Star Wars fans horrified to learn how young Darth Vader was when he died

I always hated the moment in Star Wars: Return of the Jedi when Luke lifts Darth Vader’s helmet to reveal the sad and lonely man inside the suit.

Not because it’s a bad scene, it’s pretty terrific, but because it really encapsulated a man who was lost in his emotions for too long.

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Darth Vader, who we learned so much more about during the prequels, died very young, really. According to this Reddit post, he was only 45 when he died on the second Death Star.

Of course, he looks much older, but then as one Redditor says, “To be fair, once he turned to the Sith he was but burned flesh given a suit to keep him in perpetual pain. 23 years of constant pain will age anyone.”

We know how the dark side ages wielders from what it did to so many who fell from the light, but knowing he was quite young makes his death that more impactful.

His age is explained in detail by uk_uk who said, “[At] 22 he becomes Sith/Father of Luke and Leia. 19 years later his son shreds the first Death Star. 4 years after that he died while saving his son from Darth Sideous.”

You’d easily think he was older thanks to the death scene because they used a much older actor, Sebastian Shaw, to play Anakin.

Shaw was 78 when he played the dying Sith lord in Star Wars and the make-up effects added a decaying look to him.

It wasn’t just his injuries that aged him, but the dark side itself. As roto-disc says, “Sith's a helluva drug.”

Knowing he wasn’t that old and that he’d ‘wasted’ his life on anger, losing connections with his children, really transforms an already emotional scene.

We all neg on George Lucas, but he really wrote a remarkably great villain in Darth Vader.