Anvils You Needed To Be Dropped

I don't mind Improbable Age in general—one of my peeves regarding modern society is that basically nothing you do is significant at all until about 16 if you're lucky—but if you're dealing with preteen kids in combat you should at least have some consequences from that. Not even necessarily bad consequences, but they're not going to be precisely normal.

edited 27th Nov '11 3:42:57 PM by alethiophile

I've always found teenagers to be melodramatic and full of themselves even when I was a teenager, so now that I'm considered an adult (22) I really have no desire to subject myself to anything that advocates teenagers are the center of the world by reading about them saving the world, especially since I couldn't picture a single one of the people I knew of that age acting half so maturely, or even intelligently. I don't think all YA is good fantasy by any means but I have certainly been hearing a lot about some that sound really interesting but I can't really get passed the idea that I'm reading about fourteen and fifteen-year olds. I couldn't even relate to them when I was one.

I make something of an exception for medieval-age-ish works though, since at that time a fifteen year old kind of was expected to act like an adult, so it makes a lot more sense.

edited 27th Nov '11 4:04:51 PM by NoirGrimoir

After looking at this thread, I realized the age difference between the OTP in something I'm writing — 26 and 18. Then again the 18-year-old is an Eldritch Abomination, so... I'm guessing age is kind of a moot point.

Some people find big age differences squicky, but personally I don't in the least, so long as everyone is mature about it in the relationship. You know, not sixteen year old 'love'-struck idiot runs off with thirty year old manipulative womanizer.

Hm.

I suppose I would say that with their relationship, age difference would be the least of their worries.

Yeah, I'd say that other issues are going to be more likely to squick people out there.

Didn't we see these characters in Character Cantina II? I didn't peg either as particularly young there.

@Noir Grimoir: Preach it, sister. I dislike teenagers as well, including my own past self.

edited 27th Nov '11 9:17:26 PM by nrjxll

July (26) er... has an 'old soul,' as Q would probably say. Lafayette's (18) personality is probably going to go through the grinder again, so I'll be glad to put him into another CDT soon.

I don't know anything about your characters but I think in large age-disparity romances, it makes more sense for the younger one to be very mature, old soul type, because otherwise you have to wonder that the elder one is taking advantage somehow of the younger, less mature one by accepting the relationship.

Eh... no, the older one is an "old soul" type. The younger one is, for lack of a better explanation, an Eldritch Abomination going through an existential crisis.

Should I start a new thread for the topic of "Underage Heroes"?

On the one hand, it would help curb the derail, but on the other hand, it might take a bad turn, given that at least two of us hate them.

Well, you know your story better than I do, I assume you know what you are doing. I just often find when an older character sort of acts as the shelter for a younger, messed up character, there's sort of a question there whether the elder character should really be encouraging/accepting of a relationship between them. Especially if the younger one is messed up and going through stuff, then it's really the elder's responsibility to stop them from entering into that kind of thing until they are more in their right mind and not just jumping into something at the first sign of comfort. I just personally find the ethics of it to be dubious. Maybe you want that kind of question in their relationship, though.

If you like that kind of relationship (hurting, genetically engineered super-soldier with psychic powers younger character, gets with wise, kind, open-minded doctor older character) then perhaps you'll like Ethan Of Athos by Lois Mc Master Bujold. (It's a homosexual relationship, though, by the way. Just in case it's not your thing.) Perhaps you may have read it already, though.

Well, I don't hate them, I just...okay, yeah, I hate them.

edited 27th Nov '11 9:43:15 PM by NoirGrimoir

Perhaps I should read that, and perhaps I should say that it's not like the 26-year-old is in a position of power over the 18-year-old (in fact it may be the opposite), but I don't think that makes things any better.

Fraternizing With The Enemy: making children fight will mess them up in the head.

This year's Na No Wri Mo: For the love of God, Stalking is not love, neither is infatuation. Get to know the guy for more than five minutes before you get serious with him, and listen to your friends when they tell you he creeps them out. They are your friends for a reason.Also, if you can't tell your parents about him, for any other reason then that they are Knights Templar Parents or racist, you probably shouldn't get involved with him.

edited 28th Nov '11 8:55:36 PM by ladygem

I don't what this is called but my anvil is that.....be patient with students as not all of them will grasp a subject quickly. See their flaws but don't puff them u[ or put down the individual. Humans can fail.

I seem to be dropping the "racism is uncool" and "the education system needs reform" anvils in my original stories.

My fanfictions are on some class warfare, vive la revolution stuff, though.

Incompetence is sort of a recurring theme in my stories, as I tend to have characters thrust into situations that they could not reasonably handle on their own and let the audience watch them develop into someone who can. I believe it helps to create tension and makes the reader think to themselves,How is he getting of this one?

I agree that having a 14 year old save the world in cool, composed manner is getting old and not very believable. However, take the same character and put him in the same situation but this type put him through a ton of stress, have him break down a few times, let the reader know that this is something they can't do. Then, show him growing up and learning to deal with his shit on some level, perhaps even need some extra help in overcoming his adversaries. The whole conflict of this Earn Your Happy Ending style plot makes it more enjoyable as a whole and the ending is intensely more satisfying.

It seems like a lot of storytellers are so focused on being either targeting a certain demographic or trying to force suspension of disbelief that they neglect the entertainment value of these sorts of stories.

In the first act of Backhitchers! the protags are put into a position that (in-universe) would be filled by people at least 5 years older than the majority of them. The problem was that the titular organization was so understaffed that they basically had to pool together a few of the trainees (which is any member too young for field work) that showed some promise. Even though precautions are taken to prevent them from doing so, the main characters still manage to fuck up immensely which becomes a major plot point in that they are the only ones able to do the job and the same time cannot.

• Popular ones:
  • You should be loyal to your friends.
  • Deal with enemies ruthlessly, with random folks justly, with your folks generously.

• Unpopular ones:
  • When fighting The Man, you should use every tool at your disposal.
  • Smart people don't fight fair.
  • Law and order are worthless and deserving of contempt.
  • Destroy your enemies thoroughly: Make sure they don't get to fight you another day.
  • There's no such thing as a good cop, a good politician, or a good businessowner.

edited 2nd Dec '11 4:32:16 AM by SavageHeathen

Wow. Those unpopular ones are...

...really unpopular.

Well, maybe not the one about enemies, or fighting fair, but the others are a bit depressing.

@Savage Heathen: Actually, I've said all of those things except for the last one in my own work. Seems we agree on a lot of stuff.

I've also done the class warfare thing that Black Elephant was talking about (I have two stories now about Corrupt Corporate Executive types being eaten, one by a cannibal and another by a vampire).

Those sound like something you'd find in the works of angsty teenage anarchists.

Hey, guess what Heathen is?

(x5) Wow, and I was just going to write about true love and stuff.

A nasty 20-something anarchist?

I would have expected you to have grown out of it by then.