Qui Gon Jinn is past his prime by 60, yet Dooku is still growing stronger going well into his 80s. Obi Wan's lightsaber prowess has already declined by the time he's past five decades (partially due to being out of practice), but Windu's is still growing by that age. Presumably, your average Jedi will peak earlier than prodigies such as the above due to having a lower potential ceiling, and lightsaber prowess will peak earlier, once the rate of Force and technical improvements are balanced by age deterioration.
I ask this partially because of the various ridiculously powerful individuals that haven't even passed their 30s yet, making one wonder how powerful they could become in old age. For example:
Revan is...what, twenty something in KotOR? Yet he's already characterized as one of the most powerful Jedi of all time.
Galen Marek is...in his twenties? And he's already stronger in the Force than Vader?
Darth Maul is in his twenties in TPM, yet he's far stronger than Obi Wan is at around the same age.
Or, in the ultimate level of EU haxxx, the future Sith Emperor is already capable of casually mind-raping dark lords of the sith when he's 12 or so years old. He then grows his powers for another century, absorbs the power of hundreds of sith, then grows in power for another millenium, leeches off of Revan and a host of other sources...by this point, he should be reaching Abeloth-levels of power, but he isn't.
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Of course, various factors might result in some adepts advancing/peaking faster than others. Yoda suggests that dark side practitioners grow in power faster than their light side counterparts, and training focused in certain areas would result in cases such as Marek's being stronger than an equivalent aged Anakin in the Force, but an inferior lightsaber duelist. Older characters that have already subconsciously used the Force might advance quicker in the short term, which may explain Bane's prodigious, haxxed upgrades in PoD.
This, however, would not explain how Luke is able to grow powerful enough to challenge Vader with sparse training in between ESB and RotJ, whilst his father, of equal potential, would get tooled by the same Vader after 10 years by AotC.
Depends on the person. It seemed that powerful force users like Yoda and Dooku could use their powers to allow them to fight like they did at their prime though.
Also you forgot to mention that we've never even seen Vitiate at his full power, since he's lending his power to hundreds of Emperor's Children and (hundred? thousands?) Imperial Guardsmen at any given time. Perhaps that is why he's not as haxx as he should be.
'Despite the Jedi Council's best efforts, only a little is known of the so-called Children of the Emperor. Infants of all species taken before the Sith Emperor, the children are infused with the Emperor's strength, sharing some measure of his thoughts and power for the rest of their lives. They become the Emperor's eyes and ears, and--should the Emperor focus his presence upon them--his puppets. It is believed that the children have some way to hide their dark presence from Jedi senses, meaning they can exist undetected within the Republic.
The position of the Children of the Emperor within the Sith hierarchy is unclear. Few Sith appear to even know of their existence, and Sith who investigate rumors of the children have been known to disappear without a trace. Since the Emperor would not go to such elaborate lengths simply to create infiltrators in the Republic, the true purpose behind the children remains a mystery.
I think that while their stamina decreases their power output remains fairly stable, and their knowlege increases and grants them new abilities and greater mastery of old ones. So they do decline, but they also learn more and and are able to apply what they have to greater effect and show up jedi who are in their physical prime.
Thats why someone like Dooku or Yoda can be incredibly powerful and skilled but ultimately cant engage in combat regularly or train like they used to. They lean more and more on the force as they grow physically weaker and slower which means while they can fight at a top tier level it burns them out physically and drains them in the force much faster than when they were young.
Aug 15th, 2013 10:04 PM
