Line #17 PlayingWith/VagueAge


1	'''Basic Trope''': A character's age is left unclear.
2	* '''Straight''': Alice appears to be somewhere in her teens, but her exact age is never made clear.
3	* '''Exaggerated''':
4	** Alice is an immortal who frequently speaks about historical events as if she was involved in them. Just how far back her knowledge goes is unknown.
5	** Alice has the body of a preschooler, but is a veteran of the American Revolution.
6	* '''Downplayed''': It's obvious that Alice is an underclassman in high school, but it's never specified whether she's a freshmen or a sophomore.
7	* '''Justified''':
8	** Alice is an amnesic shapeshifter who appears to subtly grow younger and older based on circumstances, not even she knows her true age.
9	** Alice is a time traveller, and all her time warping made her forget when she was born.
10	** Alice is insecure about her age, leading her to keep it secret.
11	** [[DoorstopBaby Alice was found in a basket]].[[note]]While it's difficult (if not impossible) to determine how old she was at the time, for legislative purposes her adoption date minus one year is used as her birth date.[[/note]]
12	** Alice was born into an isolated tribe deep in the jungle, so no official documentation of her birth date exists.
13	* '''Inverted''':
14	** Everyone's age is seen above the heads of everyone thanks to Alice's powers.
15	** When Alice is introduced, she is stated to be exactly fifteen years, eight months, twelve days, six hours, seventeen minutes old... [[LudicrousPrecision and eight seconds]].
16	* '''Subverted''': Alice appears to be somewhere in her teens, but her exact age is never made clear. Until, halfway through the series, she tells Bob she's sixteen.
17	* '''Double Subverted''': Alice said she was sixteen, but it's implied that she was lying.
18	* '''Parodied''':
19	** Alice goes to get her driver's license and gets rejected for being too young. Frustrated, she goes to an American bar, shows her ID and [[DrowningMySorrows orders a drink]].
20	** Not even Alice knows how old she is.
21	** Anyone who attempts to figure out Alice's age either dies or goes insane.
22	* '''Zig-Zagged''': Alice has reincarnated and kept her memories several times although it is uncertain how long the other lives were. When asked she explicitly says, "You'll have to be more specific."
23	* '''Averted''': The character's age is explicitly stated.
24	* '''Enforced''':
25	** "The marketers wouldn't let us say that Alice is thirteen out of fear of losing one demographic or another."
26	** The creators leave Alice's age open to interpretation in order to increase the number of stories she can star in and so that more audience members can relate to her.
27	** The author was unsure of what age the character was and went with this to help broad audiences identify.
28	** Alice is only a background character, the author didn't put much thought into her beyond her (limited) role.
29	* '''Lampshaded''' Bob asks Charlie how old Alice is, and he responds: "Weird, I've known her for five months and nobody's ever told me how old she was.
30	* '''Invoked''': Alice gives everyone conflicting details on her age and birthdate just to mess with them.
31	* '''Exploited''': Alice is an infiltrator who uses her ability to plausibly pass as different ages to shift through varied identities and make following the trail harder.
32	* '''Defied''': Bob steals Alice's ID card to find out her age.
33	* '''Discussed''': "I'm not sure if [[DarkActionGirl Alice]] really is a teenager or just an adult with serious issues."
34	* '''Conversed''': "Isn't Jake a bit young to be leading an army?" "I thought he was too old!"
35	* '''Played For Laughs''':
36	** Alice appears to be college-aged, but it's stated she's in high school. She's also a ditzy comic relief character, implying that she got held back.
37	** Very frequently dialogue appears to being leading in to Alice's age but the topic is always changed.
38	* '''Played For Drama''': Alice makes her age deliberately vague, because she's got an older, abusive boyfriend and people are trying to break them up through [[JailbaitTaboo age-of-consent laws]].
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40	Back to VagueAge
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42	%% Optional items, added after Conversed, at your discretion:
43	%%
44	%%* '''Implied''': ???
45	%%* '''Deconstructed''': ???
46	%%* '''Reconstructed''': ???

Context PlayingWith / VagueAge