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| 11 | [[quoteright:350:[[Anime/ScottPilgrimTakesOff https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/future_ramona.png]]]] |
| 12 | |
| 13 | ->'''Kaiba:''' This has to be some kind of trick! That's Noah, with my step-father! And according to the imprinted date, this was taken several years ago, but he looks the same age as he does now!\ |
| 14 | '''Yugi:''' Well, this is an anime show. Who knows how old any of us are supposed to be. Serenity looks like she's sixteen, I look like I'm ten. |
| 15 | -->-- ''WebVideo/YuGiOhTheAbridgedSeries'' |
| 16 | |
| 17 | Some characters are subject to a strange fluctuating sense of maturity depending on plot necessity, mostly because animated characters can have [[ArtisticAge abstract designs and lack obvious visual cues]] (especially when the characters are non-human). We're only left with the personality of the character, which tends to suggest their age. DawsonCasting, leading to a blurring of the line between adults-playing-adults and adults-playing-teenagers, is responsible for several live-action examples. |
| 18 | |
| 19 | A TV character may be implied to be some sort of ''adult'' compared to other characters who are clearly kids or teenagers, or vice versa, but this is largely an illusion in case the writers still want them in plots to which a younger audience can more easily relate. The only nominally-aged character is usually the lead, and this is only useful to make his same-aged audience feel better, since they will probably [[NotAllowedToGrowUp not be allowed to get older]]. |
| 20 | |
| 21 | Occasionally, characters are given specific ages along with more obscure and extensive biographies, but are ultimately ruled by audience appeal, CastSpeciation or personalities that fit into the mean age of the audience. Information that runs counter to that turns into the ImprobableAge issue, and may be tweaked in other places. |
| 22 | |
| 23 | Compare MistakenAge. Compare and contrast Really700YearsOld. |
| 24 | |
| 25 | ---- |
| 26 | !!Example Subpages: |
| 27 | [[index]] |
| 28 | * VagueAge/AnimeAndManga |
| 29 | * VagueAge/ComicBooks |
| 30 | * VagueAge/FanWorks |
| 31 | * {{VagueAge/Literature}} |
| 32 | * VagueAge/VideoGames |
| 33 | * VagueAge/WesternAnimation |
| 34 | [[/index]] |
| 35 | |
| 36 | !!Other Examples: |
| 37 | |
| 38 | [[foldercontrol]] |
| 39 | |
| 40 | [[folder:Animation]] |
| 41 | * ''Animation/HappyHeroes'': Exactly how old the Supermen are is up for debate, as their exact age is never given. With that said, they're clearly children; they're shown to be in third grade in one episode, and in another, Happy S. mentions being too young to drink wine. |
| 42 | * Leafie from ''Animation/LeafieAHenIntoTheWild'' is an adult but exactly what age she is when she leaves the factory farm is unknown. This is muddled further by the English dub, where she has a rather young sounding voice. [[spoiler:Leafie ages quickly over the film but it seems to be more from malnutrition and poor living conditions than her aging]]. |
| 43 | * ''Animation/NoonboryAndTheSuper7'': Coldygury is fairly large and has a deep voice, but acts very childish and speaks in YouNoTakeCandle. |
| 44 | * In ''Animation/QumiQumi'', Juga, Yusi, and Shumadan are obviously young, though their personalities can range from being eight-year old children to eighteen-year old teens in various episodes. |
| 45 | [[/folder]] |
| 46 | |
| 47 | [[folder:Art]] |
| 48 | * ''Art/{{Abaporu}}'': The Abaporu's wacky proportions and poorly-detailed face make it hard to pin down how old it is. It can only be said that it's obviously not a baby nor old enough for its hair to gray. |
| 49 | [[/folder]] |
| 50 | |
| 51 | [[folder:Comic Strips]] |
| 52 | * ''ComicStrip/CalvinAndHobbes'': While Calvin is explicitly six-years old, exactly how old Hobbes is supposed to be is very unclear. Certain aspects of his behaviour and appearance suggest he's supposed to be an adult and is often presented as the more sensible and experienced of the two, but many other times he's just as immature as Calvin. This issue is made more difficult to decipher by child characters [[LittleProfessorDialog written with complex dialogue as though they were miniature adults]], and the fact Hobbes is an anthropomorphic cat who [[MaybeMagicMaybeMundane may]] be imaginary. |
| 53 | * The titular character from ''ComicStrip/KabouterWesley'' has a bushy, white beard and a voice that somewhat resembles one of an old man. However, he doesn't show any other physical or behavioural signs that could imply he is any more than middle-aged. He's actually very fit, as he throws powerful punches and kicks and can run fast and for a long period. Most of the time, he comes across as in his 30s, possibly 40s. |
| 54 | * In ''ComicStrip/LittleNemo'', Flip's age is perennial a mystery, referred to at different points as a child and 23, and the same height as Nemo with a receding hairline and cigar. |
| 55 | * ''ComicStrip/{{Luann}}'': After their first semester of college passed in 2014, the strip has avoided ever stating what year Luann and her friends are actually ''in''. It's led to a few questions from readers about how Bernice could be an RA if ComicBookTime means she's still supposed to be a freshman, and about how long Luann plans to attend junior college before attempting a transfer to a 4-year university. |
| 56 | * [[https://boboomba.weebly.com/uploads/1/1/7/8/11785220/6365196_orig.jpg This promotional comic strip]] for ''VideoGame/PunchOut'' lampshades King Hippo's unknown age (represented in-game as "???") by having Hippo admit he doesn't even know his own age. |
| 57 | [[/folder]] |
| 58 | |
| 59 | [[folder:Films -- Animation]] |
| 60 | * In ''WesternAnimation/AliceInWonderland'', Tweedledum and Tweedledee wear clothes like schoolboys and behave with childlike exuberance, but they have grown men's voices and their heads are bald beneath their caps. This is in keeping with their description in the book, as "two fat little men" who dress like "a couple of great schoolboys." |
| 61 | * ''WesternAnimation/AnAmericanTail'': |
| 62 | ** Tony Toponi is obviously much older than Fievel, but it's not clear if he's in his early teens, late teens or early 20s. His voice is unchanged (being provided by [[CrossDressingVoices a woman]]), which would imply that he's 14 at the most. But he has a romance with Bridget, who seems 17 or 18 if not older, and in [[WesternAnimation/AnAmericanTailFievelGoesWest the sequel]], which only seems to take place about a year later, they [[DemotedToExtra have cameo appearances]] as a married couple with a baby. |
| 63 | ** ''WesternAnimation/AnAmericanTailFievelGoesWest'' makes Tanya's age vague. In ''WesternAnimation/AnAmericanTail'' she's a child, seemingly only slightly older than Fievel (the novelization says she's 8 years old). The sequel doesn't seem to take place more than a year or two later, since Fievel is still a young child and their baby sister Yasha is still only a toddler. But Tanya now looks and acts like a teenager or young adult, definitely older than 9, and her plot line of becoming a singer at a saloon is really only fitting for a teenage character, not a child. |
| 64 | * The two TokenHuman characters in ''Anime/AnimalCrossingTheMovie'' look and act like children, but live alone amongst adult FunnyAnimal characters and drink coffee. In the games the protagonist is heavily implied to be an adult, but [[ArtisticAge the style makes them look younger]]. |
| 65 | * ''WesternAnimation/CorpseBride'': Lord Barkis looks middle-aged and eloped with Emily some time ago but plans to marry Victoria, who appears to be in her twenties. There's also Mayhew, who could be middle-aged or elderly. In addition, he has asthma due to smoking and [[spoiler: later dies from it]]. |
| 66 | * Fidget from ''WesternAnimation/TheGreatMouseDetective'' is also a tough one. Olivia refers to him as "old", but he is small, somewhat cute and has a high-pitched voice; in one of the spin-off comics, post-Heel–Face Turn, he was implied to be a teenager just a handful of years older than Olivia, if you can believe that. |
| 67 | * Esmeralda's age in [[WesternAnimation/TheHunchbackOfNotreDameDisney Disney's version]] of ''Literature/TheHunchbackOfNotreDame'' is hard to distinguish. In the original book she was sixteen, but she's clearly older in Disney's adaptation. The way she talks to Quasimodo (who is twenty) implies she's several years older than him. |
| 68 | * ''WesternAnimation/LadyAndTheTrampIIScampsAdventure'': |
| 69 | ** Scamp looks like a young puppy but has the voice of a teenager. His sisters sound younger despite being his littermates. Scamp and his sisters are all significantly smaller than both of their parents, implying that they're still growing as well. |
| 70 | ** Scamp's love interest Angel is also puppy-looking, but it doesn't seem like she'll grow much more; it's unclear how much of her puppy-like appearance is age and how much of it is simply because she's a Pomeranian. She has a mature voice, and an ''adult'' dog seems to be in love with her. It's also mentioned that Angel is old enough to have been through five families. |
| 71 | * ''Franchise/TheLionKing'': |
| 72 | ** ''WesternAnimation/TheLionKing1994'': |
| 73 | *** It's unclear whether Scar and Mufasa are twins or whether they're from separate births. We know that Mufasa is older, but whether it's by minutes or by years is unknown. |
| 74 | ** ''WesternAnimation/TheLionKingIISimbasPride'': |
| 75 | *** Kovu and Kiara's ages are hard to tell. They could be either teenagers or young adults. Their designs in comparison to other lions, their young-sounding voices, and the fact the film is based on ''Theatre/RomeoAndJuliet'' imply the former. The documentary ''Proud of Simba's Pride'' also refers to Kovu as a teenager. |
| 76 | *** Vitani is not Kovu's litter mate but doesn't look much older than him. |
| 77 | * In the educational animated film duology ''[[WesternAnimation/MuzzyInGondoland Muzzy]]'', this is played straight for everyone except Bob. The ages of the other characters is anyone's guess, but Bob explicitly states he is 20 when he is asked his age. |
| 78 | * ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyEquestriaGirls'': |
| 79 | ** Played with in regards to Sunset Shimmer. She's physically the same age as the others and attends high school alongside them, but when you consider her backstory as Celestia's teenage student [[APupilOfMineUntilHeTurnedToEvil who turned to the dark side]] when Twilight was still a child, she's technically older than the others by a fair margin. Or, at least, she would be if it wasn't for how [[YearOutsideHourInside time seems to pass between]] the human world and [[WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic Equestria]] whenever the portal isn't open. |
| 80 | ** Downplayed with everyone else. As a HighSchoolAU to ''Friendship is Magic'', the main characters of that show are depicted as high school students. Their grade level and ages are left vague outside of them explicitly not being freshmen, however. This is the case for most of the supporting cast as well, outside the child characters (if they weren't outright infants, they're {{Age Lift}}ed to become freshmen) and all the older ones (who keep their ages and are school faculty or own businesses around town). |
| 81 | * Jack Skellington from ''WesternAnimation/TheNightmareBeforeChristmas'' is adult-sized and, in personality and voice, he comes across as being in his late twenties or early thirties. But then again, [[DemBones he's an undead skeleton]], and supposedly the [[PhysicalGod embodiment of Halloween]]... so for all we know, he may be centuries old and just ''seem'' youthful. |
| 82 | * The titular Peter from ''WesternAnimation/PeterPan'' has all his baby teeth (which usually begin to fall out at age five or six) according to both [[Literature/PeterPan the original book]] and the ''Literature/DisneyFairies'' spinoff series, but his design resembles more of a boy between ten and thirteen. |
| 83 | * ''WesternAnimation/ThePolarExpress'': Both the boy and the girl are probably round about ten, but it's hard to tell. Billy is shorter than them, so he's possibly younger, but he's obviously not a preschooler. Sarah, the boy's sister, is also ambiguous, although she's probably older than two. |
| 84 | * ''WesternAnimation/RockDog'': Through the film trilogy, Bodi's age remains a mystery. He looks and sounds like a teenager, but he is allowed to travel on a plane on his own without being considered an unaccompanied minor. He still lives with his dad, but the second movie reveals that Khampa himself also lives with his own elderly parents despite him implied to be middle-aged, so it must be a cultural norm in their homeland. And Bodi's bandmates also don't live with their families, with Germur looking like he's on his early 20's thanks to his goatee, so one could argue that Garma and, by extent, Bodi himself, are close in age with him. |
| 85 | * ''WesternAnimation/{{Sing}}'': |
| 86 | ** The younger half of the contestants (Johnny, Ash and Meena) are ambiguous when it comes to their age. None of them are seen attending school, the existence of which is demonstrated by Rosita's piglets getting on a school bus. Ash is called a "teenager" but seems to live without parents and is looking for work with her boyfriend until they broke up, and when they do she kicks him out of their apartment implying her name is on the lease, so she is probably around 18 or 19. Johnny is called a teenager in the script and lives with his father but is designed to look and sound like a young adult. Furthermore, when his father goes to prison, there is no mention of child services or social workers. Meena is called a teenager in the script and other materials, lives with her maternal relatives and acts like a younger teenager (13 to 16), but a picture held up by someone at a party suggests she has graduated from high school. Furthermore, Meena's singing ability surpasses what is normally expected from an adolescent. |
| 87 | ** In the sequel, Porsha Crystal's age is also never specified - her spoiled brat tendencies could paint her as a teenager, although she could be in her late teens or even early 20s. The latter is more likely as, like Johnny, [[spoiler: when her father goes to prison, the next morning she gets on the bus with Buster and the gang back to their hometown, with seemingly no issues with child services or social workers]]. |
| 88 | * ''WesternAnimation/TheSwordInTheStone'': Arthur's [[AbhorrentAdmirer annoying and unwanted]] squirrel mate, since squirrels age faster than humans, her actual age isn't clear. She's either close to his actual age, which would make her an adult, or she's of child age in squirrels years, which would make them the same age physically. |
| 89 | * ''WesternAnimation/TurningRed'': The 4*Town website bios mention Jesse being both a former college student and a father of two. With all of them looking similar in age, there's no real clarification of how old he or the others are, just that they're younger than Ming and adults in her age group. According to Domee Shi, Jesse's around 26, and the others are roughly in their late teens/early 20s. |
| 90 | * The video game characters in ''WesternAnimation/WreckItRalph''. While all game characters are technically immortal unless they die along with their game or outside of it, Ralph looks to be in his 30s while Felix and Calhoun appear more in their late 20s. Meanwhile, Vanellope and all her racing rivals are supposed to be about 9 or 10 years old. The games they come from (and by extension, the characters themselves) have different ages. Ralph and Felix have been around for 30 years. Vanellope's game has been around for at least 15 years and Calhoun's game was only installed a week before the events of the movie, making her the youngest character chronologically. |
| 91 | [[/folder]] |
| 92 | |
| 93 | [[folder:Films -- Live-Action]] |
| 94 | * Film/BatmanFilmSeries: |
| 95 | ** Creator/MichellePfeiffer as Selina Kyle/Catwoman in ''Film/BatmanReturns'' is a curious bit of casting. Pfeiffer was 33 years old when filming began, but her character often acts as if she's just out of college. Indeed, Selina comes across more as a stereotypical Gen-X StepfordSnarker than the assertive Baby Boomer career-woman type who was so common in American films of the 1980s and early '90s. Perhaps Pfeiffer (born 1958) [[TropeMaker helped originate the trope]]? |
| 96 | ** In ''Film/BatmanForever'', Dick Grayson/Robin is implied to be a teenager, but his exact age is never given and he is played by Creator/ChrisODonnell, who was 24 during filming. The movie is vague as to whether Bruce formally [[AdultAdoptee adopts]] Dick or just offers him a spare bedroom, but when Dick leaves the mansion late in the movie, he's described as "running away" as if he's not a grown man free to move out whenever. In the original comics, Dick was 12 when Bruce took him in, and you can tell his part in the movie was written for a teenager with only minor changes in dialogue when the adult O'Donnell was brought in. |
| 97 | * ''Film/BulletTrain'': The Prince's exact age is never specified; her act is that of an innocent young schoolgirl and while she does look the part, she is played by [[Creator/JoeyKing an actress]] who was twenty-two during filming. She could plausibly be either an actual teenage girl or a twentysomething young woman pretending to be one. |
| 98 | * ''Film/CrocodileDundee'': It turns out, not even Dundee knows how old he is. When Sue asks him, he said he once asked [[RaisedByNatives a village elder]] when he was born, and they told him "in the summertime." |
| 99 | * ''Film/TheDisasterArtist'': Lampshaded in regards to Tommy Wiseau, who claims to be about the same age as Greg, who is 19, yet is clearly pushing 40. He refuses repeated efforts to pry his age from him, as well as a variety of other personal details he keeps mysterious. This is based on the real behavior of Wiseau, whose true age is still not publicly known. |
| 100 | * Four and Eric in the ''Film/{{Divergent}}'' films. [[Literature/{{Divergent}} The book states]] that the initiates take their test when they're sixteen, and Four and Eric's generation are eighteen. In the films they are played by actors in their late twenties, so their ages are left deliberately vague as a result. |
| 101 | * ''Film/ETTheExtraTerrestrial''. According to the novelization of the film he's over 10 million years old. Other sources put him at about 800 years old, and he's shown to be a child in the book ''[[ExpandedUniverse E.T: The Book of the Green Planet]]''. |
| 102 | * ''Film/FantasticBeasts'': Credence is portrayed as younger than protagonist Newt, who's in his late 20s in the first two movies, but how much younger isn't clear. Someone specifically says he's not a child which implies he's probably in his late teens or early twenties. However, there are implications that he could be closer to his mid to late twenties (like the date on his adoption papers). Given how mysterious his background, some conflicting information, and the AmbiguousEnding of the second movie, [[note]] ConsummateLiar Grindelwald tells him at the end of that his "brother" Dumbledore is trying to kill him but Dumbledore's parents had already died by the time he was born, leaving his true identity vague[[/note]] it's possible that no one really knows how old he is. For what it's worth, Creator/EzraMiller turned 23 during the first movie's production. |
| 103 | * ''Film/IndianaJonesAndTheLastCrusade''. Alison Doody was 22 when the movie was filmed, and while Dr. Elsa Schneider has no onscreen age, she has to be at least thirty. |
| 104 | * ''Film/{{Obsessed}}'': The young son of the protagonist is of an unclear age. Even though the boy is said to be two years old, he was written as more of an infant who still sleeps in a crib, drinks formula instead of solid foods, and can't talk. |
| 105 | * ''Film/TheWizardOfOz'' never makes it quite clear if Dorothy is supposed to be a child like in the original book, or an adolescent. Creator/JudyGarland was sixteen at the time, but [[SuppressedMammaries costumed to look younger]], and promotional materials tend to give the character's age as twelve. A retrospective released for the film's 75th anniversary noted that Judy was told to remember that "she was a little girl from Kansas." |
| 106 | * ''Film/PeeWeesBigAdventure'': This is the whole schtick of Paul Reuben's Pee-wee Herman character. He's played by an adult man wearing a suit and lives alone in a house, but he behaves in a childlike manner and is often called a "boy" by those around him. |
| 107 | [[/folder]] |
| 108 | |
| 109 | [[folder:Live-Action TV]] |
| 110 | * ''Series/ThirtyRock'': Kenneth appears a bit too old to be in the age bracket likely to work as a network intern, but there's also quite a bit of evidence that he might actually be [[OlderThanTheyLook older than he appears]]. No definitive answer has ever been given. Seriously, just check out the OlderThanTheyLook section on the series' main page. If he's to be believed, Kenneth has been working for NBC since [[spoiler:1936]], and it's been implied that he's [[spoiler:immortal.]] |
| 111 | * ''Series/{{The 100}}'' has an InUniverse example: WordOfGod is that Grounders don't keep track of birthdays, so their ages can only be given a rough estimate. Most notable with Lexa, the Grounder's Commander. She's young enough that Abby refers to the Grounders as being "led by a child", but it's unclear if that's literal and Lexa really is under 18, or if she's simply unusually young given that she's leading an entire nation. |
| 112 | * ''Series/{{Bewitched}}'': While the ages of the witch and warlock characters are never outright confirmed, the show heavily implies that they live for at least several centuries. Samantha is at least four centuries old when she meets Darrin, and Endora admits to being "over 1,000" according to Serena. |
| 113 | * ''Series/TheBigBangTheory'', in the earlier seasons: Most of the characters were in their twenties, but nobody knew exactly where. After twelve seasons, their ages have largely been settled on. Out of the main characters, only Amy's age remains unclear. |
| 114 | * ''Series/{{Cheers}}'': Diane's exact age is never given, and she dodges the subject whenever it comes up, though presumably she is the same age as her actress was. One episode has her actually shocked to meet a young-looking doctor who remembers her from med-school, where she was his senior. |
| 115 | * ''Series/{{Community}}'': Abed is somewhere in his twenties, but where is anyone's guess. Several episode imply he's actually in his mid-thirties (matching his actor) and thus much closer to Shirley and Jeff than he acts. |
| 116 | * ''Series/{{FarScape}}'', for much of its run, which is odd considering how often the show mentions time passing. In the first episode, D'Argo's age is given as 30 cycles (young for a Luxan, which means he married very young -- a plot point). Everyone else's age stays mostly vague. Chiana is often stated to be "a kid" compared to the others, and acts as though she's in her late teens/early twenties. John's age can eventually be inferred as about 30 when he joins Moya, since he's old enough to drive in 1986 and was presumably born in 1969 or 1970. |
| 117 | * ''Series/TheGoldenGirls'' has Blanche Devereaux, who prides herself on her looks and as such constantly lies about her age, usually implying herself to be in her early forties or even her late ''thirties''. The other girls of the house however are not fooled despite her overconfident facade, and several jokes have been poked at how they can't pinpoint her exact age. In one episode Rose manages to acquire her birth certificate from her home state of Georgia, only to find her age has been "[[NoodleIncident Deleted By Authority of the Governor]]". Adding to this, the season two opener sees Blanche coping with menopause, suggesting she is indeed well into her fifties. All hints aside though, Blanche usually succeeded in keeping herself relatively youthful looking for a woman her age. |
| 118 | -->'''Blanche:''' [Being bombarded by reporters] Get away from me, you bloodhounds. I have nothing to say to you. Except this: From now on, when my name appears in print, it had better read "Blanche Devereaux, 39". |
| 119 | * ''Series/{{Merlin|2008}}'': Has never given any definitive ages for its cast, though WordOfGod has it that of the four leads, Morgana is the oldest, followed by Arthur, with Merlin and Guinevere clocking in as late teenagers when the show begins. |
| 120 | * ''Series/TheMightyBoosh'': While Vince is clearly somewhere in his 20's, the show has a lot of fun with exactly how old uncool fussbudget Howard is. Sometimes he's accused of being an old man (to which he responds indignantly), other times he claims to be Vince's older mentor, and flashbacks also establish Howard and Vince as being schoolmates of the same age (though one has him looking bizarrely old for a schoolboy). In the episode "Party", any mention of Howard's age results in an AsideGlance from some character or the other. |
| 121 | * ''Series/MorkAndMindy'': |
| 122 | ** While Mork the alien is fully-grown and doesn't seem elderly, his real ''age'' is a mystery. He has his first birthday in "Mork Runs Down", but in the same episode, he is told he's "not a bleemager anymore" and a "bleem" is said to be two thousand human years. He also claims that on his home planet, birthdays only happen "every two thousand zymes", whatever that means. |
| 123 | ** His son Mearth was born in the last season and has chronologically only aged a year, but it's unknown how old he is in "human years". He learned to speak in full sentences the day he was born but still wore a diaper and there's no mention of him using the bathroom. He goes to school, and at one point his parents think he has a crush. |
| 124 | * ''Series/TheNanny'' has Fran Fine, who is constantly dodging questions regarding her true age, even though in season one she celebrated what was allegedly her thirtieth birthday. Many in the household though have wondered if she's actually older, with her always coming back to insist that she could still be in her twenties. In a later episode, it was revealed that even the FBI agents performing her background check couldn't figure it out. |
| 125 | * ''Series/OddSquad'': Averted for all of the main characters except for Otis, Oprah, Omar, Osmerelda Kim, Orpita, and Oona. |
| 126 | ** Since Odd Squad agents can be anywhere from six seconds old (yes, really) to 12 years old, and since Otis appears to be around the same age as Olive (never mind the fact that he's her replacement), it's likely he's 12. |
| 127 | ** Oona, on the other hand, appears to be younger, being the height of Oscar during Season 1. She's also shorter than Oscar (who is implied to be at least 12 by this point) in Season 2. If that's the case, she would be 11, the same age as Olympia. |
| 128 | ** Unlike the other members of the Odd Squad Mobile Unit, Omar's age has not been stated, although it's implied in "The Void" that he's at least 11 or 12, given that Opal and Oswald are both 10 and Orla is 500 and that if Orla were also 10, he would have to change his age to be 10 as well. |
| 129 | ** Osmerelda Kim is the youngest protagonist of the series and the youngest agent of the Odd Squad Mobile Unit to date, but like Omar, her age has not been stated. She seems to be at least 7 or 8, however, given her status as an AudienceSurrogate for the target demographic. |
| 130 | ** Orpita is also one of the younger protagonists, but unlike Osmerelda Kim, it's hard to place her age due to her personality of being mostly mature with a childish side. She's without a doubt younger than Oprah, though, who physically appears to be 12 at most, and she appears to be around Osmerelda's age. |
| 131 | ** Oprah's age has been a well-known mystery throughout the series, but "Odd Beginnings: Part 2" confirms that she's at least 231 years old. However, she states that she attempted to use her ability to control her aging to age up a little but didn't like it and stopped, and it's not explained how many years she aged up. Considering that her online bio from PBS Parents stated that she was (physically) 7 years old, it's possible that she could be 238 years old, although it has never been confirmed. |
| 132 | * In the seasons of ''Franchise/PowerRangers'' where the characters are not high school students, the Rangers' ages tend to be left vague at best. They are often provided in promotional materials (for some characters), though even these are notoriously unreliable: Bridge, the only character in ''Series/PowerRangersSPD'' with a definitive age, was listed as 17 on the Jetix website but is explicitly 21 in the show proper. |
| 133 | * ''Series/{{Revolution}}'': The characters have not been given ages for the most part. Captain Riley is apparently the youngest captain the Monroe Republic has. The actor playing the character Creator/OmidAbtahi is 34 years old. |
| 134 | * In ''Series/SexAndTheCity'' it’s mentioned that Samantha has been celebrating her 35th birthday every year for the last few years. In another episode when she starts menopause, she reveals to her friends that she’s actually a bit older than them ([[EverybodyKnewAlready they’re not surprised]]). |
| 135 | * ''Series/{{Smallville}}'': |
| 136 | ** Lex Luthor has the ability to somehow blend in with high school students. |
| 137 | ** Clark himself probably helped. The character of Clark Kent was 15 at the start of the series or close to it, judging by his grade in school, [[DawsonCasting but his actor was 25 at the time]]. |
| 138 | * In ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'', Guinan says her father is 700 years old, and she is seen as an adult five hundred years ago, making her somewhere between 518 and 682, assuming her species matures like humans. |
| 139 | * ''Series/TheSuiteLifeOfZackAndCody'': |
| 140 | ** In the first season, Zack and Cody are presumably the same age as their actors: 12 or 13, while Maddie and London are in their late teens. However, in later seasons (and in the spinoff), they are clearly older teens, while Maddie and London are the same age: In the spinoff the twins and London go to school together. |
| 141 | ** When Zack and Cody graduate in the spinoff, their actors are about 18/19 years old. [[AsianAirhead London]] graduates at the same time, despite originally being a few grades ahead of them, because she kept flunking grades. |
| 142 | * In ''Series/TrueBlood'', only the vampire characters ever have exact/approximate ages given, usually for dramatic effect like Russell being over 3,000 years old or Jessica being 16 when turned in Season 1. The humans' ages are kept vague, not helped by the show's rather fluid sense of time. Lampshaded by Nicole's mother when she objects to her relationship with Sam: |
| 143 | -->"You are 23 years old! And may I ask how old ''you'' are, '''silver fox?!'''" (He doesn't answer but awkwardly looks away. This becomes her "nickname" for him even after they start to get along.) |
| 144 | * ''Series/TheVampireDiaries'': All of the Originals' ages are unknown. Rebekah and Kol are teenagers, where in their teens they fall is anyone's guess and Klaus, Elijah, and Finn are total mystery. It's also unknown at what age Katherine was turned. |
| 145 | * ''Series/YoGabbaGabba'': It's averted with Brobee, who is three by the series' start but turns four in his BirthdayEpisode. Muno, Toodee and Foofa look like they could be 6-8 years old, given that the former two lost their front teeth which fall out around that age group. Plex the robot is the most mature of the gang, making him at least eighteen. |
| 146 | [[/folder]] |
| 147 | |
| 148 | [[folder:Music]] |
| 149 | * Music/MelanieMartinez: |
| 150 | ** The protagonist of the "Music/{{Cry Baby|Album}}" ConceptAlbum. She's played by 20-year old Melanie in music videos but the actual character is vague in age. In the "Pity Party" music video there are nine candles on her birthday cake (though fans do argue if it's symbolic of something else) and artwork depicts her as a little girl. She also dresses in stereotypically "childish" attire such as pastel dresses with ribbons, but that's a popular fashion for adults as well. The overall lyrics and tone of her songs makes her sound like someone in her late teens or early twenties. It could be a bad case of TroublingUnchildlikeBehavior. |
| 151 | ** Whether DawsonCasting occurs in her music videos is vague, and if so in ''which'' videos. In "Pity Party" Melanie can be either an adult or a child. In "Training Wheels" whether she is a child or not is made vaguer by fact the other adult dresses in boyish clothes. In the video to "Cry Baby" Melanie could [[AlternateCharacterInterpretation either]] be an adult playing a toddler or Cry Baby could have an AbusiveMom who makes her dress like a baby. |
| 152 | * The music video to Mya's "Movin' On" is vague on how old the characters are. They go to a school called ''University High'' that looks like a high school, are played by [[DawsonCasting adults in their twenties]], and act like high schoolers. The song itself features lyrics that [[MostWritersAreAdults too mature for most 16-18 year olds]] (talking about serious relationships, baby mamas, money, etc). The main guy of the video has a son who can't be younger than 5. |
| 153 | * The Jamster/JAMBA [[Music/{{Schnuffel}} bunny characters Schnuffel and Schnuffelienchen]] (Snuggle and Snuggelina) both appear to be young bunnies but both live on there own without any parents. Doesn't help that they both have cute high pitch voices (Except in the audio [=CDs=] released in Germany where Snuggle and Snuggelina are voiced by actual adults). |
| 154 | * Music/{{Eminem}}'s Slim Shady character goes up and down in age, either to represent different scenarios or for [[RuleOfFunny a punchline]]. |
| 155 | ** He tends to act like a teenager, making juvenile line-crossing jokes, fighting with childhood authority figures like teachers, school bullies and his parents, and if he's got a job (other than being a famous rapper) it's usually a stereotypical working-class teen job like [[BurgerFool burger flipping]]. He also has a ruthless libido for teenage sources of masturbatory amusement like PG movies or KidCom shows. |
| 156 | ** At the same time, his persona is blended enough with the life of the real Marshall that he also is frequently portrayed as having adult life responsibilities, like marriage and raising a family. Also, when he [[OneOfTheKids socialises with children]], it's usually in an authoritative persona like a DepravedKidsShowHost or a teacher trying to [[SubvertedKidsShow educate them into a life of crime and debauchery]] (if he's not trying to [[BlackComedyRape rape them]]). |
| 157 | ** In a few songs his age is changed for [[UniversalAdaptorCast specific scenarios]]: |
| 158 | *** In "My Name Is", he gives his age as 34 due to being HeldBackInSchool so much, but in "The Real Slim Shady" (released the following year) he's well under 30 (because he'll need to be in a nursing home by the time he is). |
| 159 | *** He's a prepubescent ten year old in "Brain Damage", but already horny for '[[HospitalHottie naked nurses]]'. |
| 160 | *** In "Guilty Conscience" he's an ageless [[GoodAngelBadAngel shoulder imp]]. |
| 161 | *** Throughout the ''Relapse'' album he's imagined as an older, [[WhatTheHellIsThatAccent weirdly accented]] GothicHorror-themed SerialKiller who lives in a nice house with candles and wooden panelling and mostly preys on younger women and men. |
| 162 | *** On his Music/NickiMinaj collaboration "Roman's Revenge" in which he rampages with Nicki's {{Expy}} of Slim, Roman Volanski, the song ends with Roman's mother Martha interrupting the two of them as if they're a pair of naughty children. In "Moment 4 Life", Martha informs us that she's dispatched Roman and Slim off to a boarding school in Russia. |
| 163 | [[/folder]] |
| 164 | |
| 165 | [[folder:Puppet Shows]] |
| 166 | * ''Franchise/TheMuppets'': Most of them, since they tend to have abstract appearances anyway. For ''Series/SesameStreet'' characters, this is done for psychological appeal; the regulars are supposed to emulate different stages of childhood development (except the adults), and each character's 'official' age is just a reflection of that. Though ''Film/TheMuppetsTakeManhattan'' shows the main cast graduating from college. |
| 167 | ** Scooter's age is even more vague. In ''Series/TheMuppetShow'', most of the main cast refers to him as a kid, his uncle got him the job at the theatre, and in one episode, he mentions still being in school, indicating that he's probably somewhere in his teens. By ''Series/TheMuppets2015'', he's able to go into a bar without getting carded or kicked out, and everyone teases him [[MamasBoy for living and having a disturbingly close relationship with his mother.]] Kermit's nephew, Robin, meanwhile, still appears to be a kid (although he implies he's overdue for a growth spurt). |
| 168 | * ''Series/SesameStreet'': Though some characters' ages are known (Big Bird is six and Elmo is three for instance), some are not. |
| 169 | ** Ernie and Bert seem like adults most of the time, but other times they seem rather childlike. For instance, they live by themselves but are quite naive, seemingly lack jobs (though Bert's twin brother Bart works as a salesman and they are occasionally shown working in the claymation ''Bert and Ernie's Great Adventures'' shorts, however those shorts are implied to be [[AllJustADream dreams]]), play with toys, and take naps. |
| 170 | ** The Grouches act like adults for the most part but their ages are unknown. |
| 171 | ** Ingrid and Humphrey have a baby so they must be adults, but their exact ages are unknown. |
| 172 | ** Grover works numerous jobs, indicating that he must be an adult, but he often acts immature and sometimes lacks the common sense that an adult would possess. |
| 173 | ** Telly generally acts like a six-year-old but goes to daycare instead of school. |
| 174 | ** Snuffy sometimes acts six (like his pal Big Bird) and sometimes like an adult. |
| 175 | ** Cookie Monster seems sort of like a kid sometimes and an adult other times. He is seen wandering around alone and occasionally working, but speaks in primitive grammar, has a packed lunch in one promotional video, and calls his mother "mommy". In "Take a Rest", he claims he takes naps, although he's never been seen taking naps outside of that song. He's also able to bake his own cookies. |
| 176 | * ''Series/TheSootyShow'': |
| 177 | ** It's hard to tell how old Sooty, Sweep, and Soo are. They're all the same size, but Soo acts considerably more responsible than the other two, who behave like rambunctious children, but they could just be rambunctious, irresponsible adults. In one episode, Sweep's identical twin brother Swoop comes over to visit by himself, followed by his parents and two cousins (Swap and Swipe) who all seem to be the same size. In another episode, Soo pretends to be pregnant and Matthew is actually fooled, suggesting she is fully grown. |
| 178 | ** Sooty's cousin Scampi looks like a toddler, but often runs around on his own, and can (and [[ThePrankster often does]]) pull very sophisticated pranks. |
| 179 | * ''Series/UnderTheUmbrellaTree'': Gloria, Iggy and Jacob are supposed to be children, and one episode reveals that they're all under twelve, but they have no official ages. Sometimes they seem like six-year-olds (Jacob can't even read or tell time), while [[PingPongNaivete other times]] they seem more like middle schoolers. Then there's the fact that they belong to sophisticated clubs for animals, sometimes give speeches, host parties or get jobs like adults, and lived by themselves until [[TeamMom Holly]] moved in with them. |
| 180 | * ''Series/ThePuzzlePlace'': The six main kids sometimes seem like young children about the age of the target audience, while [[PingPongNaivete other times]] their maturity is more at a middle school level. In one episode, though, Leon has a line about Julie not having finished the third grade, which obviously implies that they're about eight. |
| 181 | * Nearly all the characters in ''Series/EureekasCastle'' act noticeably childish, but also seem to be adults as they don’t have any real kind of supervision (unless you count [[TeamMom Eureeka]]), and often take care of themselves. The one thing firmly established is that Magellan the dragon is TheBabyOfTheBunch. Eureeka once noted of how he wants to go to school only for her to inform him that he’s too young. |
| 182 | * ''Series/DonkeyHodie'' revolves around the lives of a group of four animals who act like children, but live on their own. Although there are several references to the age of the characters (for instance, in "Mountain Climb Time", Grampy mentions he climbed Mount Really High Up when he was Donkey Hodie and Purple Panda's age), it's unknown how old they really are. However, Ellen Doherty claimed in an early interview about the show that [[https://kidscreen.com/2020/01/13/fred-rogers-sees-space-for-more-puppets/ the characters have no defined age]]. |
| 183 | * ''Series/BearInTheBigBlueHouse'': Tutter's age is a mystery: He has his own mouse hole, which is kind of like living alone, but then again it's connected to the rest of the house. He has his own FirstDayOfSchoolEpisode, which logically puts him at around five or six, but maybe mice start their education as adults. And in "When You've Got to Go", he has to learn about not procrastinating with bathroom breaks, yet is able to play checkers, which is a relatively sophisticated game, competently. On the more kiddish side, he sleeps with a stuffed toy, spends a lot of his time playing with kids, and relies on Bear for many things, despite his claim that a mouse has to do things for himself. |
| 184 | * ''Series/FraggleRock'': The main characters live on their own without parents or guardians, and have jobs (that take them half an hour a week), but they seem to be pretty childlike in a lot of respects. Then again, ''all'' Fraggles are childlike in a lot of respects, with the definitely older ones (Uncle Travelling Matt and the World's Oldest Fraggle) often being the worst. Early episodes showed baby Fraggles, but the creators decided that actually, they didn't really want to open this question. The same goes for Junior Gorg -- is he a kid by Gorg standards, or a young adult who hasn't moved out of his parents' house because he's got nowhere to go? |
| 185 | [[/folder]] |
| 186 | |
| 187 | [[folder:Religion]] |
| 188 | * ''Literature/TheBible'': |
| 189 | ** In the ''Literature/BookOfGenesis'', the story of Isaac's near-sacrifice has him speaking to his father Abraham the way a young child would, asking him, on the way up the mountain, where the sheep was for their burnt offering, and Abraham replying evasively, "God will see to the sheep for His burnt offering, my son," as though to shield him from the horrible truth until the last moment. However, based on the internal chronology of the book, Isaac would've been thirty-seven years old at the time. Thus, the Jewish sages of late antiquity deemed Isaac as old enough to give informed consent to his own sacrifice. |
| 190 | ** Another Genesis example of this trope is Benjamin, youngest son of Jacob, at the time of his family's relocation to Egypt. His birth takes place before his older brother Joseph is sold into slavery, which should make him at least twenty-two at the time of their Egypt reunion. Yet throughout that later part of the story, his father and brothers still refer to him as a "lad," shelter him and barter over him as if he were a child. And yet the subsequent list of Jacob's sons, grandsons and great-grandsons who traveled to Egypt includes the names of Benjamin's many children. It seems likely that two different versions of the story with different chronologies were combined. |
| 191 | ** The ages of Jesus' disciples are never explicitly mentioned in the Bible. They are usually depicted as adult men of assorted ages, often in their 30s since Jesus is stated to have been about 30 when he began his ministry. There are a couple of hints that all but Peter were actually younger, but nothing direct.[[note]]Peter is the only one mentioned as having a wife, and it would be unlikely for a man to be even in his mid-20s at the time and still a bachelor, although possibly others were married as well and this is just not mentioned. Also, at one point only Jesus and Peter are noted as being required to pay a Temple tax - one that only applied to males age 21 or more.[[/note]] |
| 192 | [[/folder]] |
| 193 | |
| 194 | [[folder:Theatre]] |
| 195 | * In Music/GiacomoPuccini's ''Theatre/GianniSchicchi'', the DramatisPersonae lists almost every character with his or her age, omitting the usual voice classifications. Buoso's poor cousin Betto di Signa, however, is specifically designated "età indefinibile" (of indeterminate age). |
| 196 | * Theatre/{{Hamlet}}. He's a university student, he was passed over as heir when his father died, and the play is more or less his ComingOfAgeStory, all of which would seem to put him in his late teens. But the scene with the gravediggers gives his age as thirty (or thereabouts), and he remembers Yorick, who died twenty-three years prior. The historical explanation is that Hamlet was probably originally intended to be a teenager but that Shakespeare changed his age so his [[ProductionPosse usual star]] Richard Burbage could play the role. |
| 197 | * Different stagings of ''Theatre/SweeneyToddTheDemonBarberOfFleetStreet'' have cast Tobias Ragg alternately as a kid or as an intellectually disabled adult. |
| 198 | * ''Theatre/TwelveMonths'': The Stepdaughter is not younger than the approximately fourteen-year-old Queen, and this is all we get (and even that estimate is made by one of the minor characters who might be mistaken). It was probably done deliberately, since the play is extremely popular in Russia and gets produced everywhere from kindergartens to opera houses. In particular, depending on the age of the Stepdaughter (and the target audience), her romance with April can be played up, kept as subtext, or omitted entirely. |
| 199 | * ''Theatre/WesterosAnAmericanMusical'': Several factors can make Shireen's age hard to pin down beyond "too young to be considered an adult yet": |
| 200 | ** The actress playing her can pass as a teen, but the canon character is an actual child and one of the few young characters to not get an AgeLift between the canon versions of the story. |
| 201 | ** Robb and Daenerys get their age stated, which in Robb's case clearly makes him younger than the actor playing him. Shireen's age is never stated beyond being called "a child" by Davos (who is closer in age to her father than to her) in her debut scene. |
| 202 | [[/folder]] |
| 203 | |
| 204 | [[folder:Toys]] |
| 205 | * ''Franchise/{{Barbie}}'': |
| 206 | ** How old is Barbie? Originally she seemed to be a high schooler, however Mattel has aged her up over time. Throughout the 1980s and into the 2000s she was usually portrayed as an adult, while her sister Skipper was a teenager, but a 2010s decision led to Barbie being aged back into a high schooler on default (but Skipper is also a teen and Barbie does still often get presented as an adult). In the past Barbie has [[ImprobableAge become US president]] and done other things that imply she's older than her twenties. ''WebAnimation/BarbieLifeInTheDreamhouse'' affectionately pokes fun at, and lampshades, her Vague Age. |
| 207 | ** This very vagueness was part of the controversy when the notorious "Happy Family" Midge doll was released, with a detachable pregnant belly containing a baby. This particular version of Midge was meant to be a married adult woman pregnant with her second child; dolls of her husband Alan and her toddler son Ryan were also available. But since so many people were used to thinking of Barbie, Midge, and their friends as being teenagers, some MoralGuardians accused Mattel of marketing TeenPregnancy to little girls. |
| 208 | ** Skipper is younger than her sister Barbie, Due to Barbie's fluctuating age, Skipper herself is only vaguely 14-17, with some dolls saying she's 16. She was originally introduced as a preteen but was revamped several times in the 1970s and 1980s so that she hit puberty. |
| 209 | * The ''Toys/{{Bratz}}'' girls are repeatedly implied to be high schoolers yet they dress and behave more like young adults. They can drive, putting them at 16-18. |
| 210 | * The characters of ''Toys/MilkyWayAndTheGalaxyGirls'' are [[AnthropomorphicPersonification human versions of planets]] so it's likely they don't [[Really700YearsOld age like humans]]. Still, their physical ages are highly ambiguous. They just look... [[ArtisticAge young]]. They could be anywhere from teenagers to being in their twenties. |
| 211 | [[/folder]] |
| 212 | |
| 213 | [[folder:Visual Novels]] |
| 214 | * In ''VisualNovel/DoubleHomework'', all the kids in the protagonist’s grade have to be 18 (the minimum age for sexual consent and portrayal), but they also have a year left in high school (which would put them between 17 and 18 in most countries). |
| 215 | * ''VisualNovel/HigurashiWhenTheyCry'': |
| 216 | ** Satoko and Rika are noticeably younger than the high school aged protagonists but how much younger is never quite stated. Satoko seems to have entered puberty but Rika hasn't yet. They both use elementary school bags as well. The closest given to an age confirmation is that Satoko is anywhere from 9 to 13 years old, and Rika is officially the same age as Satoko. |
| 217 | ** Keiichi, Satoshi, Rena, and the Sonozaki twins are all of high school age but their exact ages are unspecified. Mion, Shion, and Satoshi were already high schoolers a year ago and are one year older than Keiichi and Rena. Mion is also shown studying for college in one of the ''Matsuri'' arcs. |
| 218 | * A couple of major characters in ''VisualNovel/{{Melody}}'': |
| 219 | ** Becca’s precise age is unknown, but judging by the fact that she’s a student who’s soon to graduate college, she’s somewhere in her early twenties. |
| 220 | ** Xianne’s precise age is also unknown, but it can be inferred from the point she’s at in her education that she’s 18 or 19. |
| 221 | * ''VisualNovel/MonsterProm'': |
| 222 | ** Polly's age is given as "22(?)". Since she is a ghost, it's possible she died at 22 and continues to appear at that age, despite the fact that she'd've been older by now if she'd lived. |
| 223 | ** Downplayed with Liam. He's Really700YearsOld, being 400-and-something ("4XX") in his profile, but Liam's exact age isn't specified. Some players have speculated that it's a subtle joke about him being [[FourTwentyBlazeIt four hundred and twenty]]. |
| 224 | ** In the Second Term [=DLC=], Zoe's age is given as "4...eva?" due to the fact that she's an eldritch god implied to be somewhat older than the universe itself. |
| 225 | ** In the sequel ''Monster Camp'', Milo's age is given as "23?", much like Polly's in the first game. Since they're a reaper and were likely never born in the traditional sense, it's possible that 23 is meant to be the broad age they present as, despite the implication that they've actually been around for much longer than that. |
| 226 | * In ''VisualNovel/SpiritHunterNG'', Rosé recognizes an ancient form of battery and claims that she hasn't seen one in a long time. When Akira then asks her how old she is, she playfully keeps it a secret. Her profile lists her age as "20s (so she says)". |
| 227 | [[/folder]] |
| 228 | |
| 229 | [[folder:Web Animation]] |
| 230 | * ''WebAnimation/HelloKittyAndFriendsSupercuteAdventures'': The characters work at jobs, Kuromi has a scooter she drives, and they all seem to each live on their own, but they also have slumber parties, order kids meals, and do various activities that would largely be considered more youth oriented. |
| 231 | [[/folder]] |
| 232 | |
| 233 | [[folder:Webcomics]] |
| 234 | * ''Webcomic/TheBrightSide'': All of the characters are portrayed as "young", but their exact ages are deliberately vague. |
| 235 | * By the end, it's implied that the bunny protagonist of ''[[Webcomic/FifteenMinds Blue Moon Blossom]]'' is actually a youth, given the size difference between them and the other rabbits, especially [[spoiler:their parent. (The parent is implied to be middle aged from the wrinkles around their eyes.)]] Before this, in the absence of other rabbits to compare them to, the bunny was basically ageless. This trope, however, is in effect for virtually all of the characters as it is, since they're stylized FunnyAnimals. |
| 236 | * In ''Webcomic/CityOfReality'', none of the main characters have defined ages -- this is deliberate on the part of the author so as not to trip himself up with potential romantic subplots. The cartoonish art style doesn't help matters. However, it is possible to extrapolate from their statements about graduating high school and the assumptions people on other worlds make about their youth, and they got a visual (though again not textual) age-up between chapters 5 and 6. |
| 237 | * Cucumber and his sister Almond of ''Webcomic/CucumberQuest'' are, in the author's own words, "A young kid and a slightly younger kid." It is known that Cucumber isn't 9, because that's how old his father thinks he is. The other main characters also have a vague age range assigned to them, only specifying if they're a kid or adult (and in Bacon's case, [[OlderThanTheyLook clarifying he's an adult at all]]). |
| 238 | * ''Webcomic/TheDragonDoctors'' has this as a deliberate, in-universe social issue due to the fact that society has access to a functioning FountainOfYouth. |
| 239 | * ''Webcomic/ElGoonishShive'': Even Dan isn't 100% sure when Hanma last [[BornAgainImmortality reset]], only that it was during the anime boom in the nineties. The fact that she looks 14 doesn't help it either. |
| 240 | * ''Webcomic/ILoveYoo'': Kousuke's age wasn't revealed until over 100 episodes into the story, despite every other character having explicit ages. It is later revealed that he is 24 years old. |
| 241 | * In between story arcs, ''Webcomic/TheInexplicableAdventuresOfBob'' once did a NoFourthWall installment to discuss various things, including the fact that ComicBookTime made the characters' ages very hard to nail down. The author declares that because they are {{toon}}s, it really shouldn't matter. |
| 242 | * ''Webcomic/{{Nebula}}'': With a [[TheBlank complete lack of facial features]] (and the fact that they have [[TimeAbyss incredibly long lifespans]] and don't seem to age much), it's hard to say how old any of the main characters are in human terms at all, other than than that they're ''presumably'' adults. |
| 243 | * ''Webcomic/TheOrderOfTheStick'': The print version of ''No Cure for the Paladin Blues'' comes with brief biographies that include the age, race, class and gender of all the introduced characters up to that point. Vaarsuvius' age is listed as [[ReallySevenHundredYearsOld "130?"]] while Belkar's age is listed as two question marks. |
| 244 | * In ''Webcomic/PebbleAndWren'', Pebble leaves home to get a job, so he's probably a young adult, but he also goes to school with Wren. His mother Violet was the [[ThingsThatGoBumpInTheNight monster under Donald's bed]] when he was a kid, meaning she's probably somewhere in her fifties or sixties (Wren's about eight, so Donald is probably in his thirties). |
| 245 | * In ''Webcomic/ThePetriDish'', one strip has Thaddeus Euphemism's age said to be thirty-seven, but another strip has Bob point out that he's turning forty. So either, three years have passed in-universe, Bob got Thaddeus's age wrong, or "turning forty" means he's simply close to forty. |
| 246 | * ''Webcomic/{{Polandball}}'': Though countries are assumed to be old as their real-life counterparts, its left deliberate how old they are: for example, the United Kingdom is traditionally considered one of the senior countries in comic, while his "son" USA is depicted as an adult or teen, even though most countries are shown as the same age including Russia (who is naturally older than the USA in real life). Sweden and Norway are also about as old as Britain, and Greece and Egypt is ''older than all of them'', yet they aren't considered as seniors. It gets even weirder when you even begin factoring strips tend to vary as whether a country taking on a new regime (like Prussia becoming the German Empire then Nazi Germany to West/East Germany to just plain Germany) counts as the same nation throughout or is a child of the previous incarnation. Or whether Israelball represents the country (one of the youngest in the world) or the Jewish population in general (which stretches through out history). |
| 247 | * The author of ''Webcomic/SchlockMercenary'' has confessed that he has no idea how old General Tagon is, guessing that he's somewhere between 18 and 40 years older than his 49 year-old son. |
| 248 | * ''Webcomic/{{Sinfest}}'' is pretty weird with this. WordOfGod is that Slick is somewhere between 14 and his early twenties, and the other characters rarely (if ever) get their ages touched upon. It's especially weird considering that most of the main male characters look considerably younger than the women (who all look somewhere from their late teens to twenties). It's not helped by the fact that just about every character lives on their own. |
| 249 | * Sock from ''Webcomic/WelcomeToHell''. He looks like a preteen but WordOfGod is that he is 15-20. |
| 250 | * The characters in ''Webcomic/WhatTheFu'' are only defined as somewhere in their twenties, mostly because [[UnreliableNarrator Zac]] can't be bothered with details. |
| 251 | * Molly, Golly, and Jolly, the three artificial peanut butter monsters in ''Webcomic/TheInexplicableAdventuresOfBob'' are each less than a year old, superhumanly intelligent, and look vaguely teenaged. The perceived maturity level of each of them can vary tremendously from one moment to the next, but it's [[JustifiedTrope justified by their origins.]] |
| 252 | [[/folder]] |
| 253 | |
| 254 | [[folder:Web Original]] |
| 255 | * ''Podcast/TheAdventureZoneEthersea'': |
| 256 | ** Hermine is described as a "young girl" in the prologue (twenty-five years before the main campaign), but her actions and influence suggest she isn't literally a child. She's most likely a teenager in the prologue, though whether she's in the 13/14 range or closer to 17/18 is unclear. |
| 257 | ** Zoox is a Brinearr, which are coral bodies inhabited by [[ManySpiritsInsideOfOne multiple souls of deceased humans]]. His emotional age is clearly that of an adult, but it's unclear ''how'' mature he is or how old he should be considered, since obviously not every spirit that now makes up his consciousness would've been the same age when they died. It's also murky how long he's been alive for the second time, as it were. His player Clint just says Zoox isn't very old, and Zoox himself doesn't dispute it when Amber says he "just woke up." |
| 258 | * Spoofed in ''WebAnimation/BarbieLifeInTheDreamhouse'', where ''nobody'' knows what Barbie's age is, not even her closest friends. |
| 259 | -->'''Teresa:''' She ran for President once! You have to be ''at least'' thirty-five for that, so let's see... CarryTheOne... uh... what am I adding? |
| 260 | -->'''Barbie:''' Today, I'm officially [[spoiler: ''[[TheUnreveal (gets drowned out by the vacuum)]]'']] |
| 261 | * In ''Roleplay/DarwinsSoldiers'' this trope is made explicit by Ariol, Kain, Subject 19, Siren, Breathtaker and Stalker; all have their age listed in their profiles as "unknown". |
| 262 | * In regards to the main characters of ''WebVideo/DontHugMeImScared'', the antagonists treat them like children, but the photos of them on their wall reads 19/06/55, which makes them quite old if home computers exist. The sixth episode shows a picture of Red Guy in a cap and gown with a diploma and implies that he works at an office, suggesting that he is at least a young adult. |
| 263 | * Most of the cast of Website/GaiaOnline qualifies, especially since the website ''does'' acknowledge the passing of years and the characters do have birthdays. They just don't resemble their alleged ages. At all. |
| 264 | * A majority of the characters in ''WebAnimation/TheGrosseryGang'' webseries have ages that are hard to pinpoint, as they can hold down jobs, yet at the same time have squabbles that a child would. The only characters in an established age group are Stinky (the eldest as a senior citizen) and Egghead (the youngest, as the last to expire, and acts like a young child). |
| 265 | * ''WebAnimation/HappyTreeFriends'': According to the creators, the Tree Friends are [[ArtisticAge whatever age is necessary for the cartoon to work]], aside from a handful of characters who are consistently adults and one who varies between being an infant and a toddler. |
| 266 | * ''Website/HectorsWorld'': Constable Solosolave, Senorita Ortega, and the mayor are adults, but the rest are unknown. On the one hand they're just learning about cybersafety and Ranjeet is said to go to school. On the other hand, they can wander around without their parents, Ming is quite snarky (which probably means she's older than seven), and Ranjeet and Aretha know a great deal about computer technology. |
| 267 | * ''WebAnimation/HomestarRunner'' has only two or three confirmed "adult" regulars; the others can be, as the plot requires, young enough to be going to preschool or old enough to be drinking Cold Ones. Even the adult regulars aren't too old to play spaceman with tin foil outfits and cardboard spaceships. Don't even ask about Homsar. [[http://hrwiki.org/wiki/Ages_of_Characters This Page]] on the wiki attempts to clear things up a bit. Emphasis on "a bit". |
| 268 | * ''WebVideo/KidTimeStorytime'': |
| 269 | ** Corny the unicorn. One comment (now erased since kids' videos don't have comments anymore) says that she's 126, but five in human years, the [[https://kidtimestorytime.com/puppets/ official website]] puts her at four and a half, and at one point, Eileen the creator of the channel tried to explain away Corny [[EarlyInstallmentWeirdness squeaking instead of talking]] in early videos as her not having learnt to talk yet, despite the fact that none of the other characters have aged. |
| 270 | ** Hooty looks like a full-grown owl and can fly, yet Eileen once claimed he was either four or six, and one video says that he's just starting school. In addition, there's a ShrugOfGod as to why he can't speak, with one source claiming he's autistic and [[https://kidtimestorytime.com/puppets/ another source]] claiming that hooting is his native language and he's just learning English. |
| 271 | ** Gilles's age is listed as "ooh la la" and Octavius's as "no one knows". The former, at least, is consistently portrayed as an adult. |
| 272 | * Website/{{Killerbunnies}}: There's [[http://akaichounokoe.deviantart.com/art/Killerbunnies-XI-and-XII-Kamu-and-Kanran-444451527 Kamu and Kanran]] who has a condition that makes them look like babies but they don't seem to let them stop them in being damn near malicious and that both are old enough to smoke but their ages are never stated. In that vein, it's hard to pinpoint how old Jeanne is or whether or not she is even a child or through some means or another just looks like one. |
| 273 | * Couette from ''Franchise/{{Noob}}''. She's short and acts like a stereotypical teenage girl, but is also the DistaffCounterpart of the franchise ManChild undergoing DivergentCharacterEvolution. Her actress in the webseries is a short adult, but she also hints to still be going to class in some of her dialogue. The comic shows the other contestants at her beauty pageant to be much taller than her and that she lives in her own house, but has her drawn with the same standards as the ManChild in question, making look her like the youngest of all regular players. |
| 274 | * The flash cartoon series ''WebAnimation/RetardedAnimalBabies'' has mocked this a few times. Despite the name "Babies" the character Bunny claims to have gone to high school and even had several wives (to which the character Puppy says, "Shit man, how old are you?"). |
| 275 | * ''WebAnimation/{{RWBY}}'': Very few characters outside the main cast of students whoses ages can mostly be pinned down by the education system they're in have been given defined ages. All the adults have very vague ages, ranging from younger adults who are only a few years older than the main cast to the parent generation, who may be in the 40s -- but also may be in their late-30s. |
| 276 | ** [[Characters/RWBYCinderFall Cinder Fall]] is older than the main characters, but can pass herself off as a 17-21 year old to infiltrate the academies. Her Volume 8 backstory flashback is confirmed by the creators to end when she's aged 15, but there's no confirmation of time passage between those events and the start of the show. She is therefore somewhere between the ages of 21-30. [[spoiler:The creators have confirmed that the Maiden boundary is approximately 30 years old, meaning anyone who becomes a Maiden has to be younger than 30.]] |
| 277 | ** The way Yang discusses when Summer Rose died introduces vagueness about her and Ruby's ages at the time. On two separate occasions, she claims that Ruby was too young to understand Summer's death and couldn't talk yet, even calling Ruby a "toddler", while also stating that she had to pick up the pieces given their father's situation; as Yang is only two years older than Ruby, she effectively implies that they were much older than she's detailing in order to have been capable of looking after a house and sibling in their father's absence. |
| 278 | ** Team CFVY's ages are very vaguely handled. They're upperclassmen to the main characters in a school institution that covers four years from the standard age of 17, which puts them between 18-21. However, their [[Literature/RWBYAfterTheFall two]] [[Literature/RWBYBeforeTheDawn novels]] exacerbates the vagueness, which state they've attended Shade for over a year before Team SSSN arrives, despite the main show implying that less than a year has passed for the same period of time (from the end of Volume 3 to the beginning of Volume 6). |
| 279 | ** In Volume 7, the bio of Robyn Hill that is issued to the team trying to capture her reveals she's either in her late-20s or her early-30s. However, she graduated from Atlas Academy, meaning that her age should be precisely known. As part of her bio is redacted, there is an implied mystery to at least some of her past. |
| 280 | ** The Volume 6 character short for [[Characters/RWBYAdamTaurus Adam Taurus]] introduces vagueness about Adam, Blake and Ilia's ages. Blake and Ilia are implied to be the same age, with Adam a few years older. However, the short is a flashback that covers Adam's ascension through the White Fang and therefore covers an unknown span of time. It begins while Ghira is still the leader of the White Fang, a role he stepped down from five years before the show begins. However, that would make Blake 12 years old or younger because she starts the show aged 17. As the main show's character models are used in the character short, no-one looks five years younger; the time scale of events and character ages are therefore impossible to determine. |
| 281 | * Jeffy from ''WebVideo/SuperMarioLogan'' is obviously a highly unintelligent kid, but it was never stated just how old he is. Even he isn't sure of his age. In the episode, "[[BirthdayEpisode Jeffy's Birthday!]]", the only evidence of Jeffy's age is a half-torn piece of paper in his pants pocket, which has the day he was born (August 21) written on it, but not the year. This was soon averted with a couple of his birthday episodes saying he was [[spoiler: 12 (''Jeffy's Parents'') and is 14 (''Jeffy's Birthday Surprise'')]], however, this does call into his sister, Feebee's age, into question, as, according to WordOfGod, she [[spoiler: was]] younger than Jeffy but it's not said how much younger. |
| 282 | * The main girls of ''WebAnimation/TeenGirlSquad'' are stated by [[WebAnimation/HomestarRunner Strong Bad]] to be somewhere between 13 and 19, which answers nothing since that age range is the exact definition of a teenager. Some ages have been implied, but most of them are contradictory; one issue claims that Cheerleader and So-and-So are in eighth grade, but another has What's-Her-Face claim she's had her driver's license for a year, yet the members of the group all seem to be the same age. |
| 283 | * Doki and Nabi from ''WebAnimation/ThereSheIs'' are hard to place. On one hand, they are shorter and look a lot younger and more childlike compared to their friends who are clearly adults. Yet on the other hand, both of them seem to live alone, Nabi has a job delivering news papers, and Doki can apparently buy plane tickets. |
| 284 | * The Trapezoid Kids are deliberately drawn so that they need their TertiarySexualCharacteristics, exaggerated gestures, outer body colors, and voices for anyone to even ''tell them apart'', much less know exactly how old they are. [[TheBlank They aren't even drawn with visible faces]]. |
| 285 | * Cecil from ''Podcast/WelcomeToNightVale'', to go along with his [[TheVoice ambiguous appearance]] and [[AmbiguouslyHuman questionable status as a human]]. His childhood friend claimed to have been a teenager for decades at one point and when questioned [[spoiler: it is revealed that Cecil can't actually remember what year they graduated. And considering they both sound around the same age, that only raises more questions. Also despite having memories of growing up in Night Vale, a "Best Of" episode reveals that his first show recounted a group of settlers arriving at a barren wasteland and declaring that they will found a town there called Night Vale, and a later one has him excitedly telling listeners about a new technology called radio [[MindScrew that people will soon be able to listen to his show on]].]] |
| 286 | * The bikes in ''When Bikes Argue'' could be literally any age. But [[ArtisticAge only Betsy is described specifically as a child]]. The other bikes are allegedly between 20 and 50, in keeping with who might be riding them. |
| 287 | * ''WebVideo/YuGiOhTheAbridgedSeries'' lampshade this in episode 53, Yugi even brings up on how old they're suppose to be. |
| 288 | * Semi-reoccurring ''WebVideo/{{Drawfee}}'' character Old Baby Gus is portrayed as being simultaneously newborn and ancient. He frequently mixes traits of babies and old people and the only confirmed age he's been given is [[MindScrew negative four]]. |
| 289 | * ''WebVideo/CrossedLines'': In episode 3, From Dusk Till Dawn, when Clay starts talking about how he and a previous engine of the Waterdown Railway named Creed practically built the railway in the old days, Atlas asks Clay how old he is out of curiosity. Clay's response? |
| 290 | -->'''Clay:''' Way to make me feel good about my age. |
| 291 | * ''Website/SCPFoundation'': PlayedForHorror with [=SCP=]-231, a group of girls who were kidnapped and impregnated with the spawn of the Scarlet King. All of their ages are redacted, but the fact that there’s a single black box as opposed to two shows that at least one girl had her age in the [[WouldHurtAChild single digits]], and it’s unclear just how many of them were underaged, with it even being possible that ''all'' of them were minors. |
| 292 | [[/folder]] |
| 293 | |
| 294 | [[folder:Real Life]] |
| 295 | * Creator/{{Charo}} was either 26, 31 or 36 when she began appearing on ''Series/TheLoveBoat'' depending on whose account you believe. She claims she was born in 1951, even though that would make her only 15 when she married 66-year-old Xavier Cugat in 1966. Immigration records indicate she was really born in 1941. |
| 296 | * Similarly, Ric Ocasek of Music/TheCars was famously cagey about his age. Website/TheOtherWiki and several other sources long stated his birthday as March 23, 1949, but some Cars fan sources claimed he was actually older than he himself said. This was confirmed upon his death from heart failure in September 2019, when his age was given as 75, putting his real birth year at 1944. |
| 297 | * Donna Lewis, singer and songwriter of the 1996 hit "I Love You Always Forever", has never revealed her exact age. Sites cribbing from [[https://www.bbc.co.uk/wales/music/sites/donna-lewis/ the BBC]] may give her birth year as 1973, but Lewis had been attributed [[https://web.archive.org/web/20090205040143/http://www.people.com/people/archive/article/0,,20142679,00.html in print]] at the time as having been married for a decade and claiming to be in her 30s. |
| 298 | * Both Music/{{BlueStahli}} and Music/{{Celldweller}}. Due to the fact that they never mention their age nor are their ages listed on any website. Klayton is, however, [[http://www.metal-archives.com/artists/Klayton/163527 rumored]] to be [[OlderThanTheyLook 50, of all ages]], but he has [[https://www.facebook.com/celldweller/posts/10151024436601672 denied]] it, but whether or not he's being honest is up to debate. |
| 299 | * Creator/TommyWiseau is famously secretive about his age. In 2010, he claimed to be 41, but other sources list his birth year as 1955, which would make him 55 as of that year. Proceedings in a 2016 lawsuit over a documentary on his life would confirm the 1955 date. |
| 300 | * The author Sydney, Lady Morgan was very vague about her age, maintaining that she was born in 1785 when it was probably 1781. Her death certificate (in 1859) gives her age as "about 80". |
| 301 | * UsefulNotes/IdiAmin's birth date is unknown, guessed at maybe 1923, 1925 or 1928. |
| 302 | * Music/MariahCarey, though known to have been born in 1969, stopped counting her age numerically at 17, and states that she doesn't have a birthday, she was "just dropped here". |
| 303 | * Creator/JoanCrawford's exact year of birth is unknown, except that it was sometime in the 1900s (1904 at the earliest, 1908 at the latest). |
| 304 | * Almost the entirety of UsefulNotes/{{Blackbeard}}'s backstory and life prior to taking up piracy, including his date of birth, has been lost to history. Even his "real name" Edward Teach is widely suspected to be a pseudonym. Historians tentatively estimate that he might've been in his late thirties at death in 1718. If such an estimate is correct, that means that Blackbeard was probably born somewhere in the early 1680s. |
| 305 | * Boxing great Sonny Liston was born to a poor sharecropping family in Arkansas either just before or during the Great Depression, and his birth was not officially recorded.[[labelnote:note]]The state didn't make birth certificates mandatory until 1965.[[/labelnote]] Statements by him, his mother, and other family members were often contradictory, supporting dates anywhere from 1927 to 1933. He eventually settled on a 1932 birth date for official purposes, but [[YoungerThanTheyLook an aged appearance]] lent credence to rumors of the earliest dates. The mystery of Liston's birth date will almost certainly go unsolved, but it's now most likely he was born sometime in the summer of 1930.[[labelnote:Evidence]]When that year's U.S. Census was publicly released in 2002, Sonny (birth name Charles) wasn't listed. Ten years later, the 1940 Census was released, which listed Charles as a 10-year-old. Lending further support to a 1930 birth date is the census recording of Sonny's next-older brother Curtis. When the Liston family was recorded in the 1930 Census that April, Curtis was listed as between 6 and 12 months old. In April 1940, when census takers visited the Liston farm again, Curtis was listed as 11, although most likely still 10--their mother may well have counted her children's years from birth inclusively.[[/labelnote]] |
| 306 | * Often the case for pets and other domestic animals if their owners don't know the animal's full history and only have the vet's best estimate of age to go on. |
| 307 | * The precise birth date of the late Taliban emir and founder Mohammed Omar is uncertain, though variously estimated anywhere between 1950 and 1966. An official biography released by the Taliban dated his birth at 1960, though specific details are still quite lacking. Not helping matters is that Omar was born in a remote Afghan village that never kept reliable records. |
| 308 | * [[https://www.reddit.com/r/13or30/ r/13or30]] documents many, many real-life examples. |
| 309 | * The exact age of the Bocksten Man, a bog preserved body of a medieval Swedish man, has been rather difficult to determine. From dental and skeletal analysis, he could've been anywhere from 25 to 60 years old at the time of his death. |
| 310 | * Creator/IreneCara, of ''Film/{{Fame}}'' fame, billed herself as a 16-year-old wunderkind when the film came out, though it was widely rumored she was actually in her 20s. It wasn’t until 2004 that the Associated Press was able to [[https://www.spokesman.com/stories/2004/jul/14/disappearing-years/ obtain her voter forms]] and verify she was five years older than she claimed. |
| 311 | * Creator/GracieAllen used to claim in a signature joke that she was born in 1906, but her birth certificate was lost in the great San Francisco earthquake, which occurred three months before her July birthday that year. When her foil pointed this out, she would say, "Well, it was an awfully big earthquake." When she died, the year given on her crypt was 1902, which was presumably provided by her widower, Creator/GeorgeBurns, who admitted he wasn't sure how old she was. Census and school records indicate she was actually born in 1895, meaning she was six months older than him. |
| 312 | * Creator/ZsaZsaGabor's published age varied by over a decade for most of her career. In 1989, a former classmate alerted the [[https://web.archive.org/web/20220509095851/https://apnews.com/7137f427bd21050bce56707127104950 Associated Press]] of her actual age, which Gabor had written in a yearbook as a teenager. |
| 313 | [[/folder]] |
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