The Problem of Underage Heroes

Well, I know in anime the reason is because most anime is actually aimed at kids and teens, because they think adults don't have time to watch it. That's why most seinen and josei manga don't get anime.

So I mean, I know why the characters are high school age, I just think it's stupid, regardless.

I find underage protagonists to be irritating and annoying, and I don't think I've ever had a protagonist under 18 before (and this is 18 in a time when 14-15 year olds are considered adults, to boot).

Even if the use of the trope is used as a metaphor for growing up? Like how the giant robots in most mecha series are a supposed to represent the power that one gets as they grow older. And how the Kid Hero being The Chosen One refers to responsibilities, etc.

edited 30th Nov '11 8:29:23 PM by Rynnec

Well, I would actually argue that in most mecha series, the mecha aren't much of a symbol for anything, and are really just there for Rule of Cool and a way to make it so that a kid protag would have the same relative fighting power as an adult character, so they aren't bodily beating up people twice their size. In most mecha I've seen there wasn't really any evidence to my mind that the mecha was anything other than a plot device and a way to mark a character as the protagonist, because his mecha was 'special looking'. In the ones that do bother to have symbolism, the mecha was certainly empowering for them, but what I get from it is that the mecha is "a means to fight and take hold of your destiny" and that symbolism isn't just kid/teen relevant.

And about the growing up symbolism. Obviously if a story is about growing up it makes sense the character is a kid. Although I do think every single story with a kid in it seems to be about growing up, I'd think people would get bored of the subject and want something else here and there.

I sound like a broken record, but I'm not trying to get rid of kid protags entirely I just think they are unthinkingly overdone and don't make sense half the time.

As the saying goes, quoted for truth.

The protagonist of one of my tales is actually a four-year old boy that's orphaned after a demon called Exaw attacks and destroys the entire city in which he gets the soul of an ancient hero and then he is reincarnated and he fights monsters and things and then he lives happily ever after with a princess.

So how old is your protagonist after being reincarnated? I'm confused.

I think 12 years old.

Thought he was possessed by an ancient warrior?

I haven't personally written any main character below the age of 19. (I know, 19 is still a teenager, but this MC has a birthday so he's technically 20.) Based on my own life experience, I don't see anyone who is accomplished as much as these 14-18 year old protagonists.

And what's the idea of the protagonists being a Child Soldier, but the antagonists being old/middle-aged? That is sending a whole different message entirely that I don't like for different reasons.

I think a lot of time, the whole being a "hero" thing is a metaphor for growing up. Take Buffy The Vampire Slayer, for example. It's one of those breaks from realities where you take everyday problems, and promptly blow them up tenfold.

As I've said in the past, I thoroughly dislike anything in a work being included solely for out-of-universe reasons. So "it's a metaphor" is not going to fly with me.

And coming of age stories are just plain overdone anyway.

Well, it needs to be a good metaphor, obviously.

When there is a specific metaphor for growing up, it works. But I have always enjoyed it much more when characters are mature, and can act mature.

You may be missing my point - I just plain don't like things in works that are meant primarily as metaphors, at all. So it doesn't matter whether it's a "good" metaphor or not - if that's the only reason your hero is a teenager, then it's not sufficient justification to me.

edited 12th Dec '11 1:51:39 PM by nrjxll

I have a strange habit of creating characters and plots and then using applicability after the fact to find metaphors to imply. It's kind of amusing, actually...

We've already established it makes sense for stories about growing up to have young protags. Many of us have also already stated it's annoying and boring that 75% of stories seem to be about growing up, especially ones with kids in them.

I don't really have a problem with young heroes, so long as it doesn't stretch credibility too much. A story I've been working on is a Heroic Fantasy, so characters are generally expected to act like adults and know how to think and fight by age 15. If not, they don't survive for very long.

My protagonist is 17, but since he grew up as an orphan in an environment where learning how to fight was absolutely essential to survival, and he fought almost every day, he's experienced with that sort of thing. He also belongs to a race known for being Blood Knights. And unlike the way teenagers are portrayed a lot of the time in fiction, he's not constantly holding the Idiot Ball. Yes, I realize that teenage brains are not fully developed, but that doesn't mean all teens are too stupid to know what is and what isn't a good idea. He also had the presence of mind to make an effort toward educating himself from a young age, visiting scholars and learning how to read and write, because he knew that he might someday have to fight people who can't be beaten with sheer dumb brute strength. He also knows what he believes in, doesn't waste time trying to "fit in," and generally does whatever he wants not because he's a typical angsty rebellious teenager, but because all he's ever known is freedom, and he can't understand why somebody would feel obligated to just follow anyone with a crown on his or her head for no good reason.

In fact, there are a lot of teen warriors in my work, but this is also because of The Empire they're made to work for, which uses troubled youths to fight Eldritch Abominations because:

A.) They tend not to fear death as much as non-troubled youths, so they'll be useful in fighting The Empire's enemies

B.) Nobody's likely to miss them if they get killed

C.) They have nowhere else to go, so they won't ask for payment and won't try to desert

They're not military leaders or anything of high rank, but they're placed in relatively important positions because of how the setting is shaped. The older characters are not incompetent, and train the younger ones. The older characters are also the ones on the battlefield where large military battles are taking place; the youths are really only used to combat the giant monsters that attack The Empire.

edited 15th Dec '11 5:39:29 PM by Lennik

Why did you choose to make your protagonist so young?

I've noticed that my protagonists and main characters tend to trend young, but not underaged. That is to say, I do believe that if you plotted it on a graph most of my characters would be in the 20-29 age bracket, and quite likely disproportionately so.

Though you're more likely to find a senior citizen as a significant character in my stories than anyone under the age of 18-19...

Actually, I thought quite a bit about why I made him only 17. I was just so fed up with seeing the constant angst in teens in fiction, especially film and television, where teenage characters are constantly whining about "fitting in" and how "nobody understands me." As a consequence my character is strongly anti-angst. In fact, he's a fight-happy loudmouth who's always laughing and thinks the concept of despair is pathetic.

I don't think that aspect of his personality is very farfetched, either. All throughout high school, the vast majority of teens I knew were generally fun-loving, humorous people, and in most cases they were intelligent. I just hate it when a teen protagonist appears onscreen and the firs thing he or she says is I Just Want to Be Normal.

So it's a reactionary piece.

One of my MC's is 17, one is 35, and another one is 28 but acts like a teenager because he's an elf.

The main characters of my original work are both 18, which fits the 'just-coming-of-age feudal heir' vibe. The characters who aren't their obvious contemporaries are mostly older. Another work has characters who are generically young, but their ages aren't nailed down yet; they're the apprentices in a master/apprentice system, so I'll probably make them somewhere around 18-22. Yet another has a bunch of younger characters who figure out that they're the reincarnations of a bunch of chosen ones just as the world starts going to hell; they're probably around 14-15, but their being young serves a specific purpose. In general, I don't mind young characters, and in particular Improbable Age; however, I do particularly hate Competence Zone. People who are older are most likely going to have survived to be that old for a reason, at least in the settings I tend to work in.

I have a cast of characters in my work that range from 13-18. Of course the setting is something of a summer camp for those young people who, either trough raw physical talent or some gift, want to be superheroes. They have a staff of experienced superheroes, are supervised by a robot and the world's most powerful man and are usually accompanied when they go out and do heroics, the most of which is just run of the mill crime and low level disasters or accidents. In short they are given some form of responsibility, but also have people looking out for them when they do it and are usually doing something they can handle. if they do find themselves going against characters like The Impossibles its through sheer dumb luck.