one might argue it's evidence that kids in the SW universe grow up pretty fast.

So a fourteen year old Queen (elected or otherwise) is really par for the course.

 

[EnsignRicky]

Well it still hasn't been determined what the side effects of spending most of your life traveling at the speed of light are yet.

 

[Praetor]

That's a valid in-universe point. In 'Star Trek' we're told that warp drive negates most of that, but who knows whether that's true of hyperdrive?

 

[DarKush]

I'm guessing that having midichlorians help Luke and Leia. But Han should definitely be written as older. There are scant mentions of age regarding the big three, but with Han it's ridiculous that he's still hopping around.

We saw a pretty spry Obi Wan and Count Dooku, so there's a precedent for older Jedi being pretty capable. I think the writers are stretching it a bit with older characters like Han or Paelleon. I saw him in a Star Wars Republic comic, which took place during the Clone Wars and he was already white haired then. Granted, he could've just gone prematurely white, but it looked like he was middle-aged then.

 

[Thrall]

Everyone ages in the SWU. Except Mara Jade. She was sixty when she died and didn't look a day over 25. At least judging by the cover of the book anyway.

 

[IDIC]

I just thought of another thing: Did Luke ever get any kind of medical treatment after being pumped full of force lightning after his confrontation with the Emperor in ROTJ? I would think that that would cause some problems immediately thereafter and/or down the road- and we all know how badly it damaged Palpatine himself in ROTS.

Did it damage Palpatine? He seemed more then okay enough to get up walk around immediately after, promote a new Lord of the Sith and hand out orders to kill all Jedi.

I realize that this is more of an aside to the conversation but I have always felt that the "damage" that Palpatine took from that confrontation with Windu was not the direct result of the force lightening but was in reality Palpatine loosing control over his disguise and returning to his real form. After all Palpatine was a Sith Lord, yet he had none of the normal physical features of a Sith Lord/darkside user e.g. yellow/reddish eyes. Couple that with the fact that Palpatine had to be rather old (there is no telling what he employed from his teachings from Darth Plageus).