Gaffer Tape said:
Well, it just depends on the time frame of when the movie was made. If it's Star Wars, then Vader's the evil, young apprentice. If it's Return of the Jedi, then Vader's the old contemporary of Obi-Wan (which is why he's Sebastian Shaw). And if it's through the lens of the prequels, then both of them are suddenly pretty young. That's what happens when you make it up as you go along.

For some reason I have always had the impression that Anakin was younger than Obi-Wan. Just the whole, "he was a pupil of mine" thing has always made me think of him as younger. Even in Return of the Jedi, Vader being Obi-Wan's evil young apprentice was true, only now it has been revealed that Anakin and the evil young apprentice were one and the same.

There was no reason for Obi-Wan to make up the evil young apprentice thing, which would ultimately not be true by any point of view or stretch of the imagination if he was referring to his friend who was the same age as him.

I think the type of relationship we needed to see in the prequels was two young men who had such love and respect for each other that they were like brothers. Instead, we got the irritated father and resentful son sort of thing going on. You never get much of an impression that Anakin cares all that much for Obi-Wan, even when Obi-Wan is captured in Ep2 it is Padme who wants to go rescue him, while Anakin was content to follow orders and sit and sulk (my goodness those are awful movies!!! even just drawing up memories of them is painful!)