History Main / AgeLift

* ''Theatre/TheMerchantOfVenice: Some productions attempt to [[FlatCharacter flesh out the]] [[PrinceCharmless Prince of Arragon]] by portraying him as an adolescent schoolboy who is accompanied by his mother and his tutors when he arrives at Portia's home to attempt her EngagementChallenge.

* ''VideoGame/FridayNightFunkinB3Remixed'': While [[VideoGame/FridayNightFunkin Girlfriend]] is canonically 19-20, Shaya is [[ReallySevenHundredYearsOld 100 years old]].

* ''VideoGame/FridayNightFunkinB3Remixed'': While [[VideoGame/FridayNightFunkin Girlfriend]] is canonically 20, Shaya is [[ReallySevenHundredYearsOld 100 years old]].

* Very early documents about the ''Franchise/SuperMarioBros.'' call Mario a middle aged man, but by the time the 1990s rolled around he had been aged down into his mid-twenties.

* In WesternAnimation/PeterPan he looks and sounds like he’s in his early teens, Bobby Driscoll was 15 at the time he voiced him, in the original story Peter was a younger child around 7 or 8 years old.

* ''VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog'': Sonic's original age was either a "15~16" estimate or 18 depending on the source, Tails and Amy were 8, and Knuckles was 15. When ''VideoGame/SonicAdventure'' was released, Sonic was narrowed to 15, Tails stayed 8, Amy became 12, and Knuckles became 16.

* As suggested by him looking up porn and drinking alcohol, ''VideoGame/{{Omori}}'' is in his late teens or early adulthood in the original comics. In the game, he is established as no older than 12 years old.

** The ''Arkham'' version of Tim Drake is older than the comics version, being closer in age to Dick Grayson and Barbara Gordon [[spoiler: and in the GoldenEnding of ''VideoGame/BatmanArkhamKnight'', ends up marrying Barbara.]] The tie-in comics also reveal that Tim has a job as a schoolteacher in his civilian life, indicating he’s likely in his mid-20s in this continuity.

* In ''Webcomic/KiwiBlitz'', major character Chandra is stated to be eleven years old. When she later makes a [[TheCameo cameo]] appearance in ''Webcomic/SleeplessDomain'', WordOfGod is that she's been aged up slightly, to facilitate her being a MagicalGirl.

* In [[Literature/ALittlePrincess original novel]] the protagonist Sara Crewe was seven years old when she came to the boarding school. The VN adaptation, ''VisualNovel/ALittleLilyPrincess'' aged her up to fifteen alongside Ermengarde.

* All Western-released materials of ''VisualNovel/FateStayNight'' come with a disclaimer that [[TotallyEighteen all of the characters are 18 or older]] in order to make the sex scenes legal, despite Shirou, Rin, and Sakura being 17 and 16 respectively in the Japanese version with Saber being physically a year younger.

Compare ArtisticAge (where the appearance is more important than the number of years), DawsonCasting (which leaves the age of the character the same but casts an older actor for the part anyway), PlayingGertrude (which does likewise with younger actors), HollywoodOld (same), UnderAgeCasting (same), SoapOperaRapidAgingSyndrome (where the character's age inexplicably changes in the original work itself) and YoungerAndHipper. VagueAge is when the viewers [[ShrugOfGod and often the creators]] don't really know exactly how old a character is, and it's a great excuse for why the show might make a specific claim that seems like a [[{{Retcon}} change]] to some previously established fact. Seeing as age brings experience with it, this might also cause an AdaptationalSkill.

* Damian Wayne was introduced during ComicBook/GrantMorrisonsBatman run as a 10 year old. The Robin in ''WesternAnimation/BatmanUnlimitedMechsVsMutants'' is Damian, but he's depicted as a teenager like the other Robins before him.

* In the comics, [[Comicbook/{{Robin}} Damian Wayne]]'s age is somewhat nebulous and depends on who is writing him, but he's usually depicted as a middle schooler at the absolute oldest.[[note]]''Comicbook/{{Robin 2021}}'' explicitly gives his age as 14, for instance.[[/note]] In ''Videogame/InjusticeGodsAmongUs'', he's a grown adult and has taken on the Comicbook/{{Nightwing}} mantle. Even in ''Videogame/{{Injustice 2}}'''s flashback to Damian's time as Robin ten years earlier, he's still clearly older than 13.

[[folder:Web Comics]]

** ''AgeLift/GameOfThrones''

In ''WebAnimation/EtraChanSawIt'', the characters ages vary wildly from one story to the next, ranging from children to elders, depending on what role they're playing. Notably, Azami is the character whose age is the most consistent, with her being portrayed as an older woman in most of her appearances.

* In ''Webcomic/KiwiBlitz'', major character Chandra is stated to be eleven years old. When she later makes a [[TheCameo cameo]] appearence in ''Webcomic/SleeplessDomain'', WordOfGod is that she's been aged up slightly, to facilitate her being a MagicalGirl.

* Various scholars have noted that depictions of ''Literature/{{Momotaro}}'' have gradually decreased his age of departure over the centuries, with the oldest depictions showing him in his 30s, up to modern depictions of him in his teens or even as a child.

* Downplayed in ''Literature/TheLittleWitch''. The Czechoslovak-German animated series keeps the little Witch's vast age but changes her appearance to that of a little girl.
* ''Literature/TheLostYearsOfMerlin'' include a version of [[MerlinAndNimue Merlin's romance with Nimue]]...except here, they meet when Merlin is thirteen and she's a few years ''older'' than him. Interestingly, the fourth book (which involves TimeTravel) indicates that she'll [[ImmortalityBeginsAtTwenty still look like a young woman]] when Merlin's an old man, which might explain why the legends got things wrong.

Compare ArtisticAge (where the appearance is more important than the number of years), DawsonCasting (which leaves the age of the character the same but casts an older actor for the part anyway), PlayingGertrude (which does likewise with younger actors), HollywoodOld (same), UnderAgeCasting (same) and YoungerAndHipper. VagueAge is when the viewers [[ShrugOfGod and often the creators]] don't really know exactly how old a character is, and it's a great excuse for why the show might make a specific claim that seems like a [[{{Retcon}} change]] to some previously established fact. Seeing as age brings experience with it, this might also cause an AdaptationalSkill.

* ''AgeLift/GameOfThrones''

* ''Animation/PleasantGoatAndBigBigWolf'': In the main series, Wolffy is an adult while the goats are kids. In ''Animation/PleasantGoatFunClass'', however, he is a young kid just like the goats.

* In ''Theatre/TheSoundOfMusic'', the ages of the two eldest Von Trapp children are reversed. In real life, the firstborn boy, Rupert, was 16 when Maria first joined the house, while his sister Agathe was 14. In the musical, sister [[AdaptationalNameChange Liesl]] becomes the 16-year-old firstborn, while brother [[AdaptationalNameChange Friedrich]] becomes the 14-year-old. This is so Liesl can have her romantic subplot with Rolf, who [[CanonForeigner didn't really exist.]]

Compare DawsonCasting (which leaves the age of the character the same but casts an older actor for the part anyway), PlayingGertrude (which does likewise with younger actors), HollywoodOld (same), UnderAgeCasting (same) and YoungerAndHipper. VagueAge is when the viewers [[ShrugOfGod and often the creators]] don't really know exactly how old a character is, and it's a great excuse for why the show might make a specific claim that seems like a [[{{Retcon}} change]] to some previously established fact. Seeing as age brings experience with it, this might also cause an AdaptationalSkill.

* ''VideoGame/FridayNightFunkinB3Remixed'' While [[VideoGame/FridayNightFunkin Girlfriend]] is canonically 20, Shaya is [[ReallySevenHundredYearsOld 100 years old]].

** Esmeralda from ''Literature/TheHunchbackOfNotreDame'' is a sixteen-year-old girl. The [[WesternAnimation/TheHunchbackOfNotreDame Disney adaptation]] never [[VagueAge specifies]] her age, however, she doesn't seem nearly that young and in fact is rather big-sisterly to twenty-year-old Quasimodo. (The animators considered her to be in her late twenties to very early thirties, at least.)