Age: That period of life in which we compensate for the vices that we still cherish by reviling those that we have no longer the enterprise to commit.
Characters growing older and its consequences. See also Retirement Tropes. The tropes themselves are not necessarily Dead Horse Tropes.
See also Plot Time.
Tropes:
Categories:
- Absurdly Elderly Mother: Mothers are too old to have children.
- A-Cup Angst: A young girl is self-conscious about not having large breasts.
- Adults Are Useless: Children are the only ones intelligent and competent enough to deal with their problems.
- Adults Dressed as Children: An adult tries to impersonate a child.
- Age-Appropriate Angst: A character's age determines what is appropriate for them to angst over.
- Age Cut: A Match Cut that portrays a character growing older.
- Age-Down Romance: Character's age rapidly changes, allowing new romance options.
- Age-Inappropriate Dress: Someone wears clothes that they're typically considered too young or too old to be wearing.
- Age Insecurity: An older character is insecure about their age.
- Age Is Relative: The more competent or mature you are, the older you look.
- The Ageless: A character who does not age.
- Aging Would-Be Hipster: A middle-aged character who desperately tries to convince people they're still hip.
- Always a Child to Parent: A parent has trouble treating their children like adults as they mature.
- And Your Reward Is Infancy: The story ends with the main character becoming a baby.
- Animation Anatomy Aging: Animated works make the difference between ages more noticeable.
- Baby Morph Episode: An episode where a character gets turned into an infant.
- Bittersweet 17: A 17-year-old's Coming of Age.
- Blood Bath: Bathing in blood to stay young.
- Born as an Adult: A character is a full-grown adult at birth.
- Character Aged with the Actor: A Revival or Reunion Show takes place the same number of in-universe years after the end of the series as in real life, to account for cast aging.
- Childless Dystopia: Life becomes miserable without children.
- Coming of Age Story: The story is about a child or adolescent learning to mature.
- Covering Up Your Gray: Dyeing your hair to hide the fact that you're going gray.
- Digital De-Aging: Digital effects used to make an actor/actress look younger, typically for Flashbacks or Prequels.
- Dreaded Kids' Table: The kiddie table becomes insufferable as a character matures.
- Dual Age Modes: Character shifts between ages.
- Elderly Ailment Rambling: The elderly are all too eager to share their medical conditions.
- Elderly Immortal: An immortal being who was already elderly when they gained immortality.
- Emotional Maturity Is Physical Maturity: Emotional maturity automatically equates to physical maturity.
- Emotional Regression: Reverting to an immature emotional state.
- Feeling Their Age: A character feels their age.
- Fictional Age of Majority: Important steps in a character's life.
- First Gray Hair: Someone becoming old is first signaled by finding that their hair is starting to turn gray.
- First Period Panic: A preteen/teen girl has her first menstruation. It marks her transition to womanhood.
- Fountain of Youth: Someone ends up becoming significantly younger.
- Death by De-aging: Becoming so young they stop existing or die.
- Freshman Fears: Characters in their first year at a secondary or tertiary educational institution face struggles and fears of their school or university.
- Glasses of Aging: A character with glasses becomes older over time.
- Growing Up Sucks: Characters believe that growing up is unfair because all the things they could do as kids they won't be able to do as adults anymore.
- Hair Today, Gone Tomorrow: A character's aging is illustrated through flashbacks to when they had more hair.
- Harmful to Minors: Something harms minors in ways that it wouldn't someone over the age of majority.
- Historical Longevity Joke: Joking about a person's age by implying they were around during historical times.
- Hollywood Mid-Life Crisis: Middle age period includes depression and self-doubt.
- Hollywood Old: A young and attractive actress plays the role of an elderly woman without alterations to her appearance.
- Humanlike Animal Aging: Animals don't age like they realistically do.
- I Got Bigger: A character underwent a growth spurt.
- Immortal Immaturity: Being immortal doesn't stop you from behaving like a child.
- Immortality Begins at Twenty: The age you become immortal is 20.
- Improbable Age: A character's age is inconsistent with their occupation.
- Competence Zone: Certain age ranges are portrayed as useful as opposed to others.
- Innocence Lost: Your childlike sense of idealism vanishes.
- Jade-Colored Glasses: Characters become wiser as they get older and as a result are more jaded to reality.
- "Leaving the Nest" Song: Songs about leaving home and the familiar behind, commonly because of growing up or moving on to a new stage in life.
- Ma'am Shock: Referring to female characters as "ma'am" reminds them of the youth they lost.
- Merlin Sickness: Aging in reverse.
- Mistaken Age: A character's age is wrongfully assumed.
- Mono no Aware: All good things must come to an end.
- Music/Age Dissonance: Characters—children or old people—listen to music that is outside their age demographic.
- Never Grew Up: Physical maturity does not prevent emotional immaturity.
- Not Allowed to Grow Old: Characters whose physical state remains childlike despite their technical aging.
- Not Allowed to Grow Up: Children and teenagers remain the same age regardless of how long the series lasts.
- Not Growing Up Sucks: An immortal being who stays a child is upset about never growing up.
- Ode to Youth: A song that embraces youth.
- Old Dog: A dog who is getting on in years.
- Old Maid: An 'older' woman who has never been married or in a real relationship.
- Old People are Nonsexual: Growing old should kill your libido.
- Older Alter Ego: A character possesses an alter-ego older than themselves.
- Older Than They Look: Someone's physical appearance is younger than their true age.
- Only Fatal to Adults: Something harms adults in ways that it wouldn't children.
- Overnight Age-Up: Characters grows older overnight.
- Plot-Relevant Age-Up: A child ages up for plot purposes.
- The Problem with Fighting Death: If you punch out death, it'll be furious eventually when you die.
- Proportional Aging: Living beings gradually grow and develop physical signs of aging across their entire lifespans to the respective rates of other species/races.
- Puberty Superpower: Being in the stage of puberty grants one powers.
- Rapid Aging: Someone becomes considerably older at a fast rate.
- Really Was Born Yesterday: The character was born yesterday, jokes be damned.
- Senior Creep: Elderly person with a detestable appearance and/or personality.
- Senior Year Struggles: A senior has problems related to growing up and ending their schooling years.
- Sexier Alter Ego: A character creates a beautiful alter-ego to make up for their ugliness.
- Shapeshifter Longevity: Shapeshifters live longer.
- She Is All Grown Up: A woman's puberty experience contributes to her presence at a reunion.
- Short-Lived Organism: Lifeforms with unusually short lifespans.
- Sickly Child Grew Up Strong: Child who was asthmatic and sickly as a kid grew up into a badass.
- Soap Opera Rapid Aging Syndrome: A character becomes significantly older between appearances with no explanation.
- Supernaturally Young Parent: For supernatural reasons, a parent is (or at least looks) younger or the same age as their child.
- Stronger with Age: Characters become stronger as they age.
- Teenage Wasteland: Kids now have adult powers and responsibility and rule over adult society.
- Took a Level in Cynic: Mainly as a result of their Innocence Lost, a character who was formerly a Wide-Eyed Idealist sees how the world truly is and becomes cynical as a result.
- Vague Age: It's unclear or inconsistent how old a character is.
- We Are as Mayflies: Humans are the shortest-lived intelligent race.
- Wizards Live Longer: An expanded lifetime granted by a spellcaster.
- Younger Mentor, Older Disciple: An expert teaches an older person their skills.
- Younger Than They Look: A character's physical appearance looks older than their true age.
- Youth Is Wasted on the Dumb: Young characters are more likely than their elders to engage in stupid, prohibited, or dangerous activities.
